"Here."
Ryosuke handed over a realistic portrait.
Tsunade took it and examined it carefully.
The man in the portrait was Obito. With Platinum Star–photocopier-level restoration skills, his blank, dazed look had been drawn with perfect accuracy.
"He's the masked man?" Tsunade asked.
"Yeah," Ryosuke answered.
"A lot more ordinary than I imagined."
"Yeah."
Ryosuke answered again. As he spoke, he was about to toss the pen he'd been drawing with into the Ghost Room, but just as his hand moved toward his pocket, Tsunade grabbed his hand.
"Put my pen down."
Only then did Ryosuke react.
Back at the research institute, he'd developed the habit of tossing the pen into the Ghost Room the moment he finished signing anything.
Tsunade lifted her chin slightly and let out a sniff.
This pen was something she had "borrowed" from the Fire Country envoy, Sakamoto, and it was extremely comfortable to use.
She wasn't about to repeat Sakamoto's mistake.
Ryosuke was currently at Tsunade's home.
The war had ended more than three months ago. Konoha was the winning side, and since the battlefield was in the Land of Water, after Tsunade handled the first batch of support approvals, her workload had lightened a lot recently.
At the very least, she no longer had to sleep in the office day and night.
Today, she had even gotten off work at a normal time for once, taken a bath while listening to music, casually thrown on a bathrobe, grabbed a bottle of alcohol, a few side dishes, and a set of pre-chilled glasses from the freezer, ready to relax a bit.
And then the doorbell rang.
Ryosuke, covered in cracks head to toe, was standing at her door.
"A while back, when Kamihara Hayato came to Konoha, I heard him say that you have a 'mysterious' ability, whenever someone wants to enjoy life, you suddenly poof show up and hand them new work."
Ryosuke laughed awkwardly, not daring to meet Tsunade's eyes.
"What else did he say?"
"Kamihara Hayato also said that the work you give people has a bewitching pull to it, always making them want to throw themselves into it without even realizing."
Tsunade held her forehead, looked at the portrait of Obito, then at the cracks all over Ryosuke, and helplessly set her chilled glass down.
"I thought he was joking… but it turns out it's actually true."
Ryosuke put his hands together and apologized sincerely.
If his physical condition wasn't so strange, he wouldn't have flown straight from the Rōran ruins to Konoha without resting even a second, coming to Tsunade for help.
They'd finally won the world. Everyone's lives had only just started getting better. If he died at a time like this, Ryosuke figured he'd turn into a vengeful spirit scarier than a demon.
As for the masked man's identity, neither Ryosuke nor Tsunade cared much. They simply set the portrait on the table, planning to take it to the office tomorrow and have Shizune make a hundred or so copies to hand out to the village ninja, to see if anyone could recognize him.
The situation was urgent, so Tsunade didn't waste time. She formed hand seals and bit her finger.
"Summoning Jutsu."
A small slug appeared.
"Good evening, Lady Tsunade, Lord Ryosuke."
The little slug greeted them politely with a sweet voice.
"Hello."
Ryosuke took a lettuce leaf out of the Ghost Room and held it to the slug's mouth. In a few words he explained his situation. "Will the Slug Sage know what to do?"
The little slug munched loudly on the leaf and nodded.
"Yes. Lord Ryosuke, as you know, we little slugs and the Slug Sage are essentially one being. The lineage of Shikkotsu Forest is best at storing all kinds of energy."
Hearing this, Ryosuke let out a breath.
As long as there was a solution.
He couldn't spend his whole life as a Stand user.
Sometimes, some enemies just needed to be punched with your own two hands, it was more satisfying.
"Then please take me to Shikkotsu Forest," Ryosuke said.
Still chewing, the little slug's cheeks puffed up like a hamster.
"Sorry, Lord Ryosuke, not right now."
"The Slug Sage has sunk into a 'Projection of the Past.' She's expected to return by dawn tomorrow."
A Slug Sage training in the past would sink into a projection.
A Toad Sage training in the future would fall into deep sleep.
They all carried a certain separation from reality. In that sense, only the White Snake Sage, who trained in the "present", was fully conscious.
Of course, she also died the earliest.
Ryosuke could wait one night. He handed over another lettuce leaf.
"Then I'll trouble you."
The little slug straightened up a bit, bowed respectfully, and took the leaf in its mouth.
"You're very welcome, Lord Ryosuke, Lady Tsunade. See you tomorrow morning."
With a pop, the little slug disappeared.
"So what will you do now?" Tsunade asked. "Go find Jiraiya? Take a trip to Mount Myoboku? Or..."
She lifted her glass.
"Have a long-overdue drink with me."
With the Dragon Vein clinging to him, Ryosuke didn't dare go anywhere with overly dense natural energy before fixing his body.
Going to Shikkotsu Forest was fine, there was the Slug Sage as a safety net.
But Mount Myoboku… one wrong move and he might just blow the whole mountain up.
Thinking of that, his tense body loosened a little. He accepted the cup Tsunade handed him.
"A few drinks?"
"Mhm."
———
[An Hour Later]
The two of them were on the sofa, arms slung over each other's shoulders. Empty bottles littered the floor; the table was a mess of snacks.
They talked about the balance of power in the ninja world, cursed Danzō, discussed future plans, debated the possibility of absolute darkness, cursed Danzō, talked about Itachi's tragic fate, cursed Danzō…
After talking for so long, they'd basically turned "cursing Danzō" into a comma.
Another bottle emptied, and Tsunade casually tossed it onto the floor.
She pulled Ryosuke's arm over and touched the cracks that kept appearing, healing, and appearing again.
"Hurts a lot, right?"
"A little," Ryosuke said.
How could it only be "a little."
The last time Tsunade was attacked by that cult, her heart had been pierced repeatedly. The horrific pain tortured her nerves, nearly driving her to collapse.
And that was just the heart.
Ryosuke's entire body was in a torn-apart state…
'Wait.'
'Entire body?'
Half-drunk, Tsunade seemed to realize something. She slowly lowered her head and looked between Ryosuke's legs.
"Your… here…"
"That part's fine!"
"Hehehe."
Tsunade slapped his shoulder hard. "Shy with me now? At my age, what haven't I seen?"
"You've seen it?" Ryosuke asked, surprised.
"Of course."
Tsunade said proudly, "Back when I studied medical ninjutsu, I looked at more corpses than I can count."
Ryosuke chuckled and shook his head.
Suddenly, his shoulder sank a little as Tsunade's still-slightly-damp hair leaned against him.
Ryosuke instinctively turned his head. She was slanted against him, shelling edamame, her bathrobe loosely tied, a few drops of water sliding from her neck and collarbone into her robe.
She lazily shelled the beans, one went into her mouth, and then she held another up to Ryosuke's lips.
Ryosuke snapped out of it, shifted his gaze away, and didn't open his mouth, just reached out to take it with his hand.
"Ryosuke, do you want to…"
Tsunade picked up her glass, took a tiny sip, turned her head, and maybe she really was drunk, her eyes were slightly red at the corners as she stared directly at him.
"…be Hokage?"