After the auras of several unfamiliar chakras vanished from his Mind's Eye of Kagura's perception, the Naruto shadow clone slowly rose to his feet.
"Stamina recovered enough?"
"More or less." Letting out a light breath, Shikamaru executed a kip-up and patted the dust off his backside. "Are you coming back with us?"
"Nope." Naruto smiled faintly, then dissolved into a puff of white smoke and vanished from the spot.
Shikamaru stumbled; his physical constitution was what it was. In just two or three short minutes, how much could he really have recovered?
"Long time no see, Sasuke."
Atop the head of the Senju Hashirama statue, Uchiha Sasuke looked at the face that was both familiar and unfamiliar. For some reason, he only felt a sense of peace. A very strange feeling, considering they had known each other for such a short time.
Is it because he and I are the same kind of people? Sasuke wondered inwardly.
"Why are you here?"
"…Came to see you," Naruto said after a moment of carefully sensing his surroundings.
Something wasn't right. Ever since seeing Sasuke, the inexplicable unease in his heart had instantly vanished, as if it had never existed. But he was certain that before seeing Sasuke, especially when he learned Sasuke was in danger, a genuine worry for Sasuke had indeed surfaced within him. These two extreme psychological shifts reaffirmed his conviction: there was definitely something affecting his emotions, something that neither he nor Kurama could perceive.
Ghost possession? Two souls in one body? Or was he under a genjutsu… Countless conjectures instantly flashed through Naruto's mind. Unlike most people who were skeptical about the existence of ghosts, he had seen real ghosts. O'Rin from the Village of Water, the spirits that appeared when the realms of the living and dead intertwined in Ashina—these were all ghosts he had witnessed with his own eyes.
"Is that so?" Sasuke was puzzled. What kind of reason was that? Their friendship didn't seem to have reached that level, had it? Thinking this, Sasuke couldn't help but become wary, the chakra within his body beginning to circulate.
Naruto glanced at him. Within the perception of his Mind's Eye of Kagura, the changes in Sasuke's chakra were clearly visible. Perhaps before they met, he had indeed entertained the thought of sparring with Sasuke, to try and force out whatever 'thing' was inside him. But now, upon seeing Sasuke, he had an inexplicable intuition—even if he buried Sasuke here and now, that 'thing' wouldn't intervene.
Naruto naturally wouldn't do something that offered no benefit. So, he extinguished the thought of testing his blade against Sasuke.
"We'll meet again if fate allows!" With that said, Naruto leaped down from the head of the Uchiha Madara statue. "By the way, be careful of the mark on your neck. It's eroding your chakra…" His voice grew fainter and fainter until, finally, it was completely drowned out by the roaring sound of the waterfall.
Sasuke, a series of metaphorical black lines appearing on his forehead, watched Naruto's disappearing figure. What the hell was all that about? Did that guy really just come all this way to see him? Seriously? Has our friendship already become that profound? How come I didn't know?
His mind filled with questions, Sasuke leaped across the Valley of the End, continuing his journey towards the Land of Rice Paddies. As for the erosion from the Heaven's Curse Mark—to him, as long as he could obtain great power, defeat that man, his own brother who had slaughtered their entire clan, then even if it meant handing his body directly over to Orochimaru, what was the harm in that?
Konoha. Hokage Tower.
"You're saying… you were all saved by Uzumaki Naruto?" Tsunade asked, her hands clasped, resting her smooth chin on them, her expression puzzled.
"Yes." Shikamaru, who had just had his wounds simply bandaged at the hospital and had come directly to report, nodded.
Tsunade leaned back in her chair, her right hand helplessly kneading the bridge of her nose. What the hell is all this! Konoha, this great village, needing another rogue ninja to rescue a team sent to retrieve a rogue ninja, just so the pursuit team members could survive… Why don't those old geezers just go lie down in their coffins already? Tsunade thought viciously.
That bullshit excuse of theirs—that to prevent her from misusing the Hokage's authority, they, as advisors, had to exercise their duties, share the Hokage's burden, and temporarily help her manage a portion of the ANBU. If the ANBU were entirely under her command, forget about chasing down a genin; even pursuing a jonin would be a piece of cake. Damn it all! If not for the fact that those old fools' factions were so deeply entrenched in Konoha, she and Jiraiya would have sent those old geezers into retirement long ago. Every time she thought about this, Tsunade felt a surge of pent-up anger. Born with a golden key in her mouth, when had she ever suffered such indignity?
Especially Root. A force of several hundred, nominally belonging to ANBU, and thus under her, the Hokage's, control. But what was the reality? She probably couldn't even command Root's logistics department. Under the constraints of the Curse Tongue Eradication Seal, Root was effectively a little Konoha unto itself, and a little Konoha where Shimura Danzo's word was law.
Undeniably, during the Third Great Ninja War, Root had indeed shouldered the responsibility of handling Konoha's darkness. But the Root of today had the distinct feel of a tail too big to wag. Whether it was Shimura Danzo, or the two advisors Koharu Utatane and Mitokado Homura, they had all invested far too much of their efforts into it. Even she, as the Fifth Hokage, was powerless to abolish Root; it was entangled with far too many interests.
Your position dictates your thoughts. If she were still the Tsunade of old, her solution to a 'scourge' like Root would be simple: flip the table and reshuffle the cards. She wouldn't care if it was Shimura Danzo or anyone else. But unfortunately, she was now Konoha's Fifth Hokage. Her every word and action represented not just herself, but also the majority interest groups of Konoha. It was quite ironic; Root, this 'scourge' that represented the interests of the vast majority, was, in a certain sense, something she needed to maintain.
"Um, Lady Fifth…" Tsunade was sighing and lamenting so much that Shikamaru nearly got frightened, quickly trying to recall if he had misspoken. Offending this woman meant offending his livelihood for the latter half of his life. One can afford to offend women, but one must cling tightly to one's rice bowl.
"Oh, it's nothing. You can go back for now." Tsunade also came back to her senses; there were still other people in the office. She didn't know if it was her imagination, but after only a month in this position, she already felt as if she had aged several years. She was now seriously reconsidering whether her initial agreement with Jiraiya had been too rash. To think she hadn't even made him her ANBU Commander… That old bastard, though a bit of a scoundrel, his abilities were undeniable. Should she drag him back? Tsunade mused inwardly.
"Lady Fifth, Choji's injuries?" Shikamaru asked cautiously. The Nara and Akimichi clans had been close for generations; they knew each other's trump cards and techniques inside out. Therefore, compared to his other comrades, he understood more clearly just how critical Choji's current situation was.
"Don't worry, I've already had Shizune handle it," Tsunade reassured him. The Akimichi clan's secret pills were less like secret medicines and more like specially formulated poisons. These specially refined poisons could most effectively force out the physical potential of an Akimichi clan member. Depending on the dosage, the Akimichi clan divided them into green, yellow, and red. The green secret pill had the mildest toxicity; one could basically recover from it on their own. The red was the most severe; basically, if one consumed it and there was no external interference, the user could start looking for a coffin to lie in.
This kind of poison might seem terrifying to others. But for a doctor of Tsunade's caliber, it was no big deal. Especially since the Akimichi clan had also provided the formula for the secret medicine; as long as a treatment plan was devised according to the drug's toxicity, it could be resolved quite easily. Compared to the poisons of Sunagakure's Chiyo, a secret medicine not originally intended for killing was not that difficult to counteract.
"Thank you for your trouble." Shikamaru let out a sigh of relief, bowed, and excused himself.
_________________
+50 chapters on: patreon.com/Shinobi_Scrolls