Chapter 165: Purely Physical, No Emotional Attachment

In Kato Mifu's eyes, Tsunade was none other than his goddess, his cherished white moonlight.

Although ordinary people might find fault with Tsunade here and there, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and Kato Mifu firmly believed that Tsunade was not the type of woman to pick unnecessary fights or throw tantrums over nothing.

Having been in an official relationship for over half a year, Kato Mifu and Tsunade had experienced plenty of embarrassing moments quite similar to the one this morning.

Between the daily grind of mundane necessities, no matter how radiant the white moonlight or how breathtaking the goddess, she remained a flesh-and-blood human being. For deeply infatuated lovers living together in an official relationship, stumbling into all sorts of awkward blunders was simply inevitable.

Excluding their respective working hours, the two had spent the past six months practically glued to each other day and night. Aside from the final line of defense, which remained unbroken under Tsunade's strict and desperate vigilance, it was hardly an exaggeration to say they had already embarked on a brazen and shameless cohabitating life.

Well, not entirely just the two of them; they also had an extra, superfluous little brother-in-law tagging along in the form of Nawaki.

*Why on earth is Tsunade acting so completely out of character?*

Kato Mifu absentmindedly pecked at the instant noodles in his bowl while frowning in deep thought. Until he figured out this mystery, his favorite instant noodles had completely lost their savory appeal.

*What could possibly be the reason?*

Kato Mifu posed the question to himself once more, immediately ruling out the possibility that Tsunade had fallen victim to some bizarre illusion or esoteric technique. The moment he had realized her abnormal and erratic mood earlier, he had already quietly and meticulously checked.

Aside from her peculiar mood and her increasingly magnificent bosom, he detected nothing else out of the ordinary. Her physical health was fine, and it was certainly not that time of the month for her.

Having eliminated external factors and natural physiological causes, Kato Mifu began sifting through yesterday's events in his mind, tracing them chronologically starting from yesterday morning.

Yesterday morning, Tsunade had been in high spirits and had even gone out of her way to prepare a breakfast of love. Though the culinary result left much to be desired, the two of them had shared a warm and sweet meal—infinitely sweeter than the frigid atmosphere currently permeating the dining room.

At noon, Kato Mifu had squeezed out some time to make a lunch of love. They had eaten together in Tsunade's office, enjoying a similarly delightful, warm, and sweet experience.

Then came the afternoon—ever since the two of them returned together from the Hokage's Mansion, followed by Kato Mifu stroking the great white rabbits... no, curing Tsunade's chest tightness ailment while rowing the boat of passion...

Finally, last night. After leaving the presence of the so-called "Pot Shadow" Shimura Danzo, Kato Mifu had gone to the Konoha Hospital to pick up Tsunade from work, at which point she had thrown a minor fit simply because she had to work overtime.

***

Kato Mifu remained completely lost within his own thoughts, meticulously analyzing every single event that had occurred while he was with Tsunade yesterday.

Until he tracked down the root cause of Tsunade's erratic temper, forget not enjoying his instant noodles—even if someone served him a lavish feast prepared from the chakra of the ninja world's nine tailed beasts, he wouldn't find it appetizing in the least.

As for thoughts concerning the Mangekyo Sharingan, genjutsu, or Izanagi that had occupied his mind when he first arrived here, Kato Mifu had long since cast them to the corners of the earth.

Though he had already discarded those concerns once earlier when he let Tsunade happily gallop into battle on horseback, that didn't stop him from tossing them away all over again, hurling them as far as humanly possible.

A long time passed. Within the dining room, only Kato Mifu and Tsunade remained, accompanied by a single beam of golden sunlight.

So utterly absorbed was Kato Mifu in pondering Tsunade's erratic emotions that he hadn't even noticed when his little brother-in-law Nawaki finished his breakfast and quietly slipped out of the dining room.

Having suffered a triple strike of his elder sister's iron fist of love first thing in the morning, and receiving no response when he appealed to his brother-in-law-cum-cheap-mentor for help, Nawaki had endured the freezing atmosphere for as long as he could. How could he fail to realize that he was simply being used as a venting outlet between his sister and his brother-in-law?

Watching the two of them—one angry, one spacing out—he found the bizarre atmosphere thoroughly unbearable. Thus, finishing his instant noodles with rapid speed, Nawaki greased his heels and bolted out the front door.

Kato Mifu's handsome, well-defined brows were tightly furrowed in serious concentration, and his lazy, deadpan eyes had unconsciously transformed into pale blue starry gazes. Aside from the chopsticks in his hand mechanically stirring the now-cold noodles in his bowl, anyone else looking at him would simply see a blank, absent-minded fool.

At least in Tsunade's current view, her boyfriend Kato Mifu was simply falling back into his old, annoying habit of spacing out while eating.

*This blockhead, why isn't he saying anything right now? Doesn't he usually have plenty of nonsense to crack jokes with?*

Tsunade mentally grumbled about her boyfriend's complete lack of romantic intuition.

In truth, she had already regretted striking Nawaki just moments after doing it.

Once or twice was acceptable, but there shouldn't be a third time.

When she landed the first and second blows, she could still excuse it as a reaction to the embarrassing blunder that morning. But upon delivering the third strike, Tsunade realized her temper today was genuinely abnormal.

The reason behind Tsunade's towering temper and erratic mood this morning, aside from the awkward mishap at dawn, stemmed far more from a deep sense of reluctance to part.

Yes, it was pure reluctance—reluctance to part with her younger brother Nawaki, and reluctance to part with Kato Mifu, the boyfriend she was head-over-heels in love with.

Ever since the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, mentioned at noon yesterday that he intended to promote Kato Mifu and transfer him to the Northwest Fortress garrison, Tsunade's mind had been plagued by the prospect of the two of them being separated for an extended period.

Of course Tsunade was thrilled that her beloved boyfriend was receiving a promotion, a pay raise, and the heavy trust of the leadership. But the prerequisite was that it would force her and her boyfriend into a long-distance separation, and that was something Tsunade found entirely unacceptable.

Upon further reflection, once Nawaki became the apprentice of her boyfriend, he would inevitably have to leave alongside him, following Kato Mifu to take up his post at the Northwest Fortress.

In a single stroke, the two most important men in her life were about to be whisked away far from her. How could Tsunade possibly feel happy?

She had dropped hints to her boyfriend Kato Mifu as early as last night. The little temper tantrum she threw last night because she had to work overtime alone was her subtle way of reminding her boyfriend about their impending separation.

However, that blockheaded old pervert Kato Mifu had returned from the Hokage's Mansion with his mind fixated entirely on fooling around with her body, paying zero attention to her emotional state.

Then came last night's episode with the overtime anger—again, Kato Mifu completely missed the core message of her subtle hints.

And finally, this morning's awkward blunder—Kato Mifu once again thought only with his lower body rather than his heart.

All these accumulated reasons progressively triggered the grievances bottled up inside Tsunade, culminating in a peak just moments ago when she lashed out and struck Nawaki's head.

Tsunade wanted emotional and physical connection, while her boyfriend only wanted physical connection. It would be a miracle if Tsunade wasn't furious.

Once she calmed down and reflected, Tsunade naturally understood the root cause of her erratic mood. Yet Kato Mifu hadn't figured it out yet; he was furrowing his brows so intensely they were practically falling off, and he was still sitting there in a daze, utterly bewildered.

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