Chapter 164: Tsunade's Unusual Bad Temper

A beam of golden sunlight poured through the dining room window, casting a bright glare right across the table and illuminating the three people sitting there.

However, the sunlight lacked any of its usual warmth; instead, its blinding brilliance made the atmosphere feel somewhat cold and desolate.

"Slurp... slurp!" came the sound of Nawaki eating his noodles.

After taking three consecutive punches from Tsunade, Nawaki finally realized that his older sister's mood this morning might not be very pleasant. Daring not to court death by talking back to her any further, he obediently began to focus on eating his instant ramen.

Kato Yufeng found that his girlfriend's temper this morning seemed a bit off, appearing unusually irritable.

"Humph!"

Tsunade flared her dainty nose and let out an unhappy huff.

She blew on her fist, glanced at her little brother—who had finally quieted down—and then turned her gaze toward the bastard boyfriend sitting opposite her who had just tricked her into playing horsey that morning. She raised her fist and shook it, the threat hanging heavily in the air.

Seeing his brother-in-law Nawaki beaten so miserably by her sister, Kato Yufeng didn't even dare to breathe too loudly. Then, catching sight of Tsunade's fist, his deadpan eyes rolled, his drooping eyebrows twitched, and—prudence dictating his actions—he quietly lowered his head and went back to eating his ramen.

"Slurp... slurp."

Kato Yufeng very thoughtfully made a sound even louder than Nawaki's noodle-eating, acting as if the instant ramen before him were a rare delicacy of land and sea unseen in a century, as if failing to make such a delicious sound would do a disservice to the flavor of the noodles.

"Humph!"

With a cold, expressionless face, Tsunade let out another huff and lowered her head to eat her ramen.

She took a sip of the broth: "The soup is too salty!"

She aggressively picked up a chopstick full of noodles, only for them to snap: "The noodles are too mushy!"

She took a bite of the egg in the ramen: "The yolk is falling apart!"

After eating a few bites, Tsunade poked at the ramen in front of her with her chopsticks, and then unleashed a soul-crushing triple blow of interrogation upon her boyfriend, Kato Yufeng.

"Uh!"

A single drop of cold sweat beaded on Kato Yufeng's forehead. He chewed the delicious ramen in his mouth, wanting to offer a retort, but just as the words reached his lips, his deadpan eyes caught sight of the three large bumps on his brother-in-law Nawaki's head. In the end, discretion being the better part of valor, he prudently kept his mouth shut.

"Slurp... slurp."

Kato Yufeng's noodle-eating sounds grew even louder than before.

Nawaki, sitting beside Tsunade with his chopsticks raised and a few strands of noodles dangling from them, had his mouth wide open as he stared at his sister with the look one might reserve for a mental patient.

"What are you looking at? Eat your noodles!"

Noticing her brother's gaze, Tsunade snapped at him.

*A female tyrannosaur! She is definitely a female tyrannosaur of an older sister!*

With three large, throbbing bumps atop his little head, Nawaki silently complained about his sister in his heart. After being scolded, he didn't dare look in Tsunade's direction again, prudently lowering his head once more to continue eating the fragrant noodles before him.

"Slurp... slurp."

Nawaki's noodle-eating sounds also grew a notch louder.

"Humph!" Tsunade glanced at the other two people at the table, let out yet another cold huff, and lowered her head to resume eating her ramen.

For a time, the dining room was filled only with the sound of the three of them slurping noodles, and the atmosphere gradually grew icy cold—just like the biting wind howling outside the window, devoid of any of its usual warmth.

Even the golden sunlight streaming through the window failed to bring its customary hint of warmth.

***

While Nawaki kept his head down, slurping his ramen, he repeatedly cast glances toward Kato Yufeng, silently begging his brother-in-law for help.

Although Tsunade was no longer actively beating Nawaki, as she ate her noodles, her sharp gaze swept continuously up and down Nawaki's entire body.

The look in her eyes suggested she might raise her fists at any moment to resume hammering Nawaki's head.

Feeling the three throbbing bumps atop his head, and looking at his sister's clenched fist—which she hadn't relaxed even while eating—along with her fierce gaze, Nawaki could only conclude that his sister was far too unreasonable and short-tempered.

*A female tyrannosaur! Only Brother Kato likes her; otherwise, with a terrible temper like hers, absolutely nobody would want her. She's bound to stay single for the rest of her life and grow old all alone!*

Nawaki had learned his lesson now, limiting his complaints about his female-tyrannosaur sister to the safety of his own mind. He didn't even dare raise his head to look at Tsunade, terrified that she might snap at him again and find an excuse to deliver another punch to his head.

Perhaps Tsunade's glare made Nawaki too restless to sit still, as he dared not look toward his sister much, instead resorting to pleading, pitiful glances at Kato Yufeng, hoping his brother-in-law would rescue him from the clutches of his female-tyrannosaur sister.

Seeing Nawaki's wretched and pathetic appearance, Kato Yufeng—acting as both brother-in-law and makeshift master—ultimately found it hard to bear. Bringing this trouble upon himself only to have his little brother-in-law take the blame and get beaten didn't seem like something a proper brother-in-law and master should do.

Sympathy was sympathy, and reluctance was reluctance, but survival instinct still reigned supreme. Kato Yufeng certainly wouldn't dare insert himself casually into the conversation right now; having his brother-in-law take a beating was infinitely better than taking one himself.

Kato Yufeng still hadn't figured out why Tsunade's temper was so foul this morning. Surely it wasn't just because of what happened earlier.

Before figuring out why Tsunade's temper was acting up so abnormally this morning, Kato Yufeng could only offer internal sympathy to his little brother-in-law, Nawaki.

Based on his understanding, while Tsunade could certainly be hot-tempered on occasion, she rarely actually took her anger out on her younger brother. Ever since they officially started dating, she usually took her anger out on him instead...

In the past, whenever Tsunade beat Nawaki, it was because Nawaki had genuinely made her furious—such as when they argued repeatedly over Nawaki becoming his apprentice, the negotiations completely collapsing before blows were finally exchanged.

As for the embarrassing little incident that morning, Kato Yufeng hadn't considered it a big deal at all. He merely viewed the morning's events as a bit of intimate bedroom fun between a couple.

Besides, after the awkwardness earlier that morning, Kato Yufeng had let Tsunade ride another horse, serving the female knight with the utmost dedication and scaling the mountain peak more than once.

Although Kato Yufeng and Tsunade hadn't engaged in real, blade-to-blade combat that morning, the Kato family's secret taijutsu technique—the Hand of Katotaka—was no joke and certainly wasn't for show.

During the charge, Tsunade's expression had undoubtedly been one of complete satisfaction; of that, Kato Yufeng could give his absolute guarantee.

Under normal circumstances, based on his understanding of Tsunade, she should have felt the same way he did. Acting out with such erratic temper now was truly bizarre.

Every anomaly has a cause; Kato Yufeng simply hadn't found that cause yet.

He refused to believe that his girlfriend Tsunade was an endlessly fickle woman.

*What on earth is the reason?*

Kato Yufeng lowered his head to eat his noodles while secretly pondering the question.

***

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