Curing hemophobia

"Forget about me! Get out of here!"

"You're the one who should leave, Lady Tsunade!"

Behind Yūto, Tsunade knelt on one knee, her legs no longer able to support her body because of her hemophobia.

Although Yūto had told her countless times to hurry and escape, Tsunade still refused to leave.

She feared that if she left, the next thing she received would be news of Yūto's death.

This idiot. Why didn't he value his own life? Were his comrades' lives really so much more precious than his?

Although she had known before that Yūto valued his comrades, only after experiencing it herself did Tsunade truly understand this boy.

Meanwhile, Yūto was struggling to keep it together, too.

Aside from drawing some fire away from him, Tsunade was no help at all here.

But the real problem was that he didn't need anyone to draw fire away from him.

What Yūto wanted most right now was for Tsunade to leave quickly and for Kakuzu to step up and kill him.

From their earlier fighting, Yūto could tell that this guy was much stronger than Dodai, a bona fide Kage-level expert.

Crushing him would be no problem.

He had inflicted some damage at the start thanks to his intelligence advantage, but he had no confidence at all about what came next.

Suddenly, a pair of warm, soft hands pressed against Yūto's back.

Tsunade forced her legs to support her body and used the Mystical Palm Technique to heal Yūto.

Medical chakra flowed through his meridians into his body, forcibly stemming the bleeding as her voice trembled. "You little pervert... don't think one of the Konoha Sannin would run away!"

"What a touching argument."

Kakuzu watched the two of them and sneered, the Wind Release masked monster writhing on his right shoulder. "Why don't we send you off together!"

"Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"

Another high-pressure wind sphere shot from the mask's mouth, sweeping up countless fallen leaves as it hurtled toward them.

Yūto glanced at Tsunade behind him. He could dodge it, but that would leave Tsunade in danger.

He had no choice but to form hand seals again, raising another earthen wall.

The high-pressure wind sphere struck the earthen wall, which held for several seconds before being smashed to pieces.

Fortunately, the collapsing wall deflected the high-pressure wind sphere. Only its aftershock swept through their hair, leaving both of them unharmed.

Tsunade smiled in relief and couldn't help saying to Yūto, "Thank goodness, you're all right..."

Before she finished speaking, a sharp spike of twisted Earth Grudge Fear fibers pierced Yūto's body, emerging mere centimeters before Tsunade's eyes.

The tip of the Earth Grudge Fear spike was covered in Yūto's blood, which dripped to the ground before Tsunade's eyes, drop by drop.

Yūto felt his body weaken. Kakuzu had pierced his heart.

He couldn't help smiling.

He should die this time, right? If he still didn't die, he would think heaven was playing a joke on him.

What normal person could still run around after having their heart pierced?

A born protagonist?

In truth, even though Yūto and Tsunade had been completely overwhelmed earlier, Kakuzu had never let his guard down.

All that talk about sending them off together had been a way for Kakuzu to conceal his true intentions.

Tsunade could no longer fight. What Kakuzu needed to do was eliminate Yūto first.

That made landing a precise hit on Yūto a problem.

Kakuzu's mind raced, and he immediately thought of a perfect, simple tactic.

Misdirection!

First, he used Wind Release: Pressure Damage to force Yūto to block the wind sphere's attack with an Earth-Style Wall.

The Earth-Style Wall could block not only ninjutsu attacks, but Yūto's and Tsunade's vision as well.

When Yūto and Tsunade thought they were safe for the moment, Kakuzu seized that window of less than a second to pierce Yūto's heart, landing an instantly fatal attack!

Yūto turned his head to look at Tsunade.

By then, Tsunade had frozen. Her eyes were vacant, reflecting nothing but the Earth Grudge Fear spike covered in Yūto's blood.

The scene of Nawaki's death in battle appeared before Tsunade again. Once again, she saw a boy die before her eyes.

And he had died protecting her.

"This has to be a joke..."

"How could this..."

Tsunade murmured.

Yūto managed a faint smile and made one last attempt to persuade her. "Tsunade, this is the ending I wanted most, so hurry up and leave. I can still hold Kakuzu off for a while."

Seeing that he was about to return to Blue Star, Yūto stopped pretending and laid his cards on the table. Yes, he wanted to die!

Blood spilled from the corner of Yūto's mouth, but with the last of his strength, he seized the black Earth Grudge Fear threads piercing his chest. His chakra erupted like a final rally before death.

"You're not getting past me!"

Coughing up bloody froth, he wrapped his hands in Lightning Release chakra and slammed them down.

The black threads piercing his body were forcibly driven into the ground, bringing Kakuzu's movements to an abrupt halt.

Tsunade's pupils contracted sharply. The boy's blood-soaked back overlapped completely with the Nawaki in her memories.

The smell of blood kept assaulting her nerves, but this time, a stronger emotion mingled with her dizziness.

"Again! It's happening again!"

She suddenly grabbed Yūto's shoulder, pouring medical chakra into him like a flood.

Blood bursting from the wound splashed onto her face. Its warm touch made the hallucinations caused by her hemophobia even clearer: Nawaki's mangled corpse, Dan Katō's pierced chest.

All her nightmares took shape at that moment.

Kakuzu sneered and tried to withdraw the black threads, only to discover that Yūto had actually clamped the fibers in place with his muscles.

"You're asking for death!" The Lightning Release masked monster lit up again, but this time, Tsunade moved faster than he did.

"Strength of a Hundred Technique Release!"

The markings of the Yin Seal crawled across Tsunade's entire body like living things. As she shattered the ground beneath her feet, the earth within a ten-meter radius collapsed all at once.

Under the intense emotional shock, her hemophobia was miraculously cured.

"Heavenly Foot of Pain!"

The blow, imbued with Monster Strength, smashed half of Kakuzu's body straight into the ground.

Chakra seethed around Tsunade. The splattered blood now seemed frozen on the surface of her skin, no longer capable of provoking the slightest fear.

"Overriding fear with anger?" Kakuzu suddenly split off three Earth Grudge Fear monsters, forming hand seals for ninjutsu of four different elements simultaneously. "But your dying struggles will only..."

"Shut up!"

Tsunade darted through the light of the four ninjutsu attacks, each punch precisely smashing a masked monster.

The Earth Release monster tried to block her with an Earth-Style Wall, but she shattered the earthen wall with her bare hands,

When the Fire Release flames reached her, she tore off her burning outer robe and swept it backhanded through the fireball, dispersing it.

Tsunade's bloodstained golden hair looked like burning flames beneath the moonlight. Her fist descended with a sonic boom. "Monster Strength!"

Boom!

The shock wave snapped every tree within a hundred meters.

When the dust cleared, all three of Kakuzu's split-off masks had been reduced to powder. His sole remaining main body fled desperately.

Tsunade chose not to pursue him. Saving Yūto was what mattered most now!

As she turned and rushed toward Yūto, the markings of the Yin Seal were slowly fading. The bloody hole in the boy's chest was a horrifying sight.

"Idiot..." Tsunade pressed trembling hands against the wound, the glow of the Mystical Palm Technique brighter than ever before. "Did you think I'd allow the same tragedy to happen a third time?"