Part 2 – "Quiet Confirmation"
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The nurse left. The door clicked shut.
Tsunade waited precisely six seconds, then moved.
She grabbed a loose coat from the wall — a long, gray outer robe meant for jōnin visitors — and threw it over her hospital gown. The fabric was scratchy, but she didn't care. Her bare feet padded across the cool tile.
No chakra flares. No surveillance seals. No ANBU behind the glass. Good.
She slipped into the hallway, navigating the building by muscle memory. The Konoha General Hospital hadn't changed much since this era. No digital tags. No automatic chakra locks. Just physical file drawers and old women with clipboards.
She took a sharp right into the medical archive wing and let herself in.
The records room was dusty, quiet. It smelled like disinfectant and ink. Perfect.
She moved down the corridor to the drawer marked "Senju, T." Her fingers hovered, then pulled it open.
Name: Tsunade SenjuAge: 18Status: Active Duty / Elite Medic-NinRecent Injury: Mild chakra collapse – probable stress / overuseMission Roster: Three B-ranks. One A-rank (pending report)Family: Nawaki Senju (younger brother – enrolled Academy)Assigned Team: Jiraiya, Orochimaru – under Sarutobi Hiruzen
She exhaled through her nose.
So it was real.No genjutsu. No afterlife fantasy.Her medical records matched the exact point in time she'd hoped it would be. Just before everything went to hell.
Back before Nawaki died.Before Dan.Before Orochimaru vanished into blood and ruin.Before the war that cracked Konoha down the middle.
And now?
She had room to move.
She returned the file, relocking the drawer with chakra. Simple. Elegant. No trace.
Downstairs, she passed the main training bay — a wide, open space where medical interns practiced chakra stabilization and field triage. A few familiar faces trained genin on how to apply pressure to arterial wounds. Sloppy, but earnest.
Her steps slowed. A memory tugged at her chest.
Not a memory. A presence.
He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, halfway through a wrapping demonstration, tongue out, brow furrowed in concentration. His bandages were crooked.
He laughed too loudly when his teammate tripped. Smiled with all his teeth.
Nawaki.
Alive. Whole. Not crushed beneath rubble. Not lying in her arms with blood pouring from his mouth.
Her throat locked. Her vision blurred.
She turned. Walked away. Found a quiet stairwell and sat down three steps in.
For ten long minutes, Tsunade didn't move.
Not because she was shocked.Not because she didn't believe it.But because every part of her screamed to run to him, hold him, tell him the truth, warn him.
But she couldn't.
If she warned him too early, he'd tell someone.If she trained him too fast, ROOT would notice.If she cried in front of him, he'd know something was wrong.
So she sat there, gripping her knees, breathing through the storm.
She'd already confirmed her location. Her timeline. Her body.
Now came the harder part:
......................... making things right
When she finally rose to her feet, her heartbeat was steady again.
She had a village to outmaneuver.A future to rewrite.
And a brother to keep alive — even if it meant watching him from the shadows for now.