Chapter 159: Chapter 159: Meaning
Konoha’s commercial district.
Nonou led Kabuto by the hand into a clothing store.
The shop was crowded, with several mothers picking out clothes for their children. The children were dressed neatly; some twirled in front of the mirrors, while others tugged at their mothers’ hands, pointing toward the racks.
Kabuto’s pace slowed. He looked at the clothes the other children were wearing, then looked down at himself. He didn’t speak, but his head slowly drooped.
Nonou stopped. Following his gaze, she looked at the other children and then at the top of his lowered head. She knelt down to meet his eyes.
"From now on, you’ll be just like them."
Kabuto looked up at her. He didn’t nod or shake his head, but something shifted deep within his eyes.
Nonou stood up and picked two plain shirts from the rack, holding them up against him to check the fit. Kabuto didn’t shrink away. Nonou draped the clothes over his shoulders and tilted her head, observing him.
"This one looks good."
Kabuto looked down at the clothes on his shoulders. After a long pause, he spoke in a tiny voice.
"Mm."
Nonou paused, momentarily stunned. This was the first time he had spoken on his own initiative since she had taken him in. She smiled, folded the clothes, and walked to the counter to pay.
As they left the store, Kabuto looked down at the paper bag Nonou had pressed into his hands. Inside were his new clothes. He hugged the bag a little tighter.
Out of the corner of her eye, Nonou spotted a figure not far ahead. Golden twin-tails, a green coat.
Tsunade was standing by a roadside stall, holding a serving of takoyaki, though she hadn’t taken a single bite. Her gaze was distant, as if she were lost in thought.
Nonou walked over. "Lady Tsunade."
Tsunade snapped back to reality. Seeing Nonou, her eyes then drifted to the silver-haired young boy holding Nonou’s hand.
"Nonou? When did you get back?"
"Just a little while ago."
Tsunade’s gaze settled on Kabuto. The boy shrank back half a step behind Nonou, but didn’t hide completely. He peeked out, studying Tsunade with a cautious, probing look.
Nonou patted Kabuto’s shoulder. "It’s alright. This is Lady Tsunade. She is a very powerful person in our village."
Kabuto looked at Tsunade a couple more times, then gave a small, slight nod. Nonou stroked his head and turned to explain to Tsunade.
"I found him in the ruins of Mount Kikyo. He has no memories and no family, so I’ve decided to adopt him."
Tsunade nodded. "You found him alone?"
Nonou shook her head. "I was with Kitahara Kaede."
The hand Tsunade was using to hold the takoyaki stiffened. "Why was he with you?"
Her tone was more urgent than Nonou had expected. Nonou didn’t mind and simply smiled.
"When the main force was breaking camp, he saw that I was heading to the battlefield ruins to search for stranded wounded soldiers and civilians, so he volunteered to come along and help."
The corner of Tsunade’s mouth twitched, but she said nothing. Her thoughts drifted back to yesterday morning.
She had run into Minato, who had just returned to the village. At a glance, she had scanned the entire squad. Kitahara Kaede wasn’t there.
’Minato, where is Kitahara Kaede?’
Minato had been taken aback for a moment before smiling. ’Kaede still has some matters to handle. He’ll be back a bit later.’
’Was he injured?’
The words had tumbled out so fast that even Tsunade felt it was strange. Minato had glanced at her, a flicker of confusion crossing his mind. *Since when did Lady Tsunade become so close to Kaede?*
Although they had been eating at home together, Tsunade had never shown this level of urgency. Minato didn’t press further, offering a reassuring smile instead.
’Don’t worry. Not only is he completely unharmed, but he’s also achieved a great feat. You can ask him for the details yourself when he returns.’
With that, he had hurried off toward the Hokage building. Tsunade had stood there, watching him leave, feeling half the weight lift from her heart. The other half would only vanish once she saw him with her own eyes.
Her thoughts snapped back to the present. Tsunade set the takoyaki aside on the stall and looked at Nonou.
"How did he perform on the right flank?"
