Chapter 163 - 161: Tobirama's Bizzare Adventure

While Azula was busy talking shop with the Third Kazekage, Tobirama hadn't been sitting idle.

After the time they'd spent together, the two of them had reached somewhat a tacit understanding. She wasn't restricting his movements anymore, or at least, she'd loosened the leash enough that he could actually breathe.

The first thing he'd wanted to do was use the Flying Raijin to warp back to Konoha and see for himself how the village had developed after his death.

Unfortunately, the Edo Tensei only let him access about thirty percent of his full power. A jump from Ame to Konoha, a distance he'd considered manageable when he was alive, was out of reach now.

That didn't stop him from getting a good look at Ame's development or gathering as much intel as he could.

'But these pests are getting on my nerves. Should I just get rid of them?' His senses tracked the Ame ANBU shadowing his every move. 'More importantly, it'd cause problems for the brat, wouldn't it?'

The thought of causing problems for Azula was genuinely tempting after everything she'd put him through. But then he remembered their arrangement.

He was more or less free now. If he stirred up trouble, he had no doubt she'd yank the leash right back, which was not worth it.

He kept walking but didn't stumble onto anything useful. That wasn't surprising.

The rain was coming down hard, and practically everyone had taken cover indoors. Only a handful of people were still out.

He did have time to study the village itself, and Tobirama had to admit Ame's development had completely blown past anything he'd imagined when he was alive.

All these tall buildings and iron structures. For someone who'd lived through the Warring States era, it felt alien.

Eventually, his steps led him somewhere the distant sounds of voices reached his ears. It wasn't chance. His innate sensory perception had picked up the gathering.

But to avoid drawing attention, he made it look like he'd stumbled across the place by accident.

What he'd stumbled across was apparently a tavern.

'Good,' he thought. 'A tavern is one of the best places to catch any kind of gossip. I just need to not draw attention walking in.'

Easier thought than done. Dressed as he was in Konoha ANBU gear, if he walked in like that, all eyes would swivel straight to him.

But for a shinobi of his caliber, calling stealth 'difficult' was a stretch. A simple Transformation Technique would do the trick. The real question was the ANBU tailing him.

Then again, they had to know he was out here gathering intel. Even if he did it right in front of their faces, there wasn't a damn thing they could do about it.

He acted immediately, shifting his appearance into that of a burly, bald man before stepping inside.

•••

"What? The Raikage and the Tsuchikage nearly came to blows?" The words hit Tobirama's ears the second he stepped through the door, and they caught him off guard.

He'd been there. He'd seen the whole thing go down. But some random drunk in a tavern knew about it, information concerning Kage, not even twenty-four hours after the fact? Yeah, that struck him as strange.

The man's story was pulling everyone's attention, which meant nobody paid his entrance any mind.

Except the bartender, of course.

"I'm telling you, earlier at the banquet, I overheard those Kumo ninjas talking about it. Saying how bad they wanted payback on Ōnoki for mocking their Kage." The man kept going, feeding off the skepticism in the room like it was fuel.

'Something's off,' Tobirama frowned. 'Is this an Ame tactic to stir up conflict between Kumo and Iwa?'

He knew Kumo's people. Brutes, every last one of them.

If word spread that the Tsuchikage had insulted their Raikage, called him a dog no less, and that rumor started circulating through the whole ninja world, they'd feel like they'd lost face.

Once that happened, they'd never rest until the humiliation was avenged. Any negotiations or talks about alliance would be nonsense. Even if the odds of that alliance were slim to begin with, this would bury it completely.

And when he considered who stood to gain the most, the answer was obvious. Ame.

The moment Iwa was locked in conflict with Kumo, and Kumo was Konoha's ally, Iwa wouldn't dare to do anything to Ame.

They'd be too terrified of pushing their best potential allies straight into Konoha's arms. If anything, they'd offer Ame even more benefits just to keep the alliance alive.

Konoha, for its part, would have to do the same if it wanted to pull Ame into its camp.

'At least, a normal Kage would use that kind of tactic. They wouldn't risk provoking Ame and shoving them completely into Iwa's hands, even if it meant giving up some advantages. But I doubt the brat operates like that.' Tobirama's mind flicked back to his assessment of Azula.

Azula. Uchiha. Dominant. Never show weakness. Disdain for normal diplomacy. Every factor pointed to exactly what kind of person she was.

As strange as it felt to think it, Tobirama couldn't shake the possibility. Maybe she would be even happier if the alliance between Hanzo and Ōnoki became stronger so that she could wipe them out completely and reasonably.

"But if that's what happened, why didn't they actually throw hands? What stopped them?" one of the drunks asked. Tobirama kept his thoughts spinning while listening closely.

It wasn't the storyteller who answered, though.

"Do you even need to ask? Had to be Lord Hanzo. He's the Demigod of the Shinobi World, after all. Even those guys have to show respect once they're in Ame."

The man finished, and Tobirama caught the way every eye in the place lit up with pride.

'Looks like Hanzo's reputation runs wide and deep inside Ame, which is normal.' He filed that away.

But the storyteller shook his head. "Wasn't Lord Hanzo this time. The Kage and Lord Hanzo had all gathered to receive the Hokage in the first place. It was her arrival that stopped the whole thing cold."

The moment they mentioned Azula, Tobirama's interest sharpened. He wanted to know exactly what kind of feats she'd pulled off to command the respect and fear he'd seen in this generation's Kages' eyes earlier.

But after the drunk dropped her name, the mood shifted. The room went quiet, faces turning grim.

Finally, one of them sighed and broke the silence. "Azula Uchiha. The new Goddess of the Shinobi World. I see, can't say I'm surprised."

The second he said "Goddess," their expressions curdled.

In Ame, no matter who you were, the village's greatest pride was Hanzo and his title of Demigod, a title they believed sat above Kage and just a hair below the legendary God of Shinobi himself, Hashirama.

Tobirama couldn't claim to understand the situation a hundred percent, but he was piecing enough together.

Part of him wanted to ask what exactly she'd done to earn a title like that. But asking questions drew attention, and he wasn't here for attention.

His mind flicked through his jutsu repertoire, searching for something that could stir up their emotions and get them talking. He came up empty.

In the past, provoking an Uchiha took nothing more than a small push, which meant he'd never bothered developing a technique for it.

'Damn Uchiha!' he grumbled inside.

"Goddess? Hmph! What's she done that Lord Hanzo hasn't done better? Anything else is just propaganda and the Uchiha clan blowing things out of proportion." Someone scoffed, not buying Azula's reputation at all.

The rebuttal came fast. "You really think those Kumo brutes would let a rumor spread that she beat their Raikage without a problem if it wasn't true? Or you think the bounty on her head is some kind of joke?"

"But come on, do you seriously believe a fourteen-year-old kid pulled off stuff like that? I sure as hell don't."

And then the conversation spiraled into pure drunkard debate, but Tobirama had already fished out what mattered.

Defeated the Raikage? Easily? It wasn't an exaggeration to say that out of every Kage from this generation, putting Azula aside, the Raikage had impressed Tobirama the most.

His senses had picked up the monstrous chakra packed inside that body, and he'd seen firsthand how absurdly durable the man was.

No overstatement: his physique surpassed every Senju Tobirama had ever known, apart from Hashirama, of course.

That Azula could beat him didn't shock Tobirama. According to the old records, Mangekyō techniques were absurdly overpowered.

He'd taken down Izuna himself before the man could truly grasp the Mangekyō's secrets the way previous users had.

But the way they talked about it here? She'd done it easily. And that made him more curious than ever about where her real level sat.