Chapter 123
Tsunade leaned against a large rock about eight or nine meters away from the fire. Her clothes were stained with dried blood, her hair was a tangled mess, and her face was pale and bloodless. Her breathing was unsteady—she was clearly injured!
"You slept for an entire day and night... Cough, cough, cough..." Tsunade replied to Haruto Saito before erupting into a violent coughing fit.
Haruto immediately jumped to his feet and rushed to Tsunade's side. "You're hurt? Is it serious?" His question was pointless—if even a top-tier medical ninja like Tsunade couldn't quickly heal herself, then it had to be severe.
"My meridians... Three of them are severed... Cough, cough, cough..." Tsunade's face twisted in pain as she spoke, her body wracked with another fit of coughing.
Haruto's eyes widened in shock.
When it came to injuries, excluding poison and sealing-related damage, the most difficult ones to treat were fractures and meridian damage. If a bone was broken, it could only heal with time—there was no quick fix. As for meridians, while they could technically be healed, it was incredibly difficult.
At this point, Tsunade had already healed her external wounds, making her injuries invisible to the naked eye. The real problem lay within—severed meridians. Such injuries were not only hard to treat but also extremely rare. What kind of attack could cause a ninja's meridians to rupture?
"I slept for an entire day and night? What happened during that time? How did you end up like this? Where is Lord Jiraiya? Could it be that he's already..." Haruto fired off questions in rapid succession.
"Don't jinx it! Jiraiya just went out to find food. He's fine, not injured," Tsunade replied. "While you were unconscious, we encountered a powerful samurai group. Their leader, Miyamoto Ikaruga, is known as the number one samurai of the Land of Rain..."
"The number one?"
"Yes, the strongest! His abilities surpass both Jiraiya's and mine. However, if Jiraiya and I teamed up, we wouldn't lose to him. But he wasn't alone—he had over a hundred samurai fighting alongside him. At first, we didn't recognize him. It wasn't until he used his signature technique, 'Meridian-Shattering Void Slash,' that we confirmed his identity. That's the attack that injured me."