"...I want to sleep, Sensei."

"Then, sleep! Stop thinking about useless things before you go to bed!"

Tsunade glared down at Suzuki. He had his eyes closed and appeared to be resting, but she knew perfectly well he wasn’t asleep. She could practically hear the gears turning in his head, his mind constantly analyzing, planning, and calculating.

"I am sleeping," Suzuki mumbled, keeping his eyes firmly shut.

He just wished Tsunade would leave his room. He felt like a teenager trying to feign sleep so his mother would leave, allowing him to pull out his hidden game console.

Tsunade didn’t say a word. She just stood there, staring intently at his resting figure until the distinct sound of the wooden sliding door closing echoed through the room.

Hearing the sound, Suzuki immediately opened his eyes. Not because he wanted to get back to work, but because he realized Tsunade had closed the door without leaving the room.

"...Aren’t you going back to your own suite? Why are you still in my room?"

"Aha! As expected, you were lying to me! You weren’t planning on sleeping at all, were you?" Tsunade pointed an accusing finger at him.

"I was trying to, but then you suddenly barged in and started interrogating me."

"Relax, I won’t bother your sleep."

Tsunade unceremoniously dropped down onto the tatami mat right beside his futon. In one hand, she held a massive ceramic jug of premium sake; in the other, a small drinking cup.

"...Just because you’re a medical ninja and can actively optimize your liver to metabolize alcohol doesn’t mean you should drink this much right before bed, Sensei," Suzuki deadpanned.

He was absolutely certain that if Tsunade didn’t possess the pinnacle of medical jutsu, her liver would have violently exploded decades ago given her daily alcohol consumption.

"You severely underestimate my constitution, kid." Tsunade grinned, pouring a generous serving of clear sake into her cup. "This meager amount of alcohol is literally nothing to me."

Yeah, but my wallet is definitely bleeding, Suzuki sighed inwardly.

Premium alcohol wasn’t cheap. Frankly, he had already considered entering the brewery and distillation industry. Controlling the supply chain would make it vastly cheaper to fund Tsunade’s habits. Furthermore, it was a wildly lucrative market, especially since the variety of alcohol in the elemental nations was remarkably limited.

They had sake, some distilled shochu, and fruit liquors like umeshu. But because this world was largely insulated from Western cultural analogues, there was absolutely no trace of high-yield spirits like vodka, absinthe, whiskey, or refined wines.

But, alcohol, huh?

If he introduced advanced distillation techniques and aged whiskey to the Daimyos and wealthy merchants, he could establish a permanent, unshakeable monopoly.

"What are you thinking about now?" Tsunade sighed helplessly, reaching over to lightly poke his forehead. "You need to rest."

"Nothing much. Just thinking about entering the brewery business."

"...Are you serious?" Tsunade looked at him, utterly dumbfounded.

"I am." Suzuki nodded calmly. "It’ll be much cheaper for me to take care of your drinking habits later."

"...." Tsunade stared at him, completely at a loss for words.

"You really are completely different from every other ninja I’ve ever met in my life..." Tsunade finally muttered, looking down at her first official disciple.

Sakura Haruno? In this timeline, who was she?

"Is that so?" Suzuki looked at her strangely, remaining curled under his blankets.

"It is." Tsunade nodded, a complex emotion swirling in her eyes. "At least, it’s my first time seeing someone operate like you do."

Anyone else would have yelled at her, tried to forcibly confiscate her alcohol, or lectured her about how her self-destructive habits were ruining her health. Suzuki never once tried to stop her. Instead, he just calmly analyzed the situation, changed his perspective, and immediately sought out a massive business opportunity to simply make her bad habits easier to fund.

If a person truly wanted to conquer their demons, they had to want it themselves. Tsunade knew that better than anyone. But seeing this arrogant, impossibly hard-working boy silently trying to shoulder the financial burden of her trauma... it unexpectedly made her want to try harder.

"Is that supposed to be praise?" Suzuki asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It is, you brat." Tsunade smiled gently, her eyes softening as she reached out to softly ruffle his hair. "So, for now, just rest. You can go back to being a ruthless capitalist tomorrow. But taking a break is important too."

"I am resting well... or, at least, I’m trying to," Suzuki muttered. He paused for a moment before an idea struck him. "Say, Sensei... is it theoretically possible to create a medical jutsu specifically designed to maximize resting efficiency?"

"..."

