Akira looked at her curiously and asked, "Tsunade-hime... you didn't bring me out here just to test me, did you?"
Tsunade rested her chin on her knees and stared blankly at the shimmering surface of the water. Then, without warning, she asked, "Akira... if, and I mean if, two people you loved more than anything had died, and someone told you that if you helped him do one terrible thing, something that might throw everything into chaos, he could bring them back... would you do it?"
Akira's heart skipped.
So this was the real point.
He stayed silent for a long time.
After a while, Tsunade turned her head and looked at him, her expression complicated.
Akira let out a quiet sigh and shrugged. "How would I know? I've never lost anyone that important."
It was the truth. Across both his lives, he had never gone through that kind of heartbreak.
Tsunade was obviously dissatisfied with such a vague answer. Her brows drew together. "I want your honest opinion. Just imagine it."
Akira had no choice but to answer seriously. "If I had to say... then no. I wouldn't."
"Setting aside whether it would cause chaos or not, just the resurrection part alone... I think regret is part of life."
"If everything could be undone, if the dead could just be brought back whenever we wanted, then what would life even mean anymore? What would there be left to revere? Living itself would lose its value."
Tsunade stared at him after hearing that, looking at him as if he had grown a second head. "What kind of twisted logic is that?"
Akira smiled faintly. "Twisted logic, sure. I've never lived through that kind of pain, so maybe I'm talking out of turn."
"But I really do think that regret is what makes memories precious. If life were easy all the way through, if you could have anything you wanted whenever you wanted it, that would be unbearably empty."
The truth in that speech was only partial.
Mostly, Akira wanted to plant a warning in Tsunade's mind.
Under no circumstances could she let a moment of weakness push her into healing Orochimaru's hands. If he got them back, there was no telling what kind of disaster he would unleash, and in the end, that would only create more trouble for Akira too.
Not that Akira feared Orochimaru.
He simply preferred fewer problems over more.
Besides, a jutsu like Impure World Reincarnation, which toyed with the souls of the dead, was something Akira himself could use, but every time he did, it consumed an enormous amount of chakra and required living sacrifices. It was disgusting, cumbersome, and not remotely worth the effort.
Tsunade listened to his words and fell into deep thought.
Something seemed to stir in her heart, as if a buried answer were starting to break the surface.
Or perhaps she had already known her answer all along and only needed someone to nudge her toward it.
A long while later, Tsunade stood up without a word, picked up her shoes, and turned to leave, just abandoning Akira alone on the water.
Akira stared after her, completely baffled. "Wait, that's it? Then what exactly was the point of bringing me out here?"
She had gone several dozen yards before calling back over her shoulder, "Are you planning to stand on that river till sundown?"
Akira shook his head helplessly. Women really were impossible to understand.
He caught up to her and joked, "The way you were staring at the water just now, I thought maybe you were thinking of throwing yourself in."
Tsunade spun and shot him a vicious glare. "Brat, you really don't know when to shut your mouth. I'm not done living yet."
Akira laughed. "So you've decided, then? Help that psycho Orochimaru, or come back to Konoha with us?"
Tsunade's eyes flickered. She looked away, clearly not having fully made up her mind yet.
Akira chuckled softly, then lowered his voice. "Actually... I know a little of the Impure World Reincarnation jutsu too. If you really want to see those two, I could bring them back from the heaven so you could talk to them. There's no need to go begging that snake-faced bastard Orochimaru."
Tsunade stopped dead in her tracks and looked at him in shock. "Impure World Reincarnation was a forbidden jutsu created by my granduncle. Where did you learn that?"
Akira rubbed the bridge of his nose and looked down guiltily at his feet. "Well... I sort of picked it up quietly."
Tsunade's brow furrowed so hard it could have crushed steel. She stepped closer and fixed him with a harsh stare. "Picked it up? Do you even understand how dangerous that jutsu is? It's a forbidden jutsu that desecrates the souls of the dead. One mistake and it can recoil on the user. If you're unlucky, you could lose your own life!"
For the first time, Tsunade's concern was entirely genuine.
