Running into "Big" Tsunade

Konoha, evening

After parting with Rin at noon, Obito went to a barbershop for a new hairstyle, then bought several new outfits at a clothing store. As the saying went, clothes made the man. With his new look, Obito was pretty handsome. He had medium-length black hair and bright, alert eyes. The Uchiha Clan certainly had strong genes.

The shops lining both sides of the street were brightly lit. Some even had neon signs, giving him a strange sense of being in the wrong era.

There were plenty of people out shopping, too. Some wore the iconic green flak jackets of Konoha shinobi, while others wore traditional Japanese-style clothes. Handsome men and beautiful women crowded the streets, making for a lively scene.

Obito was headed to an izakaya. Back on Earth, he'd always been fascinated by Japanese izakayas, but time and money had kept him from ever trying one for himself. Now that he had both, he naturally wanted to enjoy the experience.

Hmm, this place looks good. The atmosphere isn't bad, and there are plenty of customers.

"Welcome! Oh... little boy, who are you looking for?" The proprietress greeted him warmly, then noticed the handsome little boy and asked in surprise.

"I'm not looking for anyone. I'm here to drink! What, am I not welcome?" Obito said with an air of world-weary sophistication.

"...Little boy, children aren't allowed to drink!" The proprietress came over and tried to pat him on the head.

Obito slipped out of reach and pulled a stack of bills from his pocket, waving them around.

The proprietress' eyes lit up at the thick wad of cash in Lu Ming's hand! The ten-thousand-ryō bills flashed before her eyes. Who knew which wealthy family this young master was from...

"Please, come right in, honored guest!" The proprietress beamed and hurriedly invited Obito inside.

Obito got to enjoy the life of a rich man for a change. He followed the proprietress in, and just as he was about to sit down, a woman shouted:

"Proprietress, bring me two more bottles of sake!"

Obito followed the voice and saw Tsunade. She had long blond hair, a low-cut gray top, and a green haori. He couldn't see whether it had the word "gambling" on the back because of the angle.

"Bring four bottles to that table. Put them on my tab." With that, Obito headed over to Tsunade's table.

"Beautiful big sister, may I sit here?" Obito asked, pretending to be younger than he was.

Up close, he saw the blue-violet mark on Tsunade's forehead, her short, pale-yellow eyebrows, bright brown eyes, light-red lips, and vivid red nail polish. Her skin was fair, and her cleavage seemed bottomless. She was even prettier in person than in the anime!

Seven or eight empty bottles were already sitting in front of Tsunade. Two years ago, her lover, Dan Katō, had died on a mission. When she received the news and rushed to the scene, she'd been powerless to save him. The sight of her lover bleeding endlessly had left her with hemophobia.

For the past two years, she'd been numbing her shattered heart with alcohol and gambling.

Tsunade hazily made out a child standing in front of her and looked confused. She thought she was so drunk she was seeing things...

"Big sister, may I sit here? I can buy you a drink!"

"Where'd this brat come from?" Tsunade furrowed her pretty brows. She'd been about to tell the kid to get lost, but changed her mind when she heard he'd buy her a drink. She was short on cash lately, after all, and had just racked up a mountain of gambling debts.

"Sure, go ahead and sit wherever..." Tsunade said, breathing alcohol.

"Your drinks, sir." The proprietress set down the tray and placed four bottles of warmed sake on the table.

Obito looked at the table. Aside from a serving of simmered daikon, there wasn't a single dish. Tsunade was really in a sorry state...

He took five ten-thousand-ryō bills from his pocket and placed them on the tray. "Bring us some of your best drinking snacks."

"Of course, sir. Please wait a moment. They'll be ready right away." The proprietress picked up the tray, tucked the money into her pocket, and hurried off to prepare the snacks, delighted. She had to turn this high-quality customer into a regular!

"You've got quite a bit of money, brat!" Tsunade picked up a bottle, filled a cup, and downed it in one go.

"My name is Obito Uchiha, not 'brat.' What's yours, big sister?" Obito poured himself a cup, sniffed it, and downed it. It was watered-down baijiu, maybe fifteen percent alcohol at most.

"A brat from the Uchiha Clan? I hate that name." Tsunade had no intention of giving him her own.

"Then I'll guess—you're Lady Tsunade." Lu Ming picked up Tsunade's bottle and poured her a drink.

"Oh? Why do you say that?" Watching the boy pour her a drink, Tsunade thought, This kid knows how to treat a person.

"There are plenty of people in the village who hate the Uchiha. Not many dare say it to their faces. And of those who aren't afraid of the Uchiha and are this beautiful, you're most likely Lady Tsunade, the First Hokage's granddaughter." Lu Ming poured himself another drink as he spoke.

"Ha..." Tsunade lifted her cup and downed it without a word.

"Enjoy your food..." The proprietress soon brought over a table full of drinking snacks.

Before long, the two of them had finished all four bottles of baijiu in silence.

Back on Earth, when he watched Naruto, Tsunade had been his favorite female character. Through the lens of his admiration, her violence became a lack of restraint, and beneath her pretense of not caring about anything was a vulnerable heart. Her younger brother's death, her lover's death, and the fact that the granddaughter of the First Hokage, the God of Shinobi, suffered from hemophobia—all of it weighed on her like enormous boulders.

"Proprietress, bring us four more bottles." Obito shook an empty bottle.

"Not bad, brat. If you don't go home soon, your mother might give you a spanking!" Tsunade said.

"I don't have any family anymore. Even if I stay out all night, there's nobody to care..." Obito said quietly.

"I'm sorry..." Tsunade hadn't expected such a generous little boy to be an orphan. She felt a little guilty.

"It's okay. Without the photographs, I wouldn't even remember what my parents looked like. Maybe it's better this way. They can still be together in another world, and maybe they've already given me another little brother or sister!"

"Heh... That's an interesting thought. Do people really get reborn in another world after they die?" Tsunade murmured.

"They do. The souls of the dead in this world go to another world, where they live in a different way," Obito said earnestly.

"Don't be ridiculous. If that were true, why would people bother trying to stay alive? They could just die and reunite with their loved ones in the other world." Tsunade held the empty cup between her fingers and murmured.

"You're right. You're the smart one, big sister. I only heard that from someone else. Turns out it was a lie." Obito hurriedly went along with her. Tsunade could be his future wife, after all. If he drove her to suicide, he'd have no idea where to cry...

He couldn't judge them by the standards of ordinary people, and he couldn't let his thinking remain trapped in his past life, either, Obito reflected.