Naruto: Ero-ninja

Revenge Arc Intermission

Tsunade tried to keep her posture relaxed and calm as she left the Daimyo's palace since she didn't want to give the impression that she was scurrying off. But, it was proving difficult since if she had to spend more time with the nobles of Fire Country, she feared that she would go on a rampage. What truly bothered her though was that regardless of how her retreat was perceived, she knew that politically the Daimyo had already won. This was due to the fact that to the majority of his citizens, he had demonstrated his power by being able to summon her before him, making what was actually discussed almost irrelevant. Reaching the front gate, she felt some of the anger that she had built up begin to fade as she headed into the capital proper.

Her anger stemmed from having to listen to a bunch of samurai in name only, especially when considering how the shinobi had been carrying the water of defending the country, repudiating her for what they perceived to be failures on her part. She had been more than willing to admit that by not dealing with Sasuke earlier, she had helped to create the monster that he currently was. A mistake she also shared with her predecessor in regards to Orocimaru. But, she had drawn the line at accepting that she had been lax in the security precautions taken by the prison. After all, most prisons feared escapes generated from within. There had never been such an organized assault on a prison which had originated from an outside force. Even other shinobi villages had never attempted such a feat. Although, Tsunade suspected it was because doing so would open them to similar reprisals from rival villages.

She sighed as she could imagine the mounds of paperwork that would be generated from this new reality and the need to counter it. The most pressing of which would be developing a means to counter the flying vehicles that Sasuke had utilized to help the prisoners to escape. She also suspected that was one of the reasons as to why she had been summoned before the Daimyo since these new devices were going to change how villages would need to defend themselves. As such, the Samurai in charge of defending the capital and keeping the day to day peace in much of the Land of Fire wanted as much information as possible. Not to mention, an opportunity to berate the failures of the shinobi that they felt assumed their place in the limelight.

Unfortunately, Tsunade did not have an abundance of information to provide to them, and couldn't even substantiate the claim that Shadaloo, a criminal group primarily operating out of the Land of Lightning had been the source of the vehicles. However, she felt with the presence of Vega, and the reappearance of a woman that had also been working with a slaver group in the Land of Wind, it was a safe bet. She imagined they had been sent along to provide assistance with procuring the false identifications used to gain access to the prison, as well as to witness the effectiveness of the vehicles they had provided. Still, at the moment it was only a theory since a direct link couldn't be made. Yet, with another piece of technology tied to the engineering skills of former shinobi from Sky Country appearing. Tsunade believed the Shadaloo group was also behind the defection of the engineers from the Land of Spring shortly after Koyuki's uncle had been deposed.

But, learning anything about the group was proving difficult since the Raikage was taking the opportunity to stymie their investigation by denying the Alliance access to Kumo's intelligence. At least officially, but fortunately Mabui had made the connection between Vega, Sin, and Shadaloo beforehand so had made copies of many of the records before the Raikage had put a block on them.

She sighed as she couldn't exactly grow angry at the Raikage for his resistance to aiding them, since in a sense it was karma paying them back for how they had helped Yugito to defect. Which although she felt they were right morally, did concede that it had been achieved using underhanded methods. Still, developing their own intelligence on Shadaloo would prove difficult since although it was rumored to have its hands in criminal activities throughout the continent. Its primary territory was found in the Land of Lightning and Land of Frost. There were rumors that it had started in the Land of Hot Springs, but had been violently rebuffed forcing its relocation. She knew though it would take time to validate much of what they had learned themselves, all the while having to make it look like they had developed their own sources so as to not incriminate Mabui.