Chapter 160: Chapter 160: Tell Me
Kitahara Kaede stepped out of the Hokage building.
The setting sun peered through the clouds, painting the entire street in hues of burnt orange. He let out a long sigh. Finally, he could get some proper rest.
As he turned a street corner, his footsteps faltered.
Tsunade was standing at the end of the road.
Clad in her green coat with her blonde hair tied in twin tails, the sunset glowed behind her, tracing her silhouette in a warm light. She wasn’t looking anywhere else. From the moment Kitahara Kaede appeared around the corner, her gaze had pierced through the passing crowds, pinning him in place.
Kaede swallowed hard. Why was she here?
Tsunade didn’t offer a greeting. She strode through the crowd and stopped directly in front of him, her tone brooking no argument.
"Walk with me."
Looking at her expression, Kaede swallowed the words he had been about to say.
"Alright."
The two walked side by side through the streets of Konoha. Neither spoke. Passing ninjas and villagers glanced at them occasionally, likely finding it strange to see Lady Tsunade walking with a young Chunin, but Kaede didn’t have the heart to care about their stares.
His entire focus was on the woman beside him.
Tsunade remained silent. Her hand gripped the hem of her coat, her pace quick, as if she were rushing toward a place she simply had to go. Kaede didn’t know what to say, so he followed her, step by step, in silence.
But he soon realized something. This path was becoming familiar.
His throat tightened again. He knew exactly where this road led.
They walked all the way to the top of the Hokage Rock.
An evening breeze blew in from the forest, fluttering Tsunade’s hair. All of Konoha unfolded beneath their feet, the rooftops and treetops stained in varying shades of orange by the sinking sun.
Standing on the edge of the cliff, Kaede felt his heart sink. Same location, similar evening.
Tsunade came to a halt at the cliff’s edge, turned around, and looked him straight in the eyes. The evening wind messed with the stray hairs on her forehead. In her eyes, there was struggle, fear, and something else—something indefinable.
Tsunade bit her lower lip.
Kaede watched her. She wanted to speak, but she didn’t know how. How could she tell a boy nearly twenty years younger than her about a memory so absurd that she could barely believe it herself? If she spoke it aloud, how would he look at her?
Kaede didn’t want her to keep struggling. He met her gaze.
"You have a memory too, don’t you?"
Tsunade froze. She clearly hadn’t expected him to be so direct. She stared at him intensely for a few moments, and then, her eyes suddenly reddened.
Slowly, she gave a heavy nod.
The wind on the cliff picked up. Tsunade took a moment to compose herself, her voice sounding slightly husky.
"Four years old," she began. "The first time we met was in the pavilion at the Senju estate. My grandfather had just been called away by the elders, and I had no one to play with. Then, I saw a little brat about my age sitting in the pavilion, clutching my dice in his hand."
As she spoke, a hint of old annoyance crept into her voice. "I told him to give them back, and he did. But then he turned around and won every single one of my candies and copper coins."
The corner of Tsunade’s mouth twitched. "I was just a kid; I didn’t understand anything. I just thought, ’Why is this person so annoying?’"
She tilted her head, her voice softening. "But then, he gave all the candies back to me, saying he didn’t like sweets. Later, he taught me how to manipulate the dice. That was when I realized that whenever Grandfather played with me, he was losing on purpose."
Kitahara Kaede stood still, not saying a word. The pavilion, the dice, the image of a young Tsunade with red eyes demanding her dice back—it all came rushing back to him.
Tsunade’s gaze dropped to the rocks beneath her feet.
"Later came the Ninja Academy. He sat next to me. Every morning, he’d come pick me up and bring me breakfast. He skipped every single class, yet he was top of the class every time there was an exam. No matter how hard I tried, I could never catch up to him."
She spoke plainly, as if reading from an old diary.
"Then we graduated, and we went on missions together." Tsunade’s voice dipped. "He taught me so much, and he protected me so many times. Every time he came back, there were always new wounds on his body. He never told me, but I insisted on looking. He’d eventually give in with a sigh, and I’d treat his wounds while scolding him."
Her hand unconsciously gripped the Blue Fluorite.
"...It was right here."
Tsunade looked up at the cliff beneath them. "Exactly in this spot."
Her voice suddenly became light—so light it was almost carried away by the wind.
"It was evening that day, too. He stood before me and finally gave me the answer I had been longing for. He told me that his feelings hadn’t changed since the day he taught me how to throw the dice."
Her gaze softened. "My heart was racing so fast."
She didn’t look at Kaede, her eyes fixed on the distant rooftops of Konoha. "When I put the necklace on him, feeling his warmth, I almost forgot how to breathe. That day, I thought... I can finally be with him forever."
Kaede’s chest felt tight, an aching pressure building up.
Tsunade’s voice began to tremble. "Later, he told me he’d taken a simple reconnaissance mission. He said he’d be back in three to five days."
"On the day he left, I saw him off at the South Gate. I told him to pick up some soy sauce and mirin on his way back. He promised he would."
She paused for a few seconds. "And then, he never came back."
The evening breeze swept across the cliff top, billowing Tsunade’s coat.
"On the evening of the sixth day, the ANBU knocked on my door. I was taken to the morgue."
Tsunade’s voice broke. "He was lying there, covered in wounds. I looked into those eyes that would never open again, and I touched the scar on his hand—the one he got protecting me."
She swallowed, but the lump in her throat wouldn’t go away. "Later, I found out."
She gritted her teeth. "He took that mission to save money. Because I had told him I wanted a house with a courtyard."
Tears began to slip from the corners of Tsunade’s eyes. She didn’t seem to notice. The liquid tracked down her cheeks, spreading across her skin in the wind.
She kept talking, though her voice was now completely hoarse. "He traded his life for money... just to buy me a house with a courtyard."
Kitahara Kaede stood two steps away. His chest felt suffocated, making it hard to breathe. He watched the tears fall from Tsunade’s eyes and saw her grit her teeth, refusing to collapse.
He took half a step forward. His body moved faster than his mind; he wanted to pull her into his arms, to wipe the tears from her face just as he had in the simulation, and tell her it was okay, that he was here.
But after that half-step, he stopped.
She wasn’t the Tsunade from the simulation. In this reality, he had never taught her to throw dice in a pavilion, he had never confessed his love on the Hokage Rock, and he had never made her breakfast on any morning.
He had no right to step forward.
And yet, the tears on her face were caused by him.
Kaede withdrew the hand he had raised. He looked down and pulled a handkerchief from his tool pouch.
He moved it forward half an inch. Then he stopped, leaving it suspended in mid-air.
Tsunade looked at the handkerchief. Tears blurred her vision, but she could see the hand clearly.
There was no scar on that hand.
She didn’t reach for it.
Tears fell steadily, splashing onto the rocks at the cliff’s edge and drying quickly in the wind.
She snapped her head up.
Her bloodshot eyes stared intensely at Kitahara Kaede.
"Tell me."
"Was it really just a dream?"
The evening breeze swept across the Hokage Rock, carrying her words away into the void.
Kitahara Kaede’s hand, holding a handkerchief, froze in mid-air.
He looked at the tear-streaked woman before him, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard.
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