The Daming Palace is related to the Senju clan and is even closer to Tsunade. As the New Year is approaching, it is appropriate for Tsunade, as a junior, to visit the Daimyo. No one can find fault with it.
What's more, it still involves Uzumaki Mito. The next day, Tsunade went to the Hokage's office without any trouble, then left the village and went straight to the Daming Mansion. Uzumaki Mito had asked Tsunade to visit the Daimyo as a junior, and the Third Hokage wholeheartedly supported it. He even hoped that Tsunade could stay at the Daming Mansion and spend the New Year with the Daimyo, thus strengthening the relationship between the Daming Mansion and the village. The closer the relationship, the easier it would be to ask for financial support in the future.
After leaving the village, Tsunade indeed went to the Daming Mansion and properly visited the Daimyo. She spent a few days wandering around the Daming Mansion, bought a lot of things, and then quietly left, turning toward the border camp. The camp was under watch day and night, but it would be difficult for ordinary ninjas to detect Tsunade's infiltration.
After stopping at the Daming Mansion, she made her way to the border camp and snuck in. Affected by the local weather patterns, the Land of Rain and surrounding areas had begun experiencing rain and snow. Occasionally, rain mixed with sleet would fall. This extreme weather caused the entire Land of Rain and surrounding regions to be covered with a thick layer of snow and ice, and the temperature was dropping.
Except for the ninjas on duty, everyone in the camp was hiding in the wooden huts to rest or lighting fires to keep warm. The medical room was Shigeru's exclusive space, and other ninjas rarely came unless there was an emergency.
Inside the wooden house, Shigeru was lying on a bed, holding a book he had brought from the village. He noticed someone approaching, and it was an acquaintance. Shigeru put down his book and watched the person expertly pry open the window of the medical room and swiftly slip inside.
"Why are you so skilled at that?" he thought. "You must have practiced this before."
Tsunade climbed in through the window, glanced at Shigeru, and said, "That's right. I went straight to the Daming Mansion under the pretext of visiting relatives when I got the news, then came around the corner from there. And you—you're just lying here reading?"
"What else am I supposed to do?" Shigeru replied grumpily. "Be on edge and terrified all day? If I did that, I wouldn't need anyone to get rid of me. I'd scare myself to death first."
"You'd better get in here and warm yourself up," Shigeru said, noticing the cold. The winter chill was harsh, and though ninjas could resist it better than most, if an ordinary person were out in these conditions, they wouldn't survive long.
Shigeru moved aside, motioning for Tsunade to warm up under the blanket. Appreciating his gesture, Tsunade gave him a nod of thanks.
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Shigeru then sensibly left the room to give Tsunade some privacy to change clothes. After he left, Tsunade quickly stripped off her wet clothes and underwear, throwing them into a corner, then slid under the blanket.
Wait! Tsunade curled up in the blanket, suddenly realizing that after warming up, she had no dry clothes to change into. Her usual routine was to have spare clothes at hand, but here, she had nothing.
Just then, Shigeru walked in with a plate. When he opened the door and saw her wet clothes in the corner, he didn't think much of it and approached the bed with the plate in hand.
"Well, there's only enough for two people today. The camp's not like the village. We're sharing some meat from the captain's patrol hunt," Shigeru said.
He held the plate out, waiting for Tsunade to take it. But when more than ten seconds passed without her moving, he thought something was odd.
She usually rushed to eat, so why was she so hesitant today?
Tsunade, lying in the bed, was mortified. She realized she was in an embarrassing situation—without clothes to wear.
Shigeru, oblivious, turned and looked at the clothes in the corner again. Finally, he pieced it together. "Wait, are you…?"
"Stop laughing!!" Tsunade growled, noticing Shigeru's amused expression. She clenched her teeth, tempted to leap out of the blanket and smack him.
Shigeru couldn't help but laugh. "Hahaha…"
Even Tsunade, with her usual blunt personality, couldn't handle this level of embarrassment. For the first time, she blushed furiously. Enraged, she reached out, grabbed Shigeru's clothes, pulled him onto the bed, and covered him with the blanket.
"Watch the plate!!" Shigeru yelled, as he was still holding the plate of food. He quickly used his skills to keep the blanket from knocking it over.
Tsunade's fist stopped short as the blanket flew up in the air, deflecting from Shigeru's technique. They both froze, unsure what had just happened.
Their eyes met for a few awkward seconds before Shigeru handed her the plate, dropped a sealing scroll on the floor, and bolted for the door.
"There are some of my spare clothes in the scroll," Shigeru said as he left. "They're men's clothes, but they're clean and haven't been worn. You can make do for now."
Tsunade's head spun as she processed what had just happened. What was that? Ninjutsu? No, it seemed more like a reflexive impact from Shigeru. She suddenly realized he had been hiding something.
Looking down at herself, she laughed angrily. "All right, you brat. I'll deal with you later."
Had it been someone else, Tsunade would have been furious and deeply embarrassed. While she was certainly embarrassed, she kept her cool. If Shigeru had been deliberately peeking or causing trouble, she wouldn't have let it go. Jiraiya, who had once been nearly killed by a punch, was proof of that.
After she opened the scroll, she picked out a set of clothes she liked and put them on. Then, she finally started eating.
At the door, Shigeru listened intently. When he heard the sounds of eating, he sighed in relief. As long as she was eating, the situation wasn't as bad as he had feared.
Gently opening the door and confirming that Tsunade was dressed, Shigeru walked back into the room.
Tsunade glanced at him and said, "My grandmother and I have figured that the old man has to be an insider in this matter. Otherwise, he wouldn't have sent someone to protect you. As for who's targeting you, you should have a pretty clear idea."
"It's likely Shimura Danzo," Shigeru said, sitting down in a chair. "If the Hokage wanted me gone, he wouldn't need to go to such lengths, and he definitely wouldn't send people to secretly protect me. Danzo is the only person in the village who would come after me. Though I don't fully understand his plan, the fact that the Hokage sent people to follow me means that Danzo can't use the village's resources to attack me directly. He can only rely on outside forces."
"The chance of him offering a bounty for assassination is slim because I'm stationed at the camp. It's tough for ordinary ninjas to complete an assassination mission here. If the bounty is too high, it could cause trouble for him. So, outside forces seem like the most plausible option."
"If I had to guess, Rain Shinobi Village is the most likely candidate."
"You think Danzo could convince Rain Shinobi Village to send someone to assassinate you?" Tsunade asked, her hand pausing over her fork.
"Sansho Hanzo isn't that foolish. Attacking the camp directly would be tantamount to declaring war on the village. It's not likely that Rain Shinobi Village would take such a risk," Shigeru explained.
"The village wouldn't, but what about Hanzo?" Tsunade asked.