Filthy Gamer in Narutoverse

Chapter 164: Missing Pieces (1)

"Well done, Team Kai," Hiruzen smiles kindly at the three children after reading the report submitted by Kai. Smiling and being gentle is the least he can do to emphasize when his youngest son, Asuma, broke down in tears after ending the life of a Boar.

Pouting slightly, Kurenai huffs, "Hokage-sama, we have agreed that we want to be called Team 6 instead of Team Kai... isn't that right, Konan, Shizune?"

Shizune lowers her head and avoids glancing at Kai while Konan shoots their Sensei an indignant glare and nods. Just because he is right to some extent did not mean his team did not feel the least bit aggrieved by his actions.

"Oh? Is that right?" Hiruzen smirks in amusement and looks at Kai, "You better be careful. The next thing you know, you'll be pulling your hair after being troubled by your team."

"If I had to teach a white-haired aspiring novelist with a penchant for real-life cultured experience... sure," Kai snickers as Hiruzen groans while thinking of Jiraiya.

"Sensei, this is serious! You said you won't laugh about our decision!" Kurenai crosses her arm. It could be said that sharing their first 'blood' brought the trio closer inexplicably.

This is seen in various instances, the most prominent being the Three Sannins. Due to their instinctive knowledge and 'tell' of each other, even if Team Hiruzen has to go out on a mission after years, they would still have a certain sense of teamwork.

"I'm not laughing," Kai smiles, "But go on, pretend I'm not here."

Konan rolls her eyes. As if that's easy to pretend about.

"Hmm, jokes aside. Team 6 has done a great job discovering the enemy shinobi. I officially change this mission to A-Rank."

[Earned 14 SP.]

'Sweet!'

The trio's expression brightens, too.

Wanting to end things on a chipper tone for the children, at least, Hiruzen adds, "Keep on doing the good work, and Shizune-kun, you are supposed to be the Team's medic. Given the laws written by Tsunade, you cannot enter into direct confrontations before passing the combat assessment held for the Medics. I'm going to look away this time given... why you were even there for a mission but next time you may not engage the enemy and are supposed to be the support unless it's an emergency."

Shizune nods and apologizes, "This will not happen again, Hokage-same."

"Good. Now, I suppose your Sensei has a treat planned for you three, right? Just give us a few minutes and he'll be free for the day."

Taking the hint, the trio leaves while Kai sets another scroll on the table, "This is the corpse of that Iwa Nin. His poison was... too good to be from Iwa."

Taking a moment to understand the implications, Hiruzen chuckles wryly, "I never expected Suna to do anything under the table. That's how things are for us Shinobi... and we probably wouldn't have thrived to this extent if it wasn't so. I will have the research departments run tests but this will hardly provide any results."

Kai nods and then waits for Hiruzen to begin since the man wanted him to stay.

"On a confidential mission... Sakumo Hatake has gone missing. I felt you should be amongst the few who directly hear this news from me."

Kai stays still for a minute before his brows lock in a frown. He understands in a moment that Hiruzen would not describe the report on this situation given that it's a confidential mission S-ranked. So, all he can think of at the moment are two situations Sakumo is captured or he fucked up badly and decided to leave.

But given Sakumo's love for dad jokes and consequentially, his love for his son, the latter is a situation of low probability. So...

What happened?

'If he's dead then that's that. But Hiruzen looks certain that Sakumo did not die. Is it because of any lack of body or... did someone check in on this situation first-hand and come to this conclusion?'

Kai only mulls on it for a few seconds and then nods, "I see. Is there something expected from me?"

"When you have time, drop in on Kakashi," Hiruzen sighs, "You two may not be close... but you two certainly share a few villagers. And he looks up to you."

"He just wants revenge from me for snatching his club plushie back when he was three," Kai replies flatly.

"Yes, and stop snatching toys and candies from little children whenever you see them. It's giving you a bad reputation."

Hiruzen takes the scroll on the table and questions, "Did Jiraiya contact you about your request?"

Kai almost groaned out loud but shakes his head.

Just once he would like to enter Mount Myoboku and Ryuchi Cave. He would plant SO many Hiraishin seals, damn it! He can't just be terrorizing the citizens of Shikkotsu Forest alone. He needs balance! All three legendary locations need marks of destruction made by his [Railgun].

