Chapter 55: Prophecies, Power, and a Deadly Encounter

Jiraiya, after exchanging a few insults with Orochimaru after the latter mocked the Great Toad Sage, then turned to Tsunade. "Hey, Tsunade! Tell us what you think! It's the Great Toad Sage's prophecy, for heaven's sake!"

Tsunade waved her hand. "I have the same opinion as Orochimaru. If the prophecy is useful, then you don't have to look for the child of prophecy. Anyway, won't everything it says happen?"

"Although I am an unfortunate person, I don't want to believe that fate cannot be changed. If that's the case, what's the meaning of life?"

Orochimaru looked at Tsunade in surprise. "Such philosophical words don't sound like what you said..."

"Stinky snake, what do you know!" Tsunade glanced at Orochimaru. "Compared to Jiraiya, this absolute idiot, you should be more careful..."

"I heard that you and Shimura Danzo have been mixed up recently. The old man won't want to see this."

"You are the future Fourth Hokage of the village. You still have to pay attention to your image. Shimura Danzo, that old guy, is not a good person. It's better to have less contact with him."

"Hokage? It's just a boring position. I'd rather do whatever I want..." Orochimaru replied with a disinterested air, although his words hid a certain bad mood.

As the sharp blade in Sarutobi Hiruzen's hand, Orochimaru remembered Hatake Sakumo's attitude towards him that day.

This shows that his teacher has begun to criticize him.

With the human experiments he had already begun to secretly conduct, his desire to achieve immortality had begun to burn brightly within him. Orochimaru no longer felt limited by Konoha. He preferred to be a missing-nin rather than a puppet of Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, looked at Tsunade for a few times, and said slowly. "Let's not talk about my business for now, Tsunade, you seem to be in better shape recently, are you no longer indulging in sadness and pain..."

Tsunade at this moment is completely different from the drunken and drunken look a few months ago.

The whole person looks alive, and there is light in her eyes.

Jiraiya nodded and followed Orochimaru's words and said: "I heard that the old man asked you to train his son and a brat from the Uchiha clan. Are you doing well with them?"

Orochimaru's eyes flashed. If Sarutobi Hiruzen supported him to be the Hokage, then Kazuki and Asuma's teacher should be him...

Choosing Tsunade as the teacher of this special class does not mean that Sarutobi Hiruzen wants her to be the Hokage.

After all, it is impossible for the Kage of a village to have a weakness like hemophobia, but it is enough to see Sarutobi Hiruzen's inner thoughts: Orochimaru is no longer the next Hokage that Sarutobi Hiruzen firmly supports in his heart, and has been included in the ranks of inspection...

"Those children are all pretty good..."

Tsunade's eyes showed a trace of tenderness. The past few months of getting along with Kazuki made her feel the fulfillment of life for the first time in a long time.

"It seems that you have a few good students, Tsunade..."

Jiraiya laughed and boasted: "However, any young shinobi will look mediocre compared to my student Namikaze Minato! "

"If you can't handle the Hokage's son and the Uchiha well, I can ask Minato to show them what it means to be a true genius."

Orochimaru sighed silently, speechless at Jiraiya's stupidity.

Clearly, those students were the reason Tsunade had recovered, and instead of supporting her, he only bragged about Minato. It was no wonder he had never been able to win her heart.

As expected, Tsunade stood up abruptly and, with a cold smile, said: "A genius? Very well, after my students see some blood, I'll be happy to have Minato teach them a lesson..."

"Let's go! "

Tsunade stood up suddenly and left the tavern in a hurry.

Jiraiya looked at Tsunade's departing back blankly, scratching his head in confusion. "Orochimaru, why do I feel that Tsunade's mood seems to be a little off? "

Orochimaru slowly drank the remaining sake in the cup and stood up and walked towards the door.

"Don't think too much about it, Jiraiya. Go find your child of prophecy... That's the whole reason for your existence."

The three people who were sitting together just now, in the blink of an eye, only Jiraiya was left.

The three companions who had shared so many adventures together now went their separate ways. As they grew up, each had their own nest and their own goals, drifting further and further apart.

...

The next day.

The border of the Land of Fire.

"Little devils, there are hundreds of bandits in this valley..."

Tsunade folded her arms and gave orders ruthlessly: "Today's assessment is to completely eliminate these bandits, leaving no one alive!"

Unbeknownst to them, those bandits had also been marked by someone else... The most lethal bounty hunter in the shinobi world was heading to the same valley from another direction...

...

The exit of the valley.

Asuma couldn't get the scene where he had just killed out of his mind. As he tried to control the nervousness inside him, he turned his head and began to wipe away the blood residue on his chakra knife, his stomach twisting slightly.

Rin, who was beside him, looked even worse than Asuma, who at least seemed more composed. Rin's face was completely pale.

Only Kazuki still had that gentle expression. Muramasa's blade burned away the blood under the burning flames, as if nothing had happened.

Tsunade sniffed the bloody smell all over the mountains, and her heartbeat gradually accelerated, as if she was back on the battlefield, back to the hell that had deprived her of everything she cherished...

But even with the burden of hemophobia, Tsunade was still responsible.

When Kazuki and others faced hundreds of bandits, she was steadily guarding them from behind to avoid any unexpected situations.

