What bothered her was how Kurenai was supposed to face Asuma after that.
"Kurenai and Asuma are practically on the verge of getting together, and then you swoop in halfway through and something like this happens. How awkward is she supposed to feel after that?"
Leaning against the windowsill, Akira looked completely innocent. "God knows, earth knows, you know, and I know. If she doesn't say anything, who's going to know? My mouth's sealed. Besides, I was saving her life. What was I supposed to do, just stand there and watch her die?"
Tsunade knew that in that situation, Akira had really had no choice.
What else could he have done?
If he'd had even a single healing pill left on hand, he never would have resorted to such an awkward method.
Unfortunately, those miracle pills had always been in short supply to begin with, and he'd already burned through all of them. The last two had gone straight to Tsunade as emergency lifesavers.
Hearing him say all that, Tsunade leaned back in her chair and sighed. "Fine. But you'd better take that secret to the grave. Don't let a word of it get out, or Kurenai really won't be able to show her face."
Akira nodded seriously. "Don't worry. I'm not that low."
Once the serious talk was over, Tsunade suddenly changed gears. She gave him a sly look and asked, "Hey, let me ask you something. Whose figure is better, mine or theirs?"
The question came out of nowhere, a perfect trap.
Akira turned to look at her. Tsunade had expected him to blush and get flustered, but instead he flashed a grin, his gaze completely unashamed.
"Theirs? Comparing you to them is insulting to you. Who in this world could compete with you?"
Tsunade froze for a second. Then she saw the mischievous smile on his face and instantly realized the brat had seen right through her little game.
Her face flushed, and she hurriedly changed the subject in the stiffest way possible. "Ahem. Well... how about you make a trip to Sunagakure? I can't shake the feeling that something's off."
Akira thought about it. He did not have anything pressing at the moment, and sitting around idle was still sitting around idle. "Alright. If that's what you want."
In truth, Tsunade had already dispatched Team Guy to reinforce Kakashi.
But she still couldn't relax. The stability of Sunagakure directly affected Konoha's interests. If things spiraled the way they had after the disappearance of the Third Kazekage and triggered another great shinobi war, Konoha in its current state would not be able to withstand it.
On the surface, Konoha still looked strong, but its upper-tier combat structure had an obvious gap. Aside from Akira, who was a walking cheat code, only Tsunade and Jiraiya could really anchor the top end.
Kakashi's name carried weight, but he still hadn't fully crossed into Kage level.
Guy might have the Eight Gates as a trump card, but a shinobi war was not a duel. Killing one or two top fighters wouldn't change the whole battlefield.
Even back in the day, the Yellow Flash, Minato Namikaze, had spent that war rushing around like a firefighter, running himself ragged.
And in terms of overall strategic value, Guy still wasn't on Minato's level. Flying Raijin simply brought too much to the table.
In fact, when it came to command and tactical thinking, Guy didn't even measure up to Kakashi.
That was why Tsunade had zero interest in seeing another war break out.
Whether Sunagakure started trouble itself or another country seized the chance to move, she wanted no part of watching the flames rise again.
Konoha was still in recovery mode. What it needed most was time.
Fortunately, over the past year or two, she had completely consolidated power inside Konoha.
Tsunade might look like a carefree gambler most days, but when it came to real politics, she was far tougher than the kindly old Third Hokage had ever been.
Root had been dissolved on paper. Danzo was still pulling strings in the dark, of course, but his legitimate administrative authority had been stripped down to almost nothing.
The old days, when Root could openly challenge the ANBU, were long gone.
Now the ANBU answered firmly to Yamato, one of Tsunade's trusted people.
As for those two elderly Hokage advisors who loved throwing their weight around, Tsunade had nearly hollowed out their influence too.
So in the Konoha of today, when Tsunade spoke, that was the final word.
With Jiraiya and Akira backing her as overwhelming combat power, and Konoha's economy doing genuinely well these past few years, who was going to challenge her?
And if anyone really did try to stir up trouble, Tsunade was absolutely the sort who would settle it with her fists. She'd even beat the advisors into the ground if she had to.
They no longer had the swagger they'd enjoyed under the Third.
Still, Tsunade understood perfectly well that if a shinobi war erupted, it would bring Konoha nothing but damage.
Even having a living weapon like Akira wouldn't change that.
Back in the Third Great Shinobi War, Konoha had possessed a monster like Minato. They hadn't lost, but they'd still suffered the heaviest casualties of anyone and paid dearly for that victory.
Meanwhile Iwagakure, despite being on the losing side, had never truly been crippled.
That was exactly why Konoha, even after winning, had still been forced to swallow its pride and sign a peace agreement with Iwagakure.
That was war. You could kill a thousand enemies and still bleed yourself dry in the process.
This time, Akira moved alone. No baggage, no dead weight.
So he simply activated Flying Raijin and, in a flash, appeared in Sunagakure.
Back during the Chunin Exams years ago, he had quietly left a Flying Raijin marker near the main gate. Now it finally came in handy.
When Akira's figure appeared out of thin air at the entrance to Sunagakure, he happened to run straight into Temari, who was about to head out with a team on mission.
Temari and her subordinates had only just reached the gate when a full-grown man popped into existence in front of them. Her people nearly drew their weapons on instinct, every one of them staring at Akira with immediate suspicion.