Chapter 2: Society After Eight Years
—
Okay, his first try at leaving the house didn't go so well. If not for his... past life, he may have even gotten traumatized.
In any case— at least he survived, that was a good thing. Right?
No. It turned out that it wasn't a good thing. That, he should have died.
"You idiot! You should have died! W-Why are you alive?!" Tsunade hugged him tightly and cried on his shoulders, her body trembling. "I told you not to go out! Look what that cost you!"
As far as she knew, it cost him nothing. He was wearing short pants, so the cutting of legs didn't leave any mark— rather, he had shown his abilities by defeating those bandits easily.
Well, maybe not 'easily' but the point still stood.
"Shira, what if a beast attacked you when you were knocked out?!" as if reading his mind, she pulled her face back to glare at him. "That's it, I am locking the door from the outside from now on."
"..." He sighed, knowing no words will stop her from doing that. "Alright. But hey, can I cut my hair short?"
"No!"
"..."
—--
Around a few hours later, after she made sure he was calm and wasn't traumatised, upon which she fell into a long silence, Hashirama decided to breach a question that's been bothering him since a while ago.
"Did you feed me a devil fruit without my knowledge?" He said, sitting at the dining table and watching her cook in the kitchen. "You should have told me, it might have gotten me killed if I went to the water."
She frowned and looked up from the dish she was cooking. "How do you know eating devil fruits makes you unable to swim?"
"...Ah, yeah, that." He searched for something quickly. "The bandits. They said it when I used my wood powers, saying they should throw me into the water to defeat me."
"..."
Okay, maybe telling her that was a worse idea, given how her frown deepened.
In the end, unlike how she expected her to yell at him some more, she sighed and shook her head.
"It's not a devil fruit ability." She said, putting off the fire and walking over to him, leaning over to face his eyes. "It's a legendary ability talked about in the history of our clan. We were trying to recreate it for years and therefore had been mating with different sub-human races to maybe unlock this power. At one point, after countless failures, our grandfather married a woman from the Uzumaki Clan, our grandmother. The people of her clan, just like her, have a sort of innate, ambient energy in their bodies they liked to call chakra. So by conceiving children with grandma, our grandfather wished to recreate the legendary ability of our clan called ‹Wood Release› that hasn't appeared in our clan for a few centuries now. However this... 'experiment' didn't succeed, as none of grandfather's children got it, and neither did their children. As one of the last Senju and Uzumaki left in the world, unfortunately I didn't inherit it either, and until now I was assuming you hadn't either."
Ah.
So even the Uzumaki Clan existed? He wondered how many other things existed here.
In any case, as surprising as her words were— it wasn't anything impossible. Many races did have innate bloodline abilities such as the Lunarians' fire and the Three-Eyed Tribe's third eye that showed them things that normal eyes couldn't. Even the Mink's electricity powers. In this world, powers existed beyond just devil fruit ones, so his origin didn't clash with the setting of this world.
"So yes, don't worry, unlike me you'd still be able to swim." She smiled, rubbing his cheeks with her hands. "Also, sorry, it's my fault for... not taking you out. If I had beforehand, you wouldn't have tried to go out by yourself. I just didn't want to endanger your life since this is the Grandline, a place where countless dangers lurk."
So they were in the Grandline, huh? He was expecting to be in one of the blues, as this place was pretty peaceful as far as he knew. The Grandline on the other hand was pretty dangerous... Though he didn't panic now that he knew how much potential he had for growth.
"Actually, even if we don't count the pirates and bandits," she smirked proudly. "You might not realise, since I am the only woman you saw in your life, but I am kinda really hot. People hit on me every chance they get— moreover since I take care of my patients with so much care, many of them fall for my charms. Evil men may use you to get to your sister, you know-"
"Please, shut up. No need to boast about your looks to your 8-year-old brother, it makes me think no adult is interested in you." Hashirama interrupted her, giving her a dry look as she paused.
Tsunade stared at him, her face paused mid-sentence before she lowered her head and muttered, "I... see."
Huh? Why did she look depressed? He was just joking.
—-
In either case, Tsunade learned from her mistake and took him out to her job tomorrow. People were very surprised and in disbelief when they learned he was her brother— given they had different hair colours and eyes, but nobody doubted Tsunade too much since at least their faces were similar.
"But he is a boy?" a man with long bluish-white hair, wearing a doctor's outfit, said as he looked at Hashirama. "Hah, then again, I shouldn't be the one saying that."
This man was right, he looked more feminine than Tsunade, and didn't have the excuse of being a child such as Hashirama.
"Right, Doctor Dan? He looks almost like you, don't you think?" Tsunade asked, munching on her food as she ate like a gorilla, already on her 3rd dish on this short lunch break.
