Driven purely by survival instinct, the Earth Grudge Fear organism tried to slither away from this unsettling place—but without its host, it was nothing but a helpless parasite.
Seeing the sealing formula fully activate, Mitsuki clapped his hands together, crisp and decisive.
"Vajra Sattva's Hand Descending!"
The Earth Grudge Fear creature had no vocal cords—so not even a scream could escape it. Its wriggling tendrils were instantly dragged into the scroll by the sealing formula.
At the circular space in the center of the scroll, an illustration resembling a mass of tentacles took shape.
Vajra Sattva's Hand Descending was a high-level secret sealing technique of the Uzumaki clan, once passed from Mito to Hashirama.
However, Hashirama considered the hand signs too troublesome to perform in battle and eventually adapted it, integrating Wood Release to create a version easier for himself to use — Tenth Edict On Enlightenment.
Picking up the scroll, Mitsuki imprinted a Flying Thunder God formula on it and casually teleported it into his private storage.
With Kakuzu's ambush dealt with, the two cleaned up the battlefield quickly.
Then Mitsuki grabbed Ruri and teleported them directly back to the Hidden Leaf.
…
With a puff of smoke, the two appeared inside a narrow alley.
Leaving the alley, their paths diverged — Uchiha territory and Senju territory were in opposite directions.
Honestly, Mitsuki did want to go visit En again, but considering Ruri's purpose for sneaking out of the village today, that father-daughter pair had more than enough trouble waiting for them. He didn't want to add to it.
Besides—it was already late.
After saying their goodbyes, Mitsuki returned to Tsunade's home.
"I'm back."
"Welcome back, Mitsuki. Dinner will still take a while" Rin said, walking over and extending her hands.
Mitsuki cooperatively began taking off his coat to hand to her—
—but Rin suddenly scooped Shukaku off his shoulder and walked away.
"I bought dried fish on the way back, Shukaku."
"Excellent. I, the great Shukaku-sama, was just getting hungry."
Mitsuki gave a helpless smile, hung his coat himself, changed shoes, and went inside.
On the sofa, Tsunade lay sprawled out with zero concern for her image, grumbling loudly.
"That old man really is losing it… Giving that pair of annoying geezers so much authority…"
Shizune sat nearby, reviewing a ledger and taking notes. The moment she saw Mitsuki enter, her eyes lit up like she'd discovered salvation.
"Mitsuki, please talk some sense into Tsunade-sama!"
Instead of helping, Mitsuki fanned the flames:
"What happened? Who pissed off Tsunade again? I'll give them a Flying Decapitation right now."
Tsunade snorted, annoyed but unable to stay angry at his nonsense.
"So what actually happened?" Mitsuki asked, curious.
Rin explained,
"The war with Kirigakure is ending soon, so Tsunade-sensei wanted some of the withdrawn shinobi to be reassigned as medical-nin. But the two Advisor elders rejected the proposal, claiming it would weaken our combat strength."
Mitsuki understood immediately.
"Ah—that situation."
He remembered hearing about this in the original timeline too: Tsunade proposed expanding the medical corps but was rejected.
The truth was simple.
Ultimately, this kind of decision rested with the Hokage. The two Advisors only acted as convenient shields.
Hiruzen valued stability above all else. Even if Tsunade's proposal could reduce casualties and increase Leaf's chance of overwhelming victory, it also carried risk.
To Hiruzen, anything that introduced risk was unacceptable. So the proposal was never going to pass. The only question was who would voice the first rejection.
Mitsuki took a sip of tea Rin had brewed for him.
"Tsunade-nee, want to just become the Fourth Hokage?"
The simplest solution. With Tsunade's status, if she wanted the position, no one in the entire Land of Fire would dare oppose her—
…except one person.
"Don't joke around. I'm not becoming Hokage," Tsunade muttered.
She only stayed in Konoha because of Mitsuki. Originally, her plan was to leave with Shizune after the Suna war ended.
Knowing her thoughts, Mitsuki continued, "Then when Minato becomes the Fourth, let him push the reforms."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "You think Orochimaru can't beat Minato for the position?"
"I think the Third leans heavily toward Minato."
Truthfully, Tsunade preferred Orochimaru becoming Hokage — but everyone around her seemed to think Minato was the likely successor.
Tsunade sighed softly.If Minato really becomes the Fourth… then Orochimaru…
Mitsuki could guess what she was thinking. But the Hokage seat only had room for one person—and frankly, it wasn't their responsibility to worry about it.
…
Time passed as Mitsuki lazed peacefully in the village.
Ruri even came by to challenge him again, but Mitsuki refused using the excuse that fighting inside the village was prohibited.
He had no intention of fighting while constrained. Just imagining using Full Counter on a Susanoo while worrying about collateral damage gave him a headache.
Ruri mistook this as Mitsuki looking down on he r— so Mitsuki had to explain his fight against Madara in the Land of Water.
And he told her
,"At the very least, open your Susanoo to the Complete Body stage. Otherwise, you're not qualified to fight me."
Only that finally shut Ruri up.
After a while, Mitsuki even thought it would've been easier to just accept her challenge from the start — he could've smashed a few Susanoo clones with Kirigakure and let her witness the greatness of Mitsuki-sama firsthand. They were just clones anyway.
Mitsuki lay on his usual rocking chair—his personal respawn point—basking lazily in the sun.
But inwardly, he was roasting Hiruzen.
He'd been back from the Mist battlefield for so long already. What happened to the assignment to the Land of Hot Water? At this rate, Mitsuki wanted to fly there himself.
"Sigh… Worst boss ever."
Feeling the gentle Fire Country sunlight, Mitsuki muttered,
"But I guess this isn't bad either. Kakashi and Obito can stay on the battlefield and deepen their bonds."
After all, their reliable senior Minato was with them.
…
Inside the Hokage office:
"Achoo!"
Hiruzen, who'd been peacefully smoking his pipe, suddenly sneezed.
"Who's talking about me now? It better not be Kushina…"
A while ago, Kushina had stormed into his office demanding to go to the Hot Water frontlines to support Minato. She'd heard the Eight-Tails jinchūriki was deployed there.
Reasonable enough on paper.
Except—
The Eight-Tails jinchūriki was a perfect jinchūriki who could release the Tailed Beast safely.
Kushina, on the other hand… if she lost control on the battlefield, Kumogakure would certainly suffer—
—but Konoha wouldn't exactly walk away unharmed either.