Tsunade lowered her head, her chakra receding like a tide after a storm. Before her, Ren stirred.
His eyes opened slowly, then squinted, not from light, but from the overwhelming clarity. Everything felt layered. The world moved as if slowed by thick oil, revealing the substructure beneath every motion.
'So this is perfected Hyperfocus,' he thought, blinking slowly. 'No wonder Yoru was always able to react to everything. If you see all this and still get caught off guard, you're just trash. Seriously.'
He turned his head and saw Tsunade sitting beside him. Her face was passive, but he noticed the subtle signs: the faint trace of tiredness shadowing her eyes, the stiffness in her shoulders, and the way her fingers twitched, as though holding herself back from acting on emotion.
His gaze shifted to Cho, the butterfly hovering nearby. With every flap of her wings, he could see how the air bent and recoiled, delicate currents forming and dispersing in complex patterns. Despite the depth of sensory input, his mind remained calm. Stable. This wasn't like before, no threat of overload. It was all just natural.
He sat up.
The airflow brushed past his skin, and in that moment, he realized something even more ridiculous, if he so much as twisted his body slightly, he could feel exactly how that would change the movement of air around him.
'Damn. Perfected Hyperfocus is so overpowered,' he thought with awe. 'No wonder Minato could react to Night Guy at that speed.'
He glanced at Tsunade again. She, too, was surrounded by those threads of air, countless strands, each one a different path waiting to be chosen. He turned inward, channelling his chakra, and immediately felt the precise movement of it through his system. Every microscopic flow. Every current.
His chakra control would skyrocket at this rate.
Then, the air behind them shifted, so subtly it would've gone unnoticed before. But not now.
Kimura arrived with a flicker.
'I really need to test this properly,' Ren mused. 'If I can feel the air shift before a flicker, then this might be even more busted than I thought.'
Kimura gave Ren a brief glance, then looked at Tsunade. "Ms. Shizune has finished the treatment. They're about to come out."
Tsunade nodded, then turned to Ren. "Change your clothes. The Raikage shouldn't see you in this state."
Ren stretched his limbs, casually replacing his torn and bloodied clothes. "I'm in a great state," he muttered. "Just so you know, I've never felt better."
Tsunade's eyes narrowed slightly. "It's good that your condition is stable," she said. "But your combat ability is weakened right now. Until you've adjusted to what you've gained, you won't be able to use it properly."
Though Tsunade didn't understand the flow, she knew it was something that came after the Perfected Hyperfocus and that she knew, so she understood that Ren must be facing some changes in his sense of perception which might take some time to adjust.
He nodded in agreement. She was right. Even if he had perfected Hyperfocus, he had yet to learn how to wield it as instinctively as he did his fists.
A few minutes passed.
The Raikage arrived, flanked by his subordinates and Shizune. He spared only a glance at Ren, then addressed Tsunade directly.
"Though you didn't do much, thanks for saving my subordinate," he said, tone gruff but not dismissive. "Must be tough being the best medic in the world with your condition."
Tsunade's expression turned neutral, her gaze unreadable. The Raikage gave her a slight nod and flickered away. His men offered brief thanks to her before disappearing after him.
Ren watched the exchange with a curious expression. 'So, she's the one who healed me,' he thought. 'That means she's not afraid of blood anymore. But the Raikage mentioned a "condition."'
He tilted his head. 'Is she faking hemophobia for appearances, just like in those fanfics?'
It felt strange. In the original timeline, Tsunade's hemophobia stemmed from her helplessness, her inability to save her loved ones. That made sense. But if she had no trauma, no failure to weigh on her, it'd be like undermining her past, her tragedies.
He frowned slightly. 'Then again, I don't think she's someone who needs pity. I better not bring it up. With her temperament, it'll just raise suspicions or piss her off.'
Despite the way they clashed often, he respected her. Their exchanges were sharp, sometimes heated, but never hateful. If anything, he'd call their relationship good, in a dysfunctional sort of way.
As the others vanished, Shizune approached Tsunade with a sheepish look. "I'm sorry, Lady Tsunade," she said quietly. "They just kept talking about how you weren't the best medic anymore and I couldn't hold myself back."
