My third story, also written in one thirty-minute sitting. Please R&R. It's the only way I'll be motivated to write more!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"Yagura's death was an honorable one. Yondaime Mizukage-sama lived for Kirigakure, but he died for peace."
The Purity of Water: A Memoir of Yagura, The Fourth Mizukage
by Mizashi Setsuki, Fifth Mizukage
Yagura was born in a time of great turmoil.
Kirigakure has always had a rich past and produced incredible shinobi, but the ninja wars had greatly militarized the entire world. The people cried out for peace and serenity in the midst of constant bloodshed. They yearned for a day when the sky would rain pure water, free from the taint of blood and death. From an early age, Yagura rose to the challenge and stood up for justice.
He was the first advocate to completely repeal the academy graduation examination traditions, even before Momochi Zabuza, the now-deceased feared Demon of the Hidden Mist and notorious Shinobi Gatana member, had massacred all of the other 12 year olds competing for graduation to Genin status. Yagura's wife had died in battle not long after his first child, Chojuro, was born.
I took it upon myself to mentor the young Chojuro, as it was obvious to me that he suffered from abandonment issues due to his mother's early demise. Yagura had attempted to liaise with the previous Hokages but his gestures were perceived as weak by the Elder Advisors of Kirigakure, who managed to exert their mysterious influence upon the daimyo of the Water Country. Indeed, there was also a small village located on an island in an archipelago in the Senju Sea that Yagura had worked hard for.
This island, off the coast of the major Kirigakure outpost in the Water Country, contained a very impoverished and snowy village rumored to have many orphaned children. Yagura was against the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor, but he was silenced again by the bloodthirsty council whose silently influential epidemic of war was slowly leeching the village of its spirit.
When the wars finally subsided, the people realized that Yagura had been right all along, that peace and stability were the keys to prosperity. The old council members had been immediately de-seated and were initially met with screaming orders from the townsfolk that called for their public execution, based on the Village tradition. Yagura however was determined to end the violence.
He re-wrote the traditions and welcomed the old council members back, but taught them by his example. A few stubborn Kirigakure shinobi refused to learn compassion, notably the monster Hoshigaki Kisame, formerly a member of the Shinobi Gatana, and defected from the village.
Yagura, much like the Third Hokage-sama, ruled the village with gentle guidance and encouragement of education and youth. Behind the scenes however, Yondaime Mizukage-sama was engaging in a very difficult personal struggle.
A few advisors close to the Mizukage, including myself, knew that Yagura was the Jinchuriki host for the Sanbi, the Three-Tailed Demon Turtle, a Bijuu of tremendous demonic power. Yagura became weaker with time and his condition progressively worsened. Eventually, we summoned a kunoichi of immense power to facilitate the extraction of the Bijuu from Yondaime Mizukage-sama in order to save his life.
The Kunoichi, a stunning and sadly beautiful blue-haired woman, reputed to be an orphan hailing from Amegakure, was receptive to our difficulty and quietly summoned her comrades (clad in peculiar black and red cloaks) to extract the Bijuu and contain it. Amazingly, they asked for very little compensation for such a monumental task. They were gone as quickly as they came, though I noticed as she was leaving, the blue-haired kunoichi giving an origami crane to a young shinobi dressed in hunter-nin garb.
Yagura lived for two years after this, at which point his health had finally given way after his fight with complications of being a Jinchuuriki. On his deathbed, he appointed me, his last living pupil, as the Godaime Mizukage.
I remember my vision blurred with tears in my eyes as Yagura gently touched my face, and said his last words. "My dear subordinate, you are now no longer bound by the shackles of your sensei. We are equals. You have the ability to lead this village to greatness, and you have the choice to be as harsh as ice, or to be as gentle as the mist. I hope you make the right choice."
We laid Yagura to rest after the neighboring countries sent delegations to pay their respects. A truly selfless soul, Yagura lives on in the citizens of Kirigakure, as the tears in their eyes, as the current in their rivers. He is the mist that is suspended in the air: the cleansing and gentle aftermath of a storm.