After that night of wild, stormy passion, Tsunade's feelings regarding their relationship were an absolute, tangled mess. If she had her way, she would have preferred to never see Saiki again.
But the moment she received the report that Saiki was missing and presumed dead, the teacup in her hand had shattered on the table. She hadn't even noticed the boiling water scalding her skin. Once the shock passed, she abandoned every other thought and sprinted toward the front lines without a second of hesitation.
Now, seeing him alive, holding him in her arms, and feeling the solid, physical proof of his existence, the terrifying void that had opened in Tsunade's heart finally closed.
Buried in her embrace, Saiki could feel the lingering tension and frantic worry vibrating through her body. It made him incredibly happy.
Tsunade's desperate, panicked hug confirmed one crucial fact for Saiki: her sudden departure hadn't been out of disgust or hatred. She simply hadn't known how to face the reality of their new relationship.
Amidst his joy, Saiki also felt a twinge of guilt. Aside from the unexpected backlash he suffered while protecting Tsume, this entire disappearance had played out exactly as he had calculated. But it had caused Tsunade—and everyone else who cared about him—genuine, agonizing grief.
After holding him tightly for a long moment, the panic and insecurity finally bled out of her system. Tsunade slowly came back to her senses and released him, stepping back in a sudden, flustered panic.
Realizing her reaction was suspicious—Why am I panicking?!—Tsunade forced a mask of stern composure. "You little brat! I thought you were supposed to be strong! How did you end up looking so pathetic this time?!"
The panic was entirely born of a guilty conscience. She knew the true nature of their relationship was taboo. To the onlookers, an older sister hugging her brother and accidentally smothering him in her chest was slightly embarrassing, but perfectly normal for someone as boisterous as Tsunade. She used those massive breasts to bully other girls all the time.
Others might have missed her forced bravado, but Saiki saw right through it.
Maintaining a perfectly normal tone, he spoke loud enough for only the two of them to hear. "You know better than anyone exactly how 'strong' I am. As for why I looked pathetic... I was fighting a Perfect Jinchuriki, you know! But I'm fine now. Don't worry. You know what I'm capable of."
Tsunade clearly understood the double meaning in his words. If she didn't have a dirty mind, the sentence was perfectly innocent.
Feeling that she was being teased in public, Tsunade's face darkened, her aura turning dangerous. If they weren't surrounded by an audience, she would have loved nothing more than to beat the living daylights out of him.
Tsunade was fierce, but how fierce could she really be? No matter how hard she hit, Saiki's monstrous physical durability meant he could absorb her fury and then knead her back into a soft, pliant mess in bed.
Saiki wasn't afraid of her, but Jiraiya—the ultimate simp—instantly withered under her dark aura.
Even though he had absolutely nothing to do with the situation, Tsunade had used him as a literal punching bag to vent her bad moods more times than he could count. He quickly interjected, "Ah! Well, it's wonderful that Tsume and Saiki made it back safely! Let's take this inside the tent. The doorway isn't exactly the place for a debriefing."
"Hmph!" Tsunade let out a cold snort and was the first to storm back into the tent. The others exchanged glances before following her inside.
Saiki reached out and patted the ecstatic Shizune on the head. He glanced to the side as he prepared to follow Tsunade, but his eyes locked onto Tsume.
Her gaze was incredibly complex. It was the look of a woman who knew she couldn't be with the man she loved, but still felt a deep, twisting ache when she saw someone else showing him affection.
Realizing Saiki was looking at her, Tsume instantly masked her emotions, replacing the sorrow with her usual, wild, boisterous smile.
Seeing Tsume's reaction left Saiki feeling a bit conflicted. Getting involved with a married woman was one thing; making her fall in love with him was a victory. But now Tsunade was in the mix. Tsume was a mature, sensible woman who wouldn't throw a public tantrum to create a Shura Field (a chaotic love triangle), but a mature woman quietly eating vinegar was notoriously difficult to coax back into a good mood!
Ultimately, Saiki could only offer her a warm smile, thinking to himself, "I'll have to thoroughly 'comfort' her later when we have time. A sensible older woman won't flip the vinegar jar like a little girl."
Saiki failed to realize that his mindset was becoming increasingly scummy. He wasn't thinking about cutting ties to avoid hurting them; he was actively plotting how to turn every "luxury vehicle" he encountered into his own private collection.
Then again, discarding a car you've already test-driven is also pretty scummy.
Inside the command tent, Tsume began the debriefing. She provided a condensed, sanitized version of their experiences over the past week, while Shinku gave a brief report on their skirmish with the Cloud patrol.
"Mm. I understand the situation. You've all worked hard. Dismissed; go get some rest. If there are new orders, you will be notified."
Even though Saiki and Tsume had just returned from a grueling ordeal, and Shinku was actively bleeding, the manpower shortage at the front was so severe that command wished they could split every soldier in half. Jiraiya's dismissal was purely professional and somewhat unsympathetic.
