But this time, they were here to meet Orochimaru, not to have fun.
So Tsunade paced back and forth outside the entrance of her beloved casino a few times before finally tearing herself away and leaving with obvious reluctance.
Rowan asked, "Where are we supposed to find Orochimaru?"
Tsunade dragged her gaze back from the casino and said calmly, "We don't need to find them. They'll come find us. Let's get somewhere to rest first."
Shizune nodded and, clearly knowing the area like the back of her hand, started leading Rowan and Tsunade around.
It was obvious she was extremely familiar with this place. The whole way there, she chatted non-stop, telling Rowan which restaurants had the best food, which ones were average, which places had good service, and which had terrible service.
Watching her go on and on, Rowan couldn't help patting her on the shoulder and saying, "You've worked hard."
At that moment, Shizune was so moved she almost burst into tears.
"No, not at all. It's no trouble. This is all part of what I'm supposed to do."
Holding back her tears, Shizune said this while clutching the little pig in her arms.
Rowan instinctively looked over at Tsunade.
Just look at what you've done. You've pushed the poor girl to this point.
There was a reason Shizune knew this place so well. Ninety percent of the blame belonged to a certain busty blonde who was every casino's favorite lamb to fleece.
Tsunade let out an awkward laugh, quickly turned her head away, and put on an expression that said this had absolutely nothing to do with her.
Not long after, the three of them found a restaurant and got a private room.
They had barely even sat down before a series of knocks sounded at the door.
Shizune got up to open it, and Kabuto Yakushi walked in from outside with a man wearing a broad hat.
Tsunade's eyes swept over the man in the hat, and she said with open disgust, "If you're here, take the hat off already. It looks awful, Orochimaru."
The man reached up and removed the hat, revealing a familiar face.
Long black hair. Golden slit-pupil eyes. Purple eye shadow stretching to the sides of his nose. Pale skin. Blue-green magatama-shaped earrings.
It really was Orochimaru.
"You're still the same as ever, Tsunade."
Orochimaru smiled faintly, tossed the hat onto the nearby coat rack, and slowly sat down across from Tsunade. But his gaze settled on Rowan instead.
Seeing those golden snake-like eyes endlessly circling over him, Rowan clicked his tongue and asked, "What are you looking at me for?"
Orochimaru smiled and dropped a bombshell.
"I'm just curious what a person from another world looks like. Now that I've seen one, you don't seem all that different from people in the ninja world."
A person from another world?
Kabuto stared at Orochimaru in shock, almost unable to believe what he had just heard.
That guy named Rowan was from another world?
He quickly looked at Tsunade and Shizune, only to find that neither of them looked remotely surprised, as if they had known all along.
So the only one being kept in the dark was him.
"As expected of Orochimaru. You already figured it out," Tsunade said calmly.
"To be precise, you told me," Orochimaru said, pulling out the sealing scroll Tsunade had passed to him through Kabuto.
Rowan asked curiously, "So what exactly was in there?"
"Just some medical knowledge," Tsunade said.
Orochimaru added, "To be precise, it was medical knowledge I had never seen before. Not the scattered, patchwork kind gathered here and there."
"It was comprehensive, with a clear developmental path and a mature system behind it."
"Through that medical knowledge, I saw an extraordinarily vast framework."
"It covered cloning, pharmacology, chemistry, internal medicine, surgery, gastroenterology, pediatrics, gynecology, and much more—almost an all-encompassing medical system."
"There is absolutely no way Tsunade created something like that on her own."
At that point, Orochimaru glanced at Tsunade and flicked out his tongue as he continued, "I have great faith in Tsunade, and I respect her medical knowledge. But even Tsunade could not have created such a vast medical system."
"It's simply too massive. Too comprehensive."
"This is not something one person could create. It's knowledge built by countless people across countless years—something distilled from hundreds of thousands, millions, perhaps even tens of millions of cases."
"So the moment I saw this knowledge, I knew it could not have come from the ninja world."
Orochimaru continued calmly, "I know the ninja world too well. There are pitifully few medical ninja here. How could they possibly have built a medical system this refined?"
"More importantly, not a single case in all that medical knowledge mentioned chakra."
"Not one."
"If this system had been built by medical ninja, there's no way chakra wouldn't have appeared."
"But the truth is, in that entire mature medical framework, I never once saw chakra."
"So I'm certain this knowledge does not belong to this world. It came from another world."
"And especially after I heard from Kabuto that when Tsunade returned to Konoha, there was suddenly an unfamiliar man by her side, I realized that this man was the key to everything."
By the time he said that, the way Orochimaru looked at Rowan had turned burning-hot.
"I'm right, aren't I, Lord Rowan?"
Rowan didn't answer him. Instead, he turned to Tsunade and said, "You actually gave Orochimaru medical knowledge? I thought you were going to hand him Naruto."
Tsunade replied, "How could I possibly do that without your permission?"
Hearing that, something flickered in Orochimaru's eyes. He smiled and said, "I thought the two of you were friends. But now it seems your position is even above Tsunade's."
"Can you tell me who you really are?"
Orochimaru had never felt this itchy with curiosity before. A living, breathing person from another world—he desperately wanted to see what the difference was between someone from another world and someone from the ninja world.
Feeling the intensity in Orochimaru's gaze—so intense it practically screamed I want to dissect you—Rowan couldn't help saying, "Could you tone that look down a little? It's kind of disgusting."
"My apologies."
Orochimaru wasn't angry. He still had far too many questions he wanted Rowan to answer, so being polite was only natural.
Rowan said, "You're right. I really am not from the ninja world. More accurately, I'm someone who can travel through multiple worlds."
Orochimaru's eyes lit up instantly. "Multiple worlds? So you've been to more than one."
Rowan nodded. "Three so far. But who knows in the future. Maybe thirty. Maybe three hundred."
Orochimaru slowly said, while suppressing the shock in his heart, "That truly is unexpected."
He had thought the man was merely from another world.
Who would have guessed that behind him lay not just one world, but many?
If he hadn't seen that medical knowledge with his own eyes, Orochimaru never would have believed any of it.