Chapter 23 - Chapter 22

Even though Yuta felt the gaze on his back, he had another thing on his mind. Yuta had purposely not told Tsunade about this competition because all the kids' parents would be there to watch them. And it must be remembered, that a great battle was happening right now outside Konoha. Jiraya and Orochimaru were already commanding the battlefield from two different fronts, but Tsunade-sama, known as the best medical ninja, was locked up at home.

Considering that many Konoha citizens had lost family members in this war, the anger against Tsunade was growing inside their hearts. Conversations like: if Tsunade had been in the war, my husband would have survived, if Tsunade had been in the camp, my brother would not have bled to death from a severed arm, and so on, swirled in every dark alley of Konoha, but no one dared to say it out loud.

Even though the people who lost their families resented Tsunade, they were still able to think. After all, these rumors were not rumors instigated by Danzo, people knew that if not for the hundreds of medical ninjas, Tsunade had trained, the war would have been lost a long time ago. It was a war and people were resentful. Not knowing about Tsunade's phobia of blood made them direct their resentment towards Tsunade.

That's why Yuta didn't invite Tsunade to today's event. He didn't want her to come there and be upset by the words of a few disrespectful villagers. Unfortunately, Yuta hadn't taken Shizune into account.

"I need you to take care of some paperwork for me after the competition, Tsunade-sama."

Tsunade watched Yuta continue cooking as if he hadn't noticed her and muttered something about being a coward. "What kind of competition is this?"

"Ehh! Didn't Yuta tell you? There will be a whole-school tournament today and a special education class will be set up for the highest-ranking students."

Tsunade heard this and frowned, she hadn't expected Sarutabi Hiruzen to be so helpless to find a ninja to send to the battlefield.

"No, Yuta didn't tell me about that. He probably didn't want me to see him getting beaten up by the other kids. Even though he doesn't look like it, he's a very shy boy."

As these words reached Shizune's ears, she heard the sound of teeth grinding together. Turning her head to look at the source of the sound, she saw Yuta sitting at the corner of the dining table holding a frying pan.

Yuta habitually placed a cloth on the table under the pan before placing it on the table.

"Tsunade-sama is right, I am quite shy even though I don't look it. If I let Tsunade watch me fight, I'll probably have to spend the rest of my life dodging the embarrassing love attacks of Tsunade who is a crush on me."

As Shizune looked at Yuta with eyes full of disbelief, Yuta brushed back his hair with one hand and uttered the final words in the strangest tone possible. "Nazenara, warawa ga… utsukushii kara!."

(Because, I'm... beautiful ,after all)

Bom

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Sarutobi Hiruzen used his telescope technique to look at Shizune and Yuta walking out of Tsunade's house and towards the school. Last night he went home to sleep, but when he went to bed he realized that was never going to happen. His head was full of thoughts about Yuta.

When Sarutobi Biwako realized her husband's condition, she decided to use a ninjutsu that Hiruzen had developed and taught her. When Hiruzen was finally able to fall asleep with the feeling of soft hands gently stroking his back and clearing him of his thoughts, he had only an hour left to return to the Hokage building.

After about an hour of deep sleep, Hiruzen used another special ninjutsu, honoring his reputation as a professor of ninjutsu, and doubled the feeling of rest from that hour of sleep. In fact, as a Hokage, he could easily give himself a day off if he wanted to, but since he could guess that last night's incident had not escaped Danzo's notice, he anticipated that he would have to meet him in his office today.

Hiruzen sat back and sighed at the thought of Danzo barging into his room at any moment. Just then, as luck would have it, Danzo opened the door sharply and walked in.

Hiruzen slowly put the glass orb he used for his telescope technique back in its drawer without fear of being seen and looked at Danzo. "Good morning to you too, Danzo."

Danzo turned to face Hiruzen as if he had not heard what he had said, and a root ninja entered from behind him, holding a chair, which he placed across the Hokage's desk.

"The news I heard this morning was not good, Sarotabi."

"Keep your nose out of Yuta's business, Danzo, I will not discuss it with you."

Danzo slammed his hand on the table angrily, saying that this had to be talked about. "It was a lie, Hiruzen, that he was injured by a ninja eagle last month. The same day he was injured, one of my ninjas on guard duty disappeared."

Sarutobi laughed inwardly at his words, knowing that root ninjas would never do anything useful like standing guard around the village, but his face was still as hard as concrete.

"He definitely caught one of my ninjas leaking information from the village and eliminated him to cover up his crime. We can't let that boy get any closer to Tsunade!"

Hiruzen thought for a moment and then guessed as to why Danzo was so interested in this. He had probably realized that he was supporting Tsunade as the next Hokage and that Tsunade's phobia of blood might be healed by this boy, so he had turned the knife on him.

If Yuta had known that the Hokage had become more enthusiastic about supporting him because of Danzo, he would not have hesitated to thank him when he met Danzo.

Hiruzen told Danzo that he had to go to the academy as the headmaster of the ninja academy and left the room. Danzo was furious that he was not taking him seriously, but there was nothing he could do. He had already tried to assassinate Hiruzene before, but he had failed.

At this moment a root ninja appeared next to Danzo. "Master Danzo, the report on the boy you told us about is complete. The root ninja in charge of investigating him said that he didn't get intimate with the other children, but he saw Hatake Sakumo secretly looking at his child a few times. There may be a secret relationship between him and the boy named Kakashi."

Danzo looked at the ninja, a member of the Nara clan, closed his eyes for a moment, then stood up and walked out of the room. "As an assistant to the Hokage, I should be at the event at the ninja academy. Those children are the future of Konoha."

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