"Sensei, are you not going to honor the bet?"
Kiyohara spoke first.
Tsunade paused for a moment, then curled her lips in annoyance.
"Brat, do you think I'm the kind of person who can't accept losing?"
After saying that, Tsunade walked around the low table and stopped in front of Kiyohara.
The wall lamp cast her shadow over him while the warmth of her breath brushed against his face.
Tsunade bent down slightly.
She stretched out her arms and gave Kiyohara a hug.
Her body was softer than it looked.
Beneath that tight sleeveless top was the mature and full figure of a grown woman.
Kiyohara could clearly feel the soft cushioning pressed against him.
He instinctively raised his hands, wanting to return the embrace.
Just as his arms wrapped around her lower back—
Tsunade lifted her head.
She glared at him.
"Have you hugged enough yet?"
Her voice sounded fierce.
"...Sorry."
Kiyohara loosened his grip.
Tsunade immediately straightened up and took two steps back before crossing her arms.
"Hmph."
She turned her head away, refusing to look at him.
For some reason, Tsunade felt that this hug had been different from before.
Clearly, she had always had occasional physical contact with this brat in the past.
No, this won't do. We're master and disciple.
Tsunade shook her head.
At this moment, she had no idea that Kiyohara constantly wanted to become the rebellious disciple who crossed the line with his teacher.
"You were getting handsy just now, so as compensation, play five free rounds with me."
Tsunade suddenly said.
Kiyohara looked toward her.
She still had her head turned away, leaving him only with the sight of her beautiful profile.
"Of course, Sensei."
Kiyohara agreed immediately.
Even if Tsunade played ten more rounds, whether she could win even once was still highly questionable.
Seeing this, Kiyohara watched as Tsunade reshuffled the cards.
The two of them played another five consecutive rounds afterward, and naturally, Tsunade lost every single one.
Kiyohara practically did not even need to draw cards actively. Tsunade's luck was so terrible that it bordered on the absurd. Every time, she would somehow draw away the only matching card while leaving the joker in her own hand.
When the final discarded card hit the table, Tsunade stared blankly at her empty palm.
Even she herself did not understand why her gambling luck was always this catastrophically bad.
"Alright, let's stop here for today."
Tsunade waved her hand. She was afraid that if they kept playing, she would only continue losing.
Then she turned and walked up the stairs.
Kiyohara watched her retreating figure.
Those three quarter pants outlined the curves of her waist and hips as she walked.
'The feel was pretty good.'
That was what Kiyohara thought to himself.
This was probably something that even Jiraiya dreamed of yet could never obtain.
At the same time, Kiyohara could also sense that Tsunade was slowly changing little by little.
This was a very good direction.
After all, humans were not emotionless plants or stones.
Besides, Kiyohara was quite handsome himself.
And Tsunade just happened to be at the age where desire was at its strongest.
...
At the same moment, inside Orochimaru's laboratory.
Orochimaru's gaze landed on a slender figure.
It was a snake.
Or rather, a messenger from Ryuchi Cave who had taken on the form of a snake princess.
Tagorihime.
Orochimaru recognized this beautiful woman at a glance.
Yet inwardly, he did not dare underestimate her.
This woman had already lived for several hundred years. She merely looked young on the surface.
"What brings you here?"
Orochimaru asked.
Ever since failing in his training of Ryuchi Cave Sage Arts, he had rarely kept contact with the people of Ryuchi Cave anymore.
At the same time, he had accumulated a certain understanding of natural energy.
That was why he eventually came up with the method of obtaining "senjutsu" through cursed seals.
"...The White Snake Sage sent me."
Tagorihime's voice was soft and seductive to the bone, extremely pleasant to hear.
However, Orochimaru showed no extra reaction toward this centuries old woman. He only felt that she was pretending to act young.
"Because of one person."
"Who?"
Tagorihime's red lips parted slightly as she spoke two words.
"Kiyohara."
Orochimaru frowned faintly.
So the White Snake Sage had noticed him after all.
Orochimaru had always known that the beings from those sacred lands were definitely not simple.
They stood high above the world and did not interfere with the affairs of the shinobi world, yet they had always remained active behind the scenes.
Some of them had even lived since the era of the Sage of Six Paths.
Who knew how many secrets spanning thousands of years they were aware of?
"The White Snake Sage is very interested in Kiyohara."
Tagorihime continued speaking.
"Orochimaru, you have worked alongside him for quite a long time. Have you noticed anything unusual about him compared to ordinary people?"
Tagorihime asked.
She wore a white robe with three green magatama shaped ornaments decorating her chest.
"As for that, there's quite a lot."
Orochimaru replied.
To Orochimaru, Kiyohara was like a treasure overflowing with attraction.
Every once in a while, something entirely new would emerge from him.
