Chapter 11: Tsunade

"You're weak. Pitifully weak and nowhere near as strong as the border ninjas."

"What does strength have to do with meeting nee-chan?"

Katomo asked in confusion.

"Don't forget that even if to you, you're only going to visit Tsunade-hime, officially, you're going to either collect known intel and bring it back to the village or bring supplies to the border troops. While for you, this is not the an important reason, any spy from the other 4 villages that knows of this will think that your objective is the mission only. Because, by either bring intel from the border back to the village or by bringing supplies to the border troops, you're essentially doing a task that'd benefit the village but harm the other villages be it directly or indirectly. And there's no doubt that you'll be attacked by shinobi along the way. Perhaps not when you go to the base but definitely when you return to the village."

Izuryu had a severe expression as he explained the situation to Katomo. Katomo remained silent as he mulled over Izuryu's words.

He had rushed over too many variables that could happen during the mission. Because of this, Katomo felt even more gratitude towards Izuryu.

Izuryu had a serious look on his face as he looked at Katomo.

"Now then Katomo, tell me very honestly, how strong are you?"

"I…"

Katomo instantly had an ugly expression.

"This is very important if you me to be your teammate so tell me Katomo Senju, how strong are you?"

***

Katomo Senju, while being called as Tsunade's little brother was never a true Senju.

He was found in front of the Senju clan front gate 8 years ago. The crying boy inside a basket, wrapped with a blanket in front of the Senju gate was very conspicuous. He was quickly found as Senju clan members brought him inside their compound.

It was not the first time that a child who had been left at the door or brought by a shinobi had been brought in Senju compounds, yet most of the time if not every time, the child was either an orphan from dead Senju parents or had Senju blood flowing within them.

The Senju clan was dying, everyone was aware of. As such, each and every young child brought into the clan was a very important part of the clan. While seemingly the strongest clan in Konoha, the Senju had no more than a hundred clan members in their whole clan.

They had thought of sending this child to the village orphanage. If he Senju blood within him, he would have most likely been taken into the clan yet he didn't.

He didn't have the slightest trace of Senju blood in his body. Not even a drop.

Yet at that very moment something absolutely incomprehensible happened.

Mito Uzumaki, the wife of Hashirama Senju, the Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails Kurama and the strongest member of the Senju clan decided to adopt the child as her grandson.

She had hardly ever appeared in the Senju clan after Tobirama Senju's death. No more than 3 times within all those years.

Yet she came.

To adopt a child of unknown origin, she came out and showed herself to the world.

Ever since then, Katomo Senju was treated as the Senju Prince alongside Tsunade.

Nobody doubted Mito's judgement. Even though she was an Uzumaki, she was the wife of the God Of Shinobi himself. Even if there were people who had doubts about her decision, They had to suck it up and swallow their problems.

For 8 years, he had been raised as the Senju Prince.

Yet he had never disappointed the Senju.

Katomo Senju was perhaps one of the most talented children the clan had seen after the age of Hashirama and Tobirama.

At the age of 1 he had already started walking and talking.

At the age of 2 he could learn the hand-signs for almost every jutsu he saw, even if he couldn't learn them.

At the age of 3 he had already learned almost all of the genin jutsu in the Senju Archives.

At the age of 4, after having his chakra activated, he could successfully used all the jutsu he had learned before, even if he couldn't use all of them in rapid succession.

He was truly one of the Senju. (Senju is derived from Sen Jutsu, or Thousand Techniques, not to mistake this with Senjutsu or Sage Jutsu)

Yet, other than walking inside the village, Katomo had never been allowed to show his talents.

It was for a simple reason; The Senju didn't want him to suffer any harm until he could protect himself. It was a naive ideology yet it was very effective.

The child, sheltered and protected within the borders of the Senju compound and the Hidden Leaf had never had a threat to his life, yet his strength had grown immensely.

At the age of 8, Katomo Senju could fight against Elite-Jonin with equal power without falling in a disadvantage.

***

"I can fight with you."

Katomo showed a resolute expression as he stared at Izuryu.

"…"

"F*ck, f*ck, f*ck!"

Izuryu sighed and rubbed his forehead in frustration.

He jumped back up on his feet and glared at Katomo as he spat out.

"If you can't fight and hold me back, I'll just abandon you."

Katomo smiled at Izuryu and nodded while giggling as the two walked away.

***

Next morning, Izuryu read the B-class mission scroll that Katomo gave him

It was as he had guessed; the mission content was to bring back information from the border lines and to bring supplied for border troops.

He scrolled the mission back as he looked at Katomo. He nodded too and Izuryu lit the scroll on fire, burning the scroll inside; only leaving a seal as the proof of him being a Konoha ninja and not a spy.

"I'll go prepare for the mission, meet me at the gate at 12 sharp."

Izuryu spoke as he disappeared with shunshin.

Katomo was stunned at the sight of Izuryu suddenly disappearing, he wondered how many secrets Izuryu really had.

He smiled bitterly and shook his head. He slowly sunk into the ground as he disappeared from the training ground.

***

Izuryu, who was wearing a reinforced chakra full-body suit with a few kunai holsters and Muramasa on his waist was waiting for Katomo.

Just as he was about to yawn, an 'earth mound' slowly appeared from the ground below startling Izuryu. He unsheathed Muramasa as the massive amount of chakra quickly extended the blade. He swung the blade towards the mound as the blade cut through the earth, creating a massive slice.

