Jason never like to think about it but among the many atrocities committed by my village, by Kirigakure, the annihilation of the Uzumaki was the most horrendous and beneficial.

The ‘Drowning of the Whirlpool’ was one of the Third Mizukage’s greatest accomplishments. The long lived clan of shinobi exceptionally skilled at [Fuuinjutsu] threatened Kirigakure and the Land of Water with their presence but more importantly, with their alliance to Konoha.

Yagura himself wasn’t much more than a waddling child when the Second Shinobi war was at its height, but he’d been a studious child and quickly learned the praises of the Third Mizukage, a man he held some fraction of admiration for.

It would seem that the tactic of sealing a Tailed Beast into an enemy shinobi and having them return to their village with it had at least one success story and that was Uzushiogakure.

Lord Third had his practice run with the Six-Tailed Beast, Saiken, sealing it in an unfortunate Uzumaki and unleashing it on the village hidden in the Whirlpools, having it break down the gates, wards and all defences. Before any Uzumaki could seal the beast, Kirigakure forces were already bearing down on the island with the Third Mizukage leading the charge.

The following destruction, chaos and collapse of the Land of Whirlpools meant most of the valuable Uzumaki techniques and a significant portion of their wealth was lost, accidentally destroyed by Kiri or by the defiant Uzumaki clan facing their doom.

Still, there was more than enough left over that Lord Third could found an entire school of [Fuuinjutsu] with Harusame at its head, not to mention the hordes of stolen wealth. In fact, there were still some riches, scrolls and records of ancient jutsu trapped in the ruins, I often think about searching there but there’s a time for everything.

Lord Third’s school of [Fuuinjutsu] meant just about every new Fuuin-nin born after the Drowning of the Whirlpool was a student of Harusame’s, including Eiko surprisingly but I supposed that demon mask he wears constantly should have given it away.

Chuunin Takeda came up with a brilliant and yet simple idea to fish out who was responsible for the paperbomb with this knowledge. And so I found myself sitting with Harusame and Raiga all while Eiko oversaw a quick and impromptu examination for all the Fuuin-nin that were summoned to the Intel and Comm’s Division HQ.

Chuunin Takeda’s idea was to remove any threat of torture or interrogation and simply ask the many students and graduates which one of their peers made the paper bomb. Harusame himself had been brought it to determine whose work it could be and from his words we narrowed down to three suspects, of which the most interesting belonged to the Yuki clan.

I held her file in hand and flipped through it, “Genin Hisako Yuki…huh.” Harusame shifted uncomfortably, he was the one to pick them out but his class would corroborate the chosen once Eiko is done with the examination.

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“Yes…she and her friends have very similar brush strokes, often making the very same mistakes as they copy off one another. They are good students nonetheless, Mizukage-sama.” Harusame said.

He’s worn a deep frown since he was summoned and I couldn’t blame him, to learn that his own students were suspect of such crimes wouldn’t reflect well on him. I didn’t bother assuring him of his own innocence and blamelessness, no, I was focussed on the theory of mine that’d been born on a whim and yet, was looking to prove true every second that passed.

When Chuunin Takeda almost left out clans from the kunai investigation, something deep within Jason’s memories spurned against the many proofs of Yagura’s, not to mention the reality he was living with the Funato clan head breathing down his neck.

Jason recalled then that not every clan within the village got along with each other and that went beyond just the Caste District and low caste clans. It went all the way to the top of the caste system and now it was staring him right in the face.

Despite being a part of the highest caste, the Yuki were still feared Kekkei Genkai users amongst the Land of Water and to an extent, Kirigakure itself. They weren’t as prestigious as any of their peers in the top caste, they weren’t as wealthy or even as many either.

As their clan head had confessed when I spoke to him, they were in need of new blood and part of Hidaki Yuki’s plan was to have the newly crowned Mizukage offer that lifeblood, a plan that has failed woefully like many others.

Still, that doesn’t give the Yuki clan any motive to target the Hozuki, there had to be something deeper, something that had been underway long before I came into the picture.

If I were all of Yagura…would I remember? Refusing to accept Yagura completely locked me out of many valuable memories, muscle memory and trained habits were all attached to the body I was inhabiting but the mind was different. Secrets of the mind would be stranger to me unless I actively channelled Yagura and the more I do, the more I felt Jason churn and meld into his personality.

Too much and I might not even recognize myself. Would I even retain my memories of the future? I didn’t have the answers but my gut was telling me I was on the right track.

It would take more than a misguided Genin to implicate the entirety of the Yuki clan in this mess and so, alongside the Fuuin-nin examinations the sales records from the weapons smith would be part of the deciding factor.

Even then, if the clan is complicit as I fear they could simply shrug off the accusations, levying their might as a major clan in control of important sectors to Kiri. I needed to be absolutely sure, I needed to nip this in the bud before it got out of control.

“Raiga, I want to speak to whoever this exam says is responsible…I have a bad feeling.”

“Sir.”

I picked up another of Harusame’s suspects and began to flip through it when the door swung open. Ao stood in ANBU fit and masked. He reached my side and whispered into my ear. My eyes widened in surprise and no small measure of relief at his words, I tossed the file back on the table and stood.

“Handle things here Raiga, Harusame.” Harusame stood and bowed as I left with Ao and the shadow of my numerous ANBU guards.

I was beginning to lose hope when I hadn’t heard back from Konoha but it seems they’re returning the favour with a delegation of their own. Still, a heads up through the Kiri shinobi I have in their village would have been the nice and proper thing.

Nonetheless, I was nervous, eager and optimistic about what this visit meant for Kirigakure and for the shinobi world.