Pushing Through the Limit Chapter 17: Decisions (Patreon)

I laid in bed staring blankly at the sealing with Karin sleeping at my side. Several hours had passed since the incident and I couldn’t get to sleep. How could I? I had screwed up so immensely that my only option of salvaging the situation was sharing my biggest secret, the one only Kurama, Minato and Kushina knew.

The only good news was that somehow, no one had died. There were several injured civilians that were hit with pieces of debris, but other than that, everyone had survived.

I had tried to take a shortcut to getting Tsunade on our side and it had almost killed me. It was a valuable lesson for the future… assuming that Tsunade didn’t try handing me over to a Yamanaka to rip any useful information from my head.

Then there was also the chance that she would just run.

I didn’t know what Tsunade was going to do. During our connection, nothing had been hidden, but afterwards… Tsunade hadn’t said anything. She hadn’t reacted at all, she simply called for Shizune and said that they were going to get a room for the night.

And now here I was, stuck in a room with Karin, who had been overly clingy with me, waiting for morning so I could see what Tsunade chose to do. Waiting was the worst part.

“It would seem that you won’t have to wait until morning.”

“Huh,” I hummed lightly, before hearing a tapping at the window. Glancing over, I saw Tsunade standing there.

That… I suppose that was good news. She had come to talk, not abduct me in the middle of the night or flee.

Getting up quietly, I made my way to the window and opened it.

“We need to talk,” Tsunade said simply, before jumping to the roof opposite my room.

Looking down at the pajamas I had bought in town. I briefly considered changing, before deciding against it. I grabbed my sandals and shrugged them on, before following after Tsunade.

We left the city and traveled a short distance into the woods, before we came to a stop.

“So,” I began.

“You’re not from here,” Tsunade interrupted.

“Not all of me, no,” I replied. “Naruto and myself… we merged into one person, my personality was just the more dominant one… although that’s not to say Naruto is gone. I’m Naruto, but I’m also someone else. It’s a bit complicated.”

Tsunade snorted. “No kidding.” She paused for a moment, before her face took on a more pained look. ”I… saw the war. I saw what was to come… I saw myself face down Madara with the other Kage and lose, only to be saved by Dan!”

I winced at that. “That’s why I need your help to prevent it.”

“You’ve already got that more than covered,” Tsunade replied, arching an eyebrow. “My help would make very little difference.”

“There’s still the chance that something could go wrong and I would need help,” I argued.

Tsunade let out a bitter laugh. “If you’re not capable of solving it on your own then this world would truly be doomed. You’re the inheritor of Ashura’s chakra, a transmigrant and a perfect Jinchuriki. Why would you need my help.”

“Because we’re the same,” I said softly as I placed my hand on a tree and pushed a little too hard, cracking it. “We’ve both lost everything and what little we have now, we would do anything to protect. Regardless of all the power I have and all the power I will gain in the future, I’m still just a person who needs other people. Others to offer a hand when I fall down. If I can’t help you, here and now, what hope is there for me?”

“Hope, huh? Hope has given me nothing but pain,” Tsunade said, walking towards me, before pulling me into a hug. “But I see what you mean. We are the same, we’ve both lost so much. You’ve been fighting it, pushing yourself to keep going, I suppose I can do the same as well. When we need someone to lean on… we’ll just lean on each other.”

“Thank you,” I sighed. We stood still, hugging for several seconds, before I blinked and patted Tsunade on her back. “Um, Tsunade, I can’t breathe! Your boobs are smothering me!”

Tsunade loosened her hold on me. “Must you ruin the moment?”

“It’s in my nature,” I grinned.

“Oh,” Tsunade hummed, before shoving my head back into her chest. “Well, I guess suffocating annoying brats is in my nature.”

“You know, despite my biological age, I’m not a kid, right?” I asked.

“I know,” Tsunade smirked as her grip tightened. “After all, I did see your life and my, those drawings you were looking at were interesting, especially the ones of me.”

“O-oh,” I replied. “Well, I guess dying like this isn’t so bad.”

…PTL…

Jiraiya was not having a good morning. Firstly he slept like crap. The village had been in an uproar for several hours after Tsunade had flung his apprentice through several buildings and they had their short fight.

