The destruction caused by the Nine-Tails' brief manifestation had been restricted to a small radius within the Uchiha district thanks to Saiki's suppression. However, the sight of that colossal beast and the roar that threatened to tear the heavens apart had triggered a massive panic throughout Konoha.
In the Intensive Care Unit of the Konoha Hospital, medical ninja were working frantically. They used every specialized tool and high-level medical jutsu available to stabilize Kushina's vitals, but the results were negligible.
Kushina's state was like a flickering candle in a hurricane. Her life force was bleeding away at an exponential rate following the loss of her chakra.
If it weren't for Saiki transferring his own energy into her every hour, she would already be a corpse.
The sun began to set, casting long, golden fingers across the floor. The light filled the room but did nothing to dispel the deathly pallor on Kushina's face.
Saiki was in no better shape.
He had recovered some strength through Dual Cultivation with Tsunade the night before, but the battle with Kurama and the repeated, massive energy transfers to Kushina had drained him dry. He had burned through his overnight gains and was now tapping into his actual foundation of Sage Chakra. Saiki was "hollow," but he refused to let Kushina die.
In the silence, Saiki was trapped in a loop of self-loathing and reflection. He blamed his own arrogance for letting the Nine-Tails emerge. If he hadn't been so determined to "bully" the fox, if he had just used his power to force it back the moment he arrived, they wouldn't be here.
He mourned the loss of his early caution and low-profile attitude. He had let his newfound power go to his head, and now someone he cared for was paying the price.
Knock, knock.
"Come in," Saiki croaked.
Shizune pushed the door open tentatively, carrying a stacked lunch box.
The heavy atmosphere of the room, Saiki's hollowed-out expression, and the lifeless form of Kushina on the bed made Shizune's voice drop to a whisper. "Saiki... you've been here all day. Please, eat something."
Seeing the worry on Shizune's face—making her look much older and less adorable than usual—Saiki managed a weak, forced smile. "Thank you."
"Here." Shizune walked over and handed him the food.
She looked at Kushina and asked in a small, trembling voice, "How is Sister Kushina? Will she be okay?"
Faced with her teary eyes, Saiki adopted a mask of false confidence to comfort her. "She's fine. Don't worry. She'll be back on her feet in a few days."
"Oh! Good!" Shizune nodded frantically. She watched him open the box, looking nervous. "I made the dishes you taught me. I... I did it by myself. I hope it's edible."
Looking at the familiar home-cooked meal and smelling the appetizing aroma, Saiki's smile became a bit more genuine. "Of course it is. I've had your cooking before, Shizune. It's great."
Driven by the need to replenish his physical stamina, Saiki stopped talking and began to inhale the food.
Knowing Saiki's massive appetite, Shizune had prepared a triple-sized portion, but Saiki finished it in minutes.
Watching him eat so heartily, Shizune sat on a stool nearby, a look of quiet happiness finally touching her face.
Once he was full, Shizune hurriedly helped him pack the containers. Saiki reached out and rubbed her head. "Go home, Shizune. You need your rest too. Lock the doors, keep the house safe. Either Tsunade or I will be back later tonight."
"Okay. I understand." She nodded obediently, gave Kushina one last worried look, and left.
As night began to fall, Saiki performed another energy transfer. The small amount of color that had returned to his face after the meal vanished, leaving him looking even more haggard than before.
Finally, after a long day of crisis management, Tsunade arrived.
Unlike Saiki, who only had to worry about one person, Tsunade had to manage the entire village.
Saiki viewed the dead Elders as "useless fossils," but in reality, they had provided the administrative glue that kept the village running. Their absence was a logistical nightmare.
Tsunade was buried. She had to pacify the terrified civilians, decide how to punish the Uchiha, restructure the village patrol, and coordinate the mobilization of resources for the front lines. Every single task was her responsibility alone.
She had truly "picked up a grandfather" when she found Saiki. Fortunately, his massacre of the Elders had also provided her with the ultimate emotional healing—even if the political fallout was nearly killing her.
Tsunade pushed the door open, her shoulders slumped with fatigue.
The last of the twilight was gone. The room was lit only by a dim medical lamp, reflecting off Kushina's pale skin and the dark circles under Saiki's eyes.
She tossed her haori over a chair and walked heavily to the bedside. Her eyes scanned Kushina before locking onto Saiki.
"Status?"
Saiki stood up slowly. His eyes were bloodshot and his voice was a low rasp. "My chakra is keeping her stable. For now."
Tsunade didn't reply immediately. Her palm glowed with green energy as she pressed it to Kushina's forehead.
Her brow furrowed. "Her own chakra is still leaking out. Your Sage Chakra is acting like a dam, slowing the process, but we're fighting a losing battle. She won't last much longer like this."
She straightened up and let out a long, weary sigh, rubbing her temples.
Saiki picked up a file from the nightstand and handed it to her. "The Medical Corps spent all day debating. These are the protocols they came up with."
If these were modern Earth medical files, Saiki might have understood them. But this world used traditional science as a supplement to Chakra-tech. The files discussed things like "Spiritual Anchor Points" and "Soul-Body Integration." He was lost.
Tsunade took the files and flipped through them with professional speed. But as the finest medic in the world, if she didn't have a solution, what could these underlings possibly offer?
Her eyes raked over the pages. Every suggestion in the file was something she had already considered and discarded. None of them were as effective as the theory she was currently forming in her own mind.
In this world, the "soul" was essentially a hyper-condensed mass of unique chakra.
Sealing a Tailed Beast inside a Jinchuriki functioned by weaving the two chakra masses together, allowing the human to tap into the beast's power.
But it also meant the human and the beast shared a spiritual connection.
Extracting the beast meant violently tearing that connection apart. It literally left wounds on the soul.
A human's total chakra was a drop of water compared to the ocean of a Tailed Beast. To the beast, the extraction was like a paper cut. To the human, it was like having a limb ripped off and the wound left to bleed out into the spirit world.
The only reason Kushina was still alive was because her Uzumaki chakra was vast enough to endure the initial shock.
To heal her, they needed to repair her soul and re-fuse it with her body. This usually required god-tier jutsus like the Rinne Rebirth or the One's Own Life Resurrection—techniques that could restore the dead.
Tsunade was a legend, but bringing people back from the brink of the afterlife was pushing the boundaries of her craft.
She set the report down and looked at the silent Saiki. "You have an idea, don't you?"
She wasn't guessing. She knew Saiki was an anomaly. The fact that his chakra alone had kept Kushina alive this long proved he possessed a unique medical property.
"Yes," Saiki nodded.