24 Chapter-24 : Dealing with Tsunade

"Good boy Roach, here" Hiro said as he fed the horse some expensive feed mixed with herbs and sent him back.

He looked at the team a few female medic nins who put Kurenai on a stretcher and started working on her.

At this moment, Hiro was still standing outside the southern gate of Konoha as he looked at the massive chakra signature that stood beside him right now.

He looked at the Hokage who stood inspecting him with her scrutinizing eyes as he sat down, although he did not feel pain from his fractured bones, it was not a good idea to put weight on them.

"You too need some medical attention, come with me" Tsunade said as she snapped her fingers, an couple ANBU appeared besides Hiro as they carried him by his shoulders and followed behind Tsunade. 

Soon, Hiro was inside the Hokage tower, in the main office with only three people remaining in the room.

Him, Tsunade and her Assistant, Shizune, four if you count her pig that went by the name of TonTon.

Don't mistake that fella for a cute harmless small pig, it gave off an A rank chakra beast level of danger vibes around it. Hiro was sure it was stronger than Roach at the moment. 

Hiro, was sitting in a meditative position as he looked at Tsunade healing him up.

[ Physical stats 

Strength : [B] 

Endurance : [A]

Durability : [B]

Agility : [A-] 

Regeneration : [D+] -> [A] (Temporary) ]

He looked at his regeneration that was boosted up under the effect of mystical palm Jutsu's green hue.

He could feel his bones going back in their original place as they started healing back, the swelling disappeared after just a few minutes as he was now all healed up, his health back to full.

"So, what exactly happened?" Tsunade asked as Hiro gave a nod and started explaining things to Tsunade. 

He explained how he discovered the massacred village, how he traced Kurenai back to the next village, how they discovered that the Cult of Jashin was the one responsible for it.

"Those fuckers!!!" Tsunade banged her hand against the table as she gave off an intense amount of pressure.

'Yup, thats Kage level for you' Hiro thought as he felt the chakra pressure exuding off her.

Cult of Jashin was a well known criminal organization that kidnapped people and was responsible for dozens of killings each months throughout the lands of Water and the land of Hot water.

But never had they pulled off something as audacious as this before.

Just as she was about get a red notice out for the entire organization, Hiro continued his part of the story as he told how he took care of every member of their organization.

Tsunade was wide eyed listening to his story, no matter how farfetched it sounded, the results were clear, listened him explain how he then distracted both S rank criminals while killing one.

Though Hiro hid the fact that he killed the old man, he justified by saying that as they Interrupted whatever ritual they were doing, it caused a severe backlash onto the old man, making him weakened a lot.

In the end, the old man committed a suicide attempt at taking him out with a whole lot of explosive tags.

"It looked like they were preparing for a massive Terrorist attack in or around Konoha with that number of Explosive tags" Hiro commented on their dubious intentions while feeling a stinge his heart.

Those all Explosive tags costed more than 25 million ryo, and they were all just gone just like that. 

'Still worth it' Hiro thought, tough it was a huge amount even for him, it was still worth killing that bastard.

Hiro looked inside his inventory as he smiled inwardly, that scythe was made from special chakra metal alloy with much better properties than his current sword, once he gets it melted down, it can be turned into a beautiful katana for him.

"Hmm, that does seems like the case..... go on, what happened with the other guy?" Tsunade said while rubbing her chin.

"Unfortunately, he ran away using the chaos of the explosion as his cover, we should increase our surveillance and do a thorough sweep of the area to force him out while he's still down" Hiro said, suggesting a genuine strategy. 

Tsunade, who listened Hiro's suggestions couldn't help but agree more, but the circumstances did not allow her.

Jonins in Konoha were already running thin doing overtime missions, if this was Konoha before the attack of Orochimaru, things could have been different, but in that attack, Konoha lost considerable amount of Jonins throughout.

Currently, she barely had enough manpower remaining to defend Konoha if something goes awry, and with Organization like Akatsuki on rise, it would not be a good decision to focus power outside the village.

She just smiled in sarcasm of her own situation as she looked at Hiro who now sat accross the table with bandages wrapped on his limbs.

She had an intuition that Hiro was not just any guy, his actions, his temperament, the manner in which he had gained prominence over the years, he was destined to make it big. 

She had seen enough of the world to recognize talent where it belonged.

She got up as she moved around the table contemplating a couple things in her mind.

