Meanwhile, outside Konoha.
Nukai glared in Konoha's direction, gritting his teeth. "Damn it! The intel was completely wrong! Why was Tsunade in Konoha?"
One of the ninjas beside him asked quietly, "Captain, what do we do now? Are we just going back?"
Nukai was silent for a moment, then said, "We have no choice but to go back and report the situation to Lord Raikage honestly. What we do next is up to him."
Another ninja said worriedly, "But if we go back empty-handed, Lord Raikage will surely..."
"What else can we do?!" Nukai punched the tree trunk.
"Or... we could wait until nightfall, sneak into Konoha, and try again?"
"It won't work." Nukai shook his head. "I heard that Hidden Cloud once tried to sneak into Konoha and take away a member of the Uzumaki Clan, but that mission failed too. Since then, Konoha has set up a barrier system that can detect any unfamiliar ninja who enters the village."
Everyone fell silent.
It was deep into the night, and Konoha slept in peaceful silence.
Tsunade sat alone in a pavilion, gazing up at the distant stars, her brows furrowed as if she were pondering something important.
Just then, a night breeze blew past, and Tsunade sensed something. She turned her head. A glass bottle had appeared beside her, sitting there quietly.
"Another one?"
Tsunade pulled out the cork, unfolded the letter, and began to read by the light of the moon.
[1. Drift Bottles have a word limit.]
[2. In a world where no Drift Bottles appear, the life Tsunade experiences is called the original timeline. From the moment she receives a Drift Bottle, the information inside will send the timeline down a different path toward a different ending. Each branch becomes a unique parallel world.]
[3. In any world, the timing of Tsunade's receipt of a Drift Bottle is random. (There might be a pattern, but I don't know.) When using Drift Bottles to chat, after the first conversation, you may not receive the second one you were expecting. You might receive the third, fourth... Sometimes you'll get something inexplicable, so you can put it aside for now.]
[4. About the Hyuga. Hidden Cloud will kidnap Hinata, and if that fails, they'll try to extort Konoha. The key issues, besides Hidden Cloud's threat and the old man's attitude, are the divisions within the Hyuga. Some of the Main Family's old fossils will make Hizashi die in Hiashi's place.]
[5. The root cause of the Uchiha Clan Massacre was the Nine-Tails Incident.]
[6. An organization called Akatsuki threatens the safety of the Shinobi World. Its goal is to collect the Nine Tailed Beasts. As of the time I wrote this letter, only the Nine-Tails remains among the Five Great Shinobi Countries' Tailed Beasts. Known members include Orochimaru, Sasori of the Red Sands, Hidan, and Kakuzu.]
[I hope this letter reaches you before it's too late.]
[Recipient: I Want to Be the God of Gamblers]
[Sender: I Won't Be Hokage]
There was a lot to take in.
Tsunade drew a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
First, the letter only said that Drift Bottles had a word limit, but didn't give a specific number. It might vary from person to person, or be due to some other reason. Judging by how the contents of the letter were getting more and more concise, that information was undoubtedly true.
Next, she'd gotten an answer to her previous question about timelines. She hadn't expected Drift Bottles to be such wondrous treasures. If I'd received one sooner, my life wouldn't have been such a failure.
Perhaps in some timeline, there was a Tsunade who'd encountered a Drift Bottle in her youth. From then on, her life had gone smoothly, and she'd made up for every regret.
Just imagining it made Tsunade want to hum with delight.
Thinking about it that way, it was no surprise that precious Drift Bottles were tossed out at random.
As for Kumogakure, the letter had filled in the gaps and explained what had happened.
So many years had passed, yet those bandits really hadn't come up with anything new. It was just like when they kidnapped Kushina.
As for extorting Konoha, if she hadn't stepped in and forced the old man to take a stand, Hidden Cloud might really have gotten its way, given Konoha's current situation. Of course, what they would've gotten was Hizashi Hyuga's corpse.
In the years she'd been away, Konoha hadn't changed at all. It was still just as repulsive.
The Will of Fire, making people sacrifice themselves... Hah!
If that happened, then the reason the Hyuga Clan became so weakened was clear too: an internal conflict, a war between the branch family and the Main Family.
Either the branch family would kill the Main Family, or the Main Family would use the Caged Bird to keep the branch family under tight control. No matter which way it went, the Hyuga Clan would be crippled as far as Konoha was concerned.
Then there was the Uchiha Clan.
Although she hadn't been back for long, she could already tell that there was a rift between the Uchiha and Konoha. They seemed to have been pushed aside, like outsiders in their own village. She'd have to find time to talk with the old man and learn what was going on.
And then there was the Nine-Tails Incident...
Tsunade lifted her bottle and took a long swig. The liquor burned slightly on the way down, making her heart ache.
"Kushina, do you resent me for leaving Konoha?"
Finally, there was the Akatsuki organization.
Of the four names, one belonged to an old acquaintance. No wonder Jiraiya had been able to track down Akatsuki.
Aside from knowing that Sasori of the Red Sands was a missing-nin from Sunagakure, she hadn't heard of the other two at all. She could have Anbu investigate them.
Also, Akatsuki's goal was to collect the Nine Tailed Beasts. What did they intend to do with them?
They couldn't be making a movie, could they? Hah.
Besides, the Tailed Beasts were the strategic weapons of the various villages. Trying to collect them all was tantamount to making an enemy of the entire Shinobi World. But the letter said that, by the time it was written, only the Nine-Tails hadn't been captured by Akatsuki. Did that mean Akatsuki had already captured the other eight Tailed Beasts?
Tsunade felt a chill run down her spine.
If that was true, then Akatsuki's strength was almost inconceivably great. No wonder her other self had said that Konoha was on the brink of destruction.
If Konoha fell, the other great countries wouldn't fare any better. The entire Shinobi World would be teetering on the edge of destruction.
What a grim future...
Tsunade took the letter back to her room, wrote down some key information, then burned the letter.
For now, the most urgent—and easiest to resolve—matter was the Hyuga Clan.
But even as Hokage, she couldn't just interfere in the internal affairs of a shinobi clan. And she had just taken office.
So she needed an assistant.
Tsunade drank the last of the liquor in her bottle, then murmured into the night, her words fading away.
"I wonder if that girl is up to it."
Before you continue