The team continued on their journey, but along the way, they were ambushed by an assassination squad from Kirigakure. However, Anko, who was leading the team, quickly dealt with them.
Tsunade was surprised to see Anko in action. Her impression of Anko had always been that of a somewhat talented young girl, but now, her abilities had developed to the point of resembling a Kekkei Genkai similar to Scorch Release!
"Huh? My Kekkei Genkai? It was modified and developed with Kagetsu's help," Anko replied shyly, feeling a little embarrassed after hearing Tsunade's praise.
"You and Orochimaru can now even modify and transplant Kekkei Genkai? No wonder you've set your sights on the secrets of life and death. It seems that all these years, I'm the only one who has remained stagnant," Tsunade said, glancing at Kagetsu with a mix of understanding and regret.
She realized that during her years of despair, she had missed out on many things and wasted a lot of time.
The war at the frontlines was raging, but within the Land of Fire, elite squads from Iwagakure and Kirigakure were also active.
Although the two sides had their conflicts, they exercised restraint as long as Konoha had not completely fallen.
Especially when their goals aligned or when they encountered Konoha's shinobi, they would often cooperate with an unspoken understanding.
Because of this, Kagetsu and the others remained extremely vigilant throughout their journey.
After many days, Tsunade and Kagetsu finally arrived at the frontlines with reinforcements and supplies, where they met Orochimaru.
Orochimaru had just returned from the battlefield, his body stained with fresh blood. The atmosphere in the camp was heavy and oppressive.
However, the arrival of Tsunade, the reinforcements, and the supplies noticeably lifted the spirits in the camp. Many shinobi now had a glimmer of hope and renewed confidence in their eyes.
"Well? Are you still afraid of blood?"
Inside the tent, Orochimaru, reeking of blood, deliberately stepped closer to Tsunade, watching as she tried to suppress her trembling and inner fear.
"You don't need to worry about me! As long as you fulfill your promise to me, I will overcome everything else!"
Tsunade instinctively took a step back, but after realizing it, she stepped forward again, summoning her willpower to fight against the fear that surged within her at the sight of blood.
"You'd better be. I have high expectations for you, Tsunade!"
Orochimaru didn't press further.
"Hmph!"
Tsunade snorted coldly.
Before long, she took over the frontline camp and the treatment of injured soldiers in the rear. To overcome her hemophobia, she even forced herself to heal some mildly wounded shinobi using medical ninjutsu.
"I didn't expect the Technology Development Department to achieve this under your leadership."
Tsunade held a Healing Tag in her hand as she spoke to Orochimaru and Kagetsu inside the tent.
Medical ninja were scarce in every village. Even under her leadership, where Konoha had the first structured medical corps, the village's medical resources were only slightly better than the others.
Due to the difficulty and high requirements of training medical ninja, the medical corps was always short on manpower.
Let alone achieving her original vision—that every three-man squad must have a medical ninja.
Right now, Konoha could only maintain the medical corps while selecting a few talented newcomers and placing them into certain teams.
Generally, new squads lucky enough to receive a medical-nin candidate consisted of elite genin or those with unique abilities. This ensured the growth and safety of medical ninja rather than wasting them as expendable resources.
Even so, most of these recruits only knew basic healing techniques and could not be considered true medical ninja.
The appearance of Healing Tags helped alleviate the shortage of medical personnel to some extent.
Tsunade, given her influence in the medical corps, naturally knew that the Technology Development Department had already created more advanced versions of these Tags.
Mystical Palm Technique!
A medical ninjutsu so difficult that even professional medical ninja struggled to master it. Those who could wield it proficiently were either elites in the field or highly gifted individuals with immense potential.
However, producing these Tags was complicated and expensive, so the village hadn't replaced the standard Healing Tags entirely.
The limited number of Mystical Palm Tags was reserved for jonin-level shinobi or those assigned to critical missions.
"This is Kagetsu's work. It has nothing to do with me."
Orochimaru understood the significance of Healing Tags for a village but personally showed little interest in them.
In his heart, some selfish thoughts emerged. No matter how important the Healing Tag was to the village, its significance couldn't compare to the Hogyoku.
"There are still many flaws."
Because of the wasteful nature of the Healing Tag, Kagetsu didn't need him to put much effort into the idea. He already had a full set of ideas for developing Healing Tags in his mind, but due to various factors, there was no need to rush and make them all a reality at once.
"It's already quite good."
Tsunade had already broken down the Healing Tag and the Mystical Palm Tag during this time, understanding their structure.
For her, the process of making the Healing Tag wasn't complicated. The real challenge was the need for a systematic group of medical ninjas and a large amount of chakra behind it.
Other major ninja villages could easily break down and even make Healing Tags once they got their hands on them, as long as they had ninjas who knew sealing techniques and medical ninjutsu.
However, due to cost limitations, unless they took another approach, they would never be able to compete with Konoha in terms of expenses.
As for the Mystical Palm Tag, the difficulty and cost of breaking it down were too high.
Instead of going through all that trouble and spending huge amounts of resources to break down and create Mystical Palm Tags, it would be better to invest in training a medical ninja to learn Mystical Palm.
Tsunade took out the Healing Tag in front of Orochimaru and Kagetsu today because she wanted to make some improvements, practice her skills, and adjust her research.
After hearing Tsunade's request, neither Orochimaru nor Kagetsu objected.
Orochimaru didn't care, and Kagetsu thought that, regardless, the Healing Tag he had seen so far was already worth it.
Maybe Tsunade's improvements would give him more ideas and lead to some breakthroughs in Healing Tags.
By thinking in different ways, his ideas about Healing Tags might extend to medical ninjutsu and even understanding the Yang chakra.
As a medical master, Tsunade might surprise him even more.
"By the way, Tsunade, get ready. Tonight we need to head to a certain base for our first experiment," Orochimaru suddenly said to Tsunade.
"So soon?" Tsunade frowned. Although she was eager to see her brother and lover come back to life and accompany her again, she still felt it was a bit too soon.
"In fact, we've already done a lot of preparation. The only thing left is to verify them one by one! This is a huge project!" Orochimaru licked the corner of his lips, excitedly saying.
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