The instant the heavy curtain was yanked aside, the stinging reek of disinfectant rushed out, thick with the iron tang of blood.
Inside the largest medical tent on the Ame front, the air was strung taut, like a bow drawn to its limit.
Ragged breathing, stifled groans from the wounded, the crisp clatter of medical tools, all of it was drowned out by the sudden crescendo of an argument at the center of the tent.
"Tsunade! What a fine student you've raised!"
Danzō, shrouded in his eternally somber robes, stood rooted in the middle of the tent, eyes so dark they seemed to weep dampness. He glared at the figure beside a mound of blood-soaked bandages and empty medicine bottles.
"An entire village. An entire Kusagakure. Wiped out because that Kamiyama Ryo lost his temper. Do you have any idea what that means? They were allies. Allies named in our treaty." His voice was low but forked like a viper's tongue, every word an accusation. "Tsunade, is this what you call discipline? Is this the ethics your clan instills, slaughtering an ally on a whim?"
Her reply was a sharper crack.
Tsunade's head snapped up from a stack of casualty reports. Under her golden bangs, amber eyes flared with tangible fury, an enraged lioness.
"Shimura Danzō!"
Her fist slammed onto the desk. The thick hardwood groaned in protest. "My people, I know them. Ryo isn't a lunatic, and he's no butcher. Watch your mouth."
She leaned forward, pressure meeting pressure, her presence cutting even fiercer than his. "And you. You parade around preaching hardline and iron-blooded, dressing yourself up as Konoha's shield. What now? Faced with decisive force, you suddenly think my man is too radical?
Danzō's brow creased, the furrows digging deeper. Sparring with this woman's sharp tongue was a fool's errand. He changed angles at once. "Fine. Let's set the Grass Village aside, for now."
He pressed harder, voice turning colder. "Has Ryo's squad completed its mission? Where is he? Where is the mission scroll, the intel? Has he forgotten the basic protocol of reporting back to the village? Does Konoha mean nothing to him? I'd say he slaughtered so freely in the Land of Grass he's forgotten his roots. Perhaps he's already nurturing thoughts of desertion." No one was better than Danzō at pinning labels. He dropped the heavy cap of suspected defection without blinking.
"Heh." Tsunade let out a short, incredulous laugh. "You've been sitting in Root's shadows so long, looking down at the world, you've forgotten what it means for ordinary shinobi to stake their lives on the battlefield."
She rose, both hands flattening the desk as she loomed over him. "Missions run into complications and get delayed. That's normal. If you've got the free time to stand here lecturing me, dripping sarcasm and acting coy, why don't you take a walk among the wounded? Look at those kids who lost legs and arms. Look at the ones who bled and sweated for your glory."
Her anger mounted, voice erupting like a volcano. "I don't have time for your droning, old man. Get back to your command post and do your job. Stop making a mess of mine. No wonder my grand-uncle, chose Hiruzen-sensei for Hokage back then and not you, because you weren't up to it."
Those last words were a shout, each syllable laced with scorn and rage, barbed like poisoned senbon, striking Danzō's most sensitive nerve.
His face went from iron blue to pitch black. The fire in his single eye all but burst out, then stuck, caught in his throat.
His Adam's apple bobbed. He trembled with barely controlled fury, a breath trapped painfully in his chest.
"Get out." Tsunade jabbed a finger at the curtain, her command as merciless as a general berating a routed army.
Danzō's chest heaved. It took all his strength not to lash out. He stared at Tsunade, eyes thick with venom, and squeezed out a threat between his teeth. "Tsunade. Mark my words. This debt—"
"Oh?" A cold killing edge cut the air, interrupting him without warning. "Mark what, exactly?" The voice was not loud, yet it struck through the heavy atmosphere with perfect clarity.
In the tent's shadowed corner, space rippled like water. A tall, straight figure tore the air and stepped out of nothing. Short black hair, slightly disheveled. Ryo.
He simply stood there, not even bothering to look at Danzō directly. Yet an intangible, domineering pressure flooded the room. It was pure slaughter, so pure that even Danzō, who reveled in intrigue and darkness, felt a chill .
Danzō's breath hitched. He whirled and met Ryo's gaze, serene to the point of horror, fathomless. There was no provocation, no anger, only a detached appraisal, the way one might look at an inanimate object.
"Hmph." Danzō forced a snort. He didn't dare hold Ryo's eyes for long, wary of being crushed again by that dreadful aura.
"Kamiyama Ryo. I expect a full, detailed mission report. You had better have truly completed your task." He left the line like a threat, but didn't risk another glance at Ryo or Tsunade. He turned and left in hurried steps, back stiff, an exit that looked, no matter how one squinted at it, like a clumsy attempt to hide his retreat.
The heavy curtain fell back, cutting off that hateful presence.
The air in the tent instantly loosened, the earlier gunpowder haze carried away by a faint breeze.
The chill in Ryo's aura receded like a tide.
Seeing Tsunade still fuming, chest rising and falling, he let his mouth curl into a relaxed arc and teased lightly, "Heh. As expected of you, crazy woman. A few lines and you almost made that fossil pass out."
"Ha." Tsunade flung a roll of medical reports at him. He caught it without effort.
"Impudent brat." She shot him a glare, then her eyes flicked over him, sharpening as her brows knotted. "Get over here. Look at yourself. Your clothes are in tatters. You're covered in wounds, the blood hasn't even dried. At this rate, the day you die somewhere with no corpse left to find, I won't be surprised." Her words were harsh, but the worry beneath them was plain.
She strode over and seized his arm, hard enough to make Ryo grit his teeth.
Her examination was quick and professional. Fingers pressed his shoulders, arms, chest, abdomen. Amber eyes were unyielding, with a thread of worry buried deep. "You ran into a real monster, didn't you? Which blind bastard did this to you?"
"Mm. An old monster, all right." Ryo let her fuss over him. Around Tsunade, the tension he lived in eased without him noticing.
Here, he didn't have to force the facade of cold strength. Maybe because she had seen him at his worst, raw and ragged beneath the white glare of the infirmary lamps, any mask felt pointless.
"Kakuzu. A bounty-hunting freak, rumor has it he once tried to assassinate the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama."
"What, assassinate my grandpa?!" Tsunade's hands froze. She looked up, disbelief curdling into a cold, mocking smile.
"Him? Kakuzu?" She snorted. "Please. He probably lobbed a kunai from miles away and called it a successful attack on the God of Shinobi."
In her mind, the world's strong divided neatly into two categories, Senju Hashirama and everyone else.
The gap was an abyss.
"Alright, alright." Ryo rolled the shoulder she had been manipulating, signaling her to stop. "These are flesh wounds. I'm not dying today. No need to trouble you, Tsunade-sensei. A few rounds of grilled meat and I'll be fine." He trusted his own recovery. Unless it was venom that ate to the core, like that time when rescuing Tsunade's team, or an injury draining his life itself, this kind of damage was routine.
"As you wish." Tsunade snatched her hands back with a huff and reached for cotton and disinfectant. Still, she kept needling him. "And how many times have I told you, don't call me Tsunade-sensei. I don't have a headache like you for a student."
She glared again, a flicker of awkwardness darting under the surface. "Funny how you remember the word sensei when you're in trouble. When you're fine, it's crazy woman this and crazy woman that. I see right through you, only respectful when you need something."
Ryo chuckled, understanding. "Whatever makes you happy." He knew her well. This contrariness was just her crooked way of caring.
He dropped the matter of address and got straight to the point. "During the mission in Kusa, I met someone."
(To be continued.)
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◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)