{A/N: Due to AU, Tsunade had her plans in motion early and still hadn't developed her rules of medic nins not wanting to enter combat.}

***

The trio looked at Tsunade who had a green flak jacket on her body with the top three buttons not connected for two good reasons and wore her usual attire underneath. Her forehead protector covered the diamond-shaped mark on her forehead and she, in return looked at the kids with her amber orbs.

"Ready for your first C-rank?" Tsunade inquired with a teasing smirk.

"Heck yeah!" Kushina bounced and Mikoto nodded, "Of course."

Meanwhile, Kai looked at the skill he completed before being called for that council meeting yesterday.

[Uzumaki Style Chakra Matrix (50/50): Forms seals and matrix through molding chakra. The consumption of chakra is dependent on the seal formed. Each level increases the speed of formation of a seal by 2℅. Each level reduces the chakra consumed by 1℅. Chakra Consumed: 5~???]

[Name: Kai

Age: 5

Title: Senju Guardian

Gamer Traits: Skill Tree; Sleepless Gamer

Rank: Genin

Hit Points: 100℅

Stamina: 100/100℅ (10.1/min)

Chakra: 8515.5 (2433*250℅) || (210/min) (60*250%/min)

Physique: 102/1000

Mental: 89/1000

Perception: 44/1000]

[Skill points: 366]

His Physique and perception had increased by 2 and 1 point each but this was the result of actual training by constantly throwing hands with Kushina and Mikoto. Especially Mikoto who was more of a precise fighter with her Uchiha style Taijutsu... what he wouldn't do to get his hands on it and grind the heck out of it!

But more than that was his eagerness to try his sealing techniques on someone. And this mission would do well for it. His excited expression was all that Tsunade needed to know about the fearless harem seeker's readiness for what was about to come.

They walked past the village entrance consisting of gigantic green gates over which Kai could now detect an unimaginably complicated seal matrix that seemed to have a variety of information gathering functions and found the seal embedded into the ground. Freaky stuff.

"This is my first time leaving the village..." Mikoto smiled and Kushina, always eager, cried out in shock, "Hah? Really? Well then, I'll invite you to my homeland. Given the distance, you can see many things while traveling."

Mikoto smiled and nodded, "I look forward to it."

"Before you girls go on some dreamy memory lane, what did I tell you about readiness?" Tsunade frowned as Kushina and Mikoto blinked before nodding. They didn't point out that they had just taken the first step out of the gates while Kai was still in its periphery knowing full well that Tsunade would just find a loophole and repeat with a punch on their heads!

They quickly psyched themselves up and grew alert while Kai walked out too. He was actually the center of the current formation because Mikoto is expected to be the first response from behind, Kushina in the front, and Kai was expected to go all out with his sensing and put others in genjutsu. This was simply to train them further in a riskier environment. While Tsunade would have been laid back, the fact she wore her flack jacket meant that she took her clan's situation seriously. Other ninjas of her clan are expected to be alert and she was no different.

The team traveled into the woods silently. Their pace was steady. The destiny of their mission wasn't that far from the village as they soon stopped and Kai looked around, signaling others before they flickered from their current position and appeared on a nearby tree with a small paper tag. It wasn't an explosive tag but a detection one that would make the seal on the other side tremble.

"Great, they are rich enough to buy the seals which means that they don't keep a large inventory but sell quickly," Tsunade muttered. And the fact that the seal was within ten kilometers of the village irked her no matter how well it was hidden. If Kai could find it then others should be able to do that, too.

Her words made Kushina and Mikoto bite their lips in indignation as Kai whispered, "This is better than the beginner one. Uh, it also measures rough chakra capacity in a given period to reveal color codes of alert."

Kushina frowned and took out a brush before etching a disable seal of the highest order she could write and stopped the seal.

"I can sense... more," Kushina whispered. She was no sensor but could sense seals in close proximity.

"13," Kai muttered.

"Try again, it's 15. Two are beyond the scope of your current perception," Tsunade muttered knowing that Kai would have found them eventually but given how he was growing and how Mito gushed more and more about the boy... Tsunade felt that he would surpass her in time. Better to get a few low blows now than when it gets too late!"

"Damn it... so many seals can only mean..." Mikoto frowned.

