58 Back to Konoha!
This day Konoha's shopping district was full of hustle and bustle, crowds from either Konoha and other places were mingling together in the trade of various things. Besides the civilian, some Genins could be seen doing their missions ranging from helping people's shopping, escorting someone, even searching for a certain cat owned by the Daimyo's wife.
Two weeks have passed since team 10 cleared their objective in each of their respective mission, due to the result of the investigation concluding that the perpetrator behind the force that attacked the land of wind's border was the man called Haido which was already have been captured, the whole chain of missions were declared as a done deal.
Though some mishap can't be helped, few Gelel stones -as it was called by Haido- were robbed on their way back to Konoha. It was unknown who the culprits were as they did not wear any village symbol. The escort team was slaughtered, only leaving two persons alive that were saved by the reinforcement from Konoha's village.
"That was one heck of a mission, I was on a vacation for Pizza's sake!" Chouji swore in colorful words as he gobbled Yakiniku before him. "It's so d*mn frustrating!"
Beside him was Ino who leaned her back onto the soft pillow chair while poked and softly pinched Chouji's back once in a while. She didn't say a thing and just hummed in her own rhythm.
In front of them was Shikamaru, he promptly ignored Chouji's ranting and silently ate his own food. He knew that Chouji was calm, collected, and mature man, but he showed his childish and ranting demon side more often than not when it was just three of them.
"Thanks for the food!" The trio had done eating, but they still seated lazily.
"Shikamaru, when will you get yourself a girl? Should I introduce someone to you?" Ino started to nudge Shikamaru with her teasing, she then began to seriously ponder. "How about Momoi-chan? She's cute and kind of mature too, although she came from a civilian family. If not, How about Shizuka-chan? She's the gentle type, I'm sure that you'll like her!"
Shikamaru groaned as he heard Ino's non-stop question, he clutched his head as he really became dizzy with Ino's bombardment. Sometimes Shikamaru thinking whether Ino uses a Genjutsu along with her rant, 'What a drag...'
"You're thinking something rude, don't you?" Ino said suddenly with her eyes squinted.
Her sudden words caught Shikamaru off guard, sweat trickled on his back. 'Woman truly is a fearsome creature...' Despite things, Shikamaru kept his poker face and vehemently deny her accusation. "No, I'm not."
"Really...?" Ino peered at Shikamaru with her squinted eyes and giving him the sensation that he was being X-rayed.
"I am." Shikamaru decisively said, trying his hardest to not get affected by her pressure.
"Anyway, so who's you interested in?" As if the previous exchange never happened, Ino instantly changed the topic back to the original one.
Shikamaru got irritated, he then spun his mind and searching for a woman he knew that was outside of the village, thinking that if she was far apart from him his two best-friend will stop bothering him about it. "It's Temari of the sand."
Oh, how wrong he was.
Chouji showed a mischievous smile, while Ino had a shit-eating grin on her face. Each somehow synchronized to formulate a plan of something that Shikamaru will regret to ever say something like that brashly soon.
"Oh, her..." "I approve."
That's the only response Shikamaru got from Chouji and Ino, seeing they stop teasing him, Shikamaru heaved a sigh of relief. 'Finally, they stop bothering me about it.'
Little did he know...
---
-Tsunade POV-
I am so miserable...
I was so foolish...
Why? Just why?!
Why did I even take the offer to become a Hokage?
Now that I accepted it, I have to do these mountains of paperwork. Is it worth it? I can't help but weakly leaned my back onto my seat, my hand massaging my temples in an attempt to give myself a little bit of comfort. I lift my gaze staring at the ceiling, avoiding the sight of these tortures that are presented in front of me.
"Tsunade-sama, here's your tea..."
There she is, my personal assistant and my disciple, Shizune. She's a serious little girl that is so stiff with things like rules and regulations, not that I hate it, but she won't even let me relax with my bottle of Sake at all.
Though she's been very helpful to me in many ways, and I hope she got herself the happiness she deserves.
"Thank you, Shizune. Has anything urgent happened?" I take the glass of tea that she served and take a whiff of the fragrance that the tea exuded, it does help me relax.
"Nothing of high importance happened. But, there's a letter addressed to you, Tsunade-sama. It's addressed to you not as the Hokage, but as the granddaughter of Mito Uzumaki."
"Oh?" The last sentence uttered by Shizune immediately got all of my attention and triggered my curiosity. Ever since the second shinobi war ended, there was never any mention of my grandmother's name. And more often than not, the name mentioned in the same sentence as I was my grandfather's name, and I as the last descendant of Senju, not even once they mentioned my Uzumaki heritage.
I mean, come on...
Where do you think my talent and proficiency with fuinjutsu come from? It's not a secret that most of Senjus were musclebrain, and relied on gut feeling more than strategy. Yes, my genius grand uncle -Tobirama Senju- included. He's genius, yes, but he's definitely a bad schemer and strategist. Plus, he's so narrow-minded person. So of course my talent stemmed from my esteemed grandmother's side, it's a no-brainer question.
"Where's the letter?"
Shizune presented me with an envelope, not an exquisite one, but look neat and tidy. With a curious mind, I opened the envelope and read the content within.
[How long has it been since the death of your grandmother? Do you miss her?]
Well, it's been years since then. She's a strict but kind figure, and yeah I miss her a lot.
[She's a great woman, a great teacher, a great leader, and a great seal master.]
[She's a true Uzumaki, but due to our alliance with Konoha, she's wedded to the Senju clan. No one was unhappy at that time, no one. How can we be unhappy? She's wedded to the "God of Shinobi" after all!]
The letter continuously praises my grandmother and her achievement, the glory of the Uzumaki clan, and the majesty of Uzushiogakure. A smile cannot help but showed itself on my face, yes, it was the great days of the past.
[But, have you ever wondered... the true reason behind Uzushio's fall?]
My gaze stopped at one line that makes me furrowed my eyebrows. Wasn't it because four great villages attack them together, a 4 vs 1 scenario?
[Do you believe with our home-ground advantage, Uzushio cannot fend her enemies?]
[She can. Of course, that's If she was not betrayed by her trusted ally.]
Wait, something is not right...
[And now, she's back for revenge.]
"HOKAGE-SAMA!!! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!"
An Anbu suddenly barged in, and immediately my gaze was attracted by the sight outside of my window.
I won't ever forget the sight that greeted me right now, unknown Shinobis flying in the air dropping clusters of explosives and carpet bombing the Konoha village.
The attack was so sudden, and we're totally caught off guard.
Things of the past came to my mind and remembering the letter which I just got, I put two and two together...
"The land of Sky and Uzushiogakure joined hand. Both powers that needed at least four villages to work together to put one down at a time in the past, now back for revenge..."
Today, a high number of Konoha's people died not knowing what thing happened to them.
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
---
In a hidden cell inside Konoha.
"Shinno-sama, we're tasked by the Uzukage to free you from here. Please come with us." Two grey-clothed persons suddenly emerged from the wall after a series of unknown symbols flashed on it. On both of their forehead area, a perfect circle with a swirl inside could be seen.
The listless figure of an old man suddenly trembled, his eyes snapped open as if a great vigor went back to him. "Has the time finally come?"
"Yes, the time has come."
In the span of one day, things take a drastic turn for Konoha and the Shinobi world as a whole.
"Hail, Uzushio."
