Arc 2. Kiri

The Bloody Mist
Several years beyond the events of Kirigakure in the first generation a new, second, generation has come into the forefront of the village hidden in the mist, led by a criminal known as Kihara of the Red Mist. After her escape from the annals of the Mist prison Kihara was able to extract a large amount of famous criminals held in the cells to aide her in her quest to take over the village. Throwing Kirigakure into a bloody civil war, Kihara proved herself capable of killing the previous Mizukage via assassination, while also taking on the majority of the loyal jonin and ANBU that had not sided with her originally. These conflicts culminated in her conquest of Kirigakure during her troupe's march on the Mizukage palace, the battle of which resulted in the slaughter of the village's council and remaining jonin.

For a short period of time the village remained in total anarchy until a rigged election was held, in which Kihara won by a landslide margin - as no one else had contested her. A criminal Mizukage, Kihara's first effort was reshaping the village by taking the eldest child of each family and putting them into the mist's most rigorous academy training, known after the first graduation as the "bloody mist" ceremony, as several students slaughtered and massacred the rest in order to prove their worth to the headmaster, Jintarou. During this time the village remained relatively isolated, though the headmaster often times took students to the border of Konohagakure in order to train them with even more dangerous practices involving antagonizing the Leaf village.

A Leader, Deranged
The night of the Valentine's Day massacre, on which the bloody mist ceremony was held, three students and the Mizukage quietly slipped from the village with the promise to the three of their journey leading to a mission involving spies from Sunagakure. What occured in reality was Kihara's plot to eradicate much of the Kaguya, whom had grown restless due to their disadvantageous position across the river away from Kirigakure's main vesitges. To silence them, the mission was simple; Kihara informed her small group (which comprised of a young Hoshigaki, a student named Suzuya, and her innocent daughter Aphrodite, the latter of the three being raised by Kihara purely for some twisted intentions) that the villagers around the small town were spies from Sunagakure and they needed to get lists of all the names of families with children under the age of twelve in them, and bring a list of those names to her at nightfall.

Once this act had been accomplished, with no small part due to Suzuya's intelligence, they had met with Kihara on the bridge connecting the two sides of the river that divided the Kaguya settlement with the Mist, and it was then that she gave them the real purpose of the mission: eradicate every living being over the age of twelve.