Not long after Uchiha Sogetsu left, another figure stepped into the Hokage's office.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
A wooden cane struck the floor with each step, the dull sound echoing in the room.
The Third Hokage didn't even look up. His pen moved steadily across yet another document in the towering stack on his desk. From his tone, it was obvious he already knew who had arrived—and that he was not in the mood.
"Danzo. What are you doing here? If it's about the Uchiha, I've already given you my answer."
"You're too careless, Hiruzen."
The visitor was, of course, Shimura Danzo. His expression was as cold and gloomy as ever, his hoarse voice carrying a deep, rasping edge.
"What happened in the Uchiha compound last night," he said, "is not something that can be brushed off so easily."
The pen paused.
Hiruzen finally raised his head, his gaze flat and distant. "So?"
"Hand that Uchiha brat over to me."
Danzo's face went hard as stone. "I guarantee I'll pry everything out of his mouth."
"No."
Hiruzen's reply was a sharp, angry snort. "What you're proposing is tantamount to provoking civil strife in the village. I won't allow it, Danzo."
"You're being naïve, Hiruzen!"
Danzo slammed his cane down, his temper finally slipping. "The Uchiha have always been a ticking time bomb. Our teacher saw it clearly, and so do I. It's your weakness that's let them grow more and more arrogant. That brat's genjutsu is hiding something—we need to know what."
"I'll say this one last time, Danzo."
The fragile calm in the room cracked. Hiruzen didn't bother pretending at "old friendship" anymore.
"You will not meddle in this matter. I have my own plans for Uchiha Sogetsu."
Danzo ground his teeth, but in the end there was nothing he could do. He spat his words like venom.
"You'll regret this, Hiruzen."
"I'm the Hokage, Danzo."
Hiruzen's voice was ice.
"I'm the one who decides what the village will and will not do."
"...Tch. Fine."
Danzo had no comeback. He swallowed the humiliation, turned on his heel, and left, the slam of the door cutting the air cleanly in two.
—
Flowers bloom on different branches; each has its own story.
At Konoha's front gate, Uchiha Sogetsu looked around in all directions.
Nothing.
No "assistant." No backup. No one even vaguely suspicious loitering around like a ninja trying to look casual.
"…Did he forget?" Sogetsu scratched his head. It didn't seem likely. Who in Konoha dared ignore a direct order from the Hokage?
He was still wondering that when a very different kind of scenery caught his eye—and then his whole world went soft and suffocating.
"Yo, brat!"
A hand suddenly clamped down on his head and shoved him forward, straight into a warm, soft, dangerously smothering "sea."
Soft. Springy. Faintly fragrant. Mature curves and an overwhelming sense of danger.
And also—
I'm going to suffocate.
Sogetsu thrashed and finally tore himself free, sucking in lungfuls of much-needed air.
"Close one. I almost died from this."
"Hahahaha, brat, you're too cute."
The voice that drifted down was lazy and feminine, with a teasing lilt Sogetsu knew all too well.
"Lady Tsunade, I must ask you to be mindful of your public image," he said flatly, taking half a step back to stay out of the splash zone. "Please don't do that again. And you shouldn't be calling me by name, either. As an ANBU, I'm supposed to go by my callsign."
ANBU identities were only "secret" to ordinary shinobi.
For someone like one of the Legendary Sannin, directly under the Hokage, knowing his code-name and face was hardly strange.
"My bad, my bad. Habit."
Tsunade slapped a hand over her very obvious "habit," which set off another dangerous wave.
"I'll remember next time."
For a woman, she was almost absurdly straightforward. Sogetsu couldn't help thinking she really did deserve the "doujin queen" reputation from his past life.
He changed the subject. "Lady Tsunade, shouldn't you be at Konoha Hospital at this hour? What brings you all the way out here?"
"Mmm… why don't you guess?"
Tsunade's eyes sparkled. She lifted a slender, jade-white finger and tapped it against her red lips, tilting her head with a playful smile.
Even as a "spectator," Sogetsu had to admit it: a beautiful, voluptuous woman overflowing with mature charm doing something like that was murderously seductive.
