Tsunade made her way down the long underground passage. She came to "Kagenami" this time because Haseo had previously asked her to prepare some medicine, which was now ready. The potion for disguising hair color wasn't particularly complicated... It was just that she put in enough effort, so naturally the results came quickly.
Third Hokage.
After passing through a somewhat steep and narrow corridor, Tsunade entered into a much broader underground space, where the suffocating feeling from earlier instantly disappeared. Yet before she could notice anything else about this place, under the dim lighting, some large characters carved into one of the walls immediately caught her eye.
"Embrace shadow or die in darkness. What I have done cannot be undone."
"What is darker than twilight, what redder than blood. Facing the descent within the flow of time, by the great name of shadow, I hereby swear to darkness—gather your strength and mine to grant equal destruction upon all foolish things blocking our path."
"Homura Funa is yours, but Saito Asuka will only ever be mine."
"If I do not carry a sword, I cannot protect you; yet if I always hold a sword, I cannot hold you tightly."
"Anbu is nothing but a lie. We are the true ninja."
The writing was large and somewhat crude, with a few unsettlingly odd phrases mixed in. This probably was what Haseo referred to as "corporate culture"... Tsunade couldn't help frowning slightly. What exactly did these mean?
Before she could investigate further, a ninja swiftly approached her while dashing across pillars within the chamber. By then, the detection barrier had already gone off. Thus, the moment Tsunade entered the passage, her presence had been detected.
In other words, any intruder would be noticed immediately.
The person who arrived was Sakumo Hatake. From afar, he recognized Tsunade's identity, so naturally, he showed no aggressive posture.
"Tsunade-sama."
Sakumo Hatake reached her side and greeted her calmly.
"Hatake."
Because of Haseo, Tsunade had met Sakumo Hatake on several occasions, though they weren't particularly familiar with each other. However, given Tsunade's special status, she rarely beat around the bush when speaking to ninja.
"Who wrote those lines on the wall? The handwriting is a bit ugly, and it seems to target Anbu. Isn't this... inappropriate?"
Fortunately, most of Konoha's underground spaces were disconnected from each other. Otherwise, if Anbu saw these inscriptions, they'd likely suspect this newborn organization intended to replace them entirely.
Sakumo was originally a pretty cool young man, but after just one sentence from Tsunade, his face suddenly turned red. Stammering awkwardly, he couldn't produce a proper answer for quite a while.
The handwriting was naturally his own, and its poor quality was only to be expected. Someone with no experience writing big kanji wasn't going to produce anything impressive on their first try... Besides, he was only responsible for the writing—the script itself had clearly been provided by someone else.
Hatake had originally intended to just go through the motions while writing, so of course he blushed when Tsunade directly pointed it out.
Tsunade's bright brown eyes remained fixed on Sakumo Hatake, making him not only shy but somewhat nervous as well... In truth, it was perfectly normal for a young ninja like Hatake to feel uneasy around her.
Born into nobility, possessing extraordinary beauty, widely admired, intelligent, and talented—in terms of ability, she was unquestionably impressive. Recently, there were even rumors about breakthroughs in her medical techniques. Because of all this, Tsunade occupied a unique position within Konoha.
Even if ninja his age weren't knowledgeable about many things, they still understood certain feelings instinctively.
Moreover, Tsunade wasn't someone who attacked everyone she met—she wasn't that violent. The people who got beaten up most often were really just Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Lately, it seemed like only Jiraiya remained on that list. Also, an important detail was that her nickname "Lump of Earth" hadn't spread far yet—it was only known among a small circle. To everyone else, she was still seen as a beautiful lady. Compared to her, most people felt quite inferior standing before the princess of Konoha.
If even childish crushes could count as real infatuations, then the number of people secretly admiring Tsunade would stretch far enough to wrap around all of Konoha.
Only Haseo consistently treated her as an expendable tool. Honestly, it was more than a little infuriating.
Noticing that Sakumo Hatake seemed to have something he couldn't quite explain, Tsunade decided not to press further. Truthfully, when she thought about it, she knew well enough that many things were simply beyond anyone else's reach—only Haseo could pull them off.
"May I proceed further down? This place does seem quite confidential," she asked next, shifting the focus away from Sakumo.
Hatake exhaled in relief, then replied, "It should be fine right now, Tsunade-sama. There's nothing significant happening downstairs at the moment anyway… Haseo said you could come."
Being both a member of the Senju and Uzumaki clans, along with Haseo's endorsement, ensured that Tsunade definitely wouldn't encounter any obstacles entering this space. Not just now, but even later, aside from matters concerning the Tailed Beasts, there wasn't much here worth hiding from her.
Then, leading the way ahead, Hatake guided Tsunade downward until soon they reached Haseo's location at the lower level.
At this point, Haseo was discussing several matters with those present.
For example, he was planning to custom-make a batch of ninja tools—distinct enough from standard village items without being overly unique or ostentatious.
He also wanted them to unify their appearance for future group missions under the banner of Kagenami. However, this posed considerable design challenges. A black robe adorned with red clouds? Impossible—like a parody of rogue ninjas, not serious ones.
Even Haseo himself had never actually studied fashion design.
At this time, noticing Tsunade had arrived, he temporarily put aside what he was working on, walked forward to greet her, and asked, "Tsunade, why did you come here?"
"Something's not right here," Tsunade thought to herself. "Doesn't he want me coming here? If that's the case, I'll just come anyway."
"The medicine you wanted me to test is done — and it worked great too. I even tested it on Jiraiya already, so I brought them over for you." Tsunade, however, decided to voice her perfectly good reason for showing up here.
Yeah, she definitely needed an excuse like this.
"That fast? Then thanks a lot. I should've come pick them up myself."
Haseo accepted the items from Tsunade but didn't test them in front of her. That kind of distrustful move could seriously damage their relationship.
"It's fine," Tsunade brushed off the thanks, then continued, "There's also another important thing. The Third Hokage is planning his wedding ceremony next month, and he asked me to let you know ahead of time."
This news left everyone momentarily stunned — no, not like a disaster or anything... It's just that the announcement came completely out of nowhere.
While the rest of us bachelors are busting our butts for the village, the Hokage just takes off and gets married? How is that not betrayal?
"He had to announce something like this at this exact moment?" Haseo couldn't help but ask.
"What's wrong with the timing? Isn't it already May?"
Oh right, it's May already — well that explains it then.
Why did everything suddenly feel so jumbled to Haseo? But then he remembered — the Third Hokage had mentioned before that soon would be the perfect time for "Kagenami" to show up...
So *that's* what he meant — next month.
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