"Yagoromo, you're leaving Konoha again?" Mirai asked, looking at Yagoromo, who seemed to be in a bit of a hurry.
After leaving the Hokage's office, Yagoromo naturally had to make a trip back home and tell Mirai about it. Haku and Kimimaro were not home at the moment; they had probably gone shopping in high spirits to restock ingredients.
That word "again" fully expressed Mirai's feelings. Yagoromo really did leave Konoha far too often.
"Don't worry. This mission is important, but it won't be dangerous… or rather, there probably won't be any chance to fight at all," Yagoromo explained.
"What kind of mission is it?" Yagoromo was going to carry out a mission that was not dangerous? That only made Mirai even more curious.
"It really isn't dangerous. Simply put, I just have to bring back to Konoha someone else's wife, a woman old enough to be my mother, and a certain famous female shinobi known throughout the shinobi world."
The moment Yagoromo said that, Mirai immediately understood who he was talking about. She puffed out her cheeks, then said in a rather particular tone, "It sounds like it really wasn't supposed to be dangerous. But if you talk like that in front of Big Sister Tsunade, you'll definitely trigger a combat mission."
Yagoromo: "…"
"I know."
He was not stupid. Of course he would never say that in front of Tsunade. That would not even be on the level of courting death anymore. It would be outright seeking death.
"Still, Mirai, why do you insist on calling Tsunade 'Big Sister'? Let me correct your sense of family hierarchy. She happens to be forty years older than you. No matter how you look at it, she is not someone in the 'big sister' category," Yagoromo said.
Calling someone forty years older than you "big sister" always felt a little… well… Yagoromo could not quite describe the feeling. In any case, the moment he heard those two words, "big sister," all sorts of discomfort welled up inside him.
Mirai was twelve, and Tsunade was fifty-two. There was exactly a whole generation between them. She was clearly in the grandmother generation, so how could she be a big sister? But from the very first time they met, Mirai had always called her Big Sister Tsunade, and that caused Yagoromo great suffering.
Mirai blinked. She had absolutely no idea what Yagoromo was talking about… To her, forms of address were naturally based on first impressions. After all, Mirai had never seen Tsunade looking fifty-two. She had only seen Tsunade looking twenty-five.
But even if she looked twenty-five, that still was not fifteen. At the very least, she should be in the auntie category, right? Yet Mirai just kept calling her big sister.
In short, one day he would have to let Mirai witness Tsunade's true appearance. Then he would see whether Mirai could still bring herself to say the words "big sister."
"But… if I don't come with you, how are you going to find her?" After thinking for a moment, Mirai raised a practical question. Without an over-range sensory ability, logically speaking, it should be very difficult for Yagoromo to find Tsunade.
"You don't need to worry about that. I have my own methods."
Yagoromo naturally was not going to run around like a headless fly. Finding Tsunade right now would not be difficult. First, according to Jiraiya's intelligence, Tsunade happened to be in a certain town in the Land of Fire. Also, according to Uncle Database's statistics, Tsunade had only just arrived there, and she probably had not yet had time to visit every local casino. Based on her usual activity pattern, she would not leave until she had lost everything in every single casino.
So there was an extremely high chance that after chasing Jiraiya away, she was still lingering in the same place.
Once he had a rough location like that, Yagoromo could use his summoning contract to sense Tsunade's exact whereabouts within a certain range… In fact, when it came to shame, Mirai had far more of it than Yagoromo did. Big Sister Tsunade might be a little old, but at least she was still human. Yagoromo's Big Sister Slug, on the other hand, was not only so old her age could not be measured, more importantly, she was a bug that spoke in a cute human voice. Just how low did Yagoromo's moral integrity have to be for him to calmly and naturally call her "Big Sis"?
Truly beyond reach… cough. The great Yagoromo would never be affected by narrow-minded barriers between species. Through his own actions, he had proven that the bond between sister and brother could transcend race!
After briefly explaining a few things, Yagoromo prepared to leave again. However, at that moment, he suddenly remembered something else. "Right. When Haku and Kimimaro come back, tell them that I've already signed the three of you up for the upcoming Chūnin Exams. It's a bit like bullying the other participants, but… in short, the important thing is taking part."
With the strength of Mirai's team of three, passing the Chūnin Exams should not be difficult at all. But even if they already possessed greater strength, they still had to participate in the exam. After all, before entering university, one still needed a middle school diploma. And now that the war was over, situations where someone could be promoted directly based on battlefield achievements no longer existed. To become a jōnin, one had to pass these two exams.
