Warm liquid slipped down her throat, bringing a soothing warmth and slowly drawing her muddled consciousness back together.
As the soup dwindled, her mind gradually cleared.
Her hand froze, still holding the empty bowl.
This feeling... that wasn't Shizune?
She whipped her head around and looked beside the bed.
Backlit by the morning sunlight, a figure sat in the bedside chair, watching her tenderly.
Fiery red hair, a gentle, beautiful face, and that diamond-shaped mark on her forehead that she could never mistake...
And that kind, all-embracing gaze, as though it could soothe every wound.
It was... Grandma.
Though fine black lines like cracks in porcelain marked her body, that face, that presence...
It was Grandma!
Tsunade's fingers tightened slightly around the bowl, her knuckles turning white.
She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Her eyes simply widened, filled with utter shock, disbelief, and a fragile, tentative fear that the person before her was only an illusion.
"G-Grandma?"
At last, the dry, trembling word squeezed out of her throat, so soft it was nearly drowned out by the birdsong outside.
Mito Uzumaki's smile deepened, filled with a tenderness that transcended life and death.
She reached out and gently stroked Tsunade's still-disheveled blond hair, her touch as delicate as though she were handling the most precious, fragile treasure in the world.
Her voice was just as warm and gentle as Tsunade remembered, with a magic that soothed the heart.
"Little Tsuna, did you miss Grandma?"
That simple question was like a key, instantly opening the floodgates deep in Tsunade's heart that had remained sealed for decades.
All her feigned strength, all the poise of a legendary Sannin, crumbled in that moment.
"Ah..."
A stifled sob escaped from deep in her throat. The bowl slipped from Tsunade's hand and fell