Ryujin Stadium was soon filled with the people that evacuated it in response to Torasame's transformation. Unfortunately, Chojuro returned to the ring to inform the Fifth Mizukage that Tia could not be found and that the prize ceremony had to be done without her. The Mizukage reluctantly went ahead with the ceremony and had Jugo and Torasame go back to the waiting room, had Chojuro stand on the walkway between the waiting room and the ring, and stood in the centre of the arena with Suigetsu at her side. She then looked up to the crowd to address her audience:

"Ladies and Gentlemen! I am very happy to announce that the Grand Champion of the Strongest Under the Mist tournament is Suigetsu Hozuki!"

Mei grabbed Suigetsu's right hand with her left and eagerly raised it into the air. With the entire crowd cheering him on, Suigetsu had difficulty focusing on the applause and looked down bashfully. After a few seconds, however, Suigetsu looked up and smiled wide, showing off his sharp teeth for everyone to see.

When the applause and cheer died down, Mei brought Suigetsu's hand down to their sides and faced him with a smile:

"So champion, you've earned the grand prize of one wish from yours truly! What is your heart's desire? Your wish is my command!"

Dammit… where are you, Gekido?! I can't make your wish for you if I don't even know your dad's name! Suigetsu thought. "Actually, Mizukage… I was going to let Gekido make his wish if I won." He said. "But he's not here…"

At that moment, Suigetsu looked up into the crowd and screamed:

"Hey, Gekido! If you're with your mom in the stands, now would be a good time to come down and make your wish!"

No one descended.

To make matters worse, Gekido's mother was silent. Suigetsu did not know what she looked like, but he did remember what she sounded like from when she cheered Gekido on during his fight, and that voice wasn't talking. It was as if Gekido vanished from the stadium right when Suigetsu needed his presence most. Fearing for the boy's safety, Suigetsu immediately ran for Chojuro and started shaking him:

"Chojuro… Did you happen to see Gekido when you were trying to find Tia?!"

"No… I'm sorry, Suigetsu-kun…"

Suddenly, Suigetsu let Chojuro go and began walking back to Mei with a grim determination on his face.

"Then I know what I'm wishing for."

"Please think it over again!" Chojuro objected, causing Suigetsu to stop and look over his shoulder in confusion, but also with thinning patience. "I know Gekido-kun… He wouldn't want you to waste your wish trying to find him. You wish for yourself; Iwillmake sure Gekido-kun is safe."

"Okay… I trust you. Save Gekido for me, would you, Chojuro?"

"Yes… I'll definitely do that."

With those final words, Chojuro left the stadium through the waiting room.

Satisfied with the situation, Suigetsu walked back up to the arena and faced Mei. "Have you changed your mind as to what your wish will be?" the Mizukage asked.

"Yeah… I've reconsidered. See, the thing is there's this woman I want to marry."

Mei's eyes glowed ecstatically. "Oh, do you mean -"

"No."

Mei hung her head in shame.

You're the second Kage I've had to reject in front of a wide audience now… Sheesh… Suigetsu thought.

"So why did you bring it up at all?" Mei asked with one eye twitching as she could barely hold her smile together.

"Well, I was thinking that before I can get married, I'm going to need to buy my own house. And in order to buy a house, I'm going to need lots of money. And to get a lot of money, I need a job. That leads me to my wish. I wish to be reinstated as a Hidden Mist ninja and made your official ambassador in the Hidden Leaf Village!"

The crowd went silent at the proclamation.

Kukyo started to cry from the stands. "Hozuki… you missed us all this time?"

Mei relaxed her smile. "Hmm… I thought as much."

Suddenly, Mei reached into her cleavage with her right hand, pulled out a black headband with the Hidden Mist Village's insignia on the forehead protector, and placed it in Suigetsu's hands:

"That's why I brought this. Your old headband is too small for you now."

Suigetsu looked down at the headband in his hands with awe. "No way…! Is this?!"