Finding rooms while civilians were running around like headless chickens was frustrating, but doable. However, waking up early to a frantic Shizune was not. Finding out Tsunade was missing, that was bad, but he did have a talented sensor with him, so he went to fetch her and then found out that his apprentice was missing too.

Now Jiraiya wasn’t an idiot, he immediately realized that Tsunade and Naruto were out together, likely talking about what had happened yesterday. Karin on the other hand… She hadn’t taken it so well and had immediately jumped to the worst possible conclusions, ranging from Naruto being kidnapped to Tsunade wanting a rematch and killing him this time.

In all, it had been a very loud morning filled with a slightly panicked Shizune and an extremely loud panicked Karin.

Finding Tsunade and Naruto had been easy, but at the moment he saw them, one of Jiraiya’s eyebrows wouldn’t stop twitching. Sitting at a restaurant, happily chatting as they ate breakfast was his teammate and student, having a much better morning than him.

…PTL…

Since my conversation with Tsunade, my day had gotten better. Sharing my secret with someone else, especially someone as strong as Tsunade and being accepted for it… it was as if a huge weight I didn’t know I was carrying had been removed.

I no longer felt that I needed to accomplish everything by myself… not that I was ever truly alone, what with Kurama.

After Tsunade stopped trying to suffocate me, we had spent a little more time talking. It wasn’t about anything serious, we were mostly feeling each other out. Ninshu might have shared our thoughts, feelings and even our memories, but that didn’t mean that we couldn’t feel a little awkward around each other, especially when there were no secrets between us.

It was a little different with Kurama. He wasn’t human to begin with, he was a thousand years old and had a different thought process. He hadn’t really been interested in my more embarrassing memories with the exception of him teasing me with the… drawings of Kushina in compromising positions.

Tsunade on the other hand. We both knew each others’ most embarrassing and awkward secrets. It was kind of an awkward thing, seeing each others’ most our private moments. Ninshu might be great at connecting people, but the deeper connection is almost an intimate thing to experience.

The upside however was that the embarrassment and awkwardness didn’t last that long. Once we had talked for a little, it felt like we were old friends that had known each other for years.

We had ended up going back to the village and seeing as I was starting to run low on clothes due to Kisame and now Tsunade, I had ended up buying a few more white shirts that likely wouldn’t last and breakfast.

…PTL…

“So… the whole hemophobia thing… I don’t suppose it’s been cured?”

“Ha, if only,” Tsunade snorted, taking a sip of her tea. “It seems that Ninshu has its limits.”

“Damn. So we’re going to have to fix it the old fashioned way,” I muttered.

“So it would seem,” Tsunade smiled into her cup.

Originally, Tsunade had been cured of her hemophobia when the original Naruto had been severely wounded by Kabuto after he had took a massive beating protecting her. While I had no issue protecting Tsunade, I wasn’t going to let Kabuto nearly kill me.

“What about inversion therapy?” I asked. “Maybe we could expose you to the sight of blood enough that it would no longer bother you.”

“I’ve been a Kunoichi for almost 40 years and a medic for nearly just as long. I’ve seen my fair share of bloody wounds and I’ve caused just as many bloody wounds. I doubt that you cutting yourself a few times in front of me will fix anything.”

“If that’s the case,” I began, rubbing my chin in consideration. “Then why don’t you freeze up at the memories of all that blood.”

“I…” Tsunade began, but stopped. “I… Those memories do make me feel uncomfortable, but you’re right. I’m not freezing up at the thought of them.”

“Then maybe a few hours from now, we can go and test it. I’ve got an idea that should at the very least make it entertaining,” I replied.

“Not now?” Tsunade raised an eyebrow.

“Nah,” I shook my head. “We just ate breakfast and I don’t want you to suddenly throw up… not to mention that Jiraiya, Shizune and Karin will likely want to know where we’ve been once they realize that we’re gone.”

As if on cue, Karin rushed into the restaurant with a briskly walking Shizune right behind her.

“Naruto!”

“Tsunade-sama!”

The two rushed over to our table.

“I didn’t realize you had your own Karin,” I commented as the duo rushed to our table. “Although I doubt yours wants to date you… unless.”

“Shizune and I have a platonic relationship. We’re not dating,” Tsunade deadpanned.

“Tsunade-sama… what?!” Shizune squeaked as her face turned red.

“Calm down Shizune, I just said we’re not dating!” Tsunade replied.

I chuckled lightly, before a pair of arms wrapped around my neck and Karin pulled me into a tight hug.

“Naruto. You really worried me there. I woke up and then Jiraiya told me that the blonde boob lady was missing and that you were missing too!” Karin whined. “I was expecting to wake up in your arms!”

I sighed as Tsunade openly laughed at my predicament.

“Sorry,” I apologized. “Tsunade and I just needed to talk in private.”

“Oh, and what did the two of you talk about?” Jiraiya asked, sitting down at the table.

Tsunade and I shared a look.

“Masturbation,” I replied with a straight face.

Everyone froze with the exception of Tsunade who poured herself another cup of tea.

“What?” Jiraiya asked, his brain having finally rebooted.

“As it turns out, there’s some really awkward shit for people to share. It didn’t really bother me when a biju saw some of my more private moments, because they don’t have a gender and don’t really find any of that stuff interesting,” I explained. “But when Tsunade and I connected, we saw some of our more intimate moments. We needed to have a talk in private, clear the air.”

“That… That… That…” Jiraiya stuttered as he looked between us. “That… That…”

“Is… Is that true Tsunade-sama?” Shizune asked, her face beet red.

“Yes,” Tsunade hummed as she took a sip from her cup. “We learned a lot of interesting things from one another, masturbation included. Last night I was dazed from the blood, but afterward I knew Naruto and I needed to have a little chat.”

There was a loud thump and I turned to find Karin, passed out, face down on the table, her body slid down onto a chair that Tsunade kicked under her. Glancing at Jiraiya a small idea came to my mind.

“It was a bit awkward at first, but after a little talking we got over it. Right now there are absolutely no secrets between us. We’ve seen all of each other.” I smirked

A second thump sounded as Jiraiya fell out of his chair. It started as a chuckle, before I descended into full on laughter, looking over, I found Tsunade laughing with me while Shizune stood there, her face glowing a bright red.

“Well that went better than I thought it would,” I let out a chuckle, having finally calmed down.  “Hopefully when he wakes up, he should realize exactly what I said and not just focus on the masturbation bit.”

“He should. Despite him acting like an idiot, Jiraiya still knows when to get serious,” Tsunade replied.

“Hopefully,” I said before frowning. “You know, earlier this month, when we just started looking for you, Jiraiya and I made a stupid bet where I had to go on a date with you ending with a kiss. I wonder if this counts as winning the bet.”

“I don’t see why it wouldn’t… although you are lacking on the kiss,” Tsunade smirked. “What did the two of you stand to win from this bet?”

“If he won, I had to help him write his next book and if I won Jiraiya would relinquish his title of toad sage to me.”

Shizune gawked at Tsunade. “You can’t really be considering this. He’s too young.”

“What’s the big deal, it’s only a kiss,” Tsunade replied. “Plus, he’s very mature for his age.”

“That… that doesn’t matter,” Shizune stuttered.

“Shizune, serve as a witness to this kiss,” Tsunade ordered.

Getting up, Tsunade walked around the table and grabbed my chin, before angling my face up. Bringing her face down, our lips were just about to meet, before there was a final thump as Shizune’s head hit the table. At the last moment, Tsunade turned my head and kissed me on the cheek.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not interested in perverts, especially ones that have spent so many nights looking at drawings of me,” Tsunade said, patting me on my cheek. “Besides, we have more important things to do.”

“Oh… Oh god damn it,” I cursed. For a moment there I really believed that I was going to get a full on kiss from Tsunade, but she was only teasing me.

“Think of that as revenge for mentioning that we had seen each other masturbate,” Tsunade replied. “Seeing as everyone is unconscious… what’s your plan to cure me of my phobia?”

If time hadn’t been an issue, I would have moped for a bit, but we had less than a week before Orochimaru expects his answer and I needed Tsunade to be ready for it. “Well, first we need to find an empty field and then I’m going to repeatedly expose you to blood and bloody situations. We can see if we can make you build up a resistance to the sight of blood.”

“Even if the method proves to be effective, I doubt we’ll have enough time to completely cure me,” Tsunade sighed.

“Maybe,” I smirked. “Let’s just say that I’ve got a few ideas on how to get you used to the sight of blood faster. For now, we should find a clearing… and I still need to pay for breakfast.”

“Just leave the bill with Jiraiya,” Tsunade waved me off. “After all, what kind of master wouldn’t pay for his disciples first date?”

“Alright,” I chuckled.

…PTL…

Tsunade and I found ourselves sitting in a clearing across from one another. Tsunade looked nervous… I would be too if I someone was going to make me repeatedly confront my fear until I got over it. Pulling the sleeves of my shirt up, I brought a finger nail to my arm and it grew sharper as some of Kurama’s chakra  flowed through it.

“Yeah, we’re not doing that yet,” I said as I pulled my hand back. “Instead, we’re going to have a little fun while we try and normalize the sight of blood to you.”

I held out a fist to Tsunade who simply raised an eyebrow.

“You want to try Ninshu again?”

“Not exactly,” I replied. “I’m just using the connection formed by Ninshu to bring you inside my seal. The Kyuubi’s helping me out with this one.”

“Fine,” Tsunade sighed as she bumped my fist.

The world faded to black as we appeared in the seal, Kurama’s towering form being the first thing that greeted us.

“Yo,” I greeted him.

“Naruto,” Kurama nodded. “And Mito’s granddaughter, Tsunade. No doubt you’ve learned my name when you saw Naruto’s memories.”

“I have,” Tsunade answered simply.

“Seeing as this is our first interaction, you may use my name,” Kurama replied. “But understand this, no one else is to learn my name, am I clear?”

“Yes,” Tsunade said stiffly. “Thank you, Kurama. I’m hoping that we can remain this… cordial for the foreseeable future.”

“Great, we’re all on the same page and not trying to kill each other,” I cheered lightly.

“Give it time,”Kurama grunted. “Perhaps Tsunade will give it a shot, should I remind her of how many of those drawings of her you had saved on your phone and computer.”

“Oh, I would like to hear about that,” Tsunade shot me a smirk.

“Or,” My voice broke and I coughed into my hand. “Or we could start working on Tsunade’s hemophobia.”

“You still haven’t told me how you plan to do that,” Tsunade complained.

“It’s simple, with Kurama’s help we’re going to be watching movies from my memories.”

“That’s your big plan? Movies?” Tsunade asked skeptically.

“Well… not just movies,” I replied. “We’re just starting out with movies. I’m going to be honest here, I’m throwing everything I have at the wall and seeing what sticks.”

“Let’s just get this over with. The sooner this is done, the sooner we can try something else.”

“Alright,” I cheered. “Kurama, please start up final destination.”

…PTL…

Perhaps it had been a stupid idea to show Tsunade gory movies in the hopes it would help desensitize her to the sight of blood. I had been expecting her to be disgusted, freeze up or even feel nauseous, what I hadn’t expected was for her to laugh throughout the whole movie.

We were back in the clearing and I was having a hard time getting Tsunade to stop laughing. To her, a legendary medic who had seen multiple wars, watching people die as they had in the movie had been hilarious.

“People… people aren’t that squishy… not even where you’re from,” Tsunade gasped as she caught her breath.

“Yeah, well…” I trailed off. “It was just a movie, it’s not supposed to be overly realistic.”

Tsunade wiped the tears from her eyes, having finally calmed down.. “And that’s supposed to cure me of my phobia?”

“I don’t know, it seems to be working pretty well,” I shrugged, looking down at the small bleeding wound I had on my arm.

“What…” Tsunade froze when she saw the blood. “When… when did you cut yourself?”

“Hey… you’re still able to speak,” I cheered, that was a win in my opinion. “I cut myself right before we finished the movie. You were too busy laughing to see it.”

Tsunade closed her eyes momentarily as she took a deep breath. “It… It would seem that your plan is the slightest bit effective. Although that movie was unrealistic, it has helped slightly desensitize me.”

“Then… do you wanna give it another go?” I asked as I held my fist out towards her. “We’ve still got a bunch of final destination movies, Saw, a few war movies and a few others that I can’t really think of right now.”

Sure,” Tsunade replied, a strained smile on her face.

Tsunade moved slowly, her body shivering as she knocked her fist against my own. The world blurred again and we found ourselves back in the seal for another round of movies.

