42: Chapter 42 A Deal from the DarkJiraiya stopped in his tracks, turned his head, and looked at Naruto with the gaze one would give an idiot.
"Doctor?What fever are you having, kid?What nonsense are you spouting?"
He simply couldn't reconcile the boy who had just displayed monstrous talent with the woman who was dead drunk and covered in thorns, let alone the absurd title of "doctor."
Naruto Uzumaki offered no explanation.
He simply raised his head, his azure eyes reflecting an inhuman, anatomically calm gleam under the chaotic lights of Short Book Street.
"A person who constantly harms his body with alcohol and gambling, a person who is unable to extricate himself from past traumas, a person who is unable to use his talents because of fear."
"If this isn't an illness, what is it?"
Jiraiya opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.
Every word Naruto said was correct; it accurately analyzed Tsunade's current situation.
But coming from the mouth of a twelve-year-old boy, this precision becomes a chilling and eerie feeling.
[Ding!You have received 3500 [Confusion] items from Jiraiya!]
[Ding!You have received 2900 of Jiraiya's [Absurdity] items!]
Naruto ignored the legendary Sannin who was caught in self-doubt and turned to walk into an inn.
He needed a quiet place, a high vantage point, to observe the grand spectacle that was about to unfold.
Night was falling.
The hustle and bustle of Tanabata Street did not diminish in the slightest; on the contrary, it intensified.
In a secluded izakaya, Tsunade occupied a corner all by herself.
The table was already covered with empty wine bottles.
Her consciousness was already somewhat blurred; the alcohol numbed her senses and temporarily suppressed the painful memories that gnawed at her day and night.
In the mental realm she herself was unaware of, the "mist of sorrow" that tightly enveloped her was becoming increasingly intense and viscous under the influence of alcohol.
It isolated her from everything outside and imprisoned all her hopes.
She just wanted to stay drunk forever.
The wooden door of the izakaya was gently pushed open.
Two figures walked in silently, without disturbing any of the other drinkers.
The man in the lead had long black hair, and his pale skin looked sickly in the dim light.His golden snake eyes gleamed with a dangerous and sinister light.
The boy behind him wore round-framed glasses, kept his head down, and had a very low profile, yet he was impossible to ignore.
Orochimaru.
Yakushi Kabuto.
They went straight to Tsunade's table.
Tsunade raised her hazy, drunken eyes, and after recognizing the person who had come, an undisguised look of disgust and schadenfreude appeared on her face.
"Yo, isn't this Orochimaru?What's wrong, you Konoha rogue ninja?Why aren't you staying in your rat hole?What are you doing out here?"
Orochimaru ignored her taunts; he simply pulled out a chair and sat down calmly.
Then, he slowly raised his hands.
Those were things that could no longer be called "hands".
His skin was a necrotic bluish-purple color, covered with eerie runes, and his arms hung limply at his sides, unable to even lift them up.
The curse of the corpse demon seal.
An indelible mark of death.
The moment Tsunade saw those hands, she was stunned for a moment, then burst into a hearty laugh.
"Hahahaha!What is this?Retribution?Aren't your hands the ones that love researching those disgusting forbidden techniques?How did they turn into this monstrous state?"
"Serves him right!That was so satisfying!"
[Ding!You have received 7500 units of ultimate [schadenfreude] from Tsunade!]
[Ding!You have received 6800 units of [Exhilaration] from Tsunade!]
Orochimaru was not surprised by her reaction.He simply watched her quietly with his golden snake eyes, letting her vent her morbid pleasure.
Until Tsunade's laughter gradually subsided.
"Tsunade, let's make a deal."
Orochimaru's voice was hoarse, like two snakes rubbing against each other.
"Please heal my hands."
"Are you kidding me?" Tsunade exclaimed as if she had heard the biggest joke in the world."Why should I help you?To help you regain your power so you can continue to harm Konoha?"
"Because," Orochimaru's lips curled into a strange smile, every word he uttered carrying a deadly allure, "I can return them to you."
Tsunade's movements froze.
"If you heal my hands, I will use the Impure World Reincarnation to revive your brother Nawaki and your lover, Dan."
boom!
It was as if a thunderclap had exploded in my mind.
Tsunade's brown eyes, which always held a mocking and empty look, contracted sharply at this moment.
The thick layer of sorrow surrounding her was instantly torn open by those names, creating a huge gash.
resurrection?
Rope Tree?
Broken?
Those names, buried deep in her memory, names that would cause her excruciating pain even to touch, were so easily and brutally laid bare before her once more.
"We can bring them back in their best condition."
At the opportune moment, Kabuto, the pharmacist standing nearby, adjusted his glasses and added in a calm, even cold, tone.
"They are not phantoms from memories, nor false dreams.We have improved the Impure World Reincarnation technique; they are living, breathing people with independent consciousness who can talk to you and embrace you."
"They can stay by your side forever."
forever.
This word shattered all of Tsunade's psychological defenses.
She remembered the radiant smile on Nawaki's face when he put the Naruto necklace around her neck.
She remembered the promise he made to her about the future, which he had made on the battlefield.
Then she remembered their cold, mutilated corpses.
I recalled the agonizing feeling of being unable to stop the flow of life no matter how hard I tried with my medical ninjutsu.despair.
Now, someone is telling her that all of this can be reversed.
Despair led to a turning back.
This was an antidote from hell that she knew was poisonous, yet she simply couldn't refuse.
Her breathing became rapid, and her body began to tremble uncontrollably.
Reason told her that this was a trap, a deal with the devil.
But the torrent of emotions had overwhelmed her fragile reason.
She wanted it.
She desperately wanted it.
[Ding!Sensing the target [Tsunade]'s extreme [struggle] x18000!]
[Ding!Sensing the target [Tsunade]'s extreme [desire] x16500!]
[Ding!Sensing the target [Tsunade]'s extreme [pain] x15000!]
On the system panel, the number of Shadow Points was skyrocketing at an unprecedented rate.
On the rooftop opposite the izakaya, two figures were hidden in the darkness.
Jiraiya's body was tense to the extreme, and his hand was already on the scroll at his waist.
"That bastard!Orochimaru!"
He gritted his teeth, clearly sensing the three familiar streams of chakra below.
He could even guess what Orochimaru would say to Tsunade.
That was Tsunade's most fatal weakness, a scar that no one, including herself, could touch.
"I have to go down and stop her!"
Jiraiya was extremely anxious; he couldn't imagine what choice Tsunade would make under such temptation.
If she agrees, Konoha will face betrayal from two of the legendary Sannin at the same time.
That was a disaster powerful enough to destroy the village.
Just as he was about to leave, a hand landed on his shoulder.
That hand wasn't big, but it contained an irresistible power.
It's Naruto Uzumaki.
"Don't move."
Naruto's voice was calm, even indifferent.
Jiraiya turned around abruptly and saw a pair of eyes that gleamed with a faint blue light under the moonlight.
There was no anxiety, no anger, only a kind of.a farmer's strange patience as he watches the crops in the field and waits for them to ripen.
"What are you doing!Naruto!That's Tsunade!She's about to."
"I know," Naruto interrupted him.
His senses were locked onto the woman below, torn between pain and desire.
He could clearly "see" that Tsunade's gray emotional field was churning violently, brewing an unprecedented storm.
Emotions are being catalyzed and refined, and are about to reach a perfect peak.
He simply watched calmly and waited.
Waiting for that fruit called "Despair" to fully ripen.
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