Tsunade's judgment had not been "misled" by Akaseki—would Madara Uchiha really listen to some mysterious person who used Wood Release?
Obviously not!
"Maybe... he found someone in the Shinobi World with a special physique similar to Grandpa's and cultivated them into a confidant." Tsunade could only guess.
Tsunade's guess was already quite reasonable. After all, whether it was "a sentient being created by the Rinnegan" or "an ancient human puppet inside the shell of the God Tree," both were a bit too demanding on one's imagination!
But when she put it that way, it really did sound strange—
So after Madara Uchiha faked his death and went into hiding, he found someone resembling Hashirama Senju somewhere in the Shinobi World and quietly cultivated them for all these years?
Was this some substitute romance story? Akaseki had seen far too many of those—
And to Akaseki, the same logic seemed applicable to Indra as well—could Black Zetsu really have been cultivated by Indra?
Because Black Zetsu had stopped him, Indra never saw Ashura again before his death. Yet after Indra and Ashura passed away, their chakra kept reincarnating together, loving and killing one another. Dissatisfied, Black Zetsu slandered Ashura everywhere and guided Indra's reincarnations to hate Ashura's reincarnations—
Akaseki shook his head, throwing those bizarre thoughts from his mind.
"Anyway, that Wood Release ninja was incredibly powerful, and I was badly injured too..." Akaseki said after glancing at Ranwu.
"Oh? Do you want me to take a look?" Ranwu curled her lips.
Of course she understood Akaseki. He was trying to emphasize, "I was injured by someone using Wood Release too, so don't keep bringing up how you were hurt by Madara Uchiha." Ranwu had never held that over him in the first place!
"No need. Nonō already treated me," Akaseki