Chapter 23 - The Truth

''Tsunade, calm down for a second'' Hiruzen said calmly as Tsunade slammed her hands on the desk.

''What do you mean calm down?! Who is he to tell me that I am expelled from the Senju Clan!'' Tsunade yelled with veins throbbing on her forehead.

''He is the Senju's Patriarch though, so it is within his power'' Jiraya said with a bitter smile, silently cursing his luck to have this female demon so angry when he finally met her again....

''So what?! He lives in the village my grandfather created!'' Tsunade said as the door unceremoniously opened.

''Sumure, Satori?'' Hiruzen asked with a frown on his face, neither of them knocked and neither of them looked particularly 'happy'.

''Greetings, Lord Third, Jiraya-San'' Sumure and Satori said without batting an eye to Tsunade.

''How can I h-...'' Hiruzen wanted to ask how he could help, but Tsunade interrupted with a frown, ''And now even you two are ignoring me?''

Satori and Sumure didn't look at her as Sumure spoke up, ''We come to give you the rapport of the fight earlier. Sukuna-Sama is busy, so he isn't able to deliver it himself''

''I see, I did hear some information from Jiraya. You two faced off against Itachi and made him leave his teammate alone, good job!'' Hiruzen praised as Tsunade spoke up,

''You two are following that kid as well? He is just a child!''

Sumure and Satori gave her a cold glance before looking back at Hiruzen and thanking him. Tsunade's vision darkened and snorted,

''To think the Senju's would trust a child with their feature, absolutely ri-….''

''SILENCE!''

A massive impact was heard as cracks on the ground appeared in the Hokage's Office. The one who yelled was the normally quiet Satori whose muscles were tensed and his eyes red of rage while Sumure had his hands in his pockets, ready to throw all caution to the wind and attack her.

''Satori! Enough!'' Hiruzen said with a frown, but Satori didn't listen as he looked at Tsunade and yelled,

''Who are you to judge him?! You have no idea of anything, you abandoned the clan, abandoned your people! You are the last person that has the right to judge him!''

''I had my reasons why I left! I was in no position to lead a clan in my state, so I choose to leave!'' Tsunade countered which only made Satori more enraged as he answered,

''Because your lover died in your arms?! We all lose people close to us in this rotten world! And the people I lost were slaughtered by people OF THIS VILLAGE!'' Satori yelled he spread out his arms,

''You think you had it 'Oh so rough' when the only thing that happened was your lover, that was planted by Danzo in the first place, die in your arms?! You judge someone who had it hundreds of times worse than you!''

"Satori, calm down'' Sumure composed himself before tapping Satori's shoulder, who shook of his hand and looked at him,

''Why?! Let them know then! Sukuna never asked us to keep it private anyway! If I don't silence this bitch, then I would rather jump between six planks and get buried alive!''

''Satori, let's all calm down for a second...'' Jiraya said as he got between them.

''Calm down?! With this woman in the room? That hag should've drunk herself to death!'' Satori sneered as Tsunade finally lost it as well,

''Why the hell are all of you so angry?! There were three Elders left that had plenty of vigor for dozens of years to take care of the clan! Yet you entrusted a child with the clan?!''

Satori's vision grew red as he desperately held himself back while pointing at Hiruzen, ''Two of them died because of one of Hiruzen's butt buddy's, the only one left is Marani who is on death's door!''

''ENOUGH!'' Hiruzen angrily got up as Satori continued regardless, clearly not caring about the consequences while Sumure was resigning himself as he was ready to buy some time for Satori to get away.

''What do you mean?'' Tsunade asked with a confused and uncertain tone as Satori answered angrily,

''Danzo! Danzo has been hunting the Senju's ever since you left! Are you stupid?! You don't know a damn thing about the Senju's yet you want to be one?! Screw that!''

Tsunade trembled and looked at Hiruzen before asking in a deadly cold tone, ''Hiruzen.... Is that true?''

Hiruzen paused for a short moment before firmly denying, ''Not that I know, I will look into this''

''Hiruzen, you got me back here to succeed because you were getting old. If you're not going to be honest about my clan being hunted than I will leave right now'' Tsunade coldly replied.

''Now, now, Tsunade, I'm sure Sensei has a good reason why-...'' Jiraya interrupted before Tsunade yelled, ''You stay quiet for a minute!''

Jiraya trembled before silently standing to the side, cursing once more about his shitty luck.

Seeing Hiruzen pause, Tsunade sneered and said, ''I know enough'' before looking at Satori with a confused expression and asked,

''I still don't know why you entrusted the Clan to a child....''

Satori's vision grew dark as his mind replayed the scene in that rainy night, his fist clenched before saying, ''Doesn't matter, I'm leaving''

As Satori wanted to leave, Tsunade appeared in front of the door and said with an almost begging tone, ''Please tell me why you all trust him so much. I don't want the clan to trust out of desperation!''

''Get out of the way'' Satori coldly to which Tsunade replied as she crossed her arms, ''Not before you tell me''

Hiruzen just stood to the side as he was curious as well. As for Jiraya? He was scared that he would get an ass-wooping of that female demon if he angered her more.

