The town of Tanzaku met them with noise that clogged the ears and light that cut the eyes even at night. It was a place where people sold their dreams for a handful of plastic chips.
Naruto walked down the main street, hands in his pockets. His new Chunin vest attracted attention—shinobi on duty were rarely seen here—but his gaze forced passersby to look away.
Meanwhile, his Qi Sensory painted a disgusting picture. The city's aura was filthy. Sticky. It consisted of greed, cheap excitement, and the heavy, materialized despair of debtors.
In an alley to the left, two thugs were beating a man. Naruto felt the victim's flash of pain and fear. On the right, in a brothel, the chakra was cloyingly sweet, fake.
"The air here is heavier than in the Forest of Death. There, beasts kill to eat. Here, people kill themselves for colored pieces of paper."
Jiraiya, walking beside him, was serious. He didn't gawk at the shop windows.
"Everyone has their own way of escaping reality, Naruto. Tsunade chose this one."
"It's not an escape," the blonde stepped over a drunk sprawling on the pavement. "It's slow suicide. So where is she?"
"Look for a place that smells of bad luck turning into a catastrophe," the Sannin chuckled. "But today... today I have a bad feeling."
***
"The Big Jackpot" Casino.
Chaos reigned inside. The ringing of slot machines, the shouts of croupiers, the clatter of dice. Smoke hung thick in the air.
The Uzumaki frowned. For his heightened senses, this was torture. He dampened his sensory perception, leaving only physical awareness.
They found her in the center of the hall.
A crowd had gathered around one table. People whispered, looking at the woman sitting at the gambling cloth. She was beautiful. Blonde hair, ample bosom, a green haori with the kanji for "Gamble" on the back. She looked young, but Naruto, seeing through the image, felt the age of her soul. She was old. And broken.
Next to her stood a young brunette with a piglet in her arms. Shizune. She looked as if she was about to faint from horror.
"Again!" Tsunade barked, slapping her palm on the table.
The dice rolled.
The crowd froze.
Two sixes.
"Again?!" the croupier exclaimed. "Mistress, this is... this is the tenth win in a row! You broke the bank!"
The mountain of chips in front of Tsunade had grown to obscene proportions.
But she wasn't smiling.
She looked at the winnings with horror. Her hands were shaking.
"No..." she whispered. "It can't be. Not now."
"What's wrong?" Naruto asked Jiraiya, keeping his eyes on the woman. "She won millions. Why does she look like she's been given a death sentence?"
"Because she is the Legendary Sucker," Jiraiya replied grimly. "Tsunade never wins. And if she wins... it means big trouble is coming. Death or catastrophe. It's her omen."
The Sannin pushed through the onlookers and approached the table.
"Long time no see, Tsunade."
The woman jerked her head up. Her brown eyes, clouded by alcohol and fear, focused on her old friend.
"Jiraiya?" she exhaled, her shoulders slumping. "You... What are you doing here? Did you bring me this damn luck?"
She shoveled the chips into a pile without looking at them.
"Shizune, cash this out. We're leaving. I need a drink. A real one."
***
An hour later. Private room in an izakaya.
Half a dozen empty sake bottles stood on the table.
Tsunade drank alcohol like water. Jiraiya sipped his cups, maintaining sobriety. Naruto sat at the edge, not touching the food. He observed.
Shizune sat next to her mistress, glancing nervously between the Sannin and the silent boy in the Chunin vest.
"So, the Old Man is alive?" Tsunade asked, knocking back another cup. "Surprising. I thought Orochimaru would gut him and hang his hide on a flagpole."
"Hiruzen survived," Jiraiya nodded. "But he can no longer be Hokage. The wounds are too serious; age is taking its toll. The village needs a new leader."
Tsunade scoffed.
"And you came to offer it to me? Refused it yourself, huh? Eternal wanderer."
"The Council chose you," Jiraiya put his hands on the table. "You are a Senju. Granddaughter of the First. One of the Legendary Sannin. The best medical ninja in the world. Konoha needs healing, Tsunade. And it needs strength."
Tsunade poured herself more. Her face twisted into a grimace of disgust.
"Hokage..." she spat the word out like a piece of rotten meat. "Great honor. Protecting a bunch of ungrateful old men and sending children to their deaths."
She looked at Jiraiya with a cloudy gaze.
"You know what I think? Only fools want to become Hokage. It's a cursed position. Grandfather gave his life for the village. The Second—too."
Her voice grew louder, angrier. Alcohol loosened her tongue, releasing years of bitterness.
"And that old fool, Sarutobi? He clung to power until the very end, until his own student came to kill him. And look where it led. The village is in ruins."
She slammed her fist on the table. The bottles jumped.
"And Minato..." she laughed bitterly. "A genius. The Yellow Flash of Konoha. And so what? Sacrificed himself for the village, leaving his child..."
She fell silent for a second, but immediately continued with renewed bile:
"All of them are hopeless idiots. They gave their lives for pretty words on a stone. 'Will of Fire'... Ha! Just a pretty name for a meat grinder. I'm not going to lay my head on the block for that bullshit."
Shizune covered her mouth with her hand in horror. "Tsunade-sama..."
Jiraiya frowned. He knew about her pain, but this was crossing the line.
However, he didn't have time to answer.
In the corner of the table, a chair creaked.
The sound was quiet, but in the ensuing silence, it sounded deafening.
Naruto slowly stood up.
He had been silent all evening. Listening. Analyzing. He didn't see a great medic before him. He saw a woman drowning her strength in a bottle and self-pity.
But when she called Minato—his father—an idiot...
Inside Naruto, in his Pseudo-Core, something clicked.
The Qi, calm until then, boiled over, but didn't erupt in an explosion. Instead, it densified the air in the room.
Pressure dropped. Breathing became difficult.
Shizune flinched. As a medic accustomed to sensing the slightest changes in a patient's chakra, she felt the shift first.
This is... not chakra, she thought, looking at the boy with wide eyes. This is something... dense. Heavy. As if gravity in the room increased.
Naruto looked straight at Tsunade.
His blue eyes darkened, becoming the color of a stormy sea.
"Watch your tongue, old hag," he uttered.
His voice was quiet, low, and deadly cold.
Tsunade froze with the cup at her mouth. She slowly turned her head to the boy. In her eyes flared the anger of a drunken dragon disturbed by a mouse.
"What did you just say, brat?"
"I said: shut your mouth," the Uzumaki stepped toward the table. "You can drink, gamble, and pity yourself all you want. That's your choice. But you have no right to insult those who gave their lives so you could sit here and get drunk on sake."
He leaned toward her, resting his hands on the table.
"The Fourth Hokage saved the village from the Nine-Tails. The Third protected it from Orochimaru. They were Great Men. And you... you're just rust on your grandfather's sword."
Tsunade stood up abruptly. Her chair flew backward with a crash.
Cracks ran along the walls from her aura. The air sparked with the tension of two auras.
"Are you looking for death, kid?" she hissed. "Let's go outside. I'll teach you respect."
Naruto didn't back down. The Qi circulation accelerated, preparing for potential conflict.
Deep in his eyes, for a split second, a vertical, predatory pupil flashed.
"With pleasure," he replied evenly.