As long as the blood did not splash directly on her body and the blood was not too close to her, Tsunade could still control her mind...

This was an improvement over before. Before Tsunade met Kazuki, her hemophobia was much more serious than it is now.

Although, there was no accident at all.

When Kazuki killed the bandits, she was like a butterfly on the battlefield, gorgeous and elegant, and the enemies fell one after another while dancing.

Asuma and Rin were very nervous. The two who had just become Genin could not exert their own strength on the battlefield with hundreds of corpses, but they could still fight normally.

This was already a strong psychological quality for the two newcomers.

Generally speaking, it is standard to lead Genin to see blood and deal with more than a dozen bandits at a time.

Due to Kazuki's fighting power, Tsunade boldly chose this den of hundreds of bandits in order to simulate the battlefield situation most realistically.

The effect will also be significant.

After this experience, when Asuma and Rin had time to reflect, they would have already developed the mental stamina necessary to face a real war.

As for Kazuki, Tsunade had to sigh that among the shinobi she knew in her life, only her second grandfather Senju Tobirama had ever given her this feeling.

As gentle as the sun to his own people, as ruthless as a steel knife to his enemies, and his talent is incomparably outstanding.

Tsunade looked at Kazuki's profile and shook her head.

She felt that there was not much she could teach him anymore. All she had left to do was to offer him a temporary shelter, allowing him to grow at his own pace.

Watching the expressions of the three, Tsunade spoke slowly: "Do you understand? This is the fate of a shinobi - kill others, and then be careful not to be killed by others..."

"Think about it. Fear, anger, and even that little bit of excitement you feel when you finish off an enemy. All of these will influence you on the battlefield. Only when you manage to remain calm after killing will you be a true shinobi..."

Tsunade's tone was filled with a trace of uncontrollable sadness. She was indifferent to the death of the enemy, but she could not forget the death of her close ones...

Asuma and Rin nodded silently.

At this time, a strange male voice suddenly sounded in the valley: "My, my, it seems that the bandits in this place were in high demand..."

"I spent a long time looking for this job, but it seems someone beat me to it. I think I'm owed an explanation."

Kakuzu walked slowly towards them from the other end of the valley, following the trail of corpses until he stopped a short distance away from Kazuki and the others.

When Kakuzu looked at Kazuki and others, he was stunned, and then his pupils shrank suddenly!

What did he see?

The son of the Hokage, wandering the world alone!

A young Uchiha with a considerable level of chakra, probably with the Sharingan activated!

They were very valuable prey! Although the bandits had escaped him, it seemed that he had stumbled upon pure gold.

In recent times, with the apparent peace that reigned in the shinobi world, Kakuzu had not received any major jobs from the black market, which led to a kind of stagnation in his career.

But since Shimura Danzo was confined, some orders from the Land of Fire were leaked to the black market, and these lucrative commissions were all taken by the bold and skilled Kakuzu, such as the bandits in this valley.

Other missing-nin might not dare to enter the territory of the Land of Fire to suppress bandits, but Kakuzu was not worried about this. In order to complete the performance he set for himself, even the elite shinobi of the Root were just extra income for him.

When Kakuzu saw Tsunade, his eyes narrowed briefly but were soon replaced by a smile. With a low voice, he said: "Oh... What good luck, there is still a big fat sheep..."

Although the information about Tsunade's hematophobia was highly confidential and theoretically should not have been leaked, in recent years, with her retirement from missions, there had been much suspicion in the shinobi world. And black market analysis suggested that Tsunade, who spent her days in casinos and bars, had probably lost her ability to fight.

And even if Tsunade was in her prime, Kakuzu didn't believe this so-called Sannin was a match for him.

After all, he had fought the God of Shinobi himself... and survived.

Seeing Kakuzu, Tsunade's heart skipped a beat, muttering to herself: "The immortal Kakuzu... What is he doing here?"

As one of the most feared bounty hunters in the shinobi world, Kakuzu had a well-earned reputation.

An S-rank ninja with no loyalties, no ties, who killed only for money, was a formidable threat to any village.

Tsunade obviously knows Kakuzu, and she knows that she can't deal with this enemy in her current state...

"Kakuzu, this is a misunderstanding." Tsunade said, as she gestured for Asuma and Rin to back off with a look. Her voice tried to sound calm. "As you can see, I'm leading a team to clear this bandit camp. I had no intention of interfering with your work..."

Kakuzu laughed coldly. "So you're going to compensate me? How much can you pay me?"

Tsunade's eyebrows jumped, so domineering?

But considering her own state, Tsunade still suppressed her anger and said: "Okay, tell me a number."

"Hehehe, looks like you've given yourself away..."

Kakuzu's low laughter echoed in the valley, which seemed particularly creepy and depressing. "Your negotiation experience is really as immature as a child, Tsunade."

"There have been speculations in the black market that you can no longer fight like a shinobi. Your concessions and retreats just now show that the information is true!"

Kazuki glanced at Tsunade, whose face changed drastically and was happy in his heart.

Such was Tsunade's negotiation skills.

In another timeline, during Pain's invasion, Nagato, who had no plans to destroy Konoha, was enraged by Tsunade's words, leading to the complete annihilation of Konoha. A prime example of how to enrage the enemy with the wrong words...

---

I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar

---