Darian stepped into the spacious, high-end family suite. He reached out to slide the heavy shoji door shut, but Tsunade's powerful, manicured hand slammed against the frame, forcing it open. The two of them locked eyes, glaring at each other once again in a silent battle of wills.
Standing right behind her master, Shizune looked completely mortified, lowering her head because she was far too ashamed to look Darian in the eye.
"What exactly do you two want from me?" Darian asked, his voice dripping with contempt as he put on a superb performance. "Do I look like a total mark to you? I already bailed you out and paid for your expensive liquor downstairs, and now you're actively forcing your way into my room to make me pay for your bed? Are you two literal beggars?"
Hearing the word beggar directed at her, Tsunade gritted her teeth so hard her jaw ached. Her knuckles turned white as she fought the urge to throw a chakra-infused punch and teach this arrogant brat a lesson.
Seeing that the blonde woman was on the absolute verge of exploding, Darian smoothly pivoted, changing his tone just enough to de-escalate. "Fine. You can stay in the suite tonight since it's already paid for. But make no mistake—you are going to pay me back every single coin."
Looking at Darian's smug, handsome face, Tsunade desperately wanted to smash his teeth in. But after losing so much face tonight, she knew that if she threw a tantrum now, she would lose her only shelter and be forced to sleep in the dirt outside. In the end, she didn't even know how she managed to swallow her pride.
'You dare call me a beggar, you little bastard? You're dead the moment I get my hands on some cash,' Tsunade thought viciously.
Despite her internal fury, she forced a sweet, dazzling smile onto her face. "Hey, brat. I still don't even know your name?"
Darian looked down at her with a look of practiced displeasure. "Failing to introduce yourself before asking for mine is incredibly rude. Don't forget that you're only under a roof right now because I kindly chose to take you in."
"Yes, yes. Thank you so much for taking us in, Lord Darian," Tsunade said with a forced, tight smile, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Shizune, however, let out a soft sigh, genuinely grateful to avoid the cold night air.
"Hmph. It's good that you understand your place. At least you still possess a shred of a conscience," Darian replied, letting his arrogant persona run wild.
Tsunade clenched her fists tightly behind her back, then silently forced herself to relax her muscles. Although she was smiling beautifully, her amber eyes were filled with pure, unadulterated resentment.
'Keep being an arrogant prick, brat. You'll get exactly what's coming to you sooner or later,' she thought.
Shizune watched the silent, tense exchange with massive concern, terrified that Tsunade would snap at any moment and put a fist through Darian's chest. But while Shizune was agonizing over how to physically hold her master back, she was surprised to see Tsunade successfully suppress her anger, pasting on an alluring expression as she stepped closer to Darian.
"So... can we talk about a small business proposition?" Tsunade purred.
Darian glanced at her massive chest sideways, completely unfazed. "As long as it doesn't involve me lending you gambling funds, everything else is negotiable."
Tsunade's smile froze, leaving her standing there awkwardly. The anger she had just managed to push down instantly surged back up, causing her heavy, mature breasts to heave violently back and forth against the silk of her low-cut kimono.
Holy crap, Darian thought, his eyes tracking the movement. Her chest is heaving so much it's practically a visual hypnosis trap. How damn insidious.
However, Darian had spent weeks intimately developing his stamina with women like Paula, Alvida, and Nami; his psychological resistance to mere cleavage displays was incredibly high.
Seeing that Darian remained entirely unmoved by her physical assets, Tsunade's mind raced. The corners of her mouth turned up, revealing a beautiful, scheming smile. "Are you really going to be that cold? I can write you a formal, legal IOU. Just lend me a few gold coins for the casino down the street, and I promise I'll split fifty percent of my winnings with you tonight!"
Darian merely shot her a look of absolute disdain.
"The stack of forged IOUs stuffed inside your cleavage is thicker than the wad of Berries in my purse," Darian scoffed. "Do I look like an idiot to you? You're offering to split your 'winnings' with me? Given your legendary reputation, it would be a miracle if you didn't lose my gold in the first five minutes. If you actually manage to win a single coin tonight, I'll do a handstand while washing my hair in the hot spring."
"Alright! You said it, brat! Give me the money right now, and get ready to wash your hair upside down!" Tsunade said, her voice bursting with sudden, absolute confidence.
"And what happens when you lose?" Darian countered, leaning against the wall.
