The creditor leader continued, "So let's just talk here. You probably can't come up with that much money anyway, so we'll reluctantly accept this arcade as payment..."
Hearing this, Tsunade could no longer stay calm.
"Wait a minute, I owe you the money, so why are you trying to seize this arcade?"
"Heh." The other man chuckled ambiguously, "After all, we've observed over the past few days that your relationship with the arcade owner is far from ordinary."
"More importantly, you, who almost never win at gambling, have been winning continuously in this arcade. If there isn't some trickery involved, I find that hard to believe..."
Crack, crack...
Before he could finish his sentence, cracks started forming on the ground beneath Tsunade's feet. He swallowed nervously, choking back the rest of his words.
Tsunade's expression turned grim; she was clearly enraged.
After all, this guy was accusing her of cheating to win in the arcade, which was the greatest insult to someone like Tsunade, who had never even considered using ninja techniques to cheat despite her habitual gambling losses.
Seeing the skeptical glances from the other gamblers around, her anger intensified.
Natsuhiko's arcade had only just opened recently, and she couldn't let customers start doubting the fairness of the machines.
—Otherwise, she wouldn't have any opponents left to gamble with!
More importantly, she now realized that these people probably never intended for her to pay back the debt; their real target was Natsuhiko's arcade.
After witnessing the extraordinary aspects of the arcade, Tsunade quickly anticipated the greed it might arouse.
But she hadn't expected them to act so soon, and even to use her as an excuse to go after the arcade.
The thought almost made her laugh in exasperation.
"It seems… my earlier concessions made you think I was an easy target."
She cracked her knuckles, glaring at the opponents ahead with a dangerous look, and then sneered:
"Very well, once you're all lying on the ground, we can discuss the matter of repayment."
"Don't worry. Even with my eyes closed, I won't need more than three minutes to deal with the likes of you."
Perhaps considering the number of spectators, Tsunade had already made a small adjustment to her claim about fighting with her eyes closed.
As soon as she finished speaking, she kicked off the ground, leaving a shallow pit behind as she launched herself like a cannonball towards the enemies!
In mid-air, she clenched her pale fist slightly, and the moment she landed in the crowd, she smashed it heavily onto the ground…
Boom!
The moment her small fist struck, the ground shattered like broken glass, splitting in all directions.
The splintering rocks and earth fragments scattered, forcing the surrounding enemies to flee in panic.
With her eyes closed, Tsunade gauged the impact of her strike by the sounds around her and thought to herself that it seemed quite effective.
They hadn't even hired any ninjas this time; who on earth gave them the courage to provoke her?
"Don't panic, everyone! She's just one person. Stick to the plan!"
Seeing that the situation was on the verge of collapsing, the creditor leader, who had failed to dodge a rock and was now bleeding from his head, still covered his wound and shouted out orders.
Tsunade's ears perked up at his voice.
It seemed that after their last defeat, they hadn't come entirely unprepared.
Unfortunately for them, she hadn't exerted much effort in the last encounter either, so if they were planning based on that standard, their efforts would likely be futile.
A bit intrigued, Tsunade wondered what tricks they had up their sleeves.
Following the leader's orders, most of the group calmed down.
Soon, a number of particularly strong men stepped forward to confront Tsunade.
"Now, attack!"
At the leader's command, the thugs pulled something out from their cloaks and hurled it toward Tsunade with all their might.
Shuriken!
Although she didn't see them, as soon as the familiar whooshing sound reached her ears, Tsunade instantly identified the nature of the incoming objects.
She almost wanted to laugh.
Was this supposed to be their trump card?
It seemed that her repeated use of the "eyes-closed" strategy had become their perceived opportunity.
But they had underestimated her.
For a typical ninja, avoiding every shuriken attack solely by sound would indeed be difficult.
However, for someone who had once dominated the battlefields of the Second Shinobi War, evading thrown weapons by ear was second nature.
Thus, their plan to overwhelm her with a rain of shuriken was unlikely to succeed.
Convinced of this, Tsunade's body began to weave and sway, dodging leisurely through the rain of steel as she slowly advanced toward them, hoping to pressure them.
Then...
Out of nowhere, there was a soft "thud," and Tsunade realized she had been hit in the knee.
She had actually been struck...
For a moment, she thought she might be rusty from being out of combat for too long and had let her ability to locate attacks by sound deteriorate.
But then, as she continued to dodge, she was struck again—once, twice, and then several more times in quick succession!
More importantly, from the shape of the wounds, she could tell that it wasn't regular shuriken that had hit her.
It was...
Using a chakra-infused hand, she pulled the weapon from her knee and confirmed her suspicion.
Senbon!
These were specially refined senbon, thin and nearly soundless in flight, commonly used in assassinations.
With the other shuriken providing cover, she hadn't noticed them coming.
So, she had been too careless...
A sense of unease began to grow in Tsunade's heart.
She hadn't expected them to craft such a plan specifically targeting her weaknesses.
If she had used different methods to avoid the initial attack or prevented them from throwing their weapons at all, she wouldn't have been hit so easily.
But her overconfidence in their weakness had left her open.
—Perhaps that's why they hadn't bothered to hire any ninja this time.
It seemed there was someone among them who had analyzed her thoroughly.
Though she could avoid falling for this trick again now that she was aware, she suspected they had accounted for that, too.
Senbon like these were often coated in poison to increase lethality...
As she felt her body growing sluggish and less responsive, she realized, with dread, that her suspicions were accurate...
"Hahaha, didn't expect that, did you? Our senbon are coated with poison!"