Because of that, Orochimaru was extremely curious about what exactly was different in Kiyohara's body structure compared to ordinary humans.
It was practically as miraculous as Hashirama Cells, completely unlike any normal shinobi.
"In any case, the White Snake Sage ordered me to bring Kiyohara to Ryuchi Cave."
Tagorihime said.
"The White Snake Sage rarely takes interest in humans from the outside world."
Her voice was not loud, yet within this laboratory filled with cold instruments, it created a strangely gentle atmosphere.
"As far as I know, the only person she has ever personally expressed a desire to meet is Kiyohara."
Tagorihime said.
Although she had not lived nearly as long as the White Snake Sage, ever since becoming one of Ryuchi Cave's upper echelon members, she had never seen the White Snake Sage show much interest in outside humans.
Nor would the White Snake Sage actively go out hunting humans for food.
The only humans she consumed were those who came to Ryuchi Cave seeking power, only to fail the trials and perish there.
"I see."
Orochimaru spoke calmly.
"Tomorrow I'll have Anko invite Kiyohara-kun here. I'll ask him for you."
Orochimaru said.
If that happened, then one of their current missions would have to be delayed temporarily.
The next day.
Kiyohara arrived at Orochimaru's place after receiving the invitation.
He sensed a cold and sinister chakra presence.
There's another outsider here?
Kiyohara raised his eyebrows slightly before continuing inward.
Inside, there was an unfamiliar woman.
While Kiyohara observed Tagorihime, Tagorihime was also observing Kiyohara.
She slowly turned her head.
Their eyes met.
At that instant, Tagorihime suddenly felt an extremely strange sense of familiarity.
It was as though Kiyohara belonged to the same species as her.
Yet Kiyohara was clearly human, not a snake that had transformed into human form.
A trace of confusion flashed through Tagorihime's eyes.
"Orochimaru-sama, this person is...?"
After observing her for several moments, Kiyohara had already recognized that this woman was Tagorihime, one of the three great snake princesses of Ryuchi Cave.
Even so, he still deliberately pretended not to understand and asked the question.
"Lady Tagorihime of Ryuchi Cave."
Orochimaru replied.
"She's a snake."
He added another sentence afterward.
Kiyohara's brows lifted slightly.
His gaze swept across Tagorihime from head to toe, then from toe to head, finally stopping at her excessively exquisite face.
"...A snake?"
Kiyohara acted as though he were shocked.
"A summoned beast that can transform into human form?"
"You could say that."
Tagorihime answered him.
"As long as the snakes of Ryuchi Cave possess sufficiently advanced senjutsu, they can cultivate themselves into human form."
Tagorihime explained.
"The White Snake Sage wants to meet you."
Orochimaru said directly.
There was no point hiding this matter.
Or rather, Orochimaru had no way to forcibly drag Kiyohara to Ryuchi Cave himself.
Unless he used genjutsu.
But Kiyohara was an Uchiha. His genjutsu abilities could not possibly be weaker than Orochimaru's.
To avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, Orochimaru decided to simply explain everything openly.
"Are you going, Kiyohara-kun? You might even obtain Ryuchi Cave Sage Arts."
Orochimaru knew that Kiyohara understood senjutsu very well, so he deliberately tempted him with those words.
Kiyohara fell silent in thought for a moment.
His gaze moved past Tagorihime and landed on the newly replaced cultivation tanks in the laboratory.
Inside them, the cell samples of the first generation cursed seal were slowly dividing and multiplying within the nutrient fluid.
"This is a rare opportunity."
Orochimaru continued.
"Mm. I'll go."
Kiyohara answered only after seemingly thinking for quite a while.
Of course he intended to go to Ryuchi Cave.
Since Orochimaru had voluntarily brought up the matter himself, it even saved Kiyohara the trouble of investigating Ryuchi Cave's location on his own.
After all, that place was extremely far away from Konoha.
As for the second last will, it was to eliminate Garaga within Ryuchi Cave.
Kiyohara felt that this last will would not be too difficult to accomplish.
Getting rid of Garaga did not mean becoming enemies with Ryuchi Cave, because many of the giant snakes there also disliked Garaga.
"Then how about we set the time for half a month from now?"
Orochimaru proposed.
Originally, he had already postponed all of the morning's work until the afternoon.
During this period, he planned to first earn enough money and gather sufficient funds.
"No problem."
Kiyohara naturally had no objections.
Tagorihime also nodded. As long as she could report back to the White Snake Sage, that would be enough.
At noon, inside Tsunade's house.
When Kiyohara pushed open the entrance door, Tsunade was reclining against the sofa in the living room.
Her long golden hair spread loosely across the cushion behind her, several strands hanging beside her neck and gently rising and falling with her breathing.
The medical report in her hand had tilted off to one side. It was obvious that she had fallen asleep while reading it.
