[Naruto] Saga of Tanya the Kunoichi

A few days passed as Tanya got well rested from the recent battle and injury from fighting Daichi. In the morning, Tsuyu got into her routine as usual. Though this morning, she felt a little more at ease as she brewed coffee imported from the Land of Wind, specifically from the Kōhīgahara province.

The aroma is akin to very slightly burnt caramel mixed with the scent of damp soil after the rain, with hints of toasted almond. The scent already teased Tanya's neurones. With a sip, her lips were coated with the rich, luxurious taste of traditionally prepared coffee beans, away from machinery and made from a family that perfected their technique over generations.

Captain Kaito kindly passed the coffee beans, a gift from Danzo-sama, apparently to congratulate her for joining the ANBU. Along with it, Kaito asked her to meet him at a certain meat bun shop in 2 days in the southeast-ward of Konoha. He claimed to wanting to assess her combat ability personally at the nearby training ground. 

Tanya was not a dunce and suspected a lot of things, and she was mostly intrigued. The coffee already bought her goodwill, and she already guessed Danzo probably wanted to consolidate his influence or power through her, or he had a secret organisation that was independent from Hiruzen's control - or both. If Danzo-sama wanted to reel her in, she wouldn't mind much as long as the benefit was enough. 

Tanya sipped the coffee while closing her eyes. Enjoying the aroma and luxurious taste. She had to admit that Danzo's bribery was perfect. She wouldn't mind working for him if she got to have this expensive coffee regularly - of course, it's just an exaggeration.

Tanya had a slight natural smile on her face as she enjoyed breakfast. Also, yesterday, she managed to get a loan from the bank with her ANBU status, making everything proceed cleanly. With that, she quickly made a pre-order on some chakra sealing paper from Konoha; and signed a contract for being one of the suppliers of Explosive Tags for the shop with the eloquence of her words and demonstration of her Explosive Tag to the shopkeeper. It was a high-quality explosive tag using an improved formula she had improvised. She was a mage who used various complex spell formulas in her past life, after all. All of them were so complex that the computation orb was a must.

Although she was never a Spell Engineer, the army did teach her the basics, and she often reviewed the spells she pre-installed into the computation orb. She was able to make references compared to the Jutsu Formula. 

The tag can be ignited at a shocking 34 meters, which was significantly farther than the standard long-ranged explosive tag, and yet had a slightly reduced amount of time in delay to cause ignition and explosion despite the range. In standard long-ranged tag, since the user would seal their chakra into the Explosive Tag, they were able to ignite it from far away due to a natural connection with them. But there was distance and delay of input as a limiting factor- therefore, Tanya's improvements in these areas were quite huge.

Now she felt assured about having money. Perhaps they can move to a bigger place now and move closer to the Konoha main district for convenience.

Naruto, in front of her, was stuffing his mouth with food happily. The breakfast was unusually rich, with more variety of side dishes, meat, and veggies.

'Tsu-chan! What's the occasion? You were always stingy about our food'. Naruto asked, even with his mouth still full of food.

Tanya smiled slightly.

"We have money now. And I am working, remember. Besides, I had a small business too. We won't have to count on food from now on. Just eat what you like".

'Business??? What business?'.

"Explosive Tags. I took Fuin Shiki class, remember? You can take the elective next year if you are interested and have a talent for it. Or you can start early. My reference scrolls and books are in my room if you want to study them first".

'Explosive Tags!? Weren't those like, so expensive?! And powerful too! I want to learn too!'.

"Sure, then. Read the Introduction to Jutsu Shiki first. Later, I will see to it if there's anything you don't understand". Tanya was not stingy about knowledge to her brother. Tanya encouraged Naruto to explore everything - because you never know whether you have talent or not unless you try - and making Naruto maximise his potential was what Tanya wanted.

'Okay!', Naruto stuffed some more food, feeling happy to learn fuinjutsu and make explosive tags too. He could show them to Sakura-chan, and everyone would see how amazing he was.

Tanya remembered another thing and took a thick envelope from her bosom. 

She had leftover from the loan money. And she was not worried about not paying them back. And even if she couldn't, she was an ANBU working for Hokage anyway. What are they gonna do about it? But, of course, she was not such an immoral person and abided by the law.

"Here, your allowance for the month".

Naruto took it with anticipation, seeing how thick the envelope was compared to usual. Tanya usually controlled the household finances and only gave Naruto a little fixed monthly allowance. But behold, it contained so much money! The stack of bank notes, as Naruto flipped it with his thumb made him froze.

