Chapter 74 One More Time, Flipping Time
The izakaya was filled with lively conversation, except for one seat where silence prevailed.
Naruto Uzumaki, who is usually in charge of enlivening the atmosphere, stuffed a skewer in each hand into his mouth, while Jiraiya and Haruko Hayama, sitting on either side of him, looked at the two across from them in silence.
Jiraiya rubbed the sake glass in his hand, took a sip, and then looked intently at the slender woman opposite him, breaking the silence first.
"Tsunade, I'll be frank. The village demands that you succeed as the Fifth Hokage."
Naruto Uzumaki, who was engrossed in eating, paused, not yet understanding what Jiraiya meant, when he heard the drunken Tsunade directly refuse, "Impossible."
As soon as she finished speaking, the scene fell silent again, leaving only the indignant Naruto Uzumaki.
Ignoring the incessant chatter of the blond brat, Tsunade casually swirled her wine glass.
"The Fourth Hokage, who looks a lot like this brat, was so outstanding, yet he still died. He risked his life for the village and died."
"My grandfather and the Second Hokage hoped to quell the war, but they died for the village before they could realize their dream... The same goes for Sarutobi-sensei. He was old but still self-righteous, so of course he died."
"The Hokage is trash; only an idiot would want to be one."
Naruto Uzumaki, who was originally just annoyed that she had refused the Hokage position, stood on the table, unable to bear her belittling the Hokage in this way, but was grabbed by the back of his collar by Jiraiya.
"Damn it! Let me go, I'm going to teach her a lesson!"
Tsunade, feeling provoked, replied with interest, "Oh? Want to fight, brat?"
Sparks flew between the eyes of the two, one big and one small, but their growing anger was suddenly blocked by the skewers of grilled meat that entered their line of sight. The two looked in the direction the hand holding the skewers was pointing.
Haruko put away the grilled skewers in the morning. "It's already late, let's hurry back after we finish eating!"
Subconsciously heeding her advice, Naruto suppressed his anger and sat back down in his seat, but the way he took a big bite of the skewer made it seem like he was treating the skewer as someone else.
Seeing that she could silence the blond brat with just one sentence, Tsunade raised an eyebrow, crossed her arms, and sat back down.
The tense atmosphere turned peaceful. Shizune, who had been observing everything, struggled to close her agape lips, unable to believe that the hot-tempered Tsunade-sama hadn't lost her temper.
However, the facts show that Tsunade's anger was not unleashed, but rather transferred to Jiraiya.
As Haruko helped Tsunade, who had narrowly won her drinking contest against Jiraiya, back to the inn, she sighed countless times.
Helpless, Haruko and Shizune carried her to the bed. In the morning, Haruko habitually wiped her face, tidied her clothes, and then neatly placed the high heels she had thrown off by the bedside.
After a series of actions, seeing Shizune's dumbfounded expression, Haruko Hayama couldn't help but reflect on her own body, which had become accustomed to being enslaved for so long.
hateful!
After gently closing the door, Shizune said apologetically in a low voice, "Lady Tsunade was in a bad mood today, I didn't mean to say those things."
“I know, but I think… Naruto will be sad.” The thoughtful Haruko Hayama could understand, but she couldn’t understand for Naruto Uzumaki.
Recalling Naruto's lively, childlike personality, Shizune's eyes gradually dimmed. "Lady Tsunade wasn't like this before. Her younger brother is very much like Naruto..."
During the Second Shinobi World War, Tsunade's younger brother, Nawaki, accidentally fell into an explosive crater and was killed. By the time Tsunade arrived, it was too late.
Her lover, Dan Kato, had his internal organs removed during a mission, and despite Tsunade's best efforts to save him, it was to no avail. This left her with a great psychological scar, which later led to her developing hemophobia.
“So that’s how it is…” Haruko Hayama murmured.
The pale moonlight streamed into the room, but it couldn't reach the woman who was confined to her room by reality.
She endured the pain of losing her loved ones alone for countless years.
...
"Lady Tsunade! Lady Tsunade!"
A silent, anxious call came from outside the door. Haruko struggled to open her eyes, rubbed her foggy head, and stepped out of the room.
"What's wrong with Sister Shizune?"
