Chapter 238: Futures...

Activate… Activate, my foot.

Link dragged Utakata along until noon, but still couldn't get "Hermit's Purple" to appear. While giving his "battery" a chance to eat, he went to the training grounds to check on Senju Tobirama's progress and incidentally used the Fine Illness Extraction Technique on the Senju kid again.

Honestly, the guy had been the Second Hokage in his previous life—his rate of progress was ridiculously fast. With both of them using the same cheat, in just over half a month he'd caught up to what had taken Link a whole year to achieve.

"This technique of yours is very worthy of study," Senju Tobirama said. He was still puzzling over the principle behind it, wearing a thoughtful expression as he spoke.

"How much longer until you can summon the First Hokage?" At this point, Link was every inch the demanding client, pushing for results.

Senju Tobirama couldn't figure out why Link was in such a hurry. "With that Uchiha brat's strength," he said doubtfully, "you don't really need to worry about anything, do you?"

Nothing to worry about? You must be joking. If Orochimaru, the Akatsuki, Tobi, and Black Zetsu all ended up joining forces, they could very well revive Uchiha Madara.

Without Senju Hashirama, who'd be able to fight an Edo-Tensei'd Madara?

Link's mind was churning with these thoughts, but outwardly, he remained calm. "Better safe than sorry," was all he said.

"Hmm…" Tobirama, having become more familiar with Link's personality, stared at him in contemplation for a few seconds. Then he said, "It should be done by today."

He could have performed the Edo Tensei earlier, actually. However, part of him worried that once his brother came back, given his personality, he might get taken advantage of by this kid. After all, Tobirama had watched this jutsu in action and was concerned that if there were any strange effect he hadn't noticed—like controlling his brother—it would be a huge headache.

Forget Konoha; there was no one in the entire world who could stand up to his brother at full power.

But after observing this kid…well…

Link eyed Senju Tobirama suspiciously, noting the relaxed look on his face. He began to suspect Tobirama was holding out on him.

"I'll go to Sarutobi in a bit to prepare the ritual," Tobirama said with complete composure. "We'll do it this afternoon. Anything else you want?"

"Mm." Link couldn't really see through him, so he said, "Just have Anbu notify me when you're ready."

With that, he vanished into thin air and headed to the Medical Corps building to find Tsunade. She wasn't in her office, so he wandered around, asked a question or two of Shizune—who was in the lab doing slightly shady things to Mr. D—then stepped outside and used shadow clones to search. Finally, he found that big spender of a lady in Konoha's most famous pub, "The Shushu-ya."

"Drinking at noon?" he said, seating himself beside her.

Tsunade, holding her cup, stared at the rippling surface of her drink without taking a sip. "Kids shouldn't be hanging around an adult place like a pub."

"You little—!" Link kept his expression neutral. "What have you been doing lately?"

"Hey, my affairs aren't something I need to tell some little brat," Tsunade retorted, turning her head. Her face was flushed, and her breath reeked of alcohol.

Link immediately held his breath. Before he could say anything else, a woman's voice sounded from the doorway:

"Link? Lady Tsunade?"

It was Haruno Sakura. Huh, what was she doing here in broad daylight?

Link turned around with a smile and greeted her.

Looking a bit embarrassed, Sakura went up to the counter and expertly bought a flask of shōchū, then explained, "I'm picking this up for Kurenai-sensei—"

"Heh, that one's got good taste," Tsunade remarked with a grin, eyeing the brand.

Sakura offered a polite smile, then said goodbye and left.

[In the manga, these two—Sakura and Tsunade—should be teacher and student, yet here they're drifting apart with no hint of that bond. Still, is focusing on genjutsu really the right path for Sakura?]

Link pondered, wondering if he should help reconnect the two of them as master and disciple.

"Hey…" Tsunade rested her chin on her folded arms on the table and turned her face sideways toward him. Because of how she was leaning on the table, a generous expanse of cleavage was revealed. Her tone was vague. "I heard about your plans to use Edo Tensei to summon the dead, and then have you perform the resurrection—"

"Relax," Link said seriously, keeping his eyes forward instead of glancing at the all-too-familiar view. "I'll give you back both Nawaki and your sweetheart, Dan Katō."

"Heh." Tsunade chuckled. Despite the fact that Link was only eleven, he was acting like a little adult—going out of his way to be a gentleman and respectful of others.

He didn't have that pretentious bravado like most kids, nor was he leering like Jiraiya. It was more like showing genuine respect for others from the very core, with a personal sense of right and wrong. Totally unlike someone raised in the shinobi world.

Tsunade exhaled and, sounding a bit conflicted, said, "I've come to believe in this talk about resurrecting the dead."

Talking a bit with the Second Hokage, hearing various details about her grandfather, Senju Hashirama, seeing living examples of the Uchiha who were resurrected, plus the guarantee from the old Third Hokage—yes, she believed it now.

Still, what drove her to grab a drink in the middle of the day was partly worry over Jiraiya's predicament and partly the nerves that came with the thought of seeing Dan again.

