"What do you mean that Tsunade will choose people for the mission? Wasn't the list already decided?" Danzo exclaimed while looking at Hiruzen, who had no change in his expression.
"Yeah, I meant what I said. I know what you were planning to do, and you can send them from another path. Ignore that base for now and focus on other ones," Hiruzen explained while pointing at the posts on the map.
Looking at him, Danzo had a frown on his face. He didn't understand what happened at the last minute since he had other plans for the base but now, the plans he had formed couldn't be completed.
'Or, I could just..'
"You won't send anyone, Danzo. Ignore that for now," Hiruzen noticed the slight change in Danzo's face and he understood what Danzo was thinking. Hearing him, Danzo was about to retort but the expression on Hiruzen's face was enough for him to hold back his words.
'I will do something but not now,'
Danzo thought in his mind and nodding at Hiruzen, he left the room after taking the map back from the table. When Danzo had left, Hiruzen sighed and staring outside the window, he murmured, "I wonder who that boy is. Someone, Mito-Sama had hidden for a long time? It can only be her or maybe a plan left by Tobirama-Sensei. Another war is coming and I wonder what changes it would bring to Konoha,"
Staring at the Hokage mountain, Hiruzen got lost in his thoughts until the door was knocked again. Turning his head, he looked at the door and a groan escaped his lips when he looked at the employee bringing another set of papers for him to look at and sign.
Outside Konoha, Tsunade looked at Akane who had changed into a shinobi uniform and looking at the empty forehead, Tsunade thought of giving him her forehead protector but then removed the thought from her mind.
"Did you order these before?" Akane asked as he noticed that the Shinobi uniform fit him perfectly and Tsunade nodded at his words.
"Now that you have changed into this uniform, you need to follow my words until the mission is completed, irrespective of what I say, do you understand?"
"Yes, Sensei~!" Akane replied while rolling his eyes, making Tsunade chuckle and she turned her head to look in the direction of their destination.
"Do you remember the path?" "I have a general idea,"
"Hmm. Follow me,"
Saying this, Tsunade ran forward and Akane followed her movements.
Hours later, on the branch of the tree, Tsunade and Akane stood together and looked at the hideout Tsunade had talked about before.
"Your mission is to kill everyone there while getting all the information you can."
Hearing her, Akane gave a nod and stared at the hideout with a flicker in his eyes. A moment later, he disappeared from the branch and Tsunade sighed while shaking her head. She created a Shadow Clone, who disappeared from the place and looked at the hideout while making plans for the future.
Leaving the place, Akane reached the entrance of the hideout. Hiding, he took a deep breath and took out two kunai to hold them in his hand. Using Kagura's mind eye, he checked for traps and explosive tags, and not finding any, he sighed.
'I don't sense any chakra in this place. Are they all just local bandits or is there something else hidden here?' Akane thought with a frown. Just as he was about to call Zetsu to look around, he paused and shook his head.
"Let's do this," He murmured in a low voice and rushed inside the hideout.
Soon, on the tree, Tsunade smelled the scent of blood because of the wind, and she clenched her hand.
"It isn't his first time killing anyone but it should be his first time massacring a group of people who can't even defend himself."
Tsunade murmured with a difficult look on her face. Her expression changed a bit as she received the memories of her shadow clone and with a wry smile, she disappeared from the tree.
In the middle of the hideout, Akane sat on the table with his head lowered. In his hand, he held the two kunai he had taken out before and they were covered with blood.
On the ground laid down various corpses with a clean slit on their neck, but some had various stab marks on their bodies.
On the other side, various corpses of men, women and a few children were kept like a pile and many of them have decayed, showing that they were kept in the open for quite a long time.
"What do you think?"
Akane heard Tsunade's voice from behind and he looked up. Remembering something, he narrowed his eyes and asked, "Was this an outpost for something?"
When Tsunade heard his words, she looked surprised and said, "Hmm, it was a base for shipments of organs and bones."
Akane turned to look at Tsunade, who didn't have much change in expression when she said those words. A sigh escaped his lips, and getting up, he said, "Let's go for the other one."
Saying those words, he made a few hand seals and used an Earth Release technique to bury the corpses. When he was done, he looked at Tsunade, who nodded at his actions, and they disappeared from the base.
A few hours later, in the same place, two ANBU ninjas appeared. They looked around for a second. One of them touched the ground, and after checking something, he nodded.
Nodding at each other, they disappeared from the place as if they hadn't arrived there, with no clues left.
....
Reaching the base, Tsunade didn't enter immediately. Instead, she stopped a few hundred metres away and noticing her actions, Akane also stopped behind her. He also noticed that she had hidden her chakra, and he followed her actions, wondering if she planned to test the sensors in the base.
