Tsunade's Domineering Rescue, Sosuke's Chain of Heart Attacks

Fugaku's clawed hand, brimming with scarlet killing intent, was less than half an inch from Sosuke's throat.

His three-tomoe Sharingan spun madly, and the oppressive force of jonin-level chakra made the air in the cramped tea room turn viscous. Mikoto's despairing cry rang close by, but she had no time to stop him.

At that razor-thin moment between life and death.

The cold green gleam in Sosuke's eyes receded like a tide. Not only did he refrain from using the violent fledgling Sage Body within him to counterattack, he decisively dispersed all instinctive resistance and secretly bit through his tongue.

Because his senses, far beyond those of an ordinary person, had already caught a familiar and exceptionally violent chakra charging through the autumn wind with brute force, heading straight for this tea room.

A chess player would never overturn the board himself.

"Cough..." Sosuke's face turned deathly pale, and blood naturally trickled from the corner of his lips, staining his pure white fox-fur cloak. He looked as if the killing intent had shattered his heart meridians, and he collapsed weakly backward.

"Sosuke!" Mikoto threw herself forward without hesitation.

But before she could touch even the hem of Sosuke's clothes, something changed.

Boom!

The entire wooden wall facing the street, along with its carved sliding window, exploded like paper in an instant. Wood chips and broken tiles poured inward like a torrential rain, while the violent wind overturned the small red-clay stove and scattered blazing coals across the floor.

A tall figure entirely shrouded in pale blue chakra descended into the center of the room amid the flying debris like an enraged lioness.

"Uchiha brat, do you have a death wish?!"

With a furious cry that seemed to rupture eardrums, a fair fist containing world-shattering force slammed mercilessly toward Fugaku.

Fugaku's pupils shrank sharply. Even his three-tomoe Sharingan could not catch the complete trajectory of that punch. Acting only on instinct, he withdrew his hand from Sosuke in a miserable scramble and crossed his arms before his chest.

Bang!

The force of the punch exploded. Fugaku felt as though a charging rhinoceros had struck both arms head-on, his bones groaning beneath the unbearable impact. He flew backward like a kite with its string cut, smashing through the partition wall on the other side and crashing into the rubble in the corridor.

The second floor of the entire "Green Leaf" tea house shook violently from the aftershock of that punch, as if it might collapse at any moment.

As the dust settled, Tsunade's golden twin ponytails whipped wildly in the wind. Standing in front of Sosuke, she crushed the tatami beneath one foot. Her beautiful eyes, blazing with fury, stared fixedly at Fugaku as he struggled to climb out of the rubble, killing intent around her nearly taking tangible form.

"Lady Tsunade..." Blood seeped from the corner of Fugaku's mouth, and his arms trembled unnaturally. Suppressing humiliation and fear, he gritted his teeth and said, "It was Senju Sosuke who insulted the Uchiha clan first. I only..."

"Shut up!" Tsunade cut him off without mercy, her high heels striking the wooden floor with a heavy thud. "Insult you? He can't even refine chakra right now. He can barely stand without gasping for breath! What could he possibly use to insult a Uchiha jonin like you? Do you take me for blind, or do you think the Senju Clan is easy to bully now, that any stray cat or dog can come stomp all over us?!"

Fugaku was left speechless, his face alternating between green and white. In Hidden Leaf, who dared reason with Tsunade when she was enraged? Her fists were the greatest reason of all.

"Big Sister..."

At that moment, an exceptionally weak call came from behind her.

Sosuke leaned against the wall, covering his mouth with a snow-white silk handkerchief as he coughed violently. Blood dripped through his fingers, staining his white fox-fur cloak with blossoms of glaring red. He raised his head, his eyes carrying a heartbreaking sense of fragility.

"Don't blame Young Master Fugaku... It was my fault. I shouldn't have mentioned the Police Force and made him angry... Cough, cough..."

That seemingly conciliatory remark only added fuel to the fire.