Tsunade spoke up "You have performed exceptionally well on this mission"

"From now onwards, you will become an Elite Jonin of Konohagakure"

As Hiro listened to her, his eyes widened a bit 'A double promotion at the same time? Guess its my lucky day', he smiled a bit as he cupped his hands and bowed his head a little in front on her to show her respect.

"Thank you Hokage-sama for believing in me" Hiro said.

"One thing before you leave" Tsunade said as she took out a seal and deployed it in the room.

'Chakra containment seal??' Hiro thought looking at Tsunade with a puzzled expression. 

"Hold my hand and flare up your Chakra as much as you can" She said as she extended her hand forward. 

'Is this a test?' Hiro thought as he looked at Tsunade's hands

Hiro complied as he held Tsunade's hands 'They're very soft', He thought as he held her hands.

 Hiro took a deep breath and started flaring up his chakra to the max.

Immediately, an intense wave of chakra emerged from his body, blowing away the things that were close to him as his clothes started waving around.

'This... its definitely S rank category...' Tsunade thought as she felt the vastness and the oppression of his chakra.

Although it wasn't comparable to her reserves, it was still miles ahead of anyone his age, almost same as her when she was his age.

'He has that potential.....' She thought as a silhouette of a figure appeared in her mind, but it just disappeared just as fast.

She retracted her hands as Hiro stopped his chakra flare up, returning the surroundings to normal. She nodding towards Hiro as she said "Keep the information that you have broken though the barrier a secret"

Hiro nodded at that, he was going to ask her to keep it a secret, seemed like he won't need to.

'The Barrier' was a cap that all elite Jonins experienced in their life, after getting to it, progression in both strength and chakra seems abysmally slow.

It was what stopped most elite Jonins from advancing into S rank category, otherwise S ranks would have been as common as cabbages.

The barrier was also said to be the limit to the talent of a person and their hard work, after experiencing the barrier, most elite Jonins would try braking past it only to be stuck at the level for decades, most probably dying before overcoming it.

An S rank emerging was a great deal for a village, there was 25% chance that an S rank individual will be able to progress to Kage level at some point in their life.

Hiding his prowess from the enemy outside and the enemy within the Konoha, she will be able to gain an upper hand and a wild card that can be of tremendous benefit to her and Konoha in turn.

'I hope I'm making a good choice today' Tsunade thought as she spoke up while looking at Hiro.

"I won't be hypocritical about it, nor will I be indirect, I want to recruit you into my faction" 

'So, thats what this all is about' Hiro thought.

He was no stranger to the internal strife and political instability developing inside Konoha. 

Ever since Tsunade's appointment as the Hokage, the village had been divided into two major faction.

One was of Tsunade, the ruling faction while the other was of the so called council, the opposition faction.

Tsunade, although became Hokage, only had the support of the three Noble clans and the Inuzuka tribe along with some smaller clans that had once branched out from the Senju's.

Meanwhile the opposition had the majority of civilian ninja groups allied to them, along with Aburame, Shimura and surprisingly Sarutobi clan being a part of them.

Hyuga clan set itself aside as it already had its own matters to be looked on, and remained neutral while looking to reap benefits from both sides.

Her asking him to join her faction looked to be a greedy deal as she did not have much to offer as return in terms of benefits.

It was an open secret that those in the opposition faction got more missions, easy missions, opportunities to make big bucks and hold better positions in general as they held the majority vote of the ninja council that reviewed high level promotions and handed out special missions.

If Hiro was a normal ninja from no backgrounds (which he was prior to his transmigration), what the opposition could offer him was much more and much faster than what the ruling faction could offer him. Choosing her would be a mistake on his part if it was like that.

But for Hiro, who already had all the resources he could need along with more money than he could spend not to mention his own shadow organization that he could command, it was an easy choice.

Tsunade, looked at Hiro's contemplating expression with a troubled face, she could not afford to lose an upcoming major figure to the opposition side.

"You don't have to make the decision now, take your ti...." but before she could finish

"No, I've decided, I will be joining your faction" Hiro said as he cupped his fists and bowed slightly to show a gesture of respect to her with a smile on his face.

Getting close to Tsunade had been on his list for a long time, and now, the opportunity presented itself on a golden platter.

"But I have a condition before that....."

A/N : Those who give power stones be blessed with big PP.

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