Konoha Village – Early Morning
Every time she saw the main gates of Konoha, Sakura felt a sense of profound peace settle over her. Perhaps this was what it felt like to be truly home. Like an infant yearning for its mother's embrace, only here could her heart truly relax.
"Alright, Shino," Sakura said, handing the meter-long section of wood to him. "Keep this safe for now. You guys give me the scrolls with the Kaiyuki corpses; I need to go report the mission." She thought for a second, then used a precise Gale Style laser to slice off a small, five-centimeter-thick disc from her own sample, holding it in her hand.
Shino handed over the two sealing scrolls containing the regular Kaiyuki bodies. Standard procedure dictated that ninja report to the Mission Assignment Desk immediately upon returning from a mission. However, in special circumstances, one could report directly to the Hokage. Though not explicitly written down, every ninja followed this protocol.
To save time, Sakura decided to leave the main wood sample with Shino for now while she took the three scrolls (two with regular corpses, one with the leader – though she wouldn't mention that one) to report directly to Lady Tsunade. That intelligent Kaiyuki leader needs further study, she reasoned. If I hand its scroll over and Danzo somehow finds out, it'll inevitably end up in his hands. Seijutsu seems to be an energy system potentially as powerful as chakra; letting Danzo get his hands on it would be disastrous.
She pushed open the door to the Hokage's office without knocking. Inside, Tsunade scrambled upright from a less-than-dignified position.
"Don't you know how to knock before entering, Sakura?!" Tsunade snapped, her face instantly stern, though perhaps a bit too quickly.
Sakura blinked, momentarily taken aback. She didn't recall her master being quite this strict. Did someone tick her off again? Stepping further into the office, Sakura's nose twitched. She caught the faint, unmistakable scent of sake.
A knowing look crept into Sakura's eyes. "Hehe," she grinned. "Master, drinking so early in the morning? Where's Shizune-senpai?"
"Hmph! Nonsense! You must have smelled wrong!" Tsunade retorted, a faint blush rising on her cheeks.
"I never said I smelled alcohol," Sakura countered slyly. "How did you know there was an alcohol smell, Master?"
"Ahem," Tsunade cleared her throat loudly, attempting to steer the conversation away. "What brings you here so early?" With Shizune busy helping at the hospital and mentoring Karin lately, Tsunade hadn't had her usual chaperone. She'd been indulging in a couple of drinks at the office, never expecting her own apprentice to barge in and catch her. This was rather detrimental to the Hokage's image.
"Have you forgotten, Master? I was out on a mission. I just got back; the mission's complete," Sakura reminded her, slightly exasperated by Tsunade's flustered attempt at deflection.
"Oh, right, right! Your mission!" Tsunade quickly composed herself, her professional demeanor snapping back into place. "But why didn't you report to the Mission Desk first? Does this mean... you encountered something unusual?"
"The mission is complete, yes, but we did discover some... irregularities," Sakura confirmed, placing the two sealing scrolls containing the ordinary Kaiyuki corpses on Tsunade's desk.
"What's this...?" Tsunade picked up one of the scrolls. "A sealing scroll. What's inside?"
"Those are the sea monsters we encountered," Sakura explained. "They can indeed use some form of Water Style techniques, and they appeared in large numbers. I brought back two corpses for research because, although they use Water Style, they possess no chakra."
"Creatures capable of using jutsu without chakra?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow, intrigued. "Let me see."
She took one of the scrolls, spread it open, and performed the hand seal to release the contents. Instantly, the grotesque corpse of a Kaiyuki materialized in the office, its sheer size seeming to fill the room.
"Whoa, it's huge!" Tsunade exclaimed, startled by its bulk.
"I was surprised too," Sakura admitted. "And there were a lot of them, roughly two hundred in total."
"Two hundred?!" Tsunade turned to Sakura sharply. "And you three managed to take down two hundred of them?"
"Ah, no, not quite," Sakura clarified carefully. "There were simply too many. We eliminated over a hundred before the rest retreated. We stayed on the island for two more days afterward, and when they didn't reappear, we concluded the mission." She deliberately omitted any mention of the intelligent leader. It's a subconscious self-preservation tactic, maybe, she admitted to herself. If I tell them everything I learned from Kaiyuki, certain people might assume I'm still holding back, potentially leading to... unpleasant methods of interrogation. Like something Danzo would pull.
