Since Tsunade had said Hagoromo's injury was troublesome, then it truly was troublesome.
Although the treatment plan and overall approach were basically clear—and Tsunade had handled similar injuries before—having a clear method did not mean the process itself would be easy. Every necessary step still had to be carried out in full.
In short, Hagoromo's injury was the result of reckless self-destruction that had led to limb necrosis.
To heal it, calling it "limb regeneration" might be a bit exaggerated, but reviving a tree that was already ninety percent dead and making it sprout new growth was no less difficult. It required an enormous amount of chakra to restore cellular activity in Hagoromo's arm.
Only Tsunade—standing at the very pinnacle of medical ninjutsu in the entire shinobi world—had the confidence to accomplish this.
And that was only because Hagoromo himself had already repaired the nerve damage beforehand.
According to Tsunade's estimate, the entire treatment would take about one month, meaning Hagoromo and Mirai would need to remain in the Land of Artisans (remote Hot Springs region) for the time being.
"Can you feel any changes, Hagoromo?"
The person asking so gently while treating him with such care could only be Shizune Katō.
Although the treatment bore Tsunade's name, the one carrying out most of the actual procedures was Shizune.
Aside from the critical steps that required Tsunade—or Katsuyu—to act personally, Tsunade mainly gave instructions. The routine work all fell on Shizune.
After all, it would be unreasonable to have someone like Tsunade hovering over Hagoromo day after day.
She had her own business to attend to.
Hagoromo understood this completely. After all, for a woman who was destined never to marry—
cough—for a woman like Tsunade, one needed hobbies to relieve stress.
And naturally, Hagoromo's treatment could not interfere with her ongoing career of roaming casinos under the proud title of "premium lamb."
Which was why Shizune the full-time caretaker was truly suffering.
Just imagine: Lady Tsunade, already forty-five years old, perpetually wore the face of a twenty-five-year-old—and occasionally insisted on acting like she was fifteen.
If "taking care of Tsunade" were classified as a shinobi mission, its difficulty would undoubtedly be rated S-rank.
The saying "meet Tsunade once, ruin your life forever" was absolutely true for Shizune.
Following an older single woman, one's future was easy to predict—
She would also become an older single woman.
" The stabbing pain has mostly faded," Hagoromo replied.
As the healing chakra of the Mystical Palm Technique flowed into him, he could clearly sense his condition improving. Judging purely from the efficiency of nerve signal transmission in his arm, recovery was steadily underway.
This was good news.
Chidori Flow: Third Stage was already sufficient for Hagoromo. He had no desire to develop a new ninjutsu-taijutsu hybrid called 'Eternal Heartbreak' or something equally ridiculous.
"That's good," Shizune said with visible relief.
"After all, when it comes to treating patients, Lady Tsunade is the only time she's truly reliable—and not willful."
This wasn't really a complaint.
It sounded more like someone finally letting out a long-held breath.
In Shizune's heart, if Tsunade even failed at medical ninjutsu, then she'd just be a pure, unfiltered middle-aged deadbeat—a case of what use are you, exactly?
Gambling.
Drinking.
Drifting from place to place.
Put sunglasses on Tsunade and she'd be the most authentic drifter imaginable.
Shizune truly had it rough.
"Either way, Lady Tsunade's medical ninjutsu is beyond doubt," Hagoromo said calmly, reassuring her.
Her worries were unnecessary. As long as Tsunade still looked twenty-five, there was no way fate would allow her to fail—
The Will of the Universe simply wouldn't permit it.
Shizune seemed to realize she'd said too much. Whether frustration or warmth, it was better to keep such complaints to a minimum—for the sake of Lady Tsunade's towering image.
"So… how has Konoha been these past few years?" Shizune asked, changing the subject.
"I heard the peace treaty with Iwagakure was signed long ago, and that things with Kumogakure have also effectively ceased."
In truth, the White Yaksha's incursion into Kumogakure could practically be considered the point at which the Fourth Shinobi War truly began winding down. After that incident, the overall situation saw no major shifts.
Following it, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, and Sunagakure reached peace with one another. Kirigakure even signed a peace treaty with Kumogakure.
The war would not continue.
Yet whether due to pride, political appearances, or other reasons, although hostilities had effectively ceased, no formal peace treaties were signed between Konoha and Kumogakure—or between Kumogakure and Iwagakure.
Legally speaking, those nations were still at war.
"Konoha?" Hagoromo replied slowly.
"The pressure of war is gone, but… no matter what, it's still a village of ninja."
That one sentence seemed to explain nothing—
And everything.
What did it mean to be a ninja village?
It meant that someone was always causing trouble.
If not this kind, then another kind.
There was no such thing as true peace.
"In recent years, I've mostly been training in Shikkotsu Forest," Hagoromo continued.
"I only return to Konoha from time to time—but even then, you can feel the atmosphere isn't very good."
The real reason he returned was to observe Naruto's condition, as well as to administer scheduled electrical conditioning treatments.
Otherwise, Hagoromo wouldn't have bothered interrupting his training.
The Third Hokage had kept his promises.
No matter what, he was still the Hokage, and he would honor his word—especially to someone like Hagoromo.
As for claims that the Hokage couldn't suppress Danzō?
That was laughable—if he truly wanted to.
By the time Hagoromo's senjutsu training reached its final stage, his last return to Konoha had been a year and a half ago.
From that perspective, Naruto was actually luckier than Mirai—
He'd been shocked far fewer times.
As for Hagoromo's training成果, it was the seal on his forehead.
It looked similar to Tsunade's Strength of a Hundred Seal, and functioned in much the same way.
Senjutsu training required massive chakra reserves.
Lacking that prerequisite, Hagoromo had no choice but to detour, using this chakra-storage method to compensate.
It had its pros and cons.
At present, Hagoromo's daily treatment sessions lasted over three hours. This level of sustained, high-intensity healing placed enormous strain on Shizune.
She didn't just feel drained—
She truly was.
During this time, Mirai was not present.
First, treatment was best done without interruptions.
Second, expecting a child to sit quietly for three hours was both unrealistic and cruel.
So the question was—
Where had she gone?
The answer made Hagoromo uneasy.
First: Tsunade had disappeared.
There was a 98.88% chance she had gone to a casino.
Second:
She had taken Mirai with her.
So was the bad habit passed down from the First Hokage really going to be inherited generation after generation without end?
...
Fortunately, thanks to Hagoromo's upbringing, Mirai showed no interest whatsoever in gambling—such a wholesome and uplifting activity.
She followed Tsunade for a different reason entirely.
Tsunade returned carrying Mirai in her arms, the child already asleep.
On Tsunade's face was the unmistakable expression of someone who had just lost a priceless successor.
As she handed Mirai back to Hagoromo, she said,
"I really thought she was interested in gambling. Who would've guessed the little one was constantly trying to get me to teach her medical ninjutsu instead."
Too naïve.
How could a child's little schemes fool someone as monstrously experienced as Tsunade—
ahem—as an experienced shinobi?
"Hah… she probably thought that if she learned medical ninjutsu, she could heal your injury herself someday," Hagoromo said softly.
"What a shame," Tsunade sighed.
"She really had talent as a gambler."
No, it was absolutely not a shame.
One premium lamb in this world was more than enough.
No matter what, when Tsunade held Mirai, she couldn't shake a sense of déjà vu—as though she were holding Hagoromo himself.
Mirai's personality wasn't like Minato's gentleness, nor Kushina's fiery aggression.
Instead, she resembled a younger, scaled-down version of Hagoromo—the child Tsunade had once known.
It was, honestly…
Deeply unsettling.
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