Tsunade shook her head. "Don't worry," she said, voice cool and composed. "Let's head back to the inn. This isn't a place to talk."
With that, she flickered away, leaving only the barest echo of her chakra in the air. Ren, Kimura, and Shizune followed after her.
~~~
Once they reached the inn where Ren had been staying, he looked around at the group that had followed him in and raised an eyebrow.
"So, why are we all in my room? Didn't you all have a place to stay before?"
Tsunade waved him off like he was a nuisance. "You should learn to share, you brat. You've got such a nice room, and you were thinking of hogging it all to yourself? How shameless."
With that, she collapsed onto the bed, arms behind her head like she owned the place.
"And what the hell were you thinking, fighting off the Nokizaru group on your own? Didn't it occur to you they even managed to poison the Raikage?"
Ren shrugged, nonchalant, as he sat cross-legged on the floor. "I already confirmed who the insect user was. So I killed him first. The rest of them were interesting, real nasty stealth techniques."
He leaned forward slightly, animated now. "One of them could slip through fire. Another through water. One had shadow control, like a Nara, and the last one was completely invisible. It's like they scoured the five great nations, stitched abilities together, and made some Chimera-style ninja."
As he continued explaining the fight with detail and some enthusiasm, Tsunade's eye twitched. "Ah, shut up! Why do you talk so damn much? It's so annoying."
Ren spoke. "Must be painful for the ears of an old granny like you, huh?"
Tsunade scowled at that, "You should call me big sister, you brat."
He scoffed. "Though your appearance might suggest that, don't you know your actual age makes you my grandma?"
Her eye twitched harder. "You should call me big sister not because of my appearance, idiot. But because our grandfathers were brothers."
Ren blinked. "Huh. Didn't know that. So my grandfather was the Second Hokage?"
Tsunade nodded.
Ren leaned back, nodding appreciatively. "Cool. Did he leave some kind of special jutsu scroll for me?"
Before she could answer, Shizune gasped. "WHAT?! He's the grandson of Lord Second?!"
Tsunade casually pointed at her. "See, that's the kind of reaction I was expecting. Why are you so calm?"
Ren shrugged again. "Does it really matter? It's not like I'm getting some special benefit just for being his grandson. I mean, look at you."
He motioned to Tsunade, eyes half-lidded. "You're the granddaughter of the First, and you look like someone carrying unhealed trauma and mental instability because you're still not married."
Tsunade's expression turned flat. "The hell is your problem with me not being married?"
"I mean" Ren leaned forward, hands gesturing. "It's a bad example, right? All three Sannin, unmarried. The Third was a widower. Most strong shinobi don't seem to have a happy love life. It's like strong people are cursed when it comes to romance. I want a happy romance" He stressed out the last part really hard.
He suddenly got on one knee, dramatically pointing at her like a stage performer. "The Leaf wants to know! Why are strong people not married?"
Tsunade just stared at him then sighed. "Alright, enough with the theatrics. There's something you need to know."
Her tone shifted, the room turning quieter by the second. She began to explain everything, his birth, the details of the Flow, what Seicho had said, Sayaka's last wishes, and the political web that kept his existence hidden. Every word came slower than the last, and by the end, even Shizune had fallen into a quiet hush.
Ren's expression turned serious as the information sank in. His fingers curled lightly against his knees. He didn't care about Hiruzen or Danzo, at least, not right now. What pulled at him most was the seal. The pressure of the world itself. The idea that just existing at full potential would draw the wrath of nature.
He exhaled. "I guess, that's what happens when you're too awesome, right?"
Tsunade sighed and facepalmed at the ridiculousness of the statement.
Then, Ren looked at her and asked, almost experimentally, "So… big sister Tsunade?"
The words hung awkwardly in the air. Ren shivered. "Ugh. No way. That sounds weird."
But when he looked back up, he paused because Tsunade was crying, quiet tears slipping down her cheeks as she looked at him. No words. Just quiet staring.
Ren blinked, confused for a beat. Then realization hit him. 'It must be the first time someone called her big sister since Nawaki died.'
