On the weekend morning, Senba sat in his living room and looked at the relaxed Tsunade in front of him with bloodshot eyes.
"Kid, what's with that look?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow after noticing his condition. "Did you not sleep happily with that new wealth of yours?"
Senba yawned and rubbed his eyes.
"I didn't sleep all night. I was researching a B-rank Genjutsu last night, Demonic Illusion: Tree Binding Death.
I originally wanted to create a shadow clone to continue studying while I went to sleep, but you just arrived."
Tsunade blinked, looking even more surprised.
"Genjutsu? B-Rank?"
She scrutinized Senba from head to toe, her eyes filled with disbelief.
"Your gambling techniques are so outrageous that I thought you spent all day practicing them. I didn't expect you to be so diligent." She teased, but her eyes were filled with genuine admiration.
Senba didn't respond to her teasing and changed the topic. "Is Lady Tsunade here to learn gambling techniques?"
"Yes." Tsunade nodded, her eyes lit up.
"I've been thinking about it for days—how you manage to bet correctly every time. That kind of observation and judgment... I want to learn that too!"
Senba thought for a moment, then looked at her eyes. A flash of scarlet suddenly appeared in his dark pupils, and a single tomoe slowly rotated within his iris.
"Don't resist."
Tsunade was slightly taken aback upon seeing the Sharingan, but since Senba told her not to resist, she chose to trust him. Not like she couldn't break the genjutsus anyway.
Their gazes met, and the next instant, a vast amount of information flooded into Tsunade's mind, mostly the tricks of gambling techniques!
How to judge the cards through an opponent's micro-expressions, how to judge the points by the sound of the dice, how to control hand speed to cheat without being discovered, how to make an opponent lose their composure through psychological warfare...
There were also advanced gambling techniques: card-swapping methods, where to hide cards, shuffling techniques, and even how to use Chakra to cheat in a game without being detected...
These things were like pictures clearly engraved into the depths of Tsunade's memory, though truly mastering them would still require a long time of practice.
After all, knowing how to do something and being able to do it are two different things.
A moment later, Senba closed his eyes and released the Genjutsu.
Tsunade sat there in a daze, her eyes shining. Those techniques... those methods... those angles she had never thought of before...
To her, this was even more important than learning an S-Rank Ninjutsu!
But right now, there was another thing bothering her.
"Kid, when did you awaken the Sharingan?!" She leaned forward, causing Senba to step back and avoid her face, which was too close.
"At two years old, after hearing the news of my parents' death." She was trustworthy, and the information wasn't a big deal to him.
But Tsunade froze upon hearing him. He actually awakened the Sharingan at two years old?
Senba continued, "At that time, my chakra was insufficient, so I couldn't use the Sharingan at all. Awakening it was effectively the same as not having it.
It wasn't until I was five that I had enough Chakra to activate one tomoe."
"A five-year-old kid with a Sharingan, and he had kept it hidden, or else such news would surely attract attention."
Tsunade looked at him with complex emotion in her eyes.
She suddenly remembered what Senba had said earlier: he hadn't slept all night, researching a B-rank Genjutsu. Even though he had already awakened the Sharingan and his gambling techniques were top-notch, he was still studying diligently.
By the way, didn't he just use the Sharingan to teach her gambling techniques, those skills...
"Fine then." Tsunade smiled and ruffled his hair, making it even messier. "You sure know how to hide things, kid."
Senba let her ruffle it, not pulling away.
"So, Lady Tsunade, now that the gambling techniques are taught, when will you start teaching me medical ninjutsu?"
"What's the rush? Let me digest these techniques first!" She stood up and stretched lazily.
"Rest assured, I will definitely do what I promised. Starting next week, I will come to see you every Saturday to teach you medical ninjutsu."
She walked to the door and looked at him with a mischievous smile.
"And don't let me catch you not sleeping all night again when that time comes."
After saying this, she pushed the door open and left, her long golden hair tracing an arc in the sunlight before disappearing outside.
Senba sat on the sofa, watching the door close. He yawned and collapsed onto the sofa, falling into a deep sleep.
...
The evening afterglow filtered through the curtains, casting soft orange light and shadows in the living room.
"Senba... Senba..."
Senba was shaken awake; a familiar voice rang in his ear.
He opened his eyes groggily and saw Mikoto looking down at him.
"You're back." He quickly got up and checked her out and down, finding no injuries.
Mikoto smiled when she noticed his concern.
"Yeah, I'm home."