"Because it's my first time taking out a loan," Kiyohara said.
He looked at Tsunade. She wore a sleeveless top with a green jacket over it, hiding a striking figure. Below, light-blue capris wrapped her long legs in smooth curves.
"First time?" Tsunade frowned slightly.
Uh-oh.
She'd…borrowed quite a few times herself.
From that subtle look, Kiyohara could tell her "personal credit" was probably shot.
"Ahem. I'm Tsunade. Lend me some money now, and once I win it back I'll definitely repay you," she said, eyeing him.
"Tsunade-sama…you're going gambling?" Kiyohara asked.
Tsunade's fondness for gambling wasn't exactly a secret; people even called her a "walking fat sheep." C'mon, Tsunade—everyone out there's winning except you.
Kiyohara figured even if he lent her money, the odds of her actually winning were slim. Still, on a whim, he pulled out 50,000 ryō and handed it over.
"Tsunade-sama, I'm really interested in medical-ninja techniques. Could you teach me a bit?" he asked.
In this era of Konoha, medical-ninja training wasn't as systematized as it would be later. On Naruto's first mission, he literally had to cut his hand with a kunai to force out poison—because Sakura didn't yet know basics like Antidote Technique or Hemostasis Technique. It wasn't until the Boruto era that every genin received baseline medical training to screen for talent.
"Hm…" Tsunade knit her brows.
"Tsunade-sama, everyone's urging us to hurry," Shizune came running up from a distance, arms around Tonton. She wanted to stop Tsunade from gambling, but Tsunade had assigned her to monitor the tables; Shizune didn't dare disobey.
"Kid, you're in luck," Tsunade said with a nod.
"I'll give you two techniques—you give me 100,000 ryō." She held out her hand.
They were basic medical jutsu, but not something you could easily buy. She only "sold cheap" because she needed cash right now—and because Kiyohara was a village shinobi.
"No problem, Tsunade-sama."
Kiyohara smiled, a little surprised she'd accepted the deal. He promptly counted out 100,000 ryō and handed over a blank scroll and pen. He'd been using them to record Rogue Kiyohara's ninjutsu; now he might as well have Tsunade write out the medical ones.
A single C-rank mission usually paid between 30,000 and 100,000 ryō—but according to the official guidebook Sha no Sho, if multiple people completed the same mission, the reward was split evenly. In other words, to make 100,000 ryō you'd need several C-ranks.
"You carry this stuff around, huh…" Tsunade assumed he was a ninjutsu nerd and thought nothing of it. She grabbed the pen and quickly scrawled training methods onto the blank pages.
The two medical jutsu she gave him were Hemostasis Technique and Antidote Technique.
"Cash for goods," Tsunade said, returning the scroll and pen. With a thick wad of bills in hand, she rushed toward the casino. "Shizune, let's go." She could hardly wait to make her comeback.
Shizune had watched the entire transaction. Every medical ninja knew these two basics, but she still sighed. Tsunade-sama truly lived for gambling.
"Tsunade-sama, nine bets out of ten you lose," Shizune warned again. Lending her money, Shizune felt, was practically harming her.
"You don't get it," Tsunade replied sagely. "Losing just means you're temporarily depositing the money. Quit, and it's really gone."
With that bit of wisdom, she stopped talking and strode into the casino to "slaughter the field" and take back what was hers.
…
Kiyohara watched Tsunade and Shizune leave and couldn't help shaking his head. If the Three Sannin each represented a deadly sin, Orochimaru was poison, Jiraiya was lust, and Tsunade was gambling. She even had the kanji for "bet" embroidered on the back of her coat.
"Nice luck—you picked up two more techniques," Rogue Kiyohara said.
Every ninja can only master so many jutsu. One condition for becoming a jōnin is mastering two chakra nature changes. Most shinobi only ever use a handful of techniques. He'd been constantly on the road as Orochimaru's hatchet man and learned mostly combat arts, not medical ones.
"I wonder if I can learn them in just a few days," Kiyohara said, eyeing the hurried handwriting. Messy, but legible with care.
"That's enough. I can guide your chakra," Rogue Kiyohara said. He could help Kiyohara train these two fundamentals; they didn't require yang nature, so a Wind/Lightning user like Kiyohara could learn them.
"Good," Kiyohara nodded, walking down the street.
He and Rogue Kiyohara could talk entirely in his head—like Naruto chatting with the Nine-Tails—so no one outside could hear them.
"Hope what's left is enough for a good set of armor," he thought.
Chakra is limited and must be budgeted. That's why shuriken and kunai are essentials in the shinobi world. A Fire Style: Great Fireball won't necessarily kill someone—but one well-placed kunai usually will.
So Kiyohara wasn't shopping for more shuriken or kunai.
He was buying armor.
Only chūnin are allowed to wear the green flak vest, but he could still buy a decent chain shirt to wear under his clothes. In a pinch, it might shave off a fatal hit.
After picking up everything else—standard ninja tools and even a spare bag of lime powder—he was nearly broke.
"How do we make the medicine?" he asked, hauling his bags back home.
The forbidden-drug prep was something only Rogue Kiyohara could handle; Kiyohara didn't know the first thing about it. He wasn't worried about being harmed by his future self either. If he followed the original track to reinforce Minato's squad, survival was unlikely. Rin captured, Kakashi losing an eye, Obito crushed under half a mountain… Even if Kiyohara survived, he'd probably be missing parts. Better to trust the future him.
"I'll possess you for this part. The timing is tricky," Rogue Kiyohara said. "But every time I possess you, it speeds up my dissolution, so I can't do too much."
With that, his spirit dove into Kiyohara's body.
Kiyohara felt something strange. His limbs began to move on their own—yet he could tell that if he really wanted to, he could seize control back at any time.