Chapter 208: Not Like Mom
Ryūzetsu left. She didn't return to the prison to continue her disguise, but instead found a place on the island to hide.
She planned to observe secretly from the shadows tomorrow.
After Ryūzetsu left, the room fell into an awkward stare-off.
"Why haven't you left yet?"
Uchiha Hikari shrank back under the blanket again and stared at Tsunade.
"And what about you?"
Tsunade crossed her arms and shot back.
"I…"
Hikari pouted, crawled out from under the blanket, and dove straight into Shiromo's arms.
She even took the initiative to grab Shiromo's hand and wrap it around herself.
"Mmm… Dad…"
"?"
Shiromo slowly typed out a question mark in his mind.
Tsunade was also stunned, staring at Shiromo with a shocked expression, as if saying, "You two are playing this big already?"
Shiromo noticed Tsunade's expression and felt a little speechless.
What was there to be shocked about?
Even if she misunderstood it, what was so strange about that?
You've lived for decades already, if you haven't eaten pork, haven't you at least seen pigs run?
But thinking about it again… maybe she really hadn't.
After all, the ninja world was quite reserved and repressed.
Even Jiraiya writing mildly suggestive novels could make them sell across the entire ninja world.
…And Kakashi's "Buff Man" series had already been treated as treasures by ninjas of all villages, praised as surpassing Jiraiya's works.
"Are you missing the time you spent with your parents?"
Shiromo gently rubbed Hikari's head.
Obviously, Ryūzetsu mentioning the Kusagakure Village had made her think of Karin.
Karin's background and tragic experiences had then made Hikari think of herself.
Before meeting Shiromo, the only warm memories she had were the brief time when her parents named her Hikari and lived together with her.
Don't ask why she could connect so many things at once.
The Uchiha clan were emotionally sensitive and delicate by nature, perfectly normal.
Be grateful there wasn't a whole flashback arc inserted.
"So that's what it was?"
Tsunade realized she'd misunderstood, but… didn't feel embarrassed at all.
"Come on, I'll give you a warm hug too, so you can go back and have a nice dream."
Tsunade warmly opened her arms toward Hikari.
Well now.
Looks like her maternal instincts were finally overflowing with age.
"Hmph."
Hikari didn't refuse and dove into Tsunade's arms.
"Hehe, how is it? Doesn't it feel like being back in your mom's embrace?"
Tsunade gently stroked Hikari's head with a loving expression.
Good grief, this was full-on motherly mode.
Smack.
Hikari suddenly slapped Tsunade's hand away, stepped back, and climbed out with a blank expression.
"Not even close."
"...Why?"
Tsunade felt like some part of her pride had just been attacked.
Shiromo was so young.
Yet Hikari could reminisce about her father in his arms.
Why couldn't she reminisce about her mother with Tsunade?
Tsunade had clearly put in serious effort, how was she still worse than Shiromo casually doing nothing?
"Too big."
Hikari dropped those words and walked out of the room.
Huh?
Tsunade looked at Shiromo in confusion.
For a moment she didn't understand what Hikari meant.
Was she jealous because Tsunade was too big?
So she got angry?
"She means her mother wasn't that big, so you don't feel like her."
Shiromo, acting as Hikari's translator, easily gave the answer.
"..."
Tsunade fell silent.
Weren't bigger supposed to represent more motherly love?
Books really were liars.
Tsunade also returned to her own room.
The next day.
After receiving the news, Mui led everyone to stand at the entrance to welcome the Raikage.
The Kumogakure Village's ships were quite sturdy.
After all, they often went out to sea, and they also had the extremely important Turtle Island.
Shiromo's group stood at the back of the crowd, watching quietly.
First, let's see how many people the Raikage brought…
The Raikage himself was definitely there.
Mm.
Killer Bee, who appeared in the original story, was also there.
Although it felt a little strange for Killer Bee to leave the Valley of Clouds and Lightning at this time, it wasn't a big problem.
There were also Killer Bee's three disciples, including Samui, the only intelligence target Ryūzetsu had mentioned, along with Karui and Omoi.
Mm.
Mm?
Beside them stood a lone figure, wasn't that the Two-Tails jinchūriki, Yugito?
Did the Raikage bring both the Two-Tails and the Eight-Tails?
From the looks of it, the Raikage must have obtained some intelligence about the Box of Ultimate Bliss ahead of time.
Mui's intentions were probably completely known to him.
Precisely because he knew opening the Box required an enormous amount of chakra, but worried that extracting too much at once might harm his younger brother Killer Bee, he directly brought two jinchūriki to share the burden.
(Yugito: Thank you very much, Raikage-sama.)
The Kumogakure Village's most important combat power, the Raikage himself and two jinchūriki, were all present.
It seemed the Raikage was uneasy as well.
They had witnessed the power of the Six Paths era treasures before.
Hozuki Castle being an isolated island made reinforcement difficult, so bringing as much strength as possible in one go was the safest plan.
What looked like a reckless full mobilization was actually the most stable strategy.
On the contrary, the Raikage's usual right-hand men, Darui and C, were absent.
Looks like those two stayed behind to guard the village.
"Warden-sama, time is of the essence. Take us to see the Box of Ultimate Bliss."
After stepping forward for a handshake, the Raikage got straight to the point.
If Mui planned to stall by making them stay overnight, they absolutely wouldn't agree.
"No problem. However, something unexpected happened yesterday…"
As soon as Mui said this, the Raikage frowned, thinking Mui was about to make excuses.
But instead, Mui gestured for the guards to step aside.
Following his line of sight, the Raikage saw two familiar figures.
"Tsunade? No, now she's the Fifth Hokage… and that person!"
The Raikage's pupils shrank.
Tsunade was naturally familiar to him.
Back then, one of his subordinates had been hit by insect-type explosive bombs, and he sought Tsunade's help to save him.
Tsunade casually agreed, but didn't take it seriously at all.
She kept drinking when it was time to drink, gambling when it was time to gamble.
At the agreed time, the Raikage waited in the rain all night.
Only the next day did he win an arm-wrestling bet and finally get his subordinate treated and saved.
From this, you could see how straightforward the Raikage was.
He stood there all night without harboring resentment toward Tsunade.
For the sake of his subordinate's life, he was willing to throw away all pride.
Of course, Tsunade had hemophobia back then, it was actually Shizune who performed the treatment.
But the Raikage didn't know that.
All he knew was that even Tsunade's disciple could easily cure injuries they were helpless against.
As for the other person, the one who truly made the Raikage tense up, Shiromo.
During the upheaval between the Kumogakure Village and the Iwagakure Village, they had launched a small-scale assault and planned to seize the Seven-Tails jinchūriki from the Takigakure Village.
A tiny village like Waterfall had no right to possess a jinchūriki anyway.
But at the waterfall entrance on the battlefront, he encountered the man before him.
His strength was in no way inferior to Tsunade when arm-wrestling.
It was this very man who snatched victory from their jaws and took the Seven-Tails jinchūriki away.
Now this man appeared together with Konoha's Hokage Tsunade.
Could it be that he was here to steal the prize again?
(End of this chapter)