Tsunade blinked, pausing mid-sip. She stared at him, her mind immediately shifting gears into medical analysis. That question fell perfectly into her domain of expertise.

"It... should technically be possible," Tsunade murmured, setting her cup down.

The idea was actually brilliant. Instead of focusing entirely on aggressive cellular healing or poison extraction, a jutsu designed to regulate brain waves, optimize REM sleep, and rapidly flush lactic acid from the muscles would fall under the category of ’preventative’ medical ninjutsu. It would be revolutionary for active shinobi.

Why had she never thought of something so fundamentally simple?

Countless ninja suffered from crippling insomnia, whether due to PTSD from the battlefield or the sheer paranoia of active missions. If a jutsu could forcefully induce deep sleep and condense a full eight hours of rest into a single hour... the tactical applications were endless.

"While the theory is genuinely fascinating, you really need to sleep right now," Tsunade warned.

"But think about the long-term implications," Suzuki continued, entirely ignoring her order as his mind raced. "If I create a jutsu that artificially maximizes sleep via chakra manipulation, wouldn’t the patient eventually develop a dependency? They might lose the physiological ability to fall asleep naturally, forcing them to rely on the jutsu forever—"

"That’s enough! Go to sleep!"

Tsunade barked, aggressively shoving his shoulder down against the mattress, forcefully pinning him to the bed. Yes, his medical jutsu proposal was a potential breakthrough, but his physical health was more important right now!

"...If you weren’t sitting right beside me, it would be significantly easier for me to sleep," Suzuki grumbled.

If Suzuki had to brutally honest about the primary reason he was struggling to sleep, it was the Legendary Sannin sitting inches away from him.

Tsunade was a breathtakingly beautiful, mature woman. Despite the sharp scent of premium sake, her natural aroma was overwhelmingly womanly—a rich, intoxicating blend of floral musk and subtle herbs. It made his teenage body incredibly tense. Furthermore, the loose, casually draped sleeping robe she wore offered absolutely zero defense against gravity, displaying the deep, plunging cleavage of her massive breasts perfectly.

How was a healthy teenage boy supposed to calm down in this environment?

Frankly, the moment Tsunade had entered his room, Suzuki had forcefully rolled over and curled into a tight fetal position beneath the blankets. It was the only way to physically hide the highly aggressive, natural reaction occurring in his lower half. But curling into a tight ball wasn’t a comfortable sleeping position. He desperately needed her to leave.

Yet, instead of taking the hint, Tsunade loudly snorted and casually slipped her legs under his blankets.

"...What exactly are you doing?"

"I know your tricks, kid. You’re just trying to annoy me into leaving so you can immediately get out of bed and go back to drafting business proposals. Nice try. I’m not leaving this room until you are deeply asleep."

"...." Suzuki.

Well, I am definitely not falling asleep tonight!

Because he was incredibly wealthy, his futon was the absolute highest quality available in the elemental nations. It was essentially a Queen-sized mattress, crafted from pure organic cotton, wild silk, and imported horsehair.

Even with Tsunade climbing under the covers, there was plenty of room for both of them. It wasn’t uncomfortably tight.

Yet, the sheer proximity made it infinitely harder to sleep. He could distinctly feel the intense, radiant warmth of her body just a few centimeters away from his back. He could hear the soft, rhythmic sound of her breathing. And that intoxicating, floral scent was now trapped under the blankets with him.

"Wow! Your futon is incredibly comfortable!" Tsunade gasped in genuine surprise, shifting her weight against the plush silk. It was vastly superior to the standard-issue mattress in her own luxury suite.

"...I can easily have the exact same one delivered to your room tomorrow, so just please leave—"

"Yay~!"

To demonstrate her immense gratitude, Tsunade suddenly lunged forward, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist in a massive, suffocating bear hug.

Suzuki instantly froze, going completely rigid as he felt the overwhelming, heavy pressure of her bombastic breasts pressing forcefully against his back. His face instantly flushed a dark, violent crimson.

Fortunately... fortunately...

He was facing the wall. If they had been face-to-face, he was absolutely certain he would have died of a catastrophic heart attack.

Meanwhile, standing silently in the hallway outside his room, Yugao and Shizune listened to the muffled voices. They both sighed helplessly. They knew Tsunade had barged in, and they knew they couldn’t intervene without undermining the Sannin’s authority.

However, neither of the young kunoichi suspected for a single second that anything highly inappropriate might happen between the two. Tsunade was just being an overbearing mentor... right?