After they finished buying the cars, Dale felt very hungry.
They drove to a nice, quiet restaurant to have lunch.
They sat in a private booth.
Dale looked at his car key and smiled happily.
Tsunade smiled too.
They drank their water and talked about what they needed to do next.
“I sent my papers to your university,”
Tsunade told him between bites of her food.
“They really liked my medical background. I have an interview for the medical professor position very soon.”
“That is amazing!”
Dale said, his eyes lighting up.
“You will definitely get the job. You are the smartest doctor I know.”
Tsunade nodded.
Then, her face turned serious.
“But we have another problem we need to fix today, Dale.”
Dale looked confused.
“What is it?”
“Your apartment. It is simply too small for us now,”
She explained gently.
“We need more room to live comfortably. But more importantly, we need a big, safe space for your training.”
Dale knew she was right.
His chakra was growing every day.
He needed room to practice his space-time jumps without hitting the walls or breaking his cheap furniture.
“But houses are expensive,”
Dale started to say, before remembering who he was talking to.
Tsunade just laughed softly.
Money was absolutely not a problem for them anymore.
After lunch, they went straight to a high-end real estate office.
Tsunade told the agent she wanted privacy, safety, and a lot of open space.
The agent took them to the most expensive part of the city, far away from the noisy streets and crowded buildings.
They looked at a few places, but Tsunade immediately fell in love with one specific property.
It was a huge, luxurious mansion.
It had beautiful large windows, tall ceilings, and many empty rooms to fill.
But the best part was the outside.
The huge house was surrounded by a massive, private garden.
It had high stone walls, tall green trees, and a wide, open lawn.
It was completely hidden from the outside world.
“This is perfect,”
Tsunade said, looking out at the big garden.
“No one can see us here. You can run, jump, and practice your ninjutsu in complete secrecy.”
She didn’t even try to lower the price.
She bought the luxurious mansion right there on the spot, ready to start their new, comfortable life together.
Dale trained in the new garden every single day.
He pushed his body and his chakra to the absolute limit.
He felt a deep, heavy need to repay Tsunade for everything she had done for him.
If he had never met her in that dark alley, he would still be trapped in his tiring, gray life.
He wouldn’t be living in a beautiful, safe mansion.
He wouldn’t be driving an expensive car without worrying about the price.
She had given him a perfect life.
But then, a dark cloud would cover his thoughts.
He remembered that this was only temporary.
One day, her chakra seal would be full.
One day, she would open the door and go back to her world.
When he thought about her leaving, the giant house suddenly felt very cold and empty.
The money and the cars didn’t seem to matter at all.
Everything lost its appeal.
One evening, they were sitting quietly on the patio, watching the sun go down.
Tsunade looked closely at him.
She easily saw the deep, heavy sadness hiding in his eyes.
“What is wrong, Dale?”
She asked softly, her voice full of care.
Dale looked down at his hands.
He really wanted to tell her the truth.
He wanted to tell her how much it hurt to know she would leave.
But he bit his lip hard.
It was a terribly selfish thing to say.
She had a home to go back to.
She had a whole village that needed her healing, and friends fighting in a deadly war.
He could not be selfish.
He could not ask her to throw all of her duties away just to be with him forever.
“Nothing,”
Dale said, forcing a small, fake smile.
“I am just a little tired from training.”
Tsunade did not push him to speak.
She knew that exact expression perfectly well.
She had seen it on the faces of people who had lost hope.
It was the look of someone silently accepting a painful fate.
It was the quiet, crushing loneliness of someone who was truly used to being alone for a long time.
She opened her mouth to comfort him.
She wanted to tell him everything would be okay.
But no words came out.
She closed her mouth and looked away at the dark trees.
She could not bring herself to say anything.
She couldn’t offer him a false promise, because she knew, deep in her heart, she still had to leave him someday.
A whole year passed by.
The seasons changed, and the big garden changed with them.
Dale changed, too.
He was not the weak, tired boy from the alleyway anymore.
