"I can keep her alive for a week at most. After that, there'll be nothing I can do. But even this is pointless. Life force is different from other things. Healing someone's injuries doesn't restore their life force; everyone's life force is finite!" Tsunade explained helplessly.
Minato fell silent where he stood for a long while.
"Sorry for the trouble, Lady Tsunade. Even one more day would be a blessing!" Minato looked at Kushina through tears.
"Um, I do know where you could find a way to replenish life force, but I doubt you could get your hands on it." Uchiha Gen had been watching the whole time. Only now did he speak up.
"Kid, what kind of joke is that? Life force isn't something ordinary, and you clearly don't know Medical Ninjutsu," Tsunade chided him.
"I don't know Medical Ninjutsu, and I don't know what makes life force so extraordinary. But that doesn't stop me from knowing someone else who can help!" Uchiha Gen replied.
"Heh. I'm not bragging, but no one in the Ninja World surpasses me in Medical Ninjutsu. If I can't solve this, no one else can."
"No, someone solved a problem you couldn't. And you know her pretty well, too." Uchiha Gen looked at Tsunade with a teasing smile.
"Who? Could it be... Orochimaru?" Tsunade glanced at Uchiha Gen, hesitating.
"Uh, Orochimaru? He could save Kushina, but I doubt either Kushina or Minato would accept his method. Besides, Kushina doesn't have time to learn that jutsu in her current condition!" Thinking of Kushina using Living Corpse Reincarnation to switch bodies... No, better not.
Orochimaru? That jutsu? Could it be?!
Hiruzen Sarutobi, standing to the side, seemed to suddenly realize something when he heard Uchiha Gen.
"It wasn't Orochimaru, but it is someone Tsunade knows well."
"If it's not Orochimaru, then who?" Tsunade asked again.
"You know Elder Chiyo of Sunagakure, right? After all, the two of you were bitter enemies on the battlefield. She developed a forbidden jutsu called One's Own Life Reincarnation, which lets her transfer her life force to another person. But given the relationship between Sunagakure and Konoha, there's no way she'd hand that jutsu over to you." Uchiha Gen explained.
"What? Kushina can be saved!"
"One's Own Life Reincarnation?"
"Chiyo?"
The three of them focused on completely different things.
"Don't get excited too soon. We've only just signed a ceasefire with Sunagakure, and I hear they're planning to make peace with Kirigakure soon, too. They'll probably have to pay a steep price. If we go over there now and make this demand, we'll be handing them a knife to cut us with! We'll be the ones paying dearly. And since this involves a forbidden jutsu, Chiyo might not be willing to help," Hiruzen Sarutobi said, frowning.
"We can negotiate the terms, but Kushina has to be saved!" Minato said, unusually firm.
"Between villages, it all comes down to interests. As an elder of Sunagakure, Chiyo shouldn't let personal feelings get in the way. Old man, I'm with Minato on this. Interests come second; once someone's gone, they're gone for good!" Since Kushina was her relative, Tsunade couldn't stand aside, no matter how she looked at it.
"I never said I disagreed. It's just that this will be difficult. Sigh! Minato, you'll have to decide for yourself. The village can't take any more strain." Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed helplessly. The Third Great Ninja War had only just ended, and there were still minor clashes between the villages. Another war could break out at any time. After fighting for so many years, Konoha was already exhausted. Now they had to go out of their way to let Sunagakure carve off a chunk of them. Just thinking about it made Hiruzen Sarutobi miserable.
Minato was now single-mindedly focused on saving Kushina. He might not have agreed to sacrifice his fellow villagers to save her, but he could accept trading away benefits.
After discussing it, Minato set out for Sunagakure that very night with several of his Hokage guards. He had wanted to take Uchiha Gen along, but Gen declined, citing exhaustion and the aftereffects of his Mangekyo.
Tsunade stayed by Kushina's side, while the Third Hokage worked to keep things under control and arranged disaster relief and reconstruction.
As for Uchiha Gen, of course he went home to catch up on sleep. He'd been exhausted all night, after all.
The morning sun emerged in the east, and the temperature in the desert began to rise. By then, Namikaze Minato had reached Sunagakure with several guards.
Sunagakure~
Conference room!
Fourth Kazekage Rasa sat in the place of honor, with Chiyo and Ebizo seated beside him. The other senior Sunagakure officials had all arrived, while Namikaze Minato sat across from them.
"Namikaze Minato, you're showing my Sunagakure precious little respect. We've only just made peace with Konoha, and you dare come here with such an outrageous demand?" Rasa said coldly.
"Fourth Kazekage, let's be frank. The fact that we're sitting down to discuss this means there's room to negotiate. State your terms," Minato said bluntly.
"Heh. You'll have to ask Elder Chiyo about that. She's the one involved, after all." Rasa shifted the conversation to Chiyo.
"I want to know how you heard that I knew One's Own Life Reincarnation." Chiyo's eyes narrowed as she stared at Namikaze Minato. She had studied the jutsu alone for so long that only her brother Ebizo had even a vague idea of what it could do. Not even the Kazekage knew she had mastered it. Yet Namikaze Minato, all the way over in Konoha, knew its name and effects in detail. It was truly chilling.
"We only heard about it by chance," Namikaze Minato replied. He didn't want to expose his village's intelligence network just like that.
"Oh, is that so? Then I refuse to help." Chiyo rose to leave.
"Elder Chiyo, please wait! All right, it was Uchiha Gen from our village who told me. As for how he knew, I have no idea," Namikaze Minato hurriedly called after her.
"Uchiha Gen? Who is that?"
"I've never heard of him!"
"Uchiha? Is he a member of the Uchiha Clan, one of Konoha's two great clans?"
"Fourth Hokage! If you don't want to tell me, don't just make up some nobody to fob me off!" Chiyo searched her memory and, finding no trace of anyone named Uchiha Gen, demanded angrily.
"It really was Uchiha Gen who gave us the information. We have no reason to lie about that. If you don't believe me, Elder Chiyo, we can ask him to explain in person." Desperate to save Kushina, Minato weighed it over and decided to throw his teammate under the bus. It wasn't honorable, but saving Kushina came first. Once she was safe, he'd find a way to make it up to Uchiha Gen.
"Is that so?" Judging by Namikaze Minato's expression, the issue seemed to lie with this man named Uchiha Gen. But how had he learned that she knew this forbidden jutsu? Chiyo fell into thought.
"We can discuss that later. Elder Chiyo, would you be willing to part with One's Own Life Reincarnation?" Minato was growing anxious.