ShuraZero
patreon
Chapter 73: The Third Believer and the Price of a Hero
🕑 Added 2025-08-26 23:12:18 +0000 UTC"Shizune-san… I need you to trust me. And for that, I need you to take off your clothes."
The silence that followed Naruto's words wasn't a mere absence of sound, but a vacuum that seemed to swallow the air of the luxurious suite, the moonlight, and the distant murmur of Tanzaku City. It was a silence so absolute, so laden with disbelief, that it seemed to stop time itself.
Shizune was petrified. Her normally kind eyes went wide, reflecting the lamplight with a glassy sheen. Her face shifted from the pale white of shock to the deep red of shame. Tonton, who had been dozing at her feet, let out a sharp squeal—"Buhiii!"—of pure surprise, as if he had understood the implication. The little pig immediately hid behind his owner's legs, visibly trembling.
Tsunade, the woman who had survived three Great Shinobi World Wars and faced Hanzō the Salamander, was speechless. Her mouth, usually quick with sarcasm and commands, hung slightly open. Her amber eyes, which had seen the horrors of the battlefield, were fixed on Naruto with a bewilderment so pure that for an instant, she looked like a child. Her mind, one of the most brilliant of her generation, tried to process the request. A joke? A misunderstanding? Or had the kid finally lost his mind?
The stillness was broken, not by an explanation, but by an explosion of contained killing intent.
"Brat…"
Tsunade's voice was a low, dangerous growl. Every syllable was loaded with a pressure that made the air feel heavy, difficult to breathe.
"Have you gone completely insane? After everything that's happened, did your brain finally melt?"
She rose slowly, her movement as fluid and threatening as a predator's. Her knuckles cracked as she clenched her fists.
"You have three seconds. Three. To explain what kind of perverted joke this is before I smash you against that wall and use your bones to stir my sake. And believe me, after tonight, I need a very strong drink."
The threat wasn't hyperbole; it was a promise. The air in the room grew denser, charged with the pressure of her chakra, a palpable wave that promised annihilation.
Naruto, realizing his monumental screw-up, frantically waved his good arm, his face a mask of panic.
"No! It's not a joke! And I swear it's not what you're thinking, for real! It's not like that!" he stammered, his eloquence failing him at the most crucial moment. "It's the proof! It's my jutsu! My Kekkei Genkai! For it to work, for you to see the power I've been talking about, to awaken someone's potential… I need direct contact with the skin."
He paused, swallowing hard, his gaze shifting from a Tsunade who looked ready to commit murder to a Shizune who wished the earth would swallow her whole.
"It's a seal," he continued, trying to make his voice sound coherent. "A seal of blood and chakra that's applied to the back. It's the only way to prove to you that the power I mentioned is real! That I'm not crazy! That everything I told you about Orochimaru and Konoha's future is true! I don't know why I have this power, it just suddenly appeared with visions of the future, but I need you to trust me, please."
The explanation, while still sounding outlandish, was filled with such desperate sincerity that Tsunade's fury wavered. The killing intent receded, replaced by a deep, skeptical curiosity. A Kekkei Genkai from the Uzumaki clan? They were the masters of fuinjutsu, after all. The idea of a seal that "awakened potential" was strange, yes, but not entirely impossible within the legends of lost clans and secret techniques.
"A seal on her back?" Tsunade repeated, her tone now more analytical, though still dangerous. "What kind of seal requires such exposure? The Uzumaki were geniuses, not pervy old men. Explain yourself better, Naruto. And choose your next words with the utmost precision."
Shizune was trapped between panic, humiliation, and the strange but undeniable conviction burning in Naruto's blue eyes. He wasn't lying. He was scared and clumsy, but his belief in what he was saying was absolute. Somehow, it was contagious. She glanced at Tsunade, who remained silent, analyzing the boy's every word. She saw the doubt in her master's eyes and knew the decision fell to her.
Her loyalty to Tsunade and her strange faith in this boy led her to an act of courage that cost her all her composure. She let out a deep, trembling sigh.
"Lady Tsunade…" she said, her voice barely a whisper. "Perhaps we should listen to him. If what he says is true, if he has a way to empower a shinobi like this, it could change everything."
Tsunade looked at her, one eyebrow arched.
"And you're willing to be the guinea pig for a technique that sounds like a pervert's excuse?"
Shizune's face burned, but she held her gaze.
"I trust your judgment, Master. If you're here to supervise, I know you won't let anything bad happen. And I…" she hesitated, looking at Naruto, "…I believe him."
She took another breath, this time with more resolve.
"If it's to prove you're telling the truth," she began, her voice firmer, "and to help Lady Tsunade understand… I'll do it."
With trembling but resolute hands, her fingers found the knot of her kimono's obi and began to untie it.
Naruto's panic reached a new level.
"NO, NO, NO! WAIT! STOP! SHIZUNE-SAN, PLEASE, STOP!" he yelled, waving his hands. "JUST YOUR BACK! I JUST NEED YOU TO TAKE OFF THE TOP PART AND TURN AROUND! THAT'S ALL, I SWEAR! YOU DON'T HAVE TO GET COMPLETELY NAKED, I SWEAR ON RAMEN!"
The desperate and embarrassed shout broke the tension. Shizune froze, her obi half-undone, her face the color of a tomato. A choked sound escaped her lips as she wished for a summoning jutsu to take her anywhere else.
Tsunade let out a grunt, half exasperation, half amusement she refused to admit. The situation was so ridiculous that her anger dissipated. She pinched the bridge of her nose.
"You're so troublesome, brat," she said, shaking her head with annoyance and resignation. "You're a walking disaster."
She looked at Shizune, who was still frozen.
"Shizune, go to the other room. Take off the top of your kimono and sit on the floor with your back to us."
Then, her eyes locked onto Naruto.
"And you, do what you have to do. But I'm warning you, if I feel the slightest fluctuation of chakra that isn't for that supposed seal… if this is a trick… there won't be enough doctors in the world to put you back together. Understood?"
"Crystal clear!" Naruto assured, now serious.
They moved to the adjoining room. The soft light from the paper lamps created an almost solemn atmosphere. Shizune did as she was told. She removed the top of her attire, folding it beside her, and sat with her back to them. Her pale skin glowed in the light, a slender back marked by minor scars from old battles.
Tsunade knelt at a prudent distance, her expert eyes fixed on Shizune's back, her chakra perception at its maximum. Not the slightest detail would escape her.
Naruto knelt behind her. The noisy kid disappeared, replaced by someone completely focused. He bit his left thumb, and a small drop of blood welled up. With a concentration Tsunade would have never attributed to him, he infused the drop with his chakra.
Tsunade felt the change immediately. Naruto's chakra, normally a chaotic and wild torrent, was refined, contracted, became dense. She felt the purity of the Uzumaki energy mixed with the Kyubi's power, but controlled with surprising finesse.
Naruto's finger, stained with his blood and glowing with a faint blue light, touched the base of Shizune's back, right over her spine.
For Tsunade, it was like witnessing a miracle. She felt the wave of Naruto's chakra enter Shizune's system. It didn't act as an invasive force. It functioned as a biological key that inserted itself into her apprentice's chakra network and began to unlock doors that not even she, the world's greatest medical-nin, knew existed.
She saw, with her legendary perception, how Shizune's chakra network was being "rewritten" and "optimized" in real time. Latent tenketsu nodes activated. The flow of her chakra, always efficient, became perfect.
This is impossible, she thought, her scientific mind struggling to process what her senses were telling her. It's not medical ninjutsu. It's not healing. It's not a genjutsu. It's like he's performing surgery at a cellular and spiritual level on her entire body in seconds. He's recalibrating her very existence. This defies everything I know.
As Tsunade watched, stunned, Naruto's vision was an avalanche of light and data. The familiar blue screen of the system unfolded before him.
[FALNA SYSTEM ACTIVATED] [ACQUIRING THIRD BELIEVER: SHIZUNE] [INITIATING UPDATE. CONVERTING ACCUMULATED LIFE EXCELIA INTO BASE STATUS…]
SHIZUNE LEVEL: 1 STRENGTH: I-0 ENDURANCE: I-0 DEXTERITY: I-0 AGILITY: I-0 MAGIC: I-0
[ANALYZING QUALITY EXCELIA ACQUIRED THROUGH LIFE EXPERIENCE…] [SIGNIFICANT EVENTS DETECTED: ‘UNBREAKABLE LOYALTY’, ‘RIGOROUS MEDICAL TRAINING’, ‘MASTERY OF SUBTLE TECHNIQUES’, ‘SURVIVOR OF TRAGEDY’, ‘WILL TO PROTECT’.] [CONVERTING QUALITY EXCELIA INTO ADDITIONAL ATTRIBUTES AND DEVELOPMENT ABILITIES…]
DEVELOPMENT ABILITY UNLOCKED: [ANALYTICAL MIND: POISON]: Passive ability. Allows for the near-instantaneous analysis of any toxin upon contact or proximity. Identifies components, effects, and weaknesses for antidote creation.
SKILL UNLOCKED: [SILENT ASSASSINATION: SCALPEL]: Active skill. Suppresses the user's presence, sound, and scent to extreme levels while wielding a Chakra Scalpel or similar weapon. Increases cutting power and precision for targeting vital points.
MAGIC UNLOCKED: [HEALING CHAKRA THREADS]: Allows the projection of healing chakra in the form of tangible threads to stabilize wounds from a distance, perform internal sutures, or transmit chakra to multiple allies.
Just as Shizune's information settled, the notifications for him began to arrive.
[CONGRATULATIONS!] [ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: "THIRD BELIEVER ACQUIRED"] [Reward: Significant increase in base stats for the host. Passive growth bonus granted to all existing believers (Sakura Haruno, Hinata Hyuga). YOUR STATS HAVE BEEN UPDATED!] [APPLYING BONUS TO SHIZUNE FOR HOST'S RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS…] [BONUS FOR "A HERO'S SACRIFICE" APPLIED.] [BONUS FOR "THE HEART OF THE SYSTEM" APPLIED.] [BONUS FOR "A LEGEND'S AFFECTION" APPLIED.] [UPDATING SHIZUNE'S STATUS!]
