The Anbu were caught off guard when the armbands were shoved into their hands. They looked at each other, unsure of what to do.
They knew that Genji and the Mizukage had about the same rank.
But ever since the Fourth Mizukage started doing all kinds of strange things, Genji had basically broken off with his own small group—
—just to protect himself.
And unless he had no choice, Genji usually wouldn't openly go against Yagura's decisions.
Before this, even if he did disagree, he had never pushed back this strongly!?
But they couldn't just ignore the Mizukage's orders either, so for a moment, the Anbu were stuck in an awkward spot.
Behind Ao, Hatake Satoru had a front-row seat to watch this play out—two higher-ups not getting along, and the poor foot soldiers caught in the middle.
Too bad Genji didn't have the guts to raise a group like Danzo's Root.
If he had, would they even be dealing with this crap now?
"What are you still standing in the doorway for? Genji-sama is an elder—he has the same authority as the Mizukage!"
Ao snapped sharply at the Anbu in front of him.
"…Understood."
After a brief hesitation, the Anbu quickly left.
Whatever weird drama Genji was stirring up, it didn't change the fact that he was still an elder with equal power to the Mizukage.
If he gave an order, they had no reason to refuse it.
Right now, their top priority was to report this to the Mizukage as soon as possible.
"Well then, wait for our update!"
Hatake Satoru gave a playful wink to the two in the room before pulling Shisui along and walking off with style.
"These two just don't look like they belong together. Why would Shisui come here with a guy like that?"
Ao watched them leave, shaking his head like he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"No need to rush with them… Let's see how Mizukage-sama reacts first."
Genji's aged face stayed fixed on Hatake Satoru and Shisui as they walked off, staring until the door slowly closed behind them.
...
The next afternoon, at the Kirigakure Village ninja school.
After getting some rest the night before, Shisui went back to keeping an eye on the Mizukage building.
Hatake Satoru stuck to his usual schedule, teaching classes at the school.
The whole day went by without any word from Shisui or the Anbu.
It probably meant nothing major had happened.
Leaving things hanging like this was likely brushed off by Genjii.
Genjii had always been focused on keeping himself safe, and usually stayed out of things unless they involved his own group.
But it was also because he kept such a low profile that he managed to stay in his elder position for so long.
At times like this, if he clashed with Yagura even once, he might not live to see the next day.
"Hm?"
Hatake Satoru turned his eyes toward Hozuki Mangetsu, who was still sitting in his chair.
Aside from the first day, when Shisui helped get the students organized, the kids had already started adjusting to school life and could leave on their own now.
Some of the more easy-going ones had even formed little friend groups.
They were also starting to enjoy Hatake Satoru's way of teaching.
But aside from those few, there was one student who sat in the front row and spent most of the time zoning out.
He was half-asleep during class, but full of energy when it was over.
"I don't need to learn this stuff. It's not like killing people needs math."
"Teacher Satoru, can't you teach me something else?"
After four or five days of classes, all they'd learned was how to calculate the angle of the sun and shadows, or how high a kunai could land based on its angle.
Even though Hatake Satoru made class fun, this wasn't what Hozuki Mangetsu wanted to learn at all!
"Also, Satoru-sensei, you're already super strong. Don't you get bored teaching these dummies?"
Hozuki Mangetsu melted into a puddle on the desk, leaving only his shark-toothed mouth visible, opening and closing as he spoke.
"If I'm a teacher, then this is part of my job."
Hatake Satoru, clearly amused, tossed a piece of chalk right into that talking mouth on the desk.
Honestly, Mangetsu's Hydration Technique kind of felt like the perfect material for some weird school ghost story.
"Blegh—pfft pfft pfft!!!"
Just as Mangetsu was about to answer back, the chalk landed in his mouth and he started spitting it out.
He quickly turned back into his normal form while coughing.
"But since you think that stuff's boring, I'll teach you something else."
"It's not that hard, but the others aren't ready to learn it yet.
"Stuff like this depends on talent, you know~"
Hatake Satoru snapped a piece of chalk in half and casually drew two diagrams on the board showing how force is applied.
On the same wooden board, two different force areas caused two different effects.
"This is pressure."
"It means the amount of force applied to an object divided by the area it's applied to."
"When used with spiral strikes, you can get the most out of your power."
The light in Hozuki Mangetsu's eyes dimmed as soon as Hatake Satoru finished talking about pressure and force diagrams.
"..."
What was that even?!
He understood each word on its own, but once they were put together, it all sounded like nonsense.
Most ninjas were great at killing, but when it came to numbers and technical stuff like this, they were totally lost.
Hatake Satoru scratched his messy silver hair, then casually picked up a kunai from the teacher's desk and pressed it against Mangetsu's table, giving it a little twist.
"An example even an idiot can understand—kunai are sharp at the tip, and that's what lets them stab into people."
"But just piercing with the tip isn't enough to be deadly."
"Now, if you add some spinning force, and stab it in all at once—boom, straight through!"
"That's what makes this move so strong~"
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