In the special care ward of Konoha Hospital, Tsunade, who had just finished her teaching duties, came to visit Dan Kato. However, unlike usual, she seemed somewhat distracted today.
This feeling wasn't new; yesterday, during her class, she inexplicably felt a sense of unease that even made her forget what she had taught in the past two days.
In fact, she even forgot to visit Dan Kato yesterday. At this moment, Tsunade sat in the chair in the ward, and the apple in her hand had been peeled down to just the core.
Dan Kato looked at Tsunade. When Tsunade first arrived, the two chatted for a while, but soon Tsunade's responses became increasingly perfunctory, and by the end, only Dan Kato was speaking while Tsunade had no reaction at all.
He did not immediately alert the distracted Tsunade but instead watched her quietly until the fruit knife in Tsunade's hand was about to cut through the apple and land on her own hand. At that moment, Dan Kato reached out and grabbed Tsunade's wrist.
Tsunade snapped back to reality, looked at the apple fragments scattered on the floor, and then at the concerned Dan Kato, feeling disoriented about what she had done.
"Are you feeling unwell today?" Dan Kato asked softly. Tsunade instinctively shook her head, not wanting Dan Kato to worry about her, and simply said, "I'm just a bit off today, and I don't know why."
Upon hearing this, Dan Kato did not press further. He gently took the fruit knife and placed it on the nearby counter, then carefully turned around and took a wet tissue to clean Tsunade's hands.
Then, almost casually, he said, "It's been a few days since we played dice. Do you want to have a game?"
As he spoke, he opened the drawer of the cabinet, took out two dice cups, and placed them on the small table by the bed, smiling at Tsunade.
Over the years, no matter the situation, rolling dice or playing a few rounds of cards always improved Tsunade's mood. Negative emotions would transform into frustration from losing the game, which was easy to relieve.
"I'll go first."
Seeing the hint of reluctance on Tsunade's face, Dan Kato shook one of the dice, then lifted the cup. However, when he saw the result, his heart tightened.
Three ones.
Tsunade looked at the three ones and became disoriented again. The hand that had been holding the dice cup stopped moving.
Dan Kato remembered something Tsunade had said before: whenever she won a bet, some tragedy would always occur. He covered the dice cup and said, "It seems I'm having bad luck today. I don't want to play anymore."
He reached for Tsunade's dice cup, intending to take it back, but Tsunade's hand remained firmly over the cup, causing the table to slightly deform.
"Hehehe~"
Tsunade suddenly began shaking the dice cup in her hand, but after stopping, she hesitated to lift it.
"Click~"
The ward door suddenly burst open, and a figure rushed in, grabbing Tsunade's hand and saying, "Sorry, Tsunade-sensei."
Before Dan Kato and Tsunade could react, both Tsunade and the intruder disappeared. Dan Kato stared blankly at the dice cup. After a few seconds, he hesitantly reached out and covered the dice cup.
He wanted to put the dice cup away, but his hand unconsciously held onto it and lifted it.
Three ones.
Dan Kato was stunned, unsure of how to resolve the situation.
In another ward, Tsunade had just adjusted to the scene before her when she saw the one thing she least wanted to see. Her disciple lay on the bed, with several untreated wounds, and his misfortunate left shoulder seemed to have more injuries, with his eyes tightly closed.
"What happened to him?!"
Tsunade yelled at the remorseful Sakumo but had already placed her hands on Tatsuma's body, with her Chakra starting to sense the condition inside Tatsuma.
Because of Tsunade's significant role in the village and her connection to Tatsuma, Sakumo did not worry about confidentiality and truthfully informed Tsunade of what had happened today.
He recounted everything from their infiltration into the Land of Lightning, the destruction of the Eight-Tails' seal, and the subsequent rampage of the Eight-Tails, to the battle and Tatsuma taking a full-force hit from A.
At this point, Sakumo paused, seeing that Tsunade was frowning but not furiously angry, before continuing with the subsequent events.
He explained that Tatsuma had recovered and used Flying Thunder God to escape but was injured by A's Two-Finger Nukite before leaving, and also mentioned the mysterious unconsciousness that followed.
Minato also provided additional details that Sakumo was unaware of.
After hearing them out, Tsunade furrowed her brow tightly. Extreme Chakra exhaustion twice was beyond what an ordinary body could withstand, even for Tatsuma.
Tsunade looked at Tatsuma. His mask had been removed, but half of his forehead protector remained on his head. Tsunade yanked it off, and seeing the almost unchanged diamond-shaped mark, her brow was deeply furrowed.
She couldn't understand how Tatsuma had survived under those conditions. Exhausting Chakra completely should only lead to death, yet Tatsuma had used the technique called Yin Healing Wound Destruction to forcefully overdraw Chakra twice.
His body should not have been able to support such actions, but aside from being weak, Tatsuma showed no other reactions.
After healing Tatsuma's external wounds, especially those on his left shoulder, Tsunade hooked him up with physiological saline and glucose, then said, "You should go rest as well. I need to find Orochimaru."
"I'll go. It's the duty of this negligent Squad Captain," Sakumo said, stopping Tsunade and then leaving Konoha Hospital. Soon, Orochimaru, who had heard about Tatsuma's unconsciousness, arrived at the hospital as quickly as possible.