"Lady Tsunade... she's gone!" Shizune couldn't suppress her anxiety, constantly pressing her fingers. "She must have drugged us; I only woke up at this hour."
No wonder Haruko felt a bit sluggish. The fact that Tsunade would drug them and make sure they didn't follow her must be a deal with Orochimaru.
The two locked eyes and exclaimed simultaneously, "Oh no!"
They quickly called Naruto Uzumaki and Jiraiya to head to Tanabata Castle.
"I will heal your hand, on the condition that you do not harm the village." Tsunade had her back to Orochimaru, making it impossible for him to decipher her expression.
Almost without hesitation, Orochimaru immediately agreed. As for what he would do after his hand was healed, Tsunade probably couldn't control that.
"Tsunade-senpai!"
When the four of them arrived, they found the scene in chaos, with visible dust floating on the vast ruins, clearly indicating that a fierce battle had taken place there not long ago.
Unable to find Tsunade and Orochimaru, they followed the traces of the battle to a wide, rocky meadow where three figures stood.
Meanwhile, Kabuto rushed toward Tsunade with a malicious smile, mercilessly slashing his own arm with a kunai, causing blood to gush out.
"You're afraid of blood, aren't you? Well, then I'll let you see enough blood!"
With her gaze fixed on the crimson figure, Tsunade's breathing became rapid, and she collapsed to the ground. Jiraiya, sensing something was wrong, appeared in front of her with his Body Flicker ability to block Kabuto Yakushi's attack.
"It really is the long-awaited trio..." A dark glint flashed in Orochimaru's eyes.
While Jiraiya and Orochimaru were locked in combat, Haruko and her two companions focused on fighting Kabuto Yakushi.
Kabuto Yakushi's techniques are extremely bizarre; his chakra scalpel can penetrate deep into a person's body and sever organs and tissues.
Naruto Uzumaki, who charged forward recklessly, had his heart muscle severed and was unable to move, which made Haruko Hayama and Shizune's hearts sink.
Facing the combined attack of the two, Kabuto Yakushi also had great difficulty moving around. He dodged Shizune's poisonous fog but could not dodge Haruko Hayama's illusion.
In the life-or-death moment when the thin stream of water was about to cut him, Kabuto Yakushi managed to force himself to regain consciousness by biting his tongue, narrowly dodging Haruko Hayama's attack, and at the same time rushing towards the seriously injured Shizune to sever her Achilles tendon.
The only one left with the strength to fight him was Haruko Hayama, but both of them were running out of energy and were locked in a stalemate.
On the other side, Jiraiya, who was fighting Orochimaru, was also at a disadvantage. Orochimaru's moves were too cunning. Not only did he dodge most of his attacks, but he also used his long tongue to slam Jiraiya into a crevice in the rocks, making it impossible for him to break free.
It seemed that the situation was completely tilting in Orochimaru's favor. Haruko gripped the kunai in her hand tightly, constantly thinking of a way to deal with it.
Seeing Jiraiya's pitiful struggle, Orochimaru let out a sinister laugh.
"After all these years, you're still just as useless."
Jiraiya's thick eyebrows slammed down, and he shouted angrily, "I shouldn't have let you go in the first place!"
Hearing his presumptuous assumption, Orochimaru snorted contemptuously, "Even if we do it again, you will still be a defeated opponent, never having won."
One more time?
Haruko had a sudden inspiration. Based on their conversation, if Orochimaru had stayed in Konoha and hadn't defected, perhaps he wouldn't have done so many heinous things.
Theoretically, the combination of the Reverse-Style Habana Eye and complex space-time ninjutsu could achieve the effect of traveling through time, returning to the past, and thus changing history.
But she never succeeded, and she could not predict the consequences of time travel.
We're just trying anything, no matter how desperate we are!
Haruko closed her eyes in the morning, quietly feeling the rhythm of chakra. The sense of crisis and urgency in reality constantly stimulated her nerves, forcing her to explore her hidden abilities.
Suddenly, the synergy between the meridians spread through the nerves like an electric shock.
The next second, she suddenly opened her eyes, and the scattered light gathered into a galaxy on the bright black eyelids, swirling around her pupils and weaving an intricate holy white magic circle.
Haruko quickly formed hand seals, and a huge white barrier continuously extended from her center.
"Reverse-Sand Eyes - Flipping Time and Space!"
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