By the fifth day, Gojo Yoru finally saw Tsunade again.
"Hey, Yoru—send me back to the border base."
Tsunade came to Yoru's house on her own. And the way she addressed him shifted—from his surname to his given name.
Seeing Tsunade had clearly rested and regained her energy before coming, Yoru's lips curled slightly.
"Welcome back, Tsunade-sama."
"I'm not as fragile as you think," Tsunade said, her eyes dimming for a moment before turning firm again. "After all—dead people don't come back to life. I'll inherit Nawaki's will and protect the village our grandfather built for him."
"These past few days, I've been thinking about something—if even Nawaki, who inherited Grandfather's bloodline, could die from stepping on an explosive tag because he didn't get medical treatment in time… then how many people on the battlefield are the same?"
"How many step on traps, or get wounded in a vital spot in battle, and die with regrets simply because there's no medic-nin nearby?"
"Clearly, if there were just one person who knew medical ninjutsu at their side, they wouldn't have to die!"
Her brown eyes looked like they were burning.
"I'm going to change that. I'm going to stop tragedies like Nawaki's from happening again."
By this point, Yoru already understood what she meant.
He voiced her thought for her.
"Tsunade-sama… you want to assign a medic-nin to every squad?"
"…You saw through it too?" Tsunade looked at Yoru with bright, hopeful eyes, eager for approval.
Yoru's answer, however, dumped cold water on her.
"Tsunade-sama, your idea is good—but it's not realistic."
"Why?" There was stubbornness in Tsunade's gaze.
"If you assign a medic-nin to every squad, that reform will spread through the shinobi world immediately. The first thing other nations will think isn't 'let's copy it'—it'll be 'kill the medic first.'" Yoru hit the core without mercy. "Because the cost to train a medic-nin is far higher than training an ordinary genin. Those countries are already economically imbalanced. They can't afford to imitate it."
"Instead, they'd love to see us do it—then weaken our national strength by prioritizing medic-nin assassinations."
Tsunade's face went pale. She understood the severity instantly.
You could attach medic-nin to squads—but only if the medic had the strength to survive.
Yet anyone who had both combat strength and medical skill was basically chūnin-captain material. The cost was enormous—how could every squad afford one?
Her idea… really wasn't realistic.
"Does that mean… I truly can't change this?" Tsunade's eyes went hollow again.
"Actually… you can change your angle."
Yoru spoke, drawing her gaze back.
Meeting Tsunade's eyes, Yoru smiled and laid out his idea.
"Training a huge number of medic-nin in a short time and assigning one to every squad is unrealistic, yes. But your goal is good—and it is feasible."
"It just takes time."
"I spent years in the Ninja Academy and noticed something brutal: whether students are from shinobi families like us, from ordinary homes, or from clan families—everyone learns the same curriculum."
Tsunade blinked. "That's because Second Grandpa gave kids from ordinary families the hope of becoming ninja too, and—what's wrong with that?"
"Nothing," Yoru said calmly. "Second Hokage-sama was great. The problem is the Academy teaches too little. After six years, graduates only master the most basic Transformation, Clone, and Substitution, plus Body Flicker, Stealth, and the basics of breaking genjutsu."
"Meanwhile, clan kids often start learning clan jutsu or secret arts before they even enter school. They learn their chakra nature early and what they're suited for."
"Even if their talent is mediocre, they still know their specialization."
"But ordinary Academy students only learn the Three Basic Techniques. They have no idea what their talent is, or what kind of jutsu they're best suited to train."
"If you want to change the situation, then propose to Hokage-sama: cut down some less important cultural classes, or add a daily elective block."
"Genjutsu class. Medical class. Body Flicker class. Intelligence class. Interrogation class…"
"Let students choose based on their interests."
"After six years, even if they don't have medic aptitude, they'll at least know basic self-rescue. If they do have talent, then after graduation they'll naturally become medic-nin—stronger than ordinary genin, and maybe even great medic-nin later."
"And even right now, Tsunade-sama, you can gather the support corps at the border base and screen for genin who have medic potential. Start a training course, teach them medical fundamentals."
"Or make a handbook of emergency self-rescue methods and have every ninja carry it. That alone might reduce casualties."
As Yoru spoke with calm confidence, his thinking bold and modern, Tsunade's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
"Feasible—completely feasible!"
Especially the last two suggestions—Tsunade got so excited she slammed a hand down on Yoru's shoulder, admiration plain in her eyes.
"You're amazing, brat. You've got Hokage potential."
"Actually… there's an even simpler method."
Just like before, that line instantly hooked Tsunade's attention.
Under her expectant gaze, Yoru said something insanely arrogant in the most casual tone imaginable:
"Once I become the new God of Shinobi and suppress the shinobi world for decades like the First Hokage—there won't be wars or casualties at all."
If anyone else said that, Tsunade would brand them arrogant immediately.
But after infiltrating Amegakure together, after fighting Hanzō, after hearing Katsuyu and Orochimaru's evaluations of Yoru—she couldn't dismiss it as empty boasting.
With all those "auras" layered on—his feat of injuring the salamander, and mastering Flying Thunder God at eleven…
In Tsunade's eyes, Yoru saying those words looked like he was shining with dazzling gold light.
Especially after he'd just proposed genuinely forward-thinking reforms—his intelligence made her own earlier idea feel childish.
That intelligence, paired with his unnatural height and a presence that didn't look like an eleven-year-old at all, made Tsunade's mind jump uncontrollably back to the cave incident—the way Yoru had acted so forcefully in front of her.
