Chapter 214: The Raikage's Lover Is the Village
"Hokage, I…"
"No need to say anything. Didn't I come over precisely to treat that little girl?"
"..."
The Raikage was a bit surprised.
Has Tsunade's personality really changed after becoming Hokage?
She wasn't like this last time.
Back then, he'd stood in the rain all day, exhausted himself and half-cheated to win an arm-wrestling match, yet Tsunade still didn't personally step in. She only had her disciple Shizune treat his subordinate.
She didn't even glance over once the whole time.
Who knew whether it was confidence in her student's medical skills, or simply not caring whether his subordinate lived or died.
And now Tsunade was actually being so proactive and warm-hearted?
Was she trying to build goodwill with Kumogakure as the Hokage of Konoha?
Or…
The Raikage suddenly thought of that book written by Konoha's Kakashi, the one that made baseless insinuations and slandered him into having improper relationships with Killer Bee and Ōnoki.
There seemed to be an absurd line in it: [So-called medical ninja, the more near death people they treat, the higher their medical skill.]
Could Tsunade be planning to turn Yugito into an experience pack for her medical techniques?
While the Raikage was letting his imagination run wild, Satori had already been completely drained by Hikari.
This time was different from before, multiple seals were absorbing simultaneously.
The efficiency was even faster than during the Dragon Vein incident.
After Satori was completely sucked dry of chakra, all that remained was a mummified corpse that had reverted to Muku.
That's right, Hikari left not a single trace of chakra to sustain Muku's life.
All chakra, in essence, had been absorbed and converted by the Box of Ultimate Bliss.
Leaving even a little would have meant leaving Satori behind.
Hikari had no saintly compassion.
Even if Muku had been using chakra from the Box of Ultimate Bliss, he wasn't walking away alive, let alone if he used his own.
The Box of Ultimate Bliss had no subjective will. All of Satori's dark, murderous thoughts were generated by Muku himself.
Whether or not he was influenced by the Box didn't matter, he still did those things.
The masked man was influenced by Madara too, wasn't he?
Just like Shiromo said last night, having a tragic backstory doesn't magically whitewash your sins and earn forgiveness. What is this, an anime?
Between this father and son, at least Mui only "attempted crime."
Muku had already acted, he'd stabbed the cat girl beside her clean through.
Doesn't that deserve death?
Why leave him alive?
So he could go have a happy ending sushi platter with that gender-bent Nagato over there?
What if this guy suddenly turned around and killed someone again?
So Hikari was utterly decisive, without the slightest mercy.
In the distance, Ryūzetsu watched calmly.
In her heart, her former close friend had already died long ago. What remained was only a monster called Satori.
That was why she had volunteered to infiltrate Hōzuki Castle, to stop Mui from reviving Muku.
But Mui himself was far from calm.
Seeing Satori revert back into Muku, he immediately shouted Muku's name and tried to rush over.
What he forgot was that there were still three Kumogakure ninjas watching him.
Samui remained relatively calm.
Omoi was simply furious.
Karui, on the other hand, showed no mercy at all.
If she could beat Naruto into a pig head, what was a mere prison warden of Hōzuki Castle?
His son who had become a monster had nearly killed Yugito.
And now he still wanted to run over?
Samui blocked his path with her short blade pressed across his neck.
"Fire Release: Heaven..."
Mui suddenly found his courage. For his son's sake, he started forming hand seals to attack Samui.
But once again, he ignored the fact that there were two other Kumogakure ninjas beside him.
After being used to bullying the weak with power, the warden's real combat experience had basically dropped to zero.
He hopped backward to dodge Samui's blade and was just about to form seals when Omoi rushed up from behind and locked his arms apart in a "strong-man restraint hold."
Karui immediately started laying into him with punches and kicks.
She cursed him while beating him.
She even delivered a brutal kick to his precious family jewels, hoping to completely cut off any chance of Mui ever producing another "Muku."
Karui showed absolutely no restraint.
Mui could endure the other blows, but that critical hit was something no man could withstand.
He passed out on the spot.
On the other side.
Hikari dismissed Susanoo.
Armored Susanoo wasn't just a simple shape change, slapping a layer of Susanoo onto a tailed beast.
Susanoo could boost a tailed beast's speed and strength, while the tailed beast could in turn reinforce Susanoo's durability.
They enhanced each other.
That was why Armored Susanoo had been able to sustain Yugito's life.
In essence, Hikari had been burning ocular power and chakra to maintain Yugito's condition.
Once Susanoo vanished, Yugito could no longer hold on.
Even the Two-Tails inside her was now powerless.
With the jinchūriki at death's door, the tailed beast would soon perish as well.
Hikari was at least gentle about it. Instead of letting Yugito collapse to the ground, she held the unconscious Yugito in her arms, descended to the ground, and walked toward Shiromo.
"Men, avert your eyes."
Tsunade patted the Raikage on the shoulder and stepped forward.
The Raikage, who had still been hesitating, froze for a moment when he heard that.
Then he understood Tsunade's meaning and turned away without looking back.
Just then, Killer Bee, who had been elbowed away earlier, ran back over.
"Is Yugito okay? I want to check on her!"
As he spoke, he tried to slip past the Raikage to go "care" for Yugito.
Bang!
Killer Bee got elbowed away again.
The Raikage believed Killer Bee truly cared about his companion, but not that he cared one hundred percent purely.
As Killer Bee's older brother, the Raikage knew him far too well.
This guy was incredibly repressed. The type who'd want to sneak a look even at a big-chested corpse.
He'd need some serious education in the future.
"Slandering such an upright man, Kakashi really went too far."
Watching the Raikage drag Killer Bee away, Shiromo sighed.
(Kakashi: ?)
Just because of his appearance, the Raikage had tragically become a frequent guest in adult novels.
The Raikage was tired. He didn't want back massages. What was in his heart was the development of Kumogakure.
His lover was this village!
Think about it, throughout his life, the Raikage had kept away from women, away from men, and had even lost his most important hand!
(Why is the hand the most important?)
It was clear the Raikage was a pure person, someone who had transcended low-level interests.
When Tsunade said "men avert your eyes" Shiromo didn't move.
After all, this was a huge open platform with no railings, no matter how far he went, everything was still in full view.
So he stayed right there, acting as a human wall.
Mm.
Shiromo glanced back once: "This hole is way bigger than Rin's."
"You'd better be talking about a hole."
Tsunade muttered that while squatting down to start treatment.
"?"
Shiromo popped out a question mark.
Is this the difference between people?
As expected of one of Konoha's infamous trio of gambling, drinking, and… other vices, no sign at all of rising above base instincts.
She could twist even that the wrong way.
Shiromo didn't look back again, but thinking about that glance just now…
Oh.
It looked like half of it had been blown away by the penetrating wound. It's pretty tragic.
Good thing Tsunade was here. Otherwise, Yugito might've ended up with a nickname like "Armorless Bright" for the rest of her life.
(End of this chapter)