At this point, Tatsuma had already received two IV bags, but Tsunade's grave expression showed no signs of easing. Orochimaru asked, "Has there been any improvement?"
"No, both his heartbeat and breathing remain weak," Tsunade replied.
Upon hearing this, Orochimaru also furrowed his brow and asked, "Can I draw blood?"
"Mm."
After Tsunade gave way, Orochimaru retrieved some equipment from the nearby medical cabinet and drew blood from Tatsuma. He then turned and returned to his research room.
After notifying Orochimaru, Sakumo went to the Hokage's office to report. Upon hearing that the mission was completed successfully but Tatsuma's condition was unknown, Hiruzen showed no sign of joy.
Nodding, Hiruzen said to Sakumo "You should go back and rest for now. I will ask Tsunade about the specific situation with Tatsuma."
After leaving the Hokage Building, Sakumo, feeling unsettled and exhausted, walked through the streets of Konoha. Passing by a park, he suddenly saw his son playing with other children.
He recalled that before he left on the mission, he had asked Kakashi to play more with children his own age when he had the chance.
Sakumo stopped, looking at the boy who seemed somewhat out of place among the other children. A faint smile appeared on his tired face.
"Father!"
Suddenly, Kakashi spotted Sakumo and waved to the others, saying, "Goodbye, I'm going back."
"Goodbye."
The other children waved back, albeit somewhat reluctantly. Kakashi looked at Obito, who had turned his head away because he had lost all day and had decided to ignore him. After a few seconds, seeing that Obito still wouldn't turn back, Kakashi decided to ignore him as well and turned to walk towards his father.
"Father, you look unhappy."
This was Kakashi's first time walking home with his father. He observed his father's expression and said cautiously.
"Mm."
Sakumo did not hide much and nodded. Kakashi, feeling anxious, asked, "Did the mission fail? I heard that failing a ninja mission results in punishment."
"No, even if a mission fails, the village won't impose punishment."
Sakumo ruffled Kakashi's head and said, "Don't worry. Dad's mission was completed, but… I wasn't able to protect my team well, and the team members got hurt."
Upon hearing this, Kakashi, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, became tense again and asked, "Is it Brother Minato? Or Brother Tatsuma?"
Sakumo Hatake didn't answer. Instead, he rubbed Kakashi's head and said, "Watch where you're walking. You almost stepped in dog poop just now."
Kakashi's attention was diverted. He looked at his shoes and then back at the path they had come from, and said indignantly, "No, I didn't. You're lying!"
"Kakashi, do you want to become a ninja in the future?"
Sakumo changed the subject again, and Kakashi was drawn in by the new topic. He nodded vigorously and said, "Father, you are a powerful ninja. I can't fall too far behind, or else people will speak ill of you."
Listening to his son's childish yet earnest words, Sakumo nodded and said, "Dad will take a break for a while. If you want to become a ninja, use this time to learn well from Dad. Are you willing?"
"Yes!"
The silhouettes of the large and small figures grew longer and longer as the sunset illuminated them at dusk.
On the other side, Orochimaru had also completed the analysis of Tatsuma's blood and rushed back to Konoha Hospital. Seeing Tsunade about to administer two bags of fluids to Tatsuma, he hurriedly said:
"Stop giving him the infusion!"
"What's wrong?"
Tsunade put down the glucose and saline, took the report from Orochimaru, and began to read it. However, she couldn't understand the values at all; she had never seen such blood test data before.
Orochimaru explained, "The activity of Tatsuma's body cells is already far below the standard for normal people. Even some dying individuals are not as weak as he is. Moreover, his immune system is on high alert to an unprecedented degree. Except for his own tissues, no other substances can circulate in his body without reacting with his own tissues. The glucose and saline you are administering cannot pass through the capillary cell membranes to be absorbed by the body. They are just staying in Tatsuma's blood vessels, and continuing the infusion will only place a greater burden on his blood vessels."
"Then what should we do?!"
The knowledge Orochimaru spoke of seemed to be medical, but it was vastly different from what Tsunade had learned. In her panic, she didn't know how to respond.
Orochimaru also frowned tightly and said, "Besides waiting, there's only one method."
"What method?"
"To restore the activity of his body cells by injecting the active cells isolated and refined from Hashirama Cells."
Upon hearing this method, Tsunade decisively shook her head and said, "No, it's not feasible at all. Have you forgotten why the Wood Release experiments were shut down?"
Officially, the Wood Release experiments were shut down because the subjects injected with Hashirama Cells experienced uncontrollable adverse reactions and died.
Even though these experiments weren't conducted by Orochimaru, Tsunade was now very resistant to the idea of Hashirama Cells. She couldn't possibly let her disciple be injected with something that hadn't been proven feasible.
Hearing Tsunade's outright refusal, Orochimaru said somewhat displeased, "Do you have a better method then?"
Faced with Orochimaru's question, Tsunade was stunned. At that moment, she couldn't think of any way to treat Tatsuma. If she herself were facing such a problem, she would have the confidence to solve it.
Once the Yin Seal is released and Creation Rebirth is activated, any negative effects on the body will be eliminated, and injuries will be regenerated. However, this technique cannot be performed on others, even though Tatsuma also has the Yin Seal.
After a while, Tsunade gritted her teeth and said, "I will take him to Shikkotsu Forest!"
----
Check out my Patreon for more advanced chapters up to 50 at patreon.com/HellGolt