Reborn in the Mist

“And I said I’m strong enough to put a stop to anyone that dares.” I said rather arrogantly. No, not arrogance, confidence, trust in my own strength over the village I command. All the same, my grip on the stair railing tightened because I couldn’t look back to see what kind of face Mei had on.

Her fears mattered, her worries were mine and whether or not I was confident in how things turned out tonight…I couldn’t still bring myself to look at her. So I walked up the stairs to my bedroom, the staff seemed to be absent from the halls and really the mansion in general but they’d done their jobs well despite Mei’s angry presence.

Yet, when I gripped the door knob my senses screamed at me— something was wrong. I took a step back and stared at the door, my previously half-lid eyes were wide and awake now. There was nothing outwardly wrong with the door, it was just another brown fine wooden make just like the others across the mansion.

That means…

I glanced over my shoulder, Mei’s name on my lips but I didn’t let it out. I couldn’t sense her anymore, she’d left to see the village I was reforging. But even if she remained, I doubted she’d have the answer to my question.

Who is in my bedroom?

There were only three people that would ever dare sit in my room without me or my permission and one of them was dead, the other was surely busy organizing clan matters and the last just left. I took a breath and prepared myself for what could be the first assasination attempt on my person— this too was among the many things I feared would fall out from my confident decrees.

Rather early isn’t it? Barely a day. I thought, quickly wiping the smirk off my face as I gripped the knob once more and prepared for an encounter. The door swung open and the fair breeze from an open window instantly validated my suspicions— the room was spotless, cleaned, organized and perfumed after my short night with Mei, the servants would never have neglected to shut the windows as well and if so, they wouldn’t leave it so ajar.

Asides from the winds billowing the curtains, there was my desk, it was the only other thing I could find disturbed. Its drawers looked shut, but there was that sliver of space left between that told me otherwise. My eyes narrowed at it, had this been my desk at the Tower or even the one back at the Karatachi clan compound I would have been worried but it wasn’t.

I’d only ever used this desk a few times since I first moved into the Estate and then not again since Junichi died. There wasn’t anything in there and yet…someone was snooping.

Still standing in the doorway I spoke into the room a command. “Come out now, I know you’re here.” My eyes darted across the room, checking for the slightest mistake of a move, a flinch, an unnatural stiffness but nothing responded to my word, the room remained silent with only the fresh wind billowing in from the ajar windows.

Maybe they ran already, no reason they’d stay…right? I thought but then I saw something shift underneath the desk. Not a single one of the lights were on, not in the corridor or in the room, but a spare ray of moonlight cast freely from the windows, allowing the shadows in the room to exist and the only thing I expected to move were the curtains and myself.

I pointed a finger at the desk and began moulding chakra. “Reveal yourself or I’ll flood this room with you in it.” I stated, already pushing [Water Release] chakra into the atmosphere, increasing the density and volume of water vapour already present. Once I was ready I’d—

“Haha…Mizukage-dono…”

That voice!

The shadows underneath my desk grew into the wall, spreading a darkness across it that rapidly took on three dimensions as a man stepped out of it. His hair a spiky mane of white and his grin as sheepish and silly as he was dangerous. The unmistakable headband of Mount Myoboku glinted in the sparse moonlight as Jiraiya raised his hands in surrender, his eyes squinted and his head bowed in a preemptive apology.

“Toad Sannin…what are you doing in my bedroom? Is this what you visited for, to assassinate me in my sleep?” I asked, heart pounding a beat faster than before. An assasination attempt from the Toad Sannin wasn’t how I wanted my first experience with assassinations to go and certainly not in my bedroom.

He was a huge, imposing figure in it, a giant next to my modest and neglected workspace. I stepped back into the corridor, finger still pointed at him and chakra still exuded into the atmosphere…just in case.

“Of course not! How could you think…well, I see how you would think that but I truly mean no harm.” Jiraiya said, his hands still raised, palms flat and open. He eyed my finger and sniffed. “There’s no need to be aggressive, Mizukage-dono, you’re no stranger to unexpected visits yourself.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Is this some kind of payback for…saving your village from utter destruction.”

Here Jiraiya snorted, his arms falling a bit as he shrugged. “We’re grateful for that as I’m sure you’ve benefited well from our thanks but we would’ve been fine.”

“Maybe…are you fine now?”

Jiraiya smiled, nodding approvingly to himself more than to the question. “This is why I like you, Mizukage-dono, you care for the world even in tenuous times for yourself.” His smile lost the mischievous jokester look as he put on a genuine face. “Konoha is alive, recovering. But I see Kirigakure has its own…troubles.”

“As any other village does.” I said, dismissing his attempt to redirect the conversation. I raised another finger, pointing two now at him as small clouds began to form from the [Water Release] chakra I was pumping in the air. A raindrop splashed against his cheek. “What are you doing in my bedroom, Toad Sannin?”

He sighed and dropped his arms beside him, nearly triggering me to release a storm in the bedroom but I held back to let him speak seriously. “I came for your thoughts, Repulse-nin. You helped save Kushina and Konoha, we would have survived but…not as well as we have with your involvement. The threat is still out there, isn’t it?”

I eased up, nodding with a raised brow at the Sannin.