SHIZUNE LEVEL: 1 STRENGTH: H-185 ENDURANCE: G-210 DEXTERITY: F-355 AGILITY: G-290 MAGIC: F-398
The flood of information didn't stop.
[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: "A HERO'S SACRIFICE"] [Requirement: Willingly suffer a critical-level injury to empower and protect allies.] [Reward: Passive Development Ability Unlocked - [UNBREAKABLE WILL]: The host's determination inspires their believers. As long as the host continues to fight, his believers receive a percentage bonus to all their stats. The effect is amplified if the host is gravely injured.]
[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: "THE HEART OF THE SYSTEM"] [Requirement: Establish direct contact with the Falna System's Core and stabilize it with one's own life force.] [Reward: Increased Falna Comprehension. System Skill Unlocked - [VISION OF THE FAMILIA]: The host can remotely perceive the basic status (Level, name, and condition) of all believers regardless of distance.]
[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: "A LEGEND'S AFFECTION"] [Requirement: Earn the genuine respect and concern of an S-Rank shinobi.] [Reward: Unique Skill Unlocked - [VOICE OF CONVICTION]: The host's words, spoken with sincerity, resonate more deeply with those who respect him, making his arguments and requests more persuasive.]
The avalanche of information, the effort of channeling his chakra, and the latent pain in his arm were too much. The instant he removed his finger, his eyes rolled back and he collapsed, unconscious.
"Naruto-kun!"
Shizune's cry pulled her from her own trance. She dressed with automatic movements but paused midway, looking at her hands. She felt power flowing through her veins, a new mental clarity, an intuitive connection to her chakra. She felt stronger, faster, sharper. She looked at a flower in a vase and her mind didn't see petals; it saw its chemical composition and the seventy-three ways she could use it to create a poison or an antidote.
Her amazement turned to concern when she saw Naruto on the floor. She rushed to his side, her medical instincts taking over.
"He's unconscious!" she announced, checking his pulse.
Tsunade was already there. Her skepticism had been annihilated. She knelt beside Naruto, her face a mixture of awe and concern. She placed a hand on his forehead, her medical chakra assessing his condition.
"He's exhausted," she said, her voice grave. "No, more than that. He's completely drained. His chakra reserves are practically at zero."
She looked at Shizune, who now radiated a palpable new strength. Then she looked at the boy who had sacrificed his own energy to give it to her.
"Shizune," she said, her voice now that of a commander. "Pack our things. Only the essentials. We're leaving."
"Are we going to…?" Shizune asked, already moving by instinct.
Tsunade stood, her decision etched on her face.
"We're going to Konoha. Right now."
Shizune stopped, her face filled with awe and a new, fierce determination. Konoha. They were going home.
"This kid…" Tsunade continued, more to herself, her eyes never leaving Naruto, "is right. The village is in danger. Orochimaru won't stop. And this power… we have to understand what it is. And get it where it belongs before someone else tries to get their hands on it."
With unexpected gentleness, the woman who could shatter mountains lifted the unconscious Naruto. She carefully placed him on her back, making sure his injured arm was protected. The weight was insignificant, but the responsibility she felt was immense.
"Don't worry, brat," she whispered, her voice so low only she could hear it. "You don't have to carry it all alone anymore."
She stood in the middle of the room with Naruto on her back, a figure of power and resolve. Shizune, newly empowered, stood beside her with Tonton in her arms. The journey back was no longer an escape from the past.
It was a mission to save the future.
Comments
Ari Gómez García
Uh... Well, the Falna ability isn't about following the Boruto path. I haven't explained it yet, but you could say that Falna searches within a person based on their personality, life experience, and training to find an evolutionary route. It doesn't necessarily follow the future of the series' canon; there will be some deviations to improve the girls' strength, but all based on their life experience, personality, and feelings.
Ari Gómez García
Well, there's a reason for that. I don't want to say what it is because it's something I'll explore much later on, but yes, you could say that Tsunade already knew Orochimaru was planning something
Aaron Schwartz
Oh, and one other thing. I was under the impression that what the ritual did, was to give the character. It was applied to their Boruto stats early. That makes sense for the first two since by the end of Shippuden they were both genuine badasses But Shizune? I’ll give you the Medical abilities and the poison mastery in that stuff but she never had those stats she spent the rest of the series being Tsunade’s secretary. I don’t even remember seeing her after the pain arc
Aaron Schwartz
OK, you’re gonna need to point out to me the part where Naruto actually tells her that Orochimaru is the one behind the attack. Because I was looking for that and I didn’t see it. He just told her that the village was going to be attacked and that Hiruzen would die. Frankly, I was expecting him to rebuff her when she said that he had to stay because he had the Ninetails with the argument that it’s Orochimaru and he’s coming for Sasuke and revenge and not the tailed beasts. Her reaction to learning that should’ve been pretty explosive because saying she and him have baggage is a vast understatement. But now at the end of this, she knows who the mastermind is?