Although Yagoromo himself only valued strength and considered official shinobi rank secondary, someone directly involved like Mirai was naturally hoping to leave the ranks of genin as soon as possible.
"Really? That's great, Yagoromo! We'll train properly from now on!" Sure enough, Mirai was very happy after hearing this.
"That's good."
In reality, considering the difficulty of the Chūnin Exams, Mirai's group of three had no real need to train. After all, they had just finished clearing a top-tier boss and possessed the strength to have fought an army of clones.
Besides, becoming a chūnin at twelve was not particularly eye-catching. Becoming a jōnin at twelve was where the problem started. That would invite the curse of Kakashi's fifty-fifty reputation…
At last, after saying everything that needed to be said, Yagoromo left Konoha once more.
In truth, there was no need for him to mention the Chūnin Exams this early. After all, Tsunade was currently in the Land of Fire, not far from Konoha at all. With Yagoromo's speed, whether or not this trip succeeded, he would return to Konoha very quickly. By then, there would probably still be a long time before the Chūnin Exams began.
...
Hashimoto was a town not far from the capital of the Land of Fire's daimyo. Because it stood on an important commercial route, its geographic position had brought the town prosperity.
Large numbers of people passed through here every day. And because of factors such as population, wealth, and mobility, one of the town's distinctive features was the sheer number of casinos.
Over the past few days, the casinos in this town seemed to have taken on a somewhat unusual atmosphere, because they had all received the same piece of news: the "Legendary Sucker," long rumored about in the gambling world but rarely seen in person, seemed to have appeared locally.
It had to be said that before Lady Tsunade spent every last coin she had borrowed from who-knew-where, she was exactly the kind of customer every casino loved most. She spent money like water and lost every bet she made. Just as her nickname suggested, she was a true sucker.
"Lady Tsunade, this is money we just borrowed! Do you know how much debt we're in right now? Please, at least show some restraint when you gamble…" Shizune followed behind Tsunade carrying a money case, constantly trying to persuade her.
Tsunade, meanwhile, walked ahead while holding a pig-shaped creature that appeared to be some sort of pig-shaped creature. It was probably a certain pet named Tonton. She clearly did not take Shizune's words to heart. "Relax, Shizune. This time, I'm confident I'll win big. Then we can pay off all our debts."
Shizune was already completely immune to this sort of claim. Lady Tsunade said this every single time, but unfortunately, not once had her words ever come true. Instead, she had only created a debt crisis for the two of them… Perhaps Tsunade did not actually care whether she could pay the money back. Her attitude fully demonstrated one principle: borrowing money is my ability, so why should I have to repay it?
Too reasonable.
The moment they walked into this casino, Tsunade directly had Shizune exchange all their cash for chips… Of course, Shizune wanted to stop her, but could she stop her?
The manager of this casino was also rather unqualified. Even now, he had not noticed that the "Legendary Sucker" had already walked right into his pocket.
After receiving her chips, Tsunade directly stuffed that pet into Shizune's arms. Then she walked up to a gambling table and, without even thinking, pinched up a stack of chips and placed them in a certain area that symbolized "bets are final."
What she was playing now was a simple dice game. Tsunade planned to use this to test today's luck… But did such a thing even need testing? Luck was something she had never possessed.
If she really did have luck, that would be seeing a ghost.
Across from Tsunade, a certain young man with white hair seemed to have been waiting for her all along. Whatever she bet on, he immediately bet the opposite.
Tsunade naturally saw him, but after merely glancing at him once, she had no particular reaction. Right now, she had something more important to do.
When the dice result before her was about to be revealed, Tsunade held one smooth, jade-like arm across her chest while raising her other hand. Her lips unconsciously bit the tip of her thumb, and her body leaned forward in a graceful curve… These were all subconscious movements. Otherwise, given the sheer volume of her chest, if she leaned straight down or even slightly forward, her line of sight would be blocked by certain parts of her own body.
Since it caused so much inconvenience in daily life, why insist on maintaining her current appearance? How un-shinobi-like.
But did she even need to look at the result?
There was a one hundred percent chance she would not win.
As long as someone sat opposite Tsunade at a gambling table, her God of Gamblers buff would instantly activate. The only problem was that this passive skill was applied directly to her opponent. Similar to the "one hundred percent barehanded blade catch," she could make everyone else win every bet they placed. Truly absurd. At this level, she was not even as good as the First Hokage.
◇ BONUS & SUPPORT ◇
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 10 reviews — drop a comment!
◇ 1 bonus chapter for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ Read 70 chapters ahead on P@treon → patreon.com/Chakraflow789