"Your body isn't even healed yet, and you go messing around. Look at you now—you can't even stand."
Tsunade glared at Anya with a hint of embarrassment on her face.
Anya shot back with a smirk, "Are you a doctor? I'm the patient. If you didn't stop me, that means you approved."
"You..." Tsunade was furious. She realized Anya had become more cheeky lately—no, rather, he was slowly revealing his true nature.
"Just kidding, don't get angry." Before Tsunade could fully lose her temper, Anya cheerfully stepped out of the recovery pod and put on his clothes. Then he said, "Tell me about the fortifications you've set up around Mount Hakuto. I think we might need them now."
"Need them?" Tsunade was taken aback, then waved it off. "Don't be silly. Sunagakure already signed a ceasefire with us, and it's been peaceful here for a long time. If the old man hadn't insisted I stay here, I'd have gone back to Konoha already."
"I hope there's no war either, so I can take it easy and recover here." Anya yawned and stretched lazily.
Hearing this, Tsunade became suspicious. "Something's definitely happened. With your current strength, who managed to do this to you?"
"Nothing major—just exhaustion from consecutive battles." Anya didn't want to elaborate.
Her suspicion deepened. "Aren't you supposed to be at the Iwagakure battlefield right now? How did Yugao bring you all this way?"
Right at that moment, there was a knock on the door.
Tsunade's expression changed instantly. Nobody would dare disturb her during treatment unless something was seriously wrong.
"What is it?" Tsunade asked the person outside the door.
A ninja responded quickly, "Tsunade-sama, the hidden scout just launched a signal flare—there's a suspected enemy force approaching the stronghold."
"I understand."
Tsunade responded and then lectured Anya, "You really are a doomsayer. You were right. I need to go check it out. You're still injured, so don't come out."
"Okay." Anya just nodded.
The moment Tsunade left, Anya muttered under his breath, "Not even a second to rest. Fine, let's see how many deadly moves you have for me next. Bring it on—I'll kill every last one."
After saying that, Anya vanished from the room.
When Tsunade arrived with the stronghold's ninjas, the battle had already started. About a hundred enemy ninjas had appeared—judging at a glance, all of them were from Iwagakure village.
Just as she was about to launch her own attack, the enemy leader noticed her presence and immediately shouted, "Retreat!"
Tsunade hesitated slightly before issuing an order, "Don't pursue—be careful not to fall into a trap."
"Pursue!" Suddenly, Anya arrived directly at the front line wearing his Anbu mask. He gave the order, "I'm the direct Anbu squad leader under the Third Hokage, codename Night. I am now taking command here. Konoha ninjas, listen up—pursue the enemy and don't let a single one escape."
After hesitating for a few seconds, the Konoha ninjas saw that Tsunade hadn't said anything to stop them, and soon joined the pursuit.
Tsunade's face was unusually grim at this moment. Her gaze at Anya brimmed with anger and disbelief. Clenching her fists tightly, she took a deep breath and held herself back.
In the battlefield, arbitrarily stripping someone else of command authority was something even the Hokage wouldn't dare to do. Anya's actions had crossed Tsunade's bottom line. If not for their personal relationship, she would have exploded on the spot.
Although Anya's body had not yet reached its optimal condition, dealing with these ninja was still easy. The real challenge lay in completely wiping out all enemies.
The enemy leader was cunning too. At the first opportunity, he scattered his forces into ten small squads that retreated in different directions in perfect order, clearly having predetermined their escape routes in advance.
Without hesitation, Anya scattered the Konoha ninja and issued a single, relentless order: "Annihilate them all."
The setting sun was as red as blood, and the blades gleamed with frosty coldness. After half a day of pursuit battle, moving through several locations, Anya finally succeeded in killing every single Iwa ninja.
Returning to the Mount Hakuto stronghold, Tsunade stood at the forefront with a cold expression, saying nothing. As Anya approached, Tsunade stepped forward, her gaze sharp as a blade, and directly asked, "How many Konoha ninja were lost?"
Before Anya could answer, one of the Konoha ninja nearby excitedly said, "Tsunade-sama, we've won this battle. The Iwa..."
"I didn't ask you."
With Tsunade's furious shout, the ninja who had just spoken was so frightened that he couldn't utter another word. Everyone nearby felt the atmosphere had become unusually tense and carefully avoided the two as they returned to the stronghold.
"More than twenty ninja," Anya answered Tsunade's question.
"More than twenty," Tsunade scoffed coldly. "Why does this number sound so casual coming from you? Do you understand that since I arrived here to take charge of guarding the Mount Hakuto stronghold, the total number of fallen ninja during this period hasn't even reached this figure? Is this the only explanation you give me for stripping me of command authority?"
"Sacrificing over twenty men to defeat an enemy force of one hundred seems like a profitable exchange by any standard. Furthermore, with my personal intervention to intercept and kill, completely annihilating the enemy accomplished our strategic objective..."
After listening expressionlessly, Tsunade asked, "Is that all?"
"What?" Anya was confused.
"In your eyes, is human life nothing more than a number?" The look in Tsunade's eyes shifted from initial anger to disappointment.
Anya lightly sighed and said, "Compassion has no place in command. Since I'm already here at Mount Hakuto stronghold, let me take over from here. You should return to Konoha."
"You bastard!" Tsunade threw a punch.
Anya didn't attempt to dodge. His body flew backward like a drifting leaf, barely coming to a stop after several meters. A large mouthful of blood spewed from his lips.
After steadying himself, Anya stared at Tsunade and asked, "Is that enough?"
As soon as Tsunade finished punching, she regretted it. Looking at the blood on the ground, she hesitated as if wanting to say something, but ultimately just angrily left with the words: "This is my stronghold. It's you who should leave."
"Captain, are you alright?" Yugao noticed the scene from afar and finally approached to ask after Tsunade had left.
Anya smiled bitterly and said, "I'm fine. She held back her strength, or else I'd already be down for good."
Yugao asked, "Why didn't you dodge?"
"She's angry. Letting her let off some steam might be for the best. Besides, on this matter, we were bound to clash. If this were the past, I wouldn't have done this, but now... I can't afford to. Our opponent has changed." Anya's gaze was far-reaching. He knew that these hundred people today were just the beginning, and there would be more to come.
Yugao picked up on the undertone in Anya's words and asked uneasily, "Captain, did you find something out? Why don't you explain everything clearly to Tsunade-sama?"
"If I explain clearly, I'm afraid she'd be even more unwilling to leave." Anya's intense gaze fell on Yugao. As his eyes locked onto her, Yugao hesitated to look him in the eye.
"Yugao, I need your help."
"How can I help?"
"Help me drive her off with anger."
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