Tsunade's Tears

"Earn merit?" Hyuga Ningyuan blinked, not understanding.

Sarutobi Biwako did not explain further. She felt that a five-year-old might not understand what earning merit meant. Still, she was not the sort to claim credit for her disciple's achievements. When she taught the other doctors later, she would definitely make Ningyuan's contribution clear.

Moreover, this invention would have a revolutionary impact on Medical Ninjutsu. It allowed every Medical Ninja to treat more people and heal more wounds with less Chakra.

A medical prodigy like Hyuga Ningyuan was certainly gratifying, but to an organization, one genius could never compare to ten elites.

This was equally significant to Konoha, a military organization, so she also needed to report it to Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Konoha might not reward every merit, but Ningyuan had people above him. There was no way this credit could be buried!

As for Ningyuan's talent in Medical Ninjutsu, it could be concealed for now. He was still young, and if he became famous too early, who knew whether the other villages might get ideas.

As for Ningyuan, he was genuinely speechless.

He had read quite a bit of Naruto-related material, but he truly had not known that the Mystical Palm Technique took five minutes to heal a wound. He only remembered that when Sakura Haruno was tested for her Medical Ninjutsu aptitude, she pressed her hand on a fish and it immediately recovered.

So they had deliberately shortened the time because of limited runtime, just to deceive and ambush me, a five-year-old kid?

Or had Sakura Haruno already mastered this technique by then?

Good thing I revealed this technique. Otherwise, if other people needed five minutes to heal a wound with the Mystical Palm Technique while I only needed two seconds, that would have been truly ridiculous.

Now, I took two seconds while others took sixteen. The gap was still huge—eight times faster—but at least it was not as absurd as five minutes versus two seconds.

"That's enough studying for today." Sarutobi Biwako patted Hyuga Ningyuan on the shoulder, then added after some thought, "Oh, right. You absolutely must not tell anyone what happened today, whether it's your parents or anyone from the Yūhi Clan!"

"Mm!" Hyuga Ningyuan nodded.

"Oh, right. I remember you said you were going to play with Minato." Sarutobi Biwako remembered something else and took out a stack of money from her clothes. "Take this. You can't show up at someone's home empty-handed for your first visit. Go buy a gift on the street!"

"Okay!" Hyuga Ningyuan nodded, took the money, and turned to leave the hospital room.

The moment he stepped outside, Hyuga Ningyuan heard Sarutobi Biwako asking the others to keep it secret as well.

He was not worried about secrecy. Konoha was basically an intelligence organization; it might fail at anything else, but there would definitely be no problems with confidentiality.

Unless the higher-ups deliberately leaked it.

He counted the money in his hand. There were ten bills in total—one thousand ryo!

This was no small sum. Apparently, Hinata's allowance was only fifty ryo!

A whole thousand ryo. How could he possibly spend it all...

Hm?

Hyuga Ningyuan's hand twitched, avoiding a delicate hand reaching for the money in his grip.

"Huh?" The person gave a soft cry of surprise. "You actually dodged?"

Hyuga Ningyuan looked speechlessly at the blonde, voluptuous woman before him. "You're Tsunade, one of the famous Sannin. Are you seriously robbing a child of his money?"

"Hmph. Is that money even yours? How could a child like you have so much money?" Tsunade showed not the slightest embarrassment and instead accused him in return. "And what did you call me? Even if you don't call me 'ma'am,' you should at least call me big sister!"

"Fine, Big Sister Tsunade!" Hyuga Ningyuan held up the money in his hand. "This money really is mine. I earned it with my intelligence!"

"Your intelligence?" Tsunade looked doubtful. "What did you do?"

"I can't tell you that. I promised my teacher I'd keep it secret. I can only tell you it's related to Medical Ninjutsu!" Hyuga Ningyuan said with a smile.

"What Medical Ninjutsu matter needs to be kept secret from me?" Tsunade stared at Hyuga Ningyuan. "Did you forget how your teacher introduced me just now? I'm the vice president of Konoha Hospital!"

