The painting was long, fully spread across the table, depicting a wooden statue.
This statue was massive, taking up half the canvas. Against the backdrop of mountains, it looked even more imposing. Upon the statue were a thousand giant hands, and standing beneath them was someone—Ninja God Hashirama Senju.
Title: [Thousand Hands Manipulation Force]
"I heard the First Hokage had a technique with this name, so I painted this image based on my imagination. I hope it doesn't disgrace your grandfather."
Akaba still held some reverence for the First Hokage, so he dared not be too careless.
Tsunade joyfully rolled up the scroll, her voice filled with deep gratitude. "Akaba, thank you, thank you so much."
"Just happened to be your turn. Here's your manga book."
Akaba picked out one manga volume and handed it to her.
Tsunade accepted it without comment, knowing better than to point things out.
It was obvious this painting was drawn for her, meant for her possession. That lottery ticket wasn't really just coincidental—it had been secretly kept by Akaba.
Feeling both sweet and excited inside, Tsunade tightly hugged the scroll without letting go for quite some time.
Ever since childhood, Hashirama Senju had been her favorite person, her ultimate hero. Tsunade once believed that this man would forever stand tall among ninja.
But then one day, the hero fell—forever.
"I never saw Grandpa fight when I was growing up, so I don't know if this jutsu is truly like this. Maybe Grandma knows."
Clutching the poster and the manga, Tsunade wasn't in the mood for teasing Akaba anymore.
"Yeah, bring one for Grandma Mito too."
Without hesitation, Akaba handed over another volume. "Don't worry about paying. Consider it my gift to Grandma Mito."
"Hmph, wasn't planning on giving you money anyway."
After briefly feeling touched, Tsunade returned to her old self. She tucked the manga under her arm and left, carrying the paper tube.
"Yunlang, the lottery is done now. Just collect the payments next. Hmm, if some poor kids want copies but can't afford them, feel free to hand out some for free. A few hundred ryo isn't a big deal."
Akaba got up to go over a few final instructions before heading home for a well-deserved rest.
"Yes, young master."
Sakuma Yunlang, who had been in charge of stocking books on the shelves, agreed promptly. For the past couple of hours, he'd been helping Akaba sort through the stock and already had a clear idea of how the sales were going.
As Akaba had said, even a mistake costing a few hundred or even a few thousand ryo was something the Sakuma clan could easily absorb.
These past few days, Akaba indeed felt exhausted.
These were the toughest days since he arrived in the Fire Shadow World — as intense as a major crunch time back in his past life. If he didn't get some sleep soon, he might actually drop dead from exhaustion.
Senju Clan
"That brat opened his store today, right? Doesn't even send me a manga earlier. Does he know how bored I've been?"
Mito Uzumaki lounged in the chair, utterly bored out of sheer idleness.
She had amazing patience, but even so, she had already finished reading the first three chapters three days ago.
"Grandma, guess what I brought you!"
Tsunade's voice came from outside. Before she entered, Mito Uzumaki suddenly jumped up, dashing out like flowing shadows.
A moment later, she reappeared on her lazy chair, now holding the manga book in hand along with the paper tube.
"Grandma, you can't just snatch things! That's mine!"
Tsunade turned red-eyed, rushing in and trying to snatch back the tube.
Mito Uzumaki moved her hand, forming a seal, and immediately launched her Sealing Technique.
"Little Tsunade, Grandma's just taking a look. Why the rush?"
"Wahhh!"
Tsunade wanted to speak, but she had been trapped by Uzumaki's unique sealing method, leaving her unable to use chakra or move her body.
Ignoring her adorable granddaughter, Mito carefully opened one end of the paper tube while holding onto the manga.
In the next moment, a long painting slid out from the tube.
"Oh my, this is quite a big comic scroll! Good granddaughter, Grandma will take it as a gift."
Mito teased intentionally.
As expected, Tsunade became excited and struggled fiercely within the seal, but unfortunately, Mito was known throughout the Ninja World as the greatest expert in sealing techniques. No matter how strong a Genin like Tsunade was, she could never escape from her grasp.
In truth, all of this was merely a way for Mito to hide her emotions.
[Thousand Hands Manipulation Force: Thrust]
Silently, the seal was lifted.
Seeing her grandmother witness the picture, Tsunade no longer tried desperately to snatch it back.
"He once used this jutsu at the Valley of the End, just like this..."
Her voice sounded slightly sorrowful.
At this moment, he was already gone — all that remained were lingering echoes. There was no one left in Konoha capable of using Wood Release, not to mention Sage Art Wood Release.
"Back then, Grandpa must have looked just as handsome."
Tsunade whispered softly.
Smiling gently, Mito didn't reply. Instead, she gently stroked the poster before carefully rolling it back up and placing it into the paper tube, handing it back to Tsunade. "Take good care of it. This must have taken a lot of effort to draw."
Tsunade accepted the paper tube, cherishing it greatly.
After a brief emotional moment, Mito picked up the manga and began flipping through it from the start. To her, it was just another day's memories — nothing special, really, though seeing them in comic form made them feel more alive.
For Tsunade, however, things were different.
Saying this wasn't hard work? Total nonsense. Especially considering Akaba hated trouble — he wouldn't spend this amount of time and energy unless it truly came from his heart. This artwork represented heartfelt dedication.
This was Akaba's grand present!
"Snatching bells? Classic trickery. Though I didn't expect that kid Akaba would know about this."
"By the way, who exactly is Kakashi Hatake?"
Suddenly asking when turning to chapter four, Mito said.
"He's the son of Sakumo Hatake."
"Sakumo? That little brat from your team?"
Mito chuckled, clearly enjoying how childhood friendships inspired imaginative connections.
To her, it was just a way to kill time, but those little moments of joy were rare gifts in her long life.
"Oh right, I heard you sent one of your classmates to the hospital today?"
While noticing Naruto getting beaten up in the comic, Mito suddenly recalled a message she'd received earlier.
"Yeah, some idiot had foolish romantic aspirations, even sneaking into the bathhouse. I couldn't help myself—I punched him."
Tsunade remained visibly annoyed when mentioning Jiraiya.
Of course, even though Jiraiya was basically an idiot, he wasn't totally hopeless when it came to Ninjutsu. At least he understood that if he wanted to peep safely, he should first master a more concealed Earth Release technique — and apparently learned it well enough.
"That guy... He could pull off the Telescope Technique even as a kid. Anyway, he's the Hokage now, so I'll drop it—no need to dig up old dirt."
Mito Uzumaki dropped the subject immediately.
"What do you mean?"
Tsunade didn't quite get it at first.
Unfortunately, Mito had no interest in elaborating further and returned to her manga.
The Telescope Technique? The Third Hokage did that?
Tsunade didn't fully understand, nor did she feel like dwelling on it. She gathered her things and prepared to head back to her place.
She needed to have this poster properly framed. She couldn't just leave it lying around where it might get ruined—it was the first meaningful keepsake she'd ever received from Akaba.
Not like that lazybones would ever bother giving her something like this again anytime soon.
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