[Evening — Tea Village Bathhouse]
Later that day, Mikoto, after having a decently hard day, having trained with Seijuro for a while longer than she expected, found her shuriken jutsu had upgraded to a brand new level now. Read complete version only at N()velFire.net
She should be fine; Seijuro didn't do any major training, nothing too straining, just something light to keep his senses on high alert.
Hm, this might be one of the many things she loved about him—the fact that no matter the situation, he always seemed to have a plan to get out of it.
This small crush that Seijuro was worried about might turn into something more, might actually turn into love. Seijuro might have found himself a girlfriend... without really trying for it.
Currently, she was in the bathhouse, chilling in a corner, not trying to look her sensei in the eyes.
The one and only... Tsunade.
The future Legendary Sannin.
The Busty goddess of Konoha.
It was deeply intimidating.
Tsunade, of course, noticed her being all awkward and shy. She chuckled, stretching out lazily like a sunbathing lioness.
"Relax, kid. I don't bite."
(She said that, but honestly, Mikoto would believe she could snap a bear in half.)
Blushing furiously, Mikoto tried to loosen up, dipping her head a little lower into the water.
After a few minutes of peaceful soaking, Tsunade cracked open one eye and smirked.
"So... you've got a crush on that Seijuro brat, huh?"
Mikoto immediately stiffened. Was she really that obvious about it? Here she thought she hid it well.
"I—I don't—!" she stammered, face going scarlet.
Tsunade laughed; it was so damn obvious, anyone with eyes could see that.
"Don't lie. I can tell. The way you look at him..." she trailed off, wagging her finger teasingly.
Mikoto covered her face with her hands.
Was it that obvious?!
Tsunade leaned back against the smooth stone edge of the bath, giving a lazy smile.
"Don't worry, it's fine. Honestly, Seijuro's not as dense as he pretends to be. He knows. Trust me."
Mikoto peeked through her fingers, her heart hammering against her ribs.
Her eyes flickered downward.
At Tsunade's frankly absurd chest. Then, unconsciously, down at her own... utterly flat one.
Comparing herself with Tsunade wasn't something she should do.
She was 10; puberty hadn't even hit her yet, while Tsunade was like 19-ish, about to enter her 20s. Her body was way more developed than Mikoto's.
Even if in the future, Mikoto would not match the woman's bust or waist, it did not matter. She would still be one very pretty woman, and whoever ended up marrying her would be a very lucky guy.
Tsunade caught the glance instantly and snickered.
"Don't worry about that either. They'll come in during puberty."
Mikoto practically sank into the water like a turtle trying to hide in its shell.
This was so much worse than any Genjutsu nightmare she could have conjured.
[Meanwhile — Seijuro's Room]
Seijuro sat cross-legged on the futon, a single lantern casting flickering shadows on the walls.
In front of him, the stolen Uzumaki scroll was unrolled fully.
It was... complicated.
Whoever created this thing wasn't playing around.
Layer after layer of intricate seals, traps, lockouts—like some kind of arcane combination lock.
It took him four grueling hours, unweaving the seals one by one, cracking the codes with a mix of sharp wit and sheer patience.
A lesser shinobi would've triggered a self-destruct curse by now.
After hours, he got it.
He sighed a bit, opening his prize. He wondered what it was.
Looking at it, he saw it.
This was an incomplete seal, but from what he could gather, this was the Four Element Seal. It was missing some parts, but that didn't matter.
Seijuro began studying the seal. His knowledge of seals from the book he was given was only at a medium level, while this seal was on hard, but he managed to grasp the context very easily, and thus was able to use this in order to study it more.
No, its proper name was the Four Symbols Seal.
Sighing a bit, he wondered to himself, which tailed beast would be good.
The easiest tailed beast to steal would be the 7-tails, since the Village Hidden in the Waterfall wasn't all that great. Next was Kiri, then the Village Hidden in the Stone, then the Sand, then Konoha, believe it or not.
Kumogakure was last on that list. Yes, it would be easier to steal a piece of the 9-tails than to steal some chakra from any of the tailed beasts in Kumo.
The answer for that was simple: Seijuro was great friends with Kushina. She wouldn't mind if he did steal some of its chakra, as long as he could find a plausible reason why.
Some shit like making a stronger seal could and should work, or some other shit like finding a way to strengthen it, or how she could access that power for her own.
The excuses were endless.
Well, he better get promoted to Chunin soon.
The Genin life was just not it.