Tsunade: "What an Ill-Mannered Woman"

Konoha in the afternoon.

On one corner of a bustling food street, there was a small yakiniku restaurant.

With few customers in the afternoon, the restaurant felt quiet yet lively, the opposite of the commotion outside.

The sound of meat sizzling teased their ears, and its tempting aroma stirred their appetites.

Diejian picked up a piece of meat, seared with grill marks, and placed it on Ina's plate across from him.

"Congratulations on passing the Genin exam!"

They divided the grilled meat among everyone's plates.

Ina, Sakumo, Diejian, and Tsunade raised their apple juice and clinked glasses in celebration.

Diejian seemed unable to wait any longer for the aroma tickling his nose. He wrapped meat around some rice and stuffed it into his mouth.

Ina elegantly sipped her egg soup, then reminded him, "Don't go overboard right from the start."

She savored the soup's mild flavor in her mouth and sighed contentedly.

Meanwhile, the star of the show—Tsunade—ate with such gusto that she showed not a trace of girlishness beside Ina.

The meat Diejian had put on her plate was already gone, and she was eyeing Sakumo's plate as he grilled vegetables.

Sakumo smiled to himself. Is this her glutton character setting? He paused grilling the vegetables and put some of his meat on Tsunade's plate.

Seeing Tsunade smile and say, "Thank you," warmed Sakumo's heart.

"I heard about it, Diejian. You apparently challenged Lord Hokage, didn't you? And you still managed to pass? Honestly..."

Ina swallowed the mouthful of rice she'd stuffed into her mouth, washed it down with water, and laughed as if she couldn't believe it.

Sakumo shifted his gaze with an uneasy expression, while Tsunade nodded solemnly as if to say, "That's absolutely right."

Diejian tried to speak with his mouth full of meat and rice, but Ina stopped him. "That's rude. No."

Ina poured water into an empty cup and handed it to Diejian.

Diejian took the cup, mumbled his thanks with his mouth closed, then gulped down the food.

"Phew. Yeah, that was the only way. Shuri wouldn't cooperate, and Sakumo had his own principles and wouldn't back down."

"Well, it couldn't be helped, could it?"

Diejian hinted at Sakumo's attitude toward Shuri, but he also understood Sakumo had been angry on his behalf, so he didn't press the matter.

Sakumo didn't look guilty, though he seemed somewhat apologetic; there was a stubbornness to his attitude.

Noticing Sakumo's feelings, Diejian laughed heartily, just like his late grandfather Hashirama, and let the matter drop.

"This isn't something to laugh about! Big brother, do you know how many times Teacher Kagami had to bow his head to the Second?"

Tsunade hadn't said so outright, but there was an unspoken "I did too..." in her words as she frowned.

Ina giggled and gently nudged Sakumo, who sat beside her, with her elbow.

Sakumo bowed his head deeply. "I'm truly grateful for your help back then." His porcupine-like silver hair swayed as he did.

The attack on the Hokage's residence—after Kagami had thoroughly defeated Team Six, leaving them unable to move, he'd told them, "I'll give you another chance tomorrow," then gone home before heading to the Hokage's residence.

Diejian figured the outcome would be the same if they waited until the next day, so he began thinking about changing their approach to teamwork.

To that end, he first looked for a compromise that all three could accept.

Sakumo said that as long as Shuri stopped treating Diejian so harshly, he'd had no complaints about the team itself in the first place.

Once he understood that, Diejian endured Shuri's insults while probing her innermost thoughts.

Her desires and personality.

He did it all to understand Shuri as a person.

If simply saying, "Let's be friends," could solve everything, they wouldn't have needed to go through all this trouble.

They had to lay their "cards on the table" with each other.

In the end, Diejian realized that a halfhearted attitude wouldn't make Shuri cooperate. So instead of merely asking her, he turned to creating a situation where she would suggest working together herself.

His first idea was to wait until Kagami fell asleep, then launch a night raid.