The thugs who had been secretly throwing the senbon began to shout triumphantly as the once-mighty Tsunade struggled to keep standing.
A few even licked their senbon with a sinister gleam…
Only to suddenly collapse to the ground, convulsing uncontrollably.
It was then that they realized just how resilient Tsunade was, still standing despite being struck by multiple poisoned senbon.
The creditor leader quickly reminded his men,
"Don't get complacent! She's a skilled medical ninja, so don't be deceived by her appearance. Don't let your guard down until it's truly over."
The thugs grew more serious, unleashing another storm of shuriken and senbon towards Tsunade.
Tsunade almost cursed out loud.
As the leader had pointed out, she was indeed using medical ninjutsu internally to treat her wounds while also slowing the spread of the poison.
So, she wasn't as helpless as she appeared, merely pretending to seek an opportunity for a decisive counterattack.
But the leader's keen observation had seen through her intentions.
A growing sense of dread loomed over Tsunade.
The poison on those senbon was proving even more troublesome than she had anticipated. On a battlefield, she wouldn't even have time to fully counteract it…
As if to confirm her fears, the poison from the senbon in her knee spread rapidly, causing her legs to buckle and send her tumbling to the ground!
The incoming weapons showed no sign of stopping as they continued hurtling toward her.
It was over…
Tsunade, who had collapsed on the ground, couldn't help but let out a bitter smile.
At this moment, she finally realized just how much her skills had deteriorated over the past few years. Although her hemophobia prevented her from using her eyes properly, it was undeniable that she had been driven to such a desperate state by a group of ordinary people...
Just like her grandfather used to say when she was little: even someone as invincible as him could still be killed by a simple kunai.
And here she was, the granddaughter of the God of the Shinobi World, possibly facing death under a flurry of senbon and shuriken...
Of course, this would only be the case if she were really alone near this game hall.
However, at this very moment, she was not entirely by herself...
"Earth Release: Qingming River Mud Flow Wall."
Accompanied by a clear voice, a thick earthen wall rose in front of Tsunade, blocking all the incoming ninja tools aimed at her.
What was even more surprising was that the wall was intricately carved with lifelike, almost maddeningly detailed folk scenes.
Meanwhile, a commotion broke out among the enemy ranks.
A white-haired young man was seen wielding a ninja blade, cutting his way in and out of the enemy formation as if no one could stop him.
And unnoticed by everyone else, another white-haired figure emerged from the ground beside Tsunade.
"Tsunade-sama, to be honest, I'm a bit disappointed."
"Who would have thought that someone like you, one of the Sannin, could be put in such a sorry state by these little tricks?"
The newcomer was none other than Natsuhiko. Seeing Tsunade's disheveled state, he teasingly remarked.
He even quickly used a camera technique to capture the moment.
"Let's call this picture 'Tsunade and the Hundred Brawny Men'."
Hearing Natsuhiko's mockery, Tsunade blushed slightly, feeling a bit embarrassed by her own performance this time.
In truth, although she lacked recent combat experience, she rarely acted this recklessly. After all, she usually worked alone, with no one to cover for her if things went wrong.
But this time, knowing Natsuhiko and the others were nearby, she got carried away and tried to show off.
As expected, this confirmed one of the great truths of the shinobi world: acting on impulse often leads to a thorough beating.
However, Tsunade didn't think she was entirely to blame for this.
As she quickly used medical ninjutsu to extract the poison from her body, she complained irritably, "Natsuhiko, you have the nerve to talk! Granny Mito must have already told you about my situation, right?"
"And yet you still had the heart to just watch me struggle for so long. You're a complete jerk!"
"Stepping in only at the last moment—do you feel proud of yourself?"
Oh, is Tsunade just upset because her own attempt to show off failed, and now she's mad at someone else doing it? Natsuhiko thought to himself, showing a helpless expression.
"Tsunade-sama, you've misunderstood."
He rubbed his nose and said, "Actually, I noticed they seemed prepared for us, so I was observing the situation from the shadows..."
Upon hearing this, Tsunade's face grew slightly more serious.
"Indeed, there were many unusual aspects to their actions this time—how they were able to locate us, and their tactics specifically aimed at me..."
"More importantly, this troublesome poison isn't something they could have acquired so easily..."
Natsuhiko nodded in agreement and added, "It seems you've realized as well, Tsunade-sama. There's likely a mastermind behind all of this... Ah!"
Suddenly, Natsuhiko let out a horrified groan mid-sentence.
Tsunade instinctively opened her eyes, and what she saw filled her with terror.
Natsuhiko was coughing up blood, his left chest pierced from behind by an arm covered in black tendrils, blood dripping down.
A still-beating heart, with blood vessels connected to Natsuhiko's body, throbbed in the intruder's hand.
With difficulty, Natsuhiko turned his head to see a tall figure who had emerged from the ground using the Earth Release technique. The black tendrils extended grotesquely along the arm that had pierced through his body, reconnecting to the hand that had held the heart.
"It's you... Kakuzu..."
It seemed Natsuhiko recognized the attacker, struggling to speak with what little strength he had left.
But before he could finish, the hand clenched tightly!
The once-beating heart instantly burst into a spray of blood, splattering all over Tsunade's face.
With a thud, Natsuhiko's body fell to the ground, lifeless eyes staring blankly at the horrified Tsunade.
The man behind him casually tossed the shriveled heart aside, his tone tinged with regret.
"I thought someone capable of inventing those gaming machines might have a heart that would surprise me. But it turns out it's disappointingly inferior..."
"At this rate, it doesn't deserve to be added to my collection."
(End of Chapter)