It was dawn, and Tsunade brought Yujin to sleep at her house since he had destroyed the house where he lived.
It took him a while to realize that he had destroyed the place where he was sleeping due to a mistake. Along the way, he apologized to Tsunade several times for the damage caused to the house and promised to repay her for the damages. He had never felt so guilty about something he did before.
It was a mistake he didn't expect.
When they arrived at the house, Tsunade went to check if Shizune was still asleep, and when she saw the little angel sleeping peacefully, she grabbed sake and took it to the room she had lent to Yujin.
It was very familiar for Yujin to see her carrying a sake gourd with cups in hand as she approached. He missed it. Handing a small cup to Yujin, she poured sake for both of them and drank it in one go.
The two remained silent for a few minutes while drinking. Tsunade was thinking about what she wanted to say, but feeling the atmosphere in the room, she sighed and commented.
"I missed this."
Yujin smiled and nodded, agreeing.
"Me too, I like drinking with you, even if we're silent."
Tsunade smiled, understanding how he felt. She felt the same. In silence or in conversation, Yujin's company always made her happy.
"Let's keep doing our drink sessions in the future."
"As long as you don't mind..."
Yujin was cautious about Tsunade's reaction. Because of the confession, they naturally distanced themselves and stayed apart for a while. This situation, however, sort of created a reason for them to come together, and Tsunade was no longer willing to stay apart.
"You know how I feel, Yujin."
"No, I don't; you didn't tell me."
She planned to continue talking, but Yujin interrupted her, wanting an answer. Tsunade looked into his eyes and sighed, silent for a few seconds as she looked at the sake in the cup.
"I have feelings for you too. If we had met in different circumstances, I'm sure my answer that day would have been different, but now is not a good time."
"I understand. I already expected your rejection."
Tsunade was surprised to hear that and raised her head to look into Yujin's eyes, wanting to understand what he meant by that. Yujin took another sip of sake, and after a long sigh, he explained.
"We needed this, this space."
He filled the cup with sake again while waiting for Tsunade's reaction, who didn't show any, she seemed confused.
"You know, our relationship didn't start in a healthy way. You were going through one of the most difficult times of your life, and I needed someone to help me in this new world. In a way, I took advantage of the situation to gain your sympathy and trust."
"No, no, wait."
Tsunade stopped him from speaking with her hand and began to think silently about what this meant. Yujin gave her space to think and continued drinking, occasionally pouring a cup for Tsunade to drink.
Minutes later, Tsunade began to understand, but she needed confirmation.
"I understand that you wanted to gain my trust, and there's nothing wrong with that; you needed help adapting to a completely different place, I get it."
Yujin nodded, agreeing with her statement. She continued.
"And what you got with that was my company, so you could get information as well as a place to live. That was when we reached the village."
Yujin nodded again, agreeing with her.
"But what does that have to do with you confessing to me and us needing space?"
Tsunade found the situation confusing; she couldn't understand Yujin's thought process. He thought for a long time before explaining.
"You are going through a difficult time, so it's normal to be more vulnerable. Because of our friendship at this moment, our relationship was taking a direction I didn't want. Even though it wasn't my intention, our feelings were growing, and you were very emotionally dependent on me."
Tsunade understood when he said that. In the days they were apart, whenever she felt sad or tired, she had the urge to go see him.
"If our relationship developed in this situation, one day, you would regret it. Whether because of Dan or if you came to the conclusion that I took advantage of you because of the moment. With the rejection, we would have space for both of us to evaluate our feelings and make sure this is what we want. Confessing my feelings was the first step."
Tsunade was at a loss for words hearing this. She did it. She started to evaluate the feelings she had for Yujin without even understanding his intentions. Again, she was impressed with how insightful Yujin was.
"You don't have to feel obligated to accept my feelings. As I said before, I'll wait, no matter how long it takes, because my feelings are genuine. If one day you accept my feelings, I want you to never regret it and feel my sincerity. I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
Hearing this was very difficult for Tsunade; she used all her strength not to cry; it wasn't the time. She was very happy with Yujin's words and at the same time very sad that she couldn't accept them.
Yujin continued drinking after expressing what he wanted. Now, everything depended on Tsunade, and he didn't plan to do anything else, just wait. Tsunade took a deep breath to calm herself but didn't comment on what he said, keeping the words in her heart.
"Let's continue what we were doing before. Drinking together and researching Qi and Chakra. You promised to teach me how to train in Qi, and I promised to teach you how to use Chakra."
"Sure, I don't see a problem."
Yujin seemed satisfied with the arrangement. Although they remained a bit distant compared to how they were before, the confession didn't prevent them from having a normal friendship where they drank, studied, and trained together.
