December of Konoha Year 68.
Shishou sat in a warm room, leisurely sipping hot tea, watching the heavy snowflakes fall outside the window.
Since the cultivation of the Divine Tree had entered a stable phase, he found himself with plenty of free time.
Now, aside from the Great Toad Sage, who had been hiding in Mount Myoboku and never came out, Shishou had no other opponents in the ninja world.
However, invincibility was lonely.
Apart from practicing senjutsu for an hour every day, Shishou found little else to do.
This made him quite bored.
"Shishou."
A voice pulled Shishou back from his thoughts.
He turned to see Sakura standing at his study door, her face flushed.
At this moment, Tenten had already successfully trained in senjutsu, Hinata was learning from Rimei Hyuga, and Ino had been entrusted to Tsunade by Inoichi Yamanaka and then handed over to Shizune.
As for Sakura, being a civilian with no money or influence, she had to be personally taught senjutsu by Shishou.
Of course, in exchange, Sakura had to wear a maid outfit and take care of his daily needs.
"Sakura, what's the matter?" Shishou asked, putting down his teacup.
Blushing, Sakura said, "Can I wear a different outfit?"
The backless maid outfit Shishou had given her was too revealing, and she was too shy to wear it.
Shishou laughed and said, "Didn't you confess to me and say you wanted to be my woman? These things will happen sooner or later, and you don't have to wear it outside."
Indeed, ever since Tenten's relationship with him had deepened, feeling threatened, Sakura had confessed to him.
"Okay, fine." Sakura's face turned even redder as she returned to change into the maid outfit.
Watching Sakura leave, Shishou grinned.
After a long period of subtle manipulation, Sakura's heart was almost molded to his liking.
Once she came of age, Shishou could finally "harvest" the fruit.
The same went for Ino and the others.
Once Sakura was dressed in the maid outfit, she began busying herself in the kitchen, preparing breakfast for Shishou.
Although the maid outfit was a bit embarrassing, being able to personally make breakfast for Shishou made Sakura very happy; it was an opportunity that Ino and Tenten didn't have.
She had to seize this chance to win Shishou over.
Thinking happily, Sakura began seriously making breakfast.
After having studied with Hanabi for so long, Sakura was quite confident in her cooking skills.
After they finished breakfast, Shishou began guiding Sakura's senjutsu training.
By noon, a blushing Sakura, having been flustered during training, started preparing lunch.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Suddenly, a few loud knocks on the door caught Shishou's attention.
"Someone's here?"
Sakura, her face still red, came out of the kitchen, looking nervous.
If anyone saw her in this maid outfit, she would die of embarrassment.
"Don't worry, I'll get rid of them," Shishou reassured Sakura, putting on a mask before heading to the entrance, already knowing who was outside.
"I'm here to challenge you, hm!"
Deidara stood excitedly at Shishou's door.
Ever since Shishou almost knocked him silly years ago, Deidara had trained day and night, determined to regain his pride.
He had come all the way to Konoha for this.
Another troublemaker...
Seeing the excited Deidara, Shishou sighed.
Konoha already had problem children like Naruto and Sasuke. Then came Ringo Ameyuri and Fu. And now Deidara had shown up.
Life was hard... but maybe not so bad after all.
Noticing Akatsuchi and Kurotsuchi standing behind Deidara, Shishou changed his mind.
"Why are you here?" Shishou asked Deidara.
"We're here to kick your ass!"
Kurotsuchi kicked Deidara aside and shouted, "Big brother Deidara, can you be serious for once?"
Apologizing, Kurotsuchi looked at Shishou and explained, "I'm sorry, Big Brother Deidara has a bit of a problem. We're here on behalf of the Tsuchikage to sign a peace treaty with Konoha. But Big Brother Deidara insisted on coming to challenge you."
After speaking, Kurotsuchi bowed repeatedly before dragging Deidara away.
"A peace treaty, huh..."
Shishou muttered, watching Kurotsuchi's retreating figure.
Since Tsunade started teaching senjutsu in Konoha, Mei Terumi and the others followed suit.
As a result, Iwagakure was the only village in the Five Great Nations without access to senjutsu training.
Thus, Onoki set aside his pride and sought alliances with other villages to obtain senjutsu training methods.
With Shishou's approval, Tsunade and the others agreed, leading to the current situation.
Being dragged away, Deidara shouted, "You wait, I'll come back to challenge you this afternoon."
"Three days without a beating, you start to cause trouble. For Kurotsuchi's sake, I'll give you a good thrashing later."
Shishou smiled as he turned back inside.
Seeing the visitors had left, Sakura happily resumed preparing lunch.
By three in the afternoon, having completed the treaty signing, Deidara returned with Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi, demanding a duel.
Shishou had Sakura change her clothes back before opening the door and agreeing to Deidara's request for a fight.
The five of them made their way to the training grounds in Konoha Forest.
Upon hearing the news, Sasuke, Naruto, Shino, Neji, and Ringo Ameyuri also rushed to Konoha Forest.
"Tenten, Shishou is going to duel someone, are you going to watch?"
In the senjutsu training room of the Hokage Building, Ino excitedly asked Tenten.
"Shishou won't lose," Tenten shook her head, choosing to continue her senjutsu training.
Having finally found her path to becoming stronger, Tenten was focused on her training.
Besides, she had great confidence in Shishou's strength and had no interest in the outcome of the fight.
She even thought that by the time they arrived, Shishou's duel would be over.
Thinking about it, Tenten said to Ino, "Sakura is learning senjutsu from Shishou. If you don't want to be left behind, you should train hard too."
Hearing this, Ino's expression changed.
She didn't mind losing to anyone, but she absolutely didn't want to lose to Sakura.
With this in mind, Ino decided not to go watch the fight and focused on her senjutsu training.
After all, like Tenten, she had great confidence in Shishou's strength, so watching or not didn't make much difference.
Meanwhile,
Shishou had already brought Deidara to Konoha Forest, and Sasuke, Naruto, Shino, Neji, and Ringo Ameyuri were also there, ready to watch the duel.
Kurotsuchi, acting as the temporary referee, stood between them, raising her right hand.
"Begin the duel!"
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POWER STONE!!!!
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This fanfiction is complete on my P@treon. If you want to read it, you can find it at p@treon.com/Betek.
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