[Chapter Size: 2000 Words.]
Third Person POV
Konoha, Year 42.
...
...
"Here are some requests from the Hokage, Lady Tsunade."
Lumen, Minato's codename in the ANBU, said while in a town in the Land of Fire.
"So the old man needs me for a few more things... More than what he occasionally asks for..."
Tsunade muttered with dissatisfaction.
Obviously, she was on leave, as she had Konoha's permission for it, but at the same time, the Hokage always ended up requesting her services in the medical field, as there was no one more capable in the village.
The village constantly needed her knowledge and techniques, especially for use in the hospital — as long as she didn't deal with blood, she always helped — including research that was being carried out, even some secret ones, which was the case for dispatching an ANBU team to safely deliver the scroll to her hands.
Minato did not doubt that shadowy research was being done behind the scenes in the village, perhaps nothing as radical as Orochimaru, but he was certain that Danzō had been asking for Tsunade's help many times through the Hokage.
It had been a few days since the conversation Minato had with the girls and Gamabunta, and now he was returning to do missions — this time, not at the border as usual. He had come to this location to deliver the scroll.
"Oh, one more thing. This was added by Nawaki for me, it's a message from your brother."
Lumen said, handing over the scroll as she received it with some suspicion.
"Alright. I'll see what I can do with whatever that old man is asking for... And I'll read my brother's complaints asking me to stop drinking and gambling."
She murmured, with a slightly ironic look, although her eyes gleamed with some suspicion as she stared at Minato, seeing his serious gaze through the slits of the fox mask with yellow stripes.
After that, Minato said his goodbyes and left, leaving Tsunade alone.
Some time later, a 10-year-old child with a village forehead protector on her head approached Tsunade, opening the door of that room.
"Was someone here, Tsunade-sensei?"
It was Dan's niece. Tsunade had decided to take the girl as her apprentice while traveling through the Land of Fire.
"It's alright, it was nothing important. Now continue your training. Just try to control your chakra as you've been doing in the past weeks. No medical ninjutsu until you're good enough."
Tsunade said to the girl, who seemed a bit down but nodded and left the room to go train.
The girl had talent, and Tsunade could recognize that, but nothing compared to her daughter, who could already use medical ninjutsu at the age of 8 while still in the academy.
Soon after, Tsunade, now alone, opened the scroll from the village. It was from members of the village's secret medical department. It reported research done with compatible cells. That made Tsunade frown deeply.
"That bastard... It's him. Just as we suspected."
She murmured.
"If that bastard touches my grandfather's body, I swear..."
Tsunade knew very well what that meant.
Obviously, she wasn't going to comply with the request. She would simply send a response saying she couldn't get any results when they asked for them.
And then, she opened the letter sent by her brother.
First, as always, her brother asked her to go easy on the drinking and gambling, while commenting that everything was fine and that Tsuna was working well at the hospital.
However, in the following lines, a few details caught her attention. The words were in numbers, and with an angry look on her face, she went to her drawer and grabbed a specific book by Jiraiya, against her will. After all, of all types of secret messages, did it have to use those books she hated so much?
This was a secret writing she knew very well would be used, because the next words seemed more like Minato's idea than her own brother's... The same man who had just personally delivered that scroll a moment ago.
Minato had met Tsunade at least a dozen times in the last half year delivering some scrolls to her at the village's request, which allowed them to talk.
Six months ago, he had a serious conversation with her, reporting what had happened in the war regarding her brother and showing the corpses he had preserved until that moment.
They were members of the Root, ninjas from the village itself under Danzō's command who were sent to hunt down Nawaki.
Obviously, the first thing Tsunade wanted was to run to the Hokage's office and demand Danzō's head — and even her former teacher's — for allowing that. She was sure he knew everything. Especially after finding out from Minato as well what had really happened at the meeting and the price of peace, with the future of the Uzumaki clan being destroyed without Konoha helping them.
But a serious conversation between her, Minato, and Nawaki calmed her down.
After all, there were many things at stake.
Besides, even if she acted alone at that moment, it might not be that effective.
Minato tried to choose a new path. One that would plant a seed of doubt throughout the Village with his leadership.
But it would have to be in a way that cornered them.
Minato had a plan that even they thought would be madness on his part, but it was the best possible strategy.
Just thinking about it, Tsunade muttered, irritated.
"This all infuriates me."
If it weren't for Minato, Nawaki would be dead, and he was lucky he activated the Raijin seal at the last moment after his team was killed in front of him and his arm was removed.
They wanted members of the Senju clan.
They probably killed some of them during the war.
And killing Nawaki would be the perfect scenario, and no one would question it, saying he died to enemy ninjas.
Besides, he was a much easier target.
Unlike her, who would be a hard target to catch, and along with Tsuna, they were confined to the medical camp under everyone's watchful eye, Minato had given his hypothesis that they needed someone with very close kinship to Hashirama Senju because the cell research was no coincidence and they were probably using Nawaki's arm for that.
At the same time, Minato made a proposal to recover his arm.
Ironically, it was the same kind of research Danzō had requested to be authorized, through the Third Hokage.
