Ch250. Back Home

After greetings, Tsunade sat down around a small wooden table on the porch, enjoying the shade and refreshments Anko quickly brought out from her secret anti-Naruto stash. The two women leisurely drank sake as Anko was giving Tsunade a slow update on what was going on in the village.

Anko really couldn't help but cherish the leisure atmosphere. She knew Tsunade wasn't one for formality and neither was she so not having to bow or rigidly stand while giving her report was quite appreciated by the young snake mistress. Nevertheless, she was indeed very curious about this sudden visit of her wayward Clan Head.

"Lady Tsunade? It's been two hours already... Er, don't you think Lord Hokage is taking his sweet time? I thought he would be knocking our gates down the second he was informed about your arrival. You know how much resources the man put forward to locate you." Anko grimaced, "Honestly, he is asking me about your location at least once per week."

"Ah..." Tsunade smirked, "I have sneaked in through one of the old hidden entrances Uncle Tobirama created for our clan. There is nobody to notify the old monkey about my presence as of yet."

Anko owlishly blinked at Tsunade... and grinned. "Ah, is that so?" There were only so many reasons Tsunade could have to avoid detection when coming home. If it was Jiraiya, Anko wouldn't have wasted her time, knowing the man simply skipped the gate in order to get a few minutes more for peeping. Then again, that might have been the reason why the man was such a good spy. Nobody expected him to do anything but perving on women.

Tsunade, however, was a completely different jar of cookies...

Well, Anko still couldn't forget how the woman played her like a fiddle when they met for the first time. Sure it was for Anko's own benefit but still! No matter how grateful she was to Tsunade for opening her eyes, that meeting made it abundantly clear that scheming Tsunade was dangerous Tsunade. 'I wonder how much mayhem she is gonna cause now that she is actually present in the village...'

"That so..." Tsunade lazily nodded and took another sip of sake, "Meh, it wouldn't do to alert him of my presence. I have a few goals to accomplish here..." She hummed and looked Anko straight into the eyes, "There are two things you forgot to inform me about when it comes to the recent happenings of the village."

Anko stiffened, mentally trying to figure out what she could have missed. The spy network she set up in Konoha was not the best but it was sufficient. She didn't want to disappoint Tsunade. "What... exactly do you mean, Lady Tsunade? I told you all I know." She said, feeling a bit awkward as she tried to defend herself.

Tsunade simply waved her free hand in a dismissive matter, "I am not blaming you or anything. Stop being so serious. Geez. Relax." She rolled her eyes, "Yesterday, I killed every single ROOT ANBU I could find in the ROOT base under Konoha, and then I made the said base permanently unusable for any other function than a graveyard." She stated in a disinterested tone as if she was talking about the weather, causing Anko to gape. "I then left a bloody present for Danzo Shimura in his living room. Heh, he took the bait hook line sinker. Apparently, there will be an emergency meeting of the Council tomorrow thanks to the old mummy."

"So that's why the ANBU were so frantically running around the village during the night. Wait... You massacred over two hundred people to make Danzo call an emergency meeting?" Anko asked weakly in an incredulous tone, not knowing how to take that bit of information.

Sure, Anko was one ruthless kunoichi. She had her fair share of assassination missions behind herself, and these were her favorite, but it is quite different to kill one person because of a cause you believe in and simply get rid of hundreds just because they were in the way.

'Heh, maybe that's why I wouldn't be good as a leader.' The thought briefly flashed through Anko's head.

"Of course not." Tsunade rebuked as if she just heard something ridiculous, causing Anko to release a relieved breath. "I killed them because trying to subvert their loyalty to Danzo would be a pain in the ass. How do you persuade a brainwashed individual that his brainwasher is a bad person?" She flippantly added with a gentle shake of her head.

Anko threw Tsunade a deadpan gaze but inwardly, she had to admit that it might be a bit bigger problem than one would think at first. But... Tsunade was, from what Anko experienced, quite good at persuading people to see her point.

Seeing the doubts in Anko's expression, Tsunade elaborated, "This is a ninja village, Anko. The only people who are allowed to have their own forces are Hokage and Clans. Hokage is the de facto leader of the whole ninja force while there is no way to forbid the clans from having their own loyal ninjas short of slaughtering them all. Clan ninjas are ALWAYS loyal to their clan first and only then the village. There are very few exceptions to that rule and it's for this very reason that the Hokage is kept in check despite being somewhat of a dictator."

"Danzo Shimura is neither." Anko added. She never really thought about it from this angle. Why would she? Mitarashi might have been quite a strong clan focusing on various poisons during the village founding but now she was the only one left. Heck, after Orochimaru defected, leaving her behind, the clan assets somehow mysteriously disappeared before she could inherit anything. When she inquired about it, she was bluntly told Orochimaru stole everything from scrolls to money. When they told her that, she was just a kid but lately, Anko didn't know how much she believed that to be the truth.

"Therefore ROOT should have been integrated into the village after making sure they will be loyal. Their very existence meant this village went to shits. The second sensei overlooked Danzo taking in orphans and then making them into emotionless drones Konoha became something any Senju would loathe, proving the whole Council corrupt beyond repair." Tsunade continued, not minding the brief thoughtful expression on Anko's face,

"But killing two hundred ninjas?" Anko furrowed her brows. "The village has around four thousand active ninjas, which isn't much considering Kyuubi and Uchiha Massacre. We are still recovering our forces. Hah~, I simply think killing them was wasteful."

"In the past, ROOT ANBU was filled by ANBU who wanted to give more to the village. They took the most dangerous missions behind the enemy lines during the war. They helped the village a lot. But sensei disbanded ROOT and from then on, Danzo decided to go about it in a different way. He started again, training kids and making them loyal only to himself... this extermination was a long time coming and, to be honest, I am very disappointed it had to be me who performed it and not the village's ANBU." Tsunade sighed before offhandedly adding, "Then again, it can be counted as my first act as the Fifth Hokage."

"I see..." Anko nodded before her head caught up to what Tsunade told her, "Wait, WHAT!? You are taking over the village!?"

Tsunade threw Anko a funny look, "Isn't that obvious? Pray tell, why else would I come back? It's high time someone kicked Hiruzen's ass out of his comfy chair. That said, I will need you to run some errands for me first, before the emergency meeting." She gave Anko a knowing smirk that brought the young woman an unwelcome sense of foreboding.

Seeing it, Anko closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose, "Hyuugas?" She resignedly asked.

"Hyuugas." Tsunade gleefully confirmed. "Mah, mah, don't be so disheartened. After you finish with it, I am going to fulfill another part of our deal. I made sure to create a nice and utterly painful training regime just for you! If you want to kill Orochimaru, you will have to suffer for it first, ne?"

Needless to say, Anko was not a happy camper.