Himeno felt the loving squeeze and pressed herself even more into her lover, affectionately sticking her tongue into his mouth, deepening the kiss. She knew he needed this and took it as her duty as Kiri kunoichi to help her Lord Third.

The Mizukage moaned into the soft lips that were tenderly pressing onto his mouth and couldn't help but even more softly squeeze the hips of the wonderful being who was straddling him. In his incredibly busy and stress-filled schedule, these moments of bliss and pleasure were the only thing keeping him sane. He could feel her breasts on his chest, making his head going blank as he became more and more lustful. His hand suddenly slowly dragged itself along Himeno's back, tenderly caressing it until his thumb finally reached the hem of her pants. Slowly, very carefully he started pulling it lower and lower... ​​

'knock, knock'

Both lovers froze in their tracks and Mizukage let out an incredibly annoyed sigh as he buried his head into Himeno's chest. "Wy nw." His muffled voice resounded from her chest, and Himeno giggled as him speaking into her breasts tickled her.

"Well, time to do your duties as the Mizukage." She smiled, inwardly delighted at how annoyed he became for not getting any. She was well aware he even removed every important thing from his desk beforehand. It was obvious what kind of play he wanted to do with her today. Well, tough luck.

She tried to pull away but he was still tightly embracing her waist, not letting go. "Maybe they will leave if we don't answer?" The Mizukage asked while raising his head and giving Himeno a puppy-eyed look.

"Ah~, that's so cute of you..." She sighed as her hand softly caressed his hair. It was only when he thought she accepted his 'plan' did she continue in a deadpan tone. "being so naive. I am your Jonin Commander and that means no slacking." She used her chakra to sting his arms which finally freed her. After she stood up and pulled her pants back up before also clothing the upper part of her body, she went towards the door to check what this was about. The Mizukage had a break right now so it must be important for them to interrupt it.

'knock, knock'

The Mizukage's head fell onto the table with an audible thump as he groaned in annoyance. 'Fuck! Being cockblocked might be even worse than having to deal with Rei!' He thought fervently but a sudden spike of Himeno's killing intent made him straighten himself and notice her glare.

"Tidy yourself up." She plainly spoke in an ordering tone that made him gulp but comply. Sadly, most of his time awake was spent deep in planning and giving out orders so he was pretty freaking stressed. Worse yet, Himeno's body was the only outlet he had, and the minx clearly knew she was the only thing keeping him sane. For now, he was utterly whipped.

It took Himeno a few moments but when she re-entered the room, she was carrying a scroll. "It's a report from Rei." She hummed and Mizukage couldn't help but feel sour at that.

'If there is one thing that's worse than dealing with Rei or being cockblocked, it must be being cockblocked by Rei.' He dryly thought as he accepted the scroll with a visible eye twitch and unrolled it.

His eyes looked through the report, reading it once... twice... thrice as his jaw was getting progressively lower with each readthrough. He was blinking in astonishment at what he was reading and when he was done reading it for the sixth time, the scroll fell from his hands onto the table.

"So? How screwed are we?" Himeno asked in amusement, predicting something like this would happen.

"They won." The Mizukage stated in an emotionless and even tone.

"Oh~, isn't that great?" Himeno quipped sarcastically, fully aware of what this meant. Yet, her voice held the barest hint of amusement.

"They fucked up months of extensive planning." The Mizukage stated. He was now on the verge of crying and mental breakdown as months of his hard work just went down the drain.

Himeno just scoffed at that. "I told you to not send them as reinforcements. You! Didn't! Listen!" She spelled it out for him while poking his shoulder with her index finger as her expression was twisted in exasperation.

The Mizukage lifelessly turned his face to look at her with his shoulders sagged. "I have given them clear orders-" He started only to be interrupted.

"You mean these?" Himeno raised her eyebrow as she drew out a scroll from the stack of scrolls next to the desk. When the Mizukage saw it, he could only gape at what were his written orders to Rei and Konan. The ONLY copy. Himeno huffed and crossed her hands under her chest as she continued. "You told them they are reinforcements and then got into one of yours 'playful' arguments with Rei. In the end, the scroll with the secret orders was never given to them. Heck, you can't even blame this one on them not listening to you! This was your idiocy all along!"

