Ding! Ding! Ding!
"Sis, maybe... maybe we should stop playing?"
Half an hour later, Nawaki watched his sister, who was losing so badly she looked like she was about to lose her mind, and offered a tentative word of caution. Tatsuma, sitting across from her, swallowed hard.
Playing cards with Tsunade allowed him to pick up attribute potential at an incredible rate. True to her nickname, the "Legendary Fat Sheep," Tsunade dropped at least 4 points of potential per hand, often ranging as high as 6 to 9.
And it seemed... bottomless. Over the past three years, Tatsuma had discovered that most people had a daily limit on the "talent" they could drop.
Take Minato, for example. Even if Tatsuma won every single match, he could only farm about a hundred points of potential cap per day. Furthermore, matches against Minato were physically demanding, making the process far less efficient.
Because Tatsuma's rate of "realizing" his talent was slower than the rate at which he gained new potential, he never felt like his daily gains were small; in reality, between the length of their matches and the actual win-loss ratio, he never hit a theoretical limit, but it was enough to keep him satisfied.
Tsunade, however, was in a league of her own. Between the session a few days ago and today, they hadn't even spent two hours playing, yet Tatsuma had already harvested over 200 points of attribute potential from her. That was equivalent to four or five days of training with everyone else combined.
At this rate, Tatsuma should have been overjoyed. However... feeling the killing intent slowly leaking from Tsunade's aura, he felt like his life was currently hanging by a thread.
"Hmph! Are you implying I'm a sore loser?!"
Tsunade glared at her brother. Nawaki trembled, not daring to utter another word. Tsunade slammed her cards onto the table and stalked off to the side to start her set of push-ups.
This gave Tatsuma a brief moment to breathe. He couldn't help but fantasize: if Tsunade had a better personality, and they could just get an automatic card dealer... if they changed the stakes so she didn't have to waste time doing push-ups...
With her luck, if he gambled with her for sixteen hours a day, he'd probably hit Jonin-tier potential in no time.
Unfortunately, there were no "ifs" in reality. Tsunade's temper was nothing like Nawaki's or Minato's. Having finished her set, she sat back down with a face as cold as stone. She pointed at the table. "Again!"
She scooped up the cards, her hands a blur of practiced, professional shuffling. Just as Tatsuma and the others were about to tremblingly accept their new hands, a savior finally arrived.
"I was under the impression that the Monk—that Hiruzen told you to teach these children Medical Ninjutsu?"
"Grandma!"
Nawaki jumped up as if he'd seen the Messiah. Tsunade frantically stuffed the cards into her sleeve. Uzumaki Mito looked at her granddaughter's performance and let out a helpless sigh.
"I saw everything."
Tsunade slowly pulled her hand back out of her sleeve, her head hanging low, unable to meet her grandmother's gaze.
Tatsuma and Minato set their cards down and bowed respectfully. "Lady Mito."
Uzumaki Mito waved them off. She glanced back at Jiraiya and Kushina, who were standing behind her, and said, "Jiraiya, if you have other missions to attend to, you may leave. I will personally look after these two children."
Jiraiya nodded, looking relieved. "Understood, Lady Mito. I'll leave them in your capable hands. I'll be on my way."
Mito gave a dismissive wave, and Jiraiya bolted. He didn't even look in Tsunade's direction. Once he was gone, Mito walked to the table, picking up two playing cards and rubbing them between her fingers.
"Restricting you entirely isn't a solution. How about this? From now on, in the mornings, Tatsuma and Minato will join Kushina in studying Sealing Arts under my tutelage. Tsunade, you will focus on your own training during that time. In the afternoons, you will teach them Medical Ninjutsu. After dinner, I will allow you to play cards for a while. What do you think?"
Tsunade looked up, her eyes wide with disbelief. "Grandma, really?"
"If I don't let you play, you'll just do it in secret anyway. You'll spend all day daydreaming about it, which is why you've made zero progress in half a year. I'm giving you permission to play now, but if your training still stalls, don't blame me for not giving you a chance."
"I'll master it in no time! I swear!" Tsunade declared excitedly.
Mito turned to Tatsuma and Minato. "And you two? Do you have any objections?"
"Thank you, Lady Mito," Tatsuma replied.
He certainly wasn't going to complain. He was thrilled. He could study and train during the day, farm talent in the evening, and with Lady Mito supervising, he wouldn't have to worry about Tsunade getting so tilted she decided to punch them through a wall.
"Thank you, Lady Mito," Minato echoed. His gaze flickered toward Kushina, who was currently puffing out her cheeks, looking quite displeased.
Every reaction was noted by Mito. She nodded in satisfaction. Her only slight disappointment was that Tatsuma didn't seem to care about Kushina's presence at all.
"What... what about me? Grandma, I'm supposed to train with Tatsuma!"
Nawaki spoke up, sounding a bit left out. His chakra reserves weren't high enough for advanced Sealing Arts yet, his chakra control was a disaster, and he had no aptitude for Medical Ninjutsu. With Orochimaru away on a mission, he had no one to lead him. Was he supposed to just play by himself until his sensei returned?
"It's fine, Nawaki," Tatsuma said with a smile. "I have a habit of doing morning exercises. You can wake up early and train with us."
Nawaki nodded eagerly. "What time do you start?"
Tatsuma looked at Minato. Minato nodded. "We usually meet at five. But if we're coming all the way here, we probably won't arrive until five-thirty."
Mito added, "I shall begin your lessons at nine."
Nawaki scratched his head, then gritted his teeth. "Five-thirty? Fine! I'll start getting up earlier then!"
Mito glanced at Kushina. "Kushina, do you wish to join their morning training?"
"Five-thirty is... a bit early, isn't it?" Kushina said, her voice lacking conviction.
Uzumaki Mito offered a kind, gentle smile. "Then feel free to sleep in. After all, you don't need to worry about Tatsuma and Minato catching up to you—you've already lost to them, haven't you?"
"Grandma!" Kushina pouted, stomping her foot. "Fine! It's just five-thirty! I can do it!"
Tatsuma watched Uzumaki Mito with genuine awe. He hadn't expected the First Hokage's wife to be such a master of sarcasm. Her "passive-aggressive" game was arguably stronger than his own.
Nawaki turned to Tatsuma and Minato. "Why don't you guys just move in? You'd get an extra half-hour of sleep."
Tatsuma shook his head and laughed. "No thanks. A half-hour run is the perfect warm-up."
"Yeah, we wouldn't want to be a bother," Minato added with a warm, sunny smile.
Mito narrowed her eyes slightly as she looked at the two boys. She liked them already. They were much more adorable—and far less of a headache—than Tsunade and Nawaki.
She looked at Nawaki and Kushina again and finally understood why they had lost to these two. That level of discipline and passion was exactly what the Senju and Uzumaki descendants were currently lacking.
"It's nearly nine now. If you have no other business, shall we begin your first lesson?"
Tatsuma and Minato nodded frantically. "We would be honored, Lady Mito."
"Good."
Mito turned and began walking toward the inner house. "Show me the sealing techniques that Jiraiya brat taught you. His level is mediocre at best; I hope he hasn't led you too far astray."
Tatsuma and Minato kept their mouths shut. Only Uzumaki Mito could call Jiraiya's sealing skills "mediocre." She had the status and the talent to back it up. As for them? They were just the students. They knew better than to say a word.