The Senju Ancestors' Graves Are Smoking Green

Tsunade's golden eyes fixed on Chiba, complex emotions swirling within them that he could not quite decipher.

There was shock, disbelief, the trembling of something suppressed for decades suddenly coming loose, and the professional scrutiny of a medical ninja.

"How did you do it?" Chiba mulled the question over.

He could not mention the system, so he had to make something up.

Fortunately, he had prepared an explanation long ago.

"My father left me a secret cultivation journal passed down through a branch family of the Senju Clan. It recorded a method of awakening dormant bloodlines through a specific meditation technique. I practiced it for three years, and the reaction finally came the night before last."

Chiba's expression was deadly serious as he spoke, his voice carrying a trace of grief for his late father. "That rampage at the inn last night was a reaction from the awakening process. You checked my pulse then too."

Tsunade furrowed her brows, clearly not fully convinced.

"A branch family secret? I've never heard of branch families having something like that."

"Lady Tsunade, how many years has it been since you left Konoha?" Chiba asked in return.

Tsunade opened her mouth, but did not refute him.

She really had been gone too long—so long that she did not even know who had been born or died among the Senju branch families.

"I don't care whether that secret journal is real." Tsunade reached out and seized Chiba's arm, her fingers tightening as her chakra sensing technique activated automatically. "Let me examine your meridians and bloodline concentration."

Chiba did not resist, allowing Tsunade's medical chakra to enter his body through the point of contact.

Tsunade's perception made a circuit through his meridians, and her expression shifted from solemnity to astonishment.

"Over eight percent Senju bloodline concentration... Wood Release affinity fully awakened... meridians expanded by at least forty percent..." Her voice grew softer and softer, as though she were speaking to herself.

"Even during the Senju Clan's heyday, these figures would qualify as main-family level."

Tsunade released him, taking half a step back as she looked up at the boy standing before her, half a head shorter than herself.

Golden morning light filtered through the gaps in the Wood Release branches and leaves, falling over Chiba like a thin layer of gold over the fifteen-year-old boy.

The newly grown trees and vines swayed gently in the breeze. Dewdrops on the leaves refracted scattered specks of light, and the entire street brimmed with vigorous life.

For a moment, Tsunade was dazed.

She recalled her childhood, in the rear garden of the Senju main family estate in Konoha, when her grandfather Hashirama could slap the ground casually and bring forth an entire field of flowers. Back then, the Senju Clan still existed. There were still many people, clan lands, and a legacy to inherit.

"Lady Tsunade?"

Chiba's voice pulled her back.

Tsunade came to her senses and realized her eyes were a little hot. She quickly turned her head away.

"What are you looking at? Sand got in my eyes."

"There's no sandstorm in Tanzaku Street."

"Shut up."

Chiba chuckled and did not expose her any further.

He stepped forward and casually placed a hand on Tsunade's shoulder.

Tsunade's body tensed, but she did not shake him off.

His palm rested against the fabric on her shoulder, and he could feel the warmth of the muscles beneath.

"Lady Tsunade, look—with you by my side, even the Senju Clan's ancestral graves have started smoking green." Chiba turned his head and smiled at her. "Keep guiding me. Maybe next time I'll make something even bigger."

"Who said I'd guide you?" Tsunade slapped his hand off her shoulder, but the force was several levels gentler than when she normally hit people. "Don't go sticking yourself to people whenever you feel like it."

A line of golden text popped up in the system panel in his mind:

[Tsunade Favorability Change: 18→38. Trigger: Wood Release awakening invoked identification with the main family bloodline, making hope for the Senju Clan's revival tangible.]

[Favorability has surpassed the threshold of 30. Tsunade-exclusive ability replication unlocked: Strength of a Hundred Technique (Beginner). Replication progress will accelerate as favorability increases.]

It had risen by twenty points at once.

Chiba gave the system a thumbs-up in his heart.

"Mr. Chiba! Mr. Chiba!" Shizune ran over from the inn's back entrance with Ton-Ton in her arms. The moment she saw the patch of forest before the door and the gangsters hanging in the air, she stumbled and nearly fell.

"Th-these trees..." Shizune's jaw nearly hit the ground. "Wood Release? You can use Wood Release?"

"Just learned it." Chiba pulled a ring of keys from the gold-chained fat man's pocket and tossed them lightly in his hand. "Miss Shizune, please lead me to his casino vault and help me take inventory of the assets."

"What? Inventory of what?"

Chiba pointed at the gold-chained fat man, who was hanging above and had already cried himself unconscious. "His voluntary donation. Compensation for Lady Tsunade's emotional distress."

