"Did you find some money on the way home? You look way too cheerful," Takuya teased.
Despite Tsunade's position as head of the Logistics Department, now one of the higher-ups in the village, going to work was still a miserable task for her. Usually, she came home looking completely exhausted, but today she seemed full of energy.
If it weren't for the fact that stimulants were mostly useless for shinobi, Takuya might've suspected Tsunade had taken a dose of something.
"...."
That cheerful mood didn't last long. The moment she got home, it was destroyed by Takuya's words.
"And why, after you finished work, didn't you go home, but instead came straight to lie on my couch?" Takuya continued.
"Your house is only like thirty meters away from mine, what's the big deal?" she retorted.
"Just stay for dinner, then go back," Takuya sighed.
Tsunade resisted the urge to punch Takuya and instead rolled her eyes at him. "Because the old man actually showed some backbone today, wasn't swayed by those old farts, and that put me in a good mood."
The Third Hokage showed some backbone? He wasn't influenced by the other elders?
Did this mean something major happened in the village?
In the original timeline, nothing big seemed to happen around this period. It was still some time before Sakumo Hatake's tragedy, and Kakashi hadn't even started school yet—Sakumo's incident happened after Kakashi enrolled.
"What do you mean by backbone?" Takuya asked, curious about how far the Third Hokage went.
"The Mist Village tried to threaten Konoha with war, and the Council of Elders wanted to muddy the waters, but they didn't even get a chance to speak. Danzo even acted like a decent person for once today."
Takuya's hand slipped while chopping vegetables.
He thought he must have misheard—Mist Village threatening Konoha with war?
"What's the reason? They can't just declare a fight without some excuse," Takuya asked, continuing to chop.
Was Mist trying to rise up suddenly? To threaten Konoha with war—what a bizarre move. The bigger question was, what kind of conflict led Mist to make such a declaration? Takuya figured the situation must be complicated.
"What else could it be?" Tsunade replied casually while she settled in, making no effort to hide the truth. "Sakumo Hatake took on a mission to infiltrate the Mist Village to gather intel, but Mist suddenly sent a formal letter accusing Konoha of sending him to assassinate the Third Mizukage. They want an explanation, or else they'll declare war."
"Sakumo Hatake? Assassinate the Third Mizukage?"
Goodness...
Takuya remembered running into Sakumo Hatake on their way back to Konoha a few days ago. It seemed Sakumo was on his way to the Mist Village at that time.
Assassinate the Mizukage? Unless the Third Hokage had gone insane, there was no way he'd give such an order.
It wasn't that Konoha couldn't assassinate another village's Kage, but the Third Hokage's personality simply wasn't that reckless. Targeting other villages' tailed beasts or jinchūriki was already a bold enough decision.
Attempting to assassinate a Kage was entirely different.
That sort of action could either be a small diplomatic hiccup or the spark of a full-blown war—it all depended on the other side's response.
If the Mist were upset enough, it could become the cause of a major conflict. Otherwise, it could be just another diplomatic squabble.
The Third Hokage wasn't someone who'd give such a reckless command.
And besides him... there was no one else in the current leadership of the village who could directly issue orders to Sakumo Hatake.
After some thought, Takuya said, "Maybe it was an unfortunate coincidence. For example, Sakumo might've bumped into the Third Mizukage while gathering information, his identity was compromised, and he had no choice but to engage—leading Mist to accuse Konoha of attempting an assassination."
Takuya would rather believe in a coincidence like that than think Sakumo Hatake had somehow gone rogue and taken it upon himself to assassinate the Third Mizukage.
What Takuya couldn't have guessed was that Sakumo had literally run into the Third Mizukage—in the restroom of the Mist Village's administrative building. That must've been a sight to see.
"That's what I think too," Tsunade replied. "So we're ignoring Mist for now. We'll wait until Sakumo gets back to clarify everything."
If the Mist Village was using the threat of war, it meant Sakumo managed to escape. He was probably just heavily injured, and his return to Konoha was delayed while he recuperated. But once he was back, everything would become clear.
Until then, the best course of action was to ignore the Mist Village and let them rant and rave all they wanted.
Worst-case scenario, if war did break out, they'd just fight it out. Honestly, it seemed more and more likely that the Third Mizukage was under some kind of control.
The original Mizukage wouldn't have acted so recklessly. But under someone else's control? Declaring war on Konoha? Takuya wouldn't have been surprised if Mist declared war on all four other great villages simultaneously.
"By the way, did Nawaki do anything foolish today?" Takuya asked, changing the subject.
"No, of course not. He's your younger brother, after all," Tsunade replied, a faint smile on her face. "He was just sighing a lot."
"..."
After dinner, Tsunade quickly made her exit, fearing that if she stayed, Takuya would make her wash dishes. She stayed far, far away from any kind of household chores.
She'd rather treat patients at the hospital than wash dishes or mop the floor. Worst of all, she was terrible at them—leaving dishes dirty and the floor still dusty...
Sakumo Hatake took an unexpected route, escaping into the Land of Lightning and losing the Mist's pursuit. After tending to his injuries and resting for two days, he returned to Konoha.
Back in the Mist Village, Yagura's expression was sour—he had just been chewed out by the Third Mizukage.
The Mist had deployed a lot of shinobi, but they still couldn't catch even one Sakumo Hatake.
If Sakumo had simply overpowered their forces, that would've been easier to accept. But the fact that he managed to shake them off and disappear? That was worse than if Yagura had been beaten outright.
When he returned to the village, Yagura was greeted with an angry tirade from the Third Mizukage.
Fortunately, the elder, Gengetsu, wasn't as harsh. He even helped analyze the route Sakumo might have taken to escape.
After some consideration, Gengetsu sighed, "Konoha truly is a cradle of geniuses. Sakumo Hatake lives up to his reputation."
An average shinobi would have run straight towards the Land of Fire. But Sakumo did the opposite, heading into the Land of Lightning instead.
And now, hundreds of Mist shinobi had been searching the sea for days, without even a glimpse of Sakumo's shadow.
"No wonder he's called the 'White Fang of Konoha'... If only such a talent had been born in the Mist," Gengetsu lamented.
Yagura said nothing, his face still dark. The whole situation had been humiliating.
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Don't forget to get the power stone, as I am giving this for giving me 600 power stones, the fourth chapter for today.
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Next Bonus: 1000 Power Stones ╰ (´꒳`) ╯
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(P)(S): If you're interested, you can read up to chapter 320+ at patreon.com/ Emik01. ಥ‿ಥ
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