The fluorescent tube overhead glared white, illuminating the bottles and jars on the counter. Tiny flecks of light scattered across their glass surfaces.
Tsunade wore a white lab coat, open at the front to reveal a dark blue layer beneath. Her sleeves were rolled to her elbows, and a patch of dried, pale green medicine stained one forearm, gleaming coldly beneath the light.
Her golden ponytail hung down her back. She swept a few loose strands away from her ear.
After all that work, she was finally done. Tsunade carefully poured the finished product into a small bottle.
It was a glass bottle the size of her thumb, sealed with a cork. The liquid inside was clear. When it shifted beneath the light, a delicate halo shimmered through it.
Tsunade stood at the counter, gazing down at the bottle. A smile spread across her tired face.
She muttered to herself with undisguised pride.
"Finally. It worked."
"Old Chiyo's black heart, combined with the fruits of my genius!"
"No one but me could possibly cure this poison!"
She raised the bottle toward the fluorescent light and turned it halfway around. The clear liquid left a thin film on the glass, even and translucent, without a trace of impurity.
"Uchiha Yongye."
"You can behave yourself, or you'll have only yourself to blame when I show you no mercy."
Her fingers tightened around the bottle, and a faint chill seeped through the glass.
"You want to sleep with me for a year? Hmph. There's going to be a price!"
The overhead light cast a harsh, glaring pallor across her face.
When Tsunade climbed the stairs from the Underground Base, the rubble of the collapsed Hokage Building was gone. A new building stood in its place.
Its gray-green wooden walls still gleamed with