The infusion of Tsunade's chakra hadn't done much to wake Saiki up.
He was still in a "drunken" haze of exhaustion.
"Oh, Sensei Kushina... you guys finished?"
He stood up, stumbling slightly as he moved past Tsunade toward the stairs.
Seeing Saiki's rumpled clothes and his half-dead, sleepy state, Kushina realized she might have overreacted.
Beside her, Shizune's face was still bright red.
"Saiki... what's wrong with him?" Kushina asked, her voice full of genuine worry.
Tsunade watched Saiki's silhouette disappear around the corner of the stairs.
She irritably pulled her bathrobe shut, more concerned with Saiki than her own accidental exposure.
"I don't know what that brat did to himself, but he's broken. He looks fine physically, but he's hollowed out. I tried to treat him, but nothing worked."
"Broken?" Kushina's heart lurched. The warmth of the bath vanished.
She rushed to Tsunade's side, ignoring her damp hair. Her emerald eyes were wide with panic.
"Is it bad? He... he looked terrible. I thought..."
She remembered her earlier assumption and felt a sting of shame, but her fear for Saiki won out.
Unconsciously, her concern for him had become a powerful, driving force.
"Yes, Lady Tsunade," Shizune added, picking up her towel.
"Saiki-kun... why is he so weak? He was fine a few hours ago."
She thought of the invincible version of Saiki they usually saw. The contrast with the boy she'd just seen was terrifying.
Tsunade ran a hand through her hair, pacing the room with a deep scowl.
"It's not life-threatening... yet. But it's complicated."
"He's like someone who has been starving and overworking himself until he hit his absolute limit, then ate one meal. On the surface, he's okay. But his foundation is crumbling. He needs a lot of rest."
Tsunade turned to Kushina.
"He was fine this morning. Did something happen while he was with you? Did he overdraw his chakra?"
Tsunade knew Saiki had suppressed the Nine-Tails, but she didn't know the mechanics.
She understood that his current state wasn't just from the seal repair.
It was the cumulative cost of the battlefield, the Elders, and the massacre. The Nine-Tails was just the final straw.
She was probing Kushina for the details of the technique he used.
Kushina turned a deep shade of crimson. In her memory, the moments of the rampage were a blur.
She only remembered Saiki using a terrifyingly pure power to crush the Fox.
Seeing Kushina's stuttering, embarrassed explanation, Tsunade sighed in frustration.
"Whatever," Tsunade waved her hand as if to clear the air.
"The problem is his source. He's burned through something fundamental. It's not a simple chakra drain. Let him sleep. It's the only thing that might help."
Kushina's heart tightened.
The memories of the morning surfaced—the raging fox, her own loss of control, and that stabilizing, divine power...
Did it really cost him that much? She had been so focused on her own escape and her embarrassment over Saiki's "rude" behavior that she hadn't considered the price he was paying.
"Is it... is it because of me?" Kushina whispered, her voice shaking.
"To seal the Fox, he... he gave too much?"
Tsunade saw the crushing guilt on Kushina's face and her irritation vanished.
"It's not just you, Kushina."
Her voice softened, but remained firm.
"He's been carrying the entire village on his back for days. The front line, the coup... that's the cause. Your seal was just the trigger."
She paused. "That brat... he always tries to shoulder everything alone without saying a word."
Shizune watched them, her face tense. "Will he really be okay if he just sleeps, Lady Tsunade?"
"Theoretically," Tsunade replied, though her brow remained furrowed.
Having engaged in Dual Cultivation with him once, she knew how strange his body was.
Her medical ninjutsu, which she took such pride in, was useless against that "void" in his gut.
"His situation is unique. I can't say how long it will take."
She pulled her collar tight again, masking her chest. No one was in the mood to look.
"Let him sleep. We'll check again tomorrow."
Silence fell over the room. But in her mind, Tsunade had already made a decision.
Saiki wasn't thinking about anything. He was just tired.
He felt like a man who had worked night shifts for a month, only to be forced to work a double shift on his day off.
His brain was on the verge of a total shutdown.
He reached his room and sat on the bed.
He didn't take off his boots. He didn't take off his clothes.
His brain simply turned off. He fell backward onto the mattress and was instantly unconscious.
His mind was resting, but his body's survival instincts kicked in.
The Pre-natal Qi in his Sea of Qi began to circulate.
The natural energy in the atmosphere began to drift toward his lower abdomen.
Night deepened.
The power supply in Konoha was erratic. The lights had long since died.
The compound was draped in a silent darkness, save for the pale moonlight casting grid-patterns on the floor.
In his room, Saiki lay like a corpse.
If not for the slow, deep rhythm of his breathing, he would have looked dead.
As his body performed its autonomic breathing, natural energy converged on his Dantian.
The "lake" in his core was slowly, agonizingly gathering single drops of Sage Chakra.
Because it was a biological reflex, and because Saiki's path was one of Dual Cultivation, his body reacted accordingly.
His manhood stood at a proud, aggressive salute, pitching a massive tent in his pants.
Creak— The sound of the door hinge was so faint it was lost in the wind.
A silhouette with a breathtaking outline slipped into the room like a shadow.
She closed the door with agonizing care.
It was Tsunade.
She had changed out of her bathrobe into dark, form-fitting indoor clothes.
Her blonde hair was tied back tightly, revealing her focused brow.
The moonlight caught the line of her jaw. Her eyes, usually wild or lazy, were burning with a sharp, desperate light.
She was a woman who had decided to gamble everything.
She held her breath, her bare feet silent on the wood floor as she approached the bed.
She moved with the predatory grace of a cat.
She locked her eyes onto the "dead" Saiki. Seeing he was still breathing, she let out a breath.
Then, her eyes fell on the massive bulge in his pants. Her face flared with heat.