Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, looking at Tsunade. "You're saying there's no gold mine here at all?"
Tsunade's hands were still on Tatsumi's chest, healing him.
Without even raising her head, she said, "At least I haven't found it, nor any trace of the so-called small gold mine."
Tatsumi grimaced in pain, clutching his chest.
Tatsumi had sworn that he would rather starve and jump off a cliff than accept another A-rank mission.
Orochimaru had confidently told him that Tsunade had already found the gold mine.
Their mission was simply to bring back the mined gold, and they could easily complete this A-rank mission.
What gave you the courage to say something like that?
Indeed, you shouldn't trust a single punctuation mark from what the Jonin say.
Tsunade continued to analyze the situation. "You sent the letter, so you know the contents. It said that the gold mine here was almost completely mined, and that a ninja from Rogue Town should come to escort the gold."
"According to the letter, there should be a Jonin, several Chunin, and a mining team here," Tsunade continued.
"With such an obvious target, knowing the location, it should be easy to find some traces."
"They have to eat and live. But until now, my team hasn't found any traces here."
"We can only say that we've been deceived. There's no gold mine here at all."
For a moment, the tent was quiet. Tsunade's analysis was very reasonable.
The contents of this letter were already difficult to distinguish as true or false.
From Tsunade's meaning, her view was the same as Tatsumi's—that the letter was fake.
Tsunade had been saying all this just to give up on this mission and return to Konoha.
But whether it's true or false is up to the Konoha higher-ups. If the Hokage believes it, Tatsumi and the others must come and carry out the mission.
After all, the value of a small gold mine is not small.
Konoha's intention was to have Tsunade's team, who were carrying out missions nearby, come here to scout and confirm the location of the small gold mine.
Then, they would cooperate with Orochimaru's team to intercept the Rain Country ninjas and bring the mined gold back to Konoha.
Although this place is large, Tsunade's team has members of the Inuzuka clan and the Hyuga clan.
Ninjas from these two clans are the most skilled in reconnaissance, and it's impossible that they haven't found any traces after so long.
"By the way, what about that ninja?" Tsunade asked.
"He ran away," Orochimaru replied indifferently.
Listening to Orochimaru's matter-of-course tone, Tsunade took a deep breath to calm herself.
"Waste!"
"You should go home and raise pigs."
"You actually let such an important person run away. Can't you be more careful? What else can you do?" Tsunade had already started scolding.
"Ah, that hurts." Tsunade accidentally hit Tatsumi's wound with force.
"You haven't learned anything else, but you've learned Orochimaru's sissy act perfectly. You complain about the pain with just a little force."
Tsunade then turned her fire on Tatsumi.
For a moment, the entire tent was filled with Tsunade's rapid-fire scolding.
Except for Mikoto, the other three had all been scolded by Tsunade.
Everyone knew that Tsunade at this time was not to be trifled with.
Who knows how much anger she had accumulated?
Tsunade, tired of scolding, sat back on her stool.
Tatsumi was massaging Tsunade's back, and Nawaki was pouring tea for Tsunade.
"This is troublesome. It's possible that the escaped ninja used a summoning beast to inform them in advance, causing the people here to hide," Tsunade analyzed.
Orochimaru nodded, "That is indeed possible."
Then he continued, "Before, you didn't have enough manpower. You also had to keep an eye on some important roads, so it was definitely impossible to conduct a comprehensive search.
So, this time we will conduct a comprehensive search."
"Do you know how tired I am here? I can't eat or sleep well every day. I'm busy searching for the gold mine until late at night. Kushina and the others are still working hard outside..." Tsunade began to complain again.
But before she could finish speaking, a burst of chattering laughter came from outside.
"Tsunade-neechan, we bought the shaved ice back." Only Kushina could make such a cute voice with a slightly strange ending.
"....."
Tsunade's complaining voice stopped abruptly.
Orochimaru and the other three looked at Tsunade, who had just been very angry.
How did Kushina, who was supposed to be on a mission, go to buy shaved ice?!
This once again proved that you shouldn't trust a single punctuation mark from what the Jonin say.
She patted her head and gave an embarrassed smile. She had forgotten about this.
"Tsunade-neechan, the bibimbap you wanted was sold out." Kushina pushed open the curtain and walked in.
Following behind Kushina was a girl with face paint. Next to enter was a girl with a pair of white eyes.
The three girls walked in with smiles on their faces. Each of them was carrying large and small bags of food.
Kushina still had a piece of shaved ice in her mouth.
Kushina walked in and noticed that there were other people in the room.
The somewhat lively Kushina saw Tatsumi massaging Tsunade's back.
"Tatsumi, you're here." She hopped to Tatsumi's side.
"And Mikoto."
"And Uncle Orochimaru."
Nawaki smiled, waiting for Kushina to call out his name, but Kushina seemed not to see him.
"Kushina, really. How can you go out to buy things during a mission!" Tsunade started to lecture Kushina with a straight face.
"Didn't you say that you would summon Katsuyu and have them guard there?"
"... Ahahaha." Tsunade was a little embarrassed.
It must be said that Tsunade is really bold. The Third Hokage entrusted Kushina to her, asking her to protect Kushina well.
But Tsunade casually let these three ninja school students go to the nearby town to buy things.
Although Kushina and the others all carried Katsuyu on them, Tsunade could rush over immediately if something happened.
Moreover, the Hyuga clan and the Inuzuka clan are both reconnaissance experts, making it easy to avoid danger.
But Tsunade is really too bold. Of course, she may not know that Kushina is about to become a Jinchuriki.
But even if she knew, she probably wouldn't care. After all, Tsunade could freely send out Nine-Tails Jinchuriki like Naruto to perform missions.
Tsunade, who had made a mistake, squatted alone in the corner, while Orochimaru took on the role of commander.
"I'm Orochimaru. I'm the commander of this joint mission." Orochimaru stood at the front.
Orochimaru's hoarse voice came.
"The goal of this mission is very simple. First, guard all the roads leading to the Rain Country nearby."
"Second, thoroughly search this area to find the small gold mine and that Rain Country team."
"Then, let the mission begin!"