"Today, I talked a bit with Might Duy. A nice person, full of enthusiasm. I invited him to learn Martial Arts from me in a few hours. Want to join? I'll try to teach you both to accumulate Qi."
"Great, I'll participate too."
With the end of the previous conversation, Yujin decided to change the subject, and Tsunade finally remembered what she wanted to talk about before. With narrowed eyes, she asked.
"About that book earlier..."
Yujin froze upon hearing her bring up the book in the conversation. When she saw him like that, she insisted.
"Aren't we friends? I want to know what happened."
He remained silent, drinking the sake. Seeing him being so stubborn, Tsunade played her trump card.
"You destroyed the wall of my house..."
"Okay, fine, geez, you didn't need to bring that up. I already feel guilty enough without you saying anything."
Taking a deep breath, Yujin sighed and explained.
"Do you remember the other day when Jiraya recommended a book to me, and I burned it?"
"One day I'll have a conversation with Jiraya about that. Continue."
Tsunade looked at Yujin with narrowed eyes, a cold gleam passing when she thought about how Jiraya dared to present that kind of content to Yujin. She didn't know what kind of book it was, as she had never read it, but knowing Jiraya and Yujin's reaction, she had a good guess.
"In the world where I came from, there were no storybooks, only books with knowledge. So, since I learned to read and discovered these types of books, I started devouring romance books for... educational purposes. I asked the store manager about the type of book Jiraya recommended, and after he explained it to me, I got curious. He said I could learn even more about romance, and other things, so..."
Tsunade averted her eyes when he looked at her, feeling a bit embarrassed. She felt strange knowing that Yujin was learning about romance and... that, because of her.
"So... I asked for a less immoral book from the manager; he recommended ten books, and that was the one I chose. I just didn't expect that to happen..."
Yujin sighed as he thought about it. When he read that part, he was so furious that he didn't know what to do with so much anger, so he unconsciously threw a punch and destroyed the house's wall. He was far from having a breakdown of his Harmony state, but there was a momentary fluctuation. He just didn't expect that.
"What happened?"
Tsunade was curious about what kind of story would make Yujin react like that. Yujin took a deep breath when he heard the question, wondering if he should talk.
"It was a normal romance, up until near the end of the book. A man and a woman who liked each other. They had many intimate encounters. And I felt that both were meant to each other. But... Damn HentaiGodZ."
Yujin punched his own hand in protest. He really wanted to punch the author. How dare he write such garbage.
"But what? What happened?"
Tsunade was getting impatient, wanting to know what happened. Yujin saw her curious gaze and sighed. With great difficulty, he spoke.
"But she... I don't really know; I stopped reading when it happened. A scene of her with three more men. Geez, I feel like vomiting just imagining it."
Yujin took a deep breath, making the thoughts about that scene disappear from his mind. Tsunade was speechless when she heard this and felt shivers running through her body.
"What a bizarre story... And the manager recommended that to you?"
"Yes, now you understand my frustration. I trusted him. Later, I need to have a serious conversation with him."
Tsunade remembered Yujin's previous reaction, where he apparently wanted to destroy the bookstore and find the author to do something, so she decided to go with him.
"I'll go with you."
Yujin nodded, and he couldn't wait to confront the manager later. He needed an explanation.
***
A reader questioned me about the appearance of the MC, if there is an image of him. I said no, but that there is an existing character whose appearance is very similar to Yujin's; Saotome Ranma. I don't know if you're familiar, he's the protagonist of Ranma 1/2. Even the outfit Ranma wears in the anime is similar to what Yujin used in his previous world. The difference between the two is that Yujin is older, slightly taller, and with more defined muscles. Yujin's hair is also longer, reaching his waist, although, like Ranma, he ties it in braids.
I only noticed this resemblance between the two characters when the person in the comment asked, so I was surprised; maybe I unintentionally drew inspiration from Ranma. And that helped me. I wanted to post the novel on Royal Road, but I had a problem with the cover image of the fanfic there. They didn't accept the image of Tsunade that I'm using now; I need image rights. And since I don't know the source of Tsunade's image, it's impossible. They accept images with AI, however, and that's what I tried.
I tried to make images of Tsunade with AI, but I didn't find any good ones; they all looked like Tsunade, but they weren't Tsunade. I wanted an image of Tsunade specifically, exactly the same, but the AI didn't cooperate. That's when this comment came, and I thought about making an image of Yujin; it should be easier, and I succeeded.
In the WebNovel site, I'll put, in a comment on the title "Yujin" of the first chapter, images of Yujin that I made with AI if you are interested. In the comments, I'll put one image. If you want to see more, go to chapter 1 again, in the paragraph comment of the title.