Seeing Sosuke in such a miserable state, Tsunade's eyes reddened with heartache. When she turned to Fugaku again, her gaze contained genuine murderous intent. "What a fine Uchiha! Not only do you bully civilians in the street, you even dared try to kill my brother. Fugaku, I'll remember this debt. You'd better pray that Sosuke is all right. Otherwise, I'll personally tear down your Uchiha clan assembly hall!"

With that, Tsunade ignored Fugaku's expression, uglier than if he had swallowed a dead fly. She turned and carefully helped Sosuke up, her movements utterly unlike the violent ones from moments before.

"We're going home." Tsunade draped Sosuke's arm over her shoulder and used pure medical chakra to protect his heart meridians.

Before leaving, Sosuke looked past Tsunade's shoulder and cast an extremely discreet glance at Mikoto, who still stood frozen in place.

There was no resentment or fear in that look, only a faint, gentle smile like autumn water. It seemed to say: See? I told you, a political marriage can't save you.

Mikoto's heart was struck hard. Looking at Sosuke's retreating figure as Tsunade led him away, then at her disheveled, sinister-faced fiancé Fugaku amid the ruins, a powerful wave of nausea and doubt took root deep within her heart.

The late-autumn streets were swept by biting winds.

Tsunade did not let Sosuke walk on his own. Instead, she carried him directly on her back. Feeling the boy's body, so light it was nearly weightless, and his slightly cool temperature, Tsunade's heart filled with self-reproach.

"I'm sorry. Your sister came too late. I shouldn't have let you go out alone to buy medicine." Tsunade's voice was low, carrying a trace of lingering fear.

Sosuke lay against Tsunade's broad, soft back, his nose filled with her distinctive faint medicinal scent and the subtle fragrance of a mature woman. A secret curve touched his lips, though his voice remained weak.

"It's all right, Big Sister. Actually... it wasn't entirely Young Master Fugaku's fault today."

"You're still speaking up for him? That bastard nearly killed you!" Tsunade snorted angrily.

"I just think Miss Mikoto is rather pitiful." Sosuke cast out the bait at precisely the right moment, his tone carrying undisguised admiration. "She's a very gentle person, completely different from those arrogant Uchiha people. When Fugaku attacked just now, she even tried to stand in front of me. If she truly marries a brute like Fugaku, her whole life will be ruined."

Tsunade's steps paused slightly.

A woman's instincts were always exceptionally sharp. Even someone as carefree as Tsunade felt the territorial instinct of the first wife stir the instant she heard the brother she had risked her life to protect speak of another woman with such appreciation and pity.

A subtle sourness, one she did not even notice herself, rose in her heart.

"Gentle? What good women could the Uchiha clan possibly have?" Tsunade curled her lips, her tone unconsciously taking on a hint of prideful jealousy. "Everyone in that clan is a lunatic to the bone. Stay away from her, or you'll end up helping count the money after someone sells you off."

"But she really helped me today..." Sosuke continued testing the dangerous boundary.

"Helped you with what? With me here, who would dare touch you?" Tsunade bounced Sosuke on her back irritably, her voice rising without her realizing it. "I'll accompany you whenever you buy medicine from now on! If you dare sneak off alone to see some Uchiha woman again, I'll break your legs!"

Hearing Tsunade's domineering warning, thick with possessiveness, Sosuke buried his face in her golden hair and deeply inhaled its fragrance. An extreme desire for control flashed through his eyes.

"All right. I'll listen to you, Big Sister."

That obedient answer instantly dispelled the faint displeasure in Tsunade's heart. She quickened her pace toward the Senju Clan Grounds.

She did not know that her seemingly harmless younger brother had already successfully planted a seed called "love triangle" in her heart. Once the time was right, that seed would take root and sprout, thoroughly shattering the final psychological barrier she possessed as his clan elder sister.

Night fell, and the Senju Clan Grounds once again sank into darkness.

Inside the canopy bed in the bedroom, Sosuke sat cross-legged. All his daytime pretense had fallen away. With his eyes closed, he examined the system panel, where the interception progress had reached 25%.

Fugaku's fury that day had not established his prestige. Instead, it had become Sosuke's perfect stepping stone, tearing a rift wide open in Mikoto's heart.

