"Danzo…" Tsunade whispered but the silence in the deep underground tunnels caused her voice to slither into Danzo's ears.
"Tsunade…the wayward princess of the Senju Clan…why are you here?" Danzo asked, pretending like he had no idea about what was going on.
Tsunade's thin lips morphed into a frown as she heard those words.
"Have you finally learnt of what Hiruzen did to repay your gratitude to it? Have you learnt the price that Hiruzen extracted from you to allow you to roam around the Fire Nation?"
Tsunade clenched her fist and punched right at the stone walls of the cave, causing them to suddenly split open as Tsunade's fist passed right through the wall.
Several low rumbling noises spread throughout the underground cave system as the crack travelled all around the mountain before Danzo looked at Tsunade with a frown as he spoke in mock disappointment-
"Angry to learn the truth? Why did I think you'd be mature about it when the rest of your two teammates were equally stupid and impulsive."
Tsunade's brows furrowed as she looked at Danzo and retaliated verbally.
"I don't care if Hiruzen hid things from me. Maybe he still had a soft corner in his heart for you after he realised you were his teammate. But I don't have any such place for you…"
There was a soft pause before Tsunade spoke again.
"...at least not because of that stupid arm of yours that reeks of the blood of the Senjus that had peacefully mingled with the village."
Danzo calmly brushed his hand before pulling out a kunai.
"So had Hiruzen sent you to claim this hand for himself?"
Tsunade's frown deepened before she spoke while looking at the floor in anger and disappointment in herself.
"No. I'm here to present to him your head. I want to show him what I'll do should I find out he was also involved in the matter."
Tachibana who was standing away and waiting patiently for their conversation to end felt a slight chill raise the hairs on his arm when he heard that from Tsunade.
But he kept his focus on the two of them as he watched them both get ready to take a stance and fight inside this deep underground cave despite the heavy risks involved.
Tachibana guessed that they weren't very worried because they both knew the Earth Style: Hidden Mole jutsu which would allow them to move around through the rubble that would bury them very easily.
But since Tachibana didn't know any such technique, Tachibana quickly began running through the corridors and panting deeply as if he was out of breath from a long marathon while running towards Tsunade.
The sudden sounds of someone rushing through the mostly empty corridors caused Tsunade and Danzo to pause as they paid attention to whoever was coming towards them.
'Shizune is back? So soon?'
'How did she know where I was?'
Danzo on the other hand was worried about something else.
'Is it Torune? What has he come to inform me about?'
But to their surprise, the person that stepped into the tunnel wasn't Shizune or Torune but Tachibana who looked like he'd just run a marathon.
Tachibana quickly looked at Tsunade and then rushed towards her.
"Tsunade-sama! We need to leave! Quickly please!" Tachibana said quickly ignoring Danzo who's eyes had narrowed after seeing Tachibana.
Tsunade was similarly frowning since she didn't realise what Tachibana was doing here, but his next words surprised her quite a bit.
"Danzo-sama knows! He is going to trap you with its help and then burry you inside the mountain! There are several explosive tags planted all around this place!" Tachibana shouted while waving a random explosive tag that he had on him.
Tsunade's eyes narrowed dangerously at that while the frown on Danzo's face somehow deepened.
'Explosive tags?'
'Why would I plant them here? I need this place for my plan!'
'I need it to frame Hiruzen about him being the one that manages this place with the help of his closest subordinates who conduct experiments here on various clan children!'
'Did they plant a few themselves after they caught onto my plan?'
'But how? I even told Hiruzen to come capture me while I was in the ROOT base so that they could 'catch' me 'red-handed'.'
'I need it so that I can trap Hiruzen with it!'
Danzo didn't stop to think anymore and quickly formed hand seals as he read his body to perform the Hidden Mole jutsu.
Danzo leaned against the wall and right before Tsunade's eyes melded into it.
"Like hell, I'll let you escape!" Tsunade shouted before performing the same jutsu as Danzo, except Tsunade quickly grabbed Tachibana while speaking to him-
"Grab onto me tightly, you don't want to get left behind and get buried under the mountain!"
Tachibana nodded and quickly wrapped his hand around Tsunade's waist. She pulled her along with herself and melded into the rocks around them.
To Tachibana, it felt like he was being dragged through water on someone else's back who knew how to swim.
Tachibana kept his eyes closed and his mouth shut to avoid getting anything in them as they escaped the underground area within seconds before they broke through the surface and landed on the ground right near Danzo who was already trying to escape.
But unfortunately for him, Tsunade had already broken away from Tachibana and arrived at his position, standing guard to stop him from leaving.
"You won't leave here until you answer my questions you leech." Tsunade claimed boldly.
It was at this moment that three groups arrived at their location.
Standing below them on the mountain was a group led by Hiruzen that included various ANBU groups and Shikaku, while exiting the caves from similar secret entrances were Team Seven and Shizune.
Team Seven had brought along with them several children while Shizune had brought along several documents.
A fourth group, composed of various shinobi with face masks, made itself visible as it surrounded the mountain, forming a chain around it so that no one could escape.
Tsunade looked at them all and when she met Hiruzen's gaze frowned prominently.
Not understanding what his student was doing there, Hiruzen started the conversation.
"Tsunade? What are you doing here!?"
Before Tsunade could respond however, Danzo interrupted.
"Come to save your disciple like you saved Orochimaru from being captured all those years ago Hiruzen?"
Hiruzen's eyes widened and his mind fell into a confused state as he looked at Danzo.
'Huh?'
'What?'
'Why is Danzo asking me about that?'
'Wasn't the plan for him to come with me silently to the village and be locked up in the prison?'
But before anyone could respond to the accusation, Tachibana suddenly spoke up.
"Everyone! We need to get off the mountain quickly!! It is about to blow up!!! That old man has set explosives inside the mountain that are rigged to blow up any second so that he can hide evidence-"
As he spoke, Tachibana covered his hand with a simple illusion to hide the concentration seal he made before setting off all the explosive tags inside the mountain at once.
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