But how could Shuri agree to attack her own big brother alongside the Senju she despised?

So he moved on to plan number two.

That was to go straight to the Hokage himself, who outranked Kagami and had the final say on whether they passed, and get his approval.

For Diejian, who still hadn't completely outgrown his habit of playing pranks on Tobirama and acting spoiled around him, attacking Tobirama didn't weigh on his conscience much.

He'd also wanted to get back at him for the hellish training he put them through every day, so he'd grinned mischievously as he proposed the plan.

For Shuri, it was also a good opportunity to show off her abilities to Konoha's strongest shinobi, Tobirama, the current Senju clan head. She was eager to take part.

Sakumo was the only one who kept objecting.

"As far as I'm concerned, that's way too reckless." The voice of reason, he'd opposed it right to the end.

But Diejian's devilish whisper—"This way, I can show my growth to the benefactor who once freed me from my troubles!"—tempted him, and in the end he joined the crime.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was the first to fall.

Hiruzen, aroused by a rare erotic book, had been overcome by a nosebleed and collapsed in a sea of his own blood.

After that, just as planned, Diejian used the Transformation Technique to impersonate Hiruzen, Shuri mounted a feint, and Sakumo went straight for the heart of the operation. The mission began.

The three had thought everything was going smoothly, but Diejian and Shuri's defenses crumbled with embarrassing ease.

Tobirama had punished Diejian and Shuri with his fists after getting slightly riled up, leaving them silent. He tucked one under each arm and swung them around like quilts hung out to dry on a bamboo pole.

Seeing the huge bumps on their heads, Sakumo was overcome with despair.

Perhaps he was the lucky one, since a blow to the top of his head had knocked him unconscious at once.

After the three woke up, they were plagued by a dull ache atop their heads for some time.

With their lumps still swollen, the three listened to Tobirama sigh, "I'm at a loss for words," and lecture them. They were exhausted in both body and spirit.

After cleaning up the shattered glass and broken belongings, they were ordered to remain confined for a while.

Thanks to Kagami pleading their case during that time—and though it might not have helped, Tsunade had also begged Tobirama—Tobirama finally stamped them "passed," looking reluctant, truly very reluctant, as he said, "Your approach was wrong, but I recognize your teamwork."

"The Second is a pretty understanding man. But what about you guys? Wasn't Shuri supposed to come?"

"We invited her."

"She said, 'Eat with the Senju? No way~' and ran off while stuffing a sweet bean bun into her mouth."

"Teacher Kagami went after Shuri. So we brought Tsunade and Ina instead. We'd already reserved a table for four anyway."

Sakumo's shoulders slumped, worn out by the whole sequence of events. Diejian smiled wryly and said, "We'll have Team Six's passing celebration another time."

"Um, her name is Uchiha Shuri, right? From what you've said, it sounds like she treats us Senju as if we're a thorn in her side."

At Tsunade's question, Sakumo nodded. "That's exactly right."

"What an ill-mannered woman," Tsunade said indignantly. Sakumo wholeheartedly agreed.

Since Diejian still didn't know Shuri's background, he could only listen to the two of them with a complicated expression, trying to calm them as they grew more agitated.

"But, Diejian, I heard something... Apparently, you gave her something?"

"Gave her something? What?"

"Ah—right, that."

Sakumo, the one who'd let the secret slip and the source of the information, immediately understood. Cold sweat ran down his forehead.

Tsunade seemed to have heard about it too. She stared at Diejian with a meaningful look.

Diejian, not knowing what was going on, grew flustered by the atmosphere, which seemed to blame him—and was, in fact, blaming him.

Ina leaned across the table and brought her face close to Diejian's. "You really don't know?"

Their eyes met, their noses almost touching.

Beneath Ina's neat eyebrows, long lashes framed her slightly narrow double-lidded eyes, accented with pale purple eyeshadow. She was both cute and alluring.