Chapter 4: Ashes in the Mist
The first mistake Yagura made was trusting the silence.
He believed fear was still working. That the disappearances and sabotage were the desperate acts of scattered rebels. But silence, Kozan knew, was never absence—it was pressure building before a collapse.
And collapse was coming.
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It began with the tower.
A known stronghold for bloodline suppression forces stood at the western edge of the village—once a water tower, now a blacksite in all but name. Kozan had studied its rotations for weeks. It had one flaw: overconfidence.
That night, his Hunter-nin squad converged beneath the cover of fog thicker than ink.
Kozan signaled. Three teams. Three points of entry.
The sound of water burst from the underground pipe system as one unit flooded the lower barracks. The second team dropped in through the skylight and sealed the exits.
Kozan entered through the mist.
Within three minutes, the tower's command chain was severed. Files destroyed. Prisoners freed. Survivors silenced.
He left behind another message, etched into the wall in kunai:
"You cannot drown what lives in the water."
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Yagura's response was swift.
He declared martial law. Doubled the executions. Pulled ANBU from border stations. Entire families were arrested for "conspiracies."
But it was too late.
The Mist was boiling over.
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Mei stood before her inner circle with a decision no longer in question.
"It's time," she said.
Ao nodded. "We won't get a better chance. His forces are stretched thin."
Chōjūrō looked at Kozan. "You'll lead the infiltration?"
Kozan didn't blink. "I'll end it."
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For the first time, Mei unveiled her final assault plan—an operation codenamed Tearing Fog.
A multi-pronged attack to destabilize every one of Yagura's remaining guard stations, disable his sensory network, and confront him directly in the Mizukage tower.
It would require everything.
Every blade. Every ounce of silence. Every piece of faith they had left.
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The plan was set. The squads were ready. The final orders were signed in ink and sealed in chakra.
Kozan stood on the edge of the hidden reservoir, the water below so still it looked like glass.
He remembered what this place had once done to him.
And now, what he would do to it.
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