It was noon and Mizuki was walking on the way to the Hokage's office. When he passed by the Ninja School, he found that students were walking into the school gate one after another. Iruka was arranging to maintain order among the graduates. It seemed that their injuries were almost healed.
"I don't know if Sasuke and Naruto will have a fateful kiss. It would be such a shame if it doesn't happen because of the butterfly effect." Mizuki couldn't help but think.
"Why don't we walk slower? The Hokage might be arranging groups of students for a group of jonin right now. It would be bad to go too early. But it's good to go and take a look."
When Mizuki walked into the Hokage's office, he found that it was already over. The other leading jonin had already left, and Mizuki even ran into Kakashi Hatake, who was the last to leave.
"Hey, Mizuki, after changing your hairstyle, you actually look like a good person." Kakashi greeted rudely.
"What do you mean by looking like a good person? I am. My hairstyle is pretty good, right? It's very recognizable. No one will mistake me for someone else."
"That's true, but it's too late no matter how hard you try. You already have a fiancée."
"I don't understand what you are saying. Aren't you going to meet your lovely students?"
"Ah, it's okay to let them wait a little longer. I'll go eat first and then go back to sleep. I haven't had a good sleep these past two days thanks to some bastard."
“It’s really hard to be your student.”
Mizuki said goodbye to Kakashi and walked into the Hokage's office, where only a few Chunins and special Jonins were left. "Mitarashi Anko? Morino Ibiki? Is it about the Chunin Exam? There are still several months left, and you're preparing so quickly? The efficiency of ninjas is too high."
After Shuimu entered the room, he walked to the side calmly and waited inconspicuously.
Seeing Shuimu coming in, Sandai coughed lightly and said, "Everyone is here, so let's start issuing tasks now."
"This year's Chunin Exam will be held in Konoha in three months. Several friendly ninja villages, including our ally Sand Village, will participate. At the same time, the Kazekage of Sand Village and daimyos from various countries will also come to watch. This is a serious matter, so we have to prepare in advance. I'll send the specific arrangements to everyone to take a look first. If you have any opinions, we can discuss it slowly."
"You really want me to participate in this? Where is the agreed punishment?" Shuimu took the plan in confusion and flipped through it casually.
"It's similar to the original plot, except that I'm here to participate in the first surveillance examiner and several other cleanup and patrol tasks. The leader is Mitarashi Anko? Do you suspect that I'm testing you? Probably not, so it's just a coincidence?"
Mizuki didn't listen to what was going on, and kept thinking about the risks in the mission and the possible benefits of cheating. When everything was arranged, the third generation ordered: "If there is no objection, everyone start preparing. Mizuki and Hongdou stay, and the rest of you disband~"
Soon, most of the people in the office left, leaving only Sandai, Mizuki, and Mitarashi Anko.
Then the Third Hokage said, "Regarding the second exam, Anko, as the chief examiner, must make careful arrangements and control the casualty rate, otherwise disputes may arise and cause dissatisfaction among allies. So Anko, you must come up with a complete plan as soon as possible. The Death Forest, where the exam is held, must be carefully inspected to prevent outsiders from disrupting the exam and endangering Konoha's reputation. It must also be cleaned up. The Death Forest has not been managed diligently, and there are many creatures in it that are obviously beyond the strength of Genin. These all need to be cleaned up. This task will be carried out by Mizuki, and Anko will check and confirm it. Starting tomorrow, the Death Forest barrier will be open for ten days, and you must complete it within ten days."
"Yes." Mizuki and Anko answered.
"Shuimu." Sandai then said to Shuimu, "I hope you will carry out this mission seriously. Don't let anything I don't want to see happen again. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I understand, Sandaime-sama."
"Regarding your punishment, Konoha has decided to deduct your wages for the next three months. You are not allowed to leave the village without a mission charter issued by me personally. At the same time, you are not allowed to approach Uzumaki Naruto for a month. These bans will be lifted after the Chunin Exams."
"yes."
"Shuimu, I hope you understand that you shouldn't be so lenient with what you did, but the village is in need of people, so I decided to give you a chance to make amends for your crime~"
"Okay, you can go down~" Sandai dismissed Shuimu before Shuimu could say anything, "Complete the task well, and let Hongdou tell me if there is anything."
"Yes, Lord Sandaime." Mizuki had to turn around and leave.
There were only two people left in the room. The Sandai took a few puffs of his pipe, blew a few smoke rings, and then told Hongdou: "Watch Mizuki, if you find anything, arrest him on the spot. If he resists." The Sandai said in a deep voice, "Kill him without mercy." The Sandai, who had been sitting firmly in the position of Hokage for decades, showed his heroic side.
"How could that be?" Mitarashi Anko was surprised. "I have heard about Mizuki's crimes in the past two days. It is impossible to kill him without mercy."
"I know." Sandai said seriously. "At present, it is indeed too harsh, but I always have a bad feeling." Although no evidence was found, it always felt that something was wrong.
"I hope I'm just being overly concerned. This is just a precaution. Hongdou, you must keep a close eye on the Death Forest and don't let anyone mess with it. Okay, you can go down too."
"Yes." Mitarashi Anko turned and left.
There was only one person from the third generation left in the office, smoking and not knowing what he was thinking.
…
After leaving the Hokage's office, Mizuki ran home quickly without eating, and didn't even care about the surprised looks he received along the way.
When he got home, he quickly closed the doors and windows, drew the curtains, and the room suddenly became dark. Shuimu took off his shirt, pressed the curse seal on his right arm, and sat down on the bed.
