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.

He managed to lift his hand and used it to gently stroke the girl's head. Apart from his master, this is the second person who has taken care of him in his entire life, so he felt very grateful.

At that moment, he promised that he wouldn't let anyone hurt her and that he would always protect her. All for just this favor.

Taking a deep breath, he made an effort and managed to lift his torso from the bed. He then sat in a comfortable position and gently stroked the girl's head while looking around.

He was in his apartment at the moment, on the bed he never got to sleep in before because he always gave it to Tsunade.

Tsunade was not around.

Yujin tried to investigate the situation of his body, but when he moved the Qi to find out what happened, he felt a sharp pain throughout his body and fainted again.

When he woke up again, he found Tsunade feeding him with a spoon. He could taste it, but it didn't have much taste, and it was practically liquid.

When she saw him open his eyes, Tsunade seemed happy and helped him sit up in bed.

"Finally, you woke up."

Yujin sighed and replied.

"I woke up several times before, but I never managed to see you. What happened to me? I was feeling so good before."

Tsunade fed him with a spoon, and he obediently swallowed. She slowly explained what she knew.

"I'm not sure. I don't even know what kind of crazy training you did. What I can tell you as a medic is that your body went through some kind of metamorphosis. But the price to pay for this metamorphosis is so great that you need to recover through rest. Currently, you won't be able to move much, and I recommend just resting and not doing anything until you can at least move better."

"I woke up earlier when you weren't here. I tried to move my Qi to investigate my body, but I felt a sharp pain and fainted. Any idea what that means?"

Tsunade pondered upon hearing this. Regarding Yujin's condition, she only has guesses, nothing concrete. His body is different from other people because of Qi; she can't use her Chakra to internally investigate him precisely.

With practice, she believes that over time she will be able to investigate him better, but even after days of attempts, she hasn't achieved much, so she can currently only speculate about his body's situation.

"I don't know. Honestly, I don't know what's happening with your body; I can't investigate it internally. What I've noticed is that, although I've been feeding you and using my medical ninjutsu for days, there was only a small improvement from yesterday to today."

"How long have I been lying here?"

"Twelve days."

Yujin took a deep breath upon hearing this. He didn't feel the passage of time. It seemed like the full moon was just yesterday.

"For now, the most I can do is to help by feeding you and using my medical ninjutsu."

"And for that, I am grateful. Thank you, Tsunade. If it weren't for you, I would have died. You not only saved my life, but now you are helping me get better. I don't know how to thank you."

Upon hearing Yujin's words, Tsunade made a crying face. She tried to hold back the tears, but they still fell in the end. She was truly happy for Yujin's words.

Since Dan died, this is the first time she has saved someone's life, and it made her very happy, especially because it was a friend like Yujin.

Every time she remembers what happened that day when Yujin was on the brink of death, she is happy that she was curious and followed him. Although Yujin thanked her, she also felt grateful in her heart for him being alive.

After Dan's death, she was very sensitive about the well-being of people she cares about. If Yujin were to die, she wouldn't know what to do. Just imagining it gives her chills.

The past few days have been very difficult for her because of this. Yujin's uncertain situation weighs on her conscience, so knowing that he is improving, and hearing his words of gratitude, she couldn't hold back her feelings and cried.

Seeing her cry like that, Yujin felt sorry for her. Although he didn't completely understand the situation, he knew that she was probably connecting his situation with what happened to Dan.

He then put his hand on her head and gently caressed it, trying to comfort her. Even though his arm was sore and tired, he made an effort to try to comfort her.

When Tsunade felt his hand, she leaned in and hugged his head gently while crying. Yujin then continued to gently stroke her arm that was wrapped around his head, trying to comfort her so that she wouldn't cry anymore.

"Thank you, Tsunade. Thank you. Thank you."

This chapter was emotional. I became attached to both of them. You didn't expect this one. Nor did I expect it. I just let the characters do what they want, and then I write. It's coming out like juice. Hence the second chapter of the day, but don't get used to it.