Thread-like strands of rain fell on the windowsill of the Hokage Building. Outside the glass, trails of rainwater slid down, while inside, a thin layer of mist clung to the surface.
The tiny water droplets, illuminated by the warm-toned lights inside the office, shimmered with a hazy, rainbow-like reflection.
"Tsunade-nee, you called for me?"
The girl's crisp voice suddenly rang out in the office.
Startled, the mature woman who had been leaning over the desk bumped into the towering pile of documents stacked there. Papers scattered as she fell to the floor, and the water droplets on the windowpane behind her shook loose.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch... you, aren't you... becoming less and less human?"
Rubbing a reddened bump on her head, Tsunade crawled out from under the desk, giving Sakura a resentful look.
The moment the girl appeared, Tsunade hadn't sensed any Chakra fluctuation. Clearly, her disciple had advanced yet another step in Chakra Control.
Though control was just the foundation of Chakra usage, to master it to the point where Chakra obeyed one's will as effortlessly as moving one's own limbs, where a thought became a technique, was a level Sakura had reached.
It made Tsunade unconsciously overlap her disciple's figure with the image of her grandfather's back.
"No, did you call me here just to scold me?"
Sakura walked familiarly over to the sofa in the office and sat down. The velvet tights rustled as she crossed her legs, the thick-soled boots at her ankles slightly raised to avoid touching the coffee table in front.
"Cough, cough, it's not that. There's a mission I want to entrust to you."
Coughing lightly into her hand, Tsunade withdrew her gaze from her disciple's legs.
Lazily sinking into the sofa back, Sakura spread her hands. "Busy. No time."
"Hah?"
Instantly, Tsunade's smile froze on her face as she glared at the girl.
As the leader of the village, of course she knew the daily whereabouts of the girl before her.
In the half-month since returning from the border, aside from clocking in and out at the hospital on time each day, her disciple hadn't done a single decent piece of proper work.
Amidst the increasingly chaotic state of the Ninja World, the mission schedules of other village's Jonin were booked solid well into next year. Only Sakura lived a life as leisurely and comfortable as an immortal.
And now she dared to brazenly claim she had no time in front of her? Even the donkeys in the Konoha's Military Police Force... oh no, even the Uchiha in the Konoha Military Police Force wouldn't dare rest this much.
"Hmph, what could you possibly be busy with?"
Tsunade rapped her knuckles on the desk, and sealing formulas spread across the room. "If you don't give me a proper reason today, you're staying here tonight helping me process official documents!"
"Fine. I originally wanted to interact with you, Tsunade-nee, as an ordinary person."
Just like that, right in front of Tsunade, Sakura raised her hand.
Verdant wooden vines bloomed in her palm, growing onto the floor and blossoming into pure white roses. An elegant fragrance filled the office.
"Pfft—!"
The vitality diffusing in the air stung Tsunade's eyes, making her spit out the tea she had just sipped all over the documents on her desk...
'—Wood Release!!??'
It was just one among thousands of ordinary Kekkei Genkai... or not! It was the very release technique that pacified the Warring States Period, used by the First Hokage, the God of Ninja, Senju Hashirama!
'This power, flowing in the blood of the Senju Clan, passed down through our generations, had now appeared on Sakura?!'
'Wait, seriously?'
'Granduncle, say something!'
'So all those outrageous things you said when you were Edo Tensei'd back were actually true?'
'My own disciple really is a direct descendant of the Senju, and a throwback at that?'
"How many others know about this?"
After the shock subsided, Tsunade walked over to Sakura, grabbed the wooden vine from her hand, and began examining it.
Confirming the Chakra-suppressing power and the unique vitality characteristic of Wood Release, she was certain her disciple's Wood Release wasn't some secondary derivative product like Hashirama's cells.
Besides, the existing Hashirama's cells in Konoha were all personally sealed by her. Unless Sakura went tomb robbing, she shouldn't have had the chance to come into contact with the cells left over from past experiments.
"Just you, for now." Sakura shrugged. "I've been studying some human experiment data and my own blood at the hospital recently. Of course, I carefully disposed of all experimental samples afterward."
Actually, there wasn't much to hide about research on human experiments. Though every village had some restrictions on such things.
In the Ninja World, when powerful Ninja reached a certain level of strength, they would delve deeply into the power of Chakra, shifting from ordinary release techniques to developing Kekkei Genkai. In that process, human experimentation was inevitable.
Kekkei Genkai, the fusion of two Chakra Nature transformations… Kekkei Tota, the fusion of three… and Kekkei Mōra, the fusion of seven… to attain these powers, one had to tread on the edge of danger repeatedly. Ninjas were a profession that danced on the blade's edge.
"Research can continue, but be careful not to leave traces. As for you awakening Wood Release, don't announce it internally for now. I have other arrangements."
Just like that, casually brushing aside someone's rule-breaking, Tsunade glanced toward the direction of Konoha's Administrative Department and snorted coldly.
"Alright, I'll follow your lead." Sakura nodded in agreement, seeing Tsunade's gritted-teeth expression.
Then, she held out her hand toward Tsunade, making a beckoning gesture.
"What do you mean?" Tsunade was baffled.
"The secret Wood Release Jutsu! Right now, I only have the Kekkei Genkai and some self-developed techniques. I don't have any real offensive or defensive Secret Jutsu. Tsunade-nee must have the Wood Release Secret Techniques developed by the First Hokage, right!"
Sakura's tone was certain, her freeloading hand extended with righteous confidence.
The predecessors had already developed the secret techniques for you, honed during the chaotic era of warring clans. Of course, it was better to use ready-made ones now. Why bother developing them from scratch when there was a perfectly good path already laid out?
"You little sly one, come with me!"
Tsunade tapped the desk, dispelling the Sealing Technique in the Hokage's office, and strode out first.
Leaving the Hokage Building, Tsunade led Sakura through four or five streets to the Senju Clan's grounds.
After rummaging through cabinets and chests inside, Tsunade hauled out a massive scroll half a person tall and dropped it in front of Sakura. "Here, this is the Jutsu Scroll Grandfather left. It's yours now!"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Of course, Tsunade-nee's version is more complete!" Sakura unrolled the scroll, comparing it with the techniques she had seen before on the Scroll of Seals, and sighed with admiration.
Hobi Technique, Wood Dragon Technique, Hotei Technique, Advent of a World of Flowering Trees...
The secret Wood Release Jutsu, covering offense, defense, and sealing, had been preserved by the Senju line and not fully recorded in the Scroll of Seals.
That was why Yamato, in later years, could only use peripheral, decorative Wood Release Ninjutsu, with the only powerful one, the Wood Human Technique, being used by Tobi through his body.
"Don't blame the Senju for being secretive. Wood Release is their one and only obsession."
Tsunade also felt a bit wistful. It was only human nature.
Even Tobirama, the Second Hokage back then, had acknowledged the Senju Clan's thoughts, preserving a bit of their foundation.
If a descendant was talented and produced a child with Wood Release, these resources could help him or her grow strong quickly, avoiding the situation where they couldn't learn the secret techniques due to the merit requirements for accessing the Scroll of Seals.
"No problem. Anyway, now that it's passed to me, doesn't that mean they weren't secretive after all?"
The girl giggled as she sealed the Jutsu Scroll into a storage scroll and stuffed it into her pocket.
Tsunade smiled without a word, simply taking a spare key to the clan's grounds from the storeroom and handing it to Sakura. She patted her shoulder and then left the Senju Clan's grounds.
'Tsunade-nee is... treating me as the next generation of the Senju?'
Sakura was somewhat amused and felt a twinge of guilt, but she quickly brushed it aside.
So what if she was? So what if she wasn't?
With Wood Release in hand, in the future, she would be the legitimate heir of the Senju!
Once she said so, who would dare oppose?
With this in mind, a slight smile curling her lips, Sakura tossed the key, closed the main gate, and stepped into the curtain of rain, disappearing from sight.