"I didn't expect danger to come so quickly. Just when I thought this thing might be a big trouble, this happened."
Shuimu touched the seal which was still a little hot and observed it carefully. The whole seal seemed to be still emitting a faint red glow.
"I've known for a long time that this thing is unreliable. As a semi-finished product, its stability must be very poor, but I didn't expect that it would respond so easily."
Mizuki noticed the changes in the curse seal when he walked into the Hokage's office. When it was at its most intense, his entire arm was burning hot and he almost couldn't hold it in. And the closer he got to Mitarashi Anko, the more intense the curse seal became.
"The reason why the curse seal is active is probably related to the curse seal on Mitarashi Anko's body."
Speaking of the unfinished curse seal on Mizuki, it actually did not appear in the original manga, but was created by the animation. Throughout Mizuki's career, he has never been close to anyone with a curse seal. It seems that this thing resonates with the same energy.
"No, it shouldn't be the curse seal itself. To be exact, it should be natural energy or simply Senjutsu Chakra."
The curse seal was something Orochimaru researched through Jūgo's bloodline limit, but the origin of Jūgo's ability came from the mysterious Earth Dragon Cave.
Since Orochimaru failed to practice the Sage Mode, there has been significant progress in the study of Jūgo's bloodline limit. The enzyme extracted from Jūgo's body, that is, the hormone, is the origin of all the cursed seals. This thing, which was originally a prerequisite for Orochimaru's corpse reincarnation, has amazing potential. Although it cannot be simply relied on as a regular force, it is indeed an incredible thing. Look at the second stage of the cursed seal, powerful power, body deformation and growth of additional auxiliary organs. Without considering the beauty and rationality, isn't this situation very similar to the Sage Mode? To put it bluntly, the cursed seal is a degraded version of the Sage Mode, otherwise Kabuto Yakushi would not have been able to simply practice the snake sage technique based on Orochimaru's legacy.
Orochimaru went a step further and added his own original spirit to the mutated and degraded fairy chakra of the Curse Seal Power, which is the immortality technique of Reincarnation. This is very similar to the chakra reincarnation of Ashura and Indra, but Orochimaru does not have the powerful strength and Yin-Yang escape of Ashura and Indra to complete the reincarnation, and can only rely on the immortality technique of seizing the body, which has many consequences, to escape the limitation of life span. If Orochimaru is given some more time, I really can't believe what kind of shocking things he can research.
"It's dangerous, but it's also a good opportunity to get a glimpse of natural energy and fairy chakra."
As a semi-finished curse seal, it naturally has defects that are difficult to solve, but it will not retain the backup of Orochimaru's original spiritual power. Orochimaru will not hope to seize the body of Mizuki, who does not even look down on it. This semi-finished curse seal is probably just a whim, wanting to see more possibilities. This is not surprising for a researcher. But the key is to obtain a method of autonomous control. The Konoha high-level can do it, but Mizuki can't count on it at all. The most recent one is Hatake Kakashi's seal of evil, which was used on Sasuke during the Chunin Exam, but he is not familiar with Kakashi at the moment, and there is no guarantee that he will tell the third generation. The risk is too great. Although it is very different from the form of the Heaven's Curse Seal, once it is activated, even a fool will know that he is related to Orochimaru.
"What should we do? Ask for help from Hatake Kakashi? No, this can only be used as a means of saving our lives when we really can't control ourselves anymore. So it seems we have to stay away from people who are wearing curse seals or practicing Sage Mode."
"It's a pity that I have to do a mission with Mitarashi Anko. It seems that I can only try my best to be patient and not reveal any flaws in the short term." Mizuki couldn't help but smile bitterly, "I really can't stop for a moment."
As his arm felt warm, Mizuki quickly put on his clothes. Then a figure barged in rudely. It was Mitarashi Anko.
"It seems that this has the ability to give early warning, which is a pleasant surprise."
"Why are you being so shady? You're so secretive. Do you have a mistress in your house?"
"Don't talk nonsense, I have a fiancée."
"Fiancée? I didn't realize you even have a fiancée. The world is really blind."
"Don't talk nonsense, the world will curse you~" Shuimu surrendered. "Didn't we just meet? What do you want from me so soon?"
"Tomorrow you go to the Death Forest to investigate by yourself. I need to discuss the details of the Chunin Exam with Ibiki and write a report for the Third Hokage to review. I don't have time to go to the Death Forest for now. So I came to inform you."
"I see."
"By the way, who is your fiancée? I really want to know which blind girl fell in love with you."
"How rude of you to be blind. My fiancée's name is Chie Tsubaki."
"Oh, that Ma Wei from the Sealing Class who has no sense of existence and can't even drink alcohol? He really seems to be the type who has no vision and is easily deceived."
"It's true that her presence can't be compared to that of Mitarashi Anko-sama, but the key is that her feminine power far exceeds that of our pure presence Anko-sama by a huge margin."
"Forget it, no more words. I'm leaving first. I have to go drink with my friends later. See you later." After saying that, he disappeared in a flash.
"Finally he left." Shuimu thought, holding his right arm. "It's like I was blinded by the light. I never paid attention to him. Xiaochun is from the Sealing Class. Maybe he knows a little bit about Sealing Techniques. We can find some clues. We don't need to solve it completely. We just need to suppress it temporarily. Do you have time to ask? No, we have to act quickly. Let's go today and see Xiaochun."