Kiyohara bent down, picked up the thin blanket that had slipped onto the floor, and draped it over her.
"...Mm?"
Tsunade's eyelashes trembled slightly.
She slowly opened her eyes in a daze.
"Kiyohara?"
"Yeah."
Kiyohara sat down beside the tea table.
"Were you resting just now?"
"I was reading reports... somehow I just fell asleep."
Tsunade rubbed her eyes and sat upright.
The thin blanket slipped from her shoulders. She casually tried to pull it back into place, failed to catch it properly, and simply stopped bothering with it.
"Why did you come back so late today?"
"There was something going on at Orochimaru-sama's place."
Kiyohara paused briefly.
"Also, a messenger from Ryuchi Cave came."
Tsunade's hand froze halfway through rubbing her eyes.
"...Ryuchi Cave?"
Her voice became noticeably more alert.
"The White Snake Sage wants to see me."
Kiyohara said.
"She wants me to make a trip to Ryuchi Cave sometime soon."
"...And you agreed?"
"Yeah."
Tsunade frowned slightly upon hearing that.
She did not know whether the snakes of Ryuchi Cave were easy to get along with.
At the very least, Manda, the giant snake contracted by Orochimaru, was notoriously difficult to deal with and even demanded living human sacrifices.
"What are you going there for?"
"To see whether I can learn their Sage Arts."
Kiyohara answered.
Aside from the final wish, this was also one of the reasons he wanted to go.
Although the Sage Arts of Mount Myoboku were excellent, in terms of sensory perception, they were actually inferior to the Sage Arts of Ryuchi Cave.
It could only be said that each side specialized in different aspects.
"In that case, I'm going too."
Tsunade said.
"Alright."
Seeing that Tsunade wanted to go, Kiyohara did not stop her.
After all, if anything unexpected really happened, he could use the Flying Thunder God Technique at any moment to escape together with Tsunade.
"When are we leaving? I need to arrange things at the medical department in advance."
"Half a month from now."
"Got it."
She picked up her teacup and took a sip.
...
At the same moment.
Inside the Kumogakure military encampment.
The Fourth Raikage, A, sat at the head of the conference table.
His body was massive like solid rock, the muscles of his bare right arm bulging powerfully.
Behind him, seated along both sides of the table, were all of Kumo's upper decision makers.
Dodai.
The veteran shinobi who had served since the era of the Third Raikage currently wore a deeply troubled expression as well.
Standing before them was the young secretary Mabui.
The scroll spread out in front of her was filled from top to bottom with densely packed records of the latest battle reports and supply losses.
"The northwestern defense line has suffered frequent infiltration attacks from Namikaze Minato's forces of Konoha. Three of our squad captains were ambushed..."
"The southwestern supply route has experienced continuous harassment since two weeks ago. Nearly half of the chuunin escort teams responsible for transportation have been lost..."
"As for the coastal positions, although Jiraiya's main force has not made any large scale movements, their scouting range has already advanced thirty kilometers toward our main camp..."
Mabui calmly supplemented the data at the appropriate moments.
"Overall, Konoha is gradually compressing our operational space through attrition tactics."
Mabui concluded.
Even after the war had dragged on for this long, Kumogakure still had not seized much territory from the Land of Fire.
"So your conclusion is that our situation is gradually worsening?"
The Fourth Raikage asked.
"No, Raikage-sama."
Dodai shook his head.
"Our total military strength still surpasses Konoha's."
"If we only count frontline combat personnel, we still have far more shinobi than Konoha."
He paused briefly.
"But the problem is not manpower."
"Then what is it?"
The Fourth Raikage asked.
"It's the difference in high level combat power and the number of geniuses appearing on their side."
Dodai answered.
"Konoha has the Sannin."
"And beyond that... Konoha also possesses many rising geniuses."
Then Dodai mentioned Kiyohara's name.
To everyone present, Kiyohara's name was far from unfamiliar.
Especially Yugito Nii, who was also attending the meeting, whose expression immediately became somewhat complicated.
Furthermore, according to certain intelligence reports, Kiyohara appeared to have learned one of Kumo's secret techniques as well, namely Black Lightning Release.
"Then find an opportunity and organize a large scale operation."
The Fourth Raikage said.
If this became a prolonged war, they held no real advantage.
Because every time those high level combatants entered the battlefield, they could slaughter huge numbers of weaker shinobi.
Moreover, this was not the Land of Lightning.
Their supply lines had to stretch farther and farther, while Konoha had already stabilized the war against Suna, and even its conflicts with Kiri and Iwa had greatly diminished.
The best method now was to launch a lightning fast offensive before Konoha had fully regained its strength.
Otherwise, pressure from the other hidden villages against Kumo would only continue increasing.
...
Very quickly, ten days passed.
During those ten days, Kiyohara and Tsunade also went out together to carry out a mission.
