Tsunade's Unease

Within the sealing prison, the Nine-Tails looked through its confines toward where Konoha once stood. He seemed to see a void, a monster filled with a cold, chilling—perhaps even malicious—hostility toward this world, devouring the entire world.

A strong one. An absolute strong one!

In Uchiha Yue, the Nine-Tails seemed to see another Uchiha Madara—no, another Indra. But there was no longer another Hashirama Senju in this world, nor another Asura.

"Hahahaha, destroy it, Uchiha Yue! Destroy this damned world! Destroy Konoha! Hahahaha!!!"

The Nine-Tails laughed. Whenever he recalled what had happened back then, he felt incomparably exhilarated. Yes, this was it. Konoha had to be humiliated, destroyed, and crushed beneath their feet!

That fool Shimura Danzō had done well. If not for that idiot, how could Uchiha Yue have awakened such terrifying power?

How could that beast Hiruzen Sarutobi have died? How could Konoha have nearly been destroyed?

As a Tailed Beast, the Nine-Tails had not the slightest favorable impression of Konoha or humanity as it was now. He still remembered that beast Hashirama Senju saying that he was dangerous.

Hahaha, dangerous? Anyone had the right to call him dangerous, but what right did you, Hashirama Senju, have to say that?

Besides, had I eaten your rice? I was peacefully loafing around in the Ninja World when you two dragged me into your conflict. From beginning to end, you used me like a tool. And not only did you never apologize, you even called me dangerous?

In the end, you even turned us Tailed Beasts into batteries for you damned ninjas. This was simply unbearable beastly oppression!

Ever since this so-called Ninja Village system had been established, the Nine-Tails had never again known the taste of freedom. For all these years, he had been locked inside a Jinchuriki like a dog. As time passed, the resentment in his heart grew day by day. If not for the seal, he would have long since controlled Naruto and razed Konoha to the ground.

Now that Konoha had become like this, there was nothing in his heart but joy. His only regret was that Uchiha Yue had not completely destroyed Konoha, instead allowing those mongrels of Konoha to escape.

If Uchiha Yue had utterly destroyed Konoha that day and even killed the Jinchuriki directly, the Nine-Tails would have laughed himself to death. By then, he would have been completely free.

"What a pity."

The Nine-Tails lowered his head regretfully. If he knew that Uchiha Yue, if allowed to continue existing, would sooner or later destroy the entire Ninja World, then in an environment where all energy had vanished, who knew whether these supposedly immortal Tailed Beasts could be reborn again.

At that point, who knew whether the Nine-Tails would still feel regret?

Inside a casino somewhere in the Ninja World.

Recently, Tsunade had felt restless. Ever since the day she had won big, she had felt wrong all over, as though something had happened.

That day, Katsuyu came to her.

"Lady Tsunade, something has happened!"

In the room, Tsunade looked at Katsuyu before her, and her heart skipped a beat.

"Katsuyu, what happened?"

"Lady Tsunade, a powerful man named Uchiha Yue appeared in Konoha. He killed your teacher and nearly destroyed Konoha!"

Katsuyu lay before Tsunade and spoke slowly.

"W-what?"

Tsunade was instantly shocked upon hearing this. Although many forces in the Ninja World already knew what had happened in Konoha, Tsunade had long stopped concerning herself with ninja affairs. Besides, every day she was either gambling or on her way to gamble. The only people she came into contact with were gamblers, so naturally she knew nothing about Konoha's affairs.

Very quickly, Katsuyu told her everything she knew.

After hearing it all, Tsunade felt dazed. No, how long had it even been? Konoha had just gone and collapsed on its own?

And it had not even been due to an external cause, but purely because of internal strife.

"Shimura Danzō!!!"

Tsunade clenched her fist and slammed it into the table, as though it were Shimura Danzō himself, shattering it with a single blow.

If Danzo were still alive at this moment, Tsunade truly wanted to grab that old bastard by the head and smash it apart with one punch.

"Danzo, Danzo, look at the mess you've made! And Teacher too—why, why did you allow that old bastard Danzo to lay hands on the village's companions, even directly target the Uchiha Clan and try to wipe them out? Have you truly gone senile?"

Tsunade's expression turned incomparably ugly. Though she had long withdrawn from Konoha's turmoil, that did not mean Konoha was no longer in her heart. How could she not care about the village that her grandfather and granduncle had built with their life's work?

In truth, if the Uchiha Clan had simply been wiped out and Uchiha Yue had not emerged, Tsunade would at most have condemned it a few times and left it at that. Even in the future, when she became the acting Hokage and learned that the Night of the Uchiha Clan Massacre had something to do with that old bastard Danzo—

She would not have done anything to that old bastard Danzo. At most, she would have seized power for herself. As for killing Danzo, that would have been completely out of the question. After all, Konoha needed a dark side. Though, when one thought about it, this so-called dark side was not particularly useful. Aside from attacking people within the village and causing trouble outside, Danzo had no real use.

After all, without Danzo, the Akatsuki Organization would not have gone to such extremes and might truly have become an organization for peace.

Even Orochimaru might not have defected. But there was no helping it—Konoha needed a dark side whose purpose no one even knew.

No, perhaps he was useless to the village, but he was useful to Hiruzen Sarutobi. He could have Danzo do things he wanted to do but could not do himself. Then, when things came to light, he could directly dump the blame on Danzo. And Danzo would take all of it, even believing those ideas had been his own. Where else could one find such a perfect dirty-handed pawn?

Of course, that casual dismissal would only have happened if Danzo had truly succeeded in wiping out the Uchiha Clan. But look at the situation now.

Because he had attacked the village's companions and targeted the Uchiha Clan, Danzo had gotten himself killed. And getting himself killed was not enough—he had also dragged Hiruzen Sarutobi and the village's other companions to their deaths.

This...