Wildflower Book 1 | Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter102: Caving In

"This mission was supposed to to take up to three months."

"You seem to have forgotten who I am.", Tama said. She had no intention of joining the daimyō's forces for months. She was no bushi. Tsunade smiled knowingly. Before the mission request came through, Jiraiya sent a report on Naruto's progress. The boy wasn't doing as well as expected, but her worries were quickly set aside when she found a letter addressed to Tama. Naruto had yet to hear that Tama had left the village, so Tsunade was especially glad that the letter arrived during the Chūnin exams while she was there.

"Of course. You're the Uchiha Tamakiku.", she said as she poured herself a cup of nihonshu. Of the few protegé of her generation, Tama was the only one who came close to those of her time. Those being Tsunade herself, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru. She reminded the woman of herself, strong willed and steadfast, but her ways were unfortunately reminiscent of Orochimaru. It was for this reason that she didn't want to push her, but rather chose to coerce her gently.

Tama invited herself to sit down, took out a wooden bento box, and brought out mochi. She flipped the lid and placed it in front of her aunt, and used her silver chopsticks to place some mochi there for her. Fancy chopsticks, the woman thought. Tama didn't necessarily act all rich and spoilt, but she always made sure there were signs. She supposed it was something that they had in common.

Tsunade's brows raised in curiosity. She wondered why the girl was here, eating with her instead of going back to her clans.

"This might be our last meal together.", Tama explained. Tsunade's brows shot up to meet her hairline. She hadn't expected to hear such at all. What did the girl mean by this?

"Is this about your illness?", she asked. Tama nodded, taking a bite from her mochi. Tsunade put down her cup.

"Is it getting worse? Mizubana-san should be able to help, no?", she asked. Tama tilted her head to the side, her lips stretching to reveal a tiny, childlike smile.

"I was born into a sory excuse for a body.", she said softly. Tsunade was stunned, but that didn't stop her from picking up one bun and eating it slowly. She could rarely eat in peace like this, you see. Anko was always there to steal her food.

"I realise, but there are many ways to strengthen the body with medicine and a chakra.", she countered. Tama shook her head, causing the woman's brows to furrow in confusion.

"I spent years doing research about that. I travelled the entire shinobi world, and even the samurai wolrd, looking for an absolute cure. When chakra consumes its own vessel, it isn't like when it overpowers and weakens it.", she explained. He illness wasn't the same as Itachi's, or the first Hokage's. Tsunade understood her immediately. After all, the first Hokage was her grandfather. She waited Tama to continue,which she did after a moment.

"I'm only alive today because of three things. First; when I exert my chakra for a jutsu, I don't let it manifest inside of me. Second, when I exert that chakra, it produces a lapse in my body where it completely focuses on said jutsu, alleviating the extent of its effects on my body. Once that's over, I'm weak and ill again. Third; I constantly feed my chakra into a seal, like how you do with the Byakugō seal, but lately that isn't very helpful anymore.", she said. As Tsunade took in her words, she could also hear a light ringing in her ears.

"When you do that it usually results in a sage mark. What kind of sage power does this seal give you?", she asked.

"It adds to what I already have. When activate it enhances all my abilities by a great margin. I'm afraid that my lack of use for it is contributing to the weakening of my body."

"Yes. When you have too much natural chakra it can turn your body to stone.", Tsunade said. Then she sighed and rose. She started pacing about.

"I've already gone blind, oba-san, but my Sharingan still works.", Tama said. Tsunade halted. It had already started? Could it be too late to do something?