Top of the Must-Eat List

Noon.

By the time the sun had climbed overhead, Lin Chongshu slowly emerged from the sand.

He had lain beneath the sand for the entire morning. Only after confirming there was no movement nearby did he let the sand carry his body backward, inching along the shadow of the weathered rocks before lowering his profile and moving toward the village.

When he returned to Shan Tianzhu's doorstep, he saw the woman sitting by the back door with the child in her arms, as though she were waiting for someone.

Lin Chongshu relaxed, even beginning to plan out his first proper meal since arriving in the Naruto world.

But after taking just a few steps closer, he saw another figure inside through the half-open door. Shan Tianzhu seemed to be in there as well.

Lin Chongshu stopped.

Gold Sand should still have been inside Shan Tianzhu's body, yet he could no longer sense that tiny clump of it.

Had someone removed it? Or had Shan Tianzhu expelled it himself?

He did not want to gamble. He turned to leave.

"Lady Tsunade! He's running!" a girl's voice called from behind him.

Lin Chongshu paused and turned around, only to see a girl blocking his escape route.

She looked around seventeen or eighteen, dressed in a dark short robe with a wide cloth sash tied around her waist. Her black hair fell just to her shoulders, and her bangs covered her brows.

A little pink pig stood at her feet, the pearl necklace around its neck flashing in the sunlight.

Then a hand pushed open the wooden door, its slender fingers tipped with bright red polish.

Tsunade stepped out of Tianzhu's house.

She stood more than half a head taller than Lin Chongshu. Her blonde hair was tied into two loose ponytails behind her head, hanging down her back.

It was Lin Chongshu's first time seeing the real Tsunade, and he was still somewhat stunned.

Her features were deeply defined, her nose high and straight, and her figure was overwhelming. Yet none of that was as immediate as the overall impression she gave simply by standing there. She was gorgeous!

Not in the immature way of a young girl, but in the way beauty looked when it had ripened to its peak and then been frozen there by some mysterious force, giving her the bizarre beauty of both a mature woman and a young maiden at once.

Tsunade pinched a ball formed from Gold Sand between her fingers. "If you hadn't come in, wouldn't all my preparations this morning have been for nothing?"

Lin Chongshu looked at the Gold Sand sphere, then at the blank, clueless expression on Shan Tianzhu's wife's face as she clung to Shan Tianzhu. He understood immediately.

He had probably been played by this woman.

From beginning to end, she had never been some honest farmer's wife.

A woman from a small border village who knew the situation in the Land of Rain better than her own household accounts, who was ten times calmer than Shan Tianzhu when trouble struck, and who spoke Hanzo's name as casually as if discussing a neighbor—how could someone like that be harmless?

Lin Chongshu guessed that while Shan Tianzhu had been away yesterday, she had probably already planned to abandon him and leave with Lin Chongshu.

But after Lin Chongshu revealed the truth to her last night, she had decided following him was unsafe and promptly chose Shan Tianzhu again.

All her obedience, silence, and blushing these past few days had been an act. She had been judging, choosing.

This transmigrator had nearly been acted into submission by a border village woman.

Of everyone he had met since transmigrating, only Temari had been an honest person.

Still, thankfully, Lin Chongshu was no good person himself.

As he considered this, his gaze never left Tsunade.

A character he had seen countless times in manga in his previous life was suddenly standing before him. The impact was far greater than he had imagined.

How could someone have both stats and mechanics? No wonder she had always topped the must-eat list for Naruto transmigrators.

There was a reason Jiraiya had spent his whole life unable to win her over.

Shan Tianzhu jumped out of the house, stood behind Tsunade, and pointed at Lin Chongshu.

"Big Fat Sheep... no, my lady! If you deal with him for me, I'll pay off all your gambling debts in the nearby villages!"

Lin Chongshu looked at Shizune and Tonton behind him, then at Tsunade in front of him. He did not run again. He could not escape anyway.

The two of them had trapped him between them. Unless he suddenly knew Flying Thunder God, running would just be suicide.

So he openly stared at Tsunade instead. "Big Fat Sheep? That nickname suits you pretty well."

Tsunade did not get angry. She casually tossed the Gold Sand ball up, caught it, then tossed it again. "Little thief, blame your bad luck. I've lost quite a lot in the Land of Rain lately and piled up a mountain of gambling debts."

Tsunade took a step forward and lightly rolled her wrist. Her knuckles cracked.

"When I came here, I thought you were some jonin-level rogue ninja. Turns out you're just a brat like this. One finger is enough for me."

Lin Chongshu's mind spun rapidly before he suddenly spoke. "Want to make a bet?"

"Oh?" Tsunade grew interested. "What do you want to bet?"

"If you can take me down with one finger, my life is yours. But if I can take you down with one finger..." Lin Chongshu raised a finger and pointed between the twin peaks of her chest, at the necklace there. "I want that."

Tsunade's expression changed. Her fingers instinctively drew closer to the necklace.

That necklace was a relic of the First Hokage. After losing Nawaki and Dan, it was the only thing she still wore. She had never used it as a wager.

"Too scared to bet?" Lin Chongshu tilted his head.

Tsunade said nothing.

"Then how about something else?" Lin Chongshu withdrew his finger, his tone softening. "If you lose, you let me touch you once, or kiss me once."

Tsunade charged at him. Cracks spread through the stone slabs beneath her feet as she became nothing more than an afterimage rushing toward Lin Chongshu. "Then hand over your life!"

This was exactly the moment Lin Chongshu had been waiting for.

He could not dodge Tsunade's fist, but he did not need to.

He drew a kunai. The instant Tsunade reached him, he slashed it across his own palm.

Blood gushed from the wound, spraying outward.

Tsunade's fist stopped in midair. Her eyes saw that patch of red.

Her pupils contracted sharply. Her fist remained in its striking pose, but her fingers began to tremble. The shaking traveled from her fingertips to her wrist, from her wrist to her shoulder, until her entire body started trembling.

The blood before her eyes changed from a wound into a field of red, then from a field of red into an image: her own hands covered in blood, dripping onto Dan's chest, dripping onto the wound she could not stop no matter how hard she pressed.

Her knees buckled. She stumbled a step backward, unable to stand steadily as her body began to sway.

She wanted to look away, but her neck had frozen. Her eyes were filled with that red, and she could not even blink.

[Detected that the host has imposed an intimidating suppression upon Tsunade. The target has developed intense fear due to the stimulus of blood. Reward draw complete.]

[Obtained: Medical Ninjutsu · Mystical Palm Technique Proficiency +1]