Sheltering Konoha!

"You discovered me and still dared to sit beside me. You've got some nerve." Tsunade rolled her shoulders. Now that her arm had been reattached, she was no longer afraid of Oguri Hayashi.

Although Oguri Hayashi's combat style was complex and his tactics varied, making him extremely difficult to read, Tsunade was the First Hokage's granddaughter and the Third Hokage's disciple. She had seen much of the world, and as one of the Three Ninja with quasi-Kage strength, she was no pushover.

"After all, Lady Tsunade happened to want to leave Konoha too, didn't she?" Oguri Hayashi noncommittally took the skewers from beside the campfire, pulled out a salt shaker, sprinkled some salt over them, and handed one to Tsunade.

After all, he was from the Great Foodie Empire. He would never forget salt and spice containers—things ordinary ninja would never carry.

With salt and spices, even ordinary wild boar meat became delicious.

Tsunade paid no attention to his salt and spices. She was an expert in medicine and poisons, and she had more than enough confidence in her ability to identify poison and cure it.

Even Grandma Chiyo of the Sand Shinobi, who specialized in poison, could not handle her, much less Oguri Hayashi.

The reason the two of them could chat so harmoniously was, first, because both had absolute confidence in their own strength, and second, because Oguri Hayashi had exposed Tsunade's hemophobia without revealing it to Konoha's ninja. Who knew how many spies from other villages were among Konoha's ninja? If the other villages learned of Tsunade's hemophobia, Konoha would immediately lose one of its strongest combatants. At the very least, a dead tiger still looked formidable. Even if Tsunade had hemophobia, as long as no one knew, her deterrent power remained considerable.

For example, after the future Fourth Hokage died, why was the Fourth Great Ninja War unable to break out? One reason was that Konoha possessed the strongest tailed beast, the Nine-Tails. Another was that, aside from Orochimaru, the other two of the Three Ninja had not truly defected. Together with the Third Hokage, that made three Kage-level powerhouses. Amegakure, with just one Kage-level powerhouse, dared to wage war against Konoha, the Stone Shinobi, and the Sand Shinobi. Konoha, with three Kage-level powerhouses, remained the unshakable strongest ninja village at the center of the continent.

Oguri Hayashi had not announced this matter in public, which itself showed sufficient goodwill. Tsunade was no fool, so naturally she would not press him too hard.

As stated before, forbidden books were not as valuable as the travelers imagined. They were not worth trading Tsunade's life for. The other reason was the goodwill Oguri Hayashi had shown.

He had not killed anyone, and his tone had remained perfectly courteous.

With the taijutsu that had sent the Three Ninja flying, combined with the Lightning Release Body Cultivation Technique, Oguri Hayashi could have killed quite a few Konoha ninja before the Three Ninja and the Third Hokage arrived.

The Lightning Release Body Cultivation Technique combined with the Shadow Clone technique was enough to make his Shadow Clones indistinguishable from real people, while his solid martial arts foundation gave his clones killing power far beyond that of ordinary taijutsu ninja.

They were all quasi-Kage or Kage-level powerhouses. There was no way they could misjudge that.

So he had shown goodwill, and they had accepted it. Their relationship had eased somewhat further on the basis of keeping Tsunade's hemophobia secret. That was why Tsunade could sit beside the campfire and chat with Oguri Hayashi like this.

Of course, Oguri Hayashi's own strength had also earned their respect. If he had still been a Chunin or an ordinary Jonin, who the hell would chat with him? Even with her trachea and carotid artery cut open, Tsunade would still have punched him. Once the Yin Seal was released, she would still be a fine woman.

"What exactly do you want?" Tsunade ate her meat skewer without forgetting to probe Oguri Hayashi's intentions.

Oguri Hayashi's strength was anything but ordinary. He was already infinitely close to quasi-Kage level. Aside from Chakra still being his weakness, he had almost no major flaws. Considering his age, a powerhouse similar to Hanzo was steadily rising.

Unfortunately, Konoha could not match his ambitions, so he had defected decisively.

But his intelligence was equally astonishing. So even though he had stolen Konoha's Book of Forbidden Techniques, Konoha could not issue a kill order against him. Perhaps Konoha would declare him an A-rank or S-rank rogue ninja, but it would never say that the Book of Thunder, Book of Earth, and Book of Ninja were in his possession. The reason was simple: it could not afford that humiliation. Besides, perhaps Konoha coveted the Book of Earth and Book of Thunder as well?

If they could capture or kill Oguri Hayashi, then use the Yamanaka clan's techniques to search for the Book of Thunder and Book of Earth, would Konoha not gain several more supreme arts?

Therefore, Oguri Hayashi did not care much about his own safety. He merely smiled at Tsunade and lightly flicked away the wooden skewer in his hand after finishing the meat. That seemingly weightless skewer shot into the earth behind Tsunade.

Tsunade's pupils contracted. With that Ninja Tool Throwing Technique, there were probably only a few people in Konoha who could surpass him.

"This Ninja Tool Throwing Technique, along with my taijutsu, was obtained from those four people. Pretty strong, isn't it?" Tsunade had already witnessed his taijutsu in Konoha. In an instant, he had sent the Third Hokage, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya—none weak in taijutsu—flying.

In other words, that taijutsu alone was enough to place him at the pinnacle of ninja.

"Faster, higher, stronger." Oguri Hayashi raised three fingers and spoke.

"There is only one thing I seek: to become stronger."

"I don't want to die. I don't want to become a sacrifice of the ninja world. So after gaining enough capital, I naturally separated from Konoha and established myself independently."

"Konoha taught you to become like this!" Tsunade glared furiously and shouted.

"Konoha has shown me kindness, so naturally I will shelter Konoha in the future." Oguri Hayashi spoke as though it were only natural.

"Konoha needs your shelter?" Tsunade scoffed.

Konoha truly was the strongest force in the ninja world now. The older generation—the Third Hokage, Shimura Danzō, Mitokado Homura, and Utatane Koharu—had not yet grown old. The new generation, the Three Ninja, was full of vigor. The next generation, Shisui Uchiha and Minato Namikaze, had begun to emerge, while younger ninja like Kakashi ensured the flame would never die out.

No matter how one looked at it, Konoha was the strongest ninja village in the world. It would be fortunate if they did not invade others—when would it ever need Oguri Hayashi to shelter it?

Oguri Hayashi smiled faintly but said nothing. He knew clearly that in a few years, Kakashi would fall into despair, the Fourth Hokage would be plotted against, the aging Third Hokage would have to shoulder the burden, Shimura Danzō would harbor vile intentions, Orochimaru would be driven out through Danzō's schemes, Jiraiya would wander the world and ignore worldly affairs, and Tsunade's hemophobia would leave her unable to contribute much. It would likely take a full ten years for Kakashi's generation to slowly grow up and gradually replenish Konoha's depleted strength.

During that time, the Cloud Ninja's move against Hinata Hyuga and Hizashi Hyuga's death in her place would represent just how severely Konoha's strength had declined.

What was more, the many original characters who appeared in Naruto were each treasures and riches to those Reincarnators. They would never let Konoha go!

Tsunade still did not know how important Oguri Hayashi's words, "shelter Konoha," truly were!

He would repay every kindness and avenge every grudge. On the path of becoming an upright and honorable powerhouse, Oguri Hayashi would never leave behind any flaw in his heart!

Besides, were the treasures carried by those Reincarnators not also Oguri Hayashi's prey?!