The Tsundere Senior Signs the Contract

Shizune felt that what she had seen tonight was enough to fill three memoirs.

First, a Senju Clan branch family boy had suddenly appeared and splurged twenty million ryo to pay off Lady Tsunade's gambling debts. Then, that boy had produced an utterly absurd contract. And then—then Lady Tsunade's wrist had been grabbed by a fifteen-year-old brat?

And she had not broken free?

Lady Tsunade, whose monstrous strength was famed among the Legendary Sannin, who could punch a hole through a rock wall with one finger, had her wrist seized by a genin who was not even a chunin—and had stopped for two seconds?

Shizune's mind buzzed. Tonton grunted in her arms and kicked at her arm with its hooves, finally snapping her out of it.

"L-Lady Tsunade!" Shizune's voice jumped an octave. "He, he did that to you... Please don't act rashly. He is still a junior from the Senju Clan..."

Hearing Shizune's voice was like having a bucket of cold water dumped over her. Tsunade flung away the pen Chiba had offered her.

"Who's from the same clan as you?" She retreated to the sofa, picked up the sake jug, poured herself another cup, and tipped it back. Her throat bobbed twice before the cup was emptied.

But she did not make another move.

Chiba noticed that.

In that brief confrontation, Tsunade could have easily broken free with her monstrous strength. With chakra-enhanced taijutsu at the level of a Legendary Sannin, she could snap even iron chains, let alone escape the grip of a genin. But she had stopped.

During those two seconds, her wrist had sensed the chakra fluctuations inside Chiba's body.

Tsunade set down her cup and studied the boy seated across from her again with a complicated expression.

"Your chakra."

"Hm?"

"When my hand touched your skin just now." Tsunade furrowed her brows, speaking a little faster. "There was a chakra resonance inside you. That frequency..."

She did not finish, but Chiba knew what she meant.

The Senju Clan's chakra possessed a distinctive vitality, an underlying oscillation pattern found only in those with an affinity for Wood Release. The pattern in ordinary Senju clan members was like a trickling stream, while Hashirama's was like the sea.

Chiba's pattern was weak, but its purity was not low.

"The Third Hokage said the branch family's bloodline was so diluted it could be ignored." Tsunade stared into Chiba's eyes. "The concentration of Senju chakra in your body is nowhere near as low as his report claimed."

Chiba neither denied nor admitted it. He merely pushed the contract toward Tsunade again.

"Then you have even more reason to sign." His tone was light, but his words were anything but. "As far as bloodline concentration goes, I could train myself to death and still only get this far. But with guidance from the main family's direct line and the Senju Clan's secret cultivation methods, there's still hope."

"You are the only person in the entire shinobi world who can help purify my bloodline, Lady Tsunade."

"Why should I help you?"

"Because of twenty million ryo."

"You..."

"And because we are the only two Senju Clan members left." Chiba spoke at an unhurried pace. "How many years have you spent drinking, gambling, and running away out here alone? Ten? Fifteen? Those old men in Konoha would love nothing more than to see the Senju Clan die out. Are you really going to let them have their way?"

Tsunade's grip around the empty cup tightened.

Chiba watched the tendons between her knuckles tense, then loosen. He knew he had struck a sore spot.

"I'm not asking you to return to Konoha." Chiba softened his tone by a degree, as though soothing a furious tigress. "The contract makes it clear. During our cooperation, you can stay wherever you want and keep gambling if you want. I only need you to teach me a few things occasionally and back me up when it counts."

"Twenty million ryo to hire a part-time consultant." Chiba spread his hands. "Lady Tsunade, where else are you going to find terms like these?"

Shizune could no longer hold herself back. "Lady Tsunade, don't listen to him! There has to be a trick in this..."

"Quiet." Tsunade waved a hand.