Naruto dropped his chopsticks, not believing his eyes. 

'NO WAY! Tsu-chan! Is this real-ttebayo!?', Naruto was giddy and excited. He never got to hold so much money all this time and had to use only the little Tsuyu give each month for his own 'entertainment'.

"It's real", Tanya said simply with a slight smirk. 

'Suge! Tsu-chan the best-ttebayo! I want to buy so many things!'. Naruto already imagined every single thing he had wanted to buy that he could not afford before. He experienced for the first time what financial freedom meant.

"Spend however you want to", Tanya thought of it as a reward for Naruto's hard work all this time. He deserved it. Even if Naruto decided to buy useless stuffs she wouldn't mind.

'Yatta!', Naruto couldn't wait to spend the money for the rest of the day. 

Tanya looked at the clock. It's time, it seems.

'I might come home late. Get dinner on your own'.

Tanya stood, tying her hair with the headband with the Konoha symbol plated on it, ready to leave.

'Okay'. Naruto replied simply. But his mind returned to a few days ago when he felt how scary Tsuyu felt. He never asked nor mentioned it and tried to forget about it.

Tsuyu eventually left, leaving Naruto to wash the dishes since it was his turn.

***

Tsuyu walked along the streets of Konoha southeastward, eventually reaching a somewhat dilapidated street with not many people. She saw Captain Kaito waiting for her in front of the meat bun shop.

"Good morning, Kaito taichou". Tanya bowed slightly.

'Morning, Tsuyu-kun'. He said with a neutral smile.

Kaito led Tsuyu to the front of the inconspicuous middle-aged woman who was at the small stall, ready to take orders. The front of the stall looked clean; behind her, there was an inconspicuous-looking restaurant, also owned by the same person where customers would go in to sit if they wanted to. Since most people just have them as a takeaway, it was rare for anyone to go in.

'Aunty, I would like two of today's specials, along with extra spicy radish pickles on the sides. We are eating here'.

'Sure thing. It would be 80 Ryo'. She quickly took the meat buns fresh from the steamer and placed them on plates, serving them with sides of radish pickles.

Kaito led Tsuyu into the restaurant. He leave the plate on the table and took a bite into the meat bun.

'It's good', Kaito look at Tsuyu as if asking her to try them. Tsuyu nods and bit into them. Yes, it's quite good. Kaito went towards the back, into the supposed storeroom.

He turned into a dark corner and moved a crate aside with one arm, revealing a secret entrance where a steel ladder descended into the tunnel below.

Tanya obeyed and went down first. After about ten meters of descend, her feet reached the floor; it was connected to a long tunnel lightly lit with some lighting. After a few corners and turns, she finally saw light at the end.

Coming out of the tunnel, she was greeted with a large hall. Instantly, she could feel a few gazes on her from the dark corners of the hall for a second before they disappeared. They were the Root members stationed to be on guard at the main hall.

To think such a secret place exists right below Konoha.

The sound of steps came from a dark entrance at the other end of the hall. Along with the intermittent sound of a cane tapping the ground.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The figure with half a bandaged face and a broken arm hidden beneath his cloth appeared. It was none other than Shimura Danzo.

'Tsuyu, I have been waiting for you', Danzo said with almost an excited tone.

Tsuyu kneeled on one knee, realising Danzo had power and status only second and perhaps close to Hiruzen.

"I am sorry to keep you waiting, Danzo-sama".

'Stand up'.

Tsuyu stood up right, waiting to listen to Danzo's words that would come. But before that, she remembered the coffee.

'Danzo-sama, the coffee you brought me is very much to my liking. I appreciate your gift'. Tsuyu said respectfully. Her words caused Danzo to feel flattered, his mood improved a little. She had learnt how to coax the higher-ups to climb the corporate ladders in her first life after all.

'Don't mention it. It was just a congratulatory gift. Now, you must have a lot of questions'.

Tsuyu gaze focus onto Danzo.

'You are now standing inside ROOT organisation. We were once a subsidiary of ANBU, you could say; that I fully control'.

'In a way, ANBU and ROOT missions were the same. All of them are to ensure Konoha remains standing. But Hiruzen was too soft in his approaches. Tsuyu, I have seen your talent and potential, and unlike Hiruzen, I believe in you will become Konoha's greatest asset in the future, as long as you are given the opportunity'.

Tsuyu's ear perked up. She had an expectant look in her eyes. Danzo's words were like music to her ears receiving such appraisal about herself; seemingly, she was about to get a promotion already. Danzo's coaxing is almost as good as Tsuyu's own.

