The Third Mizukage could only despair as the world slowed around him and despite his herculean attempts to move fast enough, he could only watch as the staff of the Third Hokage neared his lover's, Himeno's head without her even knowing as she faced the redhead Konoha ninja, panting and exhausted, too distracted by her own fight to watch her surroundings.

'No!' He mentally screamed with wide eyes, unable to do anything to save Himeno as the Third Hokage's staff impacted her head from the behind. Himeno's head caved in from the force, sending her body crashing to the ground, folding like a paper and the Third Mizukage couldn't help but freeze in his tracks, mentally repeating 'no' as he refused to believe what just happened. ​​

Himeno... the love of his life, was dead.

The Third Mizukage couldn't help but sucked the cold air that permeated the surroundings, balling his hands into fists so hard that blood started dropping onto the ground. He was still shaken from the sight of Himeno's collapsed and deformed body, offhandedly noting the redhead ninja was horrifiedly staring at the scene in a manner quite similar to him.

The world stilled as regret swelled in the Mizukage's heart and his gaze slowly turned to a furious glare full of deep-seated hatred boring into the grimly satisfied mug of the Third Hokage who spat a fireball onto Himeno's body, burning it to cinders, to add an insult to an injury.

The war between Konoha and Kiri was over. Both men knew it, no matter how much one of them wanted to admit it. The Hokage didn't use the momentary distraction of the Mizukage and in order to kill him. He just watched and waited, hoping the death of the woman the Mizukage clearly loved would be impactful enough for a full retreat but not enough to make a man who was a Kage, and knew what that entailed, to decide going out with one last bang in an act of revenge.

The Mizukage wanted nothing more than to tear the old shriveled monkey to pieces and stick the freaking bo staff up his ass but... he was slowly losing men. Konoha might have been outnumbered but they clearly brought only the best of their fighters to confront Kiri forces. This expedition was a failure and he knew it. If he continued, it would only endanger Kiri further and he couldn't have that.

Reluctantly, the Mizukage threw a kunai with a special seal tag attached towards the sky where it burst into a very bright red sphere, lingering amongst the cloud as it declared the order to retreat for the Kiri forces.

With one last tear-stricken glare, the Mizukage ran towards the shore, cursing and blaming himself for Himeno's death.

The battle of the Northern Shores ended.

...

While the armies of Konoha and Kiri clashed on the northern shores of the Land of Fire. Rei had other plans.

"It's creepy how empty the village is..." Mei mumbled as her eyes were tightly closed and her senses were dutifully monitoring the people in the Village Hidden in the Mist through a harmless mist-like dense cloud of white steam she created. Not unlike her boiling one, Mei was completely capable of sensing everyone inside of it.

"Well, most of the ninjas are either on the Kumo front as a distraction or a part of the invasion to the Land of Fire. That's why now is the best time to do this." Rei shrugged as his eyes flickered across a seal while he was in the process of altering it in such a way that it would not attack him and nobody would notice his intrusion.

Rei and Mei were currently in front of the most guarded building in the village. The Kiri ANBU headquarters, more specifically its treasury. Now that the village was almost empty, Rei finally decided to check the place out since there was almost no danger of being discovered as long as he knocked out the guards and used Mei to create a small disturbance with her steam. Not to mention Mei was an incredible sensor with it.

The ANBU guards that were supposed to guard the place were numbering twenty and all laid on the ground after Rei sneak-attacked them with his chakra strings, and zapped them unconscious with lighting chakra through them.

Rei was quite glad though. Normally there would be at least a hundred ANBU patrolling around the place and every few minutes, a new ANBU, one who was not part of the hundred, would walk around it, just in case. It was really the best-guarded place in the village as even the Kage didn't have such protection. To get inside without making the entire village alarmed was almost impossible during normal times but now that more than sixty percent of the ninja population was away... the hundred ANBU guardsmen were reduced to a mere twenty and instead of every few minutes, it took at least three hours for an ANBU not part of the guardsmen to walk by. It was the best opportunity for Rei to discreetly get inside.

"Aaaaand done." Rei smirked as the seal glowed a bit before subsiding to normalcy. He turned to Mei and nodded at her. "Wait here and warn me if anybody is getting close. It would be infinitely more comfortable if we are not caught trying to steal the most precious things Kirigakure owns." Seeing Mei nod, he entered the room containing the most precious things in the whole Land of Water.

Thirty minutes passed with Rei browsing through the things stored there, his face marred with an enormous frown as his eyes twitched.

"Trash, useless, bad, crap, unusab-, no, wait, that could work... but I have no interest in an explosive rubber ducky the size of a horse. Seriously, who made that thing!" Rei muttered as his lips morphed into a profound scowl. "Why the heck is most of these things so useless? ... Scrolls of S-ranked Jutsu? Scrolls with sealing knowledge? Summoning Scrolls? Poisonous deodorant? All of these I have no need for!" Rei was frustrated. Sure, the scrolls were stashed to his storage dimension but he didn't really need them. They were mostly for his future endeavor rather than for him or his girls. All in all, he wasn't really happy with what he found in the best treasury of Kirigakure.

Rei almost gave up the further he went in the room, not finding anything immediately useful when he suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked at an unassuming small brown jar that looked as normal as possible. It had no special odor. No special appearance. No special chakra signature. Safe to say, even a high-ranking ninja would find it to be just a normal jar.

Not a Seal Master though.

Rei's lips widened into a joyful smile as he finally found something worthwhile. Something that was a big part of the reason why he still stayed in the Kiri.

"For years, I was looking for you..." His eyes hungrily lingered on the jar with an excited glint. "And even though you probably won't wake up due to the seals on the jar. Nice to meet you... Saiken."

----

Author Note: Okay... I can honestly say I will not write about a battle that MC or his harem is not a part of. I did so for the last five chapters and while a bit enjoyable, it was also quite boring for me as the writer...