Chapter 15: Metamorphosis II

Tsunade is not different from Yujin. She is also inexperienced. Her relationship with Dan was platonic; they had affection for each other but did not have a physical relationship. They never even kissed.

This is one of Tsunade’s regrets. Due to the nature of their work as ninjas, it is normal to want to do something so that there are no regrets in the future, but for various reasons, their relationship was like this, mainly because of Tsunade.

The death of her parents and brother made her very afraid of having relationships with other people. She is afraid of getting hurt, just like what happened with Dan’s death. A physical relationship would only intensify things, something she unconsciously always prevented from happening.

That’s why, for different reasons, Tsunade is also reserved. For example, the only situations in which she saw naked men were in rare situations that were necessary for medical treatment, and even then, she didn’t feel anything special.

With Yujin, however, it’s different.

Although she has never seen him romantically, she sees him as a close friend and trusts him completely. Seeing him naked, therefore, is something different.

So, she was embarrassed but quickly recovered, unlike Yujin, who didn’t know how to react or what to say.

When she finally fully recovered, she was able to observe him more closely and noticed his nervousness. The expression he had was something she had never seen before, which amused her a lot.

Yujin is always stoic, calm, always with a gentle smile on his face. When he talks about their research, he is always serious and determined.

When he wants to learn about something he doesn’t know, he always has this pure expression of curiosity and thirst for knowledge, which is quite attractive. Although she has never felt romantically inclined towards him, she greatly appreciates his company.

Yujin has been an important support for Tsunade during this difficult time, and that’s why she is more than happy to discover other sides of him. Like this awkward, embarrassed Yujin.

Seeing him in this state, Tsunade laughed loudly, making Yujin confused about her reaction, which consequently eased his nervousness.

“Cough, cough. I just came to do a special training. I didn’t tell you because it’s not very interesting; I just meditate for five hours and sweat a bit, nothing major.”

Tsunade stopped laughing when she heard this. With a serious expression, she placed her hands on her hips and scolded him halfway through her speech.

“None of that. I don’t know what kind of training you did, but if it weren’t for me, you would be dead. Next time, let me know when you’re going to do something like that. If I weren’t curious, by now you would be lying stiff on the ground, and I would wake up to find you dead. Don’t do it again.”

Yujin was confused by Tsunade’s reaction. When she saw him like that, she realized that maybe Yujin hadn’t realized the situation he was in, so she explained.

“You almost died. I really don’t know what training you did, I didn’t understand anything, but you sweated so much that almost all the water in your body was released. You were also very pale. I gave you water for over two hours and used medical ninjutsu to reduce the pain and help your body recover. Honestly, I don’t even know how you’re moving after what happened.”

Yujin checked his body but found nothing wrong, except that he looked a bit pale, and his skin slightly wrinkled. However, for some reason, he suddenly knelt down, leaving him confused.

“It ... makes sense now.”

Tsunade then approached and used medical ninjutsu to try to help him, but it didn’t have much effect. After kneeling, he lay down on the floor. His eyes gradually closed, and he finally lost consciousness.

When Yujin woke up, he opened his heavy eyes with great difficulty. He tried to move his head to look around, but couldn’t.

He felt his mouth dry, and his head aching a lot. He tried to open his mouth to say something, but again his eyes closed. The last thing he felt was a hand on his forehead and something wetting his mouth before losing consciousness.

He continued waking up several times, always for just a few seconds. He couldn’t move his body and felt as heavy as lead. He was always in some room, lying on a bed. He couldn’t think properly during the brief moments of wakefulness because of the headache.

After waking up several times like this, he gradually improved and finally woke up and managed to stay conscious for longer. The headache was less, and he finally felt like he could breathe.

Moving his head to the side, he saw Shizune, the four-year-old niece of Tsunade’s late boyfriend, with her head on the bed sleeping peacefully.

Seeing the cloth in the girl’s hand and the water basin on the floor, he knew she had been taking care of him, and he felt extremely grateful.