Traveling by water required slowing the pace somewhat. A few days later, he entered the Land of Water aboard a concealed vessel.
In wartime, although the Hidden Mist Village maintained relatively strict border defenses, the actual intensity of those defenses was not particularly high.
Compared to land-based nations, the Land of Water's natural geographical advantage meant the Hidden Mist Village did not need to devote excessive energy to military defense at its borders.
The surrounding sea served as a natural barrier that most would-be infiltrators could not easily overcome.
After entering, he discovered that the environment of this country was quite different from the Land of Rain. The Land of Rain had year-round rainfall and perpetually gloomy skies.
The Land of Water, although an island nation, had many towering mountain ranges across its mainland, though they did not occupy a large overall area.
Perhaps because the country was surrounded by sea on all sides, the air was notably humid and thick fog arose frequently across the landscape.
Having successfully broken through the defensive line and patrol network, he immediately set course for the coldest region within the Land of Water's borders upon entering.
The village where Karin's mother lived was covered in snow year-round, which would make locating it considerably easier.
However, the further he infiltrated into the Land of Water's mainland, the more he noticed that the lives of the lowest-ranking citizens appeared extremely restricted.
The Land of Water had one of the smallest territorial areas among the five great nations, and its unique location and circumstances had created a nation with distinct ecological and social differences from the other four great nations, including its village policies and management approaches.
Some of the native clans within the Land of Water had never been incorporated into the Hidden Mist Village and were scattered throughout the country's borders. Some of these clan settlements were clearly different from ordinary civilian populations, possessing a degree of combat capability that set them apart.
Logically, in the early days of the Hidden Mist Village's establishment, recruiting these forces to strengthen the nation's military capabilities would have been the sensible approach.
But now the Hidden Mist Village treated these clans somewhat like free-roaming entities, without unified management or formal integration.
The further he traveled through the Land of Water, the more he noticed concealed groups lurking around these clan headquarters conducting quiet surveillance.
This particular management style undoubtedly complicated the power structure of the hidden village considerably.
Two points became especially apparent. First, there were obstacles that had existed from the Hidden Mist Village's earliest days that prevented the full centralization of strategic power.
Second, these clans were inherently difficult to manage, organized around family interests and loyalties rather than loyalty to the village, making them fundamentally less reliable as a military asset.
Perhaps this had been the custom in this region since the Warring States period. It could be considered simply part of the local culture.
But this kind of dispersed village-style power structure would inevitably generate friction and conflict between the hidden village and the independent clans for countless reasons, further contributing to domestic instability.
Although the Hidden Mist Village relied on its powerful military force to suppress and manage these conflicts, preventing the situation from deteriorating to the level of complete civil war, the underlying tensions were impossible to fully resolve.
To put it plainly, it was a matter of foundational structure and the regulations built upon it. It was not that successive generations of Hidden Mist Village leadership lacked ability. It was simply that when in a particular environment, one must work within its realities.
The origins and circumstances of this land had shaped its people into a headstrong and fiercely independent type, and maintaining balance required accommodating rather than eliminating that nature.
Forcibly recruiting these clans into the village structure would, on the contrary, create greater instability.
Observing the Land of Water's internal affairs further revealed additional layers of complexity. The Land of Water was surrounded by numerous island nations and smaller islets. Because of the considerable distances involved, the Hidden Mist Village could not easily exercise forcible control over the local forces on these islands.
The unique maritime environment and the waterway trade had also given rise to numerous pirate forces throughout the region, among them groups that had been at odds with the Hidden Mist Village for years, with the most notorious being the Shipwright clans.
In short, although the Land of Water was one of the five great nations, it did not appear particularly calm or stable beneath the surface.
Every nation had its own particular difficulties. If Konoha's fundamental illness was the long-standing tension between the Senju and Uchiha clans, a matter deeply tied to fate and the will of fire, then the Sand Village's root problem had been the unchanging thinking and resource consumption of its senior officials.
The Hidden Mist Village's root cause lay within this peculiar atmosphere it had cultivated.
There were many clans throughout the Land of Water, and regardless of whether they possessed bloodline limits or not, they were all relatively rebellious by nature.
Internal instability, combined with external threats from neighboring islands, meant that even during peacetime the Hidden Mist Village had to cope with constant pressure from multiple directions, further thickening the already heavy atmosphere throughout both the village and the country.
Furthermore, the ongoing conflict between clans and the village frequently escalated into open bloodshed. This also made ordinary villagers develop an intense hatred toward bloodline limit clans specifically.
Looking back, it became clear that Danzo and the Mizukage's actions in persecuting and eliminating bloodline clans had served multiple purposes simultaneously.
It addressed internal chaos and instability, allowed for absolute control over the Hidden Mist Village's power structure, and could even be framed as going with the natural flow of existing resentments within the country.
The Hidden Mist Village was fully aware of everything that was unfolding within its borders. But it had no clean way to control it, because these clans were fundamentally a part of the Land of Water itself, not external enemies to be simply eliminated.
To change the mindset and nature of an entire group of people was far more difficult than changing any single individual. Therefore, the only thing the Hidden Mist Village could realistically do was use power to maintain a superficial balance.
Thinking from his own perspective, if he were in the position of Mizukage, the most effective way to address the Land of Water's fundamental problem would be to take the younger generation of bloodline limit children, bring them into the village, and give them an entirely different upbringing and education, completely severing their connection to their clan relatives and the values instilled by those clans.
Furthermore, completely eliminate all individuals within a certain age range whose thinking and personalities were already fully formed and resistant to change.
Use blood and fire to burn away everything that existed, then fabricate a constructed history to fill the void left behind.
The hand would have to be firm and even more ruthless than what had actually been done.
But clearly, successive generations of Hidden Mist Village leadership had never taken that path. Not because they lacked the will, but because the difficulty was simply too great.
At minimum, from the perspective of the Land of Water's Daimyo, such an approach would never receive approval. It was not something the Hidden Mist Village could simply execute unilaterally regardless of how much they might have wanted to.
For such an approach to work, the Hidden Mist Village and the Daimyo's Mansion would have needed to cooperate fully and achieve a shared understanding.
After touring the Land of Water and processing everything he had observed, his summary of the country's overall situation could be expressed in a single sentence.
A bunch of incompetent fools.
A single island nation, yet the internal conflict within it was almost as intense as an active battlefield. He did not even know what the domestic situation had been like during the Second Mizukage's era.
But that was how it felt to him now based on what he was seeing.
And after Yagura Karatachi ascended to power, the dark age of the Blood Mist would officially begin, only worsening every existing problem.
However, eliminating large numbers of bloodline limit users had indeed indirectly changed the Hidden Mist Village's internal situation to some degree.
Although it could not eliminate the root cause, with proper village management applied consistently over time, the wounds could still slowly heal.
Looking at it from this angle, what Yagura had done, as brutal as it was, could paradoxically be considered a form of assistance to the Hidden Mist Village's long-term stability.
"It is not only the clans outside the village. I suspect the same dynamics exist within the village itself. Once the Third Mizukage steps down or is removed, there will almost certainly be many people eyeing the Mizukage position."
"No wonder there are so many missing ninja coming out of the Hidden Mist Village."
"So this is where the root of the problem lies."
The more he thought about it, the clearer his understanding became.
This trip had without question given him a considerably deeper and more accurate understanding of both the Land of Water and the Hidden Mist Village.