She picked up the contract and read it from beginning to end. The terms on the two pages were clear and straightforward, written in plain language with no hidden traps. The debt amount, interest rate, repayment method, scope of cooperation, and both sides' rights and obligations were all included. There was even a termination clause: once the debt was repaid, either party could unilaterally terminate the contract.

Tsunade read it three times.

"You wrote this?"

"Yes."

"You're fifteen and you can write something like this?"

"Like I said, orphans grow up early."

Tsunade slapped the contract back onto the coffee table, leaned back, crossed her legs, and looked Chiba up and down with the scrutinizing gaze of an elder assessing a junior.

"If I sign this, you can't beat me in a fight, you can't outrun me if I leave, and if I decide one day that I don't want to do this anymore, I can just walk away. What can you do about it?"

Chiba smiled, completely at ease.

"Then I'll consider twenty million ryo well spent to get to know a senior." There was not the slightest hint of reluctance in his voice. "Lady Tsunade, I'm not betting that the terms of a contract can bind you. I'm betting that you still care about the Senju name."

The room fell silent for more than ten seconds.

Tsunade's gaze moved from Chiba's face to the stack of debt statements beside the contract on the coffee table. Twenty million ryo. The Senju ancestral estate. A branch family orphan had placed his entire fortune on her.

This brat was either insane, or he had truly been driven into a corner.

Tsunade picked up the pen.

"Where do I sign?"

"Bottom right corner of the last page."

The pen tip scratched across the paper. Tsunade's handwriting was like her—bold and expansive, every stroke like a punch. After signing, she tossed away the pen and leaned back into the sofa.

"It's signed. Chiba of the Senju Clan, my twenty-million-ryo part-time consultant job—don't make me feel like I got ripped off."

The moment Chiba reached out and put away the contract, a string of golden notifications exploded across the system panel in his mind.

[Ding! Crimson Beauty Contract successfully signed. First Crimson Beauty locked: Senju Tsunade.]

[Affection update: 15/100. Relationship status: creditor and tsundere senior.]

[Contract reward issued: Basic Sage Body purification activated. Senju bloodline concentration increased from 3.7% to 8.2%. The purification process will automatically complete while the host is asleep.]

[Warning: The purification process will be accompanied by intense chakra overflow. Host is advised to take protective measures.]

Chiba folded the contract and tucked it into his clothes, the smile on his face becoming a little more genuine.

"Thank you, Lady Tsunade." He rose and bowed to her with smooth, natural movements. "It's getting late. You can rest in the master bedroom. Shizune and I will take the second bedroom."

Tsunade gave a snort without speaking, then staggered toward the master bedroom with the sake jug in hand. As she passed Chiba, she paused for a moment.

"Brat."

"I'm here."

"Your grip strength isn't normal." Tsunade glanced sideways at him. Her golden eyes, slightly hazy with drink, held an indescribable wariness and curiosity. "One day, I'm going to examine your chakra."

Chiba gave a slight nod.

The master bedroom door closed. Shizune carried Tonton and followed Chiba toward the second bedroom, her mouth running the entire way.

"Who exactly are you? How could you possibly grab Lady Tsunade's wrist? What is going on with your chakra..."

"Miss Shizune, we'll talk tomorrow." Chiba pushed open the second bedroom door. "You and Tonton can sleep in here tonight. I'll sleep on the floor."

"On the floor? There are two beds in this room."

"I need the other one for cultivation." Chiba took off his coat, draped it over the back of a chair, and rolled his neck twice. "Oh, and no matter what you hear tonight, don't enter the master bedroom or come over to my side."

Shizune's face turned red again. "What are you planning to do?"

"Cultivate." Chiba pushed her toward the door. "Actually cultivate, Miss Shizune. What exactly is in your head? Good night."

The door closed.

Chiba sat on the bed, feeling the warm current already beginning to writhe inside his body. The system notification said the purification would complete automatically during sleep, but that surge of chakra had already begun.

He closed his eyes and sat cross-legged in meditation.

Tonight was the true beginning.