Besides, based on what Kaede Kitahara had revealed, Uchiha Fugaku had also awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan back then.
According to the Senju Clan's research on the Uchiha Clan, once someone awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan, they could basically step into Kage Level naturally.
With that in mind, there was only one explanation.
There had been other helpers involved, most likely Konoha's upper ranks stepping in. Possibly even Anbu, Root, and others. Only with that kind of force could it be handled so cleanly, so completely.
Thinking that far, Tsunade did not even know what to say.
Still, one detail in the diary caught her attention. Information about Uchiha Madara.
Madara's Susanoo was huge?
Of course she knew what Susanoo was. The Senju Clan had records on it.
But she had never seen Uchiha Madara's Susanoo with her own eyes. Based on standard descriptions, she would have assumed it was only a few meters tall at most. If Kaede was specifically pointing out that it was especially enormous, then how big could it be?
And instinctively, she felt something off about the Uchiha Madara in those video clips. The personality and the way he carried himself did not match the Ninja World Asura described in Senju records.
Yet Uchiha Sasuke and Shimura Danzo both confirmed that he was Uchiha Madara, which left Tsunade conflicted.
She found it hard to believe.
Madara was from her grandfather's generation. Senju Hashirama had been dead for decades, and Madara was still running around like nothing was wrong?
That would make him what, a hundred years old?
Older than the Third Hokage.
She kept reading.
When she saw Kaede claim that the best path for Hatake Kakashi was actually Hatake Kenjutsu, she felt a strong sense of agreement.
Even now, she still admired the presence the White Fang of Konoha had once carried. It was hard to forget someone like that.
Kakashi not inheriting the White Fang's legacy really was a shame. But then she saw another point, and it made her pause.
Hatake Kakashi's Sharingan was also Mangekyo level.
That caught her off guard.
By age, Kakashi was not much older than Uchiha Itachi. They were basically from the same generation.
Which meant, in that single generation, the Uchiha Clan had produced four pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan?
If Uchiha Itachi had not suddenly wiped out the clan, the Uchiha would have been standing in an era of unprecedented strength.
With that kind of foundation, aiming for the Fifth Hokage seat would have been completely possible.
As for Kaede's comment about this being a world where eyes were everything, she dismissed it.
What nonsense.
Her grandfather had not relied on any special eyes, and he still became the God of Shinobi. Meanwhile, the Uchiha with the eyes, Uchiha Madara, still had to stand beneath him.
The more Tsunade read, the heavier the information became.
The strength Akatsuki showed made her heart tighten, and she felt genuine worry for Konoha's future.
But what truly unsettled her was what came after that.
Kara.
Kaede called Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke the saviors, and yet they still got beaten to the point of breaking by someone named Otsutsuki Isshiki.
The name Otsutsuki appeared again and again in Kaede's diary, and it was the first thing that truly made Tsunade take it seriously.
If Otsutsuki Isshiki could batter peak Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke like that, then what kind of level was he on?
In Kaede's system of classification, shinobi had the standard ranks, Genin, Chunin, Jonin, and then Kage Level above that.
In the shinobi world, Kage Level was not a strict term. Most of the time, it referred to the strongest leader of a village. And among villages, the Five Great Nations' leaders were the standard reference point.
But above Kage Level, Kaede also mentioned Super Kage Level, and above that, Six Paths Level.
So far, Tsunade only knew one confirmed example of a monster in that range. The leader of Akatsuki, the one who muttered about carrying a bag of rice up how many floors, and then destroyed Konoha with a single move.
Tsunade could at least be certain of one thing.
That was not something Kage Level could do. It had to be Super Kage Level at minimum.
As for Six Paths Level, she had no idea what that really meant.
But she understood the core point.
It meant terrifying power.
She could feel it even between the lines. Kaede only had to mention the Otsutsuki name, and he became tense.
"Otsutsuki?" Tsunade scoffed, lips curling. "Really that strong?"
Her family was the Senju Clan, famous across the shinobi world, the greatest noble clan the world had produced since the Warring States Era. What clan could possibly be more impressive than the Senju?
She did not believe it.
That was the pride buried deep in every great clan. Even if you acted like you did not care, the moment someone brought up ancestral glory, a stubborn pride still rose.
She just did not show it as loudly as Uchiha Sasuke did.
Then she reached the end of the diary, and her entire mood crashed.
Fifth Hokage Tsunade.
The moment she saw it, her brain buzzed.
She was smart enough to understand immediately.
After the Third Hokage died, Konoha must have been left leaderless. So they chose her as Fifth Hokage.
After Sarutobi Hiruzen fell, the only people who truly qualified were her and Jiraiya.
But if both of them qualified, then why choose her?
Why not choose Jiraiya?
Did they think she was easy to bully because she was a woman?
Her eyes narrowed, and a new thought snapped into place.
That had to be Jiraiya's doing.
That bastard did not want the job, so he shoved it onto her.
How shameless.
It made her chest rise and fall with anger. She sat there fuming for a long while before she finally forced herself to finish the last video.
"Namikaze Minato, Akimichi Choza, Aburame Shibi… twenty years ago." Tsunade let out a slow breath. "That really was a long time."
It dredged up memories of an era that had been full of storms.
Then her expression tightened, pain flickering through it.
In that era, her boyfriend Dan had been one of the strongest candidates for Fourth Hokage too.
But he had died young and fallen out of the race before it ever truly began.
"If… if I could really go back to the past," Tsunade whispered, voice rough. "Just one glance. Even one would be enough."
She thought about what she had seen in the video.
Anrokuzan, which was Mukade.
After he destroyed the seal Namikaze Minato had left behind, the Dragon Vein in Roran had dragged Uzumaki Naruto and Yamato back twenty years.
That meant the Dragon Vein had the power to cross time.
And for a brief, dangerous moment, the thought took root in her.
She wanted to go back.
She wanted to see Dan again.
Just one more time, even if it was from far away, even if he never noticed her.
But she forced herself to calm down almost immediately. She recognized the thought for what it was.
A trap.
Playing with time never ended well.
She pressed a hand to her chest and steadied her breathing, trying to pin that dangerous longing down before it could grow.
She could not let herself keep thinking like that.
It was too tempting, and she could feel her own resolve starting to slip.
Because she missed her lover and her brother so much that even the tiniest possibility was enough to make her want to chase it. Even if she only saw them once.
And then, while she was still drowning in that ache, the diary updated.
Fresh writing appeared out of thin air right in front of her eyes.
"This is insane…"
[What I thought would be another ordinary day on the road turned into something else entirely. In a town this remote, I actually ran into one of the Legendary Sannin, Princess Tsunade.
I never expected the first Sannin I met in my life would be her, and I definitely didn't expect the first scene to be her getting chased down by casino people for debt. Still, it fits her perfectly.
Everybody knows Konoha's Legendary Sannin are basically sex, gambling, and drugs.
It runs in the family too. The First Hokage Senju Hashirama had that same awful luck at the tables. She could make a mountain of money and it still wouldn't be enough to cover how brutally unlucky she is in a casino. No wonder she's got a nickname as the ultimate fat sheep.
Her look is way too recognizable. Add a little pig, add Shizune, and it's impossible not to know who she is. How many casinos stay alive off her losses?
They always say bet the opposite of Tsunade and you'll buy a mansion by the sea. Too bad I've got a mission. Otherwise I'd sneak into a casino and do the opposite of her picks. I'd make a fortune.]