He had trained every single day without rest.
Now, his chakra pool was huge.
It was deep and powerful.
He had reached the level of a full-fledged Jonin.
He was an elite ninja in both his chakra capacity and his combat skills.
One warm afternoon, they were sparring in the middle of the garden.
Tsunade stood in the grass, breathing lightly.
She was holding back her true, terrifying strength.
But Dale was not making it easy for her.
He was giving her a truly good fight.
He dashed forward, his movements sharp and clean.
He had learned Taijutsu for hand-to-hand combat, and Kenjutsu for sword fighting.
He held a wooden practice sword tightly in his hand.
Suddenly, Dale vanished.
He didn’t just move fast.
He used his short-distance space-time jutsu.
He called it “Blink.”
*Pop.*
He appeared right behind her, swinging his wooden sword in a deadly arc.
When he combined his instant Blink with his close combat skills, it became an incredibly lethal technique.
It was completely silent and almost impossible to dodge.
But Tsunade was a legendary ninja.
She ducked just in time, smiling fiercely.
As Dale missed, bright blue sparks cracked loudly in the air around him.
He had finally discovered his natural chakra element.
It was Lightning.
The electric energy danced along his arms and wrapped around his wooden sword, making a sharp, buzzing sound.
He attacked again, moving like a flash of lightning himself.
Tsunade blocked his strike with her arm.
The sheer force of his attack actually pushed her boots back a few inches into the dirt.
She stepped away and held up her hand, signaling the end of the spar.
Dale stopped instantly.
He lowered his sword.
He was breathing hard and his clothes were soaked in sweat, but his eyes were bright, focused, and alive.
Tsunade looked at the young man standing in front of her.
He was strong, fast, and incredibly skilled.
He had achieved in one year what took most talented ninjas a decade to learn.
She looked at the fierce lightning fading from his blade.
She felt a deep, warm feeling fill her chest, washing away the usual sadness.
She was so incredibly proud of him.
They walked back to the big house, laughing and joking about the fight.
In just a year and a half, they had grown incredibly close.
They weren’t just ninjas and normal students anymore.
They were partners.
They went inside to take long, cold showers to wash away the sweat.
When they met back in the kitchen, Tsunade couldn’t help but stare for a second.
Dale was wearing clean, nice clothes.
He wasn’t the skinny, tired boy she first met in the alley.
The harsh training had changed his body.
He was tall, fit, and very handsome, but he still had a sweet, cute smile.
Tsunade, wearing her own elegant modern clothes, was simply breathtaking.
She was incredibly sexy and beautiful.
It wasn’t just Dale who felt nervous around her anymore.
Tsunade realized she was starting to look at him differently, too.
When she looked at his bright eyes, she didn’t feel the crushing pain of her past.
He had slowly and gently repaired her broken heart.
She felt a deep, overwhelming gratitude for him.
After eating breakfast, they drove to the university together.
Tsunade was a highly respected medical professor now.
Dale was a top student.
Everyone on the large campus knew about their relationship.
In the past, Dale didn’t have any real friends.
He had been too busy working part-time jobs just to survive.
He was invisible.
But now, things are different.
He drove a fifty-thousand-dollar car, wore nice clothes, and dated a beautiful professor.
Everyone thought he was a secret, rich heir.
Suddenly, people wanted to know him.
They wanted to be his friend.
But Dale just found them annoying.
He knew they only liked him for the money.
He kept his circle very small, focusing only on his classes and his training.
As they walked across the campus, Tsunade watched him out of the corner of her eye.
Many cute, beautiful young women tried very hard to get Dale’s attention.
They would wave at him, smile sweetly, or try to start conversations to seduce him.
But Dale never gave them the time of day.
He was always polite, but he kept his distance.
He never once looked at those girls with the same warm, loving eyes he used when he looked at her.
Tsunade smiled a small, hidden smile.
Watching him ignore everyone else to stay by her side made a warm, proud feeling bloom in her chest.
It felt incredibly good.