Tsunade's eyes lit up, and she subconsciously swallowed.
"Renya-san, did you buy this for me?"
"Of course. Go ahead and eat." Renya placed the wrapped bag on the table.
Tsunade eagerly tore open the package, pulled out two skewers of dango, and handed one to Renya.
"Thank you, Renya-san! Here, have one!"
Renya didn't refuse this time and accepted the dango, beginning to eat.
"Meow meow meow~"
Tanihana trotted over to Tsunade's feet, staring up at her with a face full of longing for the tri-colored dango.
"Go away." Tsunade waved her hand in disgust, showing no intention of sharing. "You need to lose weight."
Grandma never let her eat sweets, and now that Renya-san had brought her some dango, she wasn't about to give any to that gluttonous cat.
There were only five skewers total—after giving one to Renya, she only had four left.
Tsunade didn't even have enough for herself. How could she possibly give any to a cat?
"Meow meow meow~" When Tanihana saw Tsunade wouldn't share, she had no choice but to trot over to Renya's feet and rub her face against his pants leg, acting cute and begging for attention.
"You're still the same gluttonous ugly cat as ever..." Renya shook his head helplessly and placed his skewer of dango on the ground.
Watching Tanihana munch on the dango with a look of pure satisfaction, Renya couldn't help but smile.
After all, this ugly cat had been adopted by Hashirama-san.
...
"Renya's here." Uzumaki Mito walked out of the house, a gentle smile on her face.
"Grandma, you're awake. Want some dango?" Tsunade held out the half-eaten tri-colored skewer in her hand to her grandma.
Uzumaki Mito had the habit of taking afternoon naps. She'd been sleeping inside the house, but came out when she heard movement in the courtyard.
She looked at the dango Tsunade offered and smiled, shaking her head.
"Grandma doesn't want any. You go ahead and eat, Tsunade."
"Mito-san, long time no see," Renya greeted.
Ever since Senju Hashirama left, and with Renya always carrying out missions on the border, the two hadn't seen each other in quite some time.
Uzumaki Mito smiled and nodded in response.
"Indeed, it's been a while. Have your missions gone smoothly lately?"
After Hashirama's death, Mito had grown quiet and withdrawn, only showing some warmth when around familiar people.
She stopped going out entirely and stayed within the Senju compound.
Senju Tobirama had tried many times to convince his sister-in-law to go outside, but she always gently refused.
He understood how hard Hashirama's death had hit her, so he didn't press the matter.
"Mito-san, the missions went smoothly. I just returned and plan to rest for a few days," Renya said.
"Good. Get some proper rest. The Shinobi World hasn't been very peaceful lately." A trace of worry appeared on Uzumaki Mito's face. "Back when Hashirama left, I knew war would come."
The peace that Hashirama spent half his life building had collapsed rapidly after his death.
If Hashirama knew, he would be heartbroken.
Seeing Mito's sorrowful expression, Renya sighed inwardly.
He couldn't exactly tell Mito-san that Hashirama-san wasn't actually dead and had just gone off in search of Uchiha Madara, could he?
He had promised Hashirama to keep it a secret and could only bury it deep within.
But he believed that Senju Hashirama would one day return to the village!
There's no way Hashirama would just stand by and watch Konoha be surrounded and invaded by the other nations.
When it came down to a choice between finding Madara and protecting the village, he would undoubtedly choose the latter.
To Hashirama, the village meant more than anything else.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have killed Madara to protect it.
"Renya, you must take care of yourself on the battlefield," Mito urged him.
Hashirama was already gone. She didn't want to see Renya, who she'd watched grow up, die in the cruel war.
Her concern warmed Renya's heart.
"I'll take care of myself... Mito-san."
Uzumaki Mito nodded and said nothing more, simply sitting in the courtyard watching Tsunade play with Tanihana.
After staying a while, Renya took his leave.
...
After leaving Hashirama's estate, he didn't go home immediately but instead headed to the laboratory.
War was on the verge of breaking out, and he needed to develop even stronger poisons.
Inside the lab, Renya stood before the workbench, where all sorts of jars and bottles were neatly arranged, filled with strange-colored liquids.
Some were still bubbling, emitting a "glug glug" sound.
Right now, he was carefully holding a dropper, drawing out a green sticky substance from one of the tubes.
This sticky fluid was the result of months of effort—essences from poisonous plants and insects collected from all over the Shinobi World, blended together.
He slowly dripped the green liquid into the crucible in front of him, which already contained a boiling purple solution.
The moment the two liquids met, a plume of pungent smoke rose.
Renya immediately put on a gas mask and watched as the green and purple liquids slowly fused, eventually turning into a pale bluish liquid.
War was imminent. Ninja forces from various nations were gathering at the borders, ready to launch an attack on the Land of Fire at any moment.
Renya knew that ordinary poisons were too inefficient and wouldn't be enough to turn the tide of war.
Powerful shinobi could use their chakra and unique jutsu to easily resist most standard poisons.
By refining chakra and forming a chakra barrier over their bodies, they could lessen or even block the effects of toxins.
Unless you managed to stab them and open a wound, airborne poisons were practically useless.
Renya was no longer satisfied with single-target toxins...
He had to develop a stronger, deadlier poison!
Something that could ignore chakra defenses and directly destroy the cells of a shinobi's body—on a large scale.
But crafting such a poison was no easy task. It would take a lot of time.
And right now, time was the one thing Renya didn't have...
"I remember Hanzo of the Salamander implanted a salamander's poison sac into his body. He could exhale a paralyzing gas just by breathing."
With that in mind, Renya decided to catch a few salamanders to study.
Of course, he wasn't crazy enough to experiment on himself.
Only someone like Hanzo would go so far as to implant a poison sac inside his own body.
...
25 kilometers northeast of the Land of Fire's border, inside a military camp.
The First Raikage, A, turned to his guard and said:
"Inform the Kage of each village... The testing phase is over. It's time to launch the war on Konoha."
He'd grown bored after a month of testing the waters.
He couldn't understand what the other villages were afraid of.
Without Senju Hashirama or Uchiha Madara, Konoha was just a slightly stronger village, nothing more.
He was confident that under the united assault of the Four Nations, Konohagakure wouldn't last long.
And when that happened, the rich resources of the Land of Fire would belong to their Land of Lightning.
Thinking of that, the First Raikage A clenched his fists with excitement, lightning sparking across his body.
"Victory will definitely belong to Kumogakure!"
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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