Looks Like Seeing You Was No Use

Once the several unfamiliar chakra signatures vanished from the Mind's Eye of the Kagura's perception, Naruto's Shadow Clone slowly rose to its feet.

"Your strength's mostly recovered, right?"

"More or less." Shikamaru let out a light breath, sprang to his feet, and dusted off his butt. "Are you coming back with us?"

"No." Naruto smiled faintly, then turned into a puff of white smoke and vanished on the spot.

Shikamaru staggered. With his physical condition, how much could he possibly recover in just two or three minutes?

"Long time no see, Sasuke."

Atop Hashirama Senju's stone head, Uchiha Sasuke looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar face before him. For some reason, he felt an inexplicable sense of relief.

It was a strange feeling. They had known each other for such a short time.

Is it because he and I are the same kind of person?

Sasuke thought to himself.

"Why are you here?"

"...I came to see you." After carefully sensing the surroundings for a moment, Naruto answered.

Something wasn't right.

Ever since seeing Sasuke, the inexplicable unease in his heart had vanished completely.

As though it had never existed at all.

Yet he was certain that before seeing Sasuke, especially when he learned Sasuke was in danger, he had genuinely worried about him.

The two extreme shifts in his state of mind further convinced him that something within him—something even he and Kurama could not detect—was affecting his emotions.

Possession by a ghost? Two souls in one body? Or had he fallen under Genjutsu...?

Countless possibilities flashed through Naruto's mind. Unlike most people, who doubted the existence of ghosts, he had seen real ones.

Rin from Water-Born Village, and the spirits that appeared when yin and yang alternated in Ashina—he had seen them all with his own eyes.

"Is that so?" Sasuke was puzzled. What kind of reason was that?

Their friendship had not reached that level, had it?

At that thought, Sasuke instinctively became wary, and the chakra within his body began to circulate.

Naruto glanced at him. Through the Mind's Eye of the Kagura, every change in Sasuke's chakra was crystal clear.

Perhaps before meeting Sasuke, he truly had considered fighting him to try and force out whatever was inside his own body.

But after seeing Sasuke, for some reason, he had an inexplicable intuition—no matter if he buried Sasuke here right now, that "thing" would not interfere.

Naturally, Naruto would not do something that brought him no benefit.

So he abandoned the idea of testing his blade against Sasuke.

"See you around!" With that, Naruto leaped down from atop Uchiha Madara's stone head.

"Oh, right. Be careful of the mark on your neck. It's eroding your chakra..."

His voice grew fainter and fainter until it was completely swallowed by the thunderous roar of the waterfall.

Sasuke stared at Naruto's disappearing figure with dark lines across his face.

What the hell was that all about?

Had that guy really come all this way just to see him?

Seriously?

Their friendship was already that deep?

How had he not known?

Filled with doubts, Sasuke crossed the Valley of the End and continued toward the Land of Rice Fields.

As for the erosion caused by the Heavenly Curse Mark—

As long as it gave him the strength to defeat that man, that older brother who had slaughtered their entire clan—

What was wrong with handing his body over to Orochimaru?

Konoha.

Hokage Office.

"You're saying Naruto Uzumaki saved you?" Tsunade asked doubtfully, her hands clasped beneath her smooth chin.

"Yes." Shikamaru, who had only just received a simple bandaging at the hospital before rushing over to report, nodded.

Tsunade leaned back in her chair and helplessly rubbed her brow with her right hand.

What the hell was this?

Konoha was so large, yet when pursuing one Rogue Ninja, the pursuit team had needed another Rogue Ninja's rescue just to survive...

Why didn't those old fossils climb into coffins and lie down already?

Tsunade thought viciously.

What bullshit about preventing her from abusing the Hokage's authority—they had to fulfill their duties as advisors, share the Hokage's burden, and temporarily help manage part of the ANBU.

If all of the ANBU were under her control, let alone chasing one genin, even hunting down a jonin would be easy.

Damn it.

If not for those old fossils' factions being so deeply entrenched in Konoha, she would have joined Jiraiya in sending them off to retire long ago.

Whenever she thought about it, Tsunade felt a surge of anger.

Born with a golden spoon in her mouth, when had she ever endured this kind of humiliation?

Especially Root. It had several hundred members and nominally belonged to the ANBU, under the control of her, the Hokage.

But what was the reality?

She was afraid she could not even command Root's logistics staff.

Bound by the Cursed Tongue Eradication Jutsu, Root was practically a miniature Konoha—and one where Shimura Danzō alone had the final say.

There was no denying it.

During the Third Great Ninja War, Root had indeed shouldered the duty of handling Konoha's darkness.

But Root now had grown too large to control.

Shimura Danzō, Utatane Koharu, and Mitokado Homura, the two advisors, had all invested far too much into it.

Even as the Fifth Hokage, she lacked the power to abolish Root.

There were simply too many interests tied to it.

One's position determined one's perspective. If she were still the old Tsunade, her solution to a "scourge" like Root would be simple: flip the table and reshuffle everything.

She would not care whether it was Shimura Danzō or anyone else.

But helplessly, she was now Konoha's Fifth Hokage. Her every word and action represented not only herself, but also the interests of the vast majority of Konoha's groups.

It was deeply ironic. In a sense, she had to protect a "scourge" like Root, which represented the interests of most people.

"Um, Fifth Hokage..." Tsunade had been sighing and groaning so much that Shikamaru was nearly frightened out of his wits. He hurriedly thought back over what he might have said wrong.

Offending this woman meant offending his livelihood for the rest of his life.

Women could be offended, but not the person holding your paycheck.

"Oh, it's nothing. You can go back first." Tsunade came to her senses as well. There were other people in the office.

She did not know whether it was an illusion, but after sitting in this position for only a month, she already felt several years older.

She was beginning to wonder whether agreeing to Jiraiya's request back then had been too hasty.

She should have made him her Anbu Commander...

That guy might have been an old bastard, but his abilities were beyond doubt.

Should she drag him back?

Tsunade pondered inwardly.

"Fifth Hokage, what about Choji's injuries?" Shikamaru asked cautiously.

The Nara Clan and Akimichi Clan had been close for generations, and they knew each other's trump cards inside and out.

So compared to the others, he understood far better just how critical Choji's condition was.

"Don't worry. I've already had Shizune handle it," Tsunade reassured him.

The Akimichi Clan's Secret Medicine was less a medicine than a specially formulated poison. These specially refined toxins could most effectively force out the physical potential of Akimichi Clan members.

Based on dosage, the Akimichi Clan divided it into green, yellow, and red varieties.

The green Secret Medicine was the least toxic, and one could generally recover through one's own strength. The red was the most potent—after taking it, unless there was outside intervention, the user might as well find a coffin and lie down in it.

This poison might have been terrifying to others.

But to a doctor of Tsunade's level, it was nothing much.

Especially since the Akimichi Clan had provided the medicine's formula. As long as she devised a treatment based on its toxicity, it would be easily resolved.

Compared to Chiyo of Sunagakure's poisons, this Secret Medicine, which had never been refined for killing, was not that difficult to deal with.

"Thank you." Shikamaru inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, bowed, and took his leave.