"Yes it is. We recovered Mangetsu's headband along with his body. And just in case you came crawling back to us… I kept it."

Suigetsu was barely able to contain his tears. "Mizukage… thank you so much!"

"What are you waiting for, Champion?" Mei asked with a smirk. "Put it on."

Without a word, Suigetsu nodded and wrapped Mangetsu's headband around his head, underneath his bangs, careful to have the forehead protector neatly protect the forehead. Once he was finished, he looked back up to face the Mizukage:

"How does it look on me, Mizukage?"

"Yeah…" Mei blushed his way once more, "… just as handsome as Mangetsu."

After her brief stint of ogling was over, Mei once again held Suigetsu's right hand with her left and raised it for the crowd to see. "Once again, our Grand Champion and official Hidden leaf Ambassador, Suigetsu Hozuki!"

The audience exploded with cheer and applause once more. "Hozuki! Hozuki! Hozuki!" many fans, including Kukyo, shouted several time with elation.

"I must ask that you hold your applause! While the Grand Prize has been given, there are still more prizes to be handed out! Would Lord Daimyo's guard and the remaining final four please come down!"

Upon Mei's instructions, Torasame walked out of the waiting room, having done his hair in the interim, and the Daimyo's guard – who were actually four shark people in disguise - used the Body Flicker to descend to the ring with the prizes in hand.

"Unfortunately, Tia Terumi and Yuri Joki are unable to attend and so will receive their swords at a later time!" Mei shouted. "Right now, we will hand out the prizes that our grand finalists desire! First our Grand Champion will make his selection, then our runner-up, and then both will open their prizes simultaneously! That being said… Champion, which sword do you want to claim?"

"That's easy… I want the Kiba!"

"And you, Torasame Hoshigaki?"

"Kabutowari."

"Very well! Hand out the prizes!"

Mei promptly stepped out of the way. Once she made some distance, the guard with the Kiba approached Suigetsu, the guard with Kabutowari approached Torasame, and both laid their prize boxes on the ground at the winners' feet.

"Grand finalists! Open your prizes now!"

At the end of Mei's command, the crowd went wild with cheer and Suigetsu and Torasame started opening the boxes.

Suigetsu was beyond excited to open his prize. After bonding with Gekido and the rest of his fellow contestants, dealing with boos from the crowd, and his hard-earned victory against Torasame, he more than deserved the Kiba. He was so happy to finally have a Sword of the Mist back in his hands that he was already imagining himself practicing with the Kiba and using it in battle against the Hokage after he returned to the Hidden Leaf.

And this excitement was also the reason why what followed tore him to pieces.

"What… what the hell is this?!" Suigetsu shouted in anger as he clearly saw his prize for the first time. "Mizukage… Something's wrong with my prize!"

Mei quickly went to Suigetsu's side with concern. "What are you talking about, Champ -"

It was then that she saw it: one of the two swords was nothing more than an assortment of sharp metal objects sloppily glued together. Its shape and depth resembled the Kiba, but its composition couldn't be further from it.

"One half of my prize is a forgery! And a really shitty forgery at that!"

The crowd gasped with shock in response to Suigetsu's claim.

"What's the meaning of this, Mizukage?!" Suigetsu shouted.

"I don't know!" Mei shouted in turn. "Chojuro assured me nothing was wrong with the prizes when he handed them to Lord Daimyo's guard before the Grand Finals!"

Suigetsu shook his head. "No way! Chojuro wouldn't make an oversight like that!"

"You're… right."

Suddenly, Mei stood up and looked a Hunter Ninja in the stands square in the mask:

"Attention! The Chojuro that just left the arena is an impostor using the Transformation Jutsu! Find him and subdue him immediately! He's most likely responsible for sabotaging our champion's prize!"

"Yes, My Lady!" four Hunter Ninja replied as they saluted and then ran off to search the premises for Chojuro's impostor.

Suigetsu started to shiver. "Are you sure that Chojuro was an impostor?"