"No, the mission rank is still C. For certain reasons, many bandits and traders will get their hands on shinobi tools in high quantity... And that's why the number of C-ranks have gotten higher."

'Oh, goodie!' Kai's eyes practically glowed as he quickly led them to other seals. They were clear. His sealing techniques were beyond just ink and paper so the basic stuff would be left for Kushina to hone her penmanship and Kai would act when he feels that he could have a good grind.

After disabling all the seals, Kushina still looked fresh as daisies even when disabling seals requires 150 chakra points a pop. Damn, her reserves are simply unreasonable!

Now he was becoming increasingly aware of what Tsunade meant by having too little chakra to start nature transformation practice. Must be highly taxing!

They followed the trails and had to exclude a few as they were misleading, meaning that the group was experienced and most likely had a bigger operation than they were expecting.

---

Orochimaru was certainly pleased by the turn of events. He was thinking of finding a good and stable C-rank mission. It was honestly easy to make good with the boy because, despite his exterior, he was like Tsunade. Sure, she grew cunning now but she still found Hiruzen trustworthy. Poor girl. Orochimaru admired Hiruzen and wanted to be like him, but trust? Come on, he's more venomous than any of his summons. Just that his manipulations are so subtle that even the fake jester of a Jiraiya would fail to ever unravel all this. Orochimaru only found a few things when he was approached by THAT man.

It shattered his trust in Hiruzen, but in return, Orochimaru had newfound respect. Similarly, if he could lay the groundwork with Nawaki now, he would have a willing Senju leader soon enough. Besides, Orochimaru loved Tsunade as the obnoxious sister he never had and trusted his back to her. He didn't mean anything bad for the boy, just some harmless mind games.

Not to mention the fact that Nawaki being under a house arrest gave Orochimaru a good reason to stay in the village and focus on his research.

'Sigh... trying to understand nature energy is getting harder than expected. How the hell does that slippery bastard of a snake ever manage to form senjutsu chakra...' Orochimaru walked towards the Senju Compound. To be perfectly honest, he would just like his Sensei to see he is the perfect candidate for the Kage seat and be done with it. But no, the village HAD to be filled with potential. Begrudgingly, Orochimaru accepted that the team's jester's strength rivaled his own. And if it wasn't for his ambitions, Orochimaru would have loved to sink his fangs into Minato.

If Jiraiya saw himself in the boy, so did Orochimaru. Alas. Things we do for ambitions.

"Eh?" Orochimaru was stopped at the entrance. While other newly retired Shinobi taught the young ones about many things, revealing how quickly they can grow under the right direction of the clan, Orochimaru saw more. Currently, with those retired Jonins, the Senju Compound was a fortress. While only one Jonin taught, others kept the perimeter checks and other usual stuff.

Even Orochimaru was only allowed in during the morning hours and give Nawaki an even more specialized training to have his contributions etched down in the boy before the Jonins of the clan surpass it.

"He is at Uzumaki estate... you say," Orochimaru smiled and spoke with the usual rasp in his voice, "I see. It's good that Nawaki is trying to make up with Mistress Uzumaki."

And there you go, the guards' expressions lit up and they gave a favorable smile. It was THAT easy.

Orochimaru left with a respectful nod and walked the streets aimlessly. Finding amusement in how the Konoha police would go as far as helping civilians find their pets if they cannot afford missions or picking up the slack in some guard's duty, Orochimaru felt a soft breeze briefly and turned to enter a dark alleyway before flickering away. He soon reappeared in Konoha cemetery and stood over the graves of... well, his parents. A moment of profound exasperation passed his eyes as he muttered, "Immortality... I wonder if it exists."

He had many goals but immortality wasn't it. It was a means to achieve the crystallization of his goal.

"Senju is said to be the one who has 1000 jutsus. But 80℅ of them, be it any nature, are formed by one man alone. Tobirama Senju. I wished... to have lived in that man's era... his ingenuity must have been blinding. He taught Sarutobi Hiruzen, a man who mastered five nature transformations and claimed the title of professor."

Orochimaru looked up at the fleeting sky, "I... want to master all the jutsus under the sky."

"What do you think, Elder Danzo Shimura?" Orochimaru looked to the side and found a man standing not far away.