''I don't care about your feelings, get out of the way!'' Satori said as his body trembled in anger.

''No!'' Tsunade said as she readied herself to hold him back by force if she had to.

''Do you think you dese-….'' Satori wanted to ask but Sumure's bone-chilling voice interrupted.

''He killed his parents''

A deadly silence sounded through the room as their eyes widened in shock before Hiruzen put his hand in front of his lips as his thoughts raced while Tsunade stammered, ''W...what do you mean? What does that have to do with any of this?''

Sumure looked at her with a cold gaze before glancing at Hiruzen, ''Danzo planted three spies in the Senju's, one of which was an ordinary member of the Clan that didn't have access to much information. But the other two..... were his parents''

''You mean, his parents were spies?" Tsunade asked in uncertainty.

Sumure nodded before he said, ''After he found out, he waited until his ascension. At the night of his 'big day'…. He went out, killed his parents on his own, cut of their heads and presented them in the clan. That is how he gained their hearts, at the cost of his own''

Tsunade looked at Sumure as she wanted to say something, but no words came out. Her mind raced as it finally clicked and she looked at Hiruzen who seemed to be in deep thought while his expression was somber.

''Can I leave now?'' Satori asked with a cold tone.

''I'm going back'' Tsunade answered absent-mindedly with a soft voice as she wanted nothing more than to go to the Senju Clan and talk to Marani.

''What?'' Sumure asked with a confused tone as Hiruzen hastily got up and said, ''Tsunade, please let me explain. I only have you as my successor, otherwise I can only hand it the mantle to Danzo! We all don't want that!''

''You don't want to make him Hokage, yet you acted blind to his actions? My clan was being slaughtered by your friend and you did NOTHING!'' Tsunade yelled as she gritted her teeth, 'While I did nothing either...'

Satori's fist clenched until blood sipped out as he said, ''All the Senju's have mixed feelings towards you, personally, I lost my whole family except my twin brother. My wife, my children, my parents, all of them weren't killed by external enemies, but by internal ones! I could do nothing, so I vowed to never be so fucking powerless again, yet I could only watch him kill his own parents to gain the hearts of others while destroying his own! Instead of mourning their deaths, he was working on Clan problems THE NEXT DAY instead of mourning for dozens of years like you!''

Tsunade looked down as she couldn't refute anything, what the kid went through... Yet, she ran for decades, drinking, gambling, thinking all of this wasn't worth it.... Until she met the little blond-haired kid. She thought that kid already had it rough, but Sukuna.....

Sumure looked at Satori's fist before sighing with a hand over his forehead, ''And... here we go''

''What do you mean?'' Satori looked at Sumure with a perked eyebrow.

''It seems like you don't know how extremely overprotective he is yet'' Sumure said with a nostalgic smile.

''Don't act mysterious, just tell me wh-...''

As Satori was getting annoyed, Tsunade hastily jumped away from the wall where the door was at as a clean-cut mark appeared through the wall before it collapsed.

Sumure smiled lightly at Satori who had his mouth opened before he started laughing loudly at the figure that just entered the Hokage's Office with killing intent visible on his face before assessing the situation.

His expression calmed down as he looked at Hiruzen and said coldly, ''I'm here to give my rapport''

The corner of Hiruzen's mouth twitched, but he couldn't say anything in fear that he would not only annoy Sukuna, but also Tsunade who clearly resented him for his choices when she was gone.

''Alright, please leave it here'' Hiruzen said with an expression worse than crying as Jiraya was holding his laugh.

Sukuna didn't say anything and looked at Sumure who smiled with a cheeky smile before he handed the scroll to Hiruzen.

''Alright, have a nice day'' Sukuna said before motioning to Sumure and Satori to come with him as he stepped over the broken wall.

''Do you understand now?'' Sumure said as he pointed at Satori's safety vest.

Satori took off his vest with a confused expression as a seal appeared in his view. A warm smile appeared on his face as he looked at Sukuna who was waiting for them.

This seal was something he had everyone work on the first moment they came back, a seal that would notify the caster once the person loses blood.

He wanted it to notify the caster once someone was in danger, but sadly there weren't any results in that department yet.

''Wait a second!'' Tsunade hastily said as she appeared before Sukuna whose gaze turned cold.

''I'm sorry, I have other things to do'' Sukuna coldly replied as he stepped around her. Tsunade wanted to say something, but Sukuna's voice interrupted,

''Talk to the Elder first, I have no intention of satisfying your curiosity nor giving your mind the satisfaction of forgiveness. You simply do not deserve it''

Tsunade opened her mouth but could only sigh in the end and step aside.

As Sukuna left, her eyes looked at his back with complicated eyes. After hearing his story, she felt guilty, stupid and above all, ignorant.

She felt she had it worst when she lost both her younger brother and lover. She thought that the clan was better off without her in that state, so she left.

Looking back at it now, that was probably the biggest mistake in her life.

'It seems that I have to talk to Marani-San' Tsunade internally said as she looked at Hiruzen who was in distress before walking away as well.

''Jiraya, make sure she doesn't leave the village!'' Hiruzen said as Jiraya gave him a bitter smile.

It was always his job to clean up the mess....