Inside the tavern.
The patrons held their breath.
Su Fan, seated on the elevated platform, gently shook the bell in his hand.
Its clear chime echoed throughout the establishment.
"I still need two more things," Su Fan said softly to Tsunade.
Tsunade quickly rose from her chair. "Whatever you lack, just tell me. I will satisfy your needs!"
From initial disdain, her tone had shifted to a respectful "you." Tsunade's attitude had undergone a complete 180-degree turn.
Orochimaru, lurking in a corner, felt a premonition of unease.
Su Fan smiled slightly. "That necklace counts as one."
Tsunade blinked in surprise. She then recalled a detail from Su Fan's story. Soul summoning required an item that the deceased had used or worn during their lifetime, including clothing.
"The necklace belonged to its previous owner, Nawaki..." Tsunade gasped. She looked at Su Fan in disbelief. He had known about her deepest wound from the very beginning! Besides her brother Nawaki, there was another person: Kato Dan!
Tsunade trembled uncontrollably, taking two steps back.
At this moment, Su Fan's ears were filled with system prompts.
Shock Value +7!
Shock Value +10!
Shock Value +70!
...
Su Fan's satisfied smile broadened. "This way, since the summoning time is limited, let's start with your brother. We can have another chance for the other person next time."
Tsunade took a deep breath, desperately trying to control her racing heart.
Shizune whispered in Tsunade's ear, "Lady Tsunade, this innkeeper can even guess Nawaki's name. It seems the soul summoning is real..."
Orochimaru was even more shocked. "This innkeeper doesn't look that old, how could he know about Tsunade's affairs?!" "Could it be that all the stories he told are true!"
Kabuto Yakushi shook his head slightly. "Apart from Edo Tensei, I've never heard of such a jutsu actually existing." As a double agent, Kabuto knew far more than most present, yet he had no clue about the stories Su Fan spoke of.
Tsunade picked up the necklace from the table and threw it towards Su Fan. After Su Fan caught it, he shook the bell again.
Suddenly, the tavern door burst open. A blast of cold, eerie wind swept in. The patrons shivered involuntarily.
"How can there be such a biting cold wind at this time of year?"
"It seems to be raining heavily outside, perhaps the temperature dropped suddenly?"
"I have a strange feeling... is that a shadow over there!"
It was already late at night. Outside, darkness reigned. Heavy rain poured down. On the quiet street, the clear sound of a bell suddenly rang out.
A patron's face contorted in fear. "Listen! That bell sounds exactly like the one the innkeeper just rang!"
Orochimaru also heard the bell, his face turning instantly pale. He then glanced at Su Fan on the platform, who was leisurely picking up his teacup and taking a sip, looking utterly relaxed. The atmosphere intensified.
Time ticked by. As the hour struck, Su Fan suddenly said to Tsunade, "Call your brother's name, don't listen, the louder the better!"
Tsunade nodded forcefully, turned towards the door, and shouted her brother's name loudly.
"Senju Nawaki!"
"Senju Nawaki!"
"Senju Nawaki!"
"Do you hear me, Nawaki!"
...
Tsunade repeated the name ten times, exerting all her strength until her voice was hoarse. Yet, there was no reaction from outside. Orochimaru's tense heart finally relaxed. "Heh, I almost believed it."
The patrons also began to murmur, believing all this was just a staged act by Su Fan to embellish his story.
"Alas, how boring..."
"Let's disperse, everyone."
"Go home, go back to your own families. If you have a wife, go find her."
Suddenly, the bell rang again! This time, the sound was right nearby! Everyone who had started to rise froze and strained their ears. In the heavy rain, the sound of footsteps wading through puddles was exceptionally clear. Each step was accompanied by a chime of the bell. It was getting closer... closer...
"Look! What is that!"
The patron sitting closest to the door suddenly exclaimed. Everyone rushed to the doorway to look outside.
They saw a small boy, barefoot, slowly walking towards the tavern. A blue aura emanated from his body. The bell he wore at his waist was identical to the one Su Fan held. Most astonishingly, despite the downpour, the boy was not wet at all, as if he were transparent.
Tears streamed down Tsunade's face, no longer contained. Trembling, she knelt on the ground, looking ecstatically at Nawaki approaching her.
When everyone witnessed Tsunade's reaction, they were utterly stunned.
"This little boy is her brother!"
"Damn, am I dreaming? Can the dead really be summoned back?!"
"Innkeeper, my father died ten years ago, only his underwear remains. Can you help me!"
After witnessing Su Fan's methods, the tavern patrons began to question their reality. This included Orochimaru himself. He walked to the door and, upon seeing Nawaki with his own eyes, the emotions he had suppressed finally erupted. Nawaki had been his most beloved student. During the war, he had watched helplessly as Nawaki was cut down by enemy soldiers. It was on that day that he first felt the fragility of life.
"If only humans had eternal life." In his memories, Orochimaru stood beside Nawaki's corpse and murmured.
On the platform, Su Fan recognized Orochimaru's identity immediately. According to the original timeline, after Orochimaru's hands were sealed, he would seek Tsunade's help. Tsunade's first appearance in Naruto was in the Street of Short Trunks. Su Fan had calculated all the timing. Everything was now within his grasp! It could be said that Nawaki's sacrifice had driven Orochimaru towards darkness. Orochimaru's constant research into immortality was born from this, and having changed bodies for so long, he had likely forgotten the pain of losing someone important. Seeing Nawaki again now would inevitably remind Orochimaru of that day of change.
"Sister..." Senju Nawaki looked at Tsunade before him and broke into a warm smile. At that moment, a knot in Tsunade's heart instantly unraveled.
"Nawaki... Sister... Sister missed you so much!" The two embraced in the pouring rain, forming a unique scene. Orochimaru, standing at the door, gave a bitter chuckle and then, pulling up his hood, walked out of the tavern. Kabuto followed closely, and they soon disappeared into the night.
The patrons were deeply moved, raising their cups to drown their sorrows on this cold night.
"If life were but as fleeting as the first meeting, what sorrow would the autumn wind bring to a painted fan..." With a gentle wave of his folding fan, a peerless poem flowed from Su Fan's lips. The tavern fell silent.
"A fine poem!"
"To the Innkeeper!"
Everyone raised their wine cups and continued their late-night revelry.
In another corner, a middle-aged ninja burst into loud laughter, tears and snot streaming down his face. Twenty years ago, his wife had died of illness. Now forty, he had spent years desperately searching for a forbidden resurrection jutsu. For this, his family and friends had deemed him hopeless and abandoned him. He had sacrificed everything, twenty years of his youth, for this technique. Yet, witnessing Su Fan summon souls today, he finally understood that the dead could never truly be brought back.
"Those missed in this world are but wisps of smoke, unable to bring back a living person."
"Parting is the true beginning."
"Those who cannot be forgotten are forever trapped at the starting point of that day."
"I wish I had met Innkeeper Su twenty years earlier!"
The middle-aged ninja wiped the tears from his face, downed several cups of wine, and turned to walk out the door. Henceforth, the ninja world would have one more disillusioned soul.