"Looking back… I'm certain of it." Mei sombrely nodded as she kneeled back down and placed an arm around Suigetsu, holding him steady. "When Torasame was about to transform, Chojuro didn't use chakra to stick to the ground like when Tenten used the Bashosen; he ran instead. Ask yourself: why would Chojuro's reaction change?"

"Because he was an impostor… and the surge of chakra could have disrupted his Jutsu and ended his transformation prematurely… And he just promised me he'd look after Gekido… Dammit!"

"What's going on?!" a feminine voice shouted from inside the waiting room.

"Tenten? You're better now?" Jugo asked.

"Yeah… Now's not the time, though! I saw four Hunter Ninja run past me on my way here! What's happening?!"

"This is happening, Tenten!" Suigetsu shouted from inside the ring. He liquefied to escape Mei's hold, then grabbed half of Kiba and the forgery in each of his hands, and then quickly ran down the walkway to the waiting room. Suddenly, however, the forgery shattered into pieces and fell on the floor at his and Tenten's feet.

"Someone tampered with my prize!" Suigetsu continued. "And what's worse is that they're an impostor of Chojuro that's after Gekido!"

During Suigetsu's rant, however, Tenten's attention was caught by the shards on the floor and she let out a gasp. Then tears began to fall as she recognized every last shard on the floor from her adventure the previous night:

"No… You have it all wrong… The impostor isn't after Gekido… the impostor IS Gekido!"

The accusation shook Suigetsu to the core.

"What are you saying, Tenten? What makes you think Gekido did this?!"

"I saw those same fragments last night in the basement! Gekido was staying up late working on them. He said he wanted to use the blade in the finals… I had no idea this is what he was talking about!"

"Didn't you get him to stop and go to bed, though?" Jugo asked.

"Actually… I never saw him go to sleep. He could have went right back to working on the forgery after I dozed off."

"But Gekido didn't bring that forgery with him!" Suigetsu objected. "We saw him get ready this morning! And he couldn't possibly have the speed to run to the house and back in under an hour! Not with being sleep-deprived and fighting me! And even if he did by sprinting the whole way, he couldn't have also had the stamina to transform into Chojuro and carry Hiramekarei around while keeping the jutsu up! He'd be too tired to run anymore, and even a bamboo sword is too heavy for Gekido to lift, let alone a behemoth like Hiramekarei!"

"I hate to admit it, but there's a way around all those problems." said Jugo. "Tenten's missing Soldier Pill. I couldn't find it… because Gekido might have eaten it last night. It would have kept him in peak physical condition the whole time. Then he could have work on the forgery through the night, sprint all the way to the house and back to obtain it, then pick Hiramekarei up using all the strength he could muster… and keep it on his back during his entire impersonation of Chojuro. He wouldn't get tired through any of it if he ate a Soldier Pill."

Suigetsu began to cry. "I can't believe you guys! All of that is circumstantial! There's no proof Gekido ate the Soldier Pill, no proof he went back to get the forgery, and no proof he impersonated Chojuro! What happened to the real Chojuro, huh?! And what about the other half of the Kiba?! What happened to them?! And what about Tia?! She's unaccounted for in this whole mess too, and she knows where Gekido lives! And unlike Gekido, Tia's strong enough to accomplish everything you're accusing Gekido of without having to rely on a Soldier Pill!"

"So they've shaken you up pretty badly too, huh."

Everyone's attention was caught by this new voice – again a woman's - interjecting. Suigetsu, Tenten, and Jugo turned farther into the waiting room to find Tia crossing her arms with disappointment.

"Bad enough to make you accuse a Good Samaritan like me…"

Tenten gasped. "Tia?!"

"There's no time! Out of the way!"

Tia sprinted past Tenten, Jugo, and finally Suigetsu and entered the arena in a panic.

"Lady Tia!" the audience cheered with glee as she made her last-minute appearance.

"Mei! Give me my prize! Nuibari!" Tia demanded.

No 'Lady', Tia? This must be serious… the Mizukage thought as she silently motioned for the guard with Nuibari to lay her prize on the ground in front of her.

"Thank you!"

Tia ripped her prize box open as quickly as she could, pulled out Nuibari, and then promptly ran back to Suigetsu and the others.

Torasame raised an eyebrow, dumbfounded by Tia's haste. Is that girl really that afraid of me? He thought.

"What's wrong?!" Tenten asked Tia, distraught.

Tia didn't bother to stop as she answered, running past them again with Nuibari in tow:

"Follow me to the infirmary if you want to know! Chojuro's life is in danger!"

Without another word, Suigetsu, Jugo, and Tenten unanimously decided to follow her.

[X-X-X]

"What have you been doing since you left to tell the Mizukage about Yuri?" Jugo asked Tia during their rush for the infirmary.

"I decided to walk back to the infirmary to see Yuri one more time before heading to the waiting room for the Grand Finals. Along the way I heard someone banging on the storage room door from the inside. I opened it to find Chojuro sitting in the room with no Hiramekarei and a blade poking out of his gut! Chojuro was stabbed in the back! I couldn't take the blade out without killing him at the time, so I healed what I could with the blade still in there and then walked him to the infirmary… I made sure to keep the blade steady by holding the hilt as we walked. When we made it there, you'd just left, Tenten. I sat Chojuro down on one of the beds, and then the medics took a closer look at his wounds. They said that we could remove the blade if we stitched the wound up immediately after, but they just ran out of stitches! Then I thought 'wait a minute: Nuibari can stitch Chojuro back up, and that's my prize!' So I told them that I'd get my prize and come right back, but as soon as I left the infirmary, the halls were packed with audience and security! I couldn't get anywhere until after they left for the stadium again!"

"Then you went there as quickly as you could and grabbed Nuibari, and now you're on your way back." Tenten surmised.

Tia nodded. "It's really strange. Whoever stabbed Chojuro was careful enough to avoid all his vitals… and kind enough to leave the blade in to keep him from bleeding out. It's almost as if they left Chojuro alive on purpose… Oh, we're here!"

At that moment Tia stopped and entered the infirmary. The others followed suit. Surely enough, Chojuro was sitting on a bed, being held still be two medics, with the tip of a blade poking out of his lower torso and Hiramekarei nowhere in sight.

"Chojuro!" said Suigetsu as he rushed to his side on first instinct. One of the medics brushed him aside and caused him to trip and fall to the ground. "What was that for?!" the Hozuki asked in panic.

"Chojuro-kun needs to be very still; any sudden moves and the blade risks cutting into a vital organ." One medic explained. "If you want to be of some help, get behind us and pull the blade out in precisely the way it came in. Then Lady Tia can sow the wound up with Nuibari and we can heal the rest from there."

"Uh… Yes mam…"

Suigetsu stood up, gave a complying nod, and let his half of the Kiba on the ground. Then he got behind Chojuro and placed his right hand steady on the blade's hilt - which protruded from Chojuro's lower back - while he placed his left hand on Chojuro's shoulder to help stabilize his body for the impending removal.

"Lady Tia, get into position!" the other medic commanded. Tia silently nodded, stepped forward, and readied Nuibari, wrapping its wire around the length of the blade an arm's length away from Chojuro's torso.

"You ready?" the medics asked in unison.

Suigetsu and Tia nodded in tandem. "Yeah."

"Then… start!"

At the medics' behest, Suigetsu swiftly and carefully pulled the blade out of Chojuro's body, taking a copious amount of blood with it. Before Chojuro could lose much more blood, however, Tia poked through Chojuro's wound with Nuibari without touching his innards and then jerked Nuibari in a twist. The length of thread on Nuibari's blade spun outward, hitting the wound in several places all along the length of the wound. Once Tia felt them all hit, she yanked Nuibari out of Chojuro's body, twisting the wound shut with Nuibari's thread on the blade's way out.

"AAAAHHHH!"

Chojuro screamed in terrible pain as the feeling of his wound closing inside and outside his body forced him to try lying on his back in reflex. Suigetsu leapt out of the way as the medics helped Chojuro's back to the bed and they began healing the rest of his wound.

While the medics were healing Chojuro, Suigetsu decided to wash the blood of the sword off in a nearby sink. After a minute or so of cleaning, he finally realized what blade he was holding in his hand, and looked to the floor next to Chojuro's bed on instinct.

This is… the Kiba… the other half of Kiba!

Suigetsu ran to the half he let down earlier after quickly turning off the tap. He picked up the other Kiba with his free hand and looked at them together.

Whoever stabbed Chojuro with this half of the Kiba… That's our impostor.

Suigetsu brought the swords down to his sides and attached them to his belt, one blade on each hip. After that, he walked back over to Chojuro, ready to at last put all his doubts to rest.

"You're free to speak now, Chojuro-kun." One of the medics said as the two finished healing him and he tried standing up, which he managed to accomplish surprisingly easily despite the wire lodged inside him keeping his wound closed.

"Thank you very much."

Chojuro bowed to the medics, then swiftly turned and bowed to Tia. "You especially, Tia-san… I might be dead by now if you didn't come to my rescue."

"No time for thanks, Chojuro." Suigetsu interjected from behind him. Chojuro turned around to meet him in the eyes. "Tell us who stabbed you, please…"

"I'm not sure why, but… it was Gekido-kun."

Suigetsu trembled in despair, barely able to keep himself solid as he heard Chojuro speak. No… So Tenten and Jugo were right?! What the hell was going through your head, Gekido?!

"When I was going to the storage room to insert the prizes in their containers, I saw that Gekido-kun had broken in, and he was trying to switch one of the Kiba swords with a fake." Chojuro explained. "I told him he was not allowed in there and drew Hiramekarei, but the next moment he vanished and the Kiba he was holding was plunged into my back… Then I saw Gekido-kun transform into me, place Hiramekarei at his back with all of his strength, put the remaining half of Kiba into the prize box with the fake, and finally lock me inside the storage room after putting the other prizes where they needed to go."

Jugo dropped his jaw. "Assault, forgery, theft, trespassing, and impersonation all within the span of an hour… He could end up in prison for years for what he did today…"

"Why did Gekido… do all these things?" Suigetsu meekly asked.

"That's what I want to know…" Chojuro replied.

"There's only one way to find out." said Tenten. "We have to track him down and ask him ourselves. The Hunter Ninja looking for him might kill him before we get our answers."

"If that's the case, then we have no time to waste." Suigetsu added. "Tia, you go back to the arena and tell the Mizukage to call off the search."

"Okay, but what do we do about the crowd? Once the search is over no one will have any reason to stay here… The village is going to be packed again, and those are no conditions to be conducting a search in!"

"Leave that to me."

Everyone spun around to find that Yuri was getting out of his bed, apparently recovered.

"Tia… we still haven't had our match. The crowd will stay for that. I need to grab my prize anyway."

"I guess either Torasame-san or Lady Mizukage could be your referee…" Chojuro suggested. "I'm okay with it. Any more objections?"

Everyone shook their heads in refusal.

Tia promptly opened the door out of the infirmary. "Alright then! We'll keep the crowd busy as long as we can! Find Gekido quickly!"

She then quickly left the infirmary with Yuri closer behind her.

"Jugo, start gathering Natural Energy," Suigetsu said. "Gekido was right beside you while you were in Sage Mode an hour ago, so you should have sensed his chakra signature. I know your sensing range isn't close to Karin's level, but you're the best we got right now."

Jugo silently nodded and then sat down completely still, beginning to gather Natural Energy.

In the next few minutes, Suigetsu would embark on his first mission as a reinstated Mist ninja in earnest.