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Prince of Tennis: Ninja of Tennis
Rasa's eyes stayed shut, but the way his eyelids twitched made it obvious he wasn't calm. Sunagakure was running dangerously low on manpower. Not just the usual chunin and genin—jonin-level fighters were in short supply too.
At least Konoha had no plans to invade the Land of Wind. That gave him some breathing room to pull a few shinobi back from the front to handle emergencies.
But that damn Hidden Mist… they were trying to rip Sunagakure up by the roots.
Just as Rasa's frustration kept building, someone knocked on the office door.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
His eyes snapped open, burning with barely contained rage.
Before he could say a word, the door swung open.
When he saw who walked in, Rasa forced his expression under control and tried to sound gentle. "What brings you two here? You just got back. Shouldn't you be resting?"
"No more rest. If we keep resting, they'll be knocking on our front door next."
Chiyo and Ebizo had arrived.
Chiyo strode straight in, reaching Rasa in just a few steps. Ebizo followed at his own steady pace but stayed close behind.
Rasa's face showed a rare flash of embarrassment. The current mess in Sunagakure was largely his fault.
"Don't make that face," Chiyo said bluntly. "When you make a decision, you accept the consequences. That's what a leader does."
She didn't give him any room to save face. This wasn't the time for politeness.
"Mist has already attacked us. But right now, they're not even the biggest problem."
Rasa frowned. Mist had already landed inside the Land of Wind. How could they not be the biggest problem?
Chiyo didn't waste time. "Mist can run around all they want. As long as we send forces to stop them, they won't reach the inland. But Konoha is different. If they decide to hit the Land of Wind right now, we won't be able to hold them off."
Cold sweat ran down Rasa's back. Konoha's long restraint had made him forget—this wasn't some harmless sheep. It was a hungry wolf.
"A two-front war. Can the village even spare the shinobi?"
"You idiot. Why are you still thinking about fighting back? You're the Kazekage, not some hot-headed kid. When it's time to admit defeat, you admit defeat."
Rasa's eyes widened. He stared at Chiyo, finger trembling as he pointed at her, unable to speak for a long moment. If anyone else had said that, he would've assumed they had an agenda.
"Is that really the only option?"
Chiyo let out a quiet breath of relief when she saw him waver. She'd been worried he would dig his heels in because of how badly Konoha had beaten him before. That would've been real trouble.
Since the hardest part was over, it was time for the rest of them to do their jobs.
"The worst case is exactly that," she said. "But it's not like we can't try to negotiate something better."
Rasa finally understood why so many people hated people who spoke in circles. One second you were in hell, the next you were back in the land of the living. It wasn't a good feeling.
His fists clenched and loosened under his robe several times before he got himself under control.
"Please explain, Lady Chiyo."
"Konoha isn't having an easy time either. We have to deal with Mist, and they have to deal with Iwa and Kumo. I'm willing to bet they're just as desperate to end this war with us so they can pull troops to the other fronts.
But before that happens, they'll definitely launch a probing attack first. They want the upper hand at the negotiation table so they can force us to surrender or pay reparations."
Rasa's mind started turning. Even if they had to stop fighting Konoha, they couldn't just roll over. They had to fight hard enough to negotiate from strength—show they were ready to go all in and force Konoha to make real concessions.
Chiyo saw the resolve settle on his face and got straight to the point.
"Kazekage, mobilize the whole village. Every clan in Konoha sent their elites to fight Mist. Sunagakure's clans aren't cowards either."
"Good. Call a jonin meeting. Mobilize every shinobi we have. Every fighter from my clan will go into this war. We either succeed or we die trying."
Chiyo and Ebizo glanced at each other. For the first time that day, they felt real respect for Rasa. Whatever mistakes he'd made before, the fact that he was willing to risk his entire clan for the village earned their respect.
The jonin meeting was called quickly. The result satisfied both Rasa and Chiyo.
Once everyone understood that this battle would decide Sunagakure's survival—especially when they heard the Kazekage was betting his whole clan—they all brought out their final reserves. They put together a fighting force of two thousand shinobi.
Once the force was assembled, instead of rushing to support the eastern coast that Mist had already invaded, they marched north—straight toward Konoha's southern front.
It was the attitude of burning their boats. No turning back.
While Mist sharpened their knives and Sunagakure prepared for war, Taiichi wasn't sitting idle either.
The next day dawned clear and bright. After a full day of work, the camp was fully set up. All that remained was carefully placing the defensive barriers.
Taiichi got up early again. After finishing his morning training, he headed straight for the main command tent. He still wanted to ask Tsunade about Sage Mode.
"Taiichi-sama, good morning."
"Taiichi-sama, have you eaten yet?"
"Taiichi-sama, my daughter would love to meet you."
Shinobi greeted him along the way—some familiar, some not. Every now and then the greetings included some strange requests.
Taiichi smiled and answered politely, but the one about meeting someone's daughter he could only stay silent on.
It wasn't that he looked down on the guy. It was just hard to believe a three-hundred-pound man built like an Akimichi had a daughter who was some great beauty.
In the end, Taiichi was still just a normal guy. Even at his age, he still preferred pretty women.
"Taiichi, where are you headed?"
Fugaku walked over at a leisurely pace, hands tucked into the sleeves of his traditional Uchiha robes. He didn't look nearly as sharp and decisive as he had in recent days.
He knew there wouldn't be any real fighting for a while, so he couldn't even be bothered to wear combat gear.
"Going to the main command tent to find Tsunade-sensei."
"Then you're going to be disappointed. I just came from there. Tsunade-sama wasn't in the tent."
Taiichi looked up at the sky in surprise. It was almost eight o'clock. The front-line commander still wasn't in the main tent at this hour—had she gone to inspect the camp?