The progress is still too slow. I need stronger medicine. Sosuke planned his next move in his mind.

Yet the instant that thought emerged.

Without any warning, an incomparably terrifying palpitation erupted from the deepest part of his heart!

"Urgh—!"

Sosuke's eyes flew open. His once-deep black eyes had turned an eerie dark green. Clutching his chest tightly, he rolled uncontrollably from the bed and struck the floor hard.

Bang!

The solid wooden bedside cabinet was knocked over by his struggling movements, and the basin atop it shattered on impact, spilling water everywhere.

This was not an enemy attack. It was a curse from the depths of his bloodline.

In the tea room that day, Fugaku's jonin-level killing intent had stimulated the fledgling Sage Body dormant within Sosuke. Although Sosuke had forcibly suppressed his instinct to counterattack, the violent vitality and divinity belonging to Wood Release had been completely awakened!

Pain ten times worse than what he had suffered in the medical tent swept through his body like a tsunami.

"Damn it..."

Sosuke gritted his teeth as cold sweat instantly soaked through his inner clothes. He could clearly feel his blood thickening and the chakra within his meridians beginning to run wild.

By the faint moonlight shining through the window, Sosuke saw in horror that the dark brown patterns which had faded from the back of his left hand had reappeared. This time, they spread at a horrifying speed!

In mere seconds, those patterns crawled up his wrist and along his forearm. Wherever they passed, his fair skin rapidly shriveled and hardened, turning into rough bark. Several sharp wooden thorns even pierced through his flesh, growing out streaked with blood.

Woodification!

The divine erosion had erupted completely!

The system's cold warning blared wildly in his mind, and red alarms nearly drowned his consciousness.

[Warning! Divine chakra rampage detected within the host!]

[Current woodification progress: 15%... 20%...]

[If yin and yang are not harmonized in time, the host will completely transform into nourishment for the mindless Divine Tree in ten minutes!]

The violent commotion instantly startled Tsunade, who was sleeping in the outer side room.

"Sosuke?!"

With an anxious shout, the bedroom door was smashed open by tremendous force. Tsunade rushed in without even having time to put on an outer robe.

When she saw by the moonlight that Sosuke lay in a pool of water, with bark already beginning to grow over half his body, she stood frozen as if struck by lightning.

"Save... me..."

Sosuke struggled to raise his right hand, which had not yet fully turned to wood, and weakly reached toward Tsunade. His voice had become terribly hoarse, as though his throat were stuffed with wood chips.

Tsunade snapped back to her senses and threw herself beside Sosuke like a madwoman. Dazzling green medical chakra lit up in her hands as she poured it into his body without regard for the cost.

"Don't be afraid! Your sister is here! I'll heal you right away!" Tsunade's voice carried an obvious sob.

But it was useless.

The top-tier medical chakra had barely entered Sosuke's body before vanishing like mud into the sea. Not only did it fail to slow the spread of woodification, it became nourishment for that violent divinity, making the bark-like patterns on Sosuke's chest spread even faster.

"How can this be... Why isn't it working?!" Tsunade stared despairingly at her hands. The medical ninjutsu she had once been so proud of seemed utterly laughable before the ancient bloodline backlash of the Senju Clan.

Sosuke's breathing grew weaker and weaker, and wood grain began to emerge across the left side of his face.

Then Tsunade remembered the only solution she had deduced back in the medical tent.

The union of yin and yang.

Using the ultimate Yin Release chakra, through the most primal and intimate contact of flesh, to neutralize that rampaging Yang Release divinity.

It was the only path.

But he was her clansman, the Senju Clan's last remaining male! If she crossed that line, Tsunade of the Senju Clan would utterly betray all her ethics and pride.

Under the moonlight, Tsunade looked at Sosuke's face, twisted with pain yet still incomparably handsome. She looked at his despairing state as he was about to become nothing more than a piece of dead wood.

Save him, or not?

Only Sosuke's harsh breathing and Tsunade's violently conflicted heartbeat remained in the room. This was destined to be a mad night that would completely change the balance of Hidden Leaf.