"Orochimaru," the man began somberly, "It seems we can be of help to one another."

"We can?" Orochimaru smirked, "Do tell, Elder. As a shinobi of the village, I shall do what is required."

Danzo snorted softly, "Indeed. You shall. It has come to my attention that only a few select individuals are being allowed to enter the Senju Compound. It is discussed that we must keep an eye out to safeguard the village."

"I see... who did you discuss this with and why MUST we safeguard the village against Senju?" He mockingly emphasized and added, "The Senju AND the Uchiha created the village, after all. Certainly, it wouldn't do to forget one of the two."

It was clear that Tsunade must have made a fool of him in Jiraiya's and Orochimaru's company since it was known that the three would collect over in one of their usual spots to discuss teaching methods... although, it would devolve into a drunk Tsunade throwing a bruised Jiraiya out while discussing a few more things with Orochimaru and leaving.

"Orochimaru, while you are huddled in one of the hospital's laboratories, we both know that a man of your caliber needs... more. Subjects. Pieces of equipment. Interesting research material, say... Kekkei Genkai.

I can provide all that and a safety net from Hiruzen?"

"You?" Orochimaru smirked, "Elder Danzo, now I know that it isn't in my good interest to get in your way so I will forget we had this conversation and let you and Tsunade sort this out. Happy findings."

Orochimaru flickered away as Danzo heaved a deep shuddering breath before stomping loudly. Resisting the urge to destroy the tombstone of the bastard's parents and burning bridges, Danzo left promptly.

---

Meanwhile, sprawled over her lap and bawling his eyes out, Nawaki yowled painfully and apologized, "I'm sorry, grandma! Aah! It hurts! I'll never call you a hag again! Sorry!"

Mito, however, held the bamboo stick and delivered a 'light' swat on the boy's naked bums.

"Oi! No more, it hurts just seeing that tomato ass of his!" Another freaked-out grumble resounded but Mito wouldn't have it.

That bamboo stick was Kai's other motivation to not lose many of his missions!

---

Kushina was quivering where she stood while Mikoto's gaze was blank. Yet, the kunai in her hand with the slightest touch of venom made her intentions clear. And while distasteful, Kai could empathize, he didn't lose his cool.

Tsunade silently watched into the clearing with her team through a discreet corner. Men, women, and children, were stripped naked and tied before being forced into a small caravan as a rugged bandit with a broadsword walked towards the damaged carriage of the group they just raided and took out a scroll from the pouch of his waist. Setting the seal under the carriage, the man quickly left and soon.

*Boom*

The carriage was blown into smithereens!

They were well aware of the scroll explosives. Unlike exploding tags that need chakra to react with the surroundings and explode, the scroll explosives are a little more elaborate as the bandits couldn't possibly use chakra. Instead, the scroll has the chakra of the maker, and opening the scroll is the trigger that causes the chain reaction and boom.

"But... why was there an Uzumaki seal on that scroll?" Kushina shuddered in rage!

"It's just a product that can be found in anybody's hand... that said, these bandits have an extraordinary number of seal items, most of them from Uzushiogakure," Tsunade narrowed her eyes and felt perplexed.

"Sensei... should we..." Mikoto inquired softly but Tsunade bit her own lip and shook her head. Honestly, she hated being a leader because of the tough decisions at times, "We will wait and follow them. There aren't many scouts in this part of the forest and it's almost night. I don't imagine a trade with bandits can ever occur in low visibility. In fact, if we can gather who trades with the bandit, we can inform the administration in our report and probably produce a few scouting missions, too... that said, the noble who lost his son would want the leader's head."

Their C-rank mission was to discover the newly formed chain of Slave Traders who seemed to be a little sneaky and capture the leader. Well, this was the mission from the noble of the land of fire whose third son was captured and sold elsewhere. The village also added another objective. To find their associates and Tsunade realized that knowing their possible source of fuinjutsu items may just reveal why so ma y Uzumaki products are here.

***

Shoutout to MrKnighty, Branden Eugley, Alhron Ello, Anthony Pignataro, SanMarco Geddes, Jacky Chen, Jimmeuht!!

Read 30 advance chapters here—

Patreon.com/Fanharem