"Alright," Naruto replied with a sheepish grin, "I'll go talk to her."
Then, noticing the empty teacup on Tsunade's desk, he instinctively asked, "Where is Shizune-san?"
"She's sulking at home." Tsunade said lazily, leaning back in her Hokage chair, completely disregarding her voluptuous figure.
Naruto pursed his lips, thinking, 'Since I was already here and had more tasks to do later, I might as well try to get some benefits from Tsunade before leaving.'
In line with the principle that a thief never leaves empty-handed, he moved closer, boiling water for tea, and started massaging Tsunade's shoulders.
"Hmm~!" Tsunade let out a satisfied hum, allowing Naruto's hands to knead her shoulders, "I didn't expect you to be so skillful with your hands, keep going, don't stop."
"It is an honor to serve you, Tsunade-sama."
"Hmm, finally saying something decent. That's rare." Tsunade closed her eyes in comfort, and the tiredness and exhaustion from working for many days were melting away.
"Hehe." Naruto kept his hands moving, standing behind Tsunade and talking to her shoulder, "Tsunade-sama, what do you think of my performance on the missions these days?"
Tsunade leaned back in her Hokage chair, her green robe shifting, revealing a large expanse of her fair skin.
"100% completion rate, but a 60% complaint rate… It's barely acceptable. Anyway, as long as the missions are completed, it's fine. Most of the clients who complained aren't in their right minds, so don't worry about them."
"Don't take those evaluations to heart. Just do things your way."
Naruto wasn't bothered by the complaints. Others might treat clients like they were gods, fearful of upsetting them. But Naruto didn't care about them and always treated clients like dogs.
After all, he wasn't short on money, nor did he care about the Shinobi assessment. He also has Tsunade to protect him, so his only goal as a Shinobi was to maintain his bad attitude.
"By the way... Tsunade-sama, I want to learn how to summon Katsuyu."
"Hmm?" Tsunade opened her eyes a little, turned her eyes slightly, and asked in doubts, "Why did you suddenly want to contract a Summoned Beast?"
"Well... it's because I don't have one." Naruto replied a bit sheepishly and stopped his massage, only to be met with a glare from Tsunade.
"What are you stopping for? Keep going."
"Okay." Naruto obediently continued, "Last time I saw Tsunade-sama's Katsuyu, it was very good. Katsuyu is gentle, and I like Summoned Beasts that are polite and ready to come whenever I call."
"Heh." Tsunade glanced at him with narrowed eyes, and exposed his lie mercilessly, "Before, when Jiraiya asked you to go with him to train, you refused to go."
"I don't know why you're so insistent on staying in the village. If you had gone with him, you could summon any toad from Mount Myoboku at will. You could call whichever one you wanted."
"Tsunade-sama, even though I'm still young, you can't fool me." Naruto retorted without reducing the strength in his hands, "I've seen those toads before, and they have terrible tempers."
"If I were to summon one of those, who knows how long we'd end up fighting. I wouldn't stop until I beat them down."
"You…" Tsunade was speechless, but when she thought that Naruto could even control Kyubi, she suddenly felt that he might be telling the truth.
'People with strong desires for control can't stand others being stronger than them. What's more, this kid is an old scoundrel, the kind of person who can wait ten years to take revenge.'
"So you want to summon Katsuyu?" Tsunade asked.
"Yes." He admitted honestly.
"That's not impossible, but there's one thing I want you to understand." Tsunade kindly cautioned, "Even if Katsuyu is gentle, it depends on the person. She has her own temper too.."
"For example, she calls me 'Tsunade-sama', but if you summon her, you must address her as 'Katsuyu-sama' unless she acknowledges you. Only then will she call you 'Naruto-sama."
"Is that so?" Naruto pondered for a moment, then asked again, "If I start by calling Katsuyu-sama, and then she eventually calls me 'Naruto-sama', wouldn't that feel a bit strange?"
"Katsuyu has a very long lifespan, so you don't have to worry about that." Tsunade remarked with a sharp tongue, "By the time you turned to dust, Katsuyu will still be alive."
"Turning into dust... Fine." Naruto sighed, accepting his fate.
"Since you're that eager to learn, I'll teach you." Tsunade said, tilting her head back, causing the scene to suddenly become dangerous, "You don't have to become my disciple, and I can't afford to accept a shameless person like you as a student."
Hearing this, Naruto silently grumbled to himself, 'I wasn't too keen on becoming your student anyway. It was too much of a loss to exchange a Summoning Technique for calling you master.'
"But I have one condition." Tsunade continued, her voice drawing his attention upward as her ample chest swayed slightly, forcing Naruto to focus on the ceiling while he kept massaging her shoulders.
"What condition?"
"The next time Jiraiya tries to teach you Senjutsu, you have to learn it seriously." Tsunade said with serious tone, "You can be as stubborn as you want about everything else, but on this, you have to agree."
"Senjutsu? What is that?" Naruto feigned ignorance.
"You don't need to worry about that right now. You'll understand when the time comes." Tsunade sighed, pointing a delicate finger to a specific spot on her shoulder, signaling Naruto to press there.
"Alright, but if Pervy Sage knows that Senjutsu, how come you don't, Tsunade-sama?" he asked.
"You brat, do you think that Senjutsu are so easy to learn? You little…!" Tsunade retorted, clearly irritated, "Don't think of that technique as something simple!"
"Understood." Naruto replied, bowing his head in understanding.
Before long, Tsunade, her shoulders completely relaxed, leaned back in her Hokage chair with a satisfied expression. She raised one hand and waved at Naruto, then said lazily, "Alright, that's enough for today. I need to catch up on some sleep."
"As for the summoning scroll, we'll discuss it later. You've still got a long vacation ahead, so in a few days, ask Shizune to arrange a time to see me. I'll teach you the Summoning Technique and help you contract with Katsuyu."
Naruto acknowledged and slowly backed out of the room.
Walk out of the Hokage Building.
Leaving the Hokage Tower, Naruto felt a mix of relief and accomplishment. Securing the right to summon Katsuyu meant he'd have a mobile healer with him in the future. With Kurama no longer inside him, his ability to recover from injuries had significantly diminished.
So, to be on the safe side, he can only get himself a healer to take care of him, so that his chances of survival will be higher.
Naruto, with a refreshed look on his face, walked slowly along the streets of Konoha. Suddenly, he remembered what Tsunade said about Team 7, and his brows furrowed.
'I had to break the news to Sakura, but now I wonder what her current situation was like. The last time, I had avoided her like the plague, but now, fate seemed to have brought me back to her.'
After wandering outside the Konoha Hospital for a long time, Naruto still couldn't muster up the courage to go inside.
'But Team 7 will be reorganized sooner or later, it is a fate that cannot be avoided.' Thinking of this, Naruto gritted his teeth, deciding that at most, he just had to be more careful, and then walked into the Konoha Hospital.
Inside the duty room, buried under a mountain of paperwork, Sakura looked up, a soft smile playing on her lips.
"You came to see me?"
Hearing this eerie opening line, half of Naruto's body immediately went numb.