"Kakashi....you sure you were not planning to kill me?!" Tsunade asked calmly, with a threatening tone.
Kakashi smiled while coming up with an excuse.
Thanks to the Strength of a Hundred Seal, Tsunade recovered in a short enough time.
It doesn't mean she was pleased however, as her abdomen was blown away thanks to the jutsu.
But underneath her anger, she was embarrassed.
She never expected two Genins would perform that well and did not expect later one would almost kill her due to her own negligence.
'Shizune told me I went rusty, but today I really felt it....' Tsunade thought, still having phantom pain in her abdomen.
While they were having intense eye to eye competition, the Kakashi temporary team were eating with Shizune in the inn.
"So how is Konoha?"
"It's fine." Sasuke quickly replied who was exhausted after using his new jutsu and finished his 3rd plate of curry rice.
Later two remain quiet, thinking back to the attack Sasuke did.
Shizune was talking with Sasuke about the weather, food, clothing and much more.
Shizune, who with Tsunade found out about Sasuke's identity from Kakashi, was surprised by his deamour.
'For someone to be this cheerful, I don't know whether it was wise to believe you or not.'
So Shizune tried her best to talk about any topic she wished of, just to see his reaction.
To her disappointment, Sasuke's reaction was mostly the same.
She believed he was good at hiding emotion or he was born a psychopath.
Considering her efforts were futile, she did not say much afterwards.
Her throat went dry after talking for 6 hours.
While she was talking to Sasuke, discussion between Kakashi and Tsunade was heated.
"Like I said earlier, I will honor the bet, but it doesn't mean I come back as the head."
"I have hematophobia!"
Tsunade was still adamant not to go there and still insisted on saying the same thing to Kakashi.
Unfortunately, Kakashi read Kushina's diary.
"Why is it the problem here? It's not like you can't turn off the red cone of your eyes."
"You always treat patients until the end of Third Shinobi world war.."
Tsunade's expression grew stiff when she heard it.
'Dammit!'
She now felt betrayed, having resentment towards her former master who exposed her excuse to Kakashi, forgetting she told her cousin Kushina about it, whose husband was somewhat close to Kakashi.
While she indeed had Hematophobia, she was smart enough to disable the red cone of her eye after getting over the death of Dan.
Considering it was always a believable excuse for medical-nin to retire, no one questioned her when she retired and informed her former master about it.
Now Tsunade, who used it as a last resort, is now struggling to say something.
She glanced at Shizune and was giving cues to help her.
'Damm, why are you not coming!'
Due to Shizune being busy talking with Sasuke, she didn't notice any cues.
So Tsunade was alone to speak in front of Kakashi, who seemed to have a response to every sentence.
Seeing the futility of her situation sighed and began to do what she does the worst.
"Let's make a bet.." Tsunade said with a lifeless voice, still did not learn her lesson.
"If the Uchiha kid managed to learn Mystical Palm Technique within a week, I will accept it."
'You really are shameless, knowing he won't be able to learn that fast.'
'If that technique was that easy, all medical-nin would have learned it by now.'
He recalled it was a technique learned by Rin, who was called a medical genius during the Academy.
But, she struggled to learn which eventually cost her capability to fight.
Kakashi wondered why she insisted on placing a bet rather than telling the truth to convince 3rd Hokage not to pursue her.
But Kakashi gracefully accepts, before Tsunade regains her composure.
He has another way to convince her, so the bet didn't mean much if it was unfulfilled.
So Kakashi left, leaving Tsunade and others where the latter went to sleep, having no mood to gamble today.
****
Next day, Sasuke who was standing alone in the bathroom with his EMS opened.
'I wondered where Tsuchigumo Village is.'
He recalled thanks to Bunseki that Fury, a destructive jutsu classed as Kinjutsu, first used Tsuchigumo Style: Forbidden Life Technique Release: Creation of Heaven and Earth before performing it.
He has no interest in fury, as he is still not mad enough to destroy the world, despite the madness he felt after waking up, but was interested in the jutsu used to set it up.
This technique releases the seal on the Fury technique and then accumulates natural energy from the earth and atmosphere to be used for the technique. The bearer of the seal acts as a passive vessel, continuously gathering natural energy, which makes it possible to use Fury without their cooperation.
Now Sasuke thought, could it form senjutsu chakra from the natural energy accumulated in the body without having the fury seal?
'If I manage to learn it and combine it with Fire temple sage technique, then I may be able to reach sage mode, or at least imperfect version without concentrating.' Sasuke thought, who was uncharacteristically impatient to go there.
He can't blame himself for this restlessness.
Power he got from senjutsu was addictive but it demands concentration it may not be possible for him to do.
Quality of concentration will vary widely where Senjutsu chakra accumulated within 15 seconds 2 days ago in the wild and Senjutsu chakra accumulated within 15 minutes yesterday in roadside restaurants wasn't all that different!
Plus, Sage Art Fire style: Rasengan, his current finisher, needs it.
Because despite how many times gale matches the rotation and guide fire chakra, Rasengan would implode.
Sasuke did not know why, but after mixing in senjutsu chakra, he understood that Rasengan lacked stability to infuse in this manner or others would have done it already.
Senjutsu chakra covered up his weakness, making Rasengan stable and enhancing his chakra control thanks to senjutsu chakra property.
Plus, his current finisher would have shorter set up time, making it quicker and practical to use in fight.
So 'Tsuchigumo Style: Forbidden Life Technique Release: Creation of Heaven and Earth' is going to be really important if he wishes to be strong.
"Hey, how long are you staying here?!"
"Just for a few seconds."
'Well, maybe a few minutes or a few hours' Sasuke playfully thought at the expense of the line of people standing there.
****
"Alright Sasuke, here is the jutsu you need to perform." Shizune said, who was interested in his performance.
Green aura covered Shizune, demonstrating Mystical Palm Technique, used by Elite medical-nin.
"It's a jutsu only few medical-nin can actually use due to difficulty of chakra control, so don't forget to practice with fish first before actually using it." Shizune said and remembered, where she accidently put a patient in comatose and begged Tsunade to forgive her mistake.
Sasuke smiled, while Hinata and Shino were in the room observing him.
'I know I look like a genius at learning jutsu, but I have a limit, you know!' Sasuke complained in his heart, while not letting it affect his face.
Just like Lightning Release: Chakra Mode, Bunseki failed to work.
Which makes it more terrifying since Shizune spared no effort to explain how it works unlike the others!
For Sasuke it was a foreign frontier.
He was so addicted that using Bunseki, he suddenly felt hopeless after it failed to work.
So he only looked at the fish with his 'two tomoe Sharigan' and pretended he was working on it.
He did not mind, since he used to do it in previous life to avoid unnecessary extra work, just some important guy did not place a huge responsibility to finish it before.
And his teammates were using their clan's natural gift of reconnaissance to observe it, adding pressure to him.