Chapter 149: The Transaction
By the time Tsunade finally issued the summons and the ninjas gathered at the Sixth Division barracks, several hours had quietly slipped away.
Facing Aizen Sousuke's vaguely disappointed expression, like someone who wanted to say something but could not quite find the words, every ninja present felt at least a little ashamed.
A little.
But not enough to stop them.
After all, Seireitei was absurdly comfortable. It felt less like a fortress and more like a treasure vault that had been left unlocked. Everywhere they turned, there were strange tools and records that upended their understanding of the world.
Who could have imagined that a defensive device capable of blocking every known ninja tool would be sitting casually on a table.
Who would believe that a wristwatch shaped chakra shield that activated just by wearing it would be tossed aside like an everyday trinket.
And the written descriptions of Blut Vene and Blut Arterie in those scattered files were even more unbelievable.
Some quick witted shinobi had already tested the recorded techniques and theory for themselves, discovering to their shock that the principles actually worked.
So they had sprinted around Seireitei like scavenging crows and overeager treasure hunters, combing every corridor and courtyard for anything they could understand or use.
These gardens, this perfectly preserved copy of another world's daily life, were an unimaginable windfall for the current Konoha.
Even Tsunade, who should have been the most composed, had ended up sitting in her chosen office, burying herself in serialized novels and research papers until she lost all sense of time.
In the end, Aizen Sousuke had been the one to blink first.
He used the Heavenly Court Void to send a blunt reminder to every ninja drifting through the Invisible Garden. Only then did they reluctantly drag themselves to the Sixth Division Captain's office, walking with the reluctant slowness of people being called away from a festival.
"It seems," Aizen said, seated in the captain's chair as he looked over the gathered shinobi, "that we have at least reached a basic level of mutual trust. It took longer than I expected, but I hope the wait was worthwhile."
His tone was mild, his eyes unreadable.
The ninjas' expressions twisted with shame.
It was hard to deny how ridiculous it all was.
Beaten into the ground, healed, and then allowed to run loose in someone else's world looking for loot.
Framed like that, it did not sound like something that would ever make it into official records.
Tsunade, however, stood at the front in her Fourth Division Captain's uniform, back straight, gaze steady as she met Aizen's eyes.
If anything, she looked completely unbothered.
For a Hokage, having a thick skin was practically a professional requirement.
Her job was to secure benefits for Konoha.
That meant figuring out exactly what this mysterious man could offer, and what kind of changes or shocks he could bring to the village. That was what mattered.
As for the novels, the sequels, and the academic papers, those were already silently filed away in her mind as part of "terms of the deal."
They were hers. There was no need to rush.
"I can only say," Aizen continued, "that you all have very stable habits. Once you feel a place is safe and have established minimal trust, you move quickly to act on your own, and stop caring about what others think."
He sighed quietly, as if mildly impatient.
"Still, I understand how you feel. All of this is beyond your current frame of understanding. Even when it happens right before your eyes, the first instinct is to doubt, to demand more proof, to keep testing its reality. I can fully understand that."
His gaze swept the room.
"In truth, just as you have guessed, I come from another world, more than ten years in your past. The stories that took place there would be dull and meaningless to you. The overall situation is slightly different, but personal relationships and how people see one another have not changed much. You can find traces of your parents there, and even of your younger selves."
He shrugged slightly.
"But I do not particularly recommend digging too deeply into that. After all, this world is decades ahead of my original time line. What you have built here is completely unfamiliar to that era. I cannot be sure whether you have developed technologies or sciences that surpass mine in certain areas. From where I stand now, Konoha does not appear to have progressed much. But I cannot say the same for the other villages."
He folded his hands.
"In short, I believe you are all fairly satisfied with this first gift I have given you. So, shall we move on to discussing cooperation."
"Yes," Tsunade answered without missing a beat. "We should."
She spoke with the composure of someone who most certainly had not been hiding in the captain's office earlier, laughing aloud over the ending of a novel.
The tension that had been hanging over the ninjas finally eased.
If Aizen himself had declared the entire Seireitei a "gift," then in principle, everything within it now belonged to Konoha.
Such a colossal package of knowledge and infrastructure would be enough to rebuild the entire village from the foundation up. Even if Konoha had been smashed flat and replaced with an entirely new crop of shinobi, the benefits would still be enough to make their successors weep with gratitude.
Who in their right mind did not want their children and grandchildren to live in a place that looked like paradise.
