Hemophobia

"Wasn't it the Yin Seal?" Wu Yu asked curiously.

The Yin Seal? Shizune thought. This junior disciple of hers sure had a big mouth. He had not even gotten started in Medical Ninjutsu, yet he was already setting his sights on the Yin Seal.

"Didn't I tell you last night?" Tsunade said. "The Yin Seal is an extremely special technique, both as Medical Ninjutsu and as Fuinjutsu. Therefore, to learn it, you must possess talent in both Medical Ninjutsu and Fuinjutsu."

Last night? Shizune was even more baffled. Hadn't Lady Tsunade been home alone last night?

Tsunade pointed at Shizune, then tapped the dark-red diamond-shaped mark on her forehead with her thumb. "The reason Shizune has never been able to inherit this technique of mine is because she has a weakness when it comes to Fuinjutsu."

Shizune lowered her head in shame.

Tsunade waved a hand. "There's nothing wrong with being a pure medical ninja. Shizune, I'll need you to pass down all my medical skills."

"Yes!" Shizune nodded earnestly.

"Anyway, before learning the Yin Seal, you need to take the first step in Medical Ninjutsu..." Tsunade pointed at Wu Yu. "Train in Yang Release Nature Transformation."

Wu Yu blinked. "I was wondering what it was. You made it sound so serious."

"Nature Transformation training doesn't seem all that difficult." He formed a hand seal for genjutsu. "Yin Nature Transformation is indeed a little harder than Fire Release or Water Release, but it's nothing special!"

Genjutsu: Hell Viewing Technique!

This was the only genjutsu Wu Yu had learned since first grasping Yin Nature Transformation.

It was rated D in difficulty, a Genin-level technique capable of drawing out the target's deepest fear and making them see horrifying visions. In theory, the deeper the target's fear, the stronger the technique's effect—just from the description alone, it was obvious this was a beginner-level genjutsu for novices. After all, if the target was ignorant and fearless, or possessed a firm will, then this genjutsu would be completely useless.

Crack!

Tsunade crushed the empty bowl in her hand. Biting her lip, she glared fixedly ahead. Wu Yu, who had just been sitting there forming hand seals, had become a gentle-faced, long-haired man. His chest and abdomen were hollowed out, blood gushing like a fountain. As he coughed up blood, he murmured Tsunade's name.

"Dan..."

Tsunade's nerves tightened to their limit. The almost-real blood and the horrifying stench of it nearly made her faint. Her entire body began trembling uncontrollably.

[Tsunade's hemophobia is acting up again! Lord Haotu is on the case! Regulating the secretion of neurotransmitters in the brain... Calming Technique! Calming Technique! Calm! Ing! Tech! Nique!!]

Haotu's shout within her body was accompanied by a wave of coolness. It was like a sharp blow to the head, like a basin of icy water poured over her, jolting Tsunade awake and yanking her back from the abyss of terror into reality.

The trembling in Tsunade's body stopped.

Looking at Dan Katō's bloody wounds across from her, it was as though the nerves responsible for her fear had been cut off. Her expression remained calm, and all that was left in her eyes was remembrance and grief.

"Big sister, save me..."

Hearing a voice beside her, Tsunade turned her head. Sitting where Shizune had been was her younger brother Nawaki, who had died in the war. Covered in blood and mangled flesh, he reached out to her for help. "It hurts so much, big sister. Save me..."

Tsunade lowered her eyes.

This kind of crude genjutsu did not require Haotu's help at all.

She did not even need to form hand seals to refine Chakra. By merely controlling her Chakra with her thoughts and sending it crashing wildly through the meridians in her body, she shattered the Chakra-disrupting genjutsu in one stroke.

The lively, steaming clamor of the tavern flooded back into her ears.

"Lady Tsunade..." Shizune stood beside her, looking as though she wanted to reach out and help dispel the genjutsu, yet hesitated.

Just now, the instant Tsunade fell under the genjutsu, her entire body had begun trembling. Shizune immediately understood what Lady Tsunade had seen in the illusion. Yet what baffled her was that Tsunade's body, trembling from hemophobia, had quickly calmed down.

As far as Shizune knew, a large part of why Lady Tsunade's hemophobia was so difficult to cure was that, deep down, Lady Tsunade perhaps did not want to be cured.

Tsunade used that immense terror and all-consuming pain to punish herself.

Dan and Nawaki were dead. Why was she still alive?

Whenever Lady Tsunade fell into fear, she nearly lost all ability to act and entered a completely uncontrolled state. It was as though she had cast a massive genjutsu upon herself, returning again and again to the day she lost her loved ones. In that single instant, blood spilled again and again from Dan and Nawaki's wounds, drowning Tsunade's trembling hands again and again. Again and again, they exhaled their final breaths. Again and again, Tsunade experienced that maddening sense of helplessness, that feeling of utter despair gnawing at her heart... The pain was heart-rending, but at least it let her hold their hands one more time.

"..."

Tsunade steadied her breathing, waved Shizune off, and glared at Wu Yu across from her with bloodshot eyes.

"You've already mastered Yin Nature Transformation. That's very good."

Tsunade picked up the wine bottle and took several huge gulps straight from it. "That proves you have talent for Yin Release. And if you have talent for Yin Release, that means you have the potential to learn Fuinjutsu."

Wu Yu asked curiously, "Are all Fuinjutsu Yin Release techniques?"

"Not all of them," Tsunade said. "But most are."

She began counting on her fingers. "Control, restraint, perception, memory... At their root, these abilities all belong to the domain of Yin nature."

"However, similar effects can also be achieved through other means, which is why not all of them are," Tsunade said. "For example, Fuinjutsu. Curse markings created through Yin Release have powerful restraining and suppressive effects, but if you simply move a mountain over and crush the target beneath it, the result is no different. That's why the Mountain Pressing Technique can also be called Fuinjutsu."

She pointed at Wu Yu. "And Sage Mode's sensory ability. Most ninjas' sensory techniques use Yin Release, turning their spirit into photons that spread outward in an instant. But Sage Mode is different—it uses the Nature Energy that exists everywhere for perception..."

"You said 'the domain of Yin nature,' not 'the domain of Yin Release,'" Wu Yu said. "What's the difference?"

"For you right now, there's no difference," Tsunade said.

Wu Yu said unhappily, "Wouldn't it be better to explain it all at once?"

Tsunade dipped her finger in wine and flicked it at Wu Yu. Snorting, she said, "No! Don't get ahead of yourself, brat. Master the basics first."

She said meaningfully, "Sometimes, more Chakra theory knowledge is not necessarily better, especially for beginners... Don't elementary Ninja Academy physics problems often say, 'Ignore air resistance'? Right now, you need to ignore the difference between Yin nature and Yin Release."