Inside her private rest area, Tsunade snapped her eyes open.
Staring at the white ceiling, it took her a moment to remember where she was.
She looked to the side and saw Saiki sitting in a chair, silent and unmoving. "Saiki?"
"Mm. You're awake. Are you okay?" Saiki's clone asked.
Tsunade scanned her body. She felt mentally refreshed, but her muscles were sore and her bones felt like they had been dismantled.
She blushed at the memory. "Mm," she grunted, sitting up.
There was no clock in the room. She looked at him. "How long has it been? Why are you still here?"
"Not long. About thirty minutes. I'm just a clone," the duplicate explained. "Now that you're awake, I'm dispelling. The main body is already with Kushina."
The clone vanished in a puff of smoke.
"I wonder how things are going over there..." Tsunade muttered.
Her body was sore, but her spirit was high. She couldn't sleep. She got out of bed, unable to stop worrying about Kushina.
As for the situation in the ICU...
Kushina had recovered significantly, but the toll on Saiki was immense.
After their first round, Saiki didn't rush into a second. He gave Kushina time to adjust while he performed some deep-breathing exercises.
Kushina was still reeling from the experience. She hadn't expected "saving her life" to be so... pleasurable.
The weight of her previous despair made the physical ecstasy feel even more intense. It took her a long time to return to reality.
They had spent more time resting than they had "fighting."
Fifteen minutes passed, and Kushina finally couldn't pretend to be asleep anymore.
Saiki was still lying atop her, unmoving. For her, it was incredibly embarrassing.
Now that the initial rush had passed, the feeling of their skin touching and the shared heat of their breath made her heart flutter with a new kind of shyness.
But she didn't dare say anything. She just let him hold her until he recovered.
When Saiki finally lifted his head and saw her adorable, flushed face, he felt his sacrifice was worth it.
Their eyes met for a fraction of a second before Kushina looked away in shame.
Saiki really wanted to talk to her about their feelings, but the mission wasn't over.
The first cycle had only stabilized her physical shell; it had stopped her cells from dying.
But now came the hard part: repairing the soul.
Her soul was like a sieve, leaking energy from the holes left by the Nine-Tails' extraction.
This step required even more focus and precision. Saiki couldn't afford to do the physical work anymore.
"Sensei Kushina!" Saiki called out softly.
She shivered at the sound of his voice. She slowly turned her head back to him. "Mm... what is it?"
"The first step is done. But for the next part... I need you to move." Saiki made his voice sound as clinical as possible.
"What? Me?" Kushina was horrified. "I... I don't know how! Is it... is it not over yet?"
She was terrified. Her face turned neon-red and tears pricked her eyes.
She was a tough girl on the streets, but in bed, she was as pure as they come. Being bullied by Saiki was one thing, but taking the initiative was a level of shame she couldn't handle.
Saiki found her bashfulness adorable and wanted to tease her, but he was genuinely too tired.
"Sensei, it's okay. I'll teach you. Don't be shy. We've reached the critical moment. I need to focus entirely on knitting your soul back together. Understood?"
Kushina looked at him. She was an Uzumaki; she was brave and logical when she needed to be. She understood that her life was on the line.
And truthfully... she liked him. If she didn't, she would have died before agreeing to this.
While Saiki was convincing Kushina, Tsunade had arrived outside the door.
Saiki's clone in the hall had already dispelled.
Even though Saiki had set up a simple barrier, it was a joke to someone of Tsunade's level. She could hear everything happening inside.
She stood there, listening to their conversation, and felt a sharp pang of bitterness.
No matter how much she tried to deny their relationship to his face, hearing her "little man" being intimate with another woman—a woman she had sent him to—hurt her deeply.
This was the tragedy of a woman's heart. No matter what she said, she had already been "molded" into Saiki's shape.
Under Saiki's gentle encouragement, Kushina finally bit her lip and nodded. "Fine... how... how do I do it?"
Saiki shifted from his kneeling position to a seated one, pulling her up with him.
Face to face, Kushina immediately tried to look away. Saiki chuckled and pressed a soft kiss to her cheek.
"Saiki! You...!" Her "angry" glare lacked any real heat.
Saiki took her pale arms and draped them over his shoulders.
Then, he gripped her narrow, sensitive waist. She shivered at the contact.
"Sensei, just move your hips like this... rotate, or lift yourself up and down. If you get tired, just switch styles."
She let out a soft whimper and buried her face in his shoulder.
Saiki whispered in her ear, "Remembered? Good. Let's begin."
With her face hidden against him, Kushina began to move as Saiki had shown her.
Modesty was a factor, but instinct was a more powerful force.
Saiki slowly released her waist, closing his eyes to focus entirely on the energy circulation.
Kushina's natural rhythm was even better than what he had taught her.
Her soft breasts were pressed tight against his chest, her erect buds grinding against his skin as she worked to save her own life.