Tsunade's Fury

Tsunade suddenly chuckled. "Never mind. Since you're already here, come in and have something to eat."

"Shizune, grill the meat."

She turned and went back to the pavilion in the courtyard, sat down again, and took a sip from her cup.

"Of course, Lady Tsunade."

Seeing that the two still hadn't moved, Tsunade urged them, "What are you waiting for? Sit down."

Hinata Hyuga and Kiyonari exchanged a glance. Since it would be rude to refuse, they had no choice but to go in and sit down.

Shizune assembled a small grill, brought over some charcoal, and lit it. The charcoal crackled, and orange-red flames immediately leaped up.

Tsunade picked up her chopsticks, put a slice of grilled meat in her mouth, and chewed. Then she nodded with satisfaction. "The Akimichi Clan sure had a good eye. This meat is much better than what I bought last time in the capital of the Land of Fire."

"Yeah, the shopkeeper said the wild boar was hunted just this morning." Shizune replied with a smile, then placed some grilled meat on each person's plate.

Tsunade took a sip of wine and continued, "So, tell me. Why did you follow me?"

Hinata's gaze shifted uneasily, but when she remembered what the Life Simulator had shown her, she immediately forced herself to calm down.

"I heard Shizune say at the barbecue restaurant that you and Lord Hokage had a fight, so... I wanted to come and see... what was going on."

Tsunade's lips curled into a playful smile. "So... you came to stand up for your beloved Hokage grandpa?"

Hinata and Kiyonari exchanged a glance, then fell silent at the same time.

Oh?

Tsunade's interest was thoroughly piqued.

She leaned forward slightly, closing the distance. In a conversation, this kind of imposing posture often made an authority figure's dominance all the more apparent.

"Come on, what is it you really want to know?"

But the two still had no intention of speaking.

Tsunade realized that she wouldn't get anything out of them by pressing them directly. They wouldn't dare say it.

So she changed tactics, settling back into a more relaxed posture before asking in a casual tone, "Let's change the subject. Do you know about my grandfather, Senju Hashirama?"

Seeing that she wasn't going to press them anymore, Hinata let out a slight sigh of relief. "The First... Father has told me about his achievements."

"Hiashi?" Tsunade asked with interest. "What did he say?"

Hinata gathered her thoughts for a moment. "The First was known as the God of Shinobi. He used Wood Release to bring peace to a world in chaos and founded the Konoha Ninja Village. He established the one village, one country system, leading the Five Great Shinobi Countries to establish their own ninja villages and ending the wars."

"The God of Shinobi?"

Tsunade chuckled. To her, a god... was far too close.

"Then let me test you. What do you think Senju Hashirama considered his greatest achievement in life?"

Hinata thought seriously about the question for a long while before tentatively answering, "It should be ending the world's chaos."

"Then do you really understand what that so-called world in chaos was like?"

Hinata froze. She parted her lips, but didn't know what to say.

Tsunade drained her cup, her gaze growing somewhat unfocused. "My second granduncle once told me that before Konoha was founded, the Shinobi World was incredibly brutal."

"Back then, a ninja couldn't even say their surname when traveling. When strangers met, they could only exchange given names. They absolutely couldn't reveal their surnames."

"Once you gave your surname, you might discover that his clan had killed one of your clansmen, or that your clan had killed one of his relatives. Just knowing each other's surnames could turn two people who might have become friends into enemies in an instant. That was how my granduncle and Uchiha Madara met."

The room was very quiet. The only sounds were the meat sizzling over the charcoal and Tsunade's voice.

"Not like now," Tsunade said with a trace of mockery. "Calling someone by their given name has become something only people close to each other can do. The ninjas of today have picked up all the nobles' tedious formalities and rigid hierarchies."

Shizune lowered her head. She knew that Lady Tsunade's words carried a deeper meaning.

"Back then, even three- or four-year-old children had to take up knives and go to war."

She looked at Hinata and Kiyonari, gesturing at their height. "Imagine going to the battlefield with a ninja blade taller than you are, facing a group of adult ninjas who are constantly trying to kill you."

"Once you're on the battlefield, anyone holding a weapon is an enemy, no matter their age. If you kill, you have to be prepared to be killed."

"A group of adult ninjas in their twenties could hunt down a six- or seven-year-old child, and a four-year-old might blow up a squad of enemies with an Explosive Tag. There was no pity, no hesitation—only killing and hatred. It was either you killed me or I killed you. Either you died, or I did."

"Everyone wanted to survive, and the only way to do that was to kill all their enemies."

She paused, then held out her empty cup to Shizune, signaling for her to pour more wine. "My granduncle said he once had four younger brothers, and Uchiha Madara had five. But by the time Konoha was founded, only the three of them were left."

"It was because he had experienced the deaths of his younger brothers that he wanted to build a village and protect the children. That was Konoha."

"The God of Shinobi who ended the world in chaos? That's just later generations singing his praises. They're taking advantage of the fact that a dead man can't speak. He only... wanted his younger brothers to live."

An indescribable fury simmered beneath every word Tsunade spoke. She was telling a story about the past, yet it seemed as though she was talking about herself.

The Sannin, the Medical Sage—she had only wanted her younger brother and her lover to live.

"But..." Hinata hesitated. "Even if the First's original intentions were simple, his actions did end that brutal era. I don't think that's just empty praise."

"Ended the world in chaos..." she murmured, then suddenly laughed. Her laughter was filled with deep sarcasm and sorrow. "The world in chaos... was it really ended?"

"The First Shinobi World War, the Second Shinobi World War, the Third Shinobi World War. We can already foresee a Fourth, a Fifth, a Sixth..."

Her voice was cold, but no one dared contradict her.

"The so-called one country, one village system started because the Senju and the Uchiha joined forces. The other clans in the Land of Fire couldn't beat them, so they had no choice but to join. Once all the clans in the Land of Fire united, the ninjas of the other countries couldn't beat them either, so they had no choice but to follow suit."

"Wars between clans became wars between villages. War never stopped, and death never ended. It merely took another form. Things aren't as complicated as you think. Don't read too much into them."

"Do you still think Senju Hashirama ended the world in chaos?"

Her words struck everyone like a heavy hammer.

Hinata's eyes widened.