This research aimed to reconstruct Nawaki's arm using Mokuton and connect it to the chakra veins in his body, to be able to perform jutsus and move it like a normal arm.
Minato basically shared the idea without too many details, since he wasn't a genetic medicine specialist.
He only had a notion of how it would work.
But that was enough for Tsunade to be able to develop the project through the idea.
In the end, she was out of the Village not because she was addicted to gambling or drinking — on the contrary, she was quite sober, though she still gambled — but her real reason was indeed because she was using a secret laboratory — one she built herself — in a remote area.
All so she could develop the arm, using her grandfather's cells, from which she had taken a part of his remains and brought with her when she left the village.
She felt somewhat guilty for using Hashirama's body, but it was necessary to rebuild her brother's arm.
Danzō was also trying to make the same kind of prosthesis, since he had lost his arm in the war.
'He won't succeed at that... unless he gets the First Hokage's actual body.'
Minato had said, that Nawaki's arm would still be useless without him having Mokuton.
When she heard that, Tsunade made sure to fill her grandfather's tomb with as many fūinjutsus and protections as possible — both explosive and barrier types.
The place was highly protected.
So much so that even when Minato tried to visit Mito's tomb, he could barely get close to Hashirama's, which was next to the late Uzumaki, because it was too dangerous to approach.
Tsunade was still thinking about what to do, but she would head to the laboratory in a few hours.
Meanwhile, Minato rejoined his team, the mission was already over.
His group was just waiting for him among the trees.
"The mission is over?"
One of them asked upon seeing Minato.
"Yes. There's nothing else to do here.
We should return to the Village."
The mission was simple: just escort the scroll to that point.
But, before they left, he spoke again.
"I want to make a stop. I'm hungry. If you want, I prepared a large amount of ramen yesterday."
Minato said this with a smile on his lips, which surprised everyone, after all, he never offered food in the middle of a mission.
Even so, everyone nodded.
"Sure, why not? You think I'm going to turn down your food, commander?"
One of them said, and everyone agreed as they advanced through the forest.
Minato quickly chose a spot, took out several bowls of ramen, and began offering them to everyone.
They ate in about twenty minutes, while Hanabi kept watch over the area just in case.
Quickly, they returned to Konoha.
They arrived a few hours later, happy they hadn't traveled on an empty stomach, since the trip had been a bit long — hours to go and hours to return.
"I'll report the information to the Hokage. You're free for the rest of the day,"
Minato gave the order.
Quickly, he went to the Hokage's building.
There, he passed on the information, while the Hokage nodded, stamping the successfully completed B-rank mission.
After that, Minato left without many words and headed to his apartment.
On the way, he looked over the village, gritting his teeth.
He ignored the conversations and whispers, but he could clearly hear the rumors about Sakumo, which among the citizens were getting worse — with open insults even from people Sakumo himself had saved, who now turned against him.
Ignoring all of it, Minato arrived home.
Only Mikoto was there.
"Let me see the scroll, Mikoto,"
Minato said.
She took the scroll from her pocket, the one Hanabi had handed her, and extended it to Minato, who took it and opened it quickly.
"Just as I thought..."
he murmured.
There were two names written on the scroll, clearly in Hanabi's handwriting.
"These two..."
Mikoto murmured as well, stepping closer to see the names. There was disgust in her tone.
"Yes. They work for Danzō. They're infiltrated in my team. But I was sure they didn't have the tongue seals... That must've been done in the last six months,"
Minato murmured.
After all, he had offered the ramen specifically to observe his team.
He wanted to find out who among them had yielded to Root and were inside his group to monitor him.
He had noticed how those two avoided eating, pretending to chew while eating slowly to avoid showing their tongues, but that was what gave them away.
At the same time, Hanabi, who was at a distance, wasn't just keeping an eye on the outer area — she was checking the group itself.
With her Byakugan, from afar, through the trees, she searched for signs of the tongue seal.
"What do you plan to do?"
Mikoto asked, with a serious and worried tone.
"Fortunately, I don't think it will last long. I'm sure the elders will try to control me completely. With the information I have, they'll probably remove me from our team and assign me only to Root members, and I'll be just a subordinate,"
Minato said.
"So, it doesn't really matter now..."
he added.
He already anticipated that they planned to corner him.
Not that he was worried about that — in fact, he even thought it might be useful.
"And it will be at that moment, that you'll have the chance to leave the Anbu,"
Minato said, looking firmly at Mikoto.
He knew they would be sent far away.
When chaos started in Konoha, he would need access to them easily, to protect them, and if they weren't in the Anbu and remained in the village, it would be much easier.
Mikoto nodded, understanding.
"Yes. Obviously, if we're no longer on your team, we'll leave the Anbu, Minato."
Minato nodded as well.
"Alright. Now we just have to be careful and see how the elders will play.
We'll have to make our moves based on theirs,"
he said, with a serious look.
-------------Nexts Chapters ----------------
Chapter 239 - We need to get stronger... 01.
Chapter 244 - Sage Mode.
Chapter 254 - The Uzumaki Clan Must Be Saved.
Chapter 263 - Status Quo.
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