Chương 172: I'm Not Useless.

"What should our next step be, Haruto?" Anko asked politely.

"Hmm… for the next step we need to build an electronic device that can take electric impulses created by a shadow clone to machine code."

"Shadow clone creating electrical impulses? You mean it must use lightning nature transformation to pass current through a wire that will be fed to the computer?"

"Precisely." Haruto nodded.

"But then… how will the shadow clone regain the chakra it uses up? A shadow clone is not a physical body which can regain physical energy through consumption of food and other substances to recreate used up chakra."

"Simple," Haruto started, "... whoever has the device has to periodically charge it by transferring their own chakra to the clone."

"Hmm… then we'll also have to calculate how much chakra the clone uses and how often it needs to be charged. I'll get to working on that with all of them."

"Then who'll make the electronic device that I need to convert electricity from the clone into computer signals for processing?" Anko frowned, "Well why don't you just hire someone from the R&D department. Inoichi-san wanted us to provide him with a list anyway so let's hire some people from there. I don't know many people there so the task falls on you." Haruto sighed but nodded nonetheless.

After prepping a few things, Haruto left the Yamanka clan compound to go to the R&D department to see who he could recruit, he already had Arakawa in mind but he needed to see if he could get more, preferably two, one for himself and one to help Anko.

'Hmmm… I wonder if I can disguise Orochimaru using transfiguration and then get him to seek asylum in the village again and help me out with my research…'

'Would he even be interested?'

'In the original he became pretty chill after killing Hiruzen… now that he's gone… will he consider returning?'

In the meantime in Tsunade's mindscape a war of personalities occured.

"Can't even save Nawaki and you think you can be called his sister!?"

"Even your title of the Sannin was only given to you in defeat. Without his interference you wouldn't have left alive!"

"You're truly useless."

"Can't even save the village by yourself. You had to rely on an eight year old kid!"

"And now you can't even beat Madara by yourself, you need to rely on you grandfather!"

"You are nothing. You are a fraud that only knows how to gamble away anything and everything precious to yourself and those around you."

"Even your appearance is faked! Everything about you is a fake! You aren't a self built woman at all. All you are is a fraud!" Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"You left the village when it needed your help the most!"

"Hiruzen could've been saved with your medical skills!"

"You deserve everything that has happened to you! Your brother's death, your lover's death! All of it occurred due to your own incompetence!"

"AGGGHHHHH!!!!!" Tsunade gripped her head and slammed it to the floor. She'd been through seeing Nawaki die in front of her enough times that at this point she barely felt anything at all. Only, guilt ate her up because of it. How could she forget the pain she felt when she saw her brother die? Wasn't that tantamount to betraying his death in some way? Betraying their relationship? The bond between a brother and a sister? And this guilt brought up several of her other insecurities to the surface.

So while she had successfully overcome her fear of blood, she had inadvertently stepped into an even deeper trap that prevented her from being fully cured. In the real world Jiraiya looked at Tsunade with worry. At first he'd been pretty excited to be alone in a room with an unconscious Tsunade… However slowly colour drained from his face… After all, it had been about four hours since Tsunade had fallen unconscious without showing any signs of recovery.

So Jiraiya sat there in silence, glancing at Tsunade from time to time before he summoned the two people he assumed could help in this situation. Two smaller toads wreathed in simple brown cloaks appeared after a cloud of smoke dissipated from the ground before Jiraiya quickly began explaining the situation to them.

"What is it boy?" Fukasaku asked Jiraiya after seeing him so worried after a long time.

"A person Tsunade trusted allowed him to put her in a genjutsu to cure her hemophobia… now she hasn't moved for the last four hours… Can't we do something Ma-san, Pa-san? I'm getting worried about her."

"Boy… it is not wise to interfere in someone's treatment. Especially if it is by someone the girl trusts."

"But…" Jiraiya looked unconvinced. After sharing a short glance between each other the two toads spoke up, "Well there is a way… we could cast her in another genjutsu…" Jiraiya's eyes widened, "You don't mean the Demonic Illusion: Toad Confrontation Chant."

"Precisely." Shima nodded. Jiraiya quickly spoke up at that point, "That will be fine. As long as it doesn't harm her, let's help her out of this." The two toads nodded and jