Naruto: Reborn as Yagura Karatachi

Shukaku inside Gaara had not acted up again.

With Ebizō and others supporting him, and Kirigakure's covert backing, Gaara had firmly secured his position as Kazekage.

As a result, Sunagakure's internal situation stabilized.

This left no room for Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Fourth Raikage, or even Ōnoki to interfere or stir up trouble.

The defeat on the Ichinen battlefield, coupled with Konoha's own weakened state and Kumogakure's great distance from Sunagakure, meant that Hiruzen and the Fourth Raikage could do little more than sit and stew helplessly.

Ōnoki, ever the fence-sitter, had taken Kirigakure's money.

His neutrality left Konoha and Kumogakure fuming in frustration, but powerless to act.

In the end, they had no choice but to give up—for now—hoping the situation would shift and give them another chance to pull Sunagakure out of Kirigakure's grasp.

From Ōnoki's perspective, he didn't particularly enjoy seeing that brat Yagura smug and successful. But real money in hand was exactly what Iwagakure needed most right now.

The simplest truths often held the deepest wisdom: regardless of how the external world changed, as long as one's own strength was solid, one could remain unshaken through it all.

To put it simply—if you had enough credit on your card, you could ignore every platform's annoying discount and flash sale.

Thanks to Iwagakure's recent string of victories against the Land of Wind, the daimyō of the Land of Earth had loosened up military funding.

Ōnoki now had the resources to rebuild his military strength.

With money to spare, he was willing to invest heavily—sending well-trained shinobi on more dangerous, higher-level missions.

Even if something went wrong and years of training were wasted, Ōnoki finally had the leeway to take such risks without regret.

Behind the scenes, Ōnoki had already turned down an offer from a shady rogue ninja group.

They had proposed a mercenary arrangement: Iwagakure would accept high-level missions, and the group would carry them out on their behalf, splitting the rewards afterward.

But Iwagakure no longer needed mercenaries—they had the strength to complete high-level missions themselves.

Uchiha Obito's secret group—"The Animal-Loving Organization" as it was mockingly referred to—hit a wall at the very first step of their fundraising plans.

With Iwagakure shutting that door in their face, none of the Five Great Nations were willing to give them a chance.

Kirigakure and Sunagakure were practically sworn enemies, so that route was closed from the start.

Konoha and Kumogakure both had deep coffers—they had never been short on cash.

Iwagakure had been their one potential opportunity.

But heaven not only slammed that door shut—it nailed the windows closed too.

Deidara, who had recently made a name for himself in a border skirmish with Konoha, was now under Ōnoki's watchful eye. He had been marked as the future successor to the Tsuchikage.

There was only one regret: Deidara had Earth chakra, but lacked Wind and Fire—meaning he couldn't inherit Dust Release.

Still, Ōnoki kept him tightly guarded.

Obito, who had his eye on this promising recruit through White Zetsu, never even got the chance to make contact.

Kirigakure's spies embedded in Iwagakure, under Yagura's direct orders, were also keeping a close watch on Deidara's movements.

Years had passed without any news of Deidara being marked as a rogue ninja.

It was safe to say—Obito had failed to steal Deidara away.

One can't help but wonder if, in the original timeline, Deidara's defection was actually Ōnoki's own ploy to plant a spy inside the Akatsuki.

But in the end, Deidara had gone rogue for real. Not only did he fail to act as a mole—he even lost his life in the process.

Yagura imagined himself in Ōnoki's shoes in that timeline. If his carefully nurtured future Mizukage died like that...

Yeah, that's a horror story.

Now that Nagato was gone, Obito's solo-run version of the Akatsuki wasn't nearly as threatening.

According to the intel Yagura had gathered, Obito's forces—aside from Zetsu—only included Uchiha Itachi and Hidan, both former Akatsuki members. The rest were unfamiliar faces, with power levels topping out at elite jōnin.

Ōnoki had no reason whatsoever to let the rebellious Deidara wander off and waste himself.

...

As time passed, Deidara, along with Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi, had become the face of Iwagakure's next generation.

Even the once-hostile Fourth Raikage had to start mending ties with Iwagakure as it slowly regained its strength.

Just as Ōnoki had predicted, true power was the only real currency.

Now, the younger generation—those born during or shortly after the Third Great Ninja War, or those who had lived through it in their childhood—were becoming the central force in their respective villages' arms races.

Kumogakure, too, had its rising stars: Darui, Yugito Nii, C, Omoi… all exceptional shinobi of the next generation.

In both quantity and quality, they were on par with Iwagakure's talent pool.

But thanks to the Fourth Raikage's muscle-flexing, war-hawk diplomacy, Kumogakure had made far too many enemies.

From Iwagakure to Konoha to Kirigakure—the long borders meant Kumogakure's forces were spread dangerously thin.

Iwagakure had killed the Third Raikage. Because of that personal vendetta, the Fourth Raikage could never truly ally with them.

