"You're back. How did it go?"
Takeshi had barely stepped into his tent when a voice cut through the quiet. He hadn't sensed anyone. How had he missed someone hiding inside his own tent?
He turned and saw Tsunade sitting in a corner, cradling a fat, lazy white cat. The animal was so still he looked more like a corpse than a sleeping pet.
'Good thing my eyesight is sharp,' he thought. 'Anyone else might have had a heart attack.'
"Meow? To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Pleasure?" Tsunade gave a small, tired shake of her head. She sighed, patting the empty space on the floor beside her. "Come sit with me for a bit."
"Meow!" Takeshi didn't argue.
'I was going to ask her about Sage Art: Gate of the Great God later anyway,' he thought. 'Might as well hear her out. Common sense says you humor the powerful.'
He padded over obediently and sat down beside her.
She didn't pet him. For all his feline form, he was still a Jonin, and she seemed to be respecting that. After a long moment of silence, she spoke, her voice low.
"The village wants me to be the Fourth Hokage. What do you think?"
"Meow?"
'Fourth Hokage?' The thought caught him off guard. 'If she takes it, that means Minato won't.'
It made a certain kind of sense. Minato was formidable, but his prestige couldn't match one of the Sannin, not yet. Tsunade, on the other hand, had just orchestrated a brilliant victory on the eastern border. Her reputation was at its peak.
No one would object to her appointment, not even Orochimaru. His ambitions lay with forbidden jutsu, not the Hokage's hat.
'Besides,' a new, ambitious thought surfaced, 'Minato isn't even as strong as I am, and my own reputation isn't half bad. If he's a candidate, why shouldn't I be? I could probably do the job just as well.'
If Tsunade became the Fourth, he could aim for the Fifth. If he decided he didn't like being Hokage, he could always step down after a few weeks and let Minato have it. The idea, bold as it was, settled comfortably in his mind.
Of course, he would never dare say that out loud.
"Well? Aren't you going to say anything?"
"Meow? You're asking for my opinion?"
'What's there to think about?' he mused. 'It's the Hokage! The village would pay off her gambling debts, she'd be the boss... it's a great deal! Exhausting, maybe, but still.'
But he knew she wasn't really asking for advice. She just needed someone to listen. She was wrestling with the ghosts of Dan and Nawaki, and he suspected the real fear was simpler than she let on. 'Will letting them go mean forgetting them?'
"Talking to you was a mistake," she said with a dry laugh. "I'm just afraid I'll take the job, get buried in it, and end up just like the Old Man. I can't think of anything more pathetic."
She feared that one day, the duties of the Hokage would make her forget the people she loved, and the reasons she fought in the first place. In this world, so many things were out of one's control.
"Meow. On the other hand, you can't change the things you want to change unless you're the one in charge," Takeshi offered, his tone serious for once.
Tsunade went quiet, considering his words.
Finally, she nodded. "You're right."
A small smile touched her lips. 'This damn cat. He actually said what I was thinking.' Then her expression soured slightly. 'But if he knew that, why was he being a smartass just a minute ago?' A woman's priorities could be strange indeed.
She reached out and gave his fur a vigorous rub before preparing to stand.
Takeshi held her hand in place with his paw. He glanced around the tent, then lowered his voice. "Meow... I wanted to ask, are there any records of the First Hokage's Sage Art: Gate of the Great God?"
Tsunade paused. She searched her memory. 'Grandfather... he never wrote things down. That was always Granduncle Tobirama's job.'
"My Granduncle analyzed it once," she said after a moment. "But he only broke down the principles. He never tried to recreate it himself."
"Meow? Can I see them?" Takeshi asked, his surprise and delight obvious. The something was better than nothing.
"No problem. I can recite it for you." She closed her eyes briefly, recalling the text. "The core of the technique is a specialized Summoning Jutsu. Its construction requires sage chakra, which, once formed through a specific process, can be freely combined and deployed."
"..."
'That's about as useful as nothing,' Takeshi thought, his hopes deflating. 'If a genius like the Second Hokage couldn't crack it, I'm not going to get anywhere with just the principles. Looks like I'm paying full price after all.'
So much for that idea. The rush of excitement he'd felt from his recent windfall vanished, leaving only the sting of a missed opportunity.
But this was a true Sage Art. Without a trump card like this, his Sage Mode felt incomplete. His current techniques were just enhanced ninjutsu, parlor tricks next to the real thing.
He steeled himself. 'Buy it.'