"If he didn't," Hiruzen smiles, "Now is your chance to... ask him directly. He is back in town."

"He's back?" Kai instantly perks up after the mood-hurling notice about Sakumo's disappearance but as he said before those who kill must be prepared for their eventual death to a superior enemy. The best way to avoid such a fate, obviously, is to maintain superiority in strength.

"He is," Hiruzen sighs, "With a new set of problems this time. He became a... sigh, you know what, when you meet him, you will know for yourself."

Kai nods but before he leaves, he adds, "I would like to apply for that mission you promised... with Team Tsunade."

Hiruzen falls silent for a moment and then questions, "That mission is yours naturally. I don't believe others have a chance of success as great as Team Tsunade but by the team do you mean... Kushina Uzumaki?"

"I do," Kai nods, "I added on her four symbols seal. Controlling Kyubi is simply too great of a task so, at the moment, I fully suppressed it using the seal."

Kai really needed someone to use a lie detection seal on him because he himself felt he was going out of control with it. But Hiruzen doesn't need to know it, right?

Frowning a bit more and resisting the urge to smoke his pipe for once, Hiruzen nods slowly, "I will take your word for it. You have grown to be quite the Fuin practitioner, after all. You do remind me of Mito-sama."

Kai smiles and says nothing else. But he didn't think it would be that easy. Now that he requested for Kushina to move out, Hiruzen WILL run checks on Kushina once again for his peace of mind if he wasn't already.

With that, Kai is dismissed and he walks out.

---

"Come on," Jiraiya remains as persistent as ever, "It's not that bad, right?"

Nono glances at Tsunade's clone and the clone does the same before looking at Jiraiya once more while massaging her head, "Does that poor girl even know you are just using her to infiltrate Ame even more?"

Jiraiya had long stopped 'sulking' after the second war. It did leave him scarred, but that was never a reason for a Shinobi to stave off his duties, and most naturally, Hiruzen had Jiraiya come around with a new set of tasks that involved making the best use of Jiraiya.

"I never said that," Jiraiya crosses his arms.

"What? That you're using her to get deeper into Ame? You didn't need to. Ame's a hot spot of all things destructive," Tsunade scoffs and looks at Nono, "You can take the rest of the day off. He wouldn't want to risk accidentally exposing the details of his current mission around a dangerously intelligent lass like you."

"Dangerous?" Nono gasps and looks at Jiraiya while adjusting her glasses, "You seriously don't think a former kunoichi with no training in years is dangerous, do you?"

Jiraiya looks at Nono seriously and questions, "Are your glasses still fake, or did you get them by reading my book constantly during the night under barely any light?"

Nono purses her lips with a dangerously innocuously sweet smirk forming over her lips as Jiraiya rolls his eyes, "You can take the day off, yeah."

"Fine..." Nono leaves with a sulking pout. Once she does, Jiraiya exhales loudly, "I hope Kai survives this one. She's a snake worse than Orochimaru the more I come to understand her."

"Good for her," Tsunade sighs. 'That snake needs a competition. Who better than Nono?' She thinks internally. And it's true. While everyone's progress is well-known except Kushina's and for the right reasons, Nono has made herself too plain to even the most experienced Shinobi's eyes.

"By the way, who did you marry?" Tsunade brings up the topic once again and Jiraiya laughs, "Oh, you mean her?"

He forms a seal and creates a transformed shadow clone of a rather busty blonde with a pair of blue eyes and short brows. Seeing her, Tsunade's lips twitch for a moment while Jiraiya shrugs, "I just lied. It's a clone, really. I don't think anyone is Ame is qualified to see through my chakra control."

This Tsunade agreed wholeheartedly with. Only after achieving Sage Mode did Tsunade realize what kind of Chakra control is needed to achieve this state and if Jiraiya can achieve this state, even if incomplete, he must have superb control of chakra...

But...

"She looks like my mother," Tsunade narrows her gaze.

Jiraiya disperses the clone and replies quietly, "Just your imagination."

"You're not fucking your own clone transformed as a bimbo similar-looking to my mother, right, Jiraiya?"

"No!" Jiraiya scoffs, "I'm not THAT needy. I just needed a blonde to stick out and attract attention. I already died in Ame by some jealous lover, you know?"

