"Tsunade, you've got it wrong!" Uchiha Dan said, shaking his head without taking offense. "I appreciate your kindness, but I don't dare train in it."
"You know the Sharingan of the Uchiha Clan can copy other people's ninjutsu. I've mastered quite a few, but I don't dare train in them or use them, so they're no use to me."
"Since I gave you the Monster Strength Technique, I can teach you how to train in it!" Tsunade said, then took out another scroll and handed it to Uchiha Dan.
"This is a Contract Scroll?" Uchiha Dan nearly cried inside.
Not because he was moved, but because Tsunade had finally caught on.
Guilt really was a wonderful thing.
Uchiha Dan didn't actually want to manipulate Tsunade like this, filling her with guilt.
He didn't dislike her, but he had no choice if he wanted to survive.
Of all the influential figures in the village, Tsunade was the only one he could get close to and use.
Now everything was falling into place. He, Uchiha Dan, was about to rise for good.
So Uchiha Dan's voice suddenly grew choked with emotion. "Tsunade, you... you really don't need to go this far for me."
"This is what the village owes you!" Tsunade shook her head, her heart aching for him, and said solemnly, "My Second Grandfather, Hiruzen-sensei, and I all owe you a great deal."
After laying the two scrolls side by side, Uchiha Dan suddenly said to Tsunade, "Tsunade, I'm suddenly a little afraid!"
"You fool, this is a good thing. What are you afraid of?"
"I'm afraid I won't have the strength to survive. But I'm also afraid that if I do gain strength, I'll do something terrible."
Hearing Uchiha Dan speak so earnestly from the heart, the last trace of worry in Tsunade's mind vanished completely.
At Uzumaki Mito's reminder, she'd had no choice but to worry.
Though she was determined to help Uchiha Dan, she'd still felt a little uneasy.
But now that Uchiha Dan had been so sincere, how could she still be worried?
As long as the two of them kept speaking honestly with each other from now on, everything would only get better.
"Dan, you really don't need to be afraid. I'll always be by your side," Tsunade promised. "And I won't do anything foolish again. I'll talk things over with you more often from now on."
Uchiha Dan nodded gravely, but inside, he was delighted.
Sure enough, sincerity was the ultimate weapon.
I, Uchiha Dan, always make a point of never lying—except just now.
Seeing that Uchiha Dan was no longer refusing, Tsunade grabbed him and pulled him over to the scrolls. She used a Chakra Scalpel to cut his finger, dripped his blood onto the scroll, and sealed a Blood Contract.
"Dan, follow my Hand Seals!" Tsunade began forming them slowly, and Uchiha Dan copied her.
Once they had finished the Summoning Technique's Hand Seals, Uchiha Dan slapped his hand against the ground. With a poof, a thumb-length little slug appeared.
"Did it work?" Tsunade exclaimed, overjoyed at the tiny slug they'd summoned.
She'd thought that Uchiha Dan, who had no experience, would find the Summoning Technique difficult to learn. She hadn't expected him to get it on the first try.
For now, his Chakra limited him to summoning only a tiny slug.
But with practice and more Chakra, Uchiha Dan would master the Summoning Technique completely.
"As for the Monster Strength Technique, it was an idea my Second Grandfather came up with: turning the natural strength of the Senju Clan into a ninjutsu."
"Once developed, it wouldn't just let members of the Senju Clan unleash even greater strength—even people outside our clan would be able to learn it."
"But he passed away before he could study it in depth. I was the one who finally completed the technique."
Tsunade opened the Monster Strength Technique scroll and began explaining its fundamentals to Uchiha Dan.
Before long, someone knocked on the office door, which meant it was time to get back to work.
But the two of them had agreed to meet in Shikkotsu Forest that night.
Tsunade would go ahead, then ask Sage Katsuyu to use the Reverse Summoning Technique to summon Uchiha Dan over.
With that plan in place, Uchiha Dan had energy to spare all afternoon.
Not because the two of them would be alone together, but because at last he could start training in the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Once that happened, no threat would matter to him anymore.
This was the Flying Thunder God Technique, for crying out loud.
Even a Genin could instantly gain the power to match an Elite Jonin once they mastered the technique. Even a Kage Level shinobi could get caught off guard.
Just look at the utter deadweight Uchiha Obito. Once he awakened his Mangekyō Sharingan and gained the ability to use Kamui, he immediately had Kage Level strength.
Some ninjutsu were just that unreasonable.
Around ten that night, after telling Namikaze Minato a story and lulling him to sleep,
Uchiha Dan lay down on the bed next door, waiting for fate—Tsunade—to call him.
He waited with rapt attention, ready to feel the spatial fluctuations caused by Space-Time Ninjutsu the instant he was summoned.
Naturally, he was doing this to prepare for training in the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Before long, Uchiha Dan suddenly sensed something, and then vanished from the bed.
Because he'd kept his most sensitive perception active the whole time, he'd felt an intense spatial fluctuation during the transfer.
That single experience had already taught him a lot.
But when he felt countless soft, sticky, slimy things against his body, Uchiha Dan's scalp prickled, and goose bumps covered him from head to toe.
Sure enough, humans had an innate aversion to this kind of sensation—to anything slimy and sticky.
Once he got to his feet, Uchiha Dan looked up. It was as though he stood beneath a green dome. Towering trees blocked out the sky, their dense layers of branches and leaves interwoven so tightly that no gap remained.
The crisscrossing branches and clustered leaves hid the sky completely. Only a few scattered rays of sunlight managed to filter through the gaps.
Countless little slugs were scattered throughout the forest, staring curiously at Uchiha Dan.
The heavy, damp sensation clinging to his body, the faint stinging of his skin, and even the burning in his lungs with every breath left Uchiha Dan deeply uncomfortable.
"So this is Shikkotsu Forest? I didn't expect the air to be full of corrosive gas."
No wonder it was called Shikkotsu Forest. An ordinary creature wouldn't last long in this environment before becoming a damp pile of bones. Given enough time, even the bones would melt away.
"Dan, over here!" Tsunade was waving to him from a short distance away.
Uchiha Dan hurried over, then followed Tsunade in a certain direction.
"Tsunade, is the whole of Shikkotsu Forest like this?" Uchiha Dan asked with a frown.
He might be the greatest Medical Ninja in the Shinobi World, but his body wasn't naturally resilient like Tsunade's, and he didn't have a technique like the Yin Seal that could heal him instantly with a tiny amount of Chakra.
He could manage this environment for a short while, but he wouldn't last long.
"No!" Tsunade shook her head and explained, "In theory, the Reverse Summoning Technique should be able to take you straight to Sage Katsuyu."
"But Sage Katsuyu is so enormous that she's split her body into countless little slugs. That means her Reverse Summoning Technique doesn't always land people in exactly the right place."
"Because everywhere is beside her?" Uchiha Dan asked, at a loss.
Tsunade nodded, looking a little helpless.
At the same time, they both saw the same thing in each other's eyes: the words completely unreliable.
But this was Sage Katsuyu's domain. Even though she was good-natured and wouldn't take offense or get angry, they kept the thought to themselves. After all, basic courtesy still mattered.
Before you continue