When she finally woke up in the morning, Tsunade was feeling great. It had been years since she slept so well.
Seeing Shizune next to her in bed, hugging her, she smiled happily and got up, stepping over Yujin, who was lying on the floor, and entered the bathroom.
Yujin's room's bathroom was filled with Tsunade's belongings. Various hygiene and beauty products were scattered around, making it look nothing like the bathroom of a single man.
As she exited the building and saw Yujin doing his usual exercises, she felt refreshed. Not only was she more relaxed, but also happier, more lively.
She couldn't remember the last time she felt so happy.
Even though the tragedies that befell her were still etched in her subconscious, temporarily, she was happy.
Watching Yujin's movements, she was so excited that she couldn't stand still, so she started mirroring the same movements, both of them moving slowly.
"Put more strength into your body, and pay attention to each of your movements. Even if you're just lifting an arm, focus completely on the movement, as if your consciousness is merging with your body, and you have complete control over the movement."
When Yujin saw Tsunade copying him, he began instructing her. Without Qi, he doesn't know how much she can benefit from this exercise, but it doesn't hurt to move. Even without the benefits of training Harmony, this set of exercises helps with concentration, mental clarity similar to meditation, stretching, flexibility, and refined body control.
There are many benefits, so it won't harm her, although how much she can benefit from it is still uncertain.
"If it's difficult to imagine your consciousness merging into your movements, keep your gaze on your movements, and don't think about anything else, just feel the movements. Feel your control over your body, your muscles, joints, and tendons moving."
Harmony is very subjective, and therefore difficult to explain logically. It's the kind of mental state that is not about thinking logically but feeling, and that's why it's important to feel your body, thoughts, feelings, and emotions. The better you can understand everything about yourself, the better your understanding of Harmony.
"Remember, you control yourself. You have complete control of your body, but that control needs to be refined. Our body is like a tool, the better we know how to use it, the more things we can do with it. And it all starts in our brain."
Tsunade began listening to Yujin's words attentively, trying to find a clue while still doing the movements.
"As a medic, you know the human body like no one else, so you know that everything in our body is controlled by our brain. Our thoughts are in our brain, and our brain controls our entire body, even things we can't consciously control like heartbeats."
Suddenly, she could hear a faint sound. For a few seconds, she wondered if she was hearing things, but the sound kept getting louder until it became clear what it was.
It was the sound of a heartbeat.
The sound was so loud that she could hear it as if it was right next to her ear.
"If you can refine your body's control enough, we can even do this, control our heartbeats."
When she heard this, Tsunade shuddered and felt a chill down her spine. The sound of the strong heartbeat was eerie, and she felt a primal fear, something completely instinctive.
"To achieve enough control, we need to merge our consciousness with our unconsciousness, and the best way to make that happen is to polish your conscious control of your body through hyperfocus."
The sound of the slow heartbeat diminished, and Tsunade finally managed to relax a bit, although she still remembered that primal fear she felt.
"Consciousness, instinct, subconsciousness, emotion, feeling, thoughts. Harmony encompasses all these facets of our being."
With the end of their movements, Tsunade looked at Yujin impressed. She didn't know it was possible to consciously control heartbeats, and this opened her mind incredibly. Although, as a medic, she already knew the wonders of the human body, she was once again impressed; the potential of the human body had not been fully tapped.
"To achieve Harmony, you need to develop all of this equally, in a multifaceted way, so it's not just anyone who can achieve Harmony. It requires talent and a different kind of mental state. If you want, I can try to teach you, but whether you can achiev it or not will depend on you... There's also the issue of Qi, though. I don't know if Chakra can be a substitute."
"To achieve Harmony, Qi is necessary?" she asked intrigued.
"Yes, it's the foundation for that to happen. Chakra is similar to Qi in some points, but has quite different properties. I don't know if it's possible, but we can try."
From Yujin's observations, Qi can be more powerful than Chakra, but much less versatile. For example, through conversations with Tsunade, he found out that it was possible to transform Chakra into elements like Fire and Water, but that was impossible with Qi. At least, he thinks it's impossible according to his understanding of Qi. Qi, on the other hand, has a much greater power explosion.
Of course, his studies on Chakra are still not satisfactory enough; this is just an initial observation.
"If you teach me Harmony, I'll teach you about Chakra, how about that?"
Tsunade could palpably feel Yujin's curiosity about Chakra, so she made a proposition.
"But weren't you planning to leave the village?"
Personally, Yujin prefers Tsunade to stay in the village. She is the only person he trusts in this world, and therefore he needs her to help him fit in. If she leaves the village, it will be more difficult for him to fit in. He also enjoys her company, especially the drinking.
Upon hearing the question, she looked at the sunrise on the horizon for a few moments, lost in thought. She decided yesterday that she would leave the village, and her decision still stands, but after the conversation she had with Yujin, she was no longer in a hurry.
Before, she had this inexplicable urge to just leave, but now she doesn't.
"I'll stay a little longer until you can stabilize here. I'm also interested in Harmony. We can explore the differences between Qi and Chakra together, see if both of us can study them. What do you think?"
Yujin smiled and nodded, extremely pleased.
"Perfect. Let's start immediately. First, we need a more private place for our studies."
She looked around, at some people passing by on the street watching them, and felt the urgent need for a private place for discussions and experiments.
Tsunade then took Shizune to her house, where a caretaker was already waiting. After that, the two went to an underground facility within the Senju complex.
It was a spacious place, entirely made of special stone, designed to be Tsunade's training ground. It's been a few years since she used the place.
"This place is private, no one is allowed to come here. From today, the two of us will be here studying Qi and Chakra."
Yujin nodded and looked around. There were several different rooms made of gray stone. Some rooms were larger than others, and they were currently in a kind of study with shelves full of books.
"This is where I study my medical practices. I apologize for the mess."
Although there were many books on the shelves, there were even more books on the floor and on the tables in the room.
"I've never seen so many books in one place."
Where Yujin comes from, books are rare and expensive. He has seen and read many books, but it's the first time he has seen so many books in one place. He crouched down to pick up a book, and after flipping through it, he realized he didn't understand anything written.
"It's strange. I can understand what people in this world say, but I don't understand the writing."
This caught Tsunade's attention as she was tidying up the room a bit. When she saw him flipping through a book with a troubled expression, she approached and asked.
"You don't understand any written words?"
Yujin flipped through the book again, this time more carefully looking at each word, trying to find something he understood.
"It seems I exaggerated. I can understand a symbol or two. This one, for example, is the symbol for 'investigating' where I came from."
When Tsunade looked at the symbol Yujin was pointing at, she saw that it was the word for research, which is similar to investigate.
"This symbol means fire, and this one means movement."
He continued looking for symbols he knew in the book, and after going through all the pages, he only found 8 symbols he recognized. Some symbols were correct, others had a slightly different meaning, and one of them had a completely different meaning.
"The spoken language of your world is the same as ours, but the writing is different. Maybe you can quickly learn to read and write."
The similar words made Yujin hopeful. Maybe it's not difficult to learn to read and write in this new world.
"I'll try to teach you a bit when we have time. But anyway, let's focus on what's important. First, I want you to explain everything you know about Qi. I need to write everything down for future reference."
Yujin didn't mind. The two sat at a table, and Tsunade began writing down everything he said.