The Daimyo's government and the Senju clan are related by family ties, making the Daimyo's relationship with Tsunade even closer.
As the New Year approached, it was only natural for Tsunade, as a junior, to visit the Daimyo.
No one could find any fault with that.
Especially since it was Uzumaki Mito's idea.
The next day, Tsunade, looking slightly annoyed, went to the Hokage's office, then left the village, heading straight for the Daimyo's mansion.
Uzumaki Mito suggested Tsunade go visit the Daimyo as a junior, and the Third Hokage raised both his hands and feet in support of this idea.
He even hoped Tsunade would stay at the Daimyo's mansion, keep the Daimyo company for New Year's, and thereby strengthen the bond between the Daimyo's government and the village.
A closer relationship would make it easier to ask for funds in the future.
After leaving the village, Tsunade indeed went to the Daimyo's mansion and paid a visit. After wandering around the mansion for a few days and buying quite a lot of stuff, she quietly left and took a detour towards the border camp.
The camp had guards on duty day and night, but an average ninja would have difficulty detecting Tsunade's infiltration.
After detouring from the Daimyo's mansion, Tsunade arrived at the border camp and sneaked in.
Affected by the temperature across the region, the Land of Rain and its surrounding areas had begun experiencing rain mixed with snow. Occasionally, it even rained with small shards of ice. Such extreme weather had left the Land of Rain and surrounding areas covered by a thick layer of ice.
The temperature continued to drop.
In the camp, aside from the patrolling ninjas, everyone else was resting in wooden huts, either warming themselves by the fire or just resting.
The medical hut was a space reserved exclusively for Takashi, and the other ninjas generally wouldn't enter unless necessary.
Inside the wooden hut, Takashi lay on the bed, holding a book he had brought from the village.
Someone was coming, and it was someone familiar.
Takashi put down his book and watched as the person deftly pried open the window of the medical hut and slipped in with a whoosh.
"You sure are practiced at this," Takashi thought. "You must've done this quite a bit before."
Sliding through the window into the medical hut, Tsunade glanced at Takashi, who was lying on the bed reading a book, and snorted:
"Not bad. The moment I got the news, I took the opportunity to visit the Daimyo, then took a detour to come here. And here you are, casually reading a book?"
"What else should I do?" Takashi answered irritably, "Be on edge all day, terrified of every shadow? If I did that, I wouldn't need anyone else to take me down—I'd scare myself to death first."
"You should just get in here and warm up already," he added.
The winter cold was no joke. It was a miracle that ninjas had such strong resistance, or else an ordinary person running around like that would probably have died long ago.
Takashi made room, signaling for Tsunade to get under the blankets and warm up.
"At least you have some sense," Tsunade said, giving Takashi a look of approval. "It's not for nothing that I ran all over the place."
Takashi sensibly left the sleeping area to let Tsunade change clothes.
After Takashi left, Tsunade swiftly took off her clothes, throwing her wet clothes and undergarments into the corner, and in the next moment, dove into the blanket.
Wait!
Curled up in the blanket, Tsunade realized something. Once her body warmed up, she instinctively reached out for clothes—only to grab at empty air. Then she remembered—this wasn't home, and there were no clothes stacked by the bedside for her to change into. Her wet clothes had already been thrown into the corner, and they were all too wet to wear.
Takashi entered the room with a tray in his hands, pushing open the door only to see the wet clothes in the corner. Without much thought, he walked towards the bed and handed the tray to Tsunade.
"Here, there's only enough for two people today. The camp conditions aren't as good as back in the village. These pieces of meat were from a hunt our captain did while out on patrol."
Holding the tray for a good ten seconds or so, Takashi realized something was off. Tsunade usually snatched food right away, so why was she being so reserved today?
Was this bandit queen actually being shy for once?
Tsunade was lying in the bed, so embarrassed that she could almost tear the blanket apart with her toes.
She had thought of everything, but forgotten about bringing a change of clothes.
No matter how brash she usually was, at the end of the day, she was still a woman, and even she had moments of embarrassment.
With no response from Tsunade, Takashi found it odd. Something seemed off about her today. Thinking back, he glanced at the corner of the room and suddenly understood.
"Did you forget something important?"
"What are you laughing at!"
Seeing Takashi look at her with a smirk, Tsunade gritted her teeth, wishing she could jump out of the blanket and give him a good punch.
Takashi couldn't hold back and burst into laughter.
This only made Tsunade even more embarrassed. Her normally carefree demeanor shattered for a moment, her face turning bright red as she grabbed Takashi by his clothes, pulled him into the bed, and covered him with the blanket, raising her fist to hit him.
"Wait! The tray!"
The tray in his hand held freshly cooked meat. If it spilled, the entire bed would be covered in grease.
Seeing the tray about to fall, Takashi had no choice but to use repulsion to keep the blanket from covering his face.
Before her punch landed, Tsunade felt a strong surge of force push against her, and the blanket covering Takashi's head suddenly tore into pieces. Tsunade paused, her fist raised mid-air.
Takashi, who had just turned around to steady the tray, was also stunned.
This... this probably isn't suitable for young audiences.
Definitely not suitable!
Their eyes met, and after a few seconds of silence, Takashi shoved the tray into Tsunade's hands, tossed her a sealing scroll, and bolted.
"The scroll has my spare clothes in it. They're men's, but they're brand new. You can make do for now."
What just happened?
Was that some kind of ninjutsu?
No, it was more like a burst of repulsion centered on Takashi.
Tsunade's mind buzzed as she tried to piece together what had just happened, concluding that this was a hidden secret of Takashi's that she had accidentally forced him to reveal.
She looked down at her body, then chuckled in frustration. "You sly brat… we'll settle this later."
Anyone else in her situation might have felt ashamed and indignant, but while Tsunade was deeply embarrassed, she could still hold her composure.
If Takashi had been deliberately trying to peep or cause trouble, Tsunade would have lost her temper completely.
Jiraiya almost got killed for that sort of thing, after all.
Opening the sealing scroll, she picked out a set of clothes that looked acceptable and put them on before taking up the tray and starting to eat.
Standing at the door, Takashi listened intently. Hearing the sound of eating, he finally relaxed.
If Tsunade was eating, that meant things weren't as bad as he feared.
Though he had accidentally gained quite a bit of an advantage.
Gently pushing the door open, he peeked inside. Seeing that Tsunade was fully clothed, Takashi finally stepped in.
Out of the corner of her eye, Tsunade glanced at Takashi and said, "Grandma and I have thought about it. The old man must be in on this. Otherwise, he wouldn't have sent someone to protect you. As for who's targeting you, I think you already know."
"It's probably Danzo Shimura. If the Hokage wanted to deal with me, he wouldn't need to go through so much trouble, nor would he bother to secretly assign me protection."
Takashi pulled up a chair and sat down, analyzing the situation:
"In the village, the only one who might make a move against me is him. Even though I don't quite understand his motives, the fact that the Hokage assigned someone to follow me means Danzo can't use village resources against me. He'll have to rely on foreign forces."
"The chances of hiring a bounty assassin are low because I'm in the camp, and it would be nearly impossible for an average ninja to carry out such an assassination mission here. If the bounty is too high, it might even bring trouble to Danzo himself. So, using foreign forces seems like his best option."
"Most likely, someone from Amegakure."
"You think that old fox Danzo can convince Amegakure to send someone to kill you?"
Tsunade paused for a moment, holding her fork.
"Hanzo the Salamander probably isn't that stupid. Attacking the camp directly would be equivalent to declaring war on the village. Amegakure wouldn't take that kind of risk."
"Amegakure won't attack the camp, but what about Hanzo himself?"