Reina Yuki and Kisame Hoshigaki stood before my desk. Uncle was the only other person in room though he wasn’t here specifically to hear from the two nigh S-rank shinobi about their excursion. He’d become more or less a mistletoe that haunted me wherever I went nowadays.

I couldn’t blame him, my body was still a bit sore from Isobu’s chakra and he’d almost lost his favourite nephew, his pride of the Karatachi clan and his Mizukage. Still, that didn’t mean I was some fragile vase that needed to be watched and monitored, I appreciated the concern, the care in fact, but I was beginning to feel weak for it.

Uncle wasn’t the only one either. Despite my insistence that the Three-Tails wouldn’t escape me Harusame was deathly insistent that I keep my bandages on for at least another week, just to ensure the safety and strength of the seal. He wouldn’t even let me explain my success in getting through to Isobu within the seal and I doubted he cared either way.

And much like with Uncle, I couldn’t blame him for his caution; as Kirigakure’s Fuuinjutsu Master he was responsible for everything that required sealing, including us Jinchuriki. In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to disobey as the fallout of my week long coma and the release of a torrent of Isobu’s chakra fell squarely on his shoulders. No one would dare blame me, the Mizukage, at least not to my face.

I scanned my decree transferring the Yuki and Kaguya over to the Mizukage’s Estate as well as my personal supervision one more time— it was a complicated string of laws and orders that needed to be created first to allow this decree to exist, a ton of paperwork that had my hand cramping from all the signage but it was done now.

I folded the decree up in its scroll and looked up at Reina, I should simply hand it over to her now since Owl Mask and she were the same person but there was a formality and protocol to these things; she was here as Reina Yuki, a Jounin returned from an extensive mission not the chilling ANBU commander delivering and enforcing my laws throughout.

A tired sigh escaped my lips and Uncle’s looked up from Konoha’s gifted copy of Icha Icha Paradise to narrow a critical gaze at me, I ignored him and finally acknowledged the two Jounin again, “Now then, Reina, Kisame, your mission was clearly a success but I haven’t had a chance to read either of your written reports on how it went. But I’m sure if any of that matters you’ll tell me now, but first, I need to know what to expect of the Kaguya, these are clearly non-combatants aren’t they? Who is in charge of the clan now? Any idea what they think of Kirigakure and how many have manifested that Bloodline of theirs?”

Reina took a rigid step forward, keeping her form formal and firmly at attention as she answered, “We discovered the Kaguya’s hiding place in Kurokami-jima and made our approach. They were not actively hostile to outsiders, they seemed timid, meek and long beaten into submission; the antithesis of the Kaguya that attacked. However, they became to bare some teeth when we announced they’d be moved from their place, as they had so little grown adults with them few of the men and women present were willing to oppose us but they did not hesitate to make their displeasure known, they attempted to protect their children, parents and grandparents with dulled knives, sickles and other farming implements.

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“Kisame made a display of feeding one of them to Samehada, they fell in line and begged for mercy afterwards but as we began our journey there were several attempts to abscond, many setting their children loose into the forest when they thought we weren’t looking. We recovered all that attempted to escape and everyone is accounted for at present.”

Here Kisame deigned to speak up, which wasn’t a thing he often did during these reports, “Ahh, I should mention…the Kaguya are plenty old and weak. Their young are infants and there’s nearly no bridge between them, water clones alone weren’t enough to patrol them entirely but they were quickly bought to proper submission with good clothes, food and proper shelter. Reina-taicho’s Ice camps especially made them feel safe from the Bloodline Killer armies we took pains to avoid. The immediate threat to their lives made us a lesser evil.”

Reina nodded in agreement and said, “We were the lesser evil but still evil nonetheless, at least in their opinions. They whispered theories of their destination and purpose amongst themselves; at first the entire village was united against us even though they followed our commands but after a few close encounters with said armies their theories began to splinter. A majority still believed they were being sold into slavery as retribution for their peoples attack on Kirigakure— they’d learned of this incident from Kisame during one of his more…aggressive tirades.”

She side-eyed Kisame but the man stood shamelessly, burgeoning on a grin even. Reina went on with the report, “Others recounted the past, the Yuki clan was saved from Bloodline Killers during the era of the First Mizukage and they held hope our limited…kindness, would translate to the same fortune. It’s my assessment they thought this way because I was present with them, the children with manifested Bone Abilities especially saw us as saviours, not just from the Land of Water but from their clan’s oppression as well.”

I smiled up at Reina hearing this from her, almost the complete opposite of what she was all about when I first assigned this mission to her. She wanted them dead, saw no reason to shepherd the remnants back when their kin had killed one too many of our own. And now…her brows furrowed and lip curled in annoyance as she knew all too well what I thought.

She sharpened up her visage and wrapped up the report, “Overall, the remnants of the Kaguya clan are nothing like their fellows that attacked Kirigakure over two months ago. They are timid, fractured and abused people who would rather abuse their own children at the slightest sign of a troublesome Bloodline. I believe sealing away their Bloodline is something they would consider a blessing rather than a curse as they live in fear of their own and the fear of those that fear them. They will do whatever it takes to stay alive.”

I breathed her final words deeply and stared at the two as a single question continued to nag at me, “If that is true then…why did they send a force to attack Kirigakure? Why risk retaliation, extinction?”

Kisame and Reina shared a look before stating in unison, “They didn’t.”