For a man like Onoki, who had seen Uchiha Madara in his prime, watching Azula fight was like witnessing a pale imitation that had somehow become more terrifying than the original.
She was literally one Mangekyō Sharingan away from becoming the next common person in everyone's trauma.
In a ground fight, she is too fast, she can also obviously flight. She also has ability to show up at your window at 3 AM and leave without anyone's knowledge with the Flying Raijin.
As of now, Onoki couldn't think of a single way to contain her at full power.
If she ever awakened that legendary Uchiha bloodline nonsense blindness like Madara, then the entire shinobi world might as well pack up and go home, find a nice farm somewhere and retire early.
And the part that made his old bones ache even more was the absolutely, terrifyingly, almost definitely fact that she was going to awaken those cursed eyes someday.
It was just a matter of when.
Onoki glanced at A, feeling the weight of every single year he'd been alive pressing down on his shoulders. Iwa and Suna couldn't handle this version of Konoha alone.
And he couldn't afford Kumo to lose their Raikage and get themselves wiped off the map, sadly.
"Alright," he said smiling as if he didn't thought about backstabbing A. "Before we start planning our collective survival, I need to know exactly what's happening on the frontline."
His spies are good, had them in the two villages but they aren't at the 'invite them to dinner and get the full story' level.
The moment the frontline was mentioned, A's face turned darker than a moonless night in the Land of Lightning.
"It's bad," he said flatly. "Let me put it simply: we are losing."
He paused, letting the weight of his words settle.
"Before, we were actually holding our own on equal footing with slight advantage. But then reinforcements led by Tajima and Kagami Uchiha, followed by Tsunade Senju and their respective clans, and suddenly we started losing."
A's eye twitched just thinking about it. Especially about her.
"That Tsunade Senju," he growled, "has mastered some kind of twisted Water Release Chakra Mode. Fighting her is like punching the ocean, even if we're not on water terrain—which should be her weakness, theoretically—her armor just... absorbs everything."
"I hit her and she just smiles, although it was with the help of the other two that she can faces me but nonetheless."
He didn't need to explain that Water Release techniques were supposed to be strongest near actual water. That was shinobi kindergarten stuff.
And speaking of Chakra Modes, A felt a deep existential sadness creeping in. Before, his Lightning Release Chakra Mode made him special and unique. Jinchuriki didn't count because it wasn't their chakra technically.
But now, there was Hatake Sakumo running around with his own version. Azula Uchiha had not one but two Chakra Modes because, and Tsunade just had to join them.
All of them from Konoha.
All of them making his special technique feel less 'exclusive lightning god' and more 'congratulations, you have the oldest model'
"Oh," Onoki muttered. "So the girl figured out the Water Release Chakra Mode."
He let out a wheeze that might have been a laugh if it wasn't so bitter. "Tobirama Senju, the man known as the Ninjutsu Master, the peak of Water Release didn't create this one in his entire lifetime. But another Konoha teenager managed to achieve such a feat, two Konoha teenager at that."
He paused, genuinely baffled.
Uchiha, Senju. I swear, do these clans just... produce their own body weight in monster prodigies every generation? Is it something in the water over there? And if so, why am I not stealing that water?
His face, already looking like a wrinkle with eyes, somehow managed to wrinkle further into solemnity. "Well. That's not ideal."
Beside him, Ebizō finally stirred from his silence, shaking his head with the weary resignation of a man who had long accepted that life wasn't fair.
"Konoha really is the Land of Geniuses, isn't it?" he said, and there was a distinct note of envy in his voice. "Back at Suna, we have to actually work for our stuff. We built puppetry from scratch. Magnet Release was something invented by the Kazekage. Meanwhile, Konoha's over with genius coming out every year just because they are from a major clan with a stable inheritance system."
The Raikage crossed his arms with the kind of smug satisfaction that suggested he was about to say something very obvious and very annoying. "Now you get it. And this is still without their heavy hitters. Neither that Uchiha brat, Hiruzen, Mito or even other two disciples of the Second Hokage."
"So here's my question. Do we really need to waste time for an alliance that we both know is inevitable or do we just take the shot right now, while they're still busy with Kiri?"
"Because once Konoha actually show up with all their cards on the table, the situation would be even more hard to deal with."
Nobody needed a second to think about that one. Because he was right, and they all hated it.
Onoki sighed for the umpteenth time. "Fine. I have a rather direct method to deal with their forced, how about we..."
...
...
...
After sitting through yet another marathon meeting about what those Kumo knuckleheads might be plotting, Tsunade was finally free to stumble back to her little slice of 'luxury'.
Being the head of the Senju clan and the most cracked medic in Konoha at fourteen has its perks.
While most were out there catching sleep on tree branches or using the cold hard ground as a mattress, she actually gets a tent. A whole tent to herself!
It's not exactly the lap of luxury but there was a bed, a table with one (1) chair, that ridiculously fancy bath contraption Azula created, and a small mountain of manga she keeps stored away like contraband. She's got priorities.
First things first: clothes off, bath time. She practically melted into the water... and immediately scrunched up her face. Ugh, not the absolute worst but clearly cooled down.
She let out this dramatic sigh that would make a theater kid jealous.
"Listen to me," she muttered to no one, "I've gotten so spoiled by Azula that I'm out here thinking about using jutsu just to fix my bath temperature."
And then, without missing a single beat, she absolutely used jutsu to fix her bath temperature.
She controlled the intensity of course or it would be enough to destroy the tent despite Fire Release not being her speciality and—
"Oooohhhh yeah. That's the stuff."
Finally, her muscles actually remembered what 'relaxed' felt like. She slumped down until her chin touched the water, steam curling around her face. "This is perfection. Well... this and one of Azula's new manga. And maybe some snacks and that would be actual perfection."
Her brain, already in cozy mode, drifted to that thing Azula's been tinkering with. Some tiny little gadget she's calling a 'ninphone'.
Apparently, it'll let you watch her animated stories anywhere, anytime, like some kind of portable dream machine. Tsunade already had her wallet ready, but six months couldn't come fast enough.
She was just starting to drift off, thoughts getting fuzzy and warm, when her eyes snapped open.
Someone was in her tent.
Specifically, someone was sitting on her bed. On top of the pile where she'd literally just tossed her clothes and her kunai. Azula. Just... sitting there looking right at her.
Azula's eyebrow arched.
"You know, I was actually worried. Heard you fought the Raikage. But..." her gaze swept over the scene—Tsunade, butt-naked, in a bath, looking like a very startled cat, "...you seem to be handling the stress just fine."
(END OF THE CHAPTER)
Had headache yesterday unfortunately and didn't manage to publish a chapter.