Eve of the Finals, Storm Brewing

The day after the elimination rounds ended, the gates of the Senju Clan Compound were nearly beaten to pieces.

Not by enemies. By letters.

Visitation requests. Greeting letters. Joint invitations. Each more polite than the last, each signature more intimidating than the last.

Hidden Sand Observation Delegation: "The heroic bearing of the Senju Clan's young master has earned our deepest admiration. We humbly request an audience..."

Hidden Cloud Village Observation Delegation: "May the spirit of the Wind Pact endure forever. Our two clans share deep roots..."

Even those three people from Hidden Mist who had spent the entire time buried in their notes sent one over.

Tsunade piled the letters onto the table. The stack was a full two inches thick.

"Guess what? That guy from Hidden Sand wearing the hood even came knocking in person yesterday. I slapped him right back out."

Nawaki flipped through two letters, then tossed them back.

"Not seeing them."

"I know you won't." Tsunade took a swig of wine. "But give me a reason so I can reject them with a little elegance."

"Say I'm in seclusion preparing for battle."

"Preparing for what? You just ground the entire field into the dirt. You still need to prepare?"

"Sis, if I say, 'I'm already strong enough, no need to train,' do you believe eight Anbu will be squatting on the walls to spy on us tomorrow?"

Tsunade thought about it and nodded. "Fine. Seclusion."

She swept all the letters into a drawer and locked it.

In the rear courtyard of the clan compound.

Mikoto and Kushina stood facing each other, five meters apart.

Nawaki sat beneath the eaves, propping up his chin with his left hand.

"Again."

Kushina formed hand seals with both hands. A thin layer of red chakra surged over her body—extremely faint, three shades lighter than her hair.

Nine-Tails chakra.

She had drawn out only a trace. Any more, and she would not be able to suppress it.

Mikoto's Three-Tomoe Sharingan was fully activated as her hands rapidly formed Fire Release seals.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball—"

A fireball erupted from her mouth, two meters in diameter.

Kushina wrapped her fists in red chakra and charged straight at it.

Bang.

The fireball exploded. The blast of heat sent two garments drying in the courtyard flying.

Kushina burst from the smoke, her right fist carrying residual red chakra as it slammed toward Mikoto. Mikoto twisted aside, caught Kushina's wrist with her left hand, and pulled with the momentum, yanking her off balance.

"Your right shoulder is too high when you punch." Mikoto released her. "You instinctively raise your elbow, leaving your entire side exposed."

"Got it, got it—" Kushina shook out her hand. "You sound exactly like Nawaki."

"Because he's right."

Nawaki did not interrupt from beneath the eaves.

The two of them worked together far better than they had three days ago. Mikoto's Fire Release handled long-range suppression and field control, while Kushina's monstrous strength handled close-range finishing blows. One was calm, the other fierce; they complemented each other perfectly.

But it was still not enough.

Nawaki closed his eyes, extending the perception of his Sage Body beyond the clan compound.

Everything inside the Four Red Yang Formation was normal.

Outside it—

In Konoha Village's eastern district, three Anbu squads had changed their patrol routes. They looked random, but every route avoided the drainage channel along the southern side of the Senju Clan Compound, the one not covered by a barrier.

Someone was looking for a weakness.

Nawaki opened his eyes, his expression unchanged.

"Rest for ten minutes."

Night fell.

His bedroom window was tapped three times. Short—long—short.

Nawaki pushed open the window.

A figure in a featureless mask stood beneath the moonlight.

"White."

Sakumo Hatake—now called White—vaulted through the window and landed on one knee.

"I found something."

He took a paper strip as thin as a cicada's wing from the inner pocket of his Anbu uniform.

Nawaki accepted it and scanned it under the moonlight. There were only seven lines, but every single one was deadly.

"Eleven Root squads currently deployed outside have all been recalled within three days. The stated reason is 'personnel rotation.'"

Nawaki turned the strip over and continued reading.

"Danzō moved two sets of large-scale sealing scrolls from the southeastern base. Amaterasu Cage level. The last time equipment of this grade was used was twenty years ago, during the purge of a rogue ninja village."

"Amaterasu Cage." Nawaki repeated the name.

It was a blanket barrier seal. Once activated, it could cut off all inward and outward transmissions within a three-hundred-meter radius. Those inside could not get out, those outside could not get in, and even perception could not penetrate it.

Something designed specifically for exterminating clans.

"He plans to strike on the day of the finals." White's voice was level. "The entire village will be focused on the arena, and defenses will be at their weakest. He'll use the Amaterasu Cage to cover the entire Senju Clan Compound, then send in experimental subjects and suicide troops to wipe it out in one wave."

Nawaki folded the paper strip and tucked it into his sleeve.

"Anything else?"

"Yes." White paused. "There's a new attendant at his side. I've never seen his face. But that person's chakra signature... isn't right. It carries the scent of wood tissue."

Nawaki's fingers paused for an instant.

Danzō had used the First Hokage's cells on himself.

That stitched scar.

"Understood. Go back and keep watching. Do not expose yourself before the finals."

White nodded, then silently climbed out the window and vanished into the night.

Nawaki stood at the window, his shadow stretched long by the moonlight.

He smiled.

He was not smiling at anyone. It was the instinctive reaction of a chess player watching his opponent step into the circle he had drawn.

You think you're luring the tiger away from the mountain.

Then I'll show you an empty mountain.

The next day.

Nawaki called Tsunade, Mikoto, and Kushina into the secret chamber beneath the main house.

The Four Red Yang Formation cut off all outside perception.

"Sis. On the day of the finals, you won't be at the clan compound."

Tsunade's wine cup stopped at her lips.

"What do you mean?"

"We'll announce that you've received an emergency patrol assignment and left the compound. Give Danzō the opportunity he has been waiting for."

Tsunade put down her cup and stared at Nawaki for three seconds.

"You're fishing."

"He has already prepared the bait and line." Nawaki spread his hands. "I'm just helping him pick the day to cast."

Kushina did not fully understand the twists and turns behind it, but she understood one thing.

"Danzō is coming to attack our home?"

"Yeah."

Kushina slammed a fist onto the table.

"Then we hit him back!"

Mikoto said nothing. She was considering another question.

"If Lady Tsunade... if Sis isn't here, there will only be the three of us left in the compound. How many people will Danzō send?"

"All of Root's deployable forces. At least eighty to a hundred people. Along with more than two Wood Release experimental subjects." Nawaki raised two fingers. "And a large-scale sealing barrier."

Mikoto's eyelashes trembled.

A hundred Root suicide troops, Wood Release monsters, and a sealing barrier. That lineup was enough to fight a small-scale national war on a battlefield.

"Is that enough?" Kushina asked.

She was not asking whether they had enough enemies.

She was asking whether they were enough.

Nawaki did not answer directly. He crouched and pressed his right palm against the stone floor of the secret chamber.

Wood Release chakra silently seeped into the ground.

Mikoto's Sharingan saw it—Nawaki's chakra spread along the underground root network, infiltrating the soil throughout the entire Senju Clan Compound like capillaries.

Those had not been planted today.

Over the past two weeks, every night after everyone else had fallen asleep, Nawaki had buried them bit by bit.

"Between three and eight meters underground throughout the compound," Nawaki said as he withdrew his hand and stood, "I planted four thousand seven hundred Wood Release seeds. Every one of them has been infused with Sage Body chakra."

This time, Tsunade truly could not hold on. The wine cup slipped from her hand.

"Four thousand seven... when did you—"

"I treated it as a walk before bed."

The secret chamber fell silent for two seconds.

"The instant Danzō steps inside, he'll already be standing in my mouth."

Kushina looked at Nawaki's profile. Moonlight streamed through the secret chamber's only air vent, falling across his jawline.

All at once, she felt that he was both familiar and unfamiliar.

Familiar was the boy who grilled rice balls for her and ruffled her hair.

Unfamiliar was—the coldness in his eyes whenever he smiled.

But she was not afraid at all.

"Nawaki."

"Yeah?"

"After this battle, what will the Senju Empire you talked about... be like?"

Nawaki thought for a moment.

"What do you want it to be like?"

"With lots and lots of people. So no one ever has to eat alone anymore. The courtyard should be big. We can grow flowers. And then—"

Her voice suddenly grew quiet.

"And you'll always be there."

Nawaki said nothing.

He reached out and ruffled her red hair.

Mikoto turned her head aside, the corner of her mouth twitching faintly.

Tsunade picked up the wine cup from the floor and muttered, "All right, all right, I'm leaving. Couldn't you pick a better place to be mushy?"

"Sis."

"What?"

"On the day of the finals, follow the plan."

Tsunade stood at the door with her back to him.

"How certain are you?"

"Completely."

Tsunade did not turn around.

"Then go do it."

The door closed.

Only Nawaki and the two girls remained in the secret chamber. Moonlight slanted in through the air vent, overlapping the shadows of all three of them.

Nawaki closed his eyes.

In his mind, the system panel opened on its own.

Two bond values pulsed simultaneously.

Kushina Uzumaki—Affection: MAX. Loyalty: MAX.

Mikoto Uchiha—Affection: MAX. Loyalty: MAX.

The panel flickered violently.

Then—

[Ding.]

[Core dual bonds have reached maximum level. Family Prosperity has broken through the B-rank threshold.]

[Special reward being calculated—]

[Unlocked: Hashirama Peak Experience Card (Duration: five minutes).]

[Bonus: Temporary full release of all Sage Art: Wood Release abilities.]

[Usage restriction: One use only. Cannot be interrupted after activation.]

Nawaki opened his eyes.

Five minutes.

Hashirama at his peak.

He looked out the window, his gaze passing over the rooftops of the clan compound, over the lights of Konoha Village, and settling on that unseen underground space to the southeast.

Danzō.

Try crashing your ultimate plan into mine.