Half an hour later, Chiba sat in the casino vault counting money.

More precisely, he was watching Shizune count money.

The fat man's vault was far more stocked than expected. There were over forty million ryō in cash and banknotes alone, along with a pile of land deeds, property deeds, and precious metal certificates.

Chiba took exactly twenty million ryō from it and left the rest untouched.

"You're only taking twenty million?" Tsunade leaned against the vault door with a cup of sake swiped from the casino bar, watching him. "That's the principal you used to pay off my gambling debts."

"That's right, I'm taking back the principal." Chiba stacked the banknotes and stuffed them into a cloth bag. "Nothing extra."

"Why? He came looking for trouble. It would serve him right if you took everything."

"If I took everything, that would be robbery. Taking back the principal is debt collection." Chiba stood and dusted off his pants. "The nature of it is different. The reputation it leaves behind is different too."

Tsunade took a sip of sake, her golden eyes regarding Chiba anew.

Fifteen years old, capable of Wood Release, physically strong enough to crush a chunin, and wise enough to leave room for others instead of being ugly about it.

Just what kind of brain did this brat have?

"Let's go, Lady Tsunade." Chiba carried the cloth bag out. "I'll treat you to a good meal at noon to celebrate a successful first day of work."

"Who wants to celebrate with you?" Tsunade said, though her feet were already following him.

Once they left the casino, the crowd gathered on Tanzaku Street automatically parted to make way.

As Chiba passed by, he could hear whispered discussions from both sides.

"A descendant of the Senju... truly the First Hokage's bloodline..."

"That Wood Release was terrifying. It turned the whole street upside down..."

"Never provoke anyone staying at that inn again. The blonde woman beside him isn't someone to mess with either. I heard she's Tsunade of the Three Legendary Sannin..."

Chiba's lips curved upward. He was in a good mood.

He had revealed the Wood Release trump card a little early, but the effect was excellent.

The road ahead would be much easier.

At noon, Chiba reserved a private room at the most expensive restaurant in Tanzaku Street and ordered a table full of fugu sashimi and sake.

Tsunade showed none of the restraint expected of one of the Three Legendary Sannin when she drank. Flask after flask disappeared, and the faint flush on her cheeks grew deeper and deeper.

Chiba sat across from her, slowly eating a slice of fugu with his chopsticks.

Under the table, when Tsunade shifted her sitting posture, the tip of her foot accidentally brushed against Chiba's calf.

Both of them froze for a moment.

Tsunade retracted her foot faster than she could throw a kunai. The hand holding her cup did not tremble, but the color around her ears deepened by a shade.

Chiba acted as though nothing had happened and continued eating fish.

"Senju Chiba." Tsunade set down her cup, her tone suddenly turning more serious. "What do you plan to do next?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb." Tsunade's golden eyes looked at him through the haze of alcohol. "You used Wood Release in Tanzaku Street today. Within three days at most, the news will spread throughout the Land of Fire. Konoha will find out."

Chiba set down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth.

"They will find out."

"Have you considered what Hiruzen Sarutobi will do?"

"I have."

"Then why did you use it?"

Chiba leaned back in his chair, interlacing his hands behind his head.

"Lady Tsunade, I was supposed to be dead already. They received a report that I died by self-immolation. They've probably already held a memorial service. A dead man suddenly revives in Tanzaku Street and can use Wood Release—what do you think that old man Hiruzen's reaction will be?"

Tsunade fell silent for several seconds.

"He'll send people."

"Right."

"Not ordinary people." Tsunade's voice deepened. "The Root Organization. Danzō will never let a living Senju Wood Release user go."

Chiba nodded, his expression calm.

"So I need Lady Tsunade to stay by my side."

Tsunade snorted. "So that's what you were waiting for."

"It's written in the contract: long-term accompanying cooperation." Chiba smiled as he poured Tsunade another cup of sake. "Lady Tsunade, you're my part-time consultant. Your twenty-million salary has already been paid in advance."

Tsunade took the cup and downed a mouthful, shooting him an irritated glare.

"You little brat, you calculate better than the dealers on Tanzaku Street."

Chiba was about to reply when a sharp eagle cry sounded from outside the window.

Both of them looked up at once.

A gray ninja hawk swept past the restaurant roof, a black bamboo message tube tied to its wing.

The hawk did not land at the restaurant. Instead, it flew toward their inn.

Chiba recognized the mark on its leg band.

A communications hawk used exclusively by the Konoha ANBU.

"Looks like we won't have to wait three days." Chiba set down his cup and stood. "The news has already arrived."