After some playful fooling around, the two reverted to their adult forms. They had gone a bit wild just moments ago.
Tsunade smoothed her hair and asked seriously, "Alright, jokes aside, how exactly did you sneak out?"
Tōshirō replied casually, "Don't worry, I properly let them know I was leaving."
"Let them know? The ANBU guys aren't exactly the understanding type. Wait a second…" Tsunade suddenly thought about Tōshirō's personality. "When you say 'let them know,' don't tell me you beat them up or something."
Tōshirō answered offhandedly, "Nothing that extreme. I just used some sealing techniques to bind them in place, that's all."
"Well, that's… good—wait, what?" Rather than worry about the two ANBU agents, Tsunade was more concerned about Tōshirō. "You sneaking out like this—won't that make the tailed beast inside you go out of control?"
"Relax, he's behaving himself in there," Tōshirō said, patting his stomach. Come to think of it, he hadn't really told Tsunade the full story about the Five-Tails.
Tsunade knew Tōshirō wasn't the reckless type. If he had come out on his own, it meant he had reached a certain level of control over the tailed beast. "Don't tell me… you've already mastered the tailed beast's power?"
Tōshirō responded with a humble brag: "More or less. Otherwise, why would I go out of my way to sneak out and be the first to share the news with you?"
Tsunade made a deliberately doubtful face: "You sure that's true?"
Tōshirō was like a kid who had just gotten a new toy and couldn't wait to show it off: "Wanna see my new powers? I promise you'll be amazed."
Tsunade looked intrigued: "Then I'll be looking forward to it…"
Tōshirō gladly took her soft, pale hand. "Come on, I'll take you somewhere to show off a bit."
Tsunade shook her head slightly. "Hold on a sec."
Tōshirō blinked in confusion. "What is it?"
"Let's wait for Jiraiya and Orochimaru to finish their mission and come back." Tsunade smiled like a student proud of a high test score. "I want to show you off in front of them."
"Well, if you say so," Tōshirō scratched his head, feeling a little embarrassed after hearing that. He changed the subject. "By the way, do you come by my house often to clean?"
Tsunade pouted, "Yeah, I originally wanted to surprise you."
Since Tōshirō was never home, it wouldn't be surprising if cobwebs had started forming in there.
As for whether her behavior might raise suspicions, Tsunade didn't care. After all, most people already knew about her relationship with Tōshirō.
Tōshirō flirted, "Seeing you is the biggest surprise I could ever ask for."
Tsunade gave him a little "at least you have a conscience" kind of look and softly snorted.
Tōshirō loved that slightly tsundere expression of hers and couldn't help but smile.
"What are you smiling about?"
"I'm just feeling a little sentimental."
"Sentimental about what?"
"About how you used to be so fierce toward me."
"And now?"
Still just as fierce…
Tōshirō's gaze drifted toward Tsunade's generous chest. "Now you've become even more… E-asy to get close to."
Women are always sensitive to certain looks. Tsunade was no exception. She instantly crossed her arms over her chest, looking guarded.
Oh no, busted.
"I won't look, okay?" Tōshirō turned his face away, his gaze wandering, thinking, I've touched those plenty of times already, what are you even covering up for?
"Huh… you stopped looking that easily?"
Tsunade glared at him in dissatisfaction. Tōshirō gave a wry smile—he really didn't get what women were thinking half the time.
There's a saying: A woman's heart is like the bottom of the ocean—not without reason.
"You tell me not to look, then you want me to look. What do you want me to do exactly?"
"I don't hate it when you look, but… just now, the way you were looking was like a total pervert."
Tsunade looked a bit conflicted.
Tōshirō, now labeled a pervert, gave up on pretending: "Fine, a pervert it is. If I'm perverted enough, I don't have to care about what society thinks."
Tsunade: "..."
Then Tōshirō gave a mischievous grin as if struck by inspiration. "Since I'm already this perverted, you'd better mentally prepare yourself for some weird stuff in the future. Like wax play, whips, maybe some bondage…"
"You really are a pervert!"
Tsunade turned beet red and bolted away, refusing to talk to him anymore.
"I was kidding!"
Tōshirō hurriedly chased after her to explain. Seriously now—what normal person actually plays with wax, whips, or bondage?
A few days later, on a bright and sunny morning…
When everyone had some free time, Tsunade brought Orochimaru and Jiraiya to the Forest of Death to watch Tōshirō show off his new skills.
