A pair of gentle hands rested lightly on his chest. Light wove through the darkness, and Aoi Ren gradually regained his sight. He murmured instinctively, "Tsunade... am I back?"
"Yes, you're back."
"No... wait, that voice... it isn't little Tsunade?" Aoi Ren opened his eyes abruptly.
Standing before him was not the young Tsunade from his original world, but the eighteen-year-old version of the Legendary Sannin dressed in ANBU gear.
"I... I didn't die?" Aoi Ren lifted his head in shock, trying to assess his injuries. He couldn't understand how fate had allowed him to survive from such a hopeless situation.
By sending one of the only two people in the world capable of saving me straight into this remote forest thousands of miles away, a place she had no reason to be?
"Stay still and rest." Before he could make sense of it, Tsunade pressed him firmly back down, her tone sharp with worry.
"I told you to stay put in the camp and wait for me, yet you went wandering off. Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
"What?"
Aoi Ren's eyes widened in astonishment. She... she still hasn't seen through my identity?
"Hmph!" Tsunade let out a frustrated huff, softening into a soothing tone.
"You must have been captured by Hanzō's men the moment you left the camp. Those people... they are not human..."
Aoi Ren couldn't help but blush slightly. The strategies he had executed in this world were indeed utterly inhumane.
However, Tsunade simply assumed his flushed face and silence were signs of trauma from the torture he had endured.
"You poor child... you have truly suffered so much!"
Tsunade pulled him into a warm embrace, comforting him with her "generous presence."
"When I found you, you were lying all alone in the swamp, covered in injuries. Burns, blunt force trauma... and even this terrifying lethal poison coursing through you!"
"I can't even bear to think about it. For Hanzō to treat such a sweet, young child with such cruelty..." Tsunade's heart ached, and she blamed herself deeply.
"If only... if only I had arrived sooner!"
"..."
Aoi Ren remained silent, thinking to himself: If you had arrived sooner, I would have been exposed completely.
Suddenly, Tsunade seemed to remember something important. "By the way, little Ren... have you seen Orochimaru around?"
"Orochimaru?" Aoi Ren felt a headache coming on. If I had seen him, that would be the real disaster...
"I see..."
Tsunade had only asked casually, shaking her head with a worried frown. "At the scene, aside from the salamander's tracks, I also found traces of a giant serpent moving about. It seems Orochimaru arrived here first."
At those words, Aoi Ren's eyes snapped wide open. What does she mean by that? Did she come here for another reason entirely?
"That's right... I believe Jiraiya should be arriving soon as well," Tsunade said, speaking with deep concern while using her Mystical Palm Technique to treat his legs.
"The Third Hokage sent us here to investigate, but we haven't been able to make contact with either of them until now."
"The Third Hokage..."
Aoi Ren nodded slightly, his expression turning grim.
Should I have expected anything less from the Third? He thought. He saw right to the heart of the problem this quickly.
Exactly... their true enemy was never those fifty thousand Serpent-Cursed Soldiers. It was me, Aoi Ren!
Seeing the heavy look on his face, Tsunade comforted him gently. "It's alright. Once we get back to Konoha, I will heal your legs completely..."
"But first..."
She tied him securely to her back with rope and stood up, gritting her teeth as she made a solemn vow.
"I will not leave until I have exposed every crime committed in this place to the whole world!"
Hearing her words, Aoi Ren narrowed his eyes slightly, but said nothing...
If I want to conquer this world... I absolutely cannot afford to lose my legs!
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