Chapter 18: Tsunade's Fury
Tsunade suddenly laughed lightly. "Whatever. Since you're already here, come in and eat something."
"Shizune, grill the meat."
She turned back toward the garden pavilion and sat down, picking up her sake cup for a drink.
"Yes, Lady Tsunade."
Seeing the two still hadn't moved, Tsunade urged them. "What are you standing there for? Sit down."
Hyuga Hinata and Hyuga Kiyonari exchanged a glance. Since respectfully declining would be rude, they might as well go in and sit.
Shizune assembled the small grill, brought over charcoal and placed it inside, then lit it. The charcoal cracked with a sharp pop as orange-red flames immediately leaped up.
Tsunade picked up her chopsticks and placed a piece of grilled meat in her mouth. After chewing a few times, she nodded with satisfaction. "The Akimichi clan really has good taste. This meat is way better than what we bought last time in the Fire Country capital."
"Yes, the employee said it was wild boar hunted fresh this morning." Shizune smiled in response, then distributed grilled meat slices onto everyone's plates.
Tsunade took a sip of sake before asking, "So, what did you two follow me here for?"
Hinata's eyes showed some evasion, but remembering the Life Simulator's contents, she immediately forced herself to calm down.
"I heard Shizune-nee say at the yakiniku shop that Lady Tsunade and the Hokage had an argument, so I... wanted to follow and see... how things were."
Tsunade's lips curved into a playful smirk. "So... you're here to defend the honor of the beloved Hokage?"
However, Hinata and Kiyonari exchanged glances and both fell into silence.
Oh?
Tsunade's interest was thoroughly piqued.
Her body leaned forward slightly, closing the distance. This oppressive posture often better highlighted superior authority in conversation.
"Speak. What do you actually want to know?"
Yet the two remained unwilling to open their mouths.
Tsunade realized direct interrogation wouldn't work—they didn't dare speak.
So she switched strategies, returning to a more relaxed posture before asking in a casual, chatting tone. "Let's change topics then. Do you know about my grandfather, Senju Hashirama?"
Seeing her stop pressing, Hinata relaxed slightly. "The First Hokage... Father has told me about his achievements."
"Hiashi?" Tsunade asked with interest. "What did he say?"
Hinata organized her words briefly. "The First Hokage was hailed as the God of Shinobi. He used Wood Release to pacify the chaotic era and established Konoha Village. He determined the one village, one nation system, leading the five great nations to establish shinobi villages in succession, ending the warring period."
"God of Shinobi?"
Tsunade let out a light laugh. For her, god was... too close.
"Then let me test you. What do you think was Senju Hashirama's greatest achievement in his life?"
This question made Hinata think seriously for quite a while before tentatively offering an answer. "It should be ending the chaotic era."
"So, do you truly understand what the so-called chaotic era was?"
Hinata froze. She opened her mouth but didn't know what to say.
Tsunade drained her cup in one gulp, her eyes growing somewhat hazy. "Second Grandfather once told me that before Konoha was established, the shinobi world was extremely cruel."
"Back then, shinobi traveling outside couldn't even reveal their clan names. When strangers met, they could only exchange given names—absolutely never surnames."
"Once you stated your clan name, you'd discover his clansmen had killed yours, or your clansmen had killed his relatives. Just knowing the surname meant two people who could have been friends would instantly become enemies. That's how Grandfather and Uchiha Madara first met."
The room grew very quiet. Apart from the charcoal grilling meat, only Tsunade's voice echoed.
"Unlike now," Tsunade's tone carried several shades of sarcasm, "where using given names has become something only close people do. Modern shinobi have learned all those noble formalities and hierarchical distinctions."
Shizune lowered her head. She knew Lady Tsunade's words had deeper meaning.
"Back then, even three and four-year-old children had to carry blades onto battlefields."
She looked at Hinata and Kiyonari, gesturing to indicate their heights. "Imagine it—you're holding shinobi blades taller than yourselves on a battlefield, and across from you are groups of adult shinobi who want nothing more than to kill you."
"On the battlefield, anyone holding a weapon is an enemy regardless of age. Those who kill must have the resolve to be killed."
"Groups of twenty-something adult shinobi could hunt down and kill a six or seven-year-old child. A four-year-old child could use explosive tags to blow up an entire enemy squad. There was no mercy, no reluctance—only slaughter and hatred. Either I kill you or you kill me. If you don't die, I die."
"Everyone wanted to survive. The only way to survive was to kill all enemies."
She paused, extending her empty cup toward Shizune to indicate she wanted more. "Grandfather said he once had four younger brothers. Uchiha Madara had five younger brothers. But by the time Konoha was established, only three of them remained."
"Precisely because he'd experienced his brothers' deaths, he wanted to establish a village to protect the children. That was Konoha."
"All that talk about the God of Shinobi who ended the chaotic era—that's just later generations flattering him, taking advantage of a dead man who can't speak for himself. He just... wanted to keep his brothers alive."
Tsunade's every word suppressed indescribable fury. She was telling past stories, yet seemed to be telling her own story too.
What Sannin, what legendary healer—she'd only wanted to keep her brother and lover alive.
"But..." Hinata paused. "Even if the First Hokage's initial thought was simple, what he accomplished truly ended that cruel era. I don't think those are empty compliments."
"Ended the chaotic era..." She murmured to herself, then suddenly laughed—that laughter carrying deep sarcasm and sorrow. "The chaotic era... was it truly ended?"
"The First Shinobi World War. The Second Shinobi World War. The Third Shinobi World War. And predictably, there will be a Fourth, a Fifth, a Sixth..."
Her voice turned ice-cold, yet no one dared speak in refutation.
"The so-called one village, one nation system—at the start, it only existed because the Senju and Uchiha joined forces and the other clans in the Land of Fire couldn't win, so they had to join too. After all the Land of Fire's clans united, shinobi from other nations couldn't win either, so they had to imitate."
"Wars between clans became wars between villages. War never stopped. Death never ended. The form just changed, that's all. Many things aren't as complicated as you think. Don't speculate too much."
"Do you still think Senju Hashirama ended the chaotic era?"
Her words struck like a heavy hammer against every heart.
Hinata's eyes went wide.
****
20+advance chapters at patreon.com/Eatinpieces