"Heh."
Danzō let out a cold chuckle right then.
It was a dry, brittle sound—like a dead branch snapping.
"Childish."
His single eye was full of mockery.
"Ninja are tools to begin with. If a corpse can still contribute to the village after death, it's an honor. The Senju especially—"
Boom!
The floor beneath Tsunade's feet blew apart.
Not figuratively.
It literally exploded.
Stone chips and splinters sprayed everywhere. Her long blond hair lifted as if in a windless storm, and the solid rush of chakra she released sent the meeting documents whipping around the room.
"Say that again."
Her voice was soft.
So soft it made your skin crawl.
Jiraiya finally moved. "Tsunade! Don't do anything rash! We can—"
"We can what?"
Tsunade turned, her eyes bloodshot.
"You can write your Icha Icha Paradise, you can roam the world looking for some Child of Prophecy, you can hide away and play at being a carefree sage—so what the hell am I supposed to do right now?"
Jiraiya went silent.
And then—
A lazy voice drifted from a corner of the conference room.
"Tsk."
"You old bastards… you've really outdone yourselves."
Everyone snapped their heads around.
Rei Ao was leaning against the doorframe, and no one knew how long he'd been standing there.
Kushina peeked out from behind him, wearing the blank, dazed expression of someone thinking, Where am I and what is happening?
"Who are you?!" Koharu slammed a hand on the table and shot to her feet.
Homura's hand was already moving toward a kunai.
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes.
First he saw Rei Ao—an unfamiliar face, but that I can't be bothered with any of you aura was impossible to ignore.
Then he saw Kushina.
Red hair.
An adult woman's build.
But that face…
"Kushina?" Hiruzen blurted out.
Kushina answered on reflex. "Huh? Grandpa Hokage?"
Then she realized what she'd just said and clapped a hand over her mouth.
Crap. She'd outed herself.
Tsunade froze too. "Rei Ao? Why are you—"
Her gaze shifted to Kushina, and her pupils shrank.
"Wait, that girl is Kushina? No—this age…"
"Details don't matter."
Rei Ao waved a hand.
"I'll just ask one thing—"
He looked at Tsunade.
"Want me to help you butcher this bunch of old dogs? Bundle deal: buy three, get one free—Danzō comes as a bonus."
The room went dead silent for two seconds.
"How arrogant!" Koharu completely lost it.
"Anbu! Where are the Anbu?!"
Homura was already forming seals. "Take them down!"
Rei Ao sighed.
"I told you."
He lifted his right hand and lazily pointed with his index finger.
"Old dogs shouldn't talk."
"It makes me sick."
No hand signs.
No chakra ripple.
Not even killing intent.
But Koharu and Homura's movements both locked up at the same time.
Their expressions froze—eyes still wide, mouths still open—yet every sound jammed in their throats.
Then, starting from the center of their foreheads, a pale line of light sliced downward as cleanly as paper.
Over the bridge of the nose, across the lips, the chin, the throat, the chest—
As if an invisible blade had gently split them along a perfect centerline.
They didn't even have time to scream.
They collapsed into two faint piles of ash, sifting onto the carpet.
Not a single drop of blood.
The conference room was so quiet you could hear dust settling.
Jiraiya's pupils shrank to pinpoints.
He'd seen countless ninjutsu and forbidden techniques—but nothing like this.
This wasn't even in the realm of ninjutsu.
It looked like… like a rule. Like a god erasing typos from a page.
Hiruzen's pipe slipped from his fingers.
The mockery in Danzō's lone eye finally vanished, replaced by caution—and a trace of greed he tried very hard to hide.
Even Tsunade was stunned.
She knew Rei Ao was strong.
But strong to this extent was beyond anything she could comprehend.
This was a dimensionality reduction attack—an outright mismatch.
Kushina stood there with her mouth hanging open.
Only one thought looped in her head: I'm done for. Now I really look like his accomplice.
"You…"
Hiruzen's voice was hoarse.
"Who are you? What do you want from Konoha?"
Rei Ao didn't even look at him.
He watched Tsunade instead, smiling brightly.
"That was a freebie. Now let's talk business—Tsunade, you want to know how the Senju clan really died out? Not 'fallen on the battlefield.' I mean the kind of dead where someone goes, 'Heh, this mission's a guaranteed death—send a Senju.'"
Tsunade swayed.
"You… what?"
"Exactly what it sounds like."
Rei Ao snapped his fingers.
"Once the Senju lost their pillars, the tree was too big and caught too much wind. So certain people started 'efficiently reallocating resources'—S-rank missions? Send the Senju. Suicide infiltration? Send the Senju."
"Tsk tsk. A neat little combo, and you managed to wipe out an entire clan."
With every sentence, Tsunade's face went a shade paler.
Hiruzen shot to his feet. "Nonsense! You're sowing discord! Tsunade, don't listen to him! He's an outsider—"
"Sensei."
Tsunade cut him off.
Her voice was calm—too calm.
"I want to hear it from you. Is it true? Were Senju sent out to die?"
Hiruzen opened his mouth—
But Danzō sneered. "So what if they were? Ninja are consumables."
"The Senju have extraordinary vitality and chakra. They should take on higher-risk missions. That's maximizing efficiency."
He said it like it was perfectly reasonable.
Like one plus one equals two.
Tsunade closed her eyes.
She remembered the last time she saw Nawaki—how excited he'd been as he said, "Sis, I got an important mission! This time I'll really help the village!"
She remembered the bad news that kept arriving over the years.
"Senju Takuya—killed in action."
"Senju Ryū—fell in battle."
"Senju Shinsuke—missing."
Back then she'd grieved, thinking war was just cruel.
Now that she thought about it… it was a damn joke.
"So…"
Tsunade opened her eyes. There was nothing in them—just dead quiet.
"So Nawaki too? That so-called 'important mission' was never anything but a death sentence?"
Hiruzen said nothing.
Silence was the answer.
Tsunade laughed.
She laughed as tears slid down her cheeks.
"Good. Really good. I bled and fought for this village, saved who knows how many people on the battlefield… and my little brother—my clan—got handled like trash by the teacher I respected, by the village I swore to protect with my life."
Jiraiya couldn't take it anymore.
"Tsunade, it's not what you think! The Third might've had reasons…"
"Reasons. Forced. No choice."
Tsunade looked at him.
"Jiraiya… do you believe that?"
"…"
Jiraiya couldn't answer.
Because he didn't believe it either.