"Then ask the president. Anyway, the order I received was to keep it secret and not tell anyone—not even my parents!" Hyuga Ningyuan waved his hand. "Well then, Big Sister Tsunade, goodbye?"

With that, Hyuga Ningyuan walked around Tsunade. He still needed to find Minato!

However, after taking only two steps, he sensed a gust of wind rising behind him.

His mental perception had long since reached the point where he could vaguely sense images without activating his Byakugan. It was somewhat like Spider-Man's spider-sense, or a low-end version of Observation Haki.

He could also tell that the gust was not very fast. With his speed and flexibility, he really could have dodged it.

But why would he?

The next second, he was lifted by the collar, then pulled into a soft embrace.

Without realizing it, his hand pressed against an enormous softness!

"Holy shit?" Ningyuan froze. Wait, was this progressing that quickly?

"You little brat, you're pretty full of yourself, aren't you? I'm going to pry it out of you!" Tsunade held Hyuga Ningyuan with one arm while rubbing the child's head with the other. As she rubbed, she shouted, "Are you going to talk or not? Are you?"

As for the hand on her chest, she did not care in the slightest.

He was a five-year-old child, not even old enough to finish kindergarten. Other than modern Fairies, who would fuss over something like that with a child?

On the contrary, Hyuga Ningyuan suddenly understood Momonosuke a little better.

A child's body and appearance really were deceptively useful!

"Fine, fine, I'll tell you, but are we really talking here?" Ningyuan whispered. "At least find somewhere quiet!"

"Now that's more like it!" Tsunade nodded in satisfaction.

Hyuga Ningyuan had thought she would take him to a quiet room, but Tsunade simply carried him out of Konoha Hospital!

To the Senju Family estate?

No. Tsunade carried him behind Konoha Hospital, then began climbing the cliff face.

What cliff was this, you asked?

Hokage Rock!

That's right. As one of Konoha's core buildings, Konoha Hospital, like the Ninja Academy, had been built beneath Hokage Rock.

Right beside them was Senju Hashirama's enormous stone head.

Ningyuan instinctively wrapped his arms around Tsunade's neck. It was not to take advantage of her—he was just afraid she would slip and drop him.

Mm, this is nice.

A short while later, the two of them had climbed Hokage Rock and reached the summit.

"This place is nice, right?" Tsunade smiled as she set Ningyuan down, then turned to look over Konoha below and asked.

"Sigh." With a regretful sigh, Hyuga Ningyuan looked at the unobstructed view of Konoha beneath Hokage Rock and nodded. "It's pretty nice. You can look down from above and see everything at a glance. Though from up here, Konoha is quite urbanized."

Luckily, his surname was not Bo, or he would have thought Konoha was a little too urbanized.

"No one comes here. There's absolutely no chance of anyone eavesdropping, so can you tell me now?" Tsunade asked.

"It's nothing major. Before using the Mystical Palm Technique, you just press the patient's wound tightly together first," Hyuga Ningyuan said.

"That's it?" Tsunade froze, then suddenly realized something was off.

Wait. Closing the wound, then using the Mystical Palm Technique... that actually seemed very useful!

"That really is it. It's a very simple thing. I don't know why not a single Medical Ninja in Konoha had thought of it all these years!" Hyuga Ningyuan spread his hands.

Tsunade immediately fell silent. Not only had the other Medical Ninjas failed to notice it—she had not noticed it either!

How much Chakra had I wasted for nothing before?

No, if I had known this trick earlier, how many more people could I have saved?

The war might even have ended sooner. Nawaki and Dan might not have died either!

So why had I not discovered something so simple sooner?!

"Why? Why?!"

"Boom!" Tsunade threw an enraged punch, smashing a deep crater directly into the ground.

Though the earth was the one injured, Tsunade was the one with tears streaming down her face.

Hyuga Ningyuan said nothing.

If he had been forty, he would have rubbed her hair and comforted her.

If he had been thirty, he would have given Tsunade a warm embrace and helped her forget the past.

But he was only five, so he could only reach out a finger and wipe away the tear at the corner of Tsunade's eye. Then, with an innocent expression, he chose to act cute. "Big sister, don't cry..."