Chapter – 26 Senju Tsunade’s Message to Uchiha Tatsumi

While Tatsumi and Minato were discussing their Ninja way, the third fight between the fifth grade and the sixth grade had already started.

That’s correct, it’s already the third fight. For the second fight, Hyuga Hizashi decided to abstain, as such it was time for the third fight.

There were still two perfectly good candidates from the fifth year left, while there was only one candidate left in the sixth year. Everyone thought that the winner would be the team of fifth-year trainees, but unexpectedly, the winner turned out to be the team of sixth-year trainees as the last member of that team defeated both the fifth-year trainees one after another.

Who could be so strong? Well, it’s none other than a Senju Clansman from the graduating year, the person’s name is Senju Kagura. The only problem is that Senju Kagura was also seriously injured.

The situation is a bit complicated now. The first fight ended in a draw, while Senju Kagura won the other two fights. Since Hizashi had abstained, naturally, he couldn’t return, and Hiashi was seriously injured so he couldn’t participate in the next fight either.

“How are they going to decide the three trainees who are going to fight us?” Minato couldn’t help but wonder.

At this time, the resident information broker appeared beside Tatsumi and Co., and explained, “It’s going to be Aburame Shibi from the third year, Hyuga Tsukiko from the fifth year, and Kagura-Onii-chan from the sixth year.”

Tatsumi held his chin thoughtfully, “So they have decided to merge the three of them into the same team for the last round?”

Nawaki nodded, “Indeed,” he paused, and said, “In fact, Hyuga Hizashi was presented with the opportunity to get selected, but he refused… he did not want to fight Hyuga Tsukiko, therefore, he chose to withdraw.”

Mikoto spoke, “So, if the three of us want to get selected to be mentored by Hokage-sama, then we ought to remain undefeated in the next fight.”

Tatsumi thought of something, and asked Nawaki, “Hyuga Tsukiko must still be injured, right? Or is it that Tsunade-sama has already completely healed her?”

Nawaki nodded as he puffed out his chest proudly, “Of course, this doesn’t need to be questioned, at all. After all, Nee-sama is the greatest Iryō-nin!”

Minato asked doubtfully, “If that’s the case, then what about Hyuga Hiashi’s injuries? Why were his injuries not healed completely?”

Nawaki suddenly couldn’t explain the situation, and he sighed, “Fine… fine… In fact, Hyuga Tsukiko’s injuries weren’t serious at all, it was just that her Tenketsu was sealed, and her reserves were exhausted, after some rest, her Tenketsu naturally opened themselves, while the skin injuries were immediately healed by Nee-sama. I don’t know about her reserves…”

‘Which means Hyuga Hiashi actually went easy on Hyuga Tsukiko… he probably didn’t want to injure his Imōto-chan, unfortunately, the feeling was not so mutual,’ thought Tatsumi snickering.

At this time, Nawaki looked at Tatsumi with a smirk and said, “By the way, Nee-sama also specifically instructed me to tell you something. In her words, ‘If you don’t make it into the top three and don’t choose her as your mentor, she will personally go to your house and break your three legs, making you disabled for the rest of your life.”

Tatsumi’s body shivered, as he asked with a fearful expression, “Th… three legs?”

Nawaki nodded with a grin, “Indeed… poor little Tatsumi… Nee-sama can be very serious about a few things…”

“What? Just because she is a Jōnin she thinks she can threaten me and do whatever she wants?” snorted Tatsumi as he folded his hands over his chest and looked away. He didn’t want to choose her at all, she is nothing more than a female gorilla. Granted she is beautiful, intelligent, and highly skilled, but she is a female gorilla, nonetheless. Who knows what she would do to him and his little brother? If something were to happen to his little brother, who would accompany Mikoto when she grows up? Who would bring the great Shisui to this world? Tatsumi is a responsible man. He would never leave such an important responsibility to someone else.

Nawaki continued to add salt to the wound, “Hahaha… even if you don’t want to choose her, you’ll have to choose her,” he paused before adding, “In fact, let me tell you something… after she ordered me to inform you, she was still murmuring about her plans for you…”

“Huh? Plans? What plans?” Tatsumi’s face darkened. He didn’t think that whatever Tsunade was planning would be anything good.

Nawaki smirked darkly and spoke, “Etto… she said that sooner or later she will take you… and… and… hm? What was it that she said?” He seemed to have forgotten the exact words Tsunade had used at that time.

