As Orochimaru was watching with rapt attention, Tsunade swayed as she stood up, her fingers accidentally knocking over an empty wine glass, producing a crisp, ringing sound.
"Want me to carry you back?"
Orochimaru was in high spirits and joked with a smile.
Hearing such a bold remark from Orochimaru, Tsunade glared at him fiercely.
"Still trying to take advantage of me? Am I the drunk one or are you?"
With that, she staggered toward her room and slammed the door shut with a heavy bang.
The next day, Orochimaru came to the training ground as usual.
Except for him and Tsunade, Jiraiya and four-year-old Shizune were also there.
"Sister Tsunade is so amazing, and Uncle Orochimaru is amazing too."
Shizune, who was old enough to remember things, clapped her hands at the side as she watched the two fighting ahead, her eyes filled with stars.
"Shizune, why do you call Tsunade 'sister', but Orochimaru 'uncle'?"
Jiraiya looked at Shizune curiously at that moment. Could the age gap between these two possibly look that big?
"Sister Tsunade is just a sister. She told me to call her that."
Hearing this, the corners of Jiraiya's mouth twitched. Innocent little Shizune was still too naive, easily believing other people's smooth talk.
Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru were all born in the 10th year of Konoha, making them 27 years old now—right in the prime of their youth.
However, having been tempered by the baptism of war, all of them were much more mature than their peers.
At that moment, the two on the training ground were fighting fiercely. After two and a half years of practice, Orochimaru had come to understand this body extremely well.
From initially being able to take only three or four of Tsunade's punches and kicks, he could now withstand fifty or sixty blows head-on before reaching his limit.
While his body rapidly converted energy, Orochimaru would also repeatedly break through the upper limit of the energy his cells could hold.
However, after absorbing the energy of Tsunade's fifty or sixty Monstrous Strength punches, he dared not push the upper limit any further, because the cells nurtured by his body were not yet in a condition to store more energy.
It was much like his original body having broken through a series of shackles, yet always facing a bottleneck; to break further through this bottleneck, he had to raise the body's upper limit.
Either he relied on years and years of energy nourishment, which was still far too slow for Orochimaru; or, like the Black King, he evolved once more through the empowerment of the mother vine of the potion, raising the body's upper limit and absorption capacity.
At present, Orochimaru was still only able to absorb kinetic energy through physical contact; he was completely helpless against surrounding magical energies such as flames, magnetism, and gravity.
Even the efficiency of what he could absorb and convert was extremely low, let alone using it to fight enemies.
This was why Orochimaru had kept dragging Tsunade into spars.
"All right, Tsunade, let's call it a day for the training!"
Looking at Tsunade's heaving chest, Orochimaru, though somewhat reluctant, had no choice but to stop.
Another perk of sparring with Tsunade was feasting his eyes; the large, bouncing rabbits on her chest were truly dizzying, while also proving impossible to quit, making one wish she wouldn't stop.
Yet even a pervert like Orochimaru couldn't withstand Tsunade's violence. The scenery was nice, but his little life was more important.
"Yo, how come you're so fragile today? Giving in so fast?"
Tsunade stood with her hands on her hips, panting heavily as she spoke to Orochimaru, her chest still rising and falling in turbulent waves.
"Let's leave it at that for today. You take Shizune to buy some clothes first."
Hearing Orochimaru's words, Tsunade had no appetite for further battle; she patted the dust off her clothes and walked toward the edge of the field.
Today, Orochimaru hadn't even counterattacked much, spending most of his time just taking hits.
It wasn't that he had some strange fetish, but rather that his body's energy had reached its upper limit; absorbing any more wouldn't break the bottleneck.
This situation had persisted for some time, making him realize that this was already the limit of this body.
Knowing this, he naturally had no heart to continue and simply found an excuse to brush it off.
"Looks like my future goal needs to be shifted toward research! It's good that both the Hashirama Cells and the cells of the Uzumaki clan are already in my hands."
The next step was to first fuse these two Sage Bodies. He believed that with his experience of two lifetimes and doubled comprehension, he could carve out a completely new path.
Although the original Orochimaru was also engaged in human research, his research direction had gone astray; by the time he defected from Konoha, he had already begun researching the Reincarnation of the Living Corpse.
"Hey, Orochimaru, is this the taijutsu you've researched? A taijutsu of just taking beatings? Looks pretty good!"
Just as he was determining his future goals, Jiraiya's sarcastic voice drifted over.
By this time, Tsunade had already taken Shizune and was walking back, while Jiraiya remained right where he was, mocking Orochimaru.
Faced with his contemptuous, disdainful, and skeptical little glances, Orochimaru didn't waste words with him.
Instead, he walked right up to him and flicked him squarely on the forehead.
The next instant, with a "biu" sound, Jiraiya let out a miserable scream, and his body flew uncontrollably backward for five or six meters.
"If you're not convinced, you can be my sparring partner from now on!"
Clutching his forehead and grumbling curses as he lay on the ground, Jiraiya curled his lip when he heard Orochimaru's words:
"Well, aren't you something, Orochimaru! Taking advantage of someone's vulnerability to launch a sneak attack—just like a lotus root growing in a stinking ditch, full of dirty tricks!"
With that, he scrambled up from the ground, glared menacingly at Orochimaru, and continued:
"I want to see if you've made any progress over these past few years. Just the thing to settle yesterday's score!"
Orochimaru knew he was talking about getting beaten up yesterday and making a fool of himself in front of Tsunade.
"No time today, some other day!"
Ignoring his protests, Orochimaru turned and walked back with his eyes closed, walking away immediately after acting cool, just to infuriate him.
He had to go back and continue his research; he didn't want to waste time on these meaningless spars.
His newly acquired doubled comprehension sparked even more hypotheses in his mind, all of which needed to be tested one by one at the experimental workbench.
On the other side, Tsunade took Shizune by the hand and headed toward the village's shopping district.
"Sister, I never knew you were so amazing! I want to become a strong person just like you when I grow up."
Shizune, still half a child, looked at Tsunade with pure adoration, her eyes full of yearning.
"Hehe, alright! Sister is going to get even stronger, you know! I'll teach you everything when the time comes."
Only when staying with Shizune would Tsunade show her gentle side, pouring all the love she had for Kato Dan into the girl.
"Wow, even stronger? Is it Medical Ninjutsu?"
Hearing mention of Medical Ninjutsu, Tsunade's gaze dimmed somewhat, but then she nodded firmly at her and gently stroked her little head.
Ever since she contracted hemophobia, she had not performed surgery nor even stepped into a kitchen, but that didn't prevent her from entrusting her unfulfilled aspirations to Shizune.
Could she not eventually serve as her assistant and become the person to wield the scalpel in her stead?
"A girl is better off being gentle. Learn Medical Ninjutsu!"
"Okay, okay! I'll listen to Sister!"