'However, I am warning you. ROOT work, and by extension myself, can be considered dark. We did what even ANBU cannot do - all for the sake of Konoha, no matter the sacrifices - even your humanity. You must understand what it means Tsuyu'.

Tsuyu stayed silent for a second before replying calmly.

"I understand, Danzo-sama. I agree some hard measures are necessary, especially at this current time when Konoha is at its weakest".

Danzo nodded in satisfaction; he saw in her eyes that she truly understood what he meant and what Root stood for. Finally, someone who's smart enough to see how necessary his evil is. 

As for what Tsuyu thought, she could imagine what evil was included. Including killing political figures or even potential figures that could alter the political landscape of Land of Fire. Or perhaps taking in orphans and children to create emotionless child soldiers or killing genius children of enemy villages to cull them before they could grow into a real threat.

While on certain things, she wouldn't agree given how she advocates for autonomy and freedom, including her own, but as long as it was not her or any of her subordinates that she had put work in cultivating, she wouldn't care. It's a part of human nature to not care when it's not about them. 

Therefore, as long as the 'immorality' in question did not take anything from her and give benefits overall, she would agree with Danzo.

'You are very quick to agree... However, I never planned for you to be involved directly. You can achieve greater things than doing underground work. It would be unfitting of your talent and potential'.

Danzo eyes become serious.

'Hiruzen may see you as a mere child, leaving you in the veil of secrecy and hiding the fact that you are one of the jinchuriki of Konoha. Even putting no effort to cultivate and harness the power inside of you. While he may think he is doing it for your good, he never considered your own opinion on the matter'.

Danzo had never needed to manipulate Tsuyu, to begin with. A simple olive branch was all it took. He was certain about Tsuyu's personality. Her written exam on 'Will of Fire' earned her a full score each time. This was an outlier in fact. 

The questions often include moral dilemmas - such as saving your teammate but causing failure of a very important mission for the village that could forsake the village safety or abandon them to make sure the mission succeeds. Tanya naturally selected the second option. It was the only logical option. Very very few can get full score on such exams.

'Tsuyu, are you willing to harness such power and use them for the sake of Konoha?', Danzo asked in anticipation.

Tsuyu straightened her posture once more, her gaze sharp. What idiot would say no?

"I am more than willing, Danzo-sama", Tsuyu saluted with a sharp, confident gaze.

Danzo had a rare smile.

'Very well. Come. It's time for you to harness the power of 9 tails. I am confident in your ability to control it', Danzo led Tsuyu into one of the entrances in the big hall and towards a room he had already prepared.

Tsuyu saw that the floor was marked with various fuin symbols, and 4 masked Root members were in the corners of the circular altar. They were the Root Fuin specialist, ready to take action in case anything went wrong.

Tsuyu could guess what she had to do. Unfortunately for Kyubi-san; she had to ignore his autonomy this one time. In fact, Tsuyu felt the tugging from inside her - from Kyubi - wanting to shred her to pieces seeing all these. He hated being used the most.

But what can he do? Of course, Tsuyu never planned to casually take Kyubi's power for no reason unless it was needed - after all, she still held some sort of pity and acknowledgement of Kyubi's unfortunate circumstances. Kyubi was still her roommate in a sense and would be her subordinate her entire life probably, and it had always been in Tsuyu's interest to cooperate with him instead of being enemies or in a forced bitter relationship for no reason.

Kyubi was considering his options and thinking about what he could do… And a bright idea flashes in his fox mind.

Kyubi, behind the red gate, smiled with an evil grin.

You want my power? Then take it!

Now, some may wonder, what was Kyubi thinking? It's simple. The more Tsuyu uses Kyubi's chakra, the more the seal corrodes. Once it corroded enough, he would push as much chakra he had and further pry the seal wide! It's how the 8 triagram seals work, and he could feel the seal did weaken since she had used his chakra years ago.

This would let Kyubi fully utilize all of his chakra eventually, and there's no way a meager human like Tsuyu can withstand his entire will and power - Tsuyu's body, mind, and will would be overtaken, killing her, and Kyubi would finally escape entirely! He was confident Tsuyu would not be able to handle that! No way, no way! He is the strongest of all bijuus! She cannot possibly withstand his will and power at full power! Tsuyu was able to perfectly control his chakra back then only because of it's meager amount!

Kyubi had his arrogance and confidence at its peak. Whatever Tsuyu wanted to do; he would just give the chakra. Just you wait!

***

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