Tsunade Senju

As Sasuke landed on the windowsill, the setting sun stretched his shadow long.

A little dust clung to him. His Three-Tomoe Sharingan had already faded, leaving only the lingering complexity in his eyes.

Jiraiya swept Sasuke a glance, then glanced at Naruto beside him, who was innocently munching sunflower seeds. His temple immediately began throbbing again.

He definitely had not sensed it wrong.

That cold chakra from earlier, along with Tsukuyomi's distinctive spiritual fluctuations, could not fool him.

Yet Naruto was alive and kicking, Sasuke was completely unharmed, and not even a single window of the inn had been broken.

He stroked his chin and decided he could not be bothered to expose them.

After all, these two brats were each more cunning than the other. Even if he asked, they would not tell the truth.

"I'll go gather some information nearby. Don't run around."

Jiraiya tossed out those words, turned, and leaped out of the inn. Before leaving, he did not forget to glare at Naruto, his meaning unmistakable—don't cause trouble.

Only after Jiraiya's figure vanished into the woods did Sasuke slowly speak, his voice still a little hoarse. "Thank you for this. Why did you help me?"

Naruto raised a brow, tossed the last sunflower seed into his mouth, and clapped his hands. With a teasing grin, he said, "As the future number one in the Ninja World, I need someone to witness it, don't I?"

"If I don't even have a fellow traveler worth fighting, wouldn't that be too boring?"

Sasuke looked at him in silence for a long while and did not argue.

He felt that this Naruto before him was fundamentally not the same person as the dead-last prankster in the village. But how could that be possible? Sasuke could only suppress the thought.

Naruto swung his legs and asked, "Where are you planning to go next?"

Sasuke clenched his fists, his gaze turning resolute. "To find Orochimaru. I need power, and... Itachi needs me to become strong enough."

Naruto nodded, looking thoroughly delighted by Sasuke's misfortune. "Then you'd better hurry. I stabbed Orochimaru so many times that I crippled half his foundation. Originally, he could have held out for three years while waiting for you to grow up, but now..."

He dragged out the last word, smiling like a fox that had stolen a chicken. "I reckon he won't even last half a year. If you go now, you'll catch him right when he's desperate for a vessel. Maybe he'll stuff all the secret manuals from his snake den into your hands and beg you to inherit his legacy."

Sasuke's mouth twitched, but he said nothing.

He gave Naruto a deep look, then turned into a streak of shadow and vanished into the dusk.

Less than three seconds after Sasuke left, Jiraiya jumped down from the rafters and dusted himself off.

Crossing his arms, he spoke in a sarcastic tone. "Well, well, well. If it isn't the one true god of the Ninja World! What an elegant pastime!"

"For an old man like me, halfway into the grave, to be honored as your teacher—my ancestors must be smoking in their graves!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. How could I compare to you, Pervy Sage? At your age, you used an A-rank ninjutsu, the Great Waterfall Technique, as bait to pick up a girl in a red dress, and you still failed. That's hilarious!"

He leaned closer to Jiraiya, lowered his voice, and grinned wickedly. "By the way, does Granny Tsunade know you're such a show-off? I think she'd be very interested in hearing about your glorious exploits of using ninjutsu to pick up girls."

Thud!

Jiraiya's knees slammed straight into the ground with a dull impact.

He pressed his palms together, nearly kowtowing to Naruto. The flattery on his face was practically overflowing. "No, no, no! Ancestor, I was wrong!"

"Don't you dare tell Tsunade nonsense! She'll break my third leg!"

"If you dare say it, I... I'll expose how you fought Itachi Uchiha earlier and made him cough up blood!"

Naruto picked at his ear. "Go ahead. If you expose it, I'll tell Tsunade that you peeked at that fierce woman's bath last time, drew eighteen sketchbooks' worth, and hid them in the lining of your scroll."

Jiraiya: "..."

He instantly wilted, his head drooping like a toad struck by frost.

"I won't expose it... I absolutely won't expose it... Just don't tell her. Please, Ancestor."

Naruto patted his shoulder, looking disgusted. "At your age, you're still so shamelessly perverted. You're beyond saving."

"Brat, who needs you to manage me?" Jiraiya sprang to his feet, slapped Naruto's hand away, and craned his neck. "What do you know? This is an artist's pursuit of beauty!"

The wind swept the sunflower seed shells on the inn's floor into a swirl before dropping them at Naruto's feet.

A month passed just like that, silently and without notice.

That day, the two had just entered a small town on the border of the Land of Rice Fields.

Naruto suddenly stopped, sniffed the air, and his eyes lit up.

"Sensei! That casino up ahead looks pretty interesting!"

He shook his head, and his scarlet Three-Tomoe Sharingan flashed briefly. "I've got the Sharingan—I can read cards with deadly accuracy. Come on, let's play a few rounds! Maybe we'll even run into the woman of your dreams!"

The moment Jiraiya heard the words "woman of your dreams," his eyes lit up as well. He nodded immediately. "Fine! Let's go! If we lose, it's on me!"

The moment they reached the casino entrance, they heard an earth-shaking roar from inside.

"I lost again! These damn dice are definitely rigged!"

Immediately afterward, a woman in a red kimono stormed out.

Her long golden hair was tied into a ponytail that swayed with her movements. Her figure was astonishingly voluptuous, especially the rolling curves at her chest, enough to make anyone dizzy.

Her face was flushed from drinking, her brows tightly furrowed. She still clutched a handful of now-worthless chips, stomping her feet in fury.

Naruto stared so hard his eyes nearly popped out, and inwardly blurted, Holy shit.

Good lord!

Those waves were truly unparalleled in the Ninja World!

"Tsunade! Long time no see!" Jiraiya immediately straightened his clothes, struck what he believed was his most dashing pose, and waved.

Tsunade looked up at him and snorted impatiently. "Oh, it's you. Jiraiya, you're still the same—idle and good-for-nothing."

Her gaze landed on Naruto beside him, and she suddenly froze.

This blond, blue-eyed brat's features unexpectedly overlapped with those of that person.

Minato Namikaze.

And... Kushina Uzumaki.

Tsunade's heart jolted, and her eyes grew more complicated.

Of course she recognized him.

He was Minato and Kushina's son—the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki, Naruto Uzumaki.

Jiraiya's face instantly reddened. His eyes were fixed on Tsunade's chest, and drool nearly dripped onto the ground. He had even forgotten to fan himself with the folding fan in his hand.

He gave a dry laugh, his tone fawning. "You've only gotten more beautiful! I'm really jealous—after all these years, you haven't changed at all. You're still so young."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Naruto waved a hand in front of Jiraiya's eyes, his face full of contempt. "Watch the drool! At your age, aren't you embarrassed?"

This brat was clearly smiling with reckless frivolity, yet there was not the slightest trace of a youth's shallowness or timidity in his eyes. Instead, they were calm and profound.

Tsunade looked at Naruto and thought, This brat seems a little off.