And then to the last few days—how Yoru had first teleported paper in, then carefully teleported meals in to avoid dropping them, quietly considerate, gently caring without making noise.
All those factors mixed together, and deep in Tsunade's heart, that strange emotion she hadn't even noticed suddenly sprouted fast.
Her heartbeat began accelerating again—like it had in the cave.
Tsunade stared at Yoru in a daze, looking completely unfocused.
And in that instant, the invisible "stand" behind Gojo Yoru—the Stand Warrior—opened its eyes, raised its axe, and swung a conceptual slash that severed the "fate" line called destiny in the original timeline.
Same old truth—
The Warrior is unbeatable!
"Tsunade-sama, are you okay?"
Only when Yoru's voice reached her did Tsunade snap back.
Seeing Yoru lean in close, lowering his face and waving a hand in front of her eyes, Tsunade's breath caught again.
"I—I'm fine. If you're done here, come back to the border base with me."
Her gaze suddenly darted away. She didn't dare meet Yoru's eyes.
The normally bold, easygoing Tsunade… somehow started acting shy.
If you looked closely, her cheeks were slightly red, like her temperature had risen.
"I'm ready anytime," Yoru said.
He didn't notice her change—after all, their age gap was basically a full generation.
He put a hand on her shoulder and began sensing distant Flying Thunder God marks, preparing for long-range teleportation.
But because he was slightly taller, and because he wasn't wearing his forehead protector, Tsunade seemed to notice something and abruptly interrupted:
"Wait—"
Her shyness vanished. Boldly, Tsunade lifted Yoru's bangs and stared at his forehead. After confirming she wasn't mistaken, her eyes widened.
"You're training the Strength of a Hundred Seal?!"
"You can see it too, Tsunade-sama?" Yoru raised a hand to touch his forehead and smiled. "Looks like it's almost done."
"What secret are you hiding?" Tsunade stared at him in shock. "You're eleven. You developed a hand-signless jutsu like Rasengan, learned Second Grandpa's Flying Thunder God, used that meteor technique that injured the salamander, and now you're training an S-rank technique like the Strength of a Hundred Seal…"
"With talent like that—are you even human?"
Yoru explained with a smile, "My chakra pool is too small. So when Kushina shared Uzumaki sealing arts with me, I picked this seal immediately. It took almost a year to get close to completion—honestly, that's slow. After all, I learned Flying Thunder God in less than a month."
He didn't dare tell the full truth—he worried Tsunade would keep digging.
Even so, "less than a month to learn Flying Thunder God" was enough to stun Tsunade.
She was silent for a long time, then finally spat out two words:
"Monster."
"If I weren't strong, I wouldn't have the confidence to say things like that," Yoru said, lips curving upward.
Then he took Tsunade with him and vanished.
A few blinks later, they were back at the border base.
When they stepped out of Orochimaru's private room, it didn't take long before Orochimaru and Jiraiya—already informed—arrived.
"Tsunade, are you okay?" Jiraiya asked immediately. He'd been worried for days.
Orochimaru said nothing, only looked at Yoru.
When Yoru nodded, Orochimaru finally let out a breath of relief—and felt a flicker of admiration for Tsunade.
To recover this quickly… was impressive.
Back then, it had taken Orochimaru a long time to crawl out of the shadow of losing loved ones.
These past days, he'd kept dreaming of Nawaki's corpse.
After his parents, Orochimaru had once again watched someone familiar die—so cheaply. It hit him hard.
But this Orochimaru—who hadn't yet touched "immortal" Hashirama cells—did not develop the obsession with immortality.
Instead, he made a decision.
He would accelerate Yoru's training.
Not knowing that Yoru's body contained space–time chakra with a capacity locked behind "evolution," Orochimaru wanted to quickly increase Yoru's chakra reserves.
If Yoru's chakra pool grew, Dimensional Slash and Flying Thunder God would last longer, and he might gain the conditions to develop even stronger space–time techniques—like that "meteor" ultimate move.
The more space–time options Yoru had, the stronger he'd become—eventually turning into something even more "unsolvable" than the First Hokage.
At that point, other nations and villages wouldn't dare start wars at all.
The shinobi world would naturally become peaceful.
Orochimaru, knowing how terrifying space–time could be, didn't believe a "Madara Uchiha" existed in this era who could still rival Yoru.
Once Yoru became the strongest in the shinobi world, the world would stay peaceful until he died of old age.
And that would be time enough to accomplish reforms even the First Hokage couldn't—or didn't have time to—finish.
Yoru, of course, didn't know Orochimaru's thoughts. If he did, he'd probably laugh.
Under the butterfly effect of Yoru's existence, Orochimaru's "tone" was already drifting further and further off the original timeline.
"Relax. I'm not as fragile as you think," Tsunade said, smiling at her worried comrades. Then she flexed her right arm in a biceps pose, eyes blazing with determination.
"This time, if I don't develop the antidote formula, I'm not leaving the lab!"
Then, under Jiraiya's heartbroken gaze, she marched toward the laboratory.
Orochimaru watched her back, a trace of respect in his eyes.
As expected of the First Hokage's granddaughter.
Yoru understood then, watching Tsunade leave, his eyes full of appreciation.
She hadn't truly "walked out" of her shadow.
For the Land of Fire, for the village her grandfather built, and for Nawaki's dream—she forced herself to stand.
In truth, beneath her strong exterior, she was still in pain and fragile.
This version of Tsunade… really was beautiful and powerful, inside and out.
~~~
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