“How do I know?!” answered Tatsumi and said to him, “Just… just forget it, don’t try to remember it.” For some reason, he was starting to feel cold all over his body. Whatever it was that Nawaki had forgotten, he felt that it would be better if it remained forgotten.

But his hopes were crushed as Nawaki after thinking hard for a while suddenly recalled the word Tsunade had spoken, “Groom you… that’s right… she said that it is necessary to personally groom you well…!”

“Gro… groom me?” Tatsumi was takenaback. He quickly held Nawaki’s collar and said to him, “You’re kidding, right? She must have been talking about educating me or mentoring me. How could she say something like grooming me?”

Nawaki shook his head with a dark smile, “Nuh-uh, Nee-sama definitely said that you’re a very naughty kid and ill-mannered. Once she takes you under her, she’ll properly groom you…”

‘What the hell? Speaking something like that towards a child… Is she some kind of a pedophile?’ screamed Tatsumi in his heart as he released Nawaki. ‘I knew, neither of the three Sannin are good people. One is a peeper and harasser, while the second is a drug dealer, kidnapper, and dark scientist, and finally, the third is a reckless gambler and a pedophile! Associating with them will bring nothing but trouble, and the innocent me might inherit their bad habits.’

A moment after Tatsumi released Nawaki’s collar, Nawaki held his collar and asked him with bitter tears in his eyes, “You bastard Tatsumi, why does my Nee sama want to groom you? What’s so special about you?”

“Humph… compared to your ugly mug, I am obviousl–wait… Nawaki, why do you know what she meant when she said she wanted to groom me?” Tatsumi was about to narcissistically boast about why he was the much better candidate, but suddenly realized that Nawaki, who is only a six-year-old boy knows what Tsunade meant by wanting to groom him.

In fact, she might not even have meant what he and Nawaki were thinking but for Nawaki to still reach that conclusion, he ought to understand what it meant in that context, which is quite strange for a child. Tatsumi’s eyes gleamed as he looked at Nawaki. He felt that he had suddenly discovered something interesting.

“Um… I… I saw it in Jiraiya-nii’s manga!” answered Nawaki twisting around uncomfortably. He also hurriedly shifted the blame to Jiraiya. Anyway, he is already admitted into the hospital, even if someone were to go and further beat him up, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Tatsumi stared at him, “What manga?”

“You wouldn’t know, it’s about life, ethics, and morals,” answered Tatsumi.

“Is that so? Then you must tell me since I am also very interested in learning about life, ethics, and morals,” asked Tatsumi with a bright smile.

Nawaki looked around, “I don’t mind telling you… a fellow man of culture, but you must promise that you wouldn’t speak about it to anyone otherwise, Nee-sama will learn of it. Jiraiya-nii told me not to speak about it to anyone, especially not Nee-sama, it will be very troublesome if she finds out.”

“Of course, it’s a promise between fellow cultured people,” nodded Tatsumi. He also wouldn’t want Mikoto to know that he is interested in reading manga about life, ethics, and morals. She’d become very scary if she finds out about that stuff.

“Alright then… come closer,” Nawaki then whispered the name of the Manga in his ear.

Listening to the name, Tatsumi nodded with bright eyes, “Yes, got it…” Internally, he was thinking, ‘Jiraiya-sama is truly the Sennin Jiraiya-sama. Even at this age, he is pursuing that art… hmm, in front of the toad Sennin, even the professor who uses his crystal ball to peep on bathing women might not hold a candle.’

“Aaaaa… chuuuu!” Suddenly, Jiraiya, who was lying on the hospital bed in the emergency medical ward of Konohagakure Hospital, sneezed. Wiping his nose, he wondered to himself, ‘Who is talking about me?’ He pondered for a moment before shaking his head and thought to himself with a charming smile, ‘Must be beautiful women. They are probably unable to forget my charm!’

With that, he put away his thoughts and moved his gaze toward the nurse who was changing his dressing. Looking at the nurse’s assets, Jiraiya blew out white smoke from his nose and recalled certain panels from his favorite manga that talk about life, ethics, and morals. ‘Yes, I must follow that teaching.’ He nodded to himself before turning to the nurse and with a serious expression, he spoke to her, “Etto, nurse-san… There is some uncomfortable feeling, and pain here… Please relieve the pain here…”

“……” the nurse looked at Jiraiya fully understanding his intention. Looking at Jiraiya’s face, the nurse felt that although he was beaten up bruised, and really shameless, he wasn’t bad looking. With that in mind, she smiled to herself licking her lips, and decided to help him relieve the pain.