Konoha, on the other hand, had been a thorn in Kumogakure's side for decades. It was close, rich, and weak—an ideal target for expansion. Unless the Fourth Raikage suddenly adopted a defensive policy, an alliance with Konoha was also out of the question.

As for Kirigakure—he'd already personally ripped up that alliance after the fall of Sunagakure's puppet government. And Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage, remained his greatest rival in the struggle for dominance.

So in his search for allies, the Fourth Raikage ended up crossing out one name after another.

Every direction he turned, he faced isolation.

The endless conflicts only drained Kumogakure's power—strong, but never dominant.

Of the three major villages—Kirigakure, Iwagakure, and Konoha—only Konoha was the most fragile and easiest to handle.

...

The Third Great Ninja War, followed by the Nine-Tails Incident, had crippled Konoha's national defense.

In the sixtieth year of Konoha, the village was going through a generational gap.

Deidara from Iwagakure, Darui from Kumogakure, Kimimaro from Kirigakure—these up-and-coming shinobi were already full-fledged jōnin, mostly aged between 15 and 25.

In Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto, the new generation of the Ino-Shika-Chō trio, the children of the Inuzuka, Aburame, and Hyūga clans—they were all only twelve or thirteen.

Sure, the "Konoha Twelve" were the main cast.

But if you really looked at the current situation from within this world...

Thanks to the aftermath of the Nine-Tails attack, Konoha was actually the most war-weary village of them all.

Of all the major shinobi villages, the one with the slowest recovery in strength after the war was...

Kirigakure.

Even Sunagakure, the weakest of the Five Great Hidden Villages, had already seen a new generation rise. At just twelve years old, Gaara was ready to shoulder great responsibilities. His sister Temari and brother Kankuro had also grown considerably in strength.

Meanwhile, in Kirigakure...

At the Ninja Academy, graduation season had just wrapped up in June. The final exams were over.

Freshly minted genin now proudly wore their forehead protectors. Each team of three students had been assigned a jonin squad leader to take them away for their next phase of training.

"So—slow—ugh!"

A petite girl with ash-gray hair and glowing teal eyes—pupils nearly vertical slits—shouted her frustration. Her voice echoed through the classroom. Her arms were wrapped in bandages, and she wore a sleek, black, lightweight armor set.

"If this teacher doesn't show up soon, I'm going to dissect them~"

"Enough, Shinobu," a boy in a blue shirt grumbled, rubbing his ear. Uchiha Sasuke was already getting a headache.

He glanced at the red-haired boy beside him, who was mindlessly weaving hand seals out of boredom, and sneered,

"You don't even need hand seals. Who are you trying to impress?"

Uzumaki Menma visibly deflated at the jab. "Ow... I just got called out for pretending by the king of pretending."

Sasuke snapped, slamming the desk and taking a swing at Menma.

"Who are you calling the king of pretending?!"

"Whoever throws the first punch is the king of pretending."

Menma smoothly deflected Sasuke's half-hearted punch, chuckling.

"I didn't make it up. That title was personally bestowed upon you by the Mizukage. You gonna deny it?"

Back when they were younger, Sasuke had been a chubby-cheeked, kind little boy in Menma's eyes.

But over the last couple of years, something had changed. It was like some internal switch had flipped. Maybe it was puberty. Maybe just rebellion.

He started wearing that blue outfit and trying to act all aloof.

It didn't suit him—he couldn't keep it up for long without breaking character—but Sasuke clearly thought it made him cool.

"Mizukage—!" Sasuke was so mad he couldn't even get the words out.

He couldn't bring himself to yell at Yagura, but Menma? He could absolutely punch Menma!

"Here we go." Shinobu—whose full name was Shinobu Kiriha—stopped impatiently swinging her legs from the desk. She stepped lightly across a few desktops, then flopped onto her stomach to watch the drama unfold from a distance.

The three kids were so caught up in their squabble, they completely forgot about the teacher they were supposed to be waiting for.

That is, until the classroom door creaked open.

The noise jolted all three of them.

The three of them were top-tier among their peers—highly perceptive. No ordinary jonin could've approached without being noticed.

So if none of them heard him coming...

That meant their assigned instructor wasn't an ordinary jonin.

"Well, looks like you've all got plenty of energy."

Leaning against the doorway, the man had pale-blue hair and violet eyes. He smiled at them with an easy, almost playful air.

"That's good. You'll need that energy."

The kids froze, then suddenly blurted out in unison, "Mizukage-sama?!"

"Aww, you figured it out that fast?" Yagura raised a hand, making a checkmark shape with his thumb and index finger, and pinched his own cheek. "Dang, did I reveal myself too early? Totally ruined the dramatic flair."

Scratch that. Let's try again.

"Ahem!"

He cleared his throat and straightened up, putting on a mock-serious expression.

"You've got the wrong guy. I'm not the Mizukage. My name is Kagura Karatachi—Yagura's cousin from the Karatachi clan. A jonin of Kirigakure. I'll be your new squad leader from today onward."

