Hetui

If Hashirama had seen Xuanye's real smile, he would have understood Uchiha Genya's evil nature at once. No matter what, he would never have handed him the Shikkotsu Forest Summoning Scroll.

Tsunade watched Xuanye get his hands on the Shikkotsu Forest Summoning Scroll anyway. She didn't know how to describe what she felt. It was complicated.

Xuanye made himself right at home. At the end of the enormous Summoning Scroll, he wrote his name and left an imprint of his chakra.

From then on, he could summon Katsuyu as his Summoning Beast.

Xuanye picked up Katsuyu and held her in his palm, stroking her blue-and-white striped body.

There was no slime on Katsuyu's body. She felt soft, and surprisingly pleasant to the touch.

The little Katsuyu was gentle too. Her feelers twitched as she said, "Lord Xuanye, from now on, we're friends who'll fight side by side."

"Of course, of course." Xuanye grinned.

More than the prospect of soon learning Senjutsu from Shikkotsu Forest, Xuanye was delighted that he had finally defeated the evil Tsunade. Without using force, he had tricked her into giving him the Shikkotsu Forest Summoning Scroll that was rightfully his.

So what if Tsunade had guarded it with everything she had? He had gotten it in the end, hadn't he?

And her own grandfather had given it to him right in front of her.

What could Tsunade do about that?

Sometimes, crushing someone with sheer cunning felt even better than overpowering them. It was downright addictive.

Watching it all unfold, Tsunade could barely stand to look. She was so angry she could almost feel steam rising from her head.

No wonder her second grandfather had always gotten mad at her first grandfather when they were young. Her grandfather was even better at giving away the family's