"Oh, is that so," Tsunade replied, somewhat distractedly, already focusing her attention on examining the Kaiyuki corpse. "Mm, nice Gale Style work," she murmured, noticing the entry point. "Straight through the heart, fatal blow, minimal external damage." She channeled chakra into her hands, scanning the creature's internal structure. "Indeed... no traces of chakra usage. And the physical structure is unlike any known organism... Huh... what's this...?"
After scanning for another moment, Tsunade withdrew her chakra and resealed the corpse. She leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes in thought, silent for a long moment.
"Did you find something, Master Tsunade?" Sakura asked cautiously.
Tsunade opened her eyes after a pause. "There is one discovery," she stated.
"What is it?" Sakura asked, mostly out of politeness. She didn't expect Tsunade to have detected the subtle energy signatures related to Seijutsu; few in the shinobi world likely could. It was pure chance that Shino's insects had reacted to the wood, leading them down this path.
"While this creature didn't utilize chakra as its energy source," Tsunade said, her voice serious, "it did utilize another form of energy. Its physical structure is different, yes, but its meridian system is remarkably similar to that of a ninja. And I detected clear traces that this system has been actively used."
"Really?!" Sakura was genuinely surprised; she hadn't noticed that during the fight. Still, it didn't change the core mystery. She took out the small, five-centimeter disc of Ōkami Shinju wood and handed it to Tsunade.
"Hm? And what's this?" Tsunade took the sample, observing its decayed exterior and strangely pristine core.
"It's like this..." Sakura explained her hypothesis – based on Shino's insect observations and the Kaiyuki's behavior – that the wood contained the energy the creatures used. She carefully omitted any mention of the curse or the Ōkami Shinju's specific life-enhancing properties. Reporting the wood's existence is necessary, she reasoned, but revealing its full potential is too dangerous for now. She hoped Tsunade would agree to help research it; Sakura knew her own limitations and felt that combining her efforts with Tsunade and Shino offered the best chance of making progress quickly.
"So, you believe this wood contains the energy those monsters use?" Tsunade asked, turning the wooden disc over in her hand. She fell silent for a moment, then murmured, "This energy... I feel like I've encountered it somewhere before."
"What?!" Sakura stared at her master, stunned. Tsunade has seen this energy before?! "Where did you see it? What is it?" she asked rapidly.
A moment later, however, a wave of slight disappointment washed over Sakura. If Master Tsunade recognizes this energy, does that mean the Tsugami Clan still exists somewhere? But no one in the shinobi world has ever heard of them... which might imply they, and Seijutsu, aren't actually that powerful after all. Yet, Headman Soga seemed to possess some innate Tsugami ability without even knowing Seijutsu... And that prediction capability the Kaiyuki leader had was definitely potent. If I could learn that, my Gale Style lasers would be almost impossible to dodge...
"I don't know," Tsunade suddenly said, interrupting Sakura's thoughts. "Or perhaps... perhaps I haven't seen it before after all."
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, confused by the contradiction.
"I don't sense any particular energy coming from this wood itself right now," Tsunade clarified, placing the sample down. "But holding it... it gives me a strong sense of déjà vu, an intuitive feeling of familiarity. It might just be my imagination. As it is, it just looks like an ordinary piece of wood."
Hearing this, Sakura didn't feel disappointed this time. In fact, she felt a flicker of relief. If Tsunade had instantly identified the wood and its properties, the mystery would have evaporated too quickly.
"In any case," Tsunade continued, back in command mode, "your findings require further investigation. Take this corpse, and this wood sample, to the Autopsy Lab."
"Yes, Master," Sakura replied. Then she asked, "Will you be participating in the dissection?"
"Heh, of course I will," Tsunade confirmed. "Take the items down there now. I'll join the team later this evening."
"Yes, Master," Sakura acknowledged again and left the office.
Alone once more, Tsunade leaned back in her chair, her expression unreadable, fingers steepled under her chin. Her mind kept returning to that small piece of wood... Where have I encountered something like that before...? Where...?