Saiki confirmed he had a method, but then he immediately shut his mouth. Tsunade waited for several seconds, her brow furrowing with impatience. "Well? What is it? Out with it!"
Saiki took a deep breath, looking Tsunade directly in the eye. A faint, nervous smile touched his lips. "Promise you won't hit me?"
"Stop wasting time! Just tell me!" Tsunade snapped. Seeing him smile in a situation this dire made her blood pressure spike.
Saiki's smile vanished, replaced by a grim, haggard seriousness. "You understand Kushina's situation. My Sage Chakra can sustain her life because it possesses properties that can nourish the soul. It's currently acting as a bridge between her spirit and her physical form. But the energy expenditure is astronomical, and it's a passive fix."
He paused, looking down at Kushina. "The problem is my own cultivation. Once my chakra enters her body, it becomes stagnant. I can't control it from the outside. It's like a pool of still water; it isn't doing any real work. To truly heal her, the energy needs to be 'alive'. It needs to cycle through her meridians and actively absorb natural energy to repair the damage to her soul and body simultaneously."
Saiki turned his gaze back to Tsunade. "You've practiced with me. You know how it works. When my Qi enters your system, it uses your body as a catalyst to draw in and refine natural energy."
Tsunade's face instantly flushed a soft pink. She realized where this was going. She forced herself to suppress her embarrassment. "You're saying... you need to perform Dual Cultivation with Kushina?"
Saiki nodded silently. "Yes. I'm afraid she won't accept it, which is why I've been waiting for her to wake up and give her consent."
Tsunade fell into a heavy silence. Despite the brutal nature of ninja training—where women were often expected to use their bodies for missions—that didn't mean they didn't value their purity.
Kushina was in the prime of her youth, full of fire and dreams of love. Asking her to engage in a sexual ritual with a boy—even if he was her student and it was to save her life—was a monumental ask.
Even Tsunade had only surrendered because she had reached a point of total despair and Saiki's condition was a lethal emergency.
As she thought about Kushina, a strange, bitter feeling began to pool in Tsunade's stomach. She knew it was the right solution, yet the thought of Saiki performing that intimate "treatment" with another woman made her feel uncharacteristically small.
Saiki was too exhausted to care about Tsunade's jealousy. He felt like he was being hollowed out from the inside.
After a long minute of tense silence, Tsunade—who was never one for lingering indecision—finally spoke. "Fine. When she wakes up, I will be the one to talk to her. I'll make her understand."
"Thank you," Saiki whispered, nodding. He was too tired to argue or feel relief.
Tsunade looked at his slumped shoulders and the gray pallor of his skin. She had spent the previous night in his bed; she knew exactly how much energy he had started with and how much he had burned through today.
"Are you alright?" she asked, walking over to him. She pressed her hand to his forehead, her palm glowing with the soft green light of medical chakra.
As the warm, Yang-natured energy flooded his system, Saiki felt a spark of alertness. But he knew this was a temporary bandage. He didn't lack raw chakra; he lacked the high-tier Sage energy that could only be refined through his specific meditation or union.
For Saiki, Sage Chakra was the food that nourished his Pre-natal Qi. Without it, he was physically and spiritually hungry.
Still, seeing the genuine concern in Tsunade's amber eyes made him feel warm.
He let her treat him for a few minutes before catching her hand. "You know this doesn't fix the core issue. I'll transfer one last charge to Kushina. Then... you need to help me. Properly."
Being caught by her hand and hearing him speak so boldly about their "sessions," Tsunade would normally have delivered a world-class slap. But given the circumstances, she only managed a faint blush and a quiet "Hmph."
She had been working since dawn. Saiki insisted she go eat dinner, while he remained cross-legged on the spare bed in the room, attempting to drag Natural Energy from the air through focused breathing.
It was a slow, agonizing process. The yield was tiny, but every drop helped.
Kushina's life was tethered to him. Every two hours, Saiki had to "inject" a fresh burst of energy into her soul to keep her from drifting away.
Tsunade didn't waste time. She was back in the room within thirty minutes.
She found Saiki sitting by Kushina's bed, his hand clasped in hers as he transferred another charge. Tsunade watched in silence as the color slowly returned to Kushina's cheeks, while Saiki looked like he was turning into a ghost.
Saiki finally released Kushina's hand and pulled the covers up to her chin. He let out a long, ragged exhale.
"How are you holding up?" Tsunade asked, her eyes darting between the two of them.
"I'm getting there. Check her vitals. She's still out, and I'm reaching my limit."
"Understood."
Tsunade moved to the bedside, her hands glowing green. She was more focused than ever.
She closed her eyes, her sensory range scanning every cell in Kushina's body. She used her own mastery to guide the Sage Chakra Saiki had just injected, helping it settle and nourish the most damaged spirit-nodes.
Because she had engaged in Dual Cultivation with Saiki, her own chakra now carried a trace of his signature. She couldn't produce Sage energy herself, but she could act as a conductor for his.
Minutes passed. Sweat began to bead on Tsunade's forehead, her breathing hitching with the effort.
Finally, the green light faded. She withdrew her hands.
"Well?" Saiki asked.
Tsunade nodded, wiping her brow. "The stability is holding. She should be coming around any minute."
She added a hissed, "Damn those Uchiha and their drugs!"
The delay in her waking was half-injury, half-toxin. Even with Tsunade's detoxification, Kushina's body was too weak to process the remnants effectively.
Saiki nodded silently, his eyes fixed on Kushina's face.
A few minutes later, the long red eyelashes of the girl on the bed flickered—the first sign of movement in hours.
Her breathing, which had been shallow and mechanical, hitched. Her chest began to rise and fall with a pained, uneven rhythm.
"Sister Tsunade!" Saiki's voice was like a piano wire snapped tight.
Tsunade felt it too. She leaned over Kushina, pressing her hand to the girl's forehead once more.
"Kushina? Kushina! Can you hear me? Open your eyes!"
Kushina's brow furrowed in a mask of internal agony. Slowly, agonizingly, her emerald eyes drifted open.