"What's wrong? You want to learn it?"
"Meow. I have some ideas I want to explore," Takeshi said with a slight nod.
"Well, good luck with that. If you actually figure it out, I'll be impressed," Tsunade said, standing up. "I'm leaving. I have to go see Chiyo. We have some history to discuss."
It seemed Chiyo's capture was confirmed. Tsunade's mood was already soured, so going to gloat at an old rival was probably more appealing than talking to a cat. As for the Gate of the Great God, developing it from what little she gave him would be like starting from scratch.
'Even Granduncle couldn't do it,' she thought, then corrected herself. 'Then again, he didn't have Sage Mode.'
She shrugged it off. It was his problem now. She had her own to deal with.
After a final sigh, she scooped up the fat white cat and left the tent, carrying it under her arm like a sack of rice.
'A camera would have been great right now,' Takeshi thought with a touch of pity. 'That's a picture Nekomata would never live down.' He was glad it was him and not one of the other Cat Commanders, they would have probably died of humiliation. Only Nekomata could endure such treatment with his resilient optimism.
Takeshi let out a sigh of his own, then decisively purchased for Sage Art: Gate of the Great God.
No more hesitation. If he couldn't get a discount, he might as well get it now. He could always try to put his own spin on it later.
'Maybe I can even put my own spin on it. Other people use a gate... I'll find a way to make it a tombstone.' If the jutsu allowed for it, he would modify it.
With that thought, he made the purchase.
Forty thousand points vanished in an instant. It was the single most expensive purchase he had ever made, but as the knowledge flooded his mind, he felt a thrill of excitement. He finally had a true trump card sealing jutsu.
Powerful enemies? Not a problem. The Gate of the Great God would suppress them. As long as his opponent wasn't a Ten-Tails Jinchuriki or an monster like Madara, he could handle them.
Once the influx of information settled, however, he calmed down. A flood of information filled his mind, and he quickly understood its limits. He couldn't change the basic shape, but he could inscribe it with text or other markings. The key was chakra, the more he had, the stronger the technique would be.
That made sense. Hashirama Senju and Yamato both used Wood Release, but one could reshape the landscape while the other built houses.
'My chakra is definitely greater than Yamato's. At the very least, my Gate of the Great God should be able to pin down anything up to the Eight-Tails. As for the Eight-Tails and the Nine-Tails themselves...' Those two were in a league of their own.
He quickly ate a pack of ninja cat food. Building his chakra reserves was a daily effort, and he couldn't afford to slack off now.
But a question occurred to him. He already had Sage Mode, so he wondered if the luxury cat food would even do anything for him anymore. He'd been saving it out of frugality ever since he'd mastered his senjutsu.
With his recent earnings, however, he was feeling ambitious. He opened a pack and cautiously ate a few pellets.
There was no change in the process, the food converted into natural energy and merged with his body. He finished the entire pack and felt full, but not drowsy.
'What a waste,' he thought at first, but then he noticed something. While it was still natural energy, his body was absorbing it with far greater efficiency than the energy he drew from the environment, at least ten times more.
'Good stuff.' He understood now. 'So the cat food is still useful after all.'
A plan began to form. Making points was easy in wartime. Even if the Suna surrendered tomorrow, he could always take his drone over to the Stone's front lines and stir up trouble. Pitting his Explosion Release against theirs, with a few of his own tricks mixed in... the Iwagakure ninja would be furious. Another wave of points would be his for the taking.
'Onoki is strong, right? I'll just drop a Gate of the Great God on him, pin him down, and kidnap him too. No problem.'
Thinking about it, Takeshi couldn't help but feel smug. Kidnapping Onoki would surely be more profitable than Chiyo. Iwa had more shinobi, and the Tsuchikage's status was far greater. He wouldn't have to worry about points for a while.
But peace would come eventually. It was hard to go from riches to rags, and after earning tens of thousands at a time, he couldn't imagine going back to farming Genin for pocket change.
'Best to be prepared. A shinobi who doesn't plan for the future will find trouble waiting for him tomorrow.'
He decided to save the ten thousand points he had left for an emergency. With a firm resolve, he closed the system panel. If he kept looking at the list, he knew he wouldn't be able to resist the gacha.
'Can't get carried away, can't get carried away.'
He sighed and curled up, ready for sleep. He could only hope that when he woke up, he would hear the good news that Rasa was refusing to surrender. It would give him one last chance to farm a big score, to prepare for the long, lean days of peace that were sure to come.
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