"What do you think they're talking about in the office?"
Tsunade leaned against a pillar by the village gate, arms crossed over her chest as she impatiently tapped her toe against the ground.
Jiraiya sat cross-legged on the steps.
"I'm not sure. But knowing Minato, I doubt things will go south."
"Quite confident, aren't you?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow.
"Of course!"
Jiraiya thumped his chest, laughing heartily.
"Don't underestimate my student, Tsunade!"
"Hmph. Don't get cocky."
The two of them bantered as they walked with Shizune through the still-rebuilding streets, arriving at Minato's house.
They pushed open the door. The house was eerily quiet.
Kushina Uzumaki lay on the bed, deathly pale, her lips cracked and her forehead covered in cold sweat.
Though unconscious, she kept murmuring something. Her brow was tightly furrowed, and every so often her face twisted with intense pain, as if something invisible were choking her.
Jiraiya's smile froze on his face.
"Tsunade, what's going on?"
Tsunade hurried to the bedside and placed her fingers against Kushina's wrist. She sent her chakra into Kushina's body and examined it, her expression growing grimmer by the moment.
"Someone forcibly extracted the Tailed Beast inside her."
She withdrew her hand, her voice tinged with anger.
"Now her body is struggling against the residual Tailed Beast Chakra while also enduring the void left by the loss of her life force. The two forces are fighting inside her. She can't recover like this."
"What?!" Jiraiya's pupils contracted. "Who would do something like that?!"
"I don't know yet."
Tsunade shook her head. A faint green healing light had already begun to glow in her palm as she pressed it to Kushina's chest.
"I suspect this is why Minato was in such a hurry to call us back. I'll try channeling some life force into her first. If this keeps going..."
She didn't finish, but her meaning was clear.
Pale green chakra flowed slowly into Kushina. Sweat beaded on Tsunade's forehead, and Jiraiya stood nearby, barely daring to breathe.
"Minato, that kid..."
Jiraiya gritted his teeth, his voice hoarse.
"He's got nerves of steel. Kushina's in this state, and he can still keep his composure in the office..."
"Your student," Tsunade said without looking back, the green glow in her hands growing brighter, "has already become a proper Hokage."
As soon as she finished speaking, Kushina suddenly shuddered on the bed!
Her face grew even paler. Her lips trembled as she forced the words out.
"Minato... Minato... Naruto... don't die..."
"She's having a nightmare!"
Tsunade abruptly pulled her hands away, her expression grim.
"The Nine-Tails' chakra is far too dark. Without Natural Energy to help suppress the Nine-Tails Chakra, her body can't withstand it. Healing chakra alone won't stabilize her!"
Jiraiya looked at Tsunade, alarmed.
"So you were serious when you said we needed Orochimaru's Natural Energy?"
"Absolutely!"
Tsunade shook out her numb wrist.
"You can try too. See if you can ease her pain a little."
"Right! I'll give it a try!"
Jiraiya pushed off with both feet and quickly sat cross-legged, forming Hand Seals to connect with Natural Energy.
In less than half a minute, sage markings appeared around his eyes. Sage Mode—activate!
Carefully, he channeled a thread of Natural Energy from his palm and gently pressed it against Tsunade's shoulder, trying to pass it on to Kushina through her.
But the instant that energy touched Tsunade—
Crack!
The skin on her right shoulder turned gray and hardened before their eyes, then split with cracks like stone dried by the wind.
"Just as I thought!"
Tsunade's pupils contracted. She shouted sharply, "Jiraiya! Pull it back! Mount Myoboku's Natural Energy is too powerful. Anyone who isn't using Sage Mode can't withstand it!"
"Right!"
Jiraiya was scared out of his wits and immediately cut off the flow of chakra.
Tsunade clutched her right shoulder. Gray, petrified marks had spread like a spiderweb across half of it.
Jiraiya frantically dug a bottle of Toad Oil out of the scroll on his back, his hands shaking so badly he nearly dropped it.
"Sorry, Tsunade! It was my fault. I acted too rashly!"
He hurriedly rubbed the Toad Oil onto her shoulder. The greasy liquid seeped into her skin, and the gray petrification slowly receded like the tide, revealing reddened flesh beneath.
"That really hurt, Jiraiya," Tsunade sighed.
"That scared me to death..." Jiraiya panted, his face full of remorse. "Tsunade, thank goodness you could withstand it a little."
"It must be the Senju bloodline keeping me going." Tsunade gritted her teeth and rolled her shoulder, her face pale. "The head of the Senju Clan... could enter Sage Mode too."
"Lord Hashirama...?"
"Yeah."
Jiraiya stood and looked at Kushina, writhing in pain on the bed, then at Tsunade's shoulder, which hadn't fully recovered.
"So..." His voice was hoarse. "We really can't do this without Orochimaru?"
"More or less." Tsunade gave a bitter smile and rubbed her shoulder. "That guy's Ryūchi Cave Senjutsu is gentler than the Senjutsu you use from Mount Myoboku. At least... it won't turn people into stone."
"Tsunade!" Jiraiya's face flushed. "Don't make me look bad!"
"What are you two arguing about?"
The door opened, and Lin Zi stood in the doorway. He looked at the bottle of Toad Oil still clutched in Jiraiya's hand, then at Tsunade's reddened shoulder, and finally at Kushina, writhing in pain on the bed.
He tilted his head. His forked tongue flicked out and quivered in the air.
"You're making so much noise," he said as he entered the room and shut the door behind him. His voice was calm, but carried an undeniable pressure. "Don't you know patients need quiet?"
"Orochimaru, you're finally here!"
Tsunade's eyes lit up as if a drowning person had grasped a lifeline. She even forgot about the pain in her shoulder.
"Quick! Use your Sage Mode and see if you can suppress the Nine-Tails' malevolent chakra inside Kushina. Jiraiya's Senjutsu was too powerful. It couldn't be transmitted to Kushina at all."
Lin Zi didn't waste time. He went straight to the bedside.
He lowered his gaze, his golden slit pupils fixed on Kushina's deathly pale face for two seconds before shifting to her abdomen.
Beneath her skin, a dark red mass could just barely be seen writhing, like a savage beast trapped in a cage and furiously tearing at its host.
"I'll give it a try."
He pressed his hands together. When he drew them apart, a soft glow had already spread across his palms.
Ryūchi Cave Sage Mode—activate!
In an instant, the world before him changed.
Inside Kushina, two kinds of chakra were tangled together in a hopeless mess. One was the pale green healing energy Tsunade had left behind; the other was the Nine-Tails' malevolent chakra, scarlet as blood.
The red mass rampaged through the Uzumaki Clan's life force, gathering into the vague shape of a fox's head. Its fangs bared, it silently roared at Lin Zi.
"A little troublesome," Lin Zi murmured, narrowing his snake-like eyes. "But I can suppress it."
He raised his right hand, holding his pale palm three inches above Kushina's abdomen without touching her.
Natural Energy seeped from his palm, turning into countless hair-thin threads of green light. They drifted down slowly, like spring rain falling on cracked earth.
The streams of light carefully avoided Tsunade's healing chakra and gently wound around the mass of malevolent energy.
"Hiss!"
The Nine-Tails' apparition suddenly surged up, opening its bloody maw to bite apart the light that dared touch it!
Lin Zi snorted and thrust his right hand down.
Boom!
The light flared, but it wasn't blinding. Like water in a deep pool, it gently yet forcefully enveloped the entire red shadow.
Natural Energy seeped into the gaps in the Nine-Tails Chakra, flowing over it like water over a reef and gradually soothing its fury.
The scarlet fox head struggled wildly, all four limbs thrashing, but its movements grew slower and slower.
The light bound its fangs, while chains formed from Natural Energy restrained its tails. Its furious roar faded into a low whimper, then became a wisp of red smoke that was forcibly pressed back into the depths of Kushina's seal.
Sweat beaded on Lin Zi's forehead. Only after every last trace of red had been completely covered by jade-green light did he slowly lower his hand. Sage Mode receded like the tide.
"Phew..."
He exhaled, then wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.
Before you continue