Tsunade's Hemophobia

Konoha Hospital, laboratory.

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

In 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 spread across every grain of sand like moss, turning dead matter into extensions of his limbs.

[Cell colony activity stable, preliminary keratin fusion complete, chakra conductivity increased...]

[Fusion stable. No rejection reaction detected.]

It worked.

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

He had cultivated more than a hundred groups of cell colonies before one finally succeeded.

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

Though these were only first-generation cells, they proved that he was on the right path.

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

"Next, I just 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 in the future, casually summoning a vast Sand Sea with a wave of his hand...

Heh, just thinking about it was a little exciting...

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded outside, and the laboratory door was shoved open violently.

"Aoba! Hurry! Emergency summons! All medical ninja are to gather in 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.

The medical staff in the corridor moved briskly, their expressions grave. The air was thick with tension.

"What happened?"

"Don't ask! Hurry! It's... it's an S-Rank mission!"

After saying that, Kyoko threw herself back into the frantic coordination efforts.

S-Rank?

Aoba's heart sank. For Konoha Hospital to activate its highest-level emergency protocol over an S-Rank mission, the injured person's identity had to be extraordinary. Their condition or injuries also had to be severe—severe enough that 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 grim Anbu guarding the key passages outside the operating room. A murderous chill seeped from beneath their cold masks, keeping all unrelated personnel out.

Aoba took out his identification and waved it. As expected, he was allowed through.

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—the very best medical ninja in Konohagakure—yet every one of them wore an expression as heavy as water.

"Teacher Ueno..."

Aoba stepped beside Ueno and greeted her quietly.

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

Aoba stood quietly, quickly piecing together a rough outline from the scattered information around him.

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

As people shifted aside, Aoba caught sight of the operating room from the preparation room.

He saw who was lying inside.

Namikaze Minato.

Aoba's mind went blank for a moment.

How was that possible?

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

Yet the reality was that Minato lay on the cold operating table, his breathing weak. His distinctive golden hair was clumped into strands by blood, while his face—usually wearing a gentle smile—was as pale as paper, his eyes tightly shut.

The most horrifying sight was his abdomen. Where his ninja flak jacket should have covered him was now a mangled, bloody hole, with fragments of writhing organs faintly visible within.

With injuries like these in Aoba's previous life, let alone making it to the hospital, even if the ambulance arrived, all it could do was collect the body.

A rapid clatter of high heels sounded, and the doors were pushed open.

"Lady Tsunade?"

"Lady Tsunade is here!"

The crowd automatically parted, making way for her.

Tsunade, dressed in a long teal coat, strode forward. Her expression was terrible, her brows drawn tightly together.

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

Through the frosted glass, she could vaguely see the sea of crimson inside.

Tsunade's body began to tremble 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 are damaged, and 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 pale faces overlapped before her eyes.

Tsunade stood frozen in place. Those hands that could shatter a giant boulder with one punch now lacked even the strength to push open a frosted glass door.

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

Severed limbs, spurting blood, body temperatures gradually turning cold.

The memories she had deliberately sealed away now became like a beast awakened from slumber, tearing her reason to shreds with brutal force.

"Huff... huff..."

Tsunade's chest rose and fell violently, and her entire body trembled involuntarily.

The medical ninja around her exchanged looks. Shock, confusion, and panic spread through the crowd.

One of the legendary Sannin, Princess Tsunade, the saintly healer, had actually faltered at the entrance to an operating room?

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

An unsettling mood spread through the crowd.

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

Although he had long known the information, witnessing a Kage Level powerhouse so vulnerable in the face of 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 early end. If the one 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 rumors occasionally circulated through the village, they had never been confirmed.

But today, beneath the gaze of so many people, this secret would likely never be hidden again.