When her boyfriend died, she'd fallen into despair for years. Now she was suddenly about to see him again; of course she was anxious.

She felt happy—and then ashamed for feeling happy while an old friend was still missing. Add in the fact that Jiraiya had some feelings for her, and the whole thing felt utterly complicated.

All these emotions tangled in her mind, so she'd come here in broad daylight to have a few drinks. She was in no mood to research Jūgo anymore.

"Oh? Right…" Link picked up on this and tried to comfort her. "Don't worry about Jiraiya. Even if… Well, I can just bring him back anyway."

"You should think more about how to raise your kid brother and boyfriend once they're resurrected," he added nonchalantly.

With their relationship being more or less on equal footing, he didn't hold back from teasing her.

Tsunade's expression turned strange at that remark. She'd been wrapped up in her complicated emotions, but thinking about it now, Nawaki would probably be brought back as a three- or four-year-old. If Dan was also resurrected as a three- or four-year-old, wouldn't that make her a…?!

Her eyes went wide.

A real "raise-your-own-shota" plan, huh…

Link snickered to himself, then asked with a straight face, "Anyway, I almost forgot—how's my new medicine going?"

"The medicine? I haven't really had time to develop it," Tsunade said, her cheeks still flushed and her expression troubled. She sounded more relaxed, though, and added, "But I do have a new experiment you might be interested in."

It seemed she trusted this kid a lot. After all, he could do bizarre and impressive jutsu, even revive people. Even if Jiraiya ended up coming back as a child, there was no reason to worry too much.

"An experiment?" Link repeated blankly. "Is that what you've been so busy with recently?"

Suddenly, he put two and two together. "It's related to Kimimaro, huh? Right—Sage Mode?"

"You've been training in Sage Mode?"

Tsunade looked surprised he'd guessed it all so easily.

Link noticed her surprise and, suppressing his own excitement, asked, "So you succeeded?"

Because of their initial plan for controlling the primary cells in Kimimaro's body, Tsunade was just as familiar with Sage Mode as the other two Sannin. But knowing it didn't guarantee mastering it.

In normal circumstances, without unlocking the Yin Seal, Tsunade wouldn't have enough chakra to initiate Sage Mode. She was only borderline capable, unless she heavily modified her body, like Orochimaru.

But even Orochimaru had only shown he could use senjutsu chakra—no real evidence he used Sage Mode in actual combat.

Link faced a similar hurdle. He had been training nonstop, even cheating, and his chakra levels were roughly on par with Tsunade's. He was at his limit. Unless he opened the Eight Gates, he didn't see his capacity increasing much beyond "Chakra 8."

But if Tsunade had succeeded, that meant he had a shot, too.

The Sage Mode boost was huge. Once senjutsu chakra included natural energy, one's overall power soared. Ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu were all enhanced. Sensory abilities got a massive upgrade—(we'll just ignore how Pain ambushed Jiraiya)—and you could attack opponents with natural energy.

Most importantly, you could cast Senjutsu ninjutsu that were super-powerful. The only question was whether using Senjutsu chakra on his ninjutsu would produce any unexpected side effects…

(Still the same old kid…)

Tsunade watched Link slip into deep thought and smiled. Everyone was used to him being randomly pensive like this. They tolerated and accepted it without issue.

Manners or no manners, it didn't really matter.

He was a good child who possessed all kinds of powerful jutsu. Even if he had a few quirks, nobody minded.

When Link refocused, Tsunade went on, "You could say I barely succeeded. With that technique you have which disperses natural energy, it takes away the risk factor in training."

"However, it'll still take quite a long time to finish mastering it. Even for me, and with my training background, it took all this time to just barely succeed. You would probably need a few years."

A few years, huh?

Link calmed down and realized that, for the short term, he wasn't going to have time to train in Sage Mode. It could be a long-term plan. Right now, he had too many pressing tasks—perfecting his Substitution Technique, refining Summoning, finding out what happened to Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Might Guy, and dealing with the Akatsuki, Nagato, Obito, and Black Zetsu.

Besides that, he'd just recently finished honing the Wind Release nature transformation. He hadn't even had time to practice Wind Release jutsu yet. Spending years on Sage Mode…

"I'll give it a shot sometime down the road," he answered sensibly. Then he urged her, "Meanwhile, hurry and develop a new drug for me. The stuff I've been using has stopped being effective, even as a daily supplement."

Medicine was still more important—he couldn't afford to stop taking it.

Tsunade rubbed her forehead and realized she and the village's two other Hokage-level individuals all shared the same thought: Why is this kid always in such a hurry?

After thinking it over, she said, "All right, I'll start looking into it."

"Oh, right." As Link stood up, Tsunade recalled something else. "I want to take Karin as my disciple. I hear she's basically your captive. What do you think?"

"Huh?" Link paused in mid-step. What kind of development is this? Karin's stealing Sakura's role? Next, is she gonna take her husband and daughter, too?

"I don't have any objections," he said, tossing the words over his shoulder before using the Body Flicker to disappear.

~~~

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