"Mm... where am I?"
Naoki Senju opened his eyes with some difficulty. Looking at the unfamiliar ceiling and feeling the soft bedding covering him, his mind was a muddle.
He only remembered finally finding Tsunade, one of the Sannin, in a casino in the Land of Waves. Then... so big... so white... what exactly had happened afterward? Why couldn't he remember any of it?
"You're awake?"
A clear, sweet voice with a mature undertone came from beside him.
That familiar voice was...
Tsunade!!!
Naoki Senju hurriedly tried to sit up in bed, only for his body to go limp and collapse again. A fair hand reached over from beside him and caught his shoulder, emerald light glowing in its palm.
"Your constitution is fairly good, but yesterday's killing intent seeped into your foundations. If you don't rest properly for a few days, it'll still cause lasting damage." He was only an ordinary person who hadn't even molded chakra yet, after all, Tsunade sighed inwardly.
Killing intent?
With Tsunade's reminder, Naoki Senju finally remembered what had happened yesterday, and a wave of lingering fear washed over him. If even Tsunade, a fellow member of the Senju Clan, was this wary, wouldn't he have died an even worse death if he had recklessly sought out Jiraiya, Orochimaru, or even Konoha...?
Still, a trace of resentment entered his gaze as he looked at Tsunade. We're both from the Senju Clan. Did you really have to be so heavy-handed?
Tsunade noticed the change in his gaze too and lowered her head in embarrassment, only for her ample chest to block her view...
Yesterday, she had failed to control her killing intent in her shock and anger. After all, she had watched the Senju Clan dwindle day by day. Who among the Senju was left now besides her? Yet after using medical ninjutsu to compare her cells with Naoki Senju's yesterday, she had confirmed that he really did belong to the Senju Clan-and to an exceptionally pure line at that...
Rather than making Tsunade ecstatic, that conclusion sent chills down her spine. It was one thing for the Senju in Konoha to keep dying in battle; they always charged on the front lines, holding off outside enemies for Konoha. But why had some members of the Senju Clan become ordinary people who had never molded chakra?
Tsunade decided to bury the question in her heart for now. After all, her suspicions were far too horrifying, and she had no concrete evidence at present.
"I did lose my composure yesterday. But since you say you're a member of the Senju Clan, which branch are you from? Who are your father and grandfather?"
Naoki Senju glanced at Tsunade's ample chest. Fine, fine, fine. Your boobs are big, so you're right. Happy now?
"My father is Shinji Senju. My grandfather is Tobirama Senju."
Senju... Tobirama... Granduncle!!!
How was that possible!!!
The beautiful Princess Tsunade gaped, without the slightest regard for appearances.
Seeing that Tsunade was likewise unaware of this information, Naoki Senju felt relieved. If his branch really had been expelled from Konoha, she might not have dared take him as her disciple.
"Didn't Granduncle go his whole life without any offspring? How could your branch exist? No, the Senju Clan's cells can't be faked..."
After muttering to herself for a moment, Tsunade swept a sharp gaze toward Naoki Senju. She clenched her small, fair hand, her knuckles cracking:
"You'd better tell me everything you know, truthfully. Otherwise... heh heh."
Did having a strong fist make you so great? Heh, it really did...
Getting hit by a Monster Strength Fist was no joke...
Naoki Senju sat up straight, kept his gaze firmly ahead, and began recounting his experiences:
"I was born in the capital of the Daimyo of the Land of Fire. My father, Shinji Senju, is a first-rank noble of the Land of Fire, where our surname is Soga. My father has eleven children in all, and I'm the ninth. I saw my grandfather Tobirama Senju's name in the family genealogy when I was little. Later, I heard the legends of Konoha and Lady Tsunade, one of the Sannin, and wanted to go to Konoha to find you, but my father stopped me."
"What right did he have to stop you?"
Hearing that her own legend had spread as far as the capital of the Daimyo of the Land of Fire had initially made Tsunade rather proud. But when she heard that Naoki Senju had been stopped, she flew into a rage, looking fierce in an adorably childish way.
That whiteness was a little dazzling.
"That's what I asked too, but Father told me it was an ancestral instruction from Grandfather Tobirama Senju: never return to Konoha, never learn ninjutsu, and remember to stay far away from the troubles of ninja villages. After that, the matter was dropped."
As Naoki Senju enjoyed Princess Tsunade's Mystical Palm Technique massage and the feast for his eyes, he embellished his account of what he had seen and heard.
Everything else was true, but Naoki Senju had bluffed the truth about Tobirama Senju out of his father. At the time, he had given Shinji Senju quite a fright; his father had thought Tobirama Senju's instructions had been exposed. Although Naoki Senju had become one of only two people who knew these secrets, he had still ended up taking a sound beating-the kind that left him unable to get out of bed for three days.
"Granduncle must have had his reasons for doing that. So why were you able to come looking for me now?"
After learning about Naoki Senju's background, Tsunade's attitude immediately became much warmer. Granduncle's grandson counted as her younger cousin, after all. She was finally no longer the only member of the Senju Clan left alone in the world. What was more, an entire branch of the Senju Clan remained in the capital of the Daimyo of the Land of Fire! Reviving the Senju Clan was not out of the question.
But Naoki Senju's next words instantly shattered all her dreams:
"The Senju Clan in the daimyo's capital... was wiped out."
The sky outside had been perfectly clear, yet a crack of lightning rang out. As though all her strength had been drained away, not only did the emerald light in Tsunade's palm fade completely, but her body also slumped helplessly toward the floor.
Having already anticipated this, Naoki Senju opened his arms and gathered Tsunade's soft body into his embrace.
"Lady Tsunade, has Naoki Senju woken... up...?"
Hurried footsteps came from outside, and the door was pushed open. Once she saw the situation inside, Shizune silently set down the food box and gently pulled the door shut, doing her best to pretend she had seen nothing.
Behind the door, Shizune blushed scarlet. Honestly, Lady Tsunade, even if you're from the same clan, you shouldn't be so intimate... he's still a child!
Although Naoki Senju saw Shizune, he had no intention of pushing Tsunade away to avoid suspicion. As the sage said: when Heaven is about to bestow a great responsibility upon a man, it first subjects his mind to suffering and his muscles and bones to toil.
And at that moment, Naoki Senju was bearing a responsibility of a weight that life could scarcely endure. If he backed down now, he would probably regret it bitterly later.
But Tsunade was, after all, one of the Sannin renowned throughout the Shinobi World. Even if she had slacked off somewhat in recent years, she was still one of the strongest ninja alive. The emotional shift from great joy to great sorrow could not affect her for too long.
Her soft, voluptuous body, carrying a faint fragrance, left his embrace, and Naoki Senju felt a sudden sense of loss. Tsunade shot him an exasperated glare. So young, and already learning nothing but lewd things.
Still, the blush on Tsunade's pretty face betrayed her feelings. To say that the warm, reassuring embrace just now had left her completely unmoved would certainly have been a lie, but it was not as though she felt anything more.
They were merely two lonely members of the Senju Clan, meeting in this world and leaning on each other.