Nonou’s expression became serious. "Excellent. He was composed and calm—more so than many experienced Jonin." She paused. "But what surprised me most was his level of medical treatment."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"His logic regarding triage and the priority of injuries is incredibly professional, and his bandaging technique is clean and efficient." Nonou adjusted her round-framed glasses, her voice turning solemn. "Lady Tsunade, his first-aid techniques are exactly the same as yours."
As Tsunade listened, her fingers twitched. *As expected, there’s another one.*
"There’s one more thing," Nonou added, lowering her voice. "Sunagakure used a large amount of poison fog on the right flank. Kitahara Kaede moved back and forth through that fog repeatedly to save people without using any antidote."
Tsunade looked at her.
"He is completely immune to toxins."
A flash of a memory crossed Tsunade’s mind. The battlefield of the Second Great Ninja War. Poison fog drifted through the air, and ninjas around her were collapsing one by one. Only Hagoromo Kaede ran through the mist, carrying wounded soldiers on his back to the rear.
When she had asked him how he did it, he had looked away slightly and said, "I ate some strange herbs, I don’t know but it seems that poison doesn’t work on me anymore."
Tsunade pulled herself back from the memory. "Thank you for telling me this, Nonou."
Nonou looked at her expression, her lips parting as if to say something, but in the end, she simply nodded. "I’ll take Kabuto home now, Lady Tsunade."
The two parted ways. Nonou and Kabuto disappeared around a corner into a side street.
Tsunade stood alone on the street. People streamed past her. She walked forward a few steps, her pace slowing until she finally stopped beneath a quiet wall.
The evidence was enough. The first-aid techniques, the immunity to toxins... the answer had been clear for a long time.
Tsunade leaned against the wall and looked up at the sky. But a question remained lodged in her chest, heavier than any piece of evidence.
’I want to go find him.’
’But why? Why do I want to find him?’
’Is it the twenty years of memories pushing me forward, telling me that I should love this man?’
’Or is it that I, the one standing here under this wall right now, the one who want to see him?’
Tsunade closed her eyes. An image surfaced in her mind. The setting sun had painted the entire street a burning orange-red. Hagoromo Kaede had wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, his chin resting in the hollow of her shoulder. She had turned her head, their noses brushing.
The wind had been warm that day. And so were his lips.
The scene shifted. The streets of Konoha under the moonlight. Kitahara Kaede walked beside her. When she asked him who he had learned medicine from, he looked at the road ahead and spoke softly.
"Someone very important taught me."
Two faces, separated by twenty years, slowly overlapped.
Tsunade clenched her fists. She was afraid. She feared that she was merely being led by memories that didn’t belong to her, living as the shadow of someone else’s dream.
But... if those memories didn’t exist, would her heart not have raced when she watched him depart for the front lines? When he quietly helped her in the kitchen, their synergy so perfect that no words were needed, would she not have felt that the room was warmer than usual?
Tsunade opened her eyes. Those memories had shaped who she was now. But the current version of herself was built from every decision she had made on her own.
She wasn’t going to find him to finish a path left incomplete in her memories. She was doing it to give an answer to the version of herself that had once cried in the morgue until she could no longer stand.
She needed the truth—if only to quiet the frantic drumming of her heart.
Tsunade straightened herself up against the wall and took a single step forward. Then, she froze.
She glanced down at her green coat; it looked a bit wrinkled. A flush crept up Tsunade’s cheeks as she reached up to touch her hair. A few stray strands had escaped her twin tails, and she realized she hadn’t bothered to check her reflection once since leaving the house.
A sudden thought crossed her mind.
’Do I look okay in this?’
Tsunade paused, momentarily stunned by her own train of thought. Until a moment ago, her mind had been racing with how to bring it up and how she would tear through his lies if he dared to deny it. Yet now that the moment had finally arrived, it was something as trivial as this that held her back.
She gritted her teeth, her gaze drifting down to her neckline. The Blue Fluorite was mostly hidden beneath her collar, with only a faint glimmer peeking through. Tsunade reached out, pulling the necklace from beneath the fabric and clutching it in her palm.
She stood there in silence for a long moment, feeling its weight.
Finally, Tsunade let go, turned, and strode decisively toward him.
Comments