Tsunade rolls her eyes and demands, "Whatever. Tell me one thing. What's with you constantly ignoring Kai's request?"

Leaning forward on the table, Jiraiya smirks mischievously, "Fighting for your lover now, huh, Tsunade?"

"No, I mean, why the hell is your old toad not waking up? He wakes up every month or so, right? It's been too long."

Jiraiya looks equally puzzled at this moment and leans back, "I don't know. Nobody in the Mountain does. Do you think I don't want to see if Kai can achieve perfect Sage Mode or not? Even Orochimaru couldn't get close to it. You can, probably, but you won't even train for it."

Tsunade felt a little guilty for a moment but decided to keep quiet nonetheless.

The moment things like her or Orochimaru's Sage Mode are known much less Kai and Kushina's progress and even her Mokuton... the next war would target them entirely. Especially the user of Mokuton.

The world doesn't fear the next mokuton user but it does fear the next possible Hashirama even if Tsunade admitted that his shoes are simply too large to fill.

"So? Why are you here?" Tsunade questions.

"Did you hear about Sakumo Hatake?" Jiraiya inquires and seeing the clone nod, he shrugs, "I'm called back for this mission. To track down Konoha's best tracker arguably. Of course, I'd need help."

"Good thing I'm still the matriarch of the clan or I would be dragged in on this with you."

"Hey, we had fun doing dangerous missions!"

"The fun was in the danger. Not the teammates," Tsunade shoots back.

"Sure, if you say so. The danger did involve some fun," Jiraiya smiles but it doesn't reach his eyes and then he scratches through that full mane of his, "I still cannot believe Sakumo-san could ever get caught."

"Is that all?" Tsunade sighs wearily, "I AM busy, you know? You can find Orochimaru if you only have to vent."

"I'm not just here for that. I heard that our teams have their own teams... Do you remember the first bet you won?"

Tsunade instantly perks up a lot more than she should have but... it's understandable. Training barely left her for more than enough time and since liquor is her staple drink, it's her gambling habits that took a great hit!

"Another bet?" Her gaze shines, not even needing to know that her original would want the same.

But she quickly controls herself, a little progression of her desire for gambling now that she has mastered Sage Mode to some extent.

"What do I get if I win?" She questions.

As if already having the answer ready, Jiraiya laughs, "The winner gets to choose a mission for the losers."

Tsunade blanks out for a moment and then scowls.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. It's Sakumo we are talking about. I dread the enemy who can possibly capture or conspire against him. And it would be even more dangerous if Sakumo somehow turned into a rogue shinobi. And..."

Adopting a stern expression, Jiraiya musters, "I and Sensei think that if the former is true then the only possible individual who could pull it off is Danzo... and that man has stayed silent for too long."

Tsunade frowns but is internally alert. She almost let out that Danzo isn't a problem anymore and there's a reason that man did not make any waves after disappearing.

'Damn... to think Jiraiya would end up so much in the dark...' she thinks internally. It's ironic, too, given how Jiraiya is Hiruzen's eyes outside the village.

Meanwhile, Jiraiya grumbles, "It's annoying, too."

"What is?" Tsunade cocks her head sideways.

Looking at the ceiling, Jiraiya mutters, "I just feel that we are missing something."

"Alcohol?"

"Not that. I mean about Sakumo... Orochimaru went to provide backup and his report is clear-cut. Can't talk about the contents of it unless you're in on the mission but... I feel that something obvious is missing. And it's not just this stuff. Amegakure is acting up..."

"Hanzo is a dangerous man," Tsunade hums, "You need to look out for yourself in there."

Dealing with Tsunade's sincere concern, all Jiraiya could do is give a defeated smile and sigh, That, too. But Ame, as a whole, is acting a little strange. Get this. The various leaders under Hanzo are actively making better infrastructure for the villagers. All the poisonous pipelines to produce poisonous substances for Land of Earth and Lightning are being removed."

This gets Tsunade by surprise.

"Did Hanzo get kicked in the head? The last time we fought, he hoped to get some Uzumaki slaves from Iwa and Kumo. We all know how that ended for the siege against Uzu."

"Let"s hope that's the case," Jiraiya purses his lips as the gnawing feeling gets annoying by the second.

***

Alternate Title: Gamble Hoe; The Disciples Rise; Team Kai no More; Dawn of 6

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