Chapter 159 - Ch159. Land of Snow 2

Tsunade and Yugito sat on the floor of Koyuki's room, watching the girl play with her dolls as they talked. Rei asked them to keep an eye on the girl and both decided they could not be bothered with sneaking around so they asked the owner of the castle to introduce them to the little excitable girl.

From there, it went just peachy. A few cheek-pinches here, a lot of head pats and head rubs there, and a tiny bit of obvious praise to calm down the fl.u.s.tered pouting girl and Koyuki officially decided she now has two new onee-chan.

"She is quite cute, right?" Yugito wistfully smiled at how innocent the girl around ten was. Honestly, it was an endearing sight but when she compared her younger self to Koyuki and remembered what she was doing at that age... it filled her with a desire to brutally murder someone. Preferably the closest councilman from Kumo.

"Yeah..." Tsunade chuckled, her eyes following Koyuki, "She reminds me of my younger brother." She sighed sadly. It was not the bitter sigh of the regretful and lost woman, however. Rei made sure she faced the fact Nawaki died head-on and now Tsunade, while sad about it, no longer dwelled so much on it. It was just something that happened in the past, something unable to be changed.

Tsunade actually put quite a lot of thoughts into the research of resurrection Jutsu. If her uncle was able to create such a Jutsu for combat purposes... was she supposed to be a lesser Senju or something?

She indeed could bring somebody back to life by now. The problem was it always needed something to balance it off. Sacrifice, lifespan, unimaginable amount of energy... and most importantly, it needed to tinker with soul and that was the thing which finally convinced Tsunade to just let it go. She was simply unwilling to tinker with the souls of her kin.

Alas, after studying the topic, she only hoped her uncle would one day appear in front of her so she could smack him right into his noggin for creating the Impure World Reanimation and not creating a proper failsafe the Senju clan could use against it. Sure, he created and put into the clan library a way for the summoned Senju to break the hold the user had on him. Such a thing was so easy that even a paralyzed genin could do it if he knew the proper way. Problem was, Tobirama probably never imagined the Jutsu could be used by anyone other than a Senju.

Yet another thing that made Tsunade seething mad at her supposed sensei. How the heck did Senju clan Jutsu appear on the Forbidden Scroll? She knew for a fact her uncle never put it down there! His diary certainly said so!

"What about you and Rei? Did you think about having kids yet?"

Tsunade was suddenly pulled out of her reverie by Yugito's question. It took her a few seconds to comprehend what her fellow blonde was asking. She blankly blinked... before snorting.

"Do I look like a motherly type?"

"Yes, you look like someone who would like being surrounded by family." Yugito deadpanned, making Tsunade open her mouth but stay quiet which made Yugito involuntarily smile. 'Spot on! Way to go girl!'

In the end, Tsunade just sighed heavily before looking at Koyuki and discerning that the girl was thankfully not paying attention to them in favor of the new wooden doll she was given by her.

"It's... complicated. Having a kid would be easy, you know? Just disabling the anti-pregnancy Jutsu for ten days and with the pace, we are going at it... But we are all just so busy nowadays. When we were in Kiri, our days were more or less leisure but now? Rei is shoulders-deep in planning, researching, creating these pseudo-Bijuu of his, taking in refugees, setting up the Uzushio Trading Company, and now here we are. I help with settling people in after they arrive in Uzushio, train new medics, help at the hospital... There is just always something going on! I even have to drag him to bed every other day!" Tsunade pouted and Yugito giggled.

"Yeah, you are the only one who ever took Rei by his collar and pulled him out of the living room by force, his expression was just so hilarious!"

Tsunade cracked a small grin, "That's nothing. Konan can be far scarier when she gets going. It's just that she would never direct it at Rei. One time she dragged Ringo to the training ground before leaving her there half-dead without care. Fortunately, their relationship improved a lot since then but still..."

"Wow, what did Ringo do to deserve that?" Yugito excitedly asked and Tsunade showed her a grin before starting to narrate how Ringo jumped at Rei like a bitch in heat and how Konan gave her a proper beat-down for it.

'Sorry, Yugi.' Tsunade thought, very pleased she managed to change the topic. 'But kids, huh? With how slow our bodies are aging after being tempered by the nature energy in Rei's dimension, there will be millennia before they lose the ability to reproduce. No rush there. I certainly am not bringing a new Senju onto the world when just one little slip-up would basically mean all of the five ninja villages hunting him or her down for the Senju bloodline.'

Tsunade had no illusions that her kid would be able to use a very potent mokuton. She theorized that the parents of her grandfather simply had too strong Senju Bloodline and Hashirama was gifted with extraordinary sensory ability. He simply could sense nature energy from an early age, somehow discovering how he could create mokuton through it. It was all just one big coincidence, to be honest. And that was also why the other Senju were completely unable to awaken it. They either lacked sufficient Senju Physique or Sensory abilities capable of sensing it, no matter how fleetingly. No wonder her grandfather kept quiet every time he was asked about his unusual bloodline.

