Tsunade took a bite of the rice ball, savoring the flavor. Noticing Saiki staring at her intensely, she frowned.
"What? I thought you had something to say."
As if just snapping out of a trance caused by her beauty, Saiki offered a very cliché, yet unreserved compliment. "Ah... Sister Tsunade, your complexion is amazing today. You look even more beautiful than usual. I got a bit distracted."
In the past, Saiki had complimented her, but this was different. "Complexion"?
"Distracted"?
She immediately thought about why her complexion was so good.
It was because she had been thoroughly "nourished" by Saiki!
Thinking of this, Tsunade's face turned bright red.
Saiki was getting bolder by the second, but she found she had no defense against him. And to her horror, she realized her heart was hammering against her ribs just because of a stupid compliment.
She tried to muster another insult, but while her expression remained annoyed, her voice softened significantly. "Stop with the silver tongue and get to the point!"
Saiki suppressed his grin, his expression turning grave. He lowered his voice to a whisper meant only for her ears. "Sister Tsunade, how are you planning to handle the Nine-Tails situation?"
The moment he mentioned the fox, Tsunade stopped chewing. Her gaze turned razor-sharp, and the flirtatious atmosphere evaporated.
She swallowed her food and set the half-eaten rice ball down, her brow furrowing with a mix of frustration and solemnity. "I've already interrogated the Uchiha. Fugaku claims to know nothing. We haven't found a single lead on where the Nine-Tails was taken."
"Mm. That's not surprising. But you don't need to worry too much," Saiki said.
Tsunade snapped her gaze to him. "What do you know?"
"Tsunade... do you remember what I told you earlier?"
Facing his question, Tsunade—who had been buried in work all day yesterday and was already stressed this morning—had no patience for riddles. "What? Can you stop with the games? If you know something, say it!"
"I said the Nine-Tails was summoned away by Madara Uchiha."
"What?!" Initially shocked, Tsunade's reaction turned to fury as she thought he was mocking her. "Are you insane? Madara Uchiha has been dead for decades! Don't joke about things like this!"
"I'm not joking. Just listen," Saiki said earnestly. He began his analysis. "Let's set aside the question of whether he's alive for a moment and look at the fox. I was closest to it. I saw the summoning formula. It wasn't a standard release; it was a forced reverse-summon. And as far as history is concerned, the Nine-Tails is Madara Uchiha's personal contract-beast. Decades ago, he used it to fight your grandfather, Hashirama Senju, at the Valley of the End..."
Before he could finish, Tsunade cut him off with a dark expression. "Don't call him 'Hashirama Senju'. He is the Lord First Hokage to you."
Tsunade held immense reverence for her grandfather. Saiki addressing him by name irritated her. As for how Saiki knew such secrets, she wasn't surprised; her granduncle Tobirama had left behind extensive records, and Saiki had read nearly all of his manuscripts.
Saiki rolled his eyes at her. "Why 'Hokage'? If you call him 'Grandpa', I don't mind calling him that too."
The conversation had derailed into Saiki taking advantage of her again. Tsunade fought the urge to punch his smug face, a vein throbbing in her temple.
She took a deep breath, trying to suppress her rage, but her cheeks were already burning with heat.
She gave him a look that would have flayed the skin off a normal man. "Speak. If you can't keep that mouth of yours under control, get out of my office."
Saiki muttered under his breath, "Fine, fine. You're the one who interrupted me."
Tsunade's hearing was sharp. She heard the complaint clearly.
Her brow tightened, her chest heaving slightly. She was beyond frustrated, but she suppressed the urge to slam the desk. Her voice softened with a hint of fatigue. "Stop the nonsense. Continue."
"Right. We can confirm one thing: the Nine-Tails was Madara's summon. Its sudden disappearance, even if we can't prove it was Madara himself, is undeniably linked to him," Saiki concluded.
"Furthermore, when I went to rescue Sensei Kushina, I noticed something during the fight. Several Uchiha elders possessed a cold, malicious, and incredibly powerful ocular signature—as if they were being puppeteered. Those old men had three-tomoe Sharingan and significant power. The only thing capable of controlling them so thoroughly would be the legendary Mangekyo Sharingan that only Madara was known to possess."
Saiki's "analysis" sounded professional and grounded, but in reality, he hadn't noticed any "Mangekyo influence" while fighting the elders—he'd been too busy trying to keep the Nine-Tails from exploding.
But he knew for a fact that Madara was alive. The speed of the summon proved that Madara had kept a hand inside the Uchiha clan all these years. Reverse-engineering the logic made his lie perfectly plausible.
Tsunade's fists clenched unconsciously as Saiki spoke. Her long-held belief that "Madara Uchiha is dead" was being violently dismantled.
Seeing her process the possibility, he pushed further. "That white humanoid I gave you—the one you sent to the lab. I assume the preliminary report is in. It contains Hashirama's cells, doesn't it?"
"How could you possibly know that?" Tsunade stared at him in shock. She had assumed the "White Zetsu" was some kind of bio-weapon developed in secret by Hiruzen or Danzo to master Wood Release.
The High Command's obsession with Hashirama's power and the ability of Wood Release to suppress Tailed Beasts was something Tsunade had always been aware of.
"I know because that wasn't the first time I've seen them. I encountered several on the battlefield. I fought them. They used a crude form of Wood Release."
"What?!" Hearing that a random white creature could use the First Hokage's legendary power made Tsunade even more horrified.
"Don't worry, it was a low-quality imitation," Saiki said, though he didn't stop there. "I originally thought they were Hiruzen's spies. But now it's clear: these things were lurking beneath the battlefield, monitoring the war. There is a third-party force watching the world's progress—or perhaps, they are the ones who instigated this world war in the first place."
Saiki hadn't actually seen Zetsu on the front lines, but that didn't stop him from spinning the tale to lead Tsunade to the truth.
"According to your granduncle's notes, during the final battle, Madara bit off a piece of your grandfather's flesh before he died. And Madara's body mysteriously vanished from its grave. If we connect the dots—the Nine-Tails summon, the Hashirama cells, the mysterious white creatures—the only logical conclusion is that Madara Uchiha survived. And he is still out there."
With his knowledge of the plot, Saiki had perfectly transformed into "Detective Saiki." Tsunade was staggered by the logic. She knew Saiki was talented, but she hadn't realized he was this strategically brilliant.