On the other side, Zabuza had arrived early at the meeting spot where he had encountered the man known as the God King the previous day.
However, the man was nowhere to be seen, even after a long wait.
'A powerhouse like that shouldn't be so poor with timing,' he muttered to himself. 'Could something have happened?'
As the hours ticked by and noon approached, his impatience began to flare.
After all, he saw a glimmer of hope for saving this country in that man.
Right at that moment.
Ryōsuke finally arrived, bringing little Haku along.
He was now dressed in black robes and wore a mask.
The pair moved slowly; Haku had eaten a bit too much, so their pace was leisurely.
Seeing Zabuza still waiting saved him the trouble of having to track him down later.
The Mist Village was located in the center of the island—though calling it an island was an understatement, as it was a massive landmass.
Surrounded by high mountains, the area was prone to thick fog, making the village quite difficult to locate.
Stopping in front of Zabuza, Ryōsuke spoke.
"Let's go. Lead the way."
Zabuza looked visibly annoyed as he spoke.
"Didn't we agree on this morning? Why are you only showing up now that it's past noon?"
He had been waiting there since daybreak.
He had almost reached the point of heading out to find them himself.
Ryōsuke didn't bother making excuses.
"I wanted Haku to get some extra sleep, so I took my time."
"We also grabbed some lunch before coming."
Zabuza was completely speechless.
'He delayed something as critical as saving the Land of Water just so a little girl could sleep in?'
However, the other man held all the cards. He needed this guy's help to take down the Fourth Mizukage, so now wasn't the time to start an argument.
"Fine. I'll take you to the Mist Village now."
Ryōsuke then asked a question.
"That works. But if you haven't eaten yet, we can wait a bit longer for you."
Zabuza's face remained cold.
"No need. I've already eaten."
He wasn't foolish enough to starve himself; he had grabbed a quick bite at a nearby eatery earlier.
Luckily, no pursuers had tracked him here.
He assumed they were likely reluctant to follow the Fourth Mizukage's orders anyway.
Who would want to give their all for such a tyrannical leader?
Hearing Zabuza's response, Ryōsuke prepared to depart, but one more issue remained.
"By the way, you'll be responsible for Haku's safety. You can handle that, right?"
Zabuza blinked, his brow furrowing.
"Why not leave her in this town? You can just pick her up once the job is done."
Upon hearing this, Haku reflexively gripped Ryōsuke's leg. She had no desire to be left behind.
When she had woken up that morning to find the God King gone, she had been overcome with panic.
Ryōsuke could sense her anxiety.
Once someone found a person to rely on, they weren't exactly keen on letting them out of their sight.
"She's coming with us. I'm not comfortable leaving her here."
Hearing this, Haku's heart soared with joy.
Zabuza, however, was far from pleased.
"Bringing a kid to the Mist Village is a massive headache. I can try to protect her..."
"...But doesn't that mean you'll have to face the Fourth Mizukage alone while I'm stuck on babysitting duty?"
There were plenty of elites in the Mist Village. While he was strong, he couldn't possibly join the fray if he had to look after a child.
Ryōsuke replied calmly.
"There's no need for you to fight anyway. Just keep an eye on her; I'll handle the rest myself."
Although Zabuza was a Jōnin, his power was limited. His participation didn't really matter; Ryōsuke was more than capable of dealing with the Fourth Mizukage on his own.
Zabuza was stunned by the statement and questioned him sharply.
"Are you planning to take on the entire village alone? You think you can just take down the Fourth Mizukage by yourself? No matter how strong you are, that's pure arrogance."
"The Mist Village has thousands of shinobi. That's a massive force to reckon with."
"And the Fourth Mizukage himself is a terrifying monster."
The Kage of a village was, by definition, its strongest member.
The Mist Village was renowned throughout the shinobi world as one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.
Despite his youthful appearance, the Fourth Mizukage was actually a middle-aged man.
Ryōsuke sounded puzzled by the misunderstanding.
"Who told you I was going to kill the Fourth Mizukage?"
"I just need to lift the genjutsu he's under."
He didn't have any personal grudge against the man.
All he needed to do was extract the Tailed Beast and seal it into the Treasure Jar.
Whether the Mizukage lived or died afterward was of no concern to him.
Zabuza's expression shifted drastically, his eyes widening.
"What did you say? The Fourth Mizukage is under a genjutsu?"
"Who could possibly place a monster like him under an illusion?"
"He has the Three-Tails sealed inside him; he's a perfect Jinchūriki."
"Genjutsu can't be maintained if there's an external power to break the flow."
He found the notion impossible to believe.
Yet, it made a strange kind of sense. It explained why the Fourth Mizukage had become so inexplicably cruel.
It explained his total disregard for the lives of his own shinobi.
Ryōsuke replied calmly.
"You're right. With the power of a Tailed Beast helping, one doesn't fall for genjutsu easily."
"But that doesn't mean a perfect Jinchūriki can't be controlled."
"You just have to place both the host and the Tailed Beast under the illusion simultaneously. If you control both, the trick works."
He recalled that in the original timeline, Konan, Nagato, and Obito had come to the Mist Village together to subdue the Fourth Mizukage.
With two masters of ocular jutsu working together, subduing both the Mizukage and the Three-Tails was hardly impossible.
Zabuza was shaken to his core.
Theoretically, the logic held up: if you controlled both the man and the beast, even a perfect Jinchūriki would fall.
But was such a feat even humanly possible?
Just how powerful would that genjutsu have to be?
Was there truly someone in the shinobi world capable of such a thing?
It was hard to fathom.
However, the more he thought about it, the more plausible it became.
The Fourth Mizukage had taken office when Zabuza was still a child.
Back then, he had been relatively kind, far from the tyrant who now ruled with such blatant disregard for human life.
Now, he forced Academy students into brutal death matches, making them slaughter one another just to produce 'strong' shinobi.
He had even begun persecuting those with Kekkei Genkai.
The Hōzuki Clan—descendants of the Second Mizukage—had also been targeted by his purges.
Otherwise, they never would have approached Zabuza to stage a coup.
It seemed incredibly likely that he was indeed under a genjutsu. As the realization hit, Zabuza's rage began to boil.
"Since you know he's under an illusion, you must know who did it. I'll tear them limb from limb!"
Ryōsuke let out a small chuckle.
"That's quite ambitious. Do you really think you can kill someone powerful enough to control both a Tailed Beast and a Kage?"