"Oh, you're here?"
After waiting a long time, the show-off-in-the-making Tōshirō saw his friends arriving from afar and called out to them.
Jiraiya came up, looking skeptical. "I heard Tsunade say you can already control the tailed beast's power?"
"Of course."
Orochimaru asked, "Does Master Sarutobi know as well?"
"Yeah, I'll probably need to go through a final observation period. After that, I'll be able to go on missions just like you guys."
"Is that so? That's wonderful news," Orochimaru congratulated him. "In that case, I'll be looking forward to your performance."
Tōshirō nodded.
"I've heard that the stronger you are, the more of the tailed beast's chakra and abilities you can control," Orochimaru said with interest. "So what ability did you gain, Tōshirō?"
Tōshirō answered, "Boil Release."
"Boil Release?"
"Yeah, it's a kekkei genkai formed by combining water and fire chakra. At this point, I'm able to use that bloodline ability."
With this new kekkei genkai, Orochimaru realized that Tōshirō now had three different bloodline abilities. His tone carried admiration: "That's truly impressive, having so many kekkei genkai."
"Oh, no, I still have a long way to go," Tōshirō replied modestly.
"What kind of jutsu is Boil Release?"
Tōshirō thought for a moment and explained: "From what I understand so far, Boil Release mainly enhances taijutsu—specifically speed and explosive power. It's kind of like the Lightning Armor used by the Hidden Cloud Village."
Orochimaru's golden eyes gleamed with interest. "That does sound intriguing…"
Tōshirō was just about to show off a bit when Jiraiya suddenly interrupted, seemingly struck by an idea.
Tōshirō looked at him in confusion. "What's wrong, Jiraiya?"
"Isn't it boring to just perform a solo act? Without some sort of comparison, the effect won't be as impressive," Jiraiya suggested. "Why not find someone to spar with you?"
Tōshirō nodded—made sense. "Alright, so who's going to fight me? You?"
Jiraiya shook his head and pointed at Tsunade, who was standing there looking smug.
He finally figured it out—Tsunade had dragged him here just to cheer for her boyfriend and be the hype man.
Well, he wasn't about to play along with that scheme so easily.
So instead, he came up with this plan: let Tsunade and Tōshirō spar. Watching those two "lovers at war" would be way more entertaining than a solo performance.
Tsunade hadn't expected Jiraiya to come up with such a ridiculous idea and shot him a glare.
Jiraiya just whistled innocently, as if he had no clue.
Tōshirō didn't mind at all. "No problem with me. What about you, Tsunade?"
Tsunade looked away and replied, "Fine. It's been a while since we've sparred anyway."
"Haha, then it's settled."
Jiraiya, happily eating popcorn from the sidelines, rubbed his hands together in excitement—he even volunteered to be the referee, purely for the fun of it.
Tōshirō gave it some thought—since he was showcasing Boil Release, the two key areas would be speed and explosive power.
As for speed—he didn't even need to test it. Tsunade wouldn't be faster than him. So that left explosive power.
With that in mind, Tōshirō came up with a good challenge: "Tsunade, how about we arm wrestle next?"
Tsunade blinked. "Arm wrestling?"
Tōshirō nodded in response.
"Forget it. If it's about raw strength, there's no way you're beating me."
She thought strength was a terrible thing to compete over—especially when her boyfriend was the challenger. She didn't want to embarrass him.
After all, this was his debut performance with Boil Release. Tsunade knew full well who the main character was—she was just a supporting role and didn't want to steal the spotlight.
If she beat Tōshirō, it'd feel like she was upstaging him.
"How would you know if you don't try?"
Tsunade's strength was unrivaled in the ninja world—Tōshirō knew that better than anyone.
But because of that, he felt the challenge was necessary.
He wanted to test just how much Boil Release enhanced his strength—and how it stacked up against Tsunade's monstrous power.
Seeing Tōshirō so determined, Tsunade didn't try to talk him out of it anymore. She just gave a helpless sigh and agreed:
"Alright, if you say so. But just so we're clear—I won't go easy on you just because you're my boyfriend~~"
"Of course not. What kind of person do you think I am?"
"A perv who loves groping boobs."
Tōshirō coughed twice to cover his embarrassment.
Jiraiya, now both salty and irritated, grumbled, "You damn lovebirds, stop wasting time and get on with it already. Bastards."
(End of Chapter)
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