She was truly worried for him.
Looking at the concern in her eyes, Akira felt a flicker of warmth in his chest. Awkwardly, he raised both hands in surrender. "Relax, Tsunade-hime. Do I look like the kind of person who would mess with something that dangerous without being sure of himself? It's a forbidden jutsu, yes, but I've already mastered it. No side effects. I swear."
Tsunade kept staring at him, suspicion all over her face.
Akira could only keep bluffing. "Really. I'm not lying. If you wanted to see them, I could bring them back right now."
Tsunade was silent for a long time.
In the end, she lowered her eyes and said quietly, "No... it's not necessary. I think you were right. They probably wouldn't want to be dragged back from that world by force."
Akira looked at her in surprise. "Really? You figured it out that quickly?"
Tsunade shot him an irritated look. "What, did you want me to throw in my lot with Orochimaru?"
Akira laughed. "Not at all. I just didn't expect someone as stubborn as you to be talked around by a few words from me."
Truthfully, Akira was not completely sure whether she meant it or was only saying what he wanted to hear.
But in the end, that didn't matter much.
No matter what she chose, he already knew how this story would end.
Tomorrow would be the day of decision. Right now, Tsunade was almost certainly still at war with herself.
She had no desire to keep discussing it and waved a hand dismissively. "Enough. Come drink with me."
Akira refused on the spot. "Absolutely not. Minors don't drink. That's a principle."
In reality, he just hated the taste of alcohol.
But that excuse had no persuasive force whatsoever. Tsunade ignored him completely and dragged him straight toward a tavern.
They ended up back at the same familiar place as before. This time, at least, Tsunade did not force him to drink and ordered him a glass of juice instead.
So a rather bizarre scene unfolded in the tavern.
A beautiful woman in the full bloom of maturity sat there knocking back cup after cup of sake while rambling endlessly about old memories, and across from her sat a teenage boy clutching a glass of juice with the hollow expression of someone who had given up on life.
For hours, Tsunade talked on and on about Nawaki and Dan Kato.
Akira listened until his ears practically started growing calluses. He nearly fell asleep at the table.
He truly had no interest in these ancient stories. Did everyone start living in the past once they got older?
Then, after taking another sip of juice, Akira's brow creased ever so slightly.
The drink had been drugged.
The substance was colorless and tasteless, but with Akira's current medical knowledge and monstrous constitution, a cheap trick like that had no chance of slipping past him.
And at this dosage, the anesthetic was about as threatening to him as plain water.
Still, since Tsunade had done it, Akira could more or less guess what she was planning.
He did not want to expose the fact that he was practically immune to toxins, and he did not want to disrupt what he already knew was coming next either, so he decided to play along.
He let his eyelids droop, swayed twice as if fighting sleep, then dropped onto the table with a thud and went still.
The moment Akira collapsed, the haze in Tsunade's drunken eyes cleared noticeably.
She set down her sake cup and looked at the boy slumped over the table with a complicated expression.
Only after a long silence did she sigh softly. "I'm sorry, Akira... but I still want to see them again. Even if it's only for a few minutes."
Akira had said he could use Impure World Reincarnation too, but Tsunade knew exactly how vile and dangerous that jutsu was. She did not want a gifted young ninja like him touching something so forbidden.
If anyone was going to conduct that filthy bargain, it would be her and Orochimaru.
After draining the last of her drink, Tsunade rose and walked over to Akira. With a little effort, she lifted him onto her back.
It was an awkward position, but with her monstrous strength, carrying a teenage boy was no harder than carrying a bag of cotton.
Akira, of course, was fully awake the whole time, and the situation was agonizingly awkward for him.
He had assumed Tsunade would simply leave him in the tavern. He had not expected her to be this responsible.
As Tsunade carried him, her cheeks were slightly flushed too.
After all, this was the first time she had ever drugged someone who trusted her, and the guilt made every step feel heavier.
In just a few short minutes, the two of them returned to the inn, each burdened with their own thoughts.
Tsunade laid Akira gently on the bed and even pulled the blanket over him.