…PTL…

Several movies and an hour of real world time later, We found ourselves back in the clearing. My hand bloody from a new cut and Tsunade… the blood still effected her, but nowhere near as much.

Tsunade no longer shook and she was able to move properly, but blood still distracted her, she wouldn’t be able to fight properly as she was now… that wasn’t a major issue, I still had several days to get her ready for the confrontation with Orochimaru.

In other news, I found out that Tsunade really enjoyed the movies, especially the gory ones, which she loved to poke holes in.

“That part where they had to put their body parts into a counterweight system was really flawed,” Tsunade snorted. “Really, there was nothing stopping them from putting anything else in there. They could have just filled it with crap to weigh the thing down.”

“Well, now when you start making jigsaw traps, you’ll know what not to do,” I replied, bemused.

“No,” Tsunade waved me off. “I’d rather just give Ibiki the idea when we go back to Konoha. I wouldn’t have the patience to make or use those traps. If I really wanted to know what information from a prisoner, I’d either have a Yamanaka just rip it straight from their head or use medical Ninjutsu to poke their nerves directly while preventing them from passing out from pain.”

“Remind me never to get on your bad side,” I joked. The Yamanaka thing probably wouldn’t work on me due to my seal being unlocked, but the nerve thing… that sounded painful. “And speaking of medical Ninjutsu… Could you take a look at me? Kurama did heal my wounds from last night, but I’d rather be checked over by you as well.”

“Fine, take off your shirt and face away from me,” Tsunade replied.

Doing as she said, I felt Tsunade’s hands on my back before her chakra flooded my body.

“Everything seems to be in order,” Tsunade commented. “There’s not a single wound on your body. However, I don’t think I need to warn you about the cost of accelerated healing. It shouldn’t be an issue with smaller wounds, but the large variety… like the one your arm sustained last night. Repeatedly healing something like that will shorten your lifespan.”

“I know,” I sighed. “But I do have a few ideas that should either negate or even reverse the process.”

“And what ways would that be?” Tsunade asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Kurama’s purified Yang chakra, sage mode that has allowed Ma and Pa to live to the age of 500, Hashirama cells,” I coughed out the last one.

“What was that last one,” Tsunade asked, a harder look coming to her face.

I scratched the back of my head awkwardly. “Hashirama cells… It was one of my ideas on becoming stronger before Kurama agreed to work with me. Improved chakra, a relatively good healing factor, no longer needing to eat food and an improved lifespan to who knows how long. Honestly, how did that man even die?”

“I don’t know.”

My head snapped up and my gaze locked in on her. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“I mean just that. I don’t know how my grandfather died. I was too young to really remember, but when Madara died, Hashirama grew depressed and one day he simply vanished. My grand uncle Tobirama later informed the village that he had died… He refused anyone from seeing Hashirama’s body and he never said how he died. Shortly afterwards, the first Shinobi world war began.”

“Damn.” Now I really wanted to know what happened. I doubt Hashirama killed himself, after all, he was the one who started the whole ‘A Shinobi endures for a purpose,’ thing. If he’s ever brought back with Edo Tensei, I’ll have to ask what happened. “If I had to guess–“

“Aha,” Jiraiya called out as he arrived in the clearing with Karin and Shizune.

“T-T-Tsunade-sama, what are you doing?!” Shizune squeaked.

“What do you mean?” Tsunade asked.

“You… You… Naruto-kun doesn’t have a shirt on and you’re sitting really close to one another.”

Blinking, I realized she was right. I also realized that Karin was blushing with a little bit of drool leaking from her mouth as she stared at my body.

“Oh, Naruto just wanted me to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong with his body,” Tsunade replied simply.

“She did hit me really hard last night. My entire arm, my fingers and several of my ribs were broken before K... the Kyuubi healed me. I was just making sure that there wouldn’t be any lasting effects,” I added. “As it turns out, I’m completely fine.

“O-oh,” Shizune let out a relieved breath.

“Then why are the two of you here? you could have examined him back in the village!” Jiraiya said. “And why leave me with the bill?”

“Well… Seeing as you’re my master, I thought you would like to pay for my first date,” I left out the ‘in this world,’ part.

“And I just wanted to mess with you,” Tsunade added. “But enough of that. Jiraiya, we need to have a serious conversation… Specifically concerning Orochimaru!”