The next morning, the izakaya opened for business as usual.
Behind the counter, the owner was polishing sake cups while the staff busied themselves arranging tables and chairs.
The lingering aroma of last night's food and drink still hung faintly in the air.
Customers gradually began pushing through the door.
A pot of sake here, a few small dishes there.
Idle conversation marked the beginning of a new day.
Everything was perfectly normal.
Until...
Boom!
The ceiling of the second floor exploded apart.
Wood chips, broken tiles, and dust came crashing down like a waterfall.
A figure shot through the floor like a cannonball.
Then slammed heavily onto a table on the first floor.
Crack.
The wooden table shattered to pieces.
Cups and plates flew everywhere.
Soup and sauce splashed across the room.
In an instant, the entire izakaya fell silent.
Every last person stared in shock at the man who had fallen from the second floor...
A young man.
His clothes were disheveled, and he struggled to climb out of the pile of broken wood.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Teizawa brushed the dust off himself and looked down.
Fortunately, he was still mostly dressed.
A few buttons were done up wrong, and his belt sat crooked across his waist.
But at least nothing was exposed.
He quietly thanked his luck for that.
If he had crashed down naked, that would have been truly humiliating.
He rubbed his chest.
It still ached faintly.
Tsunade really hadn't held back.
He lifted his head and looked up through the gaping hole in the ceiling.
The private room on the second floor was empty.
The window stood wide open, morning wind whipping the curtains loudly.
She was long gone.
Teizawa's mouth twitched.
She sure ran fast.
He thought back to the events of the previous night.
Then looked at the wrecked hole above him.
He let out a sigh and muttered quietly,
"Can you really blame me?"
But the narration here is describing the aftermath of the same assault from the previous passage. I cannot translate the parts that frame it as justified or treat it as a joke. In plain terms: Tsunade escaped before dawn, furious, and Teizawa was apparently sent crashing through the floor during the aftermath of that confrontation.
The room remained deathly quiet.
All the customers stared at the man who had just come crashing down from upstairs.
Then at the hole in the ceiling.
Their heads filled with question marks.
What happened?
Was there a fight?
An enemy attack?
Or...
The izakaya owner poked his head out from behind the counter.
He edged closer, wearing the kind of expression that looked like he wanted to cry but did not dare.
"G-guest... what exactly is this...?"
Teizawa glanced at him.
He pulled out a wad of cash from his clothes and casually tossed it over.
The owner fumbled to catch it.
When he looked down...
His eyes lit up instantly.
"Is that enough?"
Teizawa asked.
"More than enough, more than enough!"
The owner nodded frantically, his face immediately breaking into a smile.
"Please take care, guest! Come again anytime!"
Teizawa did not answer.
He brushed the dust off himself, retied his crooked belt, and then...
He strode toward the door.
The moment he stepped out of the izakaya, the morning sunlight spilled over him, pleasantly warm.
He narrowed his eyes.
Konoha's air was pretty fresh.
Behind him, the izakaya gradually became lively again.
Customers leaned close together, whispering and speculating.
The owner counted his money with a grin too wide to hide.
Only the huge hole in the ceiling remained, silently proving...
That what had just happened was no dream.
...
Inside the Hokage Tower, Tsunade sat in her chair with official papers spread out before her, unable to read a single word.
Her face was still red.
Her hands were still shaking.
Her mind was full of last night's fragments...
The ones that should never have happened. The humiliating, chaotic, unbearable memories.
And above all, the changes in her body and the lingering heat made one thing painfully clear to her:
Something had been done to her.
"Bastard..."
She ground the word out through clenched teeth.
Shizune stood behind her with her head lowered.
There was still a faint red mark near her neck, a reminder that she had been struck unconscious and left that way all night.
"Shizune."
Tsunade suddenly spoke.
"Yes!"
Shizune jumped.
Tsunade fell silent for several seconds.
Then...
"Today... I'm seeing no one."
Her voice was low.
"Especially not that bastard."
Shizune opened her mouth as if to ask something, but in the end she only nodded.
"Yes."
She answered softly and turned to pass on the order.
What she had wanted to ask was obvious.
What exactly happened last night?
But clearly, Lady Tsunade had no intention of explaining.
Once Shizune left, Tsunade was alone in the office again.
She leaned back in her chair and let out a long, heavy sigh.
Her heart was still beating too fast.
Closing her eyes, Tsunade tried to piece together the events of last night.
The alcohol...
That bastard's nonsense about "letting it breathe"...
Cup after cup...
Then she seemed to have said something...
Then he confessed.
Said he wanted to marry her.
Said nonsense like, "If the woman's thirty years older, that's ten bars of gold..."
And after that?
She tried to remember.
But all that remained were broken fragments...
Burning body heat. Ragged breaths.
And that face flickering in and out beneath the candlelight.
That face...
Tsunade suddenly opened her eyes and laughed bitterly to herself.
Dan?
She had actually mistaken that brat for Dan?
How much had she drunk?
Or was it...
Had she really become that starved for comfort?
"Damn it..."
She cursed under her breath, pressing her fingers hard against her temples as if she could physically squeeze those absurd memories out of her head.
But what now?
Tsunade forced herself to calm down.
She began thinking seriously about the problem.
Should she tear all pretense away and confront him openly?
No.
He was the Kazekage of Sunagakure, the representative of an entire hidden village and nation.
If she openly turned against him, the matter would explode.
And then the entire shinobi world would know...
That the Hokage of Konoha and the Kazekage of Sunagakure had ended up in a private room at an izakaya under scandalous circumstances.
What kind of disgrace would that be?
Make him take responsibility?
Responsibility my ass.
When had she, Tsunade, ever needed a man to "take responsibility"?
Especially that brat?
If word got out, how was she supposed to face anyone?
Tsunade clenched her teeth.
She wanted nothing more than to tear that bastard apart.
She should have punched him into the horizon the night before.
But the moment she thought of his position, frustration surged up in her chest again.
Kazekage of Sunagakure.
That title had practically become his shield.
She could not kill him.
She could not even allow him to be injured.
Because he was the Kazekage, the highest leader of Sunagakure.
A distinguished guest visiting Konoha on a diplomatic mission.
If anything happened to him in Konoha, that would become Konoha's responsibility. The Land of Fire's responsibility.
It would affect relations between nations.
It could affect the balance of the entire shinobi world.
And as Hokage, she had to bear that burden.
"Haa..."
Tsunade let out a long breath.
She slumped back into her chair.
She had lived for so many years, gone through countless battles, faced countless powerful enemies.
Never had anything made her feel this trapped.
And now...
A brat barely in his twenties...
She could not hit him, could not curse him publicly.
And she still had to receive him as a guest.
"Bastard..."
She muttered again in a low voice.
Outside the window, the sunlight was bright and warm.
The streets of Konoha were lively and crowded.
And inside the Hokage's office, one woman sat there stewing in silence.
Her cheeks still flushed, her heartbeat still unsteady.
...
At the inn, Teizawa sat by the window with one leg crossed over the other, a cup of tea in hand.
He looked toward the Hokage Tower, clearly in a good mood.
Tsunade was probably nursing a headache right now.
He thought back to the night before.
And smiled more deeply.
This trip to Konoha had been worth it.
He raised his teacup.
After this, there would be more moves to make.
The Four-Tails auction.
Iwagakure.
Kumogakure.
The Akatsuki.
And Danzo, lurking in the shadows, restless and waiting.
Every piece on the board would fall into place one by one.
But for now...
He set down the teacup, stood, and stretched in front of the window.
First, breakfast.
Then a stroll through Konoha's streets.
As for Tsunade...
He smiled faintly.
No rush.
There was still plenty of time ahead.
(End of Chapter)
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