Tsunade lifted the wine bottle from the bedside table, tipped her head back, and drained it in one breath. Wiping the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand, she spoke with absolute confidence:
"Let's go to the casino! This time, I swear I'm going to win big."
Shizune froze. "L–Lady Tsunade…"
A few hours later, the two of them were standing in front of a pachinko machine. Tsunade stared at the falling metal balls with obsessive focus, as though her very soul had been sucked into the machine.
Clack. Clack. Clack.
She pulled the lever again, but the next ball refused to fall into the winning slot.
Her expression twisted with desperation.
Just a little more… just a little larger… just a tiny shift in luck and she would have hit the jackpot. That little almost was torture.
"How am I still losing?!" Tsunade slammed the machine. "Shizune, give me more courage! Just one more round!"
But Shizune clutched Tonton in her arms like a lifeline. "L–Lady Tsunade… please stop. If you keep going… we won't even have enough money for a place to stay."
"Huh?"
"Two hundred million. It's all gone."
Tsunade blinked. "Ha?!"
Meanwhile, Neji watched from a distance. Seeing Tsunade's utterly defeated look in front of the camera, his lips curved upward.
Of course. This was exactly what he expected.
Orochimaru, standing beside him, narrowed his eyes. "Neji-kun… You didn't put a genjutsu on the machine, did you?"
"No."
"You can sense it yourself—there's no chakra interference anywhere," Neji said calmly. "Tsunade's gambling addiction is enormous. Combined with the lights, the music, and the falling pachinko balls, it creates a psychological effect similar to hypnotic trance. It traps people without them realizing it."
Neji tapped his temple lightly. "It's the perfect tool."
Orochimaru and Jiraiya exchanged looks. It was impressive, but Neji was even more frightening than the machine.
Their gazes subtly changed. How did Neji come up with these ideas?
Neji ignored the two Sannin. His eyes remained fixed on Tsunade.
He knew she was beautiful—everyone did. But seeing her in person was different from watching her in an anime. Her fair skin, sharp eyes, and unbelievably curvaceous figure were enough to capture anyone's attention. Especially her chest…
They were large enough that Neji thought, She definitely won't let her future children starve.
Even more impressive was her eternal eighteen-year-old appearance.
The Hundred Healing Seal was a miraculous technique.
Neji wondered if he should acquire it someday… and then perhaps spread it throughout the entire village. There was no greater tragedy than watching a beautiful woman grow old.
Even though the Seal didn't increase combat power by much, its ability to preserve youth was, in Neji's mind, the strongest ninjutsu.
"Now then," Neji muttered, snapping out of his thoughts. "It's your turn."
He wasn't speaking to Jiraiya or Orochimaru—but to Tsunade's creditors.
Finding Tsunade was hard.
Finding the people she owed money to was easy.
They followed Neji obediently—not because they were loyal, but because Neji held a kunai to their throats until they declared they owed him hundreds of millions.
In front of a top-level shinobi, underworld thugs weren't even insects.
If Tsunade wanted, she could crush them effortlessly. But Tsunade was a decent person, and decent people often suffered most.
With Neji's orders, the burly creditors surrounded Tsunade.
"Old woman, when will you repay your debt?"
"It's not tens of thousands. It's hundreds of millions."
"If you can't pay, we'll have to take you away. Hard labor for the rest of your life, you understand?"
Tsunade had seen her creditors many times. Usually she escaped with Transformation Jutsu. Sometimes she turned into a little girl to fool them.
But today, she had been caught off guard.
Facing several towering men surrounding her, she felt a cold shiver run down her spine. "This is bad… It's over… I'm dead this time."
"Lady Tsunade, what do we do?" Shizune whispered, tightening her grip on Tonton.
Just when tension reached its peak, Neji snapped his fingers.
"Izumi. Let's go."
Uchiha Izumi stepped out of the shadows. "Understood."
Neji pushed open the casino door, walking straight toward the commotion. The creditors froze like terrified mice spotting a cat. They instantly stepped aside.
"Everyone comes to a casino to have fun," Neji said in a calm, almost gentle voice. "Why are you all surrounding this lady?"
The creditors wanted to scream, Because YOU told us to! But with Neji standing in front of them, they smiled submissively before fleeing as fast as they could.
After clearing the area, Neji approached Tsunade with a polite smile.
"Are you alright? Do you need any help?"
Tsunade didn't react, but Shizune felt her heart skip a beat. Without Neji's intervention, they would have been dragged away by the creditors.
