Chapter 207: The Blond Big-What Person
"There's no poison in this, right?"
Uchiha Hikari picked up a pastry and tossed it straight into her mouth.
Her words sounded cautious, but her hands didn't hesitate in the slightest.
After all, with Tsunade, the poison-detox expert, right beside them, even if it were poisoned it wouldn't matter.
"Ah… wait!"
Seeing this, the maid hurried forward, trying to stop her.
"Whaf ish it? Ish it weally piushonous? bleh." (What is it? Is it really poisonous, bleh.)
Hikari chewed a couple of times, then spat out a piece of paper.
"Hm?"
Tsunade took the paper, unfolded it, and saw a single line written on it,
[Leave quickly, it's dangerous]
Now it made sense why only one serving had been brought.
As long as this note was discovered, whoever found it would naturally inform the other two.
Even if they didn't immediately leave after reading it, they would at least be on guard.
"Looks like you don't have any malicious intent. Sit down and talk."
Tsunade pulled over a chair.
"You should leave Hozuki Castle as soon as possible and go tell Raikage-sama, make sure he does not bring a jinchūriki to the island.
Mui plans to use the enormous chakra of a jinchūriki…"
"We already know that. The Box of Ultimate Bliss, right? Get to the point, like who you are."
Tsunade waved her hand, cutting her off.
"Sorry, everyone. I wasn't deliberately hiding my identity."
The maid removed her wig and stripped off the disguise cloak.
"I'm a ninja from the Kusagakure Village, Ryūzetsu. I'm here to stop Mui and destroy the Box of Ultimate Bliss."
"Eh?"
Uchiha Hikari stared at Ryūzetsu's appearance, suddenly thought of something, and turned to Shiromo.
"Doesn't she look like that person you told me about, 'Kidney-deficient Nagato'?"
"Didn't you say before that when members of the Uzumaki clan consume too much chakra and life force, their red hair, which represents vitality, turns white?"
Hikari pointed at Ryūzetsu's white hair.
She remembered clearly that Shiromo had used Nagato as an example back then and had her imagine it.
Now Ryūzetsu had white hair, a hairstyle similar to Nagato's, and eyes that even vaguely resembled the Rinnegan.
Just with darker skin.
"Yeah. A sun-tanned, kidney-deficient, cross-dressing Nagato."
"...No, everyone, the situation is urgent. Could you please stop joking around?"
Ryūzetsu was on the verge of losing it.
Did these people think that just because they were strong, they could act arrogant?
And did she really look that much like a man? Why was she being compared to some cross-dressing, kidney-deficient guy?
"Joking? We're not joking."
The smile vanished from Hikari's face. Her Sharingan activated as she stared at Ryūzetsu.
"We can feel your goodwill. But when you say that, are you trying to claim that the Kusagakure Village stands for justice and has come to purge Mui and destroy the Box of Ultimate Bliss?"
"..."
Ryūzetsu wanted to say yes, but felt that saying it outright sounded far too presumptuous.
What confused her even more was why the other party suddenly showed such strong hostility.
Where had this hostility come from?
"Our village has a little girl named Karin, she's from the Uzumaki clan."
"She and her mother once lived in your Kusagakure Village. Her mother was bitten again and again to drain chakra, until she was sucked to death while still alive."
"If Karin hadn't escaped during the Chūnin Exams, she would have been the next one drained to death."
Shiromo calmly explained the reason.
After Hikari became friends in the Amegakure Village with several girls "around the same age," she naturally learned about their backgrounds and life stories.
Karin's story was especially tragic.
Being treated like a tool made Hikari think of how the Uchiha clan had once used her as a weapon.
In comparison, aside from not being allowed to have a name and later being sealed away for hundreds of years, Karin's suffering was actually even worse.
Hikari's parents had died long ago.
She missed them, but those memories were warm and beautiful.
For Karin, remembering family meant witnessing her mother being drained to death with her own eyes.
Thinking about family brought only pain and despair.
"This…"
Ryūzetsu's expression instantly became awkward.
As a ninja of the Kusagakure Village, how could she not know about this?
But what right did she have to stop it?
She had thought that after that woman died, that ugly and sinful matter had been buried forever.
She never expected it to be brought up today by the people directly involved.
When she thought about how she had just internally agreed with the idea of "representing justice," shame washed over her.
She didn't doubt the truth of the story.
They knew it too clearly.
And taking away the Uzumaki orphan fit perfectly with the village's past behavior.
"I'm sorry. This really was the Kusagakure Village's fault."
"But this matter is extremely serious. Please don't act on impulse, report it to the Raikage first."
Ryūzetsu bowed deeply as she spoke.
"Wait, what do you mean 'report it to the Raikage'? Since when is the Raikage our superior?"
Tsunade immediately sensed something was off.
"Huh? Aren't you the Kumogakure Village's advance team?"
Ryūzetsu exclaimed in shock.
Had she mistaken them?
"Um… may I ask who you all are? Sorry, I'd disguised myself as a prisoner and stayed inside the prison for a long time, so I didn't know what was happening outside."
"According to Kusagakure Village intelligence, the Kumogakure Village's team, that team…"
She trailed off, looking embarrassed.
"Spit it out!"
Tsunade slammed the table impatiently.
"The Kusagakure Village's intel said that in the Kumogakure Village team, there was a woman with golden hair and especially large breasts."
Ryūzetsu gritted her teeth and said it.
Tsunade: "..."
What the hell?
"Ahem. And then?"
Tsunade ignored the strange looks coming from both sides and continued calmly.
"That's it."
Ryūzetsu shook her head.
"That's it?!"
Tsunade was stunned.
"That's all?! Is your Kusagakure Village intelligence department run by Jiraiya? All they do is stare at big-breasted women?!"
"..."
Ryūzetsu was utterly ashamed.
Being from the Kusagakure Village while traveling really felt humiliating.
"Forget it. Since you're full of goodwill, we won't hold it against you."
"But honestly, your knowledge is terrible. That one just stared at you with the Sharingan and you didn't even recognize it? And you still guessed we were from the Kumogakure Village."
Tsunade complained.
"So that was the Sharingan?"
Ryūzetsu looked fascinated.
Apparently she really had never seen it before.
"I'm Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage. As for our goal… it also counts as destroying the Box of Ultimate Bliss, so you don't need to worry."
Tsunade introduced herself, then glanced at Shiromo as she reassured Ryūzetsu.
Well.
Draining all the chakra inside the Box of Ultimate Bliss counted as destroying it too, right?
Perfectly reasonable.
"The Hokage? That's wonderful, then Hokage-sama, could you please stop the Raikage from bringing a jinchūriki onto the island?"
Ryūzetsu still hadn't let go of that concern.
"There's no problem with the jinchūriki coming to the island. There won't be any danger, so you can rest assured."
Shiromo interrupted.
The greatest threat to a jinchūriki on this island was actually Uchiha Hikari and Shiromo themselves.
(End of this chapter)