Okay. He may know why she didn't let him cut his hair short. She was planning to use this to make Doctor Dan Kato like him, and therefore create a love path for her. Was that it? Was his sister using him to get some dick? He would have been proud if Dan fell for it though.
Rather than answering her question, Dan gave her an awkward smile seeing how she ate. "Ah, Tsunade, that's not very feminine... people will talk if you keep doing it."
Hashirama frowned. He didn't like how this guy told his sister what to do.
"Ah-" Tsunade got flustered, quickly dropping her food to the plate, but she was interrupted by an angry Hashirama glaring at Dan.
"Never heard of tomboys, did you?" Hashirama said, making Dan blink. "Then again, given how feminine you look— I doubt you get bitches at all, let alone tomboys."
"..."
"..."
* * *
"You really had to get me fired, eh?" Tsunade sighed as she walked beside him, heading towards their house.
"...Sorry." Hashirama sighed, feeling guilty. "I just... didn't like how he told you what to do."
Tsunade was 22 years old, and was aspiring to be a doctor in the future— but due to their financial situation, she didn't have most of the books that she needed to read for the doctor's exam, so she used to borrow Dan's book from time to time. The fact that Dan lent her his old books was one of the main reasons for her crush, to begin with. But now...
"Aww, don't be. Cheer up." Tsunade picked him up in her embrace and rubbed her nose with hers. "Not gonna lie, I was hurt when he fired me— more so when he demanded I give him back all the books he lent me by tomorrow. I was hurt, but I also realised what sort of man he was. It's better this happened before I and he got real, that would have been a disaster." she then shrugged. "And besides, the face he made was funny, real funny. Enough to make up for everything that happened afterwards."
"Right?"
They both broke into laughter as Tsunade hugged him tightly.
Soon they continued walking, their house becoming visible in the far— but right then, Tsunade stepped behind a tree with him, putting a finger over his lips to indicate silence as she frowned deeply.
"I sense people around here," she said in a whisper. People were a rare thing around this part. "I disposed of the bandits' bodies, but the other members may have followed the trails to come here. Be careful, and run if it's a group bigger than 20 people, I can't fight while protecting you."
Hashirama wasn't a coward— it would be weird if he was, but he nodded nonetheless, knowing very well that she was stronger than him and could take down dozens of enemies if they were on the level of those bandits.
Then Tsunade slowly peeked to the side, only for her frown to grow deeper.
"...Is it a bigger group?" Hashirama asked in a whisper, preparing his mind for a battle.
"Well, no, it's... two people. They don't look like bandits, though. They are worried and are running towards the town." Tsunade said before stepping into the open and running to them. "They look like outsiders, rich outsiders, they may have been attacked on the sea and are running from enemies. We should try to help them," Tsunade said, running fast with him on her shoulders. "Maybe they will reward us some big bucks, hehe..."
—-
Once Tsunade stopped in front of them, it turned out that they really were rich travellers who came from outside the island. Moreover, it was people who Hashirama knew.
Igaram and Chaka, two royal guards serving the Alabasta Kingdom.
What were Alabasta people doing here?
"Missus, how far is the town from here? Is there any hospital in this area?!" Igaram, the older man with a powdered wig for hair, asked in a desperate voice. "Our Queen, Nefertari Titi, has fallen extremely sick during our journey through the sea. We lost our doctor in a pirate attack, so her health is deteriorating— we aren't sure if she will survive the trip to Alabasta so we came to seek a doctor here. Please tell us, is there any good doctor around here?"
"I-"
"There is a hospital in the town located on the other side of the island, you guys are unlucky to have stopped your ship here." Hashirama interrupted Tsunade, who had seemingly lost all her greed for money after hearing the news. Tch, what a goodie two shoes. But Hashirama still kept a level head. This was an opportunity. "It will take around half an hour to go there by foot, and given how busy the doctor usually is, it may take even longer to bring him here."
"Ah... but then our Queen will..."
"Not to worry," Hashirama pointed at Tsunade from above her shoulder where he was sitting. "This lady here is a capable nurse, and is studying to be a doctor— I suggest one of you go to the hospital, while the other leads us to the ship. Who knows, she may just be able to save your Queen?"
The two men's eyes lit up at that. They didn't even care that the 8-year-old didn't sound his age and rather looked at Tsunade, who sighed.
"Is that true, young lady?" they both asked at the same time. "Can you save our Queen?!"
Tsunade nodded, making both men sigh in extreme hope and relief before Chaka decided to run to the town while Igaram led Hashirama and Tsunade to the ship that was docked on the shore not far from here.
Hashirama swore to use this opportunity to get the necessary resources for Tsunade to become a doctor. He couldn't just ruin her job and not repay her, that wasn't his style.
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