Senju Aura in the Dead of Night

At two in the morning, Chiba was jolted awake from his meditation by a searing heat.

It was not heat from outside, but from within. A scalding current rose from his dantian like a pot of boiling water, flooding through his meridians and into his limbs. Every meridian it washed through ached and swelled, while something seemed to be expanding within the gaps of his bones.

His back pressed against the bedboard, and sweat had already soaked through his undershirt.

A progress bar flickered in his mind:

[Senju bloodline purification in progress... Current progress: 47%. Chakra overflow warning: At the current stage, the leakage of life energy cannot be suppressed.]

Chiba let out a muffled groan. "Overflow" was putting it far too lightly. He felt like a boiler burned through at the bottom, with chakra fluctuations spilling from his body as a visible pale blue-white mist.

The potted greenery in the room crazily sprouted new shoots. The apples in the fruit bowl on the table visibly swelled by a full size, and even the fibers of the bedsheets trembled faintly.

This was the life energy unique to the Senju bloodline. The reason the First Hokage Hashirama's Wood Release could heal injuries and spur all living things to grow lay in this chakra's affinity for life.

What Chiba was experiencing was the transitional reaction as his body forcibly rose from a thin 3.7% bloodline concentration to 8.2%.

It hurt. It really hurt. But it also felt incredibly good.

Each time the warm current washed through a section of his meridians, that section became wider and tougher, and the total amount of chakra it could hold visibly increased. His muscle fibers were restructuring on a microscopic level, his bone density was rising, and even his five senses were growing sharper.

Chiba gritted his teeth and controlled his breathing, trying not to make a sound. But he could not control the range of his chakra overflow. That life energy had already seeped through the walls and spread into the corridor.

In the master bedroom, Tsunade turned over.

She had not fully sobered up yet. Half-asleep, she lay sprawled across her pillow, her blonde hair spread over the bed. Yet her body reacted before her mind did.

An incredibly rich scent poured into her nose, carrying the fresh fragrance of newly sprouted grass and trees, along with the warmth of sunlight. It brought to mind century-old trees in deep mountain forests, dampened by morning dew.

That scent was far too familiar.

Tsunade's eyes flew open.

Most of her drunkenness vanished in that instant. She sat up, loose blonde hair falling over her shoulders, while the collar of her oversized sleepwear hung at the edge of them. Her body's senses had been forcibly awakened, every pore greedily absorbing the Senju life energy permeating the air.

"This is..."

Barefoot, she stepped onto the floor. Once she left the master bedroom, the concentration of life energy in the hallway was three times greater than inside. The leaves of the greenery trembled softly in the windless room, while a nearly withered orchid visibly regained its emerald color.

Tsunade stopped before the guest bedroom door.

It was unlocked.

She pushed it open a crack.

The sight inside made her breathing catch. Chiba lay on his back on the bed, his soaked undershirt clinging to his body and outlining the lean yet defined muscles of a teenage boy. Pale blue-white chakra mist spilled from his skin, forming visible flowing patterns in the air. The entire room seemed submerged in a pool of life-giving spring water.

The instincts of a medical ninja drove Tsunade inside.

Something was wrong. This was not ordinary chakra overflow. The density and purity of this life energy had already exceeded the limits of an ordinary Senju clansman, nearing the Wood Release affinity she had felt in her grandfather's relics during her youth.

How could a fifteen-year-old descendant of a branch family possess Senju bloodline traits at this level?

The Third Hokage's report had clearly stated, "Bloodline concentration negligible."

Tsunade hurried to the bedside and placed both hands over Chiba's wrist to check his pulse. The moment she touched him, the medical chakra in her palm automatically entered detection mode.

His meridians were expanding. His bone density was being reshaped. His muscle fibers were splitting and recombining.

The Senju secret records had documented this phenomenon. It was called the "bloodline awakening period."

But that was an awakening reaction only those of the main family bloodline could possibly experience.

Tsunade crouched by the bed, her fingers resting on Chiba's wrist, her mind full of questions. How could a branch family descendant trigger a main family awakening? Unless his bloodline purity had been artificially suppressed, and it was now naturally recovering after some seal had been removed? Or perhaps...

