Ch60. Confrontation

Tsunade was walking out of Konoha for an hour already. She was not there even for a day and her mood was already fucked up. She was so angry, she decided to take a bit of a stroll through the forests her grandfather created to cool her head. She wasn't really angry that Sarutobi didn't stop her clan from going extinct. She was mad he allowed her brother to go out of the village even after knowing that somebody was hunting for Senju for a DECADE.

She didn't really think her Sensei would know about the Senju 'purge'. She wanted to believe in him. Believe that he would inform the clan if it was true. But Konan and Rei had a very plausible and chilling hypothesis. They both told her it is only their guess but... she wanted to make sure. It WAS very suspicious, indeed. When she told the councilors that she was sightseeing, she meant more of 'research in the hospital' kind of sightseeing. Yes... Rei was right. There was nobody with Senju blood left in the Konoha. At all. Every descendant was killed. To the last child.

She knew Senju were dead. But it didn't mean extinct. There was still that minuscule chance their blood in the village would awaken again. But now... she could only shake her head. First Konoha let her clan die and then wanted HER to be a baby factory for their loyal ninjas to enjoy themselves. She really didn't know what to be more disappointed about.

Worse yet… it was obvious the 'Senju-hunter' was somebody FROM Konoha as there was no way an outsider would get enough intel to pinpoint every Senju. The only way to do that was blood tests… and that meant the one responsible for her clan's demise IS on the Council and WAS in the room when she spoke the truth about the REAL state of her clan. Tsunade was only sure it was not the Hokage as the man was basically worshipping the ground her granduncle walked on. He would rather kill himself than do this. She would suspect the Uchiha-twerp but… she doubted he had enough brain cells left to do something as elaborate as this.

In the end, it was pointless to think about it. Tsunade wasn't even that interested in 'who' and she could imagine multiple 'why'. As for revenge? What would that accomplish? Her heart demanded her to return to Rei's side rather than plot a pointless witch-hunt in Konoha. It was just not worth the effort.

As she was walking away from Konoha on her own two feet, suddenly ten ninja in white masks surrounded her. By now, Tsunade was aware they were following her for minutes. Since Rei started teaching her how to 'control' nature energy, her sensory abilities improved tremendously. She could have just teleported away but she was too interested in what they wanted.

One of the ninja stepped forward and spoke in a monotonous voice that lacked emotions. "Tsunade-sama. Please return and join CRA or we will be forced to make you participate forcefully." Tsunade was a bit disturbed how… dead, the man sounded but in the end, she derisively snorted. She had just about enough for one day of bullshit.

Bending forward, her fist smashed into the ground.

...

In Konoha, Hiruzen was sighing in sadness at the way his student departed. He looked through the window at his village and couldn't help but wonder if he did something wrong. Just then a huge cloud of dust rose a bit away from the village up to the sky. He recognized it. How could he not when he saw it just on a smaller scale almost daily!

"Tsunade!"

His heart almost jumped out of his throat as he quickly grabbed his armor and ran out of his office, towards the place.

…

The impact of the punch smashed the ground in a radius of hundred meters, making it break. Thanks to her sensory abilities, Tsunade knew nine of the men jumped up before the impact and only one of the ten was affected by it. Ironically it was the idiot that spoke as that action proved to be distracting enough for him to not react on time. The kinetic force she spread through the ground was so fast and strong that it shattered his legs upon contact. She straightened up and crossed her arms. All around, only dust could be seen, and she was quite certain her opponents would use this to attack her.

She was obviously correct as three seconds later, four men with small tantos jumped at 'her' through the dust only to find the spot, she was previously on, empty. They momentarily looked at each other before they heard creaking and felt themselves being squeezed… darkness claimed them.

Tsunade looked at her handiwork as the four men were now trapped in woody vines that spiraled around their bodies, binding them while putting tremendous pressure on them. Tsunade was aware that while Rei might not do it intentionally, his stories about various Jutsu used by some people she was not even sure 'existed'... helped her incredibly with inspiration for Jutsu. For example the Suna Jinchuuriki he was talking about. Tsunade was sure the jinchuuriki containing the Ichibi was a monk who was locked away his entire life but Rei said he could use sand to wrap people in it and squeeze them to death. She had no idea where he got that information but it was VERY inspiring!

More woody vines sprang up from the ground due to her feeding the ground with her mokuton chakra and the remaining men were dragged towards her location by them like ragdolls, smashing to the ground, trees, or each other. She just walked towards a nearby trunk of a tree that fell when her punch impacted the ground and leisurely sat on it. Her eyes were looking at the bodies trapped inside thick vines, all ten of them, as she reached towards the head of the guy with shattered legs. She took the mask of the idiot who spoke into her hands and looked at it with a frown.

"I don't know who sent you... but I don't care." She spoke in a very uncaring and cold tone before the vines constricted… The Root ANBU exploded into a bloody pulp as blood covered the clearing, squirting out of the gaps between the vines as they squeezed the men before promptly vanishing into the ground, leaving only smears and very mangled remains of corpses behind.

...

Koichi was a sensor. He was the so-called eternal Chunin, aged 75. He still played ninja because he found it fun to flex his impeccable sensing skills from time to time! But right now… he was positively elated! His sensory abilities were praised even by the second Hokage and he had indeed incredible range. But… he had to gulp as he sensed what exactly happened in front of them.

"Oi! Koichi, sense something yet?" His teammate asked him, making him purse his lips but...

"No. Nothing, sorry." Koichi shook his head. His eyes teared up as he felt the nostalgic pulse of Mokuton Chakra. The very same he last felt from the man he respected most, Hashirama Senju.

A few minutes later, they came to a clearing and saw Tsunade sit on a thick trunk, playing with a white mask in her hand. All around were bloody puddles, making the shinobi gulp as they smelt the blood in the air. Koichi was looking around but surprisingly, no evidence of Mokuton could be found in the vicinity.

Tsunade-sama, your secret is safe with me. I am sure Hashirama-sama would be proud of you!... He thought as a slight smile appeared on his face only to change into a frown as one ANBU stepped forward with quite a condescending attitude.

"Senju, what happened?" The ANBU asked her somewhat haughtily. Uchiha, most likely and a young one at that, Koichi noted. No sane or experienced person would confront Senju Tsunade while her mood was clearly murder-happy! While shinobi were not sanest of the sort, they compensated with experience… and now was NOT the time to act like a dick!

"This happened." Tsunade boredly said, gesturing to the mangled corpses strewn around the clearing as she lifted her eyes to the ANBU and lazily threw the mask in her hand to him. Koichi saw the young Uchiha ANBU about to smugly catch the slowly flying mask when... the mask somehow 'overpowered' the man and flung him to the tree behind him due to the force of the throw. The tree creaked and broke as the body of the ninja powerlessly flopped to the ground alongside the now broken tree. Thankfully, the man had chakra reinforcement and armor on so he survived.

Tsunade didn't care and turned to the remaining ANBU and Koichi shuddered at her impassionate gaze. "Tell the Hokage that if one more ninja from Konoha attacks me, you will have a new Sanin defecting." Tsunade said and stood up while patting the dust from her thighs away. "Tell him to call me only if something really important happened... like a war. I am sure Jiraiya would be able to find me if I am needed." She turned around and was about to walk away.

"And if not?" The Sandaime's voice sounded from behind Koichi's group, making her stop but not turn around.

"Then that would mean you don't need me half as much as you think if you can't even spend resources to find me." She grunted and continued forward, heedless of Sarutobi's sad expression.