Even Kakashi, usually the one who thought three steps ahead, had stopped overthinking once he held his father's sword techniques in his hands.
Within this uncanny city, each person could find some echo of themselves, or some trace their loved ones had intended to leave behind.
It all felt eerily like destiny.
In a world ravaged by war and loss, almost everyone believed, to some extent, that there might be something like a predetermined fate.
They did not speak that belief aloud, but their view of Aizen had subtly shifted.
He was no longer just a mysterious existence.
He had become the one who held Konoha's destiny in his hand, or perhaps the one guiding it onto a different track.
Only someone like that could weave together Konoha's countless tragedies and still see its future and its past clearly.
They did not know much, but they knew this much: everything has a source.
So why could that source not be Aizen Sousuke.
Why could the end of this loop of suffering not already be standing in front of them.
Unfortunately for them, Aizen himself rejected the idea of fate.
"Giving this place to Konoha was the initial gift," he said. "What comes next is the true transaction."
He crossed his arms. Even sitting, he seemed to be looking down at Tsunade.
"I will gradually transfer certain theories and technologies to Konoha, allowing you to upgrade your tools and advance your shinobi. In return, I will need access to your intelligence network, and I will ask you to investigate certain matters on my behalf. Out of respect for your sovereignty, I will not seize control of your intelligence system myself. I will simply make requests when I require information."
"That is acceptable," Tsunade replied without hesitation. "I will vouch for that on behalf of Konoha."
"Then we come to the matter of the gift itself."
Aizen extended his second finger, voice still calm.
"Everything you saw in this Invisible Garden is a reproduction of Seireitei from a particular point in my world's history. Every tree, every stone, every thesis, every scrap of paper, every photo album, all of it is maintained using the excess chakra that leaks from Konoha. If anything happens to it, I will not repair it for you. You will have to manage that yourselves. I am not your caretaker, and I do not offer after service."
"If you are willing to hand over the repair techniques, that will be enough," Tsunade said.
"Naturally. I have no intention of behaving like someone without taste or conscience."
There was no reason to make things harder than they needed to be.
In truth, the technique behind the Invisible Garden was just an extension of space time ninjutsu. It could not be freely moved, but it could be fixed to specific entrances and exits.
The core principles already existed in this world's techniques. Aizen had simply simplified and refined them. As for making entire buildings rise up fully formed from the ground, that was just brute force.
It took no subtlety to carve out a world when you had that much power to spend.
As he laid all this out with disarming frankness, Tsunade's expression grew steadily more relaxed. The other ninjas' gazes also softened.
A world constructed purely from chakra, an entire city recorded, fixed, and manifested through chakra alone.
And it had appeared in the instant a sword hit the ground and rose again.
To a ninja raised on stories of the Sage of Six Paths, this was almost indistinguishable from the legendary power of reincarnation.
Those who believed in destiny and prophecies were already, in the privacy of their hearts, draping layers of myth over Aizen's figure.
It had always been part of the shinobi tradition to give special titles to those who stood far above the crowd, to mark them as beings apart from ordinary men.
Those titles had once belonged to Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha.
Now, with only two demonstrations, Aizen Sousuke had already carved a deep impression into Konoha's collective mind.
They were a village of powerful individuals, talented and rebellious by nature.
But the meaning of "powerful" depended entirely on who they were standing in front of.
And there was no shame in yielding to someone who crushed them so effortlessly, especially someone who smilingly handed them gifts as he did it.
"Thirdly," Aizen said, raising a third finger, "I need Konoha to disclose your current lines of research and your existing results. I do not need detailed experimental records or the names of your researchers. Just tell me what you are studying and what you have achieved. Also, I will be conducting certain experiments in Konoha, possibly in the ancestral Uchiha compound or other locations. Please designate specific areas where I can work."
"..."
Tsunade fell silent, brow furrowing as she thought it through.
Research was easy enough. Every village in the shinobi world had people quietly working on experiments even in the middle of wars.
In truth, the shinobi world did not value innovation nearly as much as survival. Fighting came first, improvement came second if it came at all.
The real problem was the land.
Leasing out a section of Konoha meant severing a piece of the village.
Call it a lease if you liked; Tsunade had no illusions that the land would come back.
In any era, handing over territory to an outside power and allowing them free movement was the kind of decision that could get a Kage dragged down and thrown out.
But when she thought of the Invisible Garden, of the sheer scale of the Seireitei and the knowledge inside it, she found that the price no longer felt impossible.