Hormone levels: critical.
Calm.
He swung his spiritual scalpel and cut those rising thoughts dead.
"Lady Tsunade. I'm on a mission."
"Tch. You're no fun at all, brat."
Tsunade rolled her eyes dramatically. "Fine, no more teasing. The old man sent me. That clear enough?"
"…"
Sogetsu had never been so tempted to question his Hokage's sanity.
Had Hiruzen's brain been smashed in by the Monkey King's staff at some point? Of all people, he'd picked Tsunade to accompany him?
Was this really assistance… or was he being saddled with childcare duty?
Her gambling addiction was legendary. Her hemophobia was equally famous. Compared to Jiraiya, she was "unreliable" in a completely different direction, but still absolutely in the same weight class.
"Got a problem with that?"
She caught his silence and immediately bristled. Her fist dropped lightly onto the top of his head.
"I'm one of the Sannin, you know. Do you have any idea what that means? I, the great Tsunade-hime, am personally helping with your mission. You should feel honored, brat!"
She'd controlled her strength, so the punch only stung a little. Sogetsu's mouth twitched.
"Being able to work with you truly is my great honor, Lady Tsunade."
"Mmhm, that's more like it."
Arms folded, Tsunade nodded, apparently missing the extra weight he'd put on the word "great."
Sogetsu said nothing. His mood, however, sank a notch lower.
If it were anyone else, he could think of ways to ditch them on the road. But Tsunade? If they got separated and she ran into enemy shinobi, her blood phobia alone could turn her into a sitting duck.
Not only did he have to complete an S-rank mission, he also had to babysit a Legendary Sannin with a triggered debuff.
Difficulty: creeping into SS-rank territory.
"You don't really think the old man asked you to look after me, do you?"
Once she was done venting, Tsunade's expression turned serious. She'd clearly guessed what he was thinking.
"The dangerous targets in that scroll…" She tapped the inside pocket of his vest. "Most of them were sealed by the Uchiha and the Senju."
She paused for a beat, watching his expression, and then added, "And there's something else the old man didn't tell you."
She waited until a sliver of genuine curiosity showed in his eyes, then continued.
"A small number of those seals…" She lowered her voice. "Contain Uchiha and Senju themselves."
"Sealed Uchiha and Senju…?"
That one hit him hard.
So the scroll had that kind of secret tucked inside it.
"Now you get it, right? Uchiha brat."
Tsunade chuckled softly, reached out, and flicked him on the forehead.
"And there's something else. Thanks to your treatments, my 'little problem' has gotten much better."
"Oh?"
That was a pleasant surprise. Sogetsu's brows rose.
"So you don't need to worry about me."
Tsunade lifted her chin, her old pride shining through again. She thumped her chest.
"On this mission, big sis has got your back."
—
Deep within an unknown cavern, an old man clung to life.
Uchiha Madara, once a titan who could fight the entire shinobi world alone, now lay limply in a stone chair. Tubes and wires ran from strange machines into his back. His breathing was so faint it was almost nonexistent. His body was all sharp bones and paper-thin skin.
Slowly, he opened his eyes. A flash of fatigue flickered behind the Eternal Mangekyō.
"Black Zetsu. You've returned."
A pitch-black figure oozed into the cave from outside.
Well. Half a figure.
What was left of Black Zetsu dragged itself in, only a stump of a body remaining. His voice quavered, drenched in grievance.
"Lord Madara… it's me. I'm back…"
Madara's eye twitched.
He stared for a long time in silence before finally asking, "What happened to you?"
He'd only sent Black Zetsu to Konoha to find a successor. It was a simple errand. No combat required. How had the idiot managed to come back looking like this?
"Lord Madara, it was like this…"
Black Zetsu launched into a tearful recounting of his entire "adventure," thoughtfully adding a generous amount of embellishment on the way.
"…"
By the time he finished, even battle-hardened, seen-it-all Uchiha Madara was at a rare loss for words.
To be able to run into that many disasters, all in one night… Black Zetsu really was something else.
A genius of misfortune, perhaps.
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