“We haven’t had much success finding him either, the Masked Uchiha…his wrath could be unleashed onto any of the other Great Villages or back on us and yet, we haven’t a clue where he could be.”

“Amegakure.” I said simply.

Jiraiya scoffed. “The Nine-Tails was unleashed on our heads for daring to invade that place, we can’t risk taking another move against them, not without…” He trailed off, his eyes held an expectant gaze in them.

“Not without a friend.” I said, completing the thought.

“A friend is what I’d like to call you, Mizukage-dono, but you still haven’t—”

“I said I’d only speak to the Hokage.” For the first time I stepped into the room, I held the knob and presented the corridor to him. “Not a Sannin standing in my bedroom.”

He nodded and stepped out. I walked out with him, shutting the door behind me as I led the way back down the stairs. “Welcome to my humble abode by the way, not that you needed much permission.”

Jiraiya chuckled. “Ah haha. I didn’t mean to snoop as long as you did. I only came by because, well I couldn’t leave the Estate without your shinobi figuring it out. This way at least, your sensory nin would still mark me as being where I’m supposed to be.”

I rolled my eyes as I walked into the dining room, switching the lights on and taking a cursory look at the space. The servants had reverted it back to form, long, candle and fruit decorated table with more chairs than I needed, it was as good a place as any to host the Toad Sannin in his impromptu visit.

“You’re supposed to be at the guest house but I won’t begrudge you a snoop, we’re all guilty one way or another.” I sat down and gestured for Jiraiya to sit as well.

“Alls forgiven then?” My expression hardened and he scratched the back of his neck as he sat opposite me. “Right, won’t push it.”

We stared at each other for a beat, Jiraiya’s forced silliness drained away with each second until he was the stone cold Kage level shinobi again. I spoke first. “So? Is there a Hokage I can deal with or am I already looking at him?”

To my surprise and relief, Jiraiya didn’t respond with a jokey behaviour. Instead his eyes drifted to the Kage hat still hanging off my back, the Haori slung across my shoulders, folded lazily.

“You must know better than I but to be Kage is a…terrible responsibility.” He said, his eyes glazed over for a second as he relieved memories I knew well of. “It’s never been something I aspired to, that sort of…choice, power…command. I don’t want it.”

I was tempted to speak, to cut in with my own thoughts, but I held back. His fist tightened on the table as he drew in a breath and met my eyes.

“I understand what you meant the last time we spoke,” he said quietly. “And I’ve been thinking… about taking it on. The choice. The power. The command.”

I arched a brow, waiting. The pause lingered, but I could see the ‘but’ forming in his mind before he gave it voice.

“But I can’t walk into this blindly,” he admitted. “I need to be sure. I need you to answer some questions, Mizukage-dono.”

I opened my mouth, already halfway to repeating the same old truth I’d spoken in Konoha—but he pressed on before I could.

“You must understand, there are other forces at play. Hidden hands. If what you say about the Nine-Tails incident is true… if the truth really is what you claim, then the shape of...everything could change.”

I shook my head. “If you’re looking for an excuse to run from this responsibility, you won’t find one in me. You’re right, being Kage is a terrible burden. I’ve chosen to bear it, and I wear it openly.”

I leaned forward, fixing him with the cold certainty I’d earned through blood and decisions far too late to take back.

“So here’s my advice to you, prospective Hokage. If you hesitate for even a moment, if you place your faith in hope, if you believe your enemies will compromise, if you dare to think, even once, that you can negotiate with a hostile force, foreign or domestic...then that moment will be the beginning of your failure.”

I sat back, gaze steady.

“Seize power. Or don’t take it at all. Because a fragile peace is just another form of war; one you’re too afraid to admit you’re losing.”

Jiraiya didn’t look away. His eyes gave nothing, and yet I saw the storm behind them. I didn’t need to reach for memories of another timeline to understand the weight of what I’d done by naming the Masked Man as an Uchiha. That single truth would cast a long shadow over Konoha. Suspicion would fester. And unless something drastic changed, that suspicion would bloom into tragedy.

Should Jiraiya become the Fifth Hokage, how he handles the Uchiha situation will greatly affect the rest of this world, this timeline. A part of me held hope for the Uchiha clan's continued existence, it was that part that wanted to reveal the true identity of the man behind our troubles, Obito Uchiha.

But the wiser part of me understood that it didn’t matter just how much information Konoha had at their fingertips, if Hiruzen became Hokage then…they’d be annihilated. If Jiraiya wanted to avoid bloodshed in his village then he’d need to prove he could stand up to the pressure of being a Kage.

“You…” Jiraiya whispered. “You know. Just how much do you…hahah, you know.”

I leaned back, turning away from him and any accusation he was about to throw my way. Yet he chuckled and held his head in his hands. “Thank you, Mizukage-dono, you’ve answered my question.

“Have I?”

Jiraiya stared at my Kage hat once again, this time with a sullen look of acceptance before that too was drowned under an unseriousness. “Yes, you have.” He stood up, looking ready to take his leave. “I’m sorry I came in like this, it's just…with everything you have going on I worried I wouldn’t get to see you before it was time.”

“Time for what?”

Jiraiya smiled sadly. “Time for me.”