"Use Kagura's Mind Eye and locate everyone," Tsunade murmured softly. Nodding at her, Akane closed his eyes and used Kagura's Mind Eye to locate the ninjas guarding the base.
"This base is more guarded than I thought," Akane murmured, making Tsunade roll her eyes. She asked him about the location of the ninjas and then started to think of a few things she heard from her grandmother.
'If it is as she said, I will have to do more work than required.' Tsunade thought, remembering the words said by Mito about the incoming war. She then looked at Akane, who had asked her to put the corpse of Kiri ninjas near the territory of another village, and a sigh escaped her lips.
Just as she was about to say something, she felt a hand on her shoulder and a soft whisper in her ear.
"With me here, it will be fine."
Akane whispered when he heard Tsunade sigh and he knew what she was thinking. War was imminent, both of them knew it but Akane had more information than them all and he also knew what would have been the outcome of the war if he didn't exist in the world.
But with him here, his powers, and the support of Kaguya, i.e. Black Zetsu, the mastermind between wars for the past 1000 years, he didn't think anyone could defeat him if he kept on working from behind the scenes.
'But, I can't keep on like this, can I? The power of the Sage of Six Paths is too far from me. Heck, I am not even 100% sure if I can fight that old bastard Madara who has one leg in his grave, and let's not mention Hashirama who is on another level.'
'For this, I will have to break my limits or use those methods which I don't want to use since I am not sure of them. I don't think Alien genes are everything since Chakra Fruits is made up by absorbing the Natural Energy of the world. For the natural energy to work, I need to have a strong body and lots of chakra reserves...'
"What are you thinking?"
Tsunade looked at Akane who was lost in thoughts after telling him about the locations of guarding Ninjas, and her words snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Not much, just a few things of the future," Akane said with a wry smile, but looking at Tsunade's expression, he understood that she didn't believe his words.
"It's really not something important. Let's focus on what we have to do here and then go home," Akane said, trying to reassure Tsunade. Even though she knew he was lying, she understood that he wouldn't tell her if he didn't want to.
'I will ask him later, for now, he is right. Let's focus on things here.'
"Are you planning on testing them?" Akane asked with a thoughtful face. At her words, Tsunade shook her head and said, "That could be considered a crime. I just wanted to know the gravity of the situation and see how good your Kagura's Mind Eye is against the sensors of the village. Let's go and check how many you missed."
Akane rolled his eyes at her words. He didn't think she was just testing how good his Kagura's Mind Eye was, after all, who could be a better sensor than a Uzumaki excluding the ones who could use Sage Mode.
'I wonder what is going on in her mind. She has changed a lot and acting weirder, and more mysterious than before.'
Thinking of all this, Akane followed Tsunade who had started to walk towards the entrance of the base. When they were a hundred metres away from the gate, Akane noticed two Ninjas appearing on the gate, beside the two Ninjas who were guarding, and he noticed how ready they were for attack in any instant.
Looking at them, Akane narrowed his eyes since he could see whom those two ninjas belonged to from their mask pattern and the chakra pattern. Their chakra was cold and gave an emotionless feeling, making him understand that they were members of ROOT.
"No need," Tsunade murmured when she noticed Akane's actions and she took out a scroll from the storage seal. Throwing the scroll at one of the ROOT ninjas, Tsunade didn't stop and kept on walking. The other Ninja wanted to move but he was stopped by his senior, and opening the scroll, the senior ninja read the contents on it.
"Tsunade-Sama, Shikakuro-Sama is waiting in the tent. But," The senior ninja said after saluting Tsunade, who didn't say anything. He wanted to continue his words about stopping Akane, who was unknown to them but when Tsunade took out another scroll and narrowed her eyes, he gulped his words back since he felt pressure from her.
"Anything else?" Tsunade asked when she noticed him stopping and the senior ROOT Ninja shook his head. He disappeared from the place with his junior and looking in their direction, Tsunade rolled her eyes.
"Follow me," She said to Akane, who had been watching everything from the start silently and he nodded at her words. The two guards who had been trying to ignore the situation from the start, sighed in relief when both the groups had left.
Walking with Tsunade, Akane looked at the different camps set up around the place. Unlike what he had thought, the place wasn't as quiet as he had expected, and various ninjas were moving here and there. When they saw Tsunade, Akane noticed their eyes brightening up but they stopped himself and didn't say anything.
Noticing their actions, Tsunade made a hand seal and created four Shadow Clones, who went in different directions to check the status of injured patients and the condition of the medical camp with medical ninjas.
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Chapter 47 out on ptreon