Chapter 421 - A Letter From Kumogakure
***Author Note***
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***End of Author Note***
A few days later, a group of three arrived on the outskirts of Konoha. The group leader was a fair-skinned woman with shoulder-length blonde hair, blue eyes, and a stoic facial expression. She was closely followed by a dark-skinned woman with long spiky red hair and amber eyes and a dark-skinned man with short, spiky, white hair and black eyes.
These three were Samui, Karui, and Omoi. They were sent to Konoha to deliver a letter to Tsunade. The Hachibi Jinchuuriki, Killer Bee, was kidnapped by Akatsuki, so the Fourth Raikage wants the five Kage to hold a gathering and speak about how to deal with them.
Unfortunately, they were neither aware that Killer Bee only faked the kidnapping and was currently traveling around to have fun, nor that most of Akatsuki got defeated a few days ago.
All three of them were currently looking at Konoha with slightly dazed expressions due to what was presently happening.
The whole village was covered with colorful decorations, and people were filling up the streets as there appeared to be a village-wide festival going on. And, what bewildered the trio the most, the five heads carved into the Hokage Mountain all wore colorful party heads.
"What is going on here? I don't have any information about Konoha having a festival like this."
Although Karui and Omoi heard Samui's question, they had no clue either, so they could only shrug her shoulders.
"Let's just enter the village for now and deliver the letter. We can just ask a few people for information while we walk."
When Omoi heard Karui's suggestion, he immediately started panicking.
"Isn't that dangerous? What if our information-gathering is seen as spying? And then, when we are questioned, a misunderstanding happens, and we are outed as spies. Then, when they try to capture us, a fight starts, ultimately ending in our death. Raikage-sama will hear about our deaths and will then declare war against Konoha, starting another Shinobi War."
"YOU'RE OVERTHINKING!!!"
While Karui and Omoi were quarreling, Samui approached Konoha's gate with two annoyed-looking people sitting next to it.
These two were Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane. Recently, they have been on gate duty almost every day and were rather annoyed that they couldn't partake in the festival due to their responsibilities.
Samui, Karui, and Omoi felt multiple pairs of eyes on them as they walked towards the gate, which surprised neither of them. They were foreign shinobi, after all, and proudly displayed it with their headbands. Well, it would be more suspicious not to show their affiliation since that would mark them as possible spies.
"Stop, who are you?"
When the trio got closer to the gate, the trio stopped walking while Samui took out a letter.
"We are here on Raikage-sama's order. We must deliver this letter to Hokage-sama."
Izumo and Kotetsu both frowned when they heard that. Although Kumogakure and Konoha weren't currently at war, they weren't allies either, so the letter could be pretty much everything from a declaration of war to an alliance offer.
Either way, this was far above the duo's paygrade, so they could only forward the message to someone higher in the food chain. Izumo was about to fetch someone when he heard a leisure voice.
"Sounds interesting. I'll lead them to Tsunade."
The duo looked at the source of the voice and immediately had wry expressions on their faces.
Surprisingly, a young woman with red hair and blue streaks appeared between the duo without them even noticing.
"Yuna-sama, I don't think that is appropriat."
"Mah, don't worry about it. A clan leader escorting foreign guests sounds totally acceptable, don't you think?"
The duo looked at each other before simply shrugging their shoulders. Even if it didn't, who would blame them for giving in to Yuna's demands? Although they were slightly worried that Yuna might cause an international incident, she usually knew full well how far she could push before she needed to stop.
"Alright, I leave it to you, Yuna-sama."
Meanwhile, Samui, Karui, and Omoi had slightly stiff expressions when an additional person suddenly appeared without them noticing. They realized that if this were an ambush, all three of them would be dead.
The trio's expressions became even uglier when they realized who had just offered to guide them. The name Yuna Uzumaki was known in every corner of the Elemental Natio, so was her flashy appearance and chaotic behavior; hence the trio had no doubts that they were facing the real deal.
Moments later, Yuna's gaze landed on the trio, causing them to straighten their backs.
"Well, follow me. We are going straight to Tsunade."
The trio glanced at each other for a brief moment of silent conversation before following after Yuna. At first, the group moved without talking, but after a few moments of walking, Yuna opened her mouth.
"So, I assume this is about the kidnapping of Killer Bee?"
The trio almost face-planted when Yuna casually revealed what was supposed to be a secret. Although Yuna's knowledge flustered Samui, she could help but ask how Yuna even managed to get that kind of information.
"H-How do you know about that?"
"About what? The kidnapping or the letter?"
"Err, both?"
"Well, I know about the kidnapping because I have a method of gathering information about Akatsuki, so I got the information that they were extracting the Hachibi from him. As for the letter, that was just a guess."
"WHAT!? They were extracting the Hachibi!? D-Doesn't that mean t-that Killer Bee-sama i-is dead?"
"Nah, Killer Bee tricked them with a clone. Akatsuki never managed to capture him in the first place."
"""WHAT!?"""
A chuckle of amusement left Yuna's mouth when she saw the shocked trio.
'As expected, there is lots of fun to be had with these three~'
[Your evil is showing.]
'Oops, gotta zip that up~'
"T-Then why hasn't he returned to Kumo yet? Where is he?"
"Not sure why he hasn't returned yet, but the last time I got a report about him, he was in the Land of Hot Water, enjoying the hot springs."
"N-No way. So he is just playing around?"
Instead of answering, Yuna simply shrugged her shoulders, causing the trio to go into another daze. After all, the only reason why they were here in the first place was due to Bee's kidnapping, making the whole trip pretty much useless.
A few minutes later, Karui managed to reboot her brain as she noticed something else. She pointed at the big building in the distance and started speaking.
"Although this is my first time here, that's the Hokage Tower, right? Why does it look like we aren't walking towards it?"
Karui's question immediately caused her two companions to look at Yuna suspiciously. However, Yuna only shrugged her shoulders and continued walking.
"That's because Tsunade currently isn't inside the Hokage Tower."
"Then where is she."
Yuna stopped walking as she made an inviting gesture towards a large gate behind her that was currently bustling with people.
"She's right here, inside my Uzumaki clan compound."
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