Tsunade and Yugito chatted their time away, going from topic to topic. Tsunade had to admit, the younger blonde grew on her during the days they spent together since Mei brought her from Kumo. She only had no idea if it was because of both of them being blondes or some other mysterious force but Yugito was very easy to talk to for Tsunade, not to mention amusing. The kitty-girl was so easily distracted. At times, Tsunade likened her to a cat staring at a ball of yarn.

Yugito suddenly stiffened mid-sentence, her ears perking up as a small breeze ruffled the curtains on the sole open window in the room.

"Yugito, I think a cup of tea would be lovely. Would you mind bringing some, please?" Tsunade asked, making Yugito tilt her head slightly to the right and slowly nod as her shoulders slumped.

"Yeah..." Yugito heaved herself up and leisurely walked towards the door, briefly stopping before her hand reached the handle. "Milk or sugar?" She innocently blinked, to which Tsunade chuckled.

"Sugar. Tons of it."

"Gotcha."

With that, Yugito left with a nimble spring in her step, seeming a bit happier and somewhat anticipating.

Tsunade also lazily stood up and walked towards Koyuki before gently rubbing her head to get her attention. The pouty girl looked at Tsunade with a small glare, not liking being interrupted from her playtime.

'So spoiled,' Tsunade almost shook her head at the sight but she knew she could not fault the girl. Growing up with no mother and a Daimyo for a father? The people who raised her were servants and well... paid to fulfill every whim of her. They were servants, period.

Tsunade didn't wait for Koyuki to start speaking. That would be stupid. She leaned slightly forward and asked, "Do you like butterflies, Koyu?"

Koyuki, already prepared to give her biggest onee-chan a piece of her mind, stopped in her tracks at the question and scrunched her forehead.

"Un." She unsurely nodded after a while of pondering.

"Do you want to see one?" Tsunade lifted an eye-brow in a coaxing manner.

"Un?"

"Are you sure?" Tsunade teasingly asked.

"Un!"

"Then look!" Tsunade pointed forward, making Koyuki turn around, her back facing Tsunade.

The time almost stopped as Tsunade who was slightly leaning forward used her posture to quickly spin her body around on her toes. It was so fast, the man standing behind her, about to plunge kunai into her back, only managed to widen his eyes as Tsunade slugged him into the face, sending his body into the air, causing him to fly through the open window behind him.

And while surviving being dropped from high places was a mandatory thing for tree-hopping, chakra-using ninjas, unfortunately for the man, having his cheekbone broken in multiple places was quite distracting, causing him to go splat.

While the man was having his last flight, Tsunade used the force of her spin to carry her on her toes, stopping only when she did a whole 360 degrees, ending up in her previous position, just in time to smile at the peeved little girl who didn't manage to find a butterfly.

Koyuki was about to protest when she spotted a small, colorful, and finely-crafted butterfly made of wood, perching on Tsunade's pointing finger, causing her to whoop in excitement. Tsunade just crouched down and started playing with the girl.

Twenty minutes later, the door slowly opened, and Yugito walked in, holding a tray with three cups of tea. But Tsunade quickly discerned something changed. The air around Yugito was more subdued... satisfied.

Yugito put the tray on the floor where they previously sat and started sipping on her milk-heavy tea. It didn't take Tsunade long to coax the girl into chasing her new wooden butterfly that could somehow fly. Naturally, Tsunade really appreciated the chakra strings.

Sitting down on the opposite side of the tray, Tsunade smiled, "Did you have fun?"

"It was... sugary." Yugito shrugged and Tsunade snorted, looking at the small, almost indiscernible bit of blood on the cuffs of her right sleeve. A testament that Samehada saw some use in the previous minutes.

Milk always calmed Yugito down while sugar gave her so much energy she just had to get a proper beat-down from Mei or be all fidgety for the whole day. The second Tsunade told her 'tons of sugar', it basically meant 'go nuts'.

"How many?" Tsunade asked as she took her cup of tea and grimaced the second she took a sip. "Sugary indeed..." She mumbled, causing Yugito to chuckle and wordlessly put the third cup of tea in front of Tsunade who gave her a small glare.

"Twenty. Not bad. High chunin, maybe? For a small village such as Yukigakure, it is a considerable force considering they mostly give guys like this rank of jonin." She said as if she was talking about the weather but Tsunade only shrugged.

Ten minutes later, a disheveled, bloodied, exhausted, panting and high on adrenaline Kakashi with an ANBU mask strapped onto his face barged into the room with kunai in his hand, ready to... and then he froze the second his eyes landed on the leisurely sitting Tsunade, sipping her tea.

"Oh, hello there, Kakashi. Having a fun afternoon, I see. Tea?" Tsunade swept him with an amused look and tilted her head as she innocently pointed at her previous sugar-bomb of tea with an inviting smile.

Kakashi... fainted.