Traveling Through Multiple Realms: The Supporting Character's Counterattack

Chapter 20 A Memorial Monument in the Rain

A light drizzle, like smoke and mist, enveloped the solemn hillside in front of the Wood Leaf Memorial Monument.

The cold rain slid down the stone tablet, mixing with the soil, and the air was filled with the scent of grass and damp earth, adding to the somber atmosphere.

On the memorial stone, each cold name was once a vibrant life.

Tsunade stood alone in front of the monument, rain wetting her golden hair, which slid down her cheeks, indistinguishable from raindrops or tears.

Before her stood two stone tablets side by side—Kato Dan and Senju Nawaki.

She stretched out her slightly trembling fingers and gently stroked those two unforgettable names. The cold touch from her fingertips pierced the deepest wound in her heart.

"Broken... Rope Tree..."

Tsunade's voice was low and hoarse, with a heavy nasal tone, "What... should I do?"

Before her eyes, she seemed to see the scene of his broken chest being pierced and the blood staining the earth red, and she seemed to hear again the unwilling shouts of Rope Tree when he sacrificed himself.

Fear, like a cold, venomous snake, coiled around her heart, almost suffocating her.

She was afraid to see blood, afraid to lose, afraid that the pain of helplessness would engulf her again.

"War is about to begin again. More people will die, more families will be torn apart, and...can I bear it again?"

Tsunade muttered to herself, her eyes empty and lost, "What can a piece of trash like me, who can't even face blood, do? Perhaps running away is the right thing to do!"

Just as she was overwhelmed by negative emotions and almost turned to run away again, a suppressed, childlike cry reached her ears.

She turned her head slightly and saw a little girl who looked only four or five years old, with pigtails, being held tightly in the arms of a haggard woman not far away.

The little girl clutched a tattered rag doll tightly in her arms, her other small hand futilely trying to wipe away the tears and rain from the woman's face. She looked up, crying, and asked:

"Mom, when is Dad coming back? He said he'd teach me shuriken fighting, and he said he'd take me to see the fireworks..."

The woman bit her lip tightly to keep herself from crying out. She buried her face in the little girl's shoulder, her shoulders trembling violently, unable to answer.

The little girl received no answer and cried even harder. She turned to look at a newly erected memorial stone beside her, and seemed to vaguely understand something. In her tearful, childish voice, she timidly called out again and again:

"Daddy...Daddy...Wake up! Let's go home, okay? It's cold down there, let's go home..."

Those calls, like the sharpest needles, pierced Tsunade's defenses built with alcohol and numbness.

She seemed to see herself many years ago, helplessly crying in the rain.

"Am I... really just running away?"

Tsunade asked herself, "Just because I'm afraid of getting hurt again, will I stand by and watch more people suffer the pain of losing loved ones? Will I have to see children like Shizune forced to confront the cruelty of war prematurely?"

A strong sense of self-reproach and a brand new impulse surged like magma at the bottom of her long-dormant heart.

"Broken... Rope Tree..."

Tsunade looked at the two stone tablets again, but her eyes no longer held only pain and confusion; instead, they held a hint of struggle and resolve. "If even I abandon Konoha, which you protected with your lives, who will protect children like Shizune? Who will stop more 'losses'?"

She clenched her fist tightly, her nails digging deep into her palm, bringing a sharp pain that cleared her chaotic thoughts.

Just then, the crying little girl, having stood for too long, slipped on the wet ground and stumbled forward, her elbow hitting the stone steps beside her, instantly scraping a large patch of skin. Bright red blood immediately seeped out, standing out starkly in the gray rain.

"Ouch—that hurts!"

The little girl cried out in pain as blood mixed with rainwater trickled down her arm.

"child!"

The woman panicked.

Almost instinctively, Tsunade's heart clenched suddenly, and that familiar, nauseating dizziness and fear returned, the blood before her eyes seeming to devour everything.

Her face turned deathly pale instantly, and her body involuntarily tried to back away.

But just as her gaze swept over the little girl's face, which was crying from pain, and over the woman's eyes, filled with pity and comfort, she realized...

"No...this can't go on!"

A voice screamed wildly within her.

Duan's smile, the energetic figure of the rope tree, the dependent gaze of the silent one, the innocent faces in the village who needed protection—countless images flashed rapidly through her mind.

"I am... Tsunade Senju!"

A powerful willpower erupted from the depths of her heart like a volcanic eruption, forcefully suppressing the fear that was about to crush her.

She clenched her teeth, no longer looking at the glaring blood, but focusing all her attention on the little girl's pain and the reality of her need for help.

She took a deep breath and forced her stiff body to move. One step, two steps, her steps were a little unsteady, but she walked towards the crying little girl with unusual determination.

The woman was startled when she saw Tsunade approaching and quickly bowed.

"Lady Tsunade!"

Tsunade didn't speak. She knelt down in front of the girl, ignoring the red mark on her arm that made her heart pound. She reached out her hand, which was still trembling but much steadyer, and gently took the girl's injured arm.

Her fingertips touched the warm blood and the cold rain, and her stomach churned, but she held it in.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and when she opened them again, although there were still bloodshot eyes, the sharpness and focus that belonged to "Tsunade" had been rekindled.

A vibrant green chakra light, countless times more concentrated and pure than that of the silent one, surged from her palm like warm sunlight, instantly covering the girl's wound.

The light was so gentle yet powerful that the girl's crying almost immediately subsided into soft sobs. She looked in astonishment at the wound on her arm that had stopped bleeding and healed so quickly.

The woman was utterly stunned, then overjoyed and wept, bowing repeatedly, "Thank you! Thank you, Lady Tsunade!"

Others around also noticed this scene, casting looks of shock, admiration, and then hope.

Tsunade ignored the reactions around her; she focused all her attention on healing.

She could feel that the Palm Immortal Technique was operating more smoothly than ever before, with the sensation of controlling life energy and healing injuries.

It's been a long time!

When only faint red marks remained on the girl's arm, Tsunade slowly dissipated her chakra.

Looking at the girl's face, which had stopped crying and started smiling, and at the woman's grateful eyes, her tense body finally relaxed.

The rain had subsided somewhat.

She stood up and looked again at the memorial stone of Duan Yushu. The heavy sense of oppression in her heart seemed to have been washed away by the cold rain.

Fear still lingered, but she knew she had taken the most crucial step.

Her gaze swept over the memorial stone that bore witness to countless sorrows and hopes, finally settling on the direction of the Hokage Rock. A long-lost, weary yet incredibly genuine smile appeared on her face.

"Old man..."

Tsunade thought to herself, "It seems I can't just leave like this."

Tsunade of Konoha, in the cold rain, finally began to break free from the shackles in her heart.

The shadow of war still looms large, but Konoha's medical genius has already embarked on his journey home.