A clearly frazzled Tsunade, barely woken up from her beauty sleep, stumbled into the meeting room where Mito and the others were discussing.
"What is it, this early obaa-sama?" The Senju princess yawned, freezing as soon as she actually took in the room.
"Alright, stop making a fool of yourself and come in." Mito commanded.
*
Back in another location, Shiki had brought Onikuma Maiko to one of his personal spots outside of Konoha.
He had no idea how she would react to other people and he didn't want to make a mess in the village at such a critical time so he sent a shadow clone to rendezvous with Benihime's group and deliver the goods to Mito.
His original self on the other hand remained to take care of the newly freed girl.
Considering she was, in fact, a girl, making certain forms of care quite inconvenient to do as a guy, Shiki did consider enlisting Tomoe and Ema as the two Land of Iron ladies both had experience in taking care of children.
However . . . That did not go too well.
. . .
'STAY AWAY!!!!!!!' A blaring, mind shattering distorted voice was blasted into the minds of Shiki and the trio of ladies.
They were utterly disoriented and were almost directly knocked out by a simple angry pulse of spiritual energy.
The girls were, benefiting from his inner hollow, the boy was pretty much unaffected.
For him it was like someone suddenly shouted in his face, unpleasant but not harmful.
And thus all his thoughts of passing on the care of Maiko to others were cut off while he decided to keep her away from other people until proper communication could be established.
. . .
Back to the present, Maiko was in need of urgent medical care and would need to be hooked up to several machines if she wanted to survive but Shiki had a much more effective alternative.
'Nirvana Seal: Release'
Unleashing the energy within his Nirvana Seal, the boy selectively focused on the powerful lifeforce generated by the sealed Gelel Vein and channeled it into the malnourished girl's body.
Not a lot of it though.
Her weakened body was easily overloaded so he could afford to.
Although Shiki's medical training was more for the purpose of self-regeneration, self-mutation, or outright killing by way of medical jutsu, he did become quite skilled in healing as well.
As such, diagnosing the laundry list of health issues Maiko was currently suffering, with the aid of his Kukyo - Seven Senses at that, proved to be no challenge.
Although there were indeed many, so long as the foundation was taken care off, Gelel Energy would smooth over the rest.
Atrophy, malnutrition, drug withdrawal, those were the three greater issues.
The first because Maiko was prevented from moving for years, the second because the researchers purposefully wanted to keep her weakened and the final one was just a consequence of the experiments conducted on her.
Malnutrition was the easiest to fix and also the biggest priority.
After all, the body needs fuel in order to heal properly, Gelel Energy would sustain Maiko but with her being able to handle so little of it due to her condition, it could not actually heal her.
Shiki took out a few of his special Military Ration Pills, with extra nutrition and caloric content as well as a higher absorption rate.
He then crushed them, added several mild medicinal ingredients from his stores filled with Land of Medicine loot and melted them into a liquid using Medical Chakra.
"Open up your mouth and try to swallow if you can, I'll help you with my chakra." Shiki spoke.
A spiritual ping of agreement was all he received.
'This girl really doesn't communicate along, barring the outburst from before, the only time she "spoke" was at the moment of her freeing.' The boy pondered.
His hands kept the work going without interruption however.
Guiding the nutritious medicinal liquid as a small stream, Shiki fed it to Maiko.
As expected, being "fed" through a tube connected to her stomach for years combined with her deplorable physical state, the girl could not cope with normal consumption at all, forcing the boy to guide the whole process manually using medical chakra.
'I'm finally putting my medical skill to real practice helping others . . . See Tsunade-sama, I too am an exemplary and kind hearted doctor!' Shiki mentally cheered.
He thought about shedding some moving tears as well but that felt too far for a joke meant only to amuse himself.
'Alright. Patient refueled, time to start undoing the atrophy.' Shiki mentally declared.
"I'm going to start stimulating your body with medical chakra to jump start your recovery. If you feel pain, I'm doing something wrong so immediately ping me like you've been doing okay?" The boy explained.
Another spiritual ping of affirmation came.
"Let's get started then." Shiki declared, weaving a sequence of hand seals.
The boy's hands lit up with the green glow of medical chakra as they hovered over Maiko's body.
'Medical Jutsu: Cellular Activation'
While he had not developed it for this kind of procedure, it was actually perfect for it.
Precise, expertly guided activation of the cells in the girl's body to consume the fuel he just provided and begin self-repair.
Cellular Activation could indeed achieve these effects with much more focused and careful use when compared to Shiki's usual brute force activation of his own cells to heal.
*
While Shiki spent hours working on restoring Maiko's health to a point where she would not die if he looked away for minutes, things within the village were progressing.
Mito, flanked by her granddaughter Tsunade as well as Uchiha Fukutsu approached the Hokage Building in the early hours of the morning, moving at a brisk pace before civilians began their daily activities.
But while the Uzumaki matriarch and Uchiha clan head moved with certainty and purpose, the Senju princess's mind swirled with confusion.
As her grandmother demanded she become more involved in clan matters and such, Tsunade had become more aware of the more "unclean" side of Konoha.
The truths she had just learned however, were something of an entirely different nature.
Still a vibrant young kunoichi, not having experienced the death of her younger brother first and later her lover, the Senju princess began finding the village she once thought to be basically her backyard, to be something utterly unfamiliar.
The spiritual shocks she had endured made question her life, her bonds with her team and the people of Konoha, what she wanted to protect . . .
Her once respected teacher's image had been steadily crumbling under Mito's teachings but now, even knowing he was not responsible for Root's actions, Tsunade fully understood he was complicit.
Despite the mounting issues she had with her sensei, there was a final line the Senju princess kept to.
Sarutobi Hiruzen had not only been her granduncle's prized pupil, he was the man he personally selected to become Hokage.
That truth alone gave the Third Hokage a powerful halo of protection.
While it might have faded in later years, it was still very fresh and strong now.
Deep within her mind however, Tsunade had a feeling, a feeling that what was about to happen would mark the beginning of her sensei's fall.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -