Meanwhile, outside Konoha—
Nukai stared in Konoha's direction, teeth grinding. "Damn it! The intel was completely wrong! Why the hell is Tsunade in Konoha?!"
A ninja beside him asked in a low voice, "Captain, what do we do now? Just go back like this?"
Nukai was silent for a moment, then said, "We can only return first and report everything here to the Raikage-sama as it is. As for what we do next… that's up to the Raikage."
Another ninja said anxiously, "But if we go back empty-handed like this, the Raikage will definitely—"
"What else can we do?!" Nukai punched a fist into a tree trunk.
"Then… what if we wait until night and sneak back into Konoha and try again?"
"It won't work," Nukai shook his head. "I've heard Kumogakure once tried to infiltrate Konoha and take an Uzumaki, and that operation failed too. After that, Konoha set up a barrier system that can detect any unfamiliar ninja entering the village."
Everyone fell silent.
…
It was very late. Konoha sank into quiet sleep.
Tsunade sat alone in the pavilion, head tilted up toward the starry sky in the distance, brows tightly furrowed as if she were thinking about something important.
Just then, a night breeze passed. Tsunade sensed something immediately. She turned her head—and found a glass bottle placed silently beside her at some point.
"Again?"
She pulled out the cork and unfolded the paper, reading by moonlight.
[1. The drifting bottle has a word limit.]
[2. In a world where no drifting bottle appears, the life Tsunade lives is called the "prime timeline." From the moment you receive the drifting bottle, the timeline will branch into different endings based on the information inside. Each branch becomes a unique parallel world.]
[3. In any world, the time Tsunade receives the drifting bottle is random (maybe there's a pattern, but I don't know). When you use the bottle to chat, after the first exchange, you might not receive what "should" be the second message—you may receive the third, the fourth… Sometimes you'll get something inexplicable; just store it for later.]
[4. About the Hyuga: Kumogakure will abduct Hinata. If that fails, they will extort Konoha instead. The key problem—besides the Cloud's threat and the old man's attitude—is the Hyuga's internal split. Some stubborn main-family elders will force Hizashi to die in Hiashi's place.]
[5. The root cause of the Uchiha massacre lies in the Nine-Tails incident.]
[6. An organization called "Akatsuki" threatens the safety of the ninja world. Their goal is to collect the nine tailed beasts. As of the time I wrote this, only the Nine-Tails remains among the Five Great Nations. Known members at present include Orochimaru, Sasori of the Red Sand, Hidan, and Kakuzu.]
[I hope you won't be too late when you receive this.]
[To: I'm Gonna Be the God of Gambling]
[From: Like Hell I'll Be Hokage]
That was a lot.
Tsunade drew a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
First: it said the drifting bottle had a word limit, but didn't give a number. That likely varied by person—or depended on something else. Judging from how the letters had been getting shorter and more concise, this point was probably beyond doubt.
Next: her question last time about "timelines" had been answered. She hadn't expected the drifting bottle to be such a miraculous treasure. If she'd gotten it earlier… maybe her life wouldn't have turned out so badly.
Maybe, in some timeline, there was a Tsunade who found the bottle when she was young. After that, her life became smooth sailing, and she fixed every regret.
Just imagining it made Tsunade want to hum to herself.
And if that was true, then the bottle being thrown out at random didn't feel surprising anymore.
As for Kumogakure—combined with what the letter said, she could piece together the whole story now.
After all these years, those bandits really hadn't changed. Just like the time they tried to snatch Kushina.
And as for extorting Konoha—if Tsunade hadn't stepped in and forcibly propped up that old man, with Konoha's current state, Kumogakure might actually have succeeded. What Konoha would've handed over, of course, would've been Hizashi's corpse.
In the years she'd been gone, Konoha hadn't changed at all. Still just as disgusting.
The Will of Fire… the Will of Fire that tells people to sacrifice themselves… heh.
If that happened, then the reason the Hyuga became "half-crippled" would be obvious: internal war—war between the branch family and the main family.
Either the branch killed the main, or the main used the Caged Bird to suppress the branch to the death. Either way, for Konoha, the Hyuga would essentially be crippled.
Then there was the Uchiha problem.
She hadn't been back long, but she could already sense the atmosphere between the Uchiha and Konoha felt fractured. They seemed ostracized—like outsiders in their own village. The details would require her to find time to talk to the old man.
As for the Nine-Tails incident…
Tsunade lifted the bottle and took a hard swig. The liquor burned down her throat, burning her heart with it.
"Kushina… do you hate me for leaving Konoha?"
Finally—Akatsuki.
Of the four names, one was an old acquaintance. No wonder Jiraiya had been able to track Akatsuki down.
As for the others: she knew Sasori of the Red Sand was a Sand deserter, but she'd never even heard of the other two. She could have the ANBU investigate them.
And Akatsuki's goal was to collect all nine tailed beasts—what did they want them for?
Don't tell me they're filming a movie, she thought with a bitter laugh.
Besides, tailed beasts were each village's strategic weapon. To collect all of them was to declare war on the entire ninja world. But the letter said that by the time it was written, only the Nine-Tails remained unclaimed.
That meant the other eight had already been captured?
A chill crept up Tsunade's spine.
If that was true, Akatsuki's strength was beyond belief—no wonder the other "her" said Konoha was on the verge of collapse.
If Konoha fell, the other great nations wouldn't fare much better. You could say the entire ninja world was teetering on the edge of ruin.
What a heavy future…
Tsunade carried the letter back to her room. She used paper and pen to jot down key information, then burned the letter over a flame.
Right now, the most urgent—and also the easiest—problem to solve was the Hyuga situation.
But even for a Hokage, directly interfering in a clan's internal affairs wasn't simple—let alone for her.
So she needed an assistant.
Tsunade drained the last of the liquor and muttered into the night, the words dissolving into the darkness.
"Hope that little girl can handle it…"
~~~
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