Izumi, however, suddenly recognized the woman in front of her.
"Uchiha…?" Tsunade muttered, her eyes narrowing as she saw Izumi's clan fan symbol.
Izumi blinked, startled. "Wait… Tsunade-senpai?! It really is you! I always admired—"
Before she could finish, Tsunade snapped, "Wrong person!"
But Izumi's eyes carried such sincere disappointment that Tsunade flinched.
Unable to maintain her dignity in front of a girl she considered her junior, Tsunade stiffly said, "Shizune… We're leaving."
And with that, she hurried out.
But her composure collapsed the moment she stepped outside.
---
Tsunade ran across the grass, panting, fleeing from memories rather than people.
What happened to me?
She was the eldest daughter of the Senju clan.
Granddaughter of Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi. Niece of Tobirama Senju, the genius of forbidden jutsu.
One of the Legendary Sannin.
The founder of the Medical Ninja system.
She should have become the greatest woman of her era.
Yet she had fallen to this.
Everything she held dear had been lost.
Shizune struggled to keep up but was eventually left behind. Tsunade, exhausted, hid in a bush and curled up into a ball.
In the past, after every chaotic escape from creditors, she and Shizune would walk home laughing.
But now, she only wanted to be alone.
"To think that even she saw me like this…" Tsunade whispered bitterly. "If that Uchiha girl sees me again, she'll probably give me that smug Uchiha smile…"
The resentment in her voice mixed with old wounds. She remembered Tobirama's lectures teaching her two things: believe in the Will of Fire, and distrust the Uchiha.
But now, the Senju clan was gone…
While the Uchiha—supposedly cursed and destructive—thrived in the Hidden Cloud Village.
Tsunade felt tears fill her eyes.
A gentle voice broke through the silence.
"Here. Take this. Wipe your tears."
Without thinking, she took the offered handkerchief, but when she looked up, she saw Neji's handsome face.
Her expression hardened instantly.
"You again?!"
She shot to her feet, hands on hips. "Stop bothering me or I'll punch you into dust!"
Neji raised both hands disarmingly. "Don't worry, I'm not here to cause trouble."
He took out a stack of debt papers and held them out to her. Tsunade's eyes widened—these were all the IOUs she had accumulated over the years.
And right before her eyes, Neji set them ablaze until they turned to ash.
A gesture of sincerity.
And a powerful one.
Tsunade looked away, grumbling, "Is money something to be treated like that…?"
But she didn't tell him to leave.
Neji sat down beside her and offered her a small steel ball—another pachinko ball.
Then he gazed out at the wilderness.
"Hashirama-era stories feel distant to me," he said. "But I've heard many accounts of children barely five or six being thrown onto battlefields. Hashirama and Madara ended that era and brought peace."
Tsunade let out a tired sigh. "Talking about the past… what good does it do now?"
"Yes," Neji nodded. "But don't you think peace died with him?"
He looked at her, eyes intense.
"Tsunade-sensei, I want to complete the unfinished work of Senju Hashirama."
Tsunade's breath caught.
Neji extended a hand toward her.
"To achieve that goal, I need heroes like you. Tsunade-sensei… will you help me?"
Her heart trembled. The world had changed. Hashirama's dream was too large, too idealistic. Yet as she listened to Neji, something awakened inside her—the desire to change herself… and her life.
Neji saw the doubt in her eyes and addressed it directly.
"Your hemophobia… I can help you overcome it. It's a psychological scar, which means it can be healed."
He continued:
"As for uniting the Ninja World… I will not use brute force unless absolutely necessary. True unity comes from shared purpose, not fear."
Then he leaned forward slightly, his voice lowering.
"Tsunade-sensei… have you ever wondered why ninja keep fighting each other?"
She frowned.
"Because we're paid to. But all the real wealth—the land, the resources, the power—belongs to the nobles. Ninjas fight and die while the nobles sit comfortably behind walls."
He smiled faintly.
"But what if ninja united? What if we removed the nobles from power?"
Tsunade stared at him.
"My plan is simple. First, I reform the Land of Lightning. Then I call a Five Kage Summit. Then we start a world-scale transformation."
"And afterward," Neji said softly, "we rebuild the world with ninjutsu—not destroy it."
A faint madness flickered in his eyes.
Tsunade swallowed.
She was touched—deeply.
Moved in a way she hadn't been in years.
This boy… was frightening. Inspiring. Irrational. Brilliant.
And perhaps…
Exactly what she needed.
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