Facing Tsunade as she lunged at him, Yusuke smiled calmly and shifted slightly to the side, avoiding her attack.
Although Tsunade was not as experienced as she would be in later years, she had already reached Kage-level strength.
After her first attack missed, she swiftly twisted her body and swung her palm at him.
“Can you stop messing around already?”
Seeing that Tsunade was still not giving up, Yusuke raised his left hand, knocking away her incoming palm before grabbing her wrist and twisting it.
In an instant, he pulled the distance between them much closer and sneered, “Unlike Kato Dan, a background character who could die at any moment, I am… very strong.”
With that, Yusuke placed his other hand against Tsunade’s slender waist.
“W-What are you doing?”
Looking at that handsome face less than ten centimeters from hers, Tsunade’s tone immediately became unnatural.
There was no helping it.
She was a woman who was nearly thirty and had never even been in a relationship.
“Nothing. I just thought that since you’re about to return to the battlefield against Sunagakure, it would be a little dangerous if you ended up with a background character like Kato Dan who could die at any moment. So I figured I’d better take out some insurance in advance.”
Yusuke stared at Tsunade’s face, which would remain youthful even when she was in her fifties or sixties, and answered with an ambiguous smile.
“W-What kind of insurance… Mmph!?”
Tsunade frowned in confusion, but before she could finish speaking, the lips she had preserved for nearly thirty years were forcefully claimed.
…
…
“I’ll kill you!!!”
Several minutes later, a roar filled with murderous intent erupted from Tsunade’s residence, frightening the fewer than one hundred remaining members of the Senju clan living in the clan grounds into shuddering.
What happened to Princess Tsunade?
However, ever since the Senju clan declined, Tsunade had often gone on drunken rants, so they didn’t pay it too much attention.
A figure quickly shot out of the Senju clan grounds.
Yusuke stretched lazily and looked back at the Senju clan grounds, now far behind him.
He nodded in satisfaction and muttered to himself, “Now I can rest easy.” The source of this chapter is novelping.com.
A few seconds later, Yusuke bought a piece of chewing gum and popped it into his mouth.
Tsk.
To be honest, it didn’t taste very good.
There was too much of a liquor flavor.
…
…
Just as Yusuke had predicted, less than a week after Tsunade returned to participate in the Nine-Tails jinchuriki transfer ceremony, an accident occurred and the Nine-Tails escaped.
A military report soon arrived from the front lines of the battle against Sunagakure, demanding that Tsunade immediately return to the battlefield.
After all, the poison Granny Chiyo had created was simply too troublesome.
In just one week, she had already developed another new poison.
The only person capable of breaking this deadlock was Tsunade and her medical expertise.
Although Tsunade had no affection whatsoever for Konoha’s higher-ups, she still retained feelings for Konoha itself.
Upon learning of the situation, she wasted no time and immediately prepared to depart for the front lines against Sunagakure.
Less than two hours after receiving the report, several dozen shinobi from the Senju clan led by Tsunade, along with a support squad led by Kato Dan, had gathered at the main entrance of Konoha.
“Tsunade, everyone is assembled. We can leave.”
Kato Dan walked over to Tsunade’s side and gave her a rather warm smile.
However, in Yusuke’s mind, “nice guy” was practically synonymous with “backup option.”
“Oh.”
Tsunade responded indifferently and looked around as though searching for someone.
Seeing Tsunade’s cold attitude, Kato Dan frowned slightly.
She had never responded particularly enthusiastically to his advances, but this complete lack of concern was something he had never experienced before.
Tsunade suddenly seemed to remember something and turned to look at Kato Dan.
“What is it?”
Kato Dan’s expression brightened.
Could it be that Tsunade was finally responding to his feelings?
“Don’t waste your time on me anymore. The other villages are all hostile toward Konoha now, and the war could very well escalate further. You… should focus your energy on training instead. At your age, you still have room to grow.”
Tsunade reminded him in an indifferent tone.
After saying that, her eyes once again swept around the surroundings, searching for someone.
Kato Dan felt as though a bolt of lightning had struck him.
W-Was she rejecting him?
Why?
Kato Dan couldn’t help recalling what Yusuke had said about him when they first met a week ago—
Weak.
Could he really be that weak?
The Senju clan shinobi around them secretly found the situation amusing.
Although the Senju clan had already declined, Tsunade was still the biological granddaughter of the First Hokage.
To be honest, if she really accepted the advances of Kato Dan, a mere shinobi from a minor clan whose strength was only at the Jonin level, it would be rather embarrassing.
“That bastard. Fine, he didn’t explain himself, but he isn’t even coming to see me off?”
Tsunade searched the surroundings for that familiar figure while cursing Yusuke’s ancestors all the way back through eight generations.
Ever since that bastard had done that to her at her home two days ago, he hadn’t taken the initiative to see her even once.
Tsunade had considered going to find him herself, but as the princess of the Senju clan, how could her pride allow her to make the first move?
And so the two of them had been stubbornly waiting each other out.
But what Tsunade never expected was that the bastard really wouldn’t come looking for her!
“Oh my! It’s a good thing you haven’t left yet, Princess Tsunade~”
At that moment, the voice of the very person Tsunade wanted to beat up finally rang out.