Naruto: Tango with Death

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"Mikoto, you and the Owl look like you are in the best condition. How about you tell us how your mission went?"

All the officers once again gathered in the largest tent, to make a full report of the battles.

Faced with her husband's question, Mikoto briefly summarized, "A couple hundred of their foot troops left their life behind, as well as the Explosion Corps."

The older General Tsubasa crossed his arms and asked, "How many are left of the Explosion Corps?"

Mikoto shook her head and replied, "You misunderstood. The Explosion Corps is no more, all of their members were killed by the Owl. Including their leader, Gari."

The few gasps that followed almost made me chuckle. I know, I'm being full of myself, but I deem my actions good enough to feel pride. Well, maybe the morals are a little problematic, considering said feat is murdering more than a hundred people, but damn am I good at this.

After a few seconds of silent staring, Danzo, who never participated in our planning before, not openly that is, faked a cough and said, "Might Guy, I trust you did not face any unexpected problems?"

Guy showed his signature smile and made a thumb up with his available arm, replying, "Han was a mighty opponent, but he was vanquished by the Power of Youth!"

Danzo did not show any emotion to Guy's overwhelming positivity and asked, "Were they neutralized, or pushed back?"

Behind Guy, a lazy looking fellow mumbled, "They only lost around a tenth of their forces, and none of their core fighters."

My gaze stopped onto the lazy fellow for a couple of second, remembering his name to be Hideto. He was the youngest of Tsubasa's lieutenants, and although he did not seem like it, he actually was an astounding fighter.

Hideto looked back at me, and I could see that hidden behind his laziness was a certain sharpness.

The one that got me the most curious though was General Tsubasa, the leader of the Land of Fire's military force. Well, excluding Konoha that is.

But on the political landscape, Tsubasa actually stood on the same level as the Hokage, being second only to the Daimyo. And if rumours were to be believed, then Tsubasa was a Kage level fighter.

Now that I was approaching the top levels of the world, being a strong Jonin myself, I couldn't help but be interested in the top level fighters.

Since this was AU, the power level of every Kage and S Rank ninjas could be drastically different, and it made everything so much more interesting to me.

Already knowing what to expect against an opponent, while giving me an advantage, made the fight that much less interesting. Thus, being in the dark about the power levels of so many people, despite my current power, excited me to no end.

But ignoring my mood, Danzo said, "Then the offensive in the Land of Fields really was their main target."

We all looked at him, but it was Fugaku who sighed and explained, "They outnumbered us five to one, and also had several strategic level fighters."

Strategic level fighters was another word for Jonin level.

"While I'm the first surprised by that fact, if not for Elder Danzo, we probably would have been wiped out."

Danzo barely showed any reaction to the slight, merely snorting, "I hold the village above everything, my personal feelings towards your clan do not affect my decisions in the slightest."

Good old Danzo, you show them how to never accept a compliment!

As if reading my mind, Danzo's eyes locked onto me, making me smile as I stared back. After a short stare off, Danzo closed his eyes, looking tired, and said, "Even with my reinforcements, we only won that battle because of the effect of surprise. I also have developed a strategic jutsu that turned the tides on the battlefield, but they will be prepared for it next time."

Oh, they love to use the word strategic. Everything remotely strong is called strategic. For example, I'm a strategic badass. Yep, official title, I know, impressive.

"You are a Strategic Queen!" Jashin suddenly yelled out in my mind, sounding horny.

"I am, but please refrain from saying it, you are making it weird. Anyway, how good are we with the Blood Energy?"

I set aside the ongoing meeting, only leaving a sliver of my mind to react to any question they could ask me as I started speaking with Jashin.

Jashin replied, "You collected a lot of Blood Essence, and slightly strengthened your Blood Tattoo. However, I reckon you aren't killing enough."

"You should tell that to the enemy."

Jashin snorted, "Who cares about what they think, I'm speaking facts. While your Blood Essence received a great boost, not only is it far from reaching the level of your Yin and Yang Chakra, those two are also evolving faster than your Blood Essence."

Frowning, I said, "That's… problematic."

"Somewhat, yes. Even if you were to gather enough Blood Essence to match your Chakra, it would barely last for a day before your chakra went past your Chakra, and that's in war time."

Crossing my arms, I said, "The easiest solution would be to wait for me to reach the peak with both my Yin and Yang Chakra, and then slowly bring my Blood Essence to that level."

Yeah, I couldn't just endlessly absorb Yin and Yang Chakra and grow infinitely stronger. My body and soul both had a limit, a growing one.

Because of my age, my limit was repeatedly being pushed forward with my growth, since my body and spirit were both in a period of growth themselves. But one day, I would reach that limit.

Jashin said, "Well, that is one solution, but you may face a problem. Considering your age, you will continue to push your limit for a while, probably farther than any human has ever had before. But that's a whole other problem. You are struggling to match your chakra today with its current strength, so imagine how much Blood Essence you will need to match your chakra by the time you hit your limit.

"I can't claim to know everything there is to know about human wars, but I'd wager the war will end before you hit your limit, so this will only make it this much harder to collect Blood Essence. But even if you were to go on mass slaughters once you reach your limit, there's no telling you will manage to gather enough Blood Essence, even by murdering entire countries."

Raising an eyebrow, I asked, "Wouldn't you like that?"

Jashin replied, "For the nth time, I don't condone senseless mess murder. Only killing for a reason truly has any meaning."

I asked, "Then unless I find an alternative, I will eventually have to choose between power and morality. Choose between mass slaughter and mercy. Quite the moral conundrum."

Jashin mumbled, "The oldest struggle of man, isn't it? Fighting against the influence of power on one's ideals."