Seeing Taiichi's confused expression, Fugaku looked like he'd found something entertaining. He glanced around, and when he saw the nearest people were a dozen steps away, he leaned in close and whispered.
"If you're looking for Tsunade, go to her personal tent. She didn't get up until really late yesterday either."
He immediately pulled back to a normal distance and said seriously, "But don't tell anyone I told you that."
Taiichi gave him an amused look. He hadn't expected the clan head to have this playful side.
He flashed an OK sign to show he wouldn't sell him out.
After saying goodbye to Fugaku, Taiichi didn't go straight to Tsunade's tent. He stopped by the main command tent first, mostly to see if there was anything that needed doing.
The main command tent was already busy. Everyone was handling their usual tasks.
Only the commander's seat in the middle sat empty.
Taiichi's arrival drew attention. One of the Nara staff officers came over first.
"Taiichi, here to see Tsunade-sama?" He gave a helpless smile and glanced at the empty seat. "As you can see, she still hasn't shown up."
Taiichi looked at the dust collecting on the command seat and couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth. Then he glanced at the staff officer's dark eye circles and gave him a sympathetic look.
"I came to see if there's any mission I can take. I rested all day yesterday, so it's time to do something. Besides—"
Taiichi looked around at how busy everyone was.
"You all seem pretty swamped too."
The Nara staff officer let out a long sigh, looking genuinely moved. At least someone understood the suffering of the working class. Unlike that Uchiha Fugaku, who walked past in casual clothes and didn't even bother coming in to say hello.
"Don't even get me started. It's all the usual tedious stuff that happens every time we set up a new camp."
"These past couple of days there really haven't been any real missions. Everyone's been idle. Once we finish setting up camp we'll have some downtime too. Taiichi, you should take the chance to rest while you can."
They chatted for a while. Taiichi quickly realized the Nara was using this as an excuse to slack off and escape the tedious work for a bit.
It wasn't until the other staff officers couldn't take it anymore and shouted, "Nara, get your ass back here!" that the man finally said goodbye and returned to work. Even then, Taiichi could still hear him muttering complaints as he walked away.
"So troublesome… I just want to sleep…"
Under the resentful stares of the staff officers, Taiichi left the main command tent in embarrassment. An idle person like him wasn't welcome there right now—especially when he was also tempting one of their key workers to slack off with him. Getting kicked out was only fair.
Outside the tent, Taiichi looked up at the sky. At that moment, he understood why Tsunade still hadn't come to take command.
Sleeping in was part of it. The resentful looks from these staff officers were probably another reason.
Laziness was contagious. Taiichi wasn't in any hurry anymore. He wandered slowly over to Tsunade's personal tent. He didn't even need to spread his sensing. His sharp hearing picked up the steady, even breathing coming from inside.
"She's really still asleep, huh?"
Taiichi was speechless. It was already this late and she still wasn't up. Had she been secretly drinking again last night?
He didn't go in to wake her. Who knew if she had a bad temper when she first got up? If he ended up getting used as a stress ball, that wouldn't be fun.
But he couldn't just stand around doing nothing either. So Taiichi started walking slow circles around Tsunade's tent. Anyone who didn't know better would've thought he was standing guard for her.
Several passing shinobi who saw this gave him thumbs-ups and praised him for being such a devoted student. It made Taiichi a little embarrassed.
One circle.
Two circles.
Five circles.
He heard Tsunade's breathing start to change.
Ten circles.
Twenty circles.
The breathing inside grew heavier, but she was still stubbornly staying in bed.
Thirty circles.
Forty circles.
"Matsushita Taiichi, get your ass in here!"
The roar echoed across the entire camp. Every nearby shinobi turned to look in surprise.
What the hell was going on? Weren't they just having a warm master-disciple moment? How did it turn into a fight so fast?
Taiichi gave the curious onlookers an apologetic gesture. Then he straightened his clothes, put on an expression like he was walking to his own execution, and ducked into Tsunade's tent.
Inside, the first thing that hit him was a strong smell of alcohol. Looking at the empty bottles scattered across the floor, it wasn't hard to figure out what had happened last night.
Tsunade was still half-asleep. As a top-tier shinobi, she'd known someone was circling her tent. At first she'd thought it was just routine patrol, but after the circles kept going, she quickly realized something was off.
A bit more careful sensing told her exactly who it was.
She hadn't wanted to deal with it, but who would've thought this brat would keep at it without stopping? That's why she'd roared without thinking.
"Good! Tsunade-sensei, you were secretly drinking again. How many times is this now?"
Tsunade jolted fully awake.
Damn it. She'd been half-asleep and actually let this kid walk right in.
She pretended to still be groggy, sitting up with sleepy eyes, and pointed at him with one bare arm.
"Who let you in? Get out!"
Taiichi's mouth twitched. He was completely speechless. They said you could never wake someone who was pretending to sleep. Facing Tsunade's unreasonable behavior, he was left with nothing but helplessness.
He turned and left the tent again. Looking up at the blue sky, he silently listened to the rustling and clinking sounds coming from inside as she cleaned up. He sighed. Having a teacher like this sometimes really gave you a headache.
Ten minutes later, the sounds inside finally stopped. Tsunade's voice came from within.
"Come in."
Taiichi sighed and turned to enter the tent once more.
This time the tent had been cleaned up neatly. The bed was made. Clothes were on properly. Most importantly, all the bottles on the floor had been cleared away. Even the smell of alcohol had been removed by whatever method Tsunade used.
She was destroying the evidence.
Taiichi saw this and was smart enough not to bring up her drinking again. He was afraid she'd get embarrassed and turn it around on him.
"Say it. What do you want, coming to find me so early in the morning?" Her tone still carried leftover irritation. The aftereffects of her morning grumpiness hadn't faded yet.