"Should I wash my hair upside down too?" Tsunade asked tentatively.
Darian immediately gave her a look of pure pity, as if he were staring at someone with a severe intellectual disability. "Do you honestly think I'm that easy of a target? You think I'm going to hand over ten heavy gold coins just to watch an old woman do a handstand in a bath? Did you not eat a single peanut while you were downing those bottles of sake downstairs? If you had even a single peanut to absorb the liquor, you wouldn't be this explicitly delusional."
"Then what the hell do you suggest we do?!" Tsunade snapped, her patience fraying.
"Unless you can offer me an immediate, physical piece of collateral that is actually worth the value of the loan, why should I lend a massive fortune to a complete stranger I just met in a bar? Just because you have massive breasts?"
Darian spoke with absolute, crude bluntness, causing Tsunade to grit her teeth in fury. If it were her past self, she would have already broken his jaw. But she was completely penniless; she had already sold off her valuable jewelry and weapons weeks ago to fund her drinking. She couldn't exactly pawn her clothes to this arrogant bastard.
'Wait...' Tsunade thought, her eyes suddenly darting to the side.
Shizune?
Tsunade slowly turned her head and glanced at her assistant, who was still standing nearby completely clueless. A highly mischievous, wicked smile immediately spread across the Sannin's face.
'Sorry, Shizune,' Tsunade thought with absolutely zero remorse. 'I'll have to make you sacrifice your freedom for a few hours.'
To Tsunade's mind, the plan was flawless. As long as she could secure the gold and hit the tables, she would simply grab Shizune and run out of town later regardless of whether she won or lost. With her Kage-level speed, who could possibly stop her from tearing up the contract? No matter how cunning or arrogant this flashy little foreigner thought he was, he was destined to only drink her foot bath water.
Tsunade's sudden line of thinking was actually exactly identical to the dark logic of Silvers Rayleigh in the One Piece universe, who frequently and casually sold himself into slavery at auction houses just to raise quick gambling funds, only to break his chains and escape once the money was spent. They both relied entirely on their monstrous physical strength to disregard the law and fleece wealthy marks.
With her wicked plan locked in, Tsunade immediately shouted, "Alright! I'll give you Shizune as my official collateral! But a few measly coins are far too little; my little Shizune is a pristine virgin and an elite medic—she's worth at least a hundred gold coins!"
"Huh?!"
Shizune, who had been absentmindedly teasing the little pig Tonton in her arms to distract herself from the awkwardness, looked up in absolute horror. Her face went entirely blank and innocent, her brain failing to process the fact that she had just been casually pawned off by the master she deeply respected.
This unexpected turn of events was something Darian naturally had absolutely zero reason to refuse. In fact, his sharp mind immediately deduced exactly why Tsunade was being so "generous." To put it bluntly, the blonde woman was trying to set a classic honey trap, planning to use Shizune to lower his guard before running away with the gold.
'Tsunade, Tsunade... you've severely miscalculated this time,' Darian thought, a dark smile forming beneath his mask. 'You think you're setting a trap for me, but no matter how much you flaunt your assets, you're the one who's going to end up serving me.'
However, Darian wanted to play the part of a shrewd merchant, so he immediately began to barter down the price to make it believable.
"She's definitely not bad-looking, and she's clean enough to be taken in as my personal maid," Darian assessed, running a slow, deliberate gaze over Shizune's trembling body. "But a hundred heavy gold coins? Is she made of solid platinum? I'll give you fifty gold coins for her. Take it or leave it."
"Deal!" Tsunade barked out instantly.
She had deliberately asked for an exorbitant price expecting him to haggle, so managing to secure a whopping fifty solid gold coins was an absolute victory in her eyes. Besides, it wasn't as if she were actually selling her loyal assistant permanently. Let the arrogant brat be smug with his little contract for a few hours. Once she won big at the dice tables, she would simply slip back into the inn, grab Shizune in the middle of the night, and vanish into the forest. It was a no-loss, perfect scam.
"Then let's draw up a formal, written contract and sign it immediately," Darian said, pulling a piece of parchment and ink from his bag.
"Perfect!"
Shizune stood completely frozen, her jaw slack. She had only looked down to scratch Tonton's ears for a mere ten seconds. How the hell had she been pawned off into corporate slavery by Lady Tsunade in the blink of an eye?!
