Chapter 18: Tobirama Senju's Doubts
Not long after, Yumesaki and Robin ended their call. He set the Transponder Snail back down and scanned the group.
"You all heard the conversation. From now until tonight is free time. What do you plan to do?"
Hashirama spoke up without a second thought. "Since that girl Nico Robin invited us, we might as well head over to Rain Dinners."
He was genuinely curious about the casinos in the world of One Piece; his heart was practically itching with anticipation.
"Count me in, count me in!" Tsunade chirped. Her heart had already flown straight to the gambling tables of Rain Dinners.
As for Shizune, there was no need to ask. As Tsunade's loyal attendant, wherever Tsunade went, she would follow.
Orochimaru licked his lips and said, "I plan to take Kabuto and wander around this world for a bit."
Kabuto nodded; he was equally curious about this foreign land.
Finally, it was Tobirama's turn. He stood in front of Yumesaki without hesitation. "I plan to go with you."
He knew very well that Yumesaki was the core of this entire mission. If anything happened to Yumesaki, or if he were to leave them stranded here, they would never be able to return to the Naruto world. Fighting the Otsutsuki and saving the shinobi world would be impossible.
Therefore, Yumesaki could not be allowed to encounter any danger. Tobirama intended to shadow him at all times.
Coincidentally, Yumesaki was in need of a bodyguard to protect him, so he readily agreed to Tobirama's proposal.
With that, the group split up to take action.
Yumesaki had originally assumed that Robin lived inside the Rain Dinners casino itself. After all, in the anime, Rain Dinners was quite massive—several stories tall—and more than enough for someone like Robin to stay in.
However, when they walked out of the bedroom, they found themselves in a hallway with a small living room off to the left. It turned out she didn't live in the casino at all, but had rented a detached, two-story villa nearby.
Thinking it over, Yumesaki wasn't that surprised. Robin was a woman with a deep sense of insecurity, and her life was shrouded in secrets. There was no way she would live under the same roof as Crocodile.
Still, the place wasn't far from Rain Dinners. The moment they stepped out the door, they could see the casino's prominent sign. The two locations were only separated by a single city block.
After the others went their separate ways, Yumesaki and Tobirama walked through the wide streets, looking around at the sights.
Rain Dinners was located in Rainbase, the region of the Alabasta Kingdom with the most abundant rainfall. In the story, Crocodile had used "Dance Powder" to plunge the entire kingdom into a drought, with Rainbase being the only city spared from the disaster. Because it was the only city unaffected, it was bustling with life—a desert oasis of dreams.
Even though Yumesaki had seen this city in the manga, there was a vast difference between "seeing" it and actually "being" there. Yumesaki had wandered around Konoha before, but compared to Rainbase, Konoha felt like it was on a completely different level.
His first impression of this desert city was that it was huge; his second was that it was incredibly crowded.
To withstand the desert sandstorms, most of the buildings in Rainbase were constructed from stacks of brick and stone. This was a stark contrast to Konoha, where the majority of structures were made of wood. Stone houses existed in Konoha, but they certainly weren't the norm.
"Lord Yumesaki."
As Yumesaki wandered the streets, he started to feel a bit tired and found a park bench to rest on. Tobirama, who had been silently walking beside him, suddenly spoke up.
"Is something the matter?" Yumesaki turned to look at him.
Tobirama hesitated for a few seconds before asking seriously, "I have a doubt. Why is Lord Yumesaki willing to help us fight the Otsutsuki?"
From his perspective, Yumesaki had no ties or friendships within the Naruto world. He couldn't fathom why Yumesaki would go to such lengths.
Yumesaki stared at Tobirama Senju with a confused look and countered, "When did I say I was helping you fight the Otsutsuki?"
Tobirama replied, "Bringing us to this world... isn't that a form of help?"
Yumesaki suddenly realized what he meant. "Ah, I thought you were talking about something else. So that's what you consider helping?"
"Is it not?" Tobirama asked.
Without Yumesaki bringing them here, defeating the Otsutsuki would be an uphill battle. Chakra was something brought by the Otsutsuki clan themselves. If they relied solely on Chakra to fight the Otsutsuki, they would be playing by the enemy's rules. Pulling off an upset under those conditions would be nearly impossible.
But the Devil Fruits gave them a different path—a chance to bridge that gap. He truly wanted to know why Yumesaki was willing to help their world. In this life, there was rarely such a thing as unconditional love.
Yumesaki spoke in a calm tone, "When I first gained the ability to cross worlds, the first world I arrived in was yours. And the first person I met was Tsunade."
"You might not believe this, but when I first ran into Tsunade, she was in the middle of changing her clothes."
"The moment she saw me, she used a Body Flicker Technique to appear right in front of me, placing her hand on my head."
"With just a tiny bit of strength, she could have twisted my skull right off. That was the closest I've ever been to death. I was almost scared enough to wet myself."
"In that moment, I realized that some worlds are extremely dangerous. If you don't have enough power, you might end up dead just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. That would be a pretty pathetic way to go."
"So, Tsunade makes for a great bodyguard. She's beautiful, has a... well, she's strong. But since we aren't family, why would she protect me?"
"That's why I told her about the Naruto plotline. As long as Tsunade doesn't want to give up—as long as she doesn't want to leave everything to Naruto Uzumaki to solve—she'll come with me. Because only I can take her to other worlds to find a way to save the shinobi world."
"But the only thing I can do is open the door. How you research Devil Fruits, how you strengthen yourselves, and how you save your world... that's your business."
"I'm just responsible for opening the door. After all, I'm not really interested in all the fighting and killing."
"What I really want to do is travel and eat delicious food. Of course, it would be even better if there were beautiful women accompanying me."
After hearing that, Tobirama couldn't help but deadpan, "I truly apologize for not being a beautiful woman."
"It's fine," Yumesaki waved his hand dismissively. "Safety comes first. Even without a beauty, your Flying Thunder God Technique is more than enough to guarantee my safety."
Hearing this, Tobirama let out a small smile, looking quite confident.
At the same time, he began to understand Yumesaki's motivations. His mind started racing, calculating how to tie Yumesaki more closely to the "war wagon" known as Konoha.
He understood all too well how absurdly powerful Yumesaki's world-hopping ability was. It represented access to an infinite amount of knowledge and power.
As long as Yumesaki was willing to work with Konoha, forget fighting the Otsutsuki—they could potentially surpass them and unite the entire shinobi world without issue.
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