An hour later.
Tsunade straightened her disheveled collar as she hopped off the desk and sat back down in her chair.
A lingering flush still colored her cheeks.
"Tell me, what exactly did you come to see me for?"
Xuandou sat across from her and explained the threat of the Ōtsutsuki Clan in full.
Tsunade's expression shifted from languid to serious, then from serious to shocked, before finally settling into a complicated gravity.
After all, Xuandou and Tsunade already knew each other inside and out.
So Xuandou hid nothing, also explaining his future plan to unify the Shinobi World in detail.
Hearing this shook Tsunade even more deeply.
The Shinobi World had been in chaos ever since the Warring States Era.
War had never stopped.
Everyone had long since grown accustomed to this arrangement of multiple nations holding one another in check.
Nor had anyone ever managed to unify the entire Shinobi World.
And now Xuandou actually wanted to unify it all?
"So your poisoning, your becoming a rogue ninja, and the chaos in the Land of the Moon and the Land of Lightning were all your doing?"
Xuandou nodded.
"The Raikage was controlled by Kotoamatsukami, and I ordered the bloodshed in the Land of Lightning."
"The destruction of the Land of the Moon, too."
"All of it was to gradually unify the Shinobi World and consolidate all our strength against the Ōtsutsuki."
Tsunade fell silent for a long time.
Then a trace of inexplicable sadness appeared on her face.
"Isn't there... a better way?"
"Could we possibly do this without starting a war?"
Thinking of Tsunade's past experiences, Xuandou knew her aversion to war had surfaced.
He stood, walked behind her, and gently rested his hands on her shoulders.
"Tsunade, you know better than I do that ever since