And, more importantly, she realized she still had room to negotiate.
"I can agree," Tsunade said at last, lifting her head to look Aizen straight in the eye. "But I have a few conditions."
Under the unified gaze of every ninja in the room, she spoke clearly.
"First, you are forbidden from conducting experiments that could destroy the surrounding ecosystem on a large scale. Second, you must take on several disciples from Konoha. Either teach them directly or have them assist in your research. Can you accept that."
"Of course," Aizen replied immediately. "I accept."
"Then we have no problem."
Tsunade let out a slow breath she had not realized she was holding.
If he had pushed back, she still would have agreed.
Even if it was humiliating, how many people in this world could claim they had never made a fool of themselves in front of a power like this.
Besides, he had not asked to turn Konoha into his puppets.
He wanted a functioning relationship, a structure where people could communicate and exchange.
Given that, Tsunade chose to gamble for Konoha's future.
The disciples would have to be chosen from among those most loyal to the village. Only genuine, overwhelming love for Konoha could restrain ambition and temptation.
Even Tsunade did not fully trust herself.
If someone offered to grant her a single wish, with no visible cost, would she truly choose what was best for Konoha without hesitation.
She doubted it.
Better, then, to choose young people.
Young shinobi who were trustworthy, fiercely attached to the village, intelligent, and capable of developing new techniques under guidance.
As those complicated calculations turned over in her mind, she and Aizen finalized the basic framework of their agreement.
In essence, Tsunade still felt like a child being toyed with by an adult.
Aizen was like someone who had found an anthill, then tossed down a piece of meat for fun.
No matter how she turned it over in her mind, she could not see what he stood to gain from any of this.
He never spoke of it.
He kept his own purpose veiled, only saying that he would understand more as time went on.
If anyone else had tried that kind of vague act, Tsunade would have silenced them with a fist and told them to stop acting mysterious.
Facing Aizen, she simply nodded, said she understood, and then began leading the other ninjas back toward Konoha.
What else could she do.
Challenge him to a head on fight and see how long she lasted.
More importantly, Tsunade genuinely did not feel like Aizen was lying.
He seemed uncertain about his own state of existence.
If he truly had crossed over from another world by accident, then perhaps his current actions meant he was trying to reconstruct his original conditions, to push events toward some better conclusion.
Tsunade did not know, and she doubted she would understand even if he tried to explain.
What she did know was that the deal was struck.
She gathered the ninjas and led them into the shadows at the edge of Seireitei.
Following Aizen's earlier instructions, she did not form any hand signs.
She simply willed herself to leave and walked deeper into the darkness.
The world went black in an instant.
Only the faint sensations of movement and the echo of footsteps spread around them.
Just as she was about to feel the outside world again, Tsunade flinched.
"...?"
An illusion. Or something else.
In the instant before they emerged, she thought she saw someone brush past her in the darkness.
A tired looking figure wearing a haori marked with the number two.
Moon white hair, a familiar frame.
The sight hit her like a fist to the chest, and the urge to call out nearly tore its way up her throat.
The white haired figure seemed to freeze, as if sensing something, shoulders tensing as he started to turn.
Then the next heartbeat, the sunlight of Konoha exploded over them.
The darkness vanished.
The shadow world fell away.
They had left the Invisible Garden and returned to their own, ordinary village, bathed in warm light and thick with despair.
Was that a hallucination… or something real.
The thought flickered across her mind and then Tsunade pushed it aside.
It had nothing to do with Konoha's immediate future.
She understood acutely that Aizen's deal was an act of mercy.
At the same time, without knowing the true nature of his research, she could not deny the possibility that he might decide to wipe them out one day.
She could not place Konoha's hopes on another person's kindness forever.
Aizen himself had taught her that.
So there was no reason to reject his help.
Even if he might be an enemy one day, that was a problem for the future.
If, right now, this transaction could thrust Konoha back to the top of the shinobi world, or even keep it there for good, Tsunade saw nothing shameful in accepting it.
That was the weight she bore as Hokage.
She had to be responsible for the village, whatever it cost her personally.
That figure… was it Dan… have I still not let go.
The image of the white haired man in the moon marked haori wove itself together with the memory of Kato Dan in the maze of corridors.
Tsunade shook her head once, hard, and turned her mind away from it.
She let out a quiet breath and stepped fully back into the role of Hokage, throwing herself into work without looking back.
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