The 'mound' quickly raised upwards to reveal a Katomo with his hands upwards, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

"Why the hell did you attack me?!"

"Why the hell didn't YOU tell me you had Earth Movement Jutsu? I wouldn't have been so scared then!"

Katomo choked on his words as he looked at Muramasa in Izuryu's hand, which was quickly shrinking,

"What the hell is that sword?"

Katomo asked Izuryu as he secretly looked at the giant slice in earth created by the sheer sharpness of Muramasa.

"Its my sword. Why? You jealous?"

Izuryu snickered at Katomo's ugly expression as he quickly put away Muramasa.

"You got the mask?" Izuryu asked as Katomo brought out a Dog mask from behind him.

"Why do we have to wear masks though?" Katomo asked.

"Do you WANT to be recognized as a Konoha shinobi near enemy lines? No, right? Exactly. Now then,

"Let's move."

Izuryu nodded towards Katomo as they started moving towards the border of Konoha and Amegakure, where one of the future Sannin were stationed.

***

2 days later, Izuryu and Katomo were taking shelter at a cave.

Even if shinobi could move hundreds of kilometers a day, there was still a considerable distance between Konoha and Amegakure's border.

"The rain has been more frequent the closer we get, I guess we'll be arriving soon."

Izuryu remarked as he looked at the heavy rain outside.

"Check the scroll."

Izuryu told Katomo.

Katomo nodded as he brought out the scroll that had all the supplies of the border troops.

It was encased in heavy rain so that the rain wouldn't affect the contents inside.

Even if it was a special scroll, it wouldn't hurt to be more careful.

"It's safe. Should we start moving?"

Katomo asked Izuryu for confirmation.

"It doesn't seem the rain will stop anytime soon. It seems we'll have to move."

Izuryu and Katomo got out of the cave and were quickly drenched due to the rain. Although they were wet, they didn't feel cold at all. By simply regulating some fire chakra through their suits, they could not feel cold and feel as warm as the winter sun instead.

As sounds of body-flickers and steps rang through the forests ever-so-often, Izuryu was suddenly stopped by Katomo.

"Dragon → Tiger → Boar (Unknown Shinobi, Most likely enemies)"

Izuryu instantly tensed up and put on his Anbu mask and activated his sharingan as he felt several chakra signatures near him.

4 men surrounded 2 as they were conversing with their weapons.

Izuryu deactivated his chakra vision as he looked towards the direction of the chakra signatures with his sharingan's exceptional eyesight.

Two Konoha shinobi were surrounded by forces wearing symbol of the Hidden Rain.

"Serpent → Bird (Rain Shinobi" Izuryu put up 4 fingers to symbolize four shinobi.

"Should we help?" Katomo asked by etching it on the nearby tree.

Izuryu saw it and nodded as he rushed towards the position of the 4 Rain shinobi.

He quickly made eye-contact with 3 of the Rain Shinobi.

"Genjutsu: Sharingan!"

The 3 men quickly fell into a trance as the 4th stabbed his sword towards Izuryu.

An earth wall was raised in front of him as Katomo knocked him out with a chop to the neck.

Izuryu brought out a chakra string as he knocked out the 3 shinobi and bound them together with the 4th Rain shinobi.

Izuryu and Katomo turned their heads to see two knocked out Konoha Shinobi.

It seemed that they had been trying their best not to fall unconscious in the face 4 rain shinobi.

Izuryu and Katomo looked at each other and sighed.

Izuryu carried the 2 unconscious shinobi and Katomo carried the 4 Rain shinobi as they moved forward to the border barracks that were slowly appearing in their vision.

Just as they were about to the reach the entrance, 6 shinobi blocked their paths.

Izuryu threw the scroll seal at the leading shinobi as he looked at the seal and authenticated it.

After confirming it was real, he moved out of the way as he led Izuryu and Katomo inside the base.

"Welcome to the border base of Konoha!"

The shinobi introduced with a smile.

Izuryu and Katomo released a sigh of relief as they removed their masks.

The shinobi was surprised to see shinobi of such age but he repressed his surprise and led them in to the meeting room.

"So, why did the Hokage send you here?"

He asked.

Katomo brought out the scroll as he broke the stone casing wrapping it.

"We were instructed to bring supplies as well as bring the latest known intel back to the village."

The mention of supplies made the man's face light up as he quickly brought the scroll to the warehouse and released it.

Many sacks of food, water, clothes, weapons, scrolls, armor etc. quickly filled up the warehouse.

Yet what attracted Izuryu's gaze was the massive pile of sake bottles.

There were almost 100 bottles of it, making Izuryu send a concerned gaze towards Katomo.

Katomo had a dark expression as he tried laughing it off.

The man noticed it too as he grabbed a sake bottle and opened it.

The scent of sake quickly drifted from the warehouse to the outside, the rain not being able to dissipate it away.

BANG!

A large explosion sounded from the distance as Izuryu saw a figure rush into the warehouse.

He unsheathed his katana Muramasa, yet he froze in place.

His eyes instantly went to the figure's bright blonde hair, as he saw her face.

Slightly delicate yet dignified features with skin as soft as jade, its beauty not ruined by the rain, auburn eyes as beautiful as the forest tree.

A true "jade beauty".

He had finally seen her.

He had finally seen Tsunade Senju.