Himeno knew this moment was coming the second she noticed that scroll in the morning a few days ago when she was tidying the office up. She didn't want to make a scene at that time but this was important as the Mizukage was clearly slipping whenever Rei was involved. She decided to be a bit heavy-handed when the fallout from this mishap came. She could always hope it would make the Mizukage more focused.

"Fuck." Was the only response Mizukage could give. The orders for Rei clearly stated he was NOT TO win. His mission was to save Ringo's life and Ringo's life alone. The people in the Kiri force who were sent to Nagori Isles were all 'undesirable' from a political viewpoint or were in some way related to traitors. It was simply a 'legal' purge while it would also be a good way to diminish Ringo's reputation. Ringo was a good tool for the village. Excellent assassin and tracker. But the Mizukage would rather be damned than let her have some political influence. She completed every S-rank assassination while being sick and on her deathbed. Now that she was healthy again, her accomplishments would just pile up and her pace was frankly frightening. He already had a candidate for the Mizukage hat but Ringo was a very good runner up in the eyes of the clans. That had to be prevented.

Himeno sat down in the guest seat opposite the Mizukage as she took the scroll into her hands and quickly swept the contents with her gaze. As she was about to finish, she could suddenly hear the pondering voice of her lover. "How did the scroll arrive?" An understanding flash appeared in her eyes for a bit before vanishing, leaving only a sad pity.

"It wouldn't work. A copy was sent to the council. This can't be swept under the rug." Himeno said while sighing as she heard the Mizukage cursing. "You gotta admit though, this was masterfully done." She hummed. "The council of clan heads will now most likely push for opening a Kumo front since we have a good and well-hidden outpost in a location incredibly close to the shores of the Land of Lightning that could be easily and discreetly accessed by our ships. Not to say about the morale boost due to the victory and how big of an achievement it was."

In the letter, Rei described that they discovered one of the smallest islands of Nagori Isles was actually an underwater mountain that had only the peak peeking out so they used it to create an underground hideout. It was really well-positioned, well-hidden, and too good of an opportunity for an invasion towards the Land of Lightning to pass up.

"Yes..." The Mizukage drawled, pulling out his pipe from the drawer. Himeno frowned but didn't stop him from starting to smoke. This time, she could bear with it. "This win will shift the entire war." The Mizukage exhaled a puff of smoke as he comfortably leaned into his chair as he continued in a fed-up voice. "Every plan for the invasion of the Land of Fire can be scrapped because of this."

"It's worse, actually. I was referring to how it would affect the village politics when I said 'masterfully'." Himeno started with a hint of respect. "The letter is written in a way that gives most achievements to Ringo. It was written as if it was her leadership that won two hundred versus seven hundred with only two casualties, getting injured in the process. We both know better as I would bet it was Rei who dealt with both A and Killer B while Konan finished off the enemy army but the report says nothing about that. It's vague enough with a good amount of facts that it can be misunderstood as Ringo's achievement. This will give a lot of ammunition to the people who want her as the Mizukage due to her excellent skill as an assassin."

Kirigakure was the village of assassins first and foremost so it was natural the clans wanted someone skilled in the art as the leader. Ringo fit the bill for them but the third Mizukage had a different opinion. The letter however really screwed up his plans both internally and externally. The Mizukage wanted someone with greater firepower though and Ringo was not on the list of his candidates. As the realization in just how much more than he predicted would this report affect, Himeno continued speaking with an unbothered tone.

"We can't forsake the two hundred ninjas who were sent to Nagori Isles to be purged either. It would create unrest among our shinobi populace since the event of this victory is too good to not be spread among our ninjas in order to boost morale. We really can't afford to have our ninja question if they are going to be sent on a suicide mission next. In small and unnoticeable doses, it is fine but right now… We will have to actually open the Kumo front or prepare for discontent. During the war, that could prove fatal." Himeno shook her head in exasperation at just how many angles the report covered. She highly doubted Rei did that deliberately.

This mission would be seen as the greatest victory of Kirigakure but for the Mizukage, this was the greatest defeat in his career yet. The problems this would cause for him were almost mind-boggling.

"Ah fuck it!" The Mizukage ruffled his hair. "I still have thirty minutes of break. We can talk about how screwed up we are later!" He grumbled.

Himeno could only sadly smile as she stood up and made her kimono fall onto the ground near her ankles. She didn't plan on doing this since they were interrupted but her lover now needed some serious cheering up.