91: Termites eat wood: How deep are the cracks in the leaves?

The Land of Fire, Tanzaku Street.

This was a gambler's paradise, but also a place where dreams shattered.

Inside the largest casino, the air was filled with a cacophony of voices, mixed with the intoxicating fervor of smoke, alcohol, perfume, and money.

At the most bustling gambling table, a blonde woman slammed her last solitary chip onto the table with such force that it vibrated.

“Small! It has to be small!” she roared with more authority than the dealer, “I’ve been at odds with ‘Big’ my entire life!”

Behind her, Shizune, a black-haired girl holding a pink pig, already wore an expression of utter despair.

Tonight, Lady Tsunade had once again, through her actions, upheld her glorious title of “Legendary Sucker,” losing all their travel expenses for the next month.

The dealer, with a professional smile, flicked his wrist, and the dice cup created dazzling afterimages as it spun in his hand before slamming down on the table and being lifted.

Three dice lay silently: six, six, six.

“Triple sixes! All bets lost!”

The surrounding gamblers let out sighs of regret, not for Tsunade, but for themselves for not having seized the opportunity to bet against her.

Betting against Tsunade was an unwritten secret to getting rich in the Tanzaku Street casinos.

Tsunade seemed to have her bones removed, slumping in her chair, her eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. The casino's clamor seemed to recede, and she could only hear the hollow echo in her own chest.

She instinctively fumbled for the necklace around her neck, a memento of the First Hokage, and her last remaining capital.

Shizune was so scared her soul nearly flew away. Holding her little pig, Tonton, she pressed down on Tsunade's hand, her voice choked with tears: “Lady Tsunade! No! Absolutely not this!”

Tsunade’s fingers trembled for a moment, but in the end, she didn't exert force.

Just as the master and servant were in this struggle, a sudden “bang” erupted without warning in the center of the casino, a huge cloud of white smoke exploding.

From within the smoke, a toad, comparable in size to a calf, bearing a massive shield, and with a face that screamed “don’t mess with me,” appeared before everyone, covered in dust.

The casino instantly fell silent, everyone stunned by the surreal scene.

Several casino guards rushed over with their swords drawn, but stopped dead in their tracks about three meters from Gamaken, terrified by his impatient turn of the head, their legs shaking like sieves.

Gamaken completely ignored the surrounding riffraff, his fan-like large feet leaving two damp prints on the expensive carpet as he hopped directly in front of Tsunade. He opened his mouth and spat out a crumpled letter and a strand of white hair encased in mucus.

Tsunade frowned, taking it with an annoyed expression: “Is this another one of that idiot’s pranks? He thinks if I can’t pay my bar tab, I’ll…”

Her words cut off abruptly the moment she unfolded the letter.

The handwriting on the letter was scrawled and weak, but one sentence within it struck her like a heavy hammer to the forehead.

“…If you don’t come save me soon, my personally illustrated, never-before-seen manuscript of ‘Icha Icha Paradise: Collector’s Edition’ will have to be burned as money for my journey to the afterlife!”

The temperature in the casino suddenly dropped.

The veins on Tsunade’s forehead bulged one by one, and her knuckles, gripping the letter, turned white from the excessive force.

“Jiraiya—!”

After a roar, the gambling table made of fine ironwood in front of her, along with the three meters of floor around it, shattered into a flurry of wood chips and stone dust under her seemingly casual iron fist.

The entire casino was silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Everyone froze in place, looking in horror at the woman who had just been losing so terribly.

Shizune didn't pay attention to the enraged Tsunade. She picked up the strand of white hair, and as a medical Ninja, she instinctively channeled Chakra into it to examine it.

The next second, Shizune’s face turned deathly pale.

“Lady Tsunade!” Her voice trembled, “This isn’t just any poison! This is… a new type of potent poison! Jiraiya… is in great danger!”

The words “in danger” were like a bucket of ice water, extinguishing all of Tsunade’s rage, leaving only a bone-chilling cold.

Her usual lazy aura of always losing at gambling instantly vanished without a trace, replaced by the sharp edge of a drawn blade.

The Legendary Sannin, Konoha’s “Tsunade Hime,” returned to her true self at this moment.

She snatched the white hair from Shizune’s hand, and as her own Chakra surged into it, her expression became incredibly solemn moments later.

She had never seen such insidious and bizarre poison.

The fact that it could force Jiraiya, a man with an unbelievably tenacious life force, to seek help in such a way meant the severity of the situation far exceeded imagination.

“Shizune, pack our things,” Tsunade’s command was concise and powerful, “We’re returning to Konoha immediately!”

Almost simultaneously, the news spread like wind back to Konoha.