“Oh… ohhhh…” Jiraiya was takenaback by the nurse’s willingness to help out and felt that being beaten up and injured by Tsunade wasn’t all that bad.

And while Jiraiya felt that his soul was being sublimated and he was reaching ascension, truly becoming a Sage, Nawaki and Tatsumi continued their conversation, “On that note, Nawaki, why does Tsunade-sama want me to choose her as my mentor?” He was feeling a little flustered wondering if Tsunade had already figured out everything.

Nawaki looked around to make sure that Tsunade wasn’t around. Once confirmed, he whispered to Tatsumi in a low voice, “I risked my life to inquire this piece of information. It will cost you…”

‘He is indeed the resident information broker!’ thought Tatsumi as he nodded saying, “I’ll treat you to some Ramen.”

Nawaki smiled contended, and spoke, “According to the eyewitnesses. Before Jiraiya-nii was beaten to death by Nee-sama, he surrendered an important piece of information to Nee-sama in exchange for a chance of survival.”

“What did he reveal?” asked Tatsumi nervously.

“Jiraiya-nii claimed that the person who insighted him to take those steps was you. You brainwashed him into thinking that by taking those steps Nee-sama would become shy and fall in love with him.”

“Brain… brainwashed?” Tatsumi was takenaback by Jiraiya’s shamelessness.

Nawaki added, “In fact, Jiraiya-nii even said that the possibility of him being under a Genjutsu cast by you cannot be ruled out. All in all, Jiraiya-nii said that you forced him into doing what he did!”

“That shameless pervert!” Tatsumi gritted his teeth. He suddenly wanted to beat up Jiraiya and permanently disable his third leg for his shamelessness. Not to mention Jiraiya didn’t follow the basic creed of cultured men that forbids people from ratting out one another, he even went on to play the victim card and dumped all the blame on Tatsumi. Such an act definitely deserves divine punishment, ‘Humph, so this is how you want to play Jiraiya-sama… fine then… you ratted me out, I’ll make sure that you regret this action forever.’

While Tatsumi was having such thoughts, Nawaki continued, “In any case, Nee sama has said that if you don’t choose her or if you don’t make it into the top three, you will suffer a fate worse than death.”

Although feeling petty towards Jiraiya, Tatsumi was still very afraid of suffering the fate worse than death mentioned by Tsunade and swallowed in fear and collapsed on the ground in hopelessness, “It’s over… my… my future… my children… it’s over.”

Mikoto who was watching Tatsumi and Nawaki converse with each other in secret codes and whispering voice was surprised to see Tatsumi suddenly fall to the ground in fear. She hurriedly stepped forward to support him asking, “Tatsumi-kun, what happened? What did Nawaki-kun say?”

Tatsumi didn’t mention repeating Nawaki’s words. He just cried bitter tears and apologized to her, “I apologize Mikoto-chan, I’ll definitely try my best to survive. For the sake of our future, I’ll tooth and nail against the gorilla!”

Completely clueless Mikoto tilted her head in confusion. But seeing his sincerity, she nodded cheering him, “Don’t worry Tatsumi-kun, everything will be alright, I’ll always support you, no matter the enemy.”

“Ah… Mikoto-chan, you truly are an angel, I don’t know what I would do without you…”

Mikoto blushed hearing Tatsumi call her angel.

Watching the two, Nawaki sighed and shook his head, “Yare yare, they are at it again.”

…

While Tatsumi and Mikoto were flirting, Orochimaru returned to the center of the arena.

As for the princess of the Senju Clan? She had already returned to her recliner seat at the backstage to laze around. Oh, and by the way, she was also busy formulating Uchiha Tatsumi’s grooming plan as well as mentally calculating the funds she had left in her hand and when exactly she could return to the casino to try a few rounds.

Orochimaru continued with the announcement, “The six candidates promoted to the final round are Uchiha Tatsumi, Uchiha Mikoto, and Namikaze Minato from the second grade. Then Aburame Shibi from the third year, Hyuga Tsukiko from the fifth year, and Senju Kagura from the sixth year. The next step is to determine the specific battles to select the top three.”

While Orochimaru announced the names of the six candidates one of the academy instructors placed a small wooden box with a hole in it in front of the six candidates. Orochimaru explained, “The sorting method is the same. Draw lots… those with the same number will fight each other.”