Tsunade gave a light chuckle. She reached out with one hand and ruffled Moku Kairen's head in a playful, pampering pat.
"Who am I? One of the Sannin, a crimson among them, Princess Tsunade of Konoha. Am I afraid of them? Don't worry — I will be your guide and protect you as you grow!"
Kairen pulled his head back from Tsunade's hand, full of questions.
"Why are you so concerned about me?"
"Didn't I already say it? You're one of the Senju clan, and it's right that I should care for my kin."
"Senju? That clan that supposedly vanished — you still care about them?!"
Tsunade nodded. "The Senju didn't disappear. They live among Konoha's villagers, slowly nurturing a spark. One day that spark will bring change to this cursed world. Your Kekkei Genkai and your aptitude showed me the power of that change."
Kairen sneered, he hated vague, mystical talk like that.
"Just tell me what you want me to do."
Tsunade smiled. "You think I'm using you?"
When Moku Kairen stayed silent, Tsunade continued in a measured voice:
"Do you know why the entire Senju clan disappeared? Even I — from birth — did not use Senju as my family name."
Moku Kairen shook his head.
"Because of a policy by the Second Hokage, my grandfather. From the start he saw the huge gap between the commoners and the shinobi families."
"Shinobi families gang up together, constantly seeking family honor and devouring village resources to benefit their clans. It's their nature — an unchanging greed in their blood…"
"My grandfather had extraordinary vision. He knew that such extreme circumstances would eventually explode into a massive revolution. The number of pure-blood shinobi was too small — they could be wiped out by a bottom-up uprising of commoner shinobi. So after the great wars, he had the few surviving Senju hide among the commoners — or rather, merge with them and the whole village."
Kairen's interest was piqued. "Then what happened next?!"
Tsunade's expression darkened.
"The Senju did blend with the commoners, but then the shinobi alliances replaced the Senju. They gradually took control of Konoha, placing their offspring into key positions. Commoner shinobi had to slave away most of their lives to earn jutsu rewards, while shinobi children received them so easily."
"Of course, the Senju who represented the commoners resisted, but one by one they were erased. The traces of the Senju vanished; Konoha stopped being the Senju's village and became a rotten tree ruled by the shinobi alliances."
Kairen listened quietly to Tsunade's words, analyzing them in his mind: the divide between shinobi families and commoner shinobi wasn't as harmonious as anime stories made it out to be.
A clear example was the civil war in Kirigakure — the simmering anger of the commoner shinobi had been building since the village's founding up to the era of the Fourth Mizukage.
Obito had only tossed a spark into that tinder. Even without Obito, a revolution would have erupted.
The shinobi families controlled ninety percent of the village's resources; the remaining ten percent was what commoner shinobi had to fight and sweat for.
Tsunade glanced up at the moon. The night was cold; even fire could not chase away the chill that clung to her.
"Do you know how many factions Konoha is split into now?"
"Factions?!" Kairen was stunned — isn't it just the Will of Fire camp and the anti-Will of Fire camp?
Tsunade saw he didn't know and spoke softly: "There are basically three. One is the shinobi-families' faction — represented by clans like Sarutobi, Shimura, the Ino-Shika-Chō, Inuzuka, and Aburame — those secret-jutsu families. The Third Hokage, my teacher, represented them. Then there's a neutral faction that advocates a balance between shinobi families and commoners. Jiraiya is counted among them. The third is the integration faction, which supports fully merging shinobi with the commoners — the inheritors of the Senju will."
Kairen looked at her sharply.
"You're part of the integration faction."
Tsunade shook her head.
"I'm not in any faction. I don't want to join those messy political struggles. But I lean toward the integration faction because that's the legacy of the Senju will."
Moku Kairen put a piece together.
"You want me to join the integration faction and, in the future, become Hokage and merge all the shinobi families into the commoners."
Tsunade nodded. "Exactly. The shinobi talent inside you has the potential to do this."
Kairen spread his hands.
"How do you know I'll listen to you? Why would I wade into this mess?"
"You dare?!" Tsunade pulled Kairen close and ruffled his hair hard.
"Since you're kin of the Senju and I'm older — your sister, in fact — and you have no guardian now, I'll be your guardian. Now — call me 'sister' so I can hear it."
Tsunade remembered the way Nawaki used to call behind her, and a flicker of nostalgia crossed her face. If Nawaki were still alive, he'd be a handsome young man now.
The night deepened. The conversation between the woman and the boy grew longer; the woman grew more puzzled and her thoughts more tangled, while the boy grew bolder, his words rolling over the woman like a wheel over a face.
Kairen eased off the throttle and voiced some of the doubts in his heart.
"What about the Hyūga and the Uchiha? Their clans have been passed down for a thousand years — aren't they in the centers of power?"
Tsunade answered lightly: "The Uchiha were trapped by my grandfather — tied to the guard corps. They seem to have the right to patrol the village, but in truth they've been kept far from the true centers of power."
"The Hyūga are more low-key, they never engage in power struggles. They're honest as a family, but the caged birds inside that clan are nauseating to see."
Kairen thought about it: though the Uchiha and Hyūga were proud bloodline shinobi, both had lived rather humiliatingly. One was ostracized and kept away from power; the other buried itself in clan affairs, groveling before Konoha's leadership while striking hard inside.
...
Sunagakure main camp.
Kazekage Rasa flung everything off his desk in a fit of rage; his murderous voice carried outside the office.
"Moku Kairen, Moku Kairen, you damned brat — I'll tear you limb from limb!"
Chiyo and Ebizō slowly entered his office.
Ebizō twirled his moustache.
"Maire's team sent word that Moku Kairen might be Konoha's Nine-Tails jinchūriki. Is that reliable?"
Rasa shook his head hard.
"Impossible. Shabei thoroughly examined his body and found no sign of a seal, his Nine-Tails chakra must be some anomaly."
Chiyo rubbed her brow. "The brat is growing fast. Four Jōnin and eight Special Jōnin couldn't catch him — they were even killed by him. What do we do? If we let him keep growing, he could become like Senju Hashirama."
Rasa paced miserably, itching to charge to Konoha's frontline and tear Moku Kairen to pieces.
But he couldn't—the Kage's movements were watched by many spies. If he marched out to Konoha, information would certainly leak.