In the dark underground, the Root base.

The air was filled with the cold scent of earth mixed with disinfectant.

Danzo Shimura listened to his kneeling subordinate’s report, his bandaged face showing no expression, only his exposed single eye flashing with a calculating light. Jiraiya was on the verge of death, Tsunade was returning; this stagnant water had finally been stirred.

“Send people to ‘welcome’ Tsunade,” his voice was hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing wood, “Tell them that Princess Tsunade is our only hope for rebuilding the medical system, and on the way… there must be no ‘accidents’.”

He emphasized the words “welcome” and “accidents” heavily. The kneeling Root Ninja’s body tensed, and he silently lowered his head, indicating understanding.

“A lively Tsunade is hard to control,” Danzo added to himself, “but a hero who needs to be saved will be very obedient. Go.”

The Ninja vanished in a puff of smoke, and the base returned to silence.

Hokage Tower, the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi’s pipe puffed out a thick cloud of smoke, swirling around his wrinkled face.

Tsunade’s return could solve Konoha’s pressing need for a new medical system, which was good news. But he knew his disciple’s temper too well, her disappointment with the Village, and her almost irreconcilable conflicts with the Elders.

He looked out at the prosperous Village, sighing in his heart.

“Send a squad of Anbu,” he finally ordered the figure behind him, “There is only one mission: ensure Tsunade can walk into the Village gate on her own two feet. Guard against external enemies, and also against ‘our own people’.”

“Yes,” the Anbu acknowledged, silently retreating.

At the same time, the Uchiha Clan compound.

The atmosphere in the Uchiha Police Force meeting room was oppressive. Uchiha Fugaku listened with a grim expression as the messenger Ninja sent by the Hokage Tower read out the orders.

The Elder Council had issued a new mission—given the recent rise of bandits and chaotic public order in Tanzaku Street, a contingent of the Uchiha Police Force was specially dispatched to maintain order.

When the order was finished, the messenger Ninja had a hint of disdain on his face.

All the Uchiha Clan members present had ashen faces.

What kind of place was Tanzaku Street? A den of vice, a paradise for gamblers and drunkards.

To send the Uchiha Clan, who possessed the Sharingan, to such a place to deal with petty gang fights—what was this if not an insult?

“Clan Head! This is clearly…” A young Clan member slammed his hand on the table, his face flushed.

Fugaku raised his hand, stopping him.

He calmly took the mission scroll from the messenger Ninja, his voice showing no fluctuation: “Uchiha accepts the mission.”

The messenger Ninja snorted lightly and turned to leave.

Only when his back disappeared did Fugaku slowly clench the scroll, his knuckles making a faint cracking sound.

He looked around at the humiliated and angry faces of his Clan members, and said, word by word: “Go prepare your equipment. Let them see how the Uchiha execute a mission.”

Within a temporary camp on a mountain peak somewhere.

Zi Luo was irritably wiping his iron hand.

“Yan, I still don’t understand. Couldn’t we have just ambushed and killed that woman named Tsunade halfway? Why go through all this trouble, even attracting Konoha’s flies?”

Tang Yan leisurely skimmed the foam from his tea with the lid, then blew on the hot liquid.

“Direct interception?” He blew on the hot tea, taking a small sip, “Zi Luo, your fists are hard, but your brain can’t be that hard too. The title of Legendary Sannin wasn’t won by gambling. Forget her, even the acid secreted by her summoned Slug is enough to give your skin a hard time.”

“That snot Slug…” Zi Luo scoffed, pouting.

“The ‘invitation’ I sent wasn’t to kill Jiraiya,” Tang Yan put down his teacup, a hint of a smile in his voice, “That man is incredibly tough, he won’t die. I just needed a reason weighty enough to invite Tsunade back to the Village.”

He poured Zi Luo a cup of tea as well, the rising steam blurring his expression.

“I’m not very interested in killing her. I’m more interested in seeing with my own eyes if that ‘Legendary Sucker’ who always loses at gambling is really that ‘fat’. After all, being able to owe so much money and not pay it back is a skill in itself.”

Zi Luo picked up the teacup, showing no interest in the bitter liquid, and then set it down heavily. “What exactly do you want to do?”

“Watch a play,” Tang Yan’s lips curved into a smile, “Watch a good play. You see, the invitation has been sent, and the main character is on her way home. In Konoha Village, some want her dead, some want her alive, and one of the strongest enforcers of the Clan has been dispatched to manage drunkards. Everyone is moving, how lively.”

He extended his finger, tapping in the air.

“What I want to see is not a woman’s life or death, but how deep the cracks within this great tree that is Konoha truly are. Is the return of a hero a celebration, or the beginning of another disaster?”