Tsunade suddenly raised her head, giving Shizune a strange look. Shizune returned the confused expression before asking cautiously, "Return to the village?"
Frowning deeply, Tsunade appeared genuinely perplexed by the question: "Why would I return to the village? Don't we have things to do here?"
Shizune mirrored her master's frown. She began raising her left hand toward Tsunade's face as if to examine something, but aborted the movement halfway. Her brow smoothed as she asked curiously, "Master... did I just ask about returning to the village?"
Tsunade shook her head. "No. I lost my temper because I gambled away money last night and broke the floor. Then because of... natural bodily functions, I couldn't walk and needed you to carry me to the bathroom."
Nodding in agreement, Shizune obediently lifted Tsunade and stood guard outside the bathroom door. In the bathtub, Tsunade washed herself while smiling bitterly. "Really? Throwing a tantrum over gambling losses like some spoiled girl? Smashing floors in the middle of the night because I couldn't control myself? Am I really getting this senile?"
This selective amnesia didn't just affect Tsunade and her apprentice. Dozens of inn guests and hundreds of intelligence ninjas who had received Tsunade's orders all forgot the incident completely.
"Memory modification successful for 237 subjects."
Hearing the mechanical voice in his mind, Li Fan rose from bed and walked to the window, observing the howling winds outside. He'd expended nearly all his remaining skill points - the few hundred left were allocated elsewhere.
Reviewing the system interface:
[Page 423/900,000,000,000]
[Dream Fruit: 500 exchange value]
[Effect: Target forgets all dream content upon waking. Memory returns when dreaming again, creating an endless cycle. All involved parties' memories are automatically modified to maintain consistency.]
[Warning: If target sees host in reality, the cycle breaks immediately with full memory restoration!]
The warning didn't concern Li Fan much. By the time he actually met Tsunade, he'd have accumulated enough skill points to either max out her affection or... enforce compliance through other means.
His lips curled in amusement. He considered himself a romance-focused harem protagonist, yet with Tsunade things had taken this turn. A series of coincidences, really.
Returning to bed, Li Fan continued browsing the exchange pages. The manual searching was tedious, but necessary to identify valuable items for future use.
He'd also checked the favorability ratings. Unsurprisingly, Tsunade currently held the lowest at -20 (Hatred Level). Other negative ratings were noted for Chiyo's future reference. Notably, the Jonin Aoki maintained slight negative favorability (Annoyance Level) despite yesterday's concession - some grudges die hard.
The base-level Dreamwalking ability proved disappointingly unstable with low success rates. After three upgrades costing his remaining 100+ skill points, the improved version read:
[Dreamwalking (Intermediate)]
[Method: Visualize target's appearance/identity for 5 minutes before sleep]
[Success Rate: 65%]
[Dream Control: 50% power in target's dream]
[Added Functions: Limited object creation, moderate appearance alteration]
This sparked an idea. Mei Terumi would be about seventeen now... Perhaps a "sisterly" relationship could be established through dreams?
Elsewhere, in another room...
"That strange dream again. Two nights straight." The woman's cold voice held notes of confusion and sorrow.
Yakura lay in bed, extending her sculpted ivory arms in examination. "No genjutsu traces... yet these dreams persist," she murmured.
Throwing back the covers revealed her exquisite form clad in conservative sleepwear, the pale skin outshining even the white sheets. After twenty-one years, she'd grown indifferent to her own beauty.
Dabbing at dream-induced tears with a towel, Yakura padded barefoot to the window. Sand swirled beyond the glass as she whispered, "Li Fan... Which is real? This world where Sand Village mobilizes every ninja to search for the Third Kazekage? Or..."
Her hand drifted to her chest, the gesture hindered by ample curves. "That world without you seems so empty now."
The howling winds swallowed her words, ensuring they'd never reach their intended recipient.
Two hours later, 8:00 AM...
In the Kazekage's office, Ebizō (disguised as the Third Kazekage) examined a list. "These ten are your suspected spies?" Chiyo's usual presence was notably absent.
Li Fan sipped tea from his seat before responding: "Suspected, yes. Nothing confirmed yet."