Tsunade's Hemophobia

Konoha Hospital, laboratory.

Aoba carefully dripped the final drop of specially treated cell culture solution into the petri dish. Blue light flickered behind his sunglasses as the image beneath the microscope displayed in real time across his retina.

Inside the petri dish, a dark red colony slowly devoured grains of sand. This was the "Living Coating" he had cultivated from the basal cells in his mouth after inducing mutations with chakra.

As long as they were given enough time, these tiny organisms would creep over every grain of sand like moss, turning lifeless matter into extensions of his limbs.

[Cell colony activity stable. Keratin proteins initially fused. Chakra conductivity increasing...]

[Fusion stable. No rejection response detected.]

It worked.

Aoba leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath.

He had cultivated over a hundred cell colonies before one had finally succeeded.

That was with the Chip system refining the theoretical data. Otherwise, he would have thought it impossible to complete.

Though it was only a first-generation cell, it proved that he was on the right path.

By cultivating his own proliferating cells and turning them into a special "Biological Coating," he could wrap every grain of sand and transform inorganic matter into extensions of his body.

"Next, I need to optimize it further..."

Aoba rubbed the bridge of his nose. More than ten days of experiments had left him mentally exhausted.

Still, when he imagined himself standing in midair someday, casually summoning a vast Sand Sea with a wave of his hand...

Heh heh, just thinking about it made him a little excited...

Just then, hurried footsteps rang out, and the laboratory door was shoved open violently.

"Aoba! Hurry! Emergency summons! All medical ninja are to gather at Operating Room One immediately!"

A nurse Aoba knew looked at him with a tense expression and spoke urgently.

"Kyoko, what happened?"

Aoba's heart tightened. He immediately put away the petri dish and experimental equipment in his personal cabinet, then hurried out of the laboratory.

Medical staff rushed through the corridor with grave expressions, and the air was thick with tension.

"What happened?"

"Don't ask! Just go! It's... it's an S-rank mission!"

After saying that, Kyoko threw herself back into the frantic dispatch work.

S-rank?

Aoba's heart sank. For Konoha Hospital to activate its highest-level emergency protocol for an S-rank mission, the injured person's identity had to be extraordinary. Their condition or injuries also had to be severe—the kind where they were on the verge of death.

He did not dare delay and immediately hurried toward Operating Room One.

The closer he got, the more intense the tension became.

He even saw several Anbu with grim expressions stationed at the key passageways outside the operating room. A chilling killing intent seeped from beneath their cold masks, keeping all unrelated personnel out.

Aoba took out his identification and gave it a wave, passing through without issue.

When he pushed open the preparation room for Operating Room One, he froze completely.

The preparation room was nearly packed with people. Several of those in the crowd were chief physicians from Konoha Hospital—one could say Konoha's finest medical experts were all here—yet every one of them looked as grave as still water.

"Teacher Ueno..."

Aoba walked over to Ueno's side and greeted her quietly.

Ueno turned her head slightly to glance at Aoba, then nodded and motioned for him to stand behind her.

Aoba stood silently, quickly piecing together the general situation from the scattered information around him.

Emergency treatment. The patient had a penetrating abdominal wound, at least ten centimeters wide, with internal organs damaged to varying degrees.

As people shifted around, Aoba caught sight of the operating room through the preparation room.

He saw who was lying on the table.

Namikaze Minato.

Aoba's mind went blank for an instant.

How was that possible?

The Rasengan had already been developed, and Minato had long since mastered the Flying Thunder God Technique. At this stage of the Shinobi World, not even Kumogakure's AB Duo should have been capable of injuring Minato this badly!

Yet reality was that Minato lay on the cold operating table, his breath weak. His signature blond hair was clumped together by blood, while his face—usually wearing a gentle smile—was pale as paper, his eyes tightly shut.

Most horrifying of all was his abdomen. Where his ninja flak jacket should have been was now a mangled, bloody cavity, with fragments of writhing organs faintly visible within.

With injuries like that, in Aoba's previous life, forget getting him to a hospital—even if an ambulance arrived, it could only collect the body.

The sharp clatter of high heels approached, and the main doors were pushed open.

"Lady Tsunade?"

"Lady Tsunade is here!"

The crowd automatically parted, clearing a path.

Tsunade, dressed in a long teal coat, strode over swiftly. Her expression was awful, her brows tightly furrowed.

But when she reached the entrance to the operating room, her steps abruptly stopped.

Through the frosted glass, she could faintly make out the scarlet scene within.

Tsunade's body began trembling uncontrollably, and her breathing grew rapid.

Hemophobia!

She gripped the doorframe tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force, yet she could not take that final step.

"Lady Tsunade!"

A senior medical ninja stepped forward to report. "The wound is too deep. It not only penetrated the abdominal cavity, but multiple internal organs have been damaged. We can't stop the bleeding. We've already..."

Tsunade suddenly staggered half a step back, her pupils contracting violently.

No.

She could not do it.

That sticky, warm sensation seemed to return to her hands. Dan, Nawaki... their pallid faces overlapped before her eyes.

Tsunade stood frozen in place. The hands that could shatter a giant boulder with a single punch now did not even have the strength to push open a frosted glass door.

Through the gap in the glass, that blinding scarlet seeped into her retina like a venomous snake, instantly awakening the nightmare buried deep within her memories.

Severed limbs, gushing blood, body warmth gradually fading away.

Those memories she had deliberately sealed away now became like a beast awakened from slumber, tearing her reason to pieces with savage force.

"Hah... hah..."

Tsunade's chest heaved violently, and her entire body trembled uncontrollably.

The medical ninja around her looked at one another. Shock, confusion, and panic spread through the crowd.

One of the legendary Sannin, Princess Tsunade—the holy hand of medical ninjutsu—had balked at the entrance to an operating room?

If even Lady Tsunade gave up, then Namikaze Minato inside would...

A strange mood spread through the crowd.

Aoba stood at the back of the crowd, calmly watching the scene through his sunglasses.

Though he had known the intelligence long ago, seeing an elite Kage-level powerhouse so fragile before psychological trauma still left him sighing inwardly.

For one of the Shinobi World's greatest medical ninja, this was undoubtedly a fatal flaw.

In other words, Tsunade's career as a medical ninja might already have come to an end ahead of time. If the person lying inside today had not been Namikaze Minato, she would never have set foot in a hospital again.

Only a very small number of high-ranking officials and close friends knew that Tsunade suffered from Hemophobia.

Though there had occasionally been rumors in the village, they had never been confirmed.

But today, under the watchful eyes of so many people, this secret likely could no longer be hidden.