Before she could even utter a word of protest, she saw that the contract had already been rapidly drafted. Lady Tsunade had eagerly pressed her ink-covered thumbprint onto the parchment and was now waving her over with a manic grin.
"Shizune, hurry up! Sign your name right here and put your thumbprint on it!"
"H-Haah?!" Shizune squeaked, completely dumbfounded.
However, before she could loudly voice her intense objections, she was aggressively coaxed, pushed, and sweet-talked by Tsunade into writing her name on the document in a complete, dazed trance. Darian grabbed her thumb, pressed it into the inkpad, and firmly stamped it down on the paper.
It was highly professional—two identical copies. Both Darian and Tsunade looked thoroughly satisfied, blowing on the ink to dry it before carefully tucking the contracts into their respective pockets.
The only person left out of the loop was the actual human collateral. Shizune stood frozen in the center of the tatami mats, clutching Tonton like a shield, entirely unsure of what her life had just become.
"Lady Tsunade... how could you do this to me?!" Shizune cried out, staring at her master in utter disbelief.
Tsunade, however, merely patted her heavily on the shoulder, her face full of absolute, unearned confidence. "Don't worry, Shizune! The second I hit my hot streak and win the money back, I'll come right back to redeem you. Just hang tight!"
Winning money? Lady Tsunade? Going to a casino?
Shizune looked as though she had been emotionally abused, her expression turning profoundly aggrieved and hopeless. But before she could speak, Tsunade aggressively pulled her into the corner of the room, leaning close to whisper her true, shameless escape plan directly into her ear.
After hearing Tsunade's completely illegal, honorless plan to just dine-and-dash on the contract later, Shizune was left entirely speechless. She would have never compromised her morals if the person proposing this shameful scheme hadn't been Tsunade—the last living member of the Senju clan whom she deeply loved and respected. But since she had been following the woman around since she was a small child, she knew this wasn't the first, second, or even twentieth time Tsunade had pulled something completely unreliable.
As the naturally submissive assistant, she lacked the authority or the raw physical power to force Lady Tsunade to change her mind. Being Shizune was incredibly difficult; she felt so profoundly tired of life.
And so, Shizune was inexplicably left behind as a hostage. Tsunade scooped up the bag containing fifty heavy gold coins from Darian's hand, letting out a loud, victorious laugh, and stormed out of the suite in high spirits to conquer the local casino.
Darian knew perfectly well that handing his gold to Tsunade was like throwing money into a black hole—it was a one-way street, no different from asking a wild tiger for its pelt. Even if Tsunade inevitably lost everything and decided to unilaterally tear up the contract to steal Shizune back by force later, Darian knew he wouldn't easily be able to stop a Kage-level fighter without exposing his full arsenal.
But if he didn't give the gambling addict a taste of his wealth first to build a relationship, how could he ever convince her to share high-level space-time ninjutsu knowledge with him? Spending fifty gold coins looted from a dead Warlord was a completely negligible price to pay for a potential ticket back to the One Piece world. What was a little gold compared to returning to his harem as soon as possible?
Tsunade's footsteps faded down the hall, leaving the room dead quiet. Only Darian, lost in his own calculations, and Shizune, vibrating with intense anxiety, remained in the suite.
Shizune was clutching Tonton so violently tight against her chest out of sheer panic that the poor little pig was starting to turn blue, suffocating under her grip. It was glaringly obvious how terrified and helpless the young assistant felt being left entirely alone in a hotel room with a massive, lethal foreigner who had just backhanded a man through a wall.
Of course, Shizune was by no means a defenseless civilian woman. She was a fully trained, highly lethal Chuunin-level medic. If Darian dared to cross the line or lay a single hand on her body before Tsunade returned, she fully resolved to use the hidden senbon launchers and toxic poisons concealed within her sleeves to make him suffer a agonizing death.
"Puuu-kwee!"
The nearly strangled pig finally managed to violently wriggle free from Shizune's panicked grip, scrambling across the tatami mats to hide safely in the far corner of the room.
The loud, peculiar squeal of the pig violently broke the heavy tranquility of the suite.
Looking over at the quiet, pretty girl with the neat short black hair and the tense, defensive posture, Darian cleared his throat softly, defusing the pressure.
"Relax, Shizune. I'm not a beast; I'm not going to force you into my bed against your will," Darian said smoothly, walking over to the low table. "Since you're officially my maid for the evening... how about you start by brewing me a hot cup of tea?"
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Give me powerstones.
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