Chapter 10.3- One Thousand Hands

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“Winner- Shorirama Senju” I let out the breath I didn’t even know that I’d been holding and allowed myself to drop down on my arse. Maintaining the water clone technique in its inactive form, the Earth Rampart Jutsu, and the Lightning Release techniques had taken so much chakra that I’d begun to wonder how I would; d have continued the fight. The sticky syrup jutsu had left me at the very edge of being tapped out so if he’d somehow managed to escape that, it would have been it for me. I pushed down with hands and brought myself to my feet.

I bit back the scream of pain from stretching the burnt skin out by moving it. I would not allow myself to be taken in with a stretcher of all things. Power lies where men think it lies, and I could already see the lecture from Tobirama if I committed such a ridiculous affront to the appearance of Senju dominance. Illusion might have been a more appropriate term, but that was besides the point. Chakra exhaustion was making me ramble, I decided. There was no other way to explain my brain’s sudden decision to leave reasonable topics and move to the decline of the Senju clan as I knew it. Looking towards the section of the clan reserved for my clansmen told a whole story. Not one I wanted to think about now, however. On my feet finally, I lifted a single hand with a clenched fist to the heavens, and the crowd went wild. Of course it did. This was easily the battle with the most displayed ‘ninja magic’. I probably showed off more ninjutsu than every other person combined in this one round.

And then there was Izuku who had been a terrific dance partner. I looked over at him to see him still stuck in the Syrup. The water making up the jutsu would evaporate on its own in barely a minute or so, but there was no need to force him to stay there for so long. I pulled at my chakra. It came to me, if a bit sluggishly, and I formed a ram seal to help my focus. Such a thing should have been sealless and easy for me but in my present state, I couldn’t risk it. Boiling the prison instead of deactivating it was always a possibilty. Chakra exhaustion could cause strange things, I’d learned.

The syrup lost its adhesive properties and fell all around him. He walked out of the prison and then jumped up to meet me in seconds. I stared at him. He stared back. The crowd was silent all around us. And then he walked even closer to me. There was a collective hush. And then he stretched out a fist towards me. I smiled. He smiled back. I bumped my fist against his. And then the crowd exploded.

“Need help walking out of here?”

“Please”

_____ “Well, you’ve gone and done it this time” Tsunade said. I just looked up at her, unimpressed.

“Burns along most of your body, and severe Chakra depletion, just on the edge of chakra exhaustion. This is beyond the scope of most medical-nin to treat and get you ready to go back to the field in time for your next fight” She continued.

“But not you, right?”

“Who do you think you’re talking to, Brat? I could fix you in seconds.”

“Brat? You’re only eight years older than me”

“Eight years is plenty of time, Brat.”

“Okay, Old Woman”

“Do you want me to treat you or not?”

“Like I have a choice in the matter”

“I could always walk away and leave you here in a mess of your own creation. I’ve not been assigned to cover these exams as a medic. I could always leave you to the standard fare”

“Granduncle would kill you” I replied, still unimpressed with her posturing.

“Would he? He doesn’t even know that I’m here. I came out of the goodness of my big heart to help my little baby cousin and here you are being a massive brat”

“Bullshit. He sent you. Nothing else would have made you get off that arse of yours. Now come help me before I miss the next fight entirely.”

“Say please. I could still leave, whether he sent me or not. The worst he could do is scold me”

“We both know you’re not stupid enough to believe that. But please.” I said, finally capitulating.

“Good.” She said and walked over to my bed with glowing hands. I sighed as she placed the hands on my body, numbing the itching wounds with cool medical chakra.

Tsunade was a prodigy. The kind of genius that only came around once in a century. When it came to medical ninjutsu, she was unmatched. Everyone knew it. Even from when she’d been my age, she had already been one of the best in Konoha. Now, she was the best in the world. The Fire Daimyo paid Konoha millions of Ryo for her to check up on him once a year. Tobirama leased out her services for even more money to nobles from other countries. Famously, the Lightning Daimyo had paid the equivalent of a dozen S-ranked missions for her to help his sick wife. She was a national treasure in more ways than one. I was important to Konoha because of my last name. She’d become so important on her own that her last name was an afterthought. Tsunade. Not Tsunade Senju.

That kind of skill showed in the way she addressed my injuries. True to her words, my burns only lasted a few seconds under her gaze. Of course, she could heal me better than she could with anyone else. Our chakra systems were shockingly compatible. Grandmother Mito said we were more like Siblings than Cousins based on our chakra alone.

“Your burns are easy, but the chakra depletion is another thing entirely. There’s two ways we can approach this. You can either let me sedate you and then put you in a short recovery coma to accelerate the rate of recovery, or we could do it the slow way.” No mystery as to which option she preferred.

“What’s the ‘slow way’?” I asked her.

“I give you a jump start with some of my own chakra and you let your genes handle the rest. My calculations say you should be at about 2/3rds of your full capacity by the time your second round fight comes about. Assuming all the fights take equally as long as they did in this round” She said.

“And why is the coma preferable?”

“Because it gets you back to full. And I don’t have to listen to your annoying voice anymore.”

“What’s the drawback?”

“Too many questions, brat. You doing it or not?”

I stared at. She matched my gaze, not giving an inch. I sighed.

“I strongly dislike you”

“You love me and you’re lucky you do, because I’m the best Cousin in the world” she said and then placed her hand on my head.

“Count to 10” She said.

“1, 2, 3…”

A/N; Very dialogue heavy with Tsunade. They have a bit of a strange dynamic.