To make the act convincing, Akira used ninjutsu to regulate his breathing and heartbeat, slipping into a state that resembled suspended animation.
As a result, Tsunade noticed nothing suspicious.
Standing beside the bed, she looked down at him for a long moment. Then, after steadying herself, she murmured quietly, "Sleep well. Once I settle things with Orochimaru, I'll come back and give you the antidote."
With that, she turned and left without the slightest hesitation.
She still had to deal with Jiraiya too.
Under no circumstances could she allow anyone to interfere with tomorrow's meeting.
The faint smell of sake and the lingering trace of a woman's perfume remained in the room. Only after he had confirmed that her footsteps had disappeared for a full ten minutes did Akira sit bolt upright on the still-warm bed as if nothing had happened.
He dropped into a chair, rubbed his temples, and felt speechless.
That whole situation had been the kind of awkward that stopped your breathing. Good thing he had reacted quickly and switched himself into a fake death state on the spot. If he had opened his eyes and met hers at the wrong moment, not even a face as thick as a castle wall would have survived it.
That said, it looked as though Tsunade had still ended up going down the same road as in the original story.
So his heartfelt attempt at persuading her yesterday had been about as effective as singing to a stone wall. A complete waste of breath.
The thought immediately brought Naruto's grinning idiot face to mind.
Compared to the Child of Prophecy and his ridiculous "talk-no-jutsu," Akira's own persuasive abilities really were amateur league at best.
Then again, Akira knew perfectly well that Naruto's passionate speeches only worked because he was the protagonist of the world. If anyone else tried saying the same things, they probably would have been punched in the mouth and left in a ditch.
At first, Akira had actually held onto a small hope that maybe, just maybe, he could change Tsunade's mind through sheer reasoning and alter the course of events a little.
Reality had slapped him hard across the face.
And he had to admit, he felt a little frustrated.
The only silver lining was that after checking his condition, he realized Tsunade had not actually used the kind of heavy-duty drug that would disrupt chakra control.
Not that it would have mattered much. With Akira's current constitution, even if she had used something that strong, it would have done about as much as a sugar pill.
Still, it proved one thing.
In that infamous legendary loser's heart, he held at least some weight.
She had genuinely shown him mercy.
Compared to that, Jiraiya next door was likely in miserable shape. Tsunade had almost certainly dosed him with something far stronger. Forget fighting. He probably could not even squeeze out a proper ninjutsu right now.
Time passed quickly, and before long, morning arrived, the air already carrying a faint chill of impending violence.
Tsunade climbed the back mountain of Tanzaku Town alone, each step heavy.
With every step, the struggle in her eyes deepened.
On the way there, her thoughts churned like a storm. Two opposing choices clashed inside her head again and again without mercy.
Then her gaze passed through the trees and landed on Orochimaru's cold smile and Kabuto Yakushi standing at his side, glasses flashing.
Her heart clenched.
The moment he saw Tsunade had truly come, a gleam of triumph flickered in Orochimaru's slit-pupiled eyes. Turning slightly toward Kabuto, he gave a dark little laugh.
"See? I told you. No one can resist this kind of temptation. Those two are the wound she'll never get over."
Kabuto was smiling too, but his hand had not strayed far from his pouch of tools. Clearly, he was fully prepared in case this temperamental princess changed her mind and attacked without warning.
Tsunade walked up to them expressionlessly. The chill in her eyes was impossible to read.
She stared at Orochimaru and asked in a voice cold enough to frost glass, "If I really heal your hands, you'll turn right around and attack Konoha again, won't you?"
Orochimaru looked at his old teammate and, for once, chose not to lie. He nodded with complete honesty, his voice dry and rough as sandpaper.
"Of course I will."
Tsunade's brow immediately knotted, but the images of Nawaki's bright smile and Dan's gentle eyes rose in her mind like a spell, violently shaking the heart that had been trying to refuse.
Just as she clenched her teeth and was on the verge of forcing out a "Fine," Akira's face from the night before suddenly flashed through her mind. That slightly mocking yet strangely sincere expression crashed into her thoughts out of nowhere.