Because Kumogakure's movements had become somewhat strange, and thanks to Kiyohara's ability to fly, Konoha assigned him to investigate.
The mission itself was relatively simple. He only needed to scout one of the enemy camps.
After gathering sufficient intelligence, Kiyohara handed over the mission report.
"We're back on the battlefield again."
Rin sighed softly.
She had once again arrived at the battlefield.
Only this time, it was not the Land of Rivers front, but the battlefield against Kumo.
"This war won't last much longer."
Kiyohara shook his head.
There were no missions scheduled for the afternoon, so they had gathered together to train.
Inside the nearby encampments, Kiyohara could see many members of the Uchiha clan.
He even saw Shisui.
However, Shisui appeared extremely busy. After exchanging only a few hurried words, he immediately left to carry out another mission.
"I hope so."
Rin replied.
Then she curiously looked toward another direction.
There, Kakashi and Might Guy stood facing one another from twenty meters apart.
"Kakashi!"
Guy's voice was as energetic as ever. The thumbs up he raised reflected the sunset's light while his dazzling white teeth nearly shone painfully bright.
"Today, let us ignite our youth through battle!"
"...Are you serious?"
Kakashi summoned Yamamaru, transforming it into a short silver gray blade.
"Of course."
Guy lowered his stance.
Both of his feet pressed firmly into the ground, his toes gripping the earth as he directly opened the Fifth Gate.
"Youth should never hold back, Kakashi!"
The instant his words fell, the ground exploded beneath him.
Guy's figure left behind an afterimage as he instantly closed the distance before Kakashi, his right leg sweeping sideways with terrifying force.
Leaf Strong Whirlwind!
Kakashi used the Body Flicker to evade the attack.
But a trace of seriousness had already appeared in his eyes.
So fast.
It was not that the Sharingan could not capture the speed.
It was that his own body's reaction speed was beginning to fail to keep up.
Guy gave him no chance to breathe.
As soon as the first strike missed, his left leg stepped forward fluidly while his right knee rose upward. His entire body resembled a giant bow pulled to its absolute limit.
"Leaf Violent Rock Rising."
The knee strike, wrapped in azure chakra, surged upward from below with enough force to shatter massive boulders in a single blow as it targeted Kakashi's face.
Kakashi twisted sideways to avoid it.
Then he swung Yamamaru toward Guy.
"Extreme Leaf Diamond Strong Whirlwind."
Guy poured chakra into his legs and kicked directly toward Kakashi's short blade.
His legs were bound with heavy weights, so naturally he was not afraid of being cut by the blade.
Seeing this, Kakashi finally activated his Sharingan as well.
He slowly raised his hand and pushed up his shinobi forehead protector.
Scarlet light shone within his eye socket as the three tomoe rotated slowly, like the eyes of a beast awakening from slumber.
"I just don't want to waste too much time."
Guy grinned.
It was a truly happy smile.
"That's more like it, Kakashi!"
He bent low, both hands pressing against the ground while his spine arched like a leopard preparing to pounce upon prey.
Sweat flowed along the grooves of the muscles on his back, reflecting light beneath the setting sun.
Sixth Gate, Gate of View... Open!
BOOM.
Green steam erupted from Guy's entire body.
The two clashed together once more.
"They're fighting so intensely."
Rin said in amazement.
"Yeah."
Kiyohara nodded.
Both Guy and Kakashi had improved far more than they had in the original storyline. He did not know whether that was due to the influence he himself had brought.
And after joining the Anbu, Guy had also become somewhat more composed compared to before.
"Rin, how is your training with the Water Release medical ninjutsu I taught you going?"
Kiyohara asked.
During these ten days, he had also taught Rin Water Release medical ninjutsu.
"It's progressing very smoothly."
Rin answered.
Then she raised her hand, and a cluster of water appeared in her palm.
Kiyohara glanced at it and discovered that it was filled with abundant Yang Release chakra.
If someone placed their hand into it, it would likely accelerate wound healing.
While the two of them were conversing, Kakashi also glanced in Kiyohara's direction.
They really suit each other.
That was what Kakashi thought to himself.
If there truly was such a thing as a perfectly matched talented man and beautiful woman, then Kiyohara and Rin were undoubtedly the ideal example.
Kakashi became distracted for a brief instant, and Guy seized the opportunity immediately, launching an attack directly toward Kakashi's weak point.
His fist stopped right before striking Kakashi's face.
"Looks like I win this time. I should calculate how many victories and losses I have now."
Guy laughed proudly.
"You can take your time calculating."
Kakashi lowered his forehead protector back down, instantly returning to his usual lazy demeanor.
"Kiyohara, do you want to spar a little?"
Seeing that Kakashi no longer wanted to continue fighting, Guy immediately ran over to ask Kiyohara instead.
(End of Chapter)