“Ah! That’s Lady Tsunade!”
As Yusuke and little Yuhi Kurenai walked along the streets of Konoha, the little girl suddenly cried out in delight and pointed ahead.
Yusuke looked up and saw Tsunade walking toward them in a white coat.
“Tch, and here I was hoping she’d be wearing a nurse’s uniform.”
Yusuke curled his lips.
“Brat, what did you say?!”
Tsunade’s sharp ears caught Yusuke’s voice, and the veins on her forehead immediately bulged as she shouted.
“You heard me wrong, Princess Tsunade.”
Yusuke quickly changed the subject.
“Shouldn’t you be saving lives at Konoha Hospital? Why are you out?”
“Tch, my eight-hour shift is already over. I’m exhausted, so I’m going out for a drink.”
Tsunade stretched lazily.
Even though her white coat concealed her figure, it couldn’t hide her perfect curves.
The little girl looked at her with undisguised envy.
Just as Tsunade was about to walk past the two of them and head toward the bar, she suddenly remembered something and narrowed her eyes at Yusuke.
“Since you’re here, you might as well come too.”
Noticing something off in Tsunade’s eyes, Yusuke’s expression changed slightly as well.
He gently patted little Yuhi Kurenai on the head.
“Yuhi Kurenai, you go home first.”
“Okay~”
After casting a few more admiring glances at Tsunade, Yuhi Kurenai ran off toward her home by herself.
“Come with me!”
“Princess Tsunade, you should be a little more ladylike. Otherwise, you’ll have trouble getting married.”
Yusuke calmly slipped free of her grasp.
“Brat, what did you say?!”
Tsunade immediately became furious.
“I’m just stating a fact. If you don’t change your personality, Princess Tsunade, I predict you’ll still be unmarried when you’re fifty.”
Yusuke grinned.
“You want to die?!”
Tsunade charged at him in exasperation.
…
…
Half an hour later.
The Senju clan compound.
The former most prosperous clan in Konoha, and once the greatest clan in the entire shinobi world, still controlled a vast amount of land, but the compound had already become almost deserted.
Yusuke walked behind Tsunade, looking around the Senju compound.
At times, he could walk a hundred meters without encountering a single person.
Clearly, the clan that had once been the greatest in Konoha, and even in the entire shinobi world, had completely declined.
The Konoha leadership headed by Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo certainly bore the primary responsibility for this.
But the Second Hokage, Senju Tobirama, also bore considerable responsibility.
If he hadn’t had nothing better to do than push this whole idea of making Konoha more civilian-oriented, deliberately handing power over to clans like the Sarutobi and Shimura while weakening the Senju and Uchiha, would there have been so many problems?
Tsunade’s home was no less luxurious in terms of size than Sarutobi Hiruzen’s residence.
But because it was empty, and because it clearly hadn’t been cleaned for quite some time, it lacked the prosperous atmosphere of Sarutobi Hiruzen’s residence.
Instead, it felt desolate and empty, much like the Senju clan itself.
After returning home, Tsunade plopped herself down on the tatami without the slightest trace of feminine grace and said casually, “Pour the drinks! Pour the drinks!”
Yusuke placed the two jugs of takeaway liquor he had bought from the bar, along with some grilled food to accompany the drinks, between them.
He then sat across from Tsunade and began savoring the food and drink as well.
After the failure of Uzumaki Mito’s jinchuriki transfer ceremony, Mito, having lost the Tailed Beast, had passed away, leaving Tsunade without her last remaining relative.
After losing her younger brother and parents, even her grandmother had now left her.
At this moment, Tsunade felt that her future was completely gray, with no light in sight.
To put it bluntly, she was like a walking corpse, with no idea what she should do or where she should go from here.
Yusuke, on the other hand, had just completed his plan to cripple Konoha, ensuring that the village would be unable to recover its strength for at least twenty years.
The four old foxes led by Sarutobi Hiruzen would absolutely not dare do anything to him.
Now was the perfect time to further strengthen himself, seize the opportunity to bring Konoha under his control, and then advance into the entire shinobi world!
Tsunade felt that her future was completely hopeless.
Yusuke, meanwhile, felt that his future was brilliant beyond measure.
“Princess Tsunade, drinking to drown your sorrows will only make them worse. If you’re in a bad mood, you shouldn’t drink. Do something else instead.”
Yusuke had clearly seen through Tsunade’s thoughts and reminded her with a light smile.
“Alcohol only has value when you drink it while you’re happy.”
“Tch! Don’t talk like you’re some kind of expert.”
Tsunade unhappily downed another cup of sake.
After remaining silent for a moment, she narrowed her jewel-like pale golden eyes.
“The Nine-Tails incident… that was your doing, wasn’t it?”
Yusuke smiled lightly.
“Princess Tsunade, what are you talking about? I don’t understand.”
“Stop pretending!”
Tsunade picked up a skewer of meat and took a bite.
While chewing, she frowned and said, “That guy held me off using nothing but ordinary sword techniques. From beginning to end, he didn’t use a single ninjutsu or any specialized sword style. Looking across the entire shinobi world, there is only one person with swordsmanship like that—White Fang!”
As she spoke, Tsunade looked at the White Fang blade hanging from Yusuke’s waist and said coldly, “When you drove away the Nine-Tails, the Hatake sword techniques you used were practically identical to White Fang’s. I honestly can’t think of anyone other than you who could have done something like that.”