As soon as Haruto stepped into the room after following Tsunade his mouth opened in surprise.
In the centre of the room were complex seals painted onto the floor, and Haruto recognised the seals almost instantly.
'Transmutation circles?'
'Is Tsunade already curing the Hashirama cell experiment patients?'
Patients were placed on the floor all over the transmutation circles. All of them were unconscious and dressed in light blue operation clothes.
"What is this Tsunade-sama?" Haruto thought to ask to pretend like he didn't know anything about what Tsunade was doing.
"It's a new sealing formula I developed." Tsunade said, causing Shizune to shoot her a glance.
"What does this sealing formula do, Tsunade-sama?" Haruto pressed again, wondering if Tsunade really had mastered the Transmutation Circles he had given her or if she was simply repeating everything he'd written down on the scrolls.
Tsunade nodded and began explaining in depth, "It is a seal that turns any material placed inside it into a transient energy before it can be reformed into whatever one wishes to make out of it, provided all the necessary elements are present in the right ratios.
In our case it will mold the cracked soul vessel into a liquid before solidifying it once again and healing everyone present. Of course, to fully heal them, the cells implanted on them will also have to be removed simultaneously, which adds to the complexity."
Haruto nodded while Shizune just bit her lower lip in worry for some reason.
Tsunade didn't mind their reactions and said calmly, "Do as I tell you to do from now on. Make sure you don't step inside the complex seal drawn on the floor and pass me the right items I tell you to give me from the outside."
"...alright Tsunade-sama." Haruto nodded.
Tsunade stepped onto the transmutation circles, examined the ones drawn on the floor for a while, then began ordering both Haruto and Shizune to fetch her a few things.
"Haruto, get me one thousand grams of potassium."
"Shizune, get me thirty grams of iron."
"Haruto…"
"Shizune…"
"Haruto…"
"Shizune…"
And so on and so forth until finally Tsunade spoke calmly, "Step out of the room and leave the rest to me. And make sure no one enters the room or disturbs the next stage."
"Yes, Tsunade-sama." Shizune nodded with a soft bow before leaving the room with Haruto.
Haruto was a little interested to see the first ever alchemy being performed by a person other than him in this world, but since he couldn't do much about it, he simply left the room with Shizune.
As soon as Haruto left the room and closed the door behind him, he began to get that same feeling once again, the feeling that he'd felt when he was on top of the meteorite all those days ago and Tsunade had pumped all her chakra into his body before.
"Is Tsunade-sama pumping her chakra into that weird seal on the floor?" Haruto asked Shizune, who looked a little nervous standing outside.
"I think so." Shizune nodded, "This is the first time I've seen such a seal… do you think it'll be alright Haruto-kun?"
"I mean… if Tsunade-sama is using it… she has to have done her research on it before right?"
"That's the thing… I don't think she did any research… she simply dumped the scroll on me today morning and asked me to draw the seal on it on the floor and gather all the patients… I haven't seen her working with such seals before… ever."
"Well… it's Tsunade-sama… it'll be alright… I think…" Haruto said calmly with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Do you really think so?" Shizune asked softly.
Just then there was a sudden rumble that ran through the building which resembled an Earthquake!
The rumble started from within the room they were guarding and spread outwards rapidly, like a shockwave.
Shizune nearly slipped and fell while Haruto barely balanced himself by gripping the window railings.
They heard the rattling of several beds in the hospital while even more glass vials crashed to the floor.
People began rushing out of their rooms as they jumped out of the windows and into the open ground of the Konoha hospital. Startled birds rushed out of trees and a variety of wildlife ran amok in the village, rushing out of the forest of death.
Konoha nearly wasn't prepared for an Earthquake of this magnitude.
"What happened!?" Shizune shouted, nearly rushing into the room that Tsunade had just sent them out of.
Haruto frowned for a second but quickly held Shizune back by the hem of her clothes.
"Tsunade-sama asked us to stay outside no matter what. She's definitely got it, whatever she's doing, she hasn't asked for our help yet. Let's hold on." Haruto said calmly.
Shizune on the other hand was panicking, "But you felt it too right? The epicenter of the rumble was the room Tsunade-sama is inside!"
Haruto nodded, "Of course, but let's hold on for a few minutes."
Shizune tried pulling free from Haruto and rushing in, but Haruto didn't let her rush in immediately. Seeing that he couldn't really hold her since Shizune's body contained Jonin level strength, Haruto quickly came to a compromise.
"Shizune-nee, let's first knock on the door and see if Tsunade-sama responds… let's only go inside if she does not respond to us."
Shizune calmed down slightly before nodding, "Alright."
Haruto walked in front of Shizune and stood in front of the door.
He brought his hand up to knock on it before looking at Shizune once again.
And only when Shizune nodded firmly for him to make this quick, did Haruto quietly tap the door twice with his knuckles.
Knock Knock
Silence began to stretch thin after the knocks by Haruto.
There was no sound from behind the doors, neither of Tsunade walking towards it, nor of Tsunade speaking to let them know about her decision to their impromptu action.
Knock Knock
"Tsunade-sama?" Haruto asked again after knocking again.
But there was no response once again.
This time Shizune didn't wait.
She pushed Haruto aside and rushed back into the room by opening the door in a hurry.
"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune suddenly shouted from inside the room causing Haruto to walk into the room after her with a slight hint of nervousness.
'What went wrong?' Haruto questioned himself.
'The calculations were exactly according to Edward's alchemy knowledge…'
'There's also no Truth in this world for it to interfere…'
'And we weren't even performing human transmutation in any true sense, we were simply taking the already cracked soul vessel and healing it.'
Haruto finally stepped into the room from behind Shizune and looked around.
'Tsunade?'
'Where did she go?' Haruto asked himself softly.
The room looked untouched.
The seal on the floor was still there. Just without any mana contained in it anymore.
The chakra had vanished.
The only trouble was, Tsunade had vanished along with it!
Haruto quickly checked the condition of the patients on the floor, and found that they had surprisingly made a hundred percent recovery.
'But… where's Tsunade?'
Haruto looked around the room.
There were no windows in the room for Tsunade to have jumped out of.
The only door was the one both he and Shizune were guarding.
'So where's she?'
"Where did Tsunade-sama go Haruto!?" Shizune asked with clear worry etched onto her face.
Haruto looked around himself just as confused as her.
Haruto tried to feel for Tsunade's soul but found nothing.
'Huh?'
'What just happened?'
***
A/N : Sorry for not posting yesterday, got caught up with an emergency! Thank you for your understanding.
You can now read 10 advanced chapters on my patreon for just $3!!! Thank you for your support everyone! pa treon.com/hooin_kyoma_au