Damn brat. Why does he have to show up in my head now of all times?
She cursed inwardly, but the strange part was that the moment she remembered Akira's words, her chaotic mind felt as though a bucket of ice water had been dumped over it.
She became instantly clear-headed.
The dead were gone.
Would Nawaki and Dan really be happy to be dragged back by force from the Pure Land?
No. If anything, they would probably want her to keep living properly.
To cherish what remained in front of her.
To protect the village Hashirama and Tobirama had sacrificed everything to build.
That was the only real atonement left to her.
And besides... if that kid finds out I actually went through with this, he'd probably give me that disappointed look of his.
The image of Akira looking awkward, exasperated, and let down flashed through her head, and in an instant Tsunade's eyes hardened like iron.
She took a deep breath and said coldly, "Orochimaru, I've made up my mind. I will not heal your hands."
The words landed like hammer blows.
The fake smile on Orochimaru's face froze on the spot.
Even Kabuto, who always seemed to have ten plans at once, frowned in confusion. This was not how the script was supposed to go.
Orochimaru stood stunned for a moment, then a cruel curve slowly spread across his mouth. "Is that so? How unfortunate. If gentle persuasion won't work, then I suppose I'll have to use harsher methods and force you to heal me."
The moment the words left his mouth, Kabuto moved.
Like a snake striking from cover, he flashed forward with a chakra scalpel gleaming in his hand and lunged straight at Tsunade.
But now that Tsunade had made her decision, all her hesitation and confusion vanished.
Chakra surged violently into her pale fist as she swung it straight at Kabuto.
The instant he felt the pressure of that punch rushing toward him, Kabuto's face changed. He canceled his attack mid-step and leapt backward in retreat.
Boom!
Tsunade's punch missed him and crashed into the ground like a bomb exploding.
The deafening impact sent dust and debris billowing skyward. In a radius of dozens of feet, the earth instantly caved in, and shattered rock sprayed outward like bullets.
And that was only a punch in her normal state.
The destructive power released by nothing but raw superhuman strength made both men's eyelids twitch.
If she activated the Strength of a Hundred Seal, one punch might shave half the hill clean off. In sheer destructive force, it would outclass most A-rank ninjutsu.
It was violence taken to its purest form.
And somehow, that was even more terrifying than ninjutsu.
Kabuto stared at the crater and broke into a cold sweat. Without another word, he grabbed Orochimaru and retreated, clearly unwilling to get caught in the aftermath.
In a few quick bounds, the two landed atop the roof of an abandoned structure and looked down at Tsunade through the settling dust.
Kabuto wiped the sweat from his face and said shakily, "She's basically a human tyrannosaur. If that punch had landed, my whole body would've been reduced to paste."
Orochimaru looked much calmer. There was even a trace of nostalgia in his eyes. "All these years later, her temper is just as explosive as ever. And her strength hasn't faded one bit."
"Still, Kabuto, with your intelligence and ability, if you play this correctly, taking down the Tsunade of today shouldn't be impossible. I'm counting on you."
The "correct strategy" Orochimaru meant was obvious enough.
Exploit Tsunade's fatal weakness.
Her fear of blood.
Kabuto rolled his eyes so hard it was a wonder they stayed in his skull and cursed silently. Easy for you to say, Orochimaru-sama. She's one of the Sannin. I'm the one who has to go risk my life.
After seeing the power of that punch, Kabuto had serious doubts about whether he would live through this at all. Talking about tactics at a time like this felt ridiculous.
The hard gap in raw power between them was like a canyon.
But Tsunade had no intention of letting them go.
With a furious shout, she charged after them, fists swinging, like a tank with no brakes.
Orochimaru and Kabuto exchanged a glance.
Neither of them dared meet the fury of that enraged lioness head-on, and they turned at once and fled deeper into the grassy slopes of the back hills.
Meanwhile, back at the inn, Akira sat comfortably in his room, teacup in hand, gently blowing across the floating leaves on the surface.