Naruto: I Became a Sword Saint in Konoha Chapter 180 180: Konoha's Sword Saint [180]

Although Tsunade had already been seen once, she clearly had no intention of letting Hoshiyomi watch her get dressed.

"Turn around. I'm putting on clothes."

Hoshiyomi clicked his tongue, turning away with visible reluctance, the scene he'd just witnessed still looping endlessly in his head.

There was no need to overthink it—big. Just big.

A few years ago, she was still a petite girl with barely a presence up top, but now… No, stop. Must not keep going there.

He finally managed to suppress the swirling fantasies in his mind just as Tsunade finished dressing and called for him to turn back around. Though her previously snow-white form was now hidden, the sight before him was still dazzling.

Fresh from the water, with damp hair and a faint flush still on her cheeks, Tsunade looked breathtaking. And because of the nearly 20-centiter height difference between them, Hoshiyomi's robe hung loosely off her fra—oversized and flowing.

The result was a silhouette half-hidden, half-revealed. That gauzy, veiled beauty made Hoshiyomi's heart race all over again.

Tsunade noticed his expression and couldn't help finding it funny—but she put on a mock-stern look.

"Go deal with that salamander. Be careful not to rupture the poison sac. It's located about three inches above the abdon. I always end up splattering myself with blood when I try. You do it."

Hoshiyomi didn't object. With a few precise movents, he cleanly removed the venom sac.

At his current level of swordsmanship, he could probably carve decorative etchings into the delicate mbrane surrounding the sac without damaging it—handling this sort of surgical work was easy.

After extracting the sac, the plan was to head back to camp right away. But right on cue, both their stomachs growled loudly in unison.

Given the amount of exertion they'd both gone through, it made sense. Tsunade had been fighting and hiding in the swamp all day, and Hoshiyomi had been sprinting nonstop followed by a full-blown battle. They were running on empty.

Since all the Iwagakure shinobi had already been taken care of, there was no imdiate danger of reinforcents. So neither of them felt the need to rush back. Instead, they stayed by the river, caught two fish, and built a small fire to grill them.

Hoshiyomi hadn't liked fish in his previous life—but in this one, as a shinobi often stuck eating tasteless ration pills in the wild, he'd long since learned to appreciate real food. Especially freshly grilled fish.

After polishing off two fish each and resting a bit, they were just about to get moving again when a rustling sound ca from the other side of the woods.

It was Jiraiya, arriving with a search party after failing to find the two of them at camp.

Seeing both Tsunade and Hoshiyomi safe and sound, Jiraiya exhaled in relief—until he noticed Tsunade was wearing Hoshiyomi's robe.

His gaze flicked between them, his eyebrows raised suggestively. A knowing grin spread across his face.

He even gave Hoshiyomi a discreet thumbs-up.

Naturally, this earned him a "Chakra Enhanced Strength" warning from Tsunade.

The group didn't encounter any trouble on the way back. With their subordinates in tow, the three of them safely returned to the Konoha encampnt.

…

Long after they had left the swamp, a small unit clad in black arrived at the scene.

Their garb clearly resembled ANBU attire, but unlike Konoha's animal-thed masks, theirs were eerie and unnerving in design.

If Kinoshita Nagatoshi or the others had still been alive, they would've recognized these people imdiately—elite mbers of Iwagakure's ANBU.

The squad combed the entire swamp before returning to their leader, a towering man, and reported in with respectful tones:

"Lord Yōgan, we've searched the whole area. There's no sign of Tsunade's body. Only five or six Konoha corpses were recovered. By all appearances… the mission was a total failure."

Another shinobi added cautiously:

"We compared with the mission roster. All sixty operatives in this mission… not a single survivor."

Hearing this, even Yōgan—captain of the Iwagakure ANBU squad—couldn't help but curse under his breath.

"How utterly useless was Kinoshita Nagatoshi to screw this up? Sixty people to capture six… Not only did Tsunade escape, but our entire unit got wiped out?!"

Taking a breath to calm himself, Yōgan scanned the surroundings and said grimly:

"Kinoshita Nagatoshi may have had a foul mouth, but he was no amateur. This doesn't add up. Take to the scene—sothing's not right here."

They began to inspect the swamp more thoroughly. Eventually, they reached the area with the highest concentration of corpses.

Yōgan studied the battlefield and muttered:

"Just as I thought—sothing's off. Spread out. Count the exact number of dead."

As his n moved to comply, Yōgan stepped up to Kinoshita Nagatoshi's body.

It was a clean kill—pierced straight through the heart from behind. Death had been instantaneous.

Yōgan inserted his fingers into the wound and examined it closely. It was narrow and deep—not the kind of mark a kunai would leave.

He glanced down at his own weapons pouch. Kunai, especially those with diamond-shaped blades, wouldn't create a wound this clean.

Which ant—this was a sword wound.

From Nagatoshi's position, it was clear—his body lay alone, facing a large cluster of corpses across from him.

That could only an one thing: Nagatoshi had been the first to die. And as the commanding officer, he'd likely been killed in front of everyone.

After his death, the rest of the unit must have retreated en masse in the opposite direction. Judging from the scorch marks and residual chakra patterns behind where Nagatoshi had stood, there'd been a fierce battle right here.

The destruction suggested a massive jutsu clash. Could Konoha reinforcents have arrived?

No… That didn't make sense.

If Konoha had launched such large-scale ninjutsu, where were the signs of their chakra release? Where was the counter-force? A jutsu exchange would leave marks from both sides.

Leaving Nagatoshi's corpse, Yōgan walked toward the scattered remains and severed limbs nearby. His subordinates had earlier reported 37 corpses, with about 10 Jonin among them.

As Yōgan stared down at the bodies, his pupils narrowed.

He wasn't afraid, nor was he disgusted by the carnage. No—the disturbing thing was the wounds.

They were too clean.

No ragged tears. No bludgeoning damage. Just smooth, precise slashes.

Every one of them had died from sword wounds.

Even Kinoshita Nagatoshi.

Tsunade was a dical ninja. Her signature style was Chakra Enhanced Strength Taijutsu. They'd already identified the corpses affected by it—those victims had crushed ribs, caved-in skulls, or limbs that had been outright exploded.

That accounted for around a dozen mid-ranked Iwagakure shinobi.

But the rest… were clean kills from a sword.

Even among the Konoha dead—five or six bodies had fallen here. From the battlefield traces, it was easy to piece together the order of events.

During the first wave of fighting, Tsunade's entire escort had died.

She'd escaped—barely—and used her monstrous strength once more during the retreat. After that, no more signs of that technique appeared—most likely because she'd run out of chakra.

Then… every other Iwa shinobi had been cut down by a sword.

Tsunade didn't use a sword.

Which ant soone had co to her aid.

But who in Konoha used a sword—and could singlehandedly annihilate 30 elite Iwa ninja?

Yōgan felt like he was close to grasping the truth—but the further his reasoning went, the more it chilled him to the bone.

If events had really unfolded the way he now suspected…

Then this was no accident.

It was terrifying.