He sighed softly and scratched the back of his neck, awkward but sincere, before scooting closer and giving her a light, clumsy pat on the shoulder.
Ren kept patting Tsunade's shoulder with a stiff hand, unsure of what else to do. "There, there. It must have been hard for you."
His voice was casual, but not flippant, it was just enough to be comforting without making it awkward. He added, "I can't imagine what it must be like for you, but let me be honest, I don't really know how to feel about suddenly gaining a sister. So it might take some time to get used to it. Okay?"
Tsunade gave a small nod. She didn't speak, didn't raise her head, but she acknowledged his words silently.
Ren continued, more relaxed now that the tension had dropped, "But there's something I don't understand. Why didn't my mother want me to know that the Second Hokage was my grandfather?"
Tsunade raised her eyes, her voice quiet but steady. "Sayaka might have seemed like an idiot to most people, but in truth, she was very smart. Smarter than people gave her credit for. She inherited more from Granduncle than from Grandaunt. That gave her clarity, clarity enough to understand that just the two of us wouldn't be able to protect the Senju lineage. So she understood that if you grew freely as a Senju heir, then it might create problems."
She paused, her voice gaining a bit more weight as she continued. "That's also why she acted like a harmless idiot most of the time. So people wouldn't see her as a threat. She kept behaving like a kid even after she grew up. And eventually, she even stopped training so her strength plateaued."
Ren blinked, a bit surprised. "She really was smart, huh? She understood there were too many people in the village who couldn't allow the Senju to keep producing exceptional shinobi so while you kept rising and becoming one of the Sannin, she stayed back, held herself down."
He tilted his head. "But that still doesn't make sense. If she had just kept training, couldn't she have gotten strong enough to protect herself before anyone acted against her?"
Tsunade slowly shook her head. "No. She had potential, but not the kind we did. Her ceiling was different."
She looked Ren straight in the eye. "At most, her potential could've broken through into S-rank but that's it. That's where she would've stopped. And reaching S-rank only to be the weakest among them? That's an even more dangerous position. It invites predators. So instead, she chose to become the strongest among the elite jonin. That way, people viewed her as stable. Manageable."
Ren made a low sound of understanding. "So that way, she stood on par with some of the clan heads. And they were content with that fake sense of stability."
He narrowed his eyes. "Let me guess, the Hyuga were the ones who created the most trouble, weren't they?"
Tsunade's brow lifted slightly at his accuracy, but she nodded. "Yeah. The Hyuga constantly provoked us. More than the Uchiha, even. When the Senju began merging with the civilian population under Grandmother's orders, the Hyuga were the first to act."
She exhaled in distaste. "They forced several of their civilian-branch members into marriages with Senju. They even proposed a marriage for Sayaka with their clan head. But thankfully, she had deterrents of me, and Jiraiya, who was your father's teacher. With that protection, she stayed free."
Her tone hardened slightly as she added, "But they never missed a chance to put her down. Subtle things. Whispered words. They made sure she was never seen as truly belonging."
Ren's lips thinned.
"Surprisingly," Tsunade continued, "the Uchiha were actually helpful during that time. They always sided with us during public conflicts or votes. They didn't support the Hyuga's proposals or provocations."
Her voice darkened just a little more.
"But something happened after that. Something that forced the Uchiha and us to act like mortal enemies again."
~~~~~
{Flow and Hyperfocus would only be mentioned when Ren starts dealing with it.}
{I'm slowly going into the more political sides of the things, so that when the time comes it doesn't become confusing. I know some people might not like political side of things, but we can't have a Naruto fanfic, a Senju MC and not go into politics.}
{Also, I know some people might not have liked Kimura's reveal and Tsunade's reaction, but Kimura's situation will become more clear once Yoru start's showing up more often.
As for Tsunade's reaction, I honestly didn't know how I could've made it better. So, if you have any suggestions, feel free to drop them in the comments.}
{If you want, you can support me on pat-reon}
{ h t t p s : / / w w w . p a t r e o n . c o m / Z e e n o n }
{You know what else}
{300 Stones = Extra chapter}
{Yes. The goal's changed since I took your words under consideration and decided it was indeed better if I upped the goal a bit.}
{STONES!!!!}