It had been years since he last dusted off this "Kagura" alias.

Same trick as always: a transformation jutsu, aided by a water mirror clone.

He was talking absolute nonsense with a perfectly straight face, shattering what little sense of reverence the kids had built up.

Menma, Sasuke, and Shinobu: "…"

"Actually," Menma said with a straight face, "I take back what I said about Sasuke."

He turned to the "not-Mizukage" and declared, "You're the real King of Pretending."

Sasuke groaned. "Shut up."

"No, no, there's a distinction," Yagura added helpfully. "Sasuke's pretending is all about being cool. Mine is more like cosplay."

Sasuke's face darkened.

That's enough, Mizukage-sama! Can we please move on?! Stop singling me out for this!

Menma looked oddly impressed. "I actually get it now."

With that final jab, they wrapped up the welcome roast of poor Sasuke.

Yagura clapped once. "Right! Time to be a little old-fashioned and follow protocol."

He sat casually on a desk, legs dangling, and addressed them properly.

"I'll do a formal introduction. I'm Karatachi Kagura, jonin of Kirigakure and cousin to the Fourth Mizukage. I'm twenty-five years old, and I'll be your team leader. Questions?"

None of them dared speak up.

No one asked why the Mizukage himself had decided to play squad leader. No one questioned whether this was the real Yagura or a clone. After all, when he decided something on a whim, there was no one in Kirigakure who could stop him.

They all responded at once.

"Yes!"

"No questions!"

"Good."

Yagura—er, Kagura—nodded in approval at their attitude.

Then he looked at the three of them.

"Sasuke and Menma, you two grew up together. And you've known Shinobu for a few years as classmates."

"But let's still follow tradition. Introductions. Ladies first—Shinobu, you're up. Then Menma, then Sasuke."

"Yes, sir."

The gray-haired girl with teal eyes stepped forward. "My full name is Kiriha Shinobu, of the Kiriha clan. I possess the Boil Release kekkei genkai."

Up close, her lightweight armor was laced with tiny hidden weapons, similar in size to surgical scalpels.

"In addition to my bloodline limit, I specialize in close-quarters combat, taijutsu, and medical ninjutsu. I served in Kirigakure's ANBU for two years. My codename back then... was Shinobu. And—uh—Mizuka—oops."

She nearly slipped again and leaned in closer, whispering,

"You remember me, right, Kagura-sensei? We worked together."

Yagura raised an eyebrow but played along with the new backstory. "Of course. I remember."

"I like dissection and my mom. I hate mollusks and bugs."

And that wrapped up Shinobu's intro.

Next was Menma.

He stood up a little stiffly and tried to mimic her tone. Speaking seriously in front of Yagura made him nervous.

"I'm Uzumaki Menma, of the Uzumaki clan. I know the Rasengan, Flying Thunder God, and various sealing techniques. I'm twelve, and this is my first time officially being a ninja."

"As for likes... fried food, I guess? Junk food is one of life's underrated pleasures. I hate foxes."

That made Yagura laugh.

Menma's relationship with the half of Kurama sealed inside him was a lot like Gaara's bond with Shukaku. Coexistence was possible—but anything more than that? Not a chance.

[Isobu, sipping tea calmly: "Amusing."]

Neither of them had taken the first step toward full reconciliation.

Still, the fact that Menma could joke about the fox now meant some progress had been made.

Sasuke, who knew Menma had a tailed beast sealed within him, chuckled quietly at the remark.

Now it was his turn.

He didn't need Yagura to prompt him. He picked up where Menma left off.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke. My abilities include the Sharingan, Fire Release, Uchiha-style kenjutsu, weapon mastery, Body Flicker, and genjutsu..."

Compared to the other two, Sasuke's list was longer and more diverse.

He'd been trained personally by Shisui. Far stronger than the version of Sasuke in the original timeline who had to teach himself everything.

But if Yagura were to compare him to Shisui at the same age?

Sasuke still fell a bit short. He lacked the raw talent of Shisui or Itachi.

"I like sweets. I hate natto, green peppers, carrots, scallions..."

As he started listing off his dislikes, it quickly became apparent this was a long list.

This had always been Shisui's biggest headache.

How do you feed a picky eater?!

Sasuke rattled off five or six more items before he realized he was rambling.

He wasn't even finished yet, but he forced himself to stop.

"And I'm bad at pretending."

He crossed his arms and turned away, sulking. "I'm done."

A faint puff of laughter escaped from Yagura.

"Excellent. Thank you for your thorough introductions—Menma, Sasuke, Shinobu."

He gave them a round of applause and moved on to the next step.

From his ninja pouch, he pulled out a mission scroll.

Its deep purple color and the bold S printed across the surface made all three kids freeze.

Any properly educated ninja would know exactly what that symbol meant.

But... surely not... right?

Yagura smiled innocently.

"Let's start small," he said cheerfully. "Just a light, warm-up S-rank mission."

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Pls Drop some Power Stones

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