New chapter!
Thanks for all the support!
x
Yuto carefully raised the binoculars.
The instant he aimed them at the gap in the wall, his heart nearly jumped out of his chest.
Inside the misty bathhouse, several blurry figures moved through the steam.
The sound of water dripping from hair was clearly audible.
He held his breath, his fingers trembling slightly from nerves.
“S-Someone is coming!”
Tsukimi suddenly grabbed his sleeve, her voice barely above a whisper.
The sound of soles striking stone came from the distance.
Yuto hurriedly put away the binoculars, and the two of them pressed tightly against the wall, shrinking into the shadows.
Tsukimi’s back was pressed against his chest.
He could feel her violent heartbeat through their clothes.
“It’s a patrolling Anbu…”
Tsukimi spoke in a breathy whisper, her warm breath brushing past Yuto’s ear.
The footsteps drew closer.
Yuto instinctively pulled Tsukimi a little further into his arms, and their shadows almost merged beneath the moonlight.
After a while, the patrolling Anbu left, and Yuto continued gathering material.
The moment he picked up the binoculars again, a blond beauty suddenly appeared in his field of view.
His first thought was that it was Nono.
After all, Nono’s hair was blond too.
He was just about to lower the binoculars when his gaze landed on a pair of towering peaks.
No.
Nono was not that stacked.
Yuto raised the binoculars again and aimed them at the blond beauty’s face, only to discover in shock that it was Tsunade.
Even more terrifying, Tsunade was staring directly at him.
Yuto’s breath caught, and cold sweat slid down his temple.
Through the binoculars, Tsunade’s amber eyes stared straight back at him, and a dangerous smile tugged at her mouth.
“I’m dead…”
His throat tightened, and his fingers trembled uncontrollably.
Tsukimi noticed something was wrong and hurriedly tugged his sleeve.
“What is it?”
“I-It’s Lady Tsunade.”
Yuto’s voice shook as he fumbled to put away the binoculars.
But before he could turn and run, the ground suddenly shook violently.
The bathhouse wall shattered with a roar.
Tsunade’s figure appeared amid the dust, wrapped in a bath towel, her wet blond hair still dripping water.
“Brat.”
Tsunade clenched her fists until her knuckles cracked, her smile growing more savage.
“Have you thought about how you’re going to pay the price for peeping on me in the bath?”
Tsukimi’s legs went weak from fear, but she still stood in front of Yuto.
“Lady Tsunade, we were only…”
Before she could finish, Tsunade had already flashed in front of them.
Yuto felt the world spin.
His entire body was sent flying by monstrous strength, breaking three trees before he finally stopped.
Lying in the wreckage, he watched Tsunade approach step by step and actually felt a kind of relief.
At last, he could finally die heroically like he wanted.
However, the timing seemed a little early.
He had not finished Make-Out Paradise yet.
Fighting through her embarrassment, Tsukimi spread her arms in front of Yuto.
Her voice trembled slightly.
“Lady Tsunade, please listen to me.
Yuto…
Yuto wasn’t peeping for some filthy reason.”
Tsunade’s raised fist stopped in midair.
Water dripped from the edge of her towel, reflecting a cold glint beneath the moonlight.
“Little girl, move.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“Or do you want to taste my fist too?”
“H-He was trying to earn money by writing a novel.”
Tsukimi shouted with her eyes shut, the tips of her ears red enough to drip blood.
“The orphanage’s funding was cut by seventy percent.
The children are almost out of food.
Yuto wanted to write a bestselling book and donate the royalties to the orphanage.”
By the end, her voice had already turned tearful.
“If you want to hit someone, hit me.
I’m his teammate.
I failed to watch him properly.”
Tsunade slowly lowered her raised fist, frowning as she studied Yuto collapsed on the ground.
She gave a cold snort.
“Writing that kind of filthy book to make money?
Brat, you sure know how to invent excuses.”
At that moment, the other women from the bathhouse wrapped themselves in towels and gathered around, talking over one another.
“Lady Tsunade, what happened?”
Tsunade glanced at Yuto, who looked utterly miserable, and at Tsukimi, whose face was bright red.
Then she suddenly turned and waved everyone away.
“False alarm.
A stray cat knocked down the wall.”
After the women left with doubtful expressions, Tsunade grabbed Yuto by the collar.
“If you dare lie to me, I’ll bury you in the Naka River as fertilizer.”
She turned and gestured toward the darkness.
An Anbu immediately appeared.
“Go call Nono from the orphanage.”
Tsunade released Yuto, though her fist beneath the towel remained clenched.
“If I find out you used the orphanage as an excuse…”
Tsukimi hurriedly bowed.
“Lady Tsunade, everything we said is true.”
After hearing Tsukimi’s explanation, Tsunade gave no response either way.
Only when Nono appeared did she turn toward the hurried woman.
“Was the orphanage’s funding really cut by seventy percent?”
Nono pushed up her glasses and nodded with a serious expression.
“Yes, Lady Tsunade.”
“We received the notice this morning.
After the wartime mobilization order was issued, the village’s finances were prioritized for the front line, and the orphanage’s allocation was heavily reduced.”
Her voice carried a trace of exhaustion.
Clearly, she had been worrying about it for some time.
Tsunade snorted coldly, her fist creaking as she clenched it.
“That old man Third really is getting more muddled with age.
Skimping on children’s food now?”
She glanced at Yuto lying on the ground.
Although she still thought writing that kind of book for money was absurd, at least his motive seemed legitimate.
“Hmph.
I’ll spare you this time.”
Tsunade loosened her fist.
Before leaving, she threw down one last warning.
“If I catch you sneaking around the bathhouse again, it won’t end with just one punch.”
After Tsunade disappeared, Nono finally let out a breath of relief.
Then she looked at Yuto with an expression caught between laughter and tears.
“You actually went and wrote that kind of book?”
Her tone was both helpless and touched, and her eyes reddened slightly.
“I just wanted to help the children…”
Yuto scratched his head, feeling a little embarrassed.
Nono suddenly stepped forward and gently hugged him.
“Thank you, Yuto.”
Off to the side, Tsukimi watched the two of them embrace, and a flicker of jealousy rose in her heart.
She quickly hid it and forced a relaxed smile.
“All right, this guy is injured now.
We should hurry and take him home to rest.”
Only then did Nono release Yuto.
She and Tsukimi supported him from either side and helped him toward his house.
Although Yuto’s entire body ached, somehow it did not feel too bad.
The door to the Hokage’s office had already been violently kicked open.
The person who arrived was an enraged Tsunade.
She had already changed clothes, but she had rushed over so quickly that she had not even had time to dry her hair.
When Hiruzen Sarutobi saw his office door suffer yet another injury, he shook his head helplessly and set down his pipe.
“Tsunade, can the three of you ever knock properly for once?”
Tsunade ignored him completely.
She had come to demand an explanation.
“Old man Third, did you cut the orphanage’s funding?”
“You said assigning a medical ninja to every team costs too much.
Fine.
But how much can a group of children possibly cost?”
“If that Uchiha brat hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have known you were this stingy.”
Seeing Tsunade come in looking ready to condemn him, Hiruzen was completely baffled.
x x x