"Tsunade, I was following the rules."
The Third Hokage coughed, his voice dry and lacking conviction.
"Rules? Oh, give me a break, you old bastard. Stop throwing those rules in my face."
Tsunade irritably waved her fist, stirring up a gust of wind.
"That bastard Danzo deployed troops without authorization to ambush a Konoha Elite Jonin. That's treason!"
"Sen was defending himself. What, are you going to slap a rogue ninja label on him?"
The few ANBU who had just been freed hunched their shoulders, barely daring to breathe.
"I never said he was a rogue ninja, but Kotoamatsukami cannot remain in private hands."
The Third Hokage pointed at Danzo's shriveled skull, half covered in mud.
"That belonged to Shisui. Keeping it in the village is like keeping a ticking time bomb!"
"Private hands? Sen belongs to my Senju Clan. You call that private?"
Tsunade planted her hands on her hips, her proud breasts heaving with each breath.
"Why didn't you call it a bomb when Danzo had that eye?"
"Old Man, if you're going blind, I'll fix your eyes for you today!"
Under Tsunade's barrage, the wrinkles on the Third Hokage's face twitched.
"Tsunade, you're the Fifth Hokage now. Show some restraint."
"Restraint? You never stopped lecturing me about restraint before I became Hokage, either!"
Tsunade spat, giving her former teacher no respect whatsoever.
The two argued amid the ruins, spittle flying as neither gave an inch.
Sen squatted beside them, watching until he nearly dozed off.
His fingers still rested along the edge of Danzo's shriveled eye socket.
Beneath that blind right eyelid, a faint light kept flickering.
Sticky chakra surged straight into his mind through his fingertips.
"Say, don't you two get thirsty, arguing in the middle of the night?"
Sen sighed and tilted his head, looking