Chapter 36

"That kid is Naruto Uzumaki."

Tsunade Senju froze slightly.

So this brat was the Nine-Tails'...

She now understood a little why Jiraiya had kept him by his side.

Still, it was good to throw him out. Kids this age were always so annoying.

"A three."

"One."

"Joker bomb! Hahaha!"

"Can't beat that, can you? Three with one~"

"One card, one hundred ryo. Pay up, pay up!"

Half an hour later...

As Tsunade Senju tore the playing cards to pieces, the game finally came to an end.

"Damn it! This is too much! We played more than a dozen rounds, and I didn't even see a single Joker!"

Jiraiya looked a little awkward...

According to the original plan, he was supposed to lose a little money to Tsunade so she'd be in a better mood, making it easier for him to bring it up. What the hell was this supposed to be?!

"Hahaha, don't be mad, Double-Zero Two. Here, here, your share~"

Sen pulled a few bills from the stack of thousand-ryo notes in his hand and stuffed them into Naruto's arms.

Naruto, who had still been angry moments ago, instantly changed his expression and flashed a fawning smile.

"Big Brother Sen, help us talk her into it too."

Naruto could also tell that Tsunade and Sen seemed more harmonious on the surface.

Though he found it rather baffling, Tsunade Senju, one of the Legendary Sannin, looked more like a drunkard and compulsive gambler. Yet the elders and Jiraiya all thought she was more suited to become Hokage...

"Uh... Double-Zero Two, did you forget that we can't interfere with local affairs?"

Uchiha Sen's serious expression and firm tone nearly made everyone believe his nonsense—if they hadn't known there was something wrong with his head...

At that moment,

Jiraiya slowly said,

"What do you think, Tsunade?"

Perhaps he already knew the answer in his heart, but he still asked in the end, whether for the friendship they once shared... or for the little private thoughts he had kept hidden in his heart all these years...

The table trembled slightly. Shizune could sense the restlessness and unease in Tsunade's heart.

After a long while,

"Impossible. I refuse."

Just as Jiraiya had expected, she did not agree.

"I think I get it."

Uchiha Sen cut in. Haku, beside him, cautiously tugged at Sen's arm. When Sen had said he wouldn't interfere, Zabuza and Haku had both breathed a sigh of relief. This matter was highly sensitive, and given their special identities, it truly wasn't appropriate for the three of them to get involved.

Clearly, Haku's gesture was useless. Sen continued on his own.

"You invited this pretty young lady back to be your boss, but she doesn't want to. Hahahaha."

"If you ask me, being the boss isn't good at all. You don't have any freedom, you're always getting angry, and every day you have to worry about whether your underlings are behaving themselves."

What Sen said was practically a moment of pure clarity, and Jiraiya agreed with it as well...

That was also why he had kept refusing in every possible way. Otherwise, he wouldn't have pushed Tsunade to the front.

"Ah, Big Brother Sen, you think being Hokage isn't good either?!"

"But that's my dream!"

"Only by becoming Hokage can I earn everyone's acknowledgment. Then neither of us will be looked down on anymore, right?!"

Naruto kept scratching his head with both hands, looking deeply troubled.

What an idiot.

"You're wrong, Double-Zero Two."

Sen turned to look at him. Rarely, Sen appeared utterly normal.

"It's not that becoming the boss earns you everyone's acknowledgment. It's the person acknowledged by everyone who gets to become the boss!"

Damn, can watching Young and Dangerous raise your IQ?

Those words struck Naruto's young heart directly.

It wasn't that becoming the boss earned you everyone's acknowledgment. It was the person acknowledged by everyone who got to become the boss...

Naruto kept repeating those words in his heart, gaining a faint realization.

Jiraiya, Tsunade, Haku, Zabuza, and the others all looked at Sen in a new light. No one had expected such words to come from Sen's mouth.

"That's right, Tsunade. Sen is right. It's precisely because the villagers all acknowledge you that they entrusted me with coming to find you..."