Saiki simply replied, "Understood!"
The others offered polite farewells and filed out of the tent.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's calculations had been flawlessly accurate. The moment Tsunade arrived at the front lines, despite her crippling hemophobia, she had immediately thrown herself into the Medical Corps as a strategic advisor.
Even while Saiki's group had been delivering their report, Tsunade had already been pulled away to deal with a mass casualty event.
What Saiki didn't know was that after their night of dual cultivation, Tsunade's physical vitality and spiritual energy had been vastly elevated. While her hemophobia wasn't entirely cured, it was significantly less debilitating than before.
Tsunade's phobia of blood was fundamentally rooted in her trauma of constant loss. Having Saiki fill the terrifying, gaping void in her heart was exactly what she needed; it wouldn't be long before her phobia vanished completely.
In the original timeline, Tsunade was cured when she saw her own unwavering "Will of Fire" reflected in Naruto.
But the fulfillment Saiki provided Tsunade wasn't just spiritual; it was incredibly, physically thorough.
Saiki was actually looking forward to some rest himself. He had sprinted all the way from the Kusagakure front, intercepted the Cloud ambush, and saved Kurenai along the way. While he could use his temporal regression to instantly heal physical fatigue, the mental exhaustion of constant combat and emotional manipulation couldn't be rewound. He needed actual sleep.
After Saiki's group left the tent, Jiraiya let out a heavy sigh. "He truly is a monster."
"He is," Minato agreed gravely.
Minato was Jiraiya's prized pupil, and Jiraiya had always been fiercely proud of him. But looking at Saiki's absurd combat record gave Jiraiya a serious headache.
A Jinchuriki!
And a Perfect Jinchuriki at that!
Even though Killer Bee's own relative youth meant he couldn't fully unleash the Eight-Tails' absolute maximum output, Jiraiya himself would have been pushed to his absolute limit to survive an encounter with him. Yet Saiki had stood his ground and tanked a Tailed Beast Ball head-on to save Tsume Inuzuka.
On the battlefield, Saiki had slaughtered Chunin and Jonin like he was chopping vegetables. The flawless, instantaneous chaining of the Body Flicker and Substitution jutsu made him essentially untouchable in a melee.
Reading the intel was one thing; seeing it was another. Minato had been slightly skeptical of the reports, but after having Saiki's wind blade nearly take his head off, Minato knew that engaging the boy in close quarters was a death sentence.
Despite his awe, Jiraiya's tone grew solemn. "The tragedy is... he seems to hold absolutely no loyalty toward the Leaf. I can feel it. If it weren't for Tsunade and his few friends here, a boy with his power would have abandoned the village long ago. He isn't truly one of us. If he continues to grow like this... I don't know if he will be a blessing for Konoha, or its ultimate destruction."
As someone who despised political scheming and lacked any ambition for rank, Saiki had always failed his "Will of Fire" exams at the Academy.
With Tsunade gone from the village, and having achieved a massive power spike through dual cultivation, Saiki had developed a blatant disregard for Konoha's authority. His arrogance—an attitude of "I am second only to God"—was becoming impossible to ignore.
For a ninja, absolute obedience to orders is paramount. Saiki viewed orders with open contempt. This was the source of Jiraiya's deep unease.
It was inevitable. Power breeds arrogance.
When a person possesses superhuman strength—when they truly have the power to flip the table whenever they want—why would they tolerate being ordered around by people they have no connection to?
Hearing Jiraiya's assessment, Minato's expression hardened. "Sensei, do we need to take action?"
Compared to a piece of human garbage like Danzo, who justified his atrocities under the guise of "protecting the Leaf," Minato was generally a very warm, kind-hearted man. But as a man aiming to become Hokage, he did not lack a killer instinct. He would not hesitate to eliminate anything that posed a genuine threat to the village. In this regard, he was far more ruthless and decisive than his teacher, Jiraiya.
Sensing the sudden, icy killing intent radiating from his student, Jiraiya was taken aback. Is it really that serious? I was just complaining!
He quickly tried to de-escalate. "Calm down, Minato! Don't jump to conclusions. Saiki just lacks a strong sense of belonging, that's all! As long as Tsunade and his friends are here, he won't do anything reckless."
If Saiki knew Minato was harboring thoughts of assassinating him, he would be furious—and perhaps a bit annoyed, as the Flying Thunder God's spatial assassination capabilities were notoriously difficult to defend against.
In a one-on-one duel, if Minato wanted to flee, Saiki currently lacked the ability to lock down spacetime to stop him. But in a fight to the death? Saiki was 100% confident he could crush Minato, while Minato lacked the AP to break his defense.
A casual conversation had nearly birthed a horrific tragedy. Fortunately, the target of the assassination plot remained blissfully unaware of the danger, preventing the war before it even began.