Fujin wasn't too surprised by Tsunade's answer. The soul was extrely mysterious. Fujin was already surprised to learn that Tsunade knew which parts of the soul were responsible for maintaining consciousness. To an extent, Konoha had already learnt about the basic features of a soul, which explained how Hiruzen managed to stay alive.
However, there was much they didn't know about the soul. For instance, the soul was capable of reincarnating. Hagoromo had displayed incredible understanding in this aspect, be it the way his sons reincarnated across generations or how the nine tailed beasts could revive years after being killed. Fujin hoped he could mooch the sa from him just like how he was mooching off Tsunade, though he didn't have much idea about how to find him other than reviving Kaguya, let alone persuade him to guide him.
Yet, Fujin believed that even Hagoromo's knowledge wasn't complete. As he gained a deeper insight into souls, Fujin had a vague feeling that his understanding and mastery of the soul would play a crucial role at so point in the future.
Tsunade looked at the soul and said, "Since you extracted the soul, slicing it will be much easier. Unfortunately, we kept his soul out of his body for too long. He won't wake up even if we put it back in his body. We can only practice slicing on this one before testing the next prisoner."
Fujin agreed. Outside the room, the two guards and the prisoners were puzzled. Previously, Tsunade used to take a new prisoner every few minutes. However, Fujin and Tsunade were inside the room for several hours. The prisoners recalled Fujin's words and hope reignited in their hearts. They prayed, 'Please… Let them get what they want from him and let have a normal death. I don't want to be tortured so inhumanly.'
Unfortunately, their prayers weren't answered as the door opened up once again and another prisoner was dragged inside.
——
"Sigh, youngsters have no respect for the elderly these days. We just returned from Fire Capital and yet, were made to work all day." Homura sighed tiredly.
They had returned the previous night after concluding the negotiations. However, there was still a lot of work left to ensure the terms of the agreent were properly implented. Since the two elders led the negotiation team, Shikaku dumped most of this work on them. He only overlooked Fujin's deal.
"It's not a joking matter. I don't mind doing work, but they're looking down on us. No matter how we ask Shikaku about the Third Kazekage's death, he always changes the subject. He doesn't have any intention of passing the information to us." Koharu said seriously.
They could ignore it when it was just Fujin acting aggressively. From their perspective, he was still very young and was unaware of the way politics happened. In addition, Fujin hadn't been active in politics beyond certain incidents despite being a mber of the council. So, he didn't harm their interests unlike what happened with Danzo.
However, Shikaku wasn't a greenhorn. If he maintained such an attitude, the remaining clan leaders would get a hint and most would soon start treating them similarly. Both understood that they would lose their positions in no ti if this continued. Even if they sohow hung on to it, their powers and influence would be severely curtailed, similar to what happened with Danzo. Neither wanted to see their influence erode.
Homura muttered, "It has barely been a month since Hiruzen was injured. I didn't think the next generation would find us an eyesore so quickly."
Koharu agreed. Shikaku wouldn't have acted this way if Hiruzen was still at the helm. Even though they understood that he was a big reason why they held such power and influence in the village despite retiring a long ti ago, they were shocked to realize how big of a factor Hiruzen was.
Suddenly, both turned their heads as the door opened and an old man walked in with the support of his walking stick. Even though he looked feeble, neither of them considered him weak or helpless. Danzo looked at the expressions of his forr teammates and said calmly, "You don't look well."
Homura retorted, "Not everyone has the luxury to hide underground even when the village is under attack."
Koharu added, "I'm surprised you left your cave, Danzo."
Danzo took a seat while replying, "We won, didn't we? Still, I'm surprised that no one pointed fingers at ."
Koharu replied, "They're just glad that you aren't interfering. The clan leaders aren't that stupid to give you another opportunity, especially when Hiruzen is injured and the next Hokage hasn't taken charge. Even Fujin didn't ntion you or your absence."
Even though Konoha had an overwhelming victory against Sunagakure and Otogakure, it wasn't a cakewalk. Konoha had used nearly every available manpower. The Clans and Anbu were fully mobilized. Even the civilian ninjas were mobilized once the battle began. The only two who were missing were Tsunade, who wasn't in the village and was believed to be suffering from hemophobia, and Danzo. Р𝐀𝐍o͍ΒĚꞩ
As such, it was a good opportunity to point fingers at Danzo and question his loyalty. The clan leaders, who had been aggrieved by Danzo in the past, could have used it to attack him even more. Yet, not a single one did.
The reason was rather simple. Unlike Fujin, who repeatedly ca out ahead while locking his horns with Danzo, the clan leaders had suffered a lot. They knew how treacherous and cunning he was. No matter how they attacked him, they knew that Danzo would have answers to every question. In fact, he could even use this argunt as a way to make a political coback.
Even if they could win the argunts and harm Danzo's reputation further, there wouldn't be much of a change. Danzo didn't have much influence anymore. What little power he held onto had no impact on them.
Hence, they simply ignored his absence. Instead of giving him an opportunity now, they decided to save this matter for when he actively tried to make a coback, blocking his attempts.
Danzo realized this as well and understood not appearing during the attack was a mistake. Unfortunately, it had already happened. He said, "It's fine. I'll deal with it when the ti is right. Why are the two of you so disturbed?"
Since no one targeted him, Danzo had been left out of the loop. While he knew general information, he was in the dark about deeper details like what was decided in the agreent between Konoha and Sunagakure. Since the knowledge wasn't public yet, his subordinates couldn't obtain it. He was planning to be patient but felt a sense of unease which he couldn't explain and approached his forr teammates as a result.
Neither of them had any reason to keep things hidden from him and they inford him about the recent events.
——
"Another failure…" Fujin muttered as the soul crumbled once again. Yet, there weren't any signs of discouragent in his eyes.
Tsunade tiredly said, "Yes, but we managed to reach this stage thrice in a row. Another step, and the soul will reduce to the sa state as Sensei and I can finally start healing it."
Fujin agreed. In the corner of the room was a large number of scrolls, each containing the dead body of a prisoner. In the last few hours, Tsunade had made rapid progress due to Fujin's assistance. They managed to reduce the soul to 33% of its original size while keeping it stable and were just one step away.
Fujin was about to bring in another prisoner when Tsunade suddenly said, "Wait. Let's take a break. It'll be easier once we are relaxed."
Fujin didn't reject her suggestion. Though he could continue, they had to focus entirely on slicing the souls to avoid making a mistake. Doing so for a few souls was fine, but the two had worked on so many souls that Shikaku and Ibiki were getting worried. They even sent recently captured bandits, who wouldn't have been given a death sentence normally. So, Fujin and Tsunade were feeling ntally tired.
Tsunade sat in a chair and asked, "So, why did soone so good at combat beco interested in dical Ninjutsu and Soul-based techniques?"
In the past few hours, Tsunade was completely impressed by Fujin's dedication and his ability and hunger to learn. Even though she had heard about him from Jiraiya, Shikaku and Isamu, she felt like they were exaggerating due to how much he had accomplished at such a young age.
From her experience, it was extrely rare for soone so skilled at combat to take an interest in such boring things. Even if they did, that would generally happen later in their life. There were two reasons for this. Other than being boring, fields like dical Ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu needed a lot of ti to master.
At a young age, talented ninjas would rather use their ti to increase their strength than pursue these fields. They would only focus on these once they reached a major bottleneck and understood that their strength would no longer continue improving at a rapid rate irrespective of how much they trained.
However, Fujin's thought process was quite different from Tsunade's. With a puzzled expression, he asked, "What do you an?"
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