On a barren mountain.
"It's too late for regrets now, little brat..."
Tsunade smiled at the boy across from her, clenched her fist, and smashed it into the ground. The earth trembled violently under the force of the blow, tearing apart completely.
However, her opponent was only surprised for a moment before he leaped high into the air, a cyclone of chakra rapidly gathering in his hand.
"Rasengan Bullet!"
"Rasengan Shockwave!"
"Ultra-Big Ball Rasengan!"
A series of Rasengan-based jutsu rained down, and Tsunade could only dodge desperately, not daring to take any of the attacks head-on. The most troublesome part was that she couldn't risk getting injured and bleeding. Tsunade didn't want the boy in front of her to know that the woman known as the world's strongest medical ninja actually had a crippling fear of blood.
Even with her skill in taijutsu, she found herself stumbling under Naruto's continuous ninjutsu assault and was soon forced to the edge of a cliff.
"Lady Tsunade, I originally thought you were incredibly strong, but it seems I've only used a tenth of my power and you're already at your limit. What a disappointment..."
Naruto Uzumaki glanced at the cornered Tsunade. He slowly formed a chakra cyclone in his hand, gradually infusing it with Wind Style chakra. "I'll see you in the hospital... Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!"
"You little punk!"
Tsunade was so angry she laughed. Was she really being looked down on by a kid?
A sense of powerlessness washed over the blonde kunoichi. Because of her hemophobia, she didn't dare risk injury by charging forward, which meant she couldn't launch an effective attack. The brat just stood in the distance, unleashing a relentless barrage of ninjutsu that gave her no openings.
And his chakra reserves were unbelievably vast. Every ninjutsu he used required a massive amount of chakra, yet he didn't seem to care about the consumption at all. It felt like he had even more chakra than she did.
This was simply incredible. A genin who had just graduated possessed Hokage-level chakra and combat power that was even stronger?
In any case, facing the unavoidable Rasenshuriken, Tsunade gathered chakra in her fist and threw a punch. A powerful gust of wind collided with the Rasenshuriken.
Even though she had deflected the jutsu's path, the sharp blades of Wind Style chakra attached to it still grazed her arm. A string of blood droplets flew out, landing in Tsunade's line of sight...
Blood...
Blood...
How could I be bleeding...
Why won't the blood stop...
When the blood entered her vision, Tsunade's mind instantly descended into chaos. She felt as if she had returned to that desperate battlefield. Her entire body went stiff, and in an instant, she lost all her strength.
The blonde kunoichi fell without a sound, trembling all over. Behind her was nothing but a cliff, yet she couldn't muster the strength to grab onto the rocks of the cliff face.
"What's going on?"
Naruto watched as Tsunade suddenly fell from the cliff's edge. With a cry of alarm, he jumped off the cliff after her. "Hey, you don't have to commit suicide just because you're losing to me!"
Seeing her figure continue to fall, a golden chakra cloak instantly covered Naruto's body. A giant chakra hand reached out and tightly grabbed the blonde kunoichi, while a huge golden tail swelled up to cushion their impact with the ground.
Inside the seal space, the Nine-Tails tapped the floor with its claw. "Naruto," it said in a deep voice, "Tsunade has long suffered from hemophobia. She cannot bear the sight of blood..."
"A ninja who's afraid of blood?" Naruto looked incredulously at Tsunade, who was lying on the ground, trembling uncontrollably. He added, "A medical ninja who's afraid of blood?"
If you told people that, not even Might Guy would be fooled.
"If you knew her past, you would not think so," the Nine-Tails said calmly, spreading its claw as a white light shone from it. "Do you want to know Tsunade's story?"
Of course, he wanted to know. The Nine-Tails in his seal space seemed to know everything and was also a very good storyteller. A dusty piece of history, full of ups and downs, began to unfold from its mouth.
A story of a sister and her brother.
A story of a woman and her lover.
This story, which in the original history was told to Naruto by Shizune, was now interspersed with some of the Nine-Tails' own strange commentary.
"...Tsunade's younger brother and her lover died in battle, one after the other. Her lover died right in front of her, and she was powerless to save him. The old woman's spirit broke, and she could no longer face the sight of dripping blood, developing a fear that is fatal for a medical ninja."
After the Nine-Tails slowly finished Tsunade's story, it suddenly added a final sentence: "So, Naruto, those bonds in the human world will all become burdens... You will eventually be alone."
"I just need to wipe away her blood, right? And Kurama, stop trying to inject your weird ideas into our conversations!"
Naruto glanced at the Nine-Tails with dissatisfaction. His consciousness withdrew from the seal space, and he looked at the still-trembling blonde kunoichi.
Tsunade backed away in a panic. "Don't come over..."
"What a pain..."
Naruto didn't listen. He squatted down, grabbed Tsunade's arm, and looked for the still-bleeding wound.
The blonde kunoichi lowered her head, cowering. "Don't..."
"Stop hiding. You're not Orochimaru; you can't just shrink your body, can you?" Naruto extended his finger. A white light flickered at his fingertip as he touched her wound. After healing it, he wiped away the remaining bloodstains.
Once the blood was gone, Tsunade's emotions slowly eased. She looked at her arm, which was now perfectly smooth, with no trace of a wound.
"You little brat, are you really a medical ninja?"
"No." Naruto shook his head and said softly, "I'm going to become Hokage. How could I possibly become a medical ninja?"
"A medical ninja can become Hokage too!" Tsunade slammed her fist on the ground and said coldly, "Konoha wants me to go back and be the Fifth Hokage, but I don't give a damn!"
"Well, that's just great..." The genin boy looked at the woman, who had returned to her hot-tempered self, and said with a blank expression, "That way, we won't have to waste everyone's time. The people in the village probably wouldn't want to see such a weak Hokage either..."
"What did you say!" Tsunade lunged forward to grab his collar. Just when she had intended to ease her relationship with Naruto, the brat in front of her was about to drive her mad.
The blonde kunoichi gritted her teeth and looked at Naruto. "If it weren't for..."
If it weren't for her hemophobia, she would beat this little brat's brains out right now!
"If it weren't for you being the First Hokage's granddaughter..." Naruto smacked her hand away and sneered, "You'd be lying in a hospital right now, with everyone kneeling on the ground begging you not to die."
"...You brat!" A cross-shaped vein popped on Tsunade's forehead. She was trembling with anger.
-----
Bonus:
Tsunade: Grandpa, I can't win an argument against him!
Hashirama: As if you could win a fight against him either...
Tsunade: You old fossil, whose side are you on?
Hashirama: Tsunade, it's time I told you a secret...
Tsunade: (⊙_⊙)?
Hashirama: Have you heard of past lives?
Tsunade: ...The way you're talking right now sounds a bit like Jiraiya confessing his love...
Hashirama: ...