36 Not again

I'll spare you guys from the nightmares, be grateful.

***

Yujin hadn't planned on eating before, but he invited Duy to dinner; Ramen. After sitting down and choosing their meals, Yujin turned to Duy and spoke.

"I've been curious about you for a few days. You train every day, quite admirable."

Duy smiled upon hearing that and replied in a slightly louder voice than usual.

"I need to put in the effort if I want to get somewhere. I don't have as much talent as others."

"Hope you don't mind, I asked Tsunade about you."

Duy nodded as if he didn't mind at all and commented.

"I've been curious about you too. I don't feel... Wait. Now I'm sensing your Chakra."

He raised his head and looked confused at Yujin. Duy had heard about Yujin from friends, an outsider who came to the village with Tsunade. He usually didn't care about such gossip, but occasionally some news reached him, and this was one of them.

One day, during his training, he spotted Yujin in the distance, and the two briefly locked eyes. Duy felt a strength within him, a kind of strength he had never felt before. At the same time, he also noticed that Yujin seemed like a civilian, which was incongruent with his strenght.

Since then, he had been curious.

"I recently acquired Chakra, an unusual case, I must say."

Duy squinted his eyes upon hearing this, but after a few seconds, he sighed and asked.

"You didn't invite me to eat just because you're interested in my training routine, I believe."

"No, I wanted to ask you something."

Duy waved his hand again, feeling that Yujin's politeness was a bit awkward.

"You're the only ninja in the village who can't use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. In return, you're a Taijutsu specialist. I admire that... As you know, I didn't have Chakra, but I was already strong before obtaining it, as you noticed that day."

Seeing Duy nodding in agreement, Yujin continued.

"That's because I train something different from Chakra, called Qi. It's an energy similar to Chakra but with different properties. For someone like you who has issues with Chakra, I suppose learning Qi from me would be interesting, what do you think?"

Duy became curious about Qi, especially when reminded of the struggles he went through to use Chakra. Yujin continued when he saw Duy contemplating.

"Qi training is called Martial Arts, and it's quite similar to Taijutsu, so I believe you'll pick it up quickly. Unlike Chakra, Qi can be accumulated over time and diligence. You're not limited by your body's potential."

Yujin knew exactly what to say to pique Duy's curiosity, and it worked. He was a bit resistant to the idea since he had been training with Chakra for over ten years, so starting something new, especially when he hadn't mastered the old one, seemed strange to him. However, Yujin knew how to convince. At the same time, he also thought it wouldn't hurt to learn. If he didn't like it, he could always stop Martial Arts training and go back to training his Eight Gates.

"Alright, Yujin. I can feel your sincerity, and I'm curious. When do I start?"

Yujin smiled, seeing how eager Duy was to learn, but managed to convince him to meet him an hour before sunrise the next day.

The two spent the rest of the time casually chatting about their training routines while eating. In the end, Yujin returned home to rest.

***

Arriving home, he wiped himself with a wet cloth and lay on the bed. He thought about the day, what he did. It was a long but interesting day.

The conversation with the Hokage was better than he expected. Although the man was clearly paranoid, Yujin couldn't judge, as he led a nation of ninja experts in disguises, assassinations, information gathering, and espionage. If the leader of this group wasn't the most suspicious man in the village, he would find it strange that the village was still standing.

Of course, it was annoying to receive suspicion. He also didn't like the little test the man did by attacking him suddenly.

After thinking for a while, he picked up a book to read. It had become a habit for Yujin to read a book before bedtime. Especially now that he had a new book.

This was a new book from that cursed shelf, called "Between the Sheets." It looked a bit like the novels Yujin had read before.

A man meets a woman in a bar, they talk, arrange to meet days later for a date. Each had their problems. The man had just come out of a difficult relationship, and the woman was having trouble at work; her boss constantly harassed her.

They went on a date and enjoyed each other's company. At first, they didn't talk much about their problems, but as they saw each other more often, they began to confide in each other.

On the fifth date, they slept together for the first time, and Yujin read attentively. A series of sexual scenes later, the man seemed happy and satisfied with life, hopeful for a better future. He had finally overcome his ex-girlfriend and was happy in his new relationship.

One day...

BANG!!!

***

Tsunade was at home, getting ready to sleep. Shizune was already lying in bed. It was a quiet and peaceful night like all the others in the Senju complex.

Whenever she went to sleep, for some reason, Tsunade thought of Yujin. She often replayed many of the interactions she had with him to better understand her feelings.

At the same time, while having these thoughts every night, she constantly questioned how good he had been to her from the beginning and when the feelings he has now appeared. The only way she could think of was that Yujin fell in love with her at first sight, and whenever she thought about it, for some reason, she felt happy for a while.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by a noise.

BANG!!!

Quickly getting up from bed, she analyzed the direction of the sound and quickly got dressed. When she saw that Shizune was still sleeping like an angel, she left the house and looked in the direction of the sound, realizing belatedly that it was the direction of the house where Yujin was living.

She hurried to the scene, and upon arriving, found half of the house destroyed. There were several people around, from guards to civilians in the complex. The guards surrounded the building and were investigating around.

Tsunade quickly assessed the situation, and when she saw Yujin through the hole in the wall, she was surprised. He was making an expression she had never seen before; he looked furious.

Looking at the state of the house, which was practically half destroyed, she approached the building. Some guards tried to stop her, but with a wave of her hand, they stepped back.

Yujin seemed not to register the commotion around him. Although some guards asked him questions from afar, he ignored them.

Taking a deep breath, Yujin walked out of the house with a book in hand through the intact front door, which was quite strange. There was literally a huge hole on the side, but it's like he didn't even saw half of the house destroyed, he just walked out of the intact door. He lit a match, set fire to the pages of the book, and threw the burning book on the ground.

Seeing this, Tsunade was extremely confused. Assessing the hole, she realized that whatever destroyed the house came from within. She then looked at the guards around, who were investigating the surroundings confused, and clapped her hands to attract people's attention.

"You can all go home. The guards too."

The guards tried to argue, but she didn't give them a chance to speak and simply dismissed them with a hand gesture.

Tsunade's authority was not insignificant within the complex, so everyone left.

Approaching Yujin cautiously, Tsunade looked at the burning book. Earlier, she had managed to read the title of the book by coincidence, "Between the Sheets".

"What happened? Was it Jiraiya again?"

Yujin remained silent, unresponsive, as if he hadn't heard the question. The expression of anger slowly disappearing from his face as the book burned.

Tsunade decided to stay silent and just observed the book with a cold gleam in her eyes. She was planning to find out what the book was about later in case Yujin didn't want to talk.

An hour later, when the book was practically ashes, he took a deep breath and finally calmed down. Finally realizing Tsunade's presence, he commented slowly.

"It's like this has happened before."

"Because it indeed has—"

Yujin put his hand on his mouth and started to shush while looking at the burning book. Tsunade was somewhat scared of him at this moment; he seemed very strange.

"This has never happened before. Book? What book? There's no book. Understand? There was never any book, not before, not now, not ever."

Yujin gave a big smile when he said that, sending shivers down her spine.

"By the way, what happens if the bookstore disappears from the village tomorrow?"

"Are you joking... or not."

When she saw Yujin's bizarre smile, Tsunade shivered again. What happened to him?

"The manager is a good person."

"Is he? I'm questioning that now."

Yujin spoke while looking at the burning book. Swallowing saliva, Tsunade thought quickly, but in the end, she didn't know what to say.

"Do you know how I can find a person?"

"And who would that be... if it's not too much trouble?"

She asked politely, feeling Yujin's bizarre mood.

"Don't know the name, but the pseudonym is HentaiGodZ."

Tsunade spent some time with him to make sure he wouldn't do anything wrong. Two hours later, he had returned to normal and seemed like the old Yujin she knew, which relieved her a lot. After spending another hour with him to make sure he had returned to normal, she left for a moment to explain to the guards what had happened, as they had been investigating the area until now.

When he saw her leaving, Yujin looked at the moon in the sky and murmured.

"I can't believe I almost had my second breakdown because of a book... Wish I could erase my memories."