Her train of thought was interrupted.

Chiba opened his eyes.

Tsunade's hand was still on his wrist, and less than thirty centimeters separated them. The breath Chiba exhaled carried the warmth unique to life energy, stirring the strands of hair hanging from Tsunade's face.

"Lady Tsunade." Chiba's voice was hoarse, as though high fever had scorched his throat. "Coming into my room in the middle of the night dressed so lightly..."

Tsunade lowered her head and glanced at her sleepwear. Its loose collar had slipped below her shoulder, and her bent, crouching posture left the opening at the front of the fabric far too wide.

She did not pull back.

Medical ninja were used to all kinds of corpses and wounds. He was just a sweating teenage boy. Still, the tips of her ears did feel a little hot, though that was only because the room was too warm.

"Don't move." Tsunade pressed Chiba's wrist back onto the bed, her tone regaining the authority of one of the Sannin's elders. "The chakra inside you is violently restructuring. If this process goes out of control, it could damage your meridians. I'll perform a chakra stabilization technique."

Chiba did not resist. He leaned back against the pillow and watched Tsunade's hands move from his wrist to his forearm. Green medical chakra flowed from her palms and made a circuit through his meridians.

"You really are a compassionate healer." Chiba's voice regained some of its usual teasing tone. "Making house calls in the middle of the night without charging a fee."

"I took twenty million from you." Tsunade's hands never stopped, her gaze focused on the flow of chakra. "It's your first day on the job. Consider it overtime."

"Then does this count as a workplace injury?"

"Shut up."

Chiba chuckled and said nothing more. Tsunade's palm pressed against the center of his chest as she examined the path of his heart meridians, the warmth of her hand passing through his damp clothes. He could smell the lingering alcohol on Tsunade, along with the clean scent of soap unique to someone who had just taken a hot bath.

The system panel quietly updated in his mind.

[Tsunade favorability change: 15→18. Trigger: Senju bloodline resonance activated the main family's protective instinct.]

Tsunade's examination lasted around five minutes. When she withdrew her hand, the rampage within Chiba's body had gradually stabilized, and the pale blue-white mist had faded by more than half.

"Your meridians aren't damaged." Tsunade stood and took a step back to widen the distance between them. "But this awakening process isn't normal. Tomorrow, I'm giving you a thorough examination."

Chiba propped half his body up from the bed. Damp strands of hair clung to his forehead, giving him the particular bedraggled look of a teenage boy.

"Lady Tsunade."

"Hmm?"

"Your hands really are soft." Chiba's lips curved up. "But medical ninjutsu isn't much use for my current condition. Still, they felt pretty good. Keep it up next time."

Tsunade stopped in her tracks.

She looked back at Chiba. Her golden eyes glinted coldly in the moonlight, and the corner of her mouth twitched.

"Senju Chiba."

"Present."

"If you say one more greasy word, tomorrow morning you'll wake up in the sewers of Tanzaku Street."

She pulled the door shut from outside with such force that the frame buzzed.

Chiba lay back against his pillow and laughed as he stared at the ceiling.

The system progress bar continued to move.

[Senju bloodline purification in progress... Current progress: 89%. Estimated completion time: 4:00 a.m.]

The warm current in his body still flowed slowly, but it no longer burned. In its place came a sense of fullness, as though a water skin shriveled for fifteen years had finally been filled.

Strength.

The true strength of the Senju.

Chiba clenched his fist, and the bones in his knuckles gave a faint series of cracks. When his tendons tightened, he could clearly feel that the path through which his strength traveled had changed. It was more than a full tier smoother than it had been during the day.

If he encountered genin on the Root Organization's level again tomorrow, he would not even need a kunai.

At exactly four in the morning, the system issued its final notification.

[Senju bloodline purification complete. Current bloodline concentration: 8.2%. Wood Release affinity: Activated (Beginner). Taijutsu base multiplier: ×1.6. Total chakra increased: 32%.]

Chiba let out a long breath, closed his eyes, and sank into real sleep.

Outside the window, moonlight passed through the glass and spilled across the floor. The nearly dead orchid beside the bed had already put out three new shoots.