The Mizukage: Six Reigns That Shaped Kirigakure

The Line of Six

The title of Mizukage designates the leader of Kirigakure, the hidden village of the Land of Water. Six shinobi have held it. The post goes to the strongest in the village, regardless of age, and tradition holds that it should fall to the best swordsman of Kirigakure. One notable feature: the Mizukage are the only Kage for whom no known blood tie connects the successive holders.

Byakuren founds the village after the Warring States era and works tirelessly to raise it to the rank of the Five Great Shinobi Nations. His governance nevertheless remains closed in on itself. At the very first Five Kage Summit, he distrusts the humility displayed by Hashirama Senju and suspects an ulterior motive behind it. He then clashes with the First Kazekage, who demands 30 % of the sums paid by the other nations to buy a tailed beast.

Gengetsu Hozuki succeeds him. A member of the Hozuki clan, he liquefies his body at will; the water that makes it up is actually mixed with oil. He summons a giant clam whose mist carries his mirages, and claims to be a Yin Release user. His enmity with Mu, the Second Tsuchikage, nearly tore the two villages apart: the two men kill each other in their final clash. Gengetsu already knew Onoki as a child, and readily bullied him.

The Third was never given a name. He accompanied Byakuren to the first summit as a bodyguard, then takes the head of the village on Gengetsu's death. Among the escorts present that day, he is the only one who did not become the Second of his own village. The first four reigns share the same line: secrecy, rigid domestic policy, limited outside contact.

Yagura and the Bloody Mist

Yagura Karatachi is the jinchuriki of Isobu, the Three-Tails. As a child, he went through the Ninja Academy graduation ritual, in which students had to kill each other to graduate. He learns to fully master the power of his tailed beast and becomes the third individual in history to achieve it. The strongest shinobi of Kirigakure, he is chosen as Fourth Mizukage.

A masked man introducing himself as Madara Uchiha then places him under genjutsu. Behind the mask stands Obito. Controlling the Mizukage amounts to controlling the entire village. Kisame Hoshigaki learns it from the manipulator's own mouth, just after being congratulated by Yagura for eliminating a traitor. The reign becomes synonymous with extortion of the weakest and zero tolerance toward the slightest dissent.

The nickname Village of the Bloody Mist comes first from the Ninja Academy trial, but the Fourth's reign anchors it for good. The defections multiply: several of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist leave Kirigakure, as does Utakata, jinchuriki of the Six-Tails. Zabuza Momochi mounts a coup and makes an attempt on the Mizukage's life; he fails, betrayed by one of his own. The Ninja Academy's murderous ritual is abandoned after Zabuza, who was not even a student there, slaughtered an entire class.

The downfall comes from an eye. The Byakugan of Ao manages to dispel Tobi's genjutsu, and the effect proves fatal to Yagura shortly afterward. He leaves behind a child, from whom Kagura Karatachi will later be born. Kabuto Yakushi reanimates him during the Fourth Great Ninja War, and Tobi makes him one of his Six Paths, equipped with a Sharingan and a Rinnegan.

Mei Terumi, the Rebuilding

Mei Terumi inherits a damaged village. At around nine years old, she herself went through the Ninja Academy's bloody trial and grew up in the dark years of the Bloody Mist. Having become Fifth Mizukage, she reforms domestic policy and sets about undoing the legacy left by her predecessor.

Her power rests on two kekkei genkai. The first, Lava Release, hurls an acidic mud that melts almost everything in its path and gives off a vapor that serves as a smokescreen. The second, Boil Release, produces a corrosive mist whose acidity she adjusts at will; this mist pierces the rib cage of Sasuke Uchiha's Susanoo. She also wields Water, Fire, Earth and Lightning Release.

The real turning point is diplomatic. She attends the Kage Summit to restore relations with the other villages and to deny the rumor that the Akatsuki was born in Kirigakure. Convinced that Yagura had been manipulated, she stands ready to face Danzo Shimura, bearer of a Sharingan capable of a comparable genjutsu. Kirigakure then joins the Allied Shinobi Forces, and the war, once won, clears the village's image.

She keeps a sense of honor in battle. When a broken wall threatens to let her acid mist escape toward the other Kage, she alters its acidity so as not to hurt them. Two years after the war, her mastery of Water Release protects Kirigakure from the meteors torn loose from the moon. Then she passes on the hat.

Chojuro and the New Generation

Chojuro belongs to the last generation of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. He carries Hiramekarei, a double-handled sword that releases the chakra stored inside it to take the shape of an oversized hammer or a giant blade. Shy and unsure of himself, he first serves as Mei's bodyguard at the Kage Summit.

The war hardens him. He cuts down Black Zetsu without hesitating and declares that he will hold the position at the risk of his life; Mei herself notes the change. Having become Sixth Mizukage, he governs in a patient and methodical way, and is regarded as the best swordsman of the five Kage.

Fifteen years after the war, with the Fifth's support, Kirigakure has become a modern and prosperous city, ahead of Konoha, and a recognized tourist destination. The six blades lost during the defections are recovered, and the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist reformed.

Not everyone in the village goes along with it. A minority sees in this peace an insult to ninja pride and lays claim to the old order. Chojuro then faces a group of usurpers armed with several legendary blades. Kagura Karatachi, Yagura's grandson, becomes his aide and inherits Hiramekarei, but refuses the succession to the post of Mizukage.

Summary Table

FAQ

• How many Mizukage has Kirigakure had?
  Six. Byakuren, Gengetsu Hozuki, a Third who remained unnamed, Yagura Karatachi, Mei Terumi and Chojuro. The post traditionally goes to the strongest shinobi in the village, with no age requirement.
• Who was really controlling Yagura?
  Obito Uchiha, behind the mask of Tobi and passing himself off as Madara. Kisame Hoshigaki learns it directly from the manipulator. Ao's Byakugan eventually dispels the genjutsu, which proves fatal to the Fourth.
• Why does the Third Mizukage have no name?
  He was never named. We know that he escorted Byakuren to the first Five Kage Summit, that he took the head of the village on Gengetsu's death, and that he had aged considerably by the time of his own death.
• What are Mei Terumi's kekkei genkai?
  Two: Lava Release, which spits out an acidic mud, and Boil Release, which produces a corrosive mist whose acidity she sets. She also masters Water, Fire, Earth and Lightning Release.
• How did Chojuro become Mizukage?
  Mei Terumi stepped down and passed the title to him after the Fourth Great Ninja War. A former bodyguard of the Fifth and a member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, he continues the village's modernization in the Boruto era.

In summary

Six holders, two breaks. Yagura's, endured more than chosen, made Kirigakure a village its own ninja fled. Mei Terumi's, entirely deliberate, reopened the doors and made the village respectable again. Chojuro inherits both at once: the prosperity handed down by the Fifth, and the resentments left by the Fourth.