In the morning, Rowan woke up from sleep, shuffled into the bathroom in his slippers, relieved himself, gave it a few shakes, then went to the sink, turned on the faucet, and started washing up.
After freshening up, Rowan got dressed, put on his sneakers, and headed downstairs to the bun shop by the entrance of his residential complex. He bought three baskets of soup dumplings, then went next door to the breakfast place and picked up three fried dough sticks, three cups of pudding, three portions of savory sauce flatbread, and three egg-stuffed pancakes.
Once everything was packed up, Rowan carried the bulging plastic bag of food back to his house.
He walked to the bedroom door and shut it.
Taking a deep breath, Rowan pushed the bedroom door open again.
The scene beyond it changed completely.
What came into view was no longer the bedroom he knew so well.
Instead, it was a Japanese-style living room.
The floor was covered with tatami mats, and in the center sat a low tea table piled with seven or eight liquor bottles.
Beside the table lay a woman, fast asleep and snoring away.
The air was thick with the sharp smell of alcohol.
By now, Rowan was long used to it. He stepped through the doorway into the living room, set all the food he had bought on the tea table, then nudged the sleeping woman with his foot.
"Wake up. Wake up."
A moment later, the woman stirred awake and drowsily opened her eyes to glance at Rowan.
"Oh, it's you. Is it morning already?" She yawned, lazily pushed herself up from the floor, sat down at the table, sniffed the air, and asked with a grin, "What did you buy today?"
"Soup dumplings, fried dough sticks, pudding, savory flatbread, and egg pancakes. Three servings of everything."
Rowan tossed the liquor bottles on the table aside, took the food out of the plastic bag, and set it down one by one in front of her. Then he casually asked, "Where's Shizune?"
The woman picked up a pair of chopsticks, grabbed a soup dumpling, popped it into her mouth, and said while chewing, "She went out with some friends last night. Didn't come back at all. Probably drank too much."
Rowan clicked his tongue. "Then I bought too much breakfast."
"What's there to worry about? You've still got me. Don't underestimate my appetite—I'm Tsunade."
As she spoke, she had already wiped out most of one basket of dumplings and was now reaching for the egg pancake with her greedy little claws.
That's right—the sloppy, booze-soaked woman sitting in front of Rowan was none other than the Fifth Hokage of the Naruto world.
Tsunade.
As for why Rowan had come to this world—and was even buying breakfast for Tsunade—that story started a month ago.
One morning a month earlier, Rowan got out of bed, and the first thing he did was head for the bathroom.
But when he pushed the bathroom door open, what greeted him wasn't the few square meters of his bathroom.
It was a Japanese-style bedroom.
And in that bedroom was a buxom blonde woman in the middle of changing clothes.
The instant their eyes met, Rowan was still too stunned to react when the blonde seemed to teleport right in front of him.
Her slender-looking right hand clamped around his head as she coldly asked, "Who are you?"
It wasn't English.
It was Japanese.
But Rowan understood it.
At that moment, his brain practically short-circuited, because he had already recognized who the blonde woman was.
Mostly because that face was way too familiar—especially the diamond-shaped mark on her forehead.
Even though she had gone from two-dimensional anime to three-dimensional reality, Rowan recognized her immediately.
The Fifth Hokage of the Naruto world, granddaughter of the God of Shinobi Senju Hashirama, legendary medical ninja—
Tsunade.
Rowan had no idea why a character from an anime was suddenly standing there alive and breathing in front of him, but he still shouted at the first possible moment:
"I'm not a bad guy! Don't kill me!"
He knew this all too well—if Tsunade, with her monstrous strength, really wanted to kill him, all she had to do was use a little force and she could twist his skull right off.
A real brush with death.
His legs had gone weak on the spot. He swore that was the closest he had ever come to dying in his life.
Fortunately, Tsunade didn't crush his skull after all and gave him a chance to live.
Later, Tsunade told him there were several reasons she hadn't killed him on the spot.
First, she had hemophobia and couldn't stand the sight of blood.
Second, there was no chakra flowing from Rowan at all—he was just an ordinary person—so she didn't think he was an enemy or an assassin.
Third, what Rowan had spoken wasn't the language of her world, and yet she had understood it.
Fourth—and most importantly—the space outside her bedroom door should have been a hallway.
Instead, it had turned into a living room she had never seen before.
So, out of curiosity, Tsunade spared him.
Later, she admitted it was the wisest decision she had ever made in her life. No exceptions.
Anyway, after talking things through, the misunderstanding between them was quickly cleared up.
And during that conversation, Rowan discovered that he seemed to possess a very special ability.
Through any door, he could connect to another world.
That was why he had seen Tsunade in the first place—because when he had rushed to the bathroom that day, he had accidentally activated that power and linked to the Naruto world.
As for where that ability came from, he had no idea. He just somehow had it.
Rowan didn't hide this ability from Tsunade.
On the one hand, she had witnessed it with her own eyes, so there was no way to hide it anyway.
On the other hand, Rowan felt that telling Tsunade about it would work more in his favor.
So after the two of them got familiar with each other, Rowan enthusiastically invited Tsunade to his world and showed her the Naruto manga.
After spending a whole day reading it from start to finish, Tsunade was completely dumbfounded.
What? Hiruzen-sensei actually died at Orochimaru's hands?
What? I got moved by that brat Uzumaki Naruto, cured my hemophobia, and even became the Fifth Hokage?
What? Uchiha Sasuke defected from the village?
What? The Fourth Hokage was killed by his own student, Uchiha Obito, and Obito even teamed up with Uchiha Itachi to wipe out the Uchiha clan?
Second Grandpa was right—those Uchiha really are the evil Uchiha. They're all a bunch of lunatics.
But by the time she got to Jiraiya's death, Pain destroying Konoha, the Fourth Great Ninja War, and Madara's resurrection, Tsunade was so shocked she could barely speak.
Especially when Black Zetsu stabbed Madara in the back, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki descended, the Sage of Six Paths appeared, and Naruto and Sasuke sealed Kaguya again at the end.
That was where she really lost it.
Even if she didn't say it out loud, Tsunade had always been fairly confident in her own strength. She was one of the Legendary Sannin, a major figure in the ninja world—of course she had some pride.
But what the hell was that later part where all the gods started fighting?
Was this still the ninja world she knew?
She, the Fifth Hokage of Konoha, was practically about to become some random roadside nobody.
Did she not have any dignity left?
Fine. Not being able to compare to Grandpa Hashirama, Uchiha Madara, Kaguya, the Sage of Six Paths, or Ten-Tails Jinchūriki Obito—that much she could accept.
Naruto was the Child of Prophecy, and Sasuke was Indra's reincarnation. Being weaker than them, she could live with.
But what the hell was Might Guy about?
A taijutsu ninja who couldn't even use ninjutsu somehow managed to suppress Madara with the Eight Gates.
Even if it was only temporary, Night Guy was absurdly overpowered.
No wonder even someone as arrogant as Madara admitted Guy was the strongest in taijutsu.
At that point, Tsunade really couldn't hold it together anymore.
Even now, Rowan still hadn't forgotten the way her expression kept changing back then. It had been way too entertaining.
And just when Tsunade thought that although the future of her world was turbulent, it would at least settle down in the end, Rowan placed Boruto in front of her.
This time, Tsunade truly went numb.
Jigen. Kashin Koji. Isshiki Ōtsutsuki. Momoshiki Ōtsutsuki. Karma. Kara. Shinjutsu… and even an Ōtsutsuki God that had already transcended dimensions.
Shibai Ōtsutsuki.
Tsunade had no choice but to admit that maybe she had never really understood the ninja world at all.
Or rather, the part she understood had only been the tip of the iceberg.
Now she understood more—but she was also completely overwhelmed.
The ninja world… was it really this cursed with disasters?
What was she supposed to do? Ignore it all?
She wasn't cold-blooded enough for that.
But if she got involved, did she even have the power to do anything?
Compared to those late-game monsters, what difference was there between her as the Fifth Hokage and some random roadside nobody?
Just as Tsunade was feeling lost, Rowan showed her other manga too—One Piece, Bleach, Doraemon, and Dragon Ball.
Especially Dragon Ball.
A power level of two hundred was enough to blow up the moon. Ten thousand was enough to destroy the Earth. Frieza, with a normal power level of five hundred and thirty thousand, could even be called the Emperor of the Universe.
Compared to monsters like that, what the hell was the Ōtsutsuki clan supposed to be?
And that wasn't even counting Frieza's final form, with a power level of one hundred twenty million, who still got wrecked by Super Saiyan Goku.
Then there were Super Saiyan 1, 2, 3, 4, and even Super Saiyan God.
On top of that, there were Angels, Gods of Destruction, and above even the universe itself, Zeno—the Omni-King—who could erase an entire universe with a flick of his finger.
Compared to those beings, the so-called Ōtsutsuki God was basically just another nobody by the roadside.
And the Dragon Ball world didn't just have those freakish powerhouses—it also had magic, and miraculous items like the Dragon Balls.
Even if the Earth exploded, it could be restored with ease.
After she finished Dragon Ball, Rowan pointed at himself with a grin and said, "You understand my ability now. If I can connect to the Naruto world, then of course I can connect to other worlds too."
"So? Want to come with me and search other worlds for a way to save the ninja world and bring peace to it?"
What else could Tsunade do?
She could only go along with him.
After all, Rowan really did have the power to travel to other worlds.