Tsunade stood in front of the corpse and did not move. She did not recognize this face.
This old man had at least lived much longer than ordinary people before he died. His skin hung loosely on his frame, his flesh had been worn away, and he was extremely shriveled, but his back was still straight and his waist was not bent.
A person's posture before death will be fixed in that posture after death. This old man was sitting when he died, not slumped in a chair, but sitting upright.
And that fatal wound on his chest.
Tsunade is a medical ninja. She could tell at a glance that the wound was not a recurrence of an old injury, but was killed by a punch in a head-on confrontation.
How can such a mature person still fight head-on with others?
Tsunade's eyes moved from his sunken chest to the stone chair behind him. There were dozens of broken pipes of different thicknesses, and gray-white dried tissue remained at the broken ends of the pipes.
Her frown deepened.
These lines are not weapons, they are life-sustaining devices - someone used these lines to keep this old man alive for probably several decades.
She silently calculated the scale of the equipment connected to the pipelines in her mind, and the calculation results sent a slight chill down her spine.
A device that can maintain a person's life under such conditions requires at least an extremely powerful chakra source at its core, and there are not many of this level in the entire Shinobi World.
She felt the power remaining on the body.
It's not chakra. Chakra will dissipate within a few hours after death. This old man has been dead for several days and there is not a trace of chakra left in his body.
But she just can feel it.
It's not Sensory Ninjutsu, it's some kind of instinct deep in the Senju Clan's blood that she has never cared about.
Her body tensed instinctively in front of the old man's body, her heartbeat accelerated, her pupils shrank slightly, and her breathing became shallow.
It feels like the prey has smelled the scent left by the predator. The predator is dead, but the scent is still there. The scent alone is enough to make the prey's limbs stiff.
When her grandfather Senju Hashirama was alive, standing in front of her gave her the same feeling.
"Who is this?" Tsunade heard his own voice, dry and hoarse.
"Uchiha Madara."
Tsunade's brain froze at that moment.
She slowly turned her head and looked at Shaoyu, with an expression as if she didn't hear what he said clearly.
Then she turned back to the body, and then back to Shaoyu.
Uchiha Madara, the founder of the Uchiha Clan, the man who ended the Warring States Period side by side with her grandfather Senju Hashirama, and the man who fought with her grandfather in Valley of the End and was killed by her grandfather himself.
The textbook of the Konoha Ninja Academy clearly states that the statue of Valley of the End is still standing downstream of the Naka River, and tour guides take tourists to visit it every year.
Now the Fourth Raikage in front of her told her that the withered old man sitting in this cave and dying of old age was Uchiha Madara.
"Uchiha Madara."
Tsunade repeated the name, and the tone of his voice changed.
"It's impossible. Uchiha Madara has been dead for a long time, decades ago. My grandfather killed him with his own hands, and the body was transported back to Konoha for examination. Are you telling me that this old man with all his teeth is Uchiha Madara?"
"There is no one in the world who can take one Blue Fist shot from me and still sit up without dying. A slap is not enough."
Shaoyu looked sideways at Madara's body.
"Before he died, he tore off the life-sustaining pipeline from Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, activated all the remaining Hashirama Cells, and returned his body to its peak state to fight with me. In the end, he lost to me, but he was proud of it."
Tsunade When he heard the four words "Hashirama Cells", his fingers tightened suddenly, and his nails almost dug into his palms.
Hashirama Cells, her grandfather's cells, were transplanted into a Uchiha Madara to maintain his life.
But that wasn't what really made her pupils shrink.
It was Shaoyu who said that he had been restored to his peak state, and had a fight with the Raikage in front of him, but finally lost to him. Uchiha Madara's peak state means that she has the same level of combat power as Senju Hashirama, which means that in front of this Raikage, even she in her peak state cannot go past a few rounds.
But there is something even scarier.
Calculated by age, Uchiha Madara has lived until now. Valley of the End has been decades since now. If Madara has lived until now, then no matter how the events in between are deduced, there can only be one conclusion in the end.
Senju Hashirama was not the real Madara that he killed back then.
Shaoyu watched Tsunade's expression change.
This woman is not stupid, on the contrary, she is smarter than most ninjas, but she is just too lazy to use her brain.
Now she was standing in front of a corpse, her mind was quickly piecing together all the clues, and the picture she came up with made her face paler and paler.
He suddenly felt that he was really damaged.
From beginning to end, he never told any specific lies. He just put a name, a body, and a lifted dome in front of Tsunade.
Then Tsunade will complete all the remaining derivation by herself, and finally derive a conclusion that is perfectly self-consistent from her perspective, but is actually far from the truth.
But this is what he needs.
The legacy left by Black Zetsu is still there, including the remaining forces of White Zetsu, the existence of Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, and the unfinished plans laid out by Uchiha Madara during his lifetime.
He can slowly dismantle these things alone, but if Tsunade is willing to join Kumogakure, with her medical technology and Senju Clan bloodline's understanding of Hashirama Cells, the efficiency of dealing with Madara's endgame will be improved by more than one level.
As for Tsunade, she can't be attracted by benefits, let alone threats. The only reason that can make her willing to follow you is that she feels she has the responsibility to do it.
Tsunade finally raised his head.
The emotion in those golden pupils has changed from shock to something heavier and heavier - that is the responsibility Senju Clan has engraved in his bones.
"He has lived for so long and is hiding here. He must be planning something."
Tsunade's voice no longer trembled and became very low.
"What exactly is a plan that takes Uchiha Madara decades to prepare?"
"Only some fragments have been found so far, and the complete plan cannot be put together yet. But judging from the known intelligence, he has been killed by me, but his backhand is still operating. Some kind of mechanism, some people, something - will continue to execute his will after his death."
Shaoyu's tone rarely became serious.
"This is one of the reasons why I came to you. Before Madara's backhand is activated, Kumogakure must be strong enough. It is not to annex other ninja villages, but so that when that day comes, Shinobi World still has a flag that can hold it."
Tsunade was silent for a long time.
The moonlight leaked from the hole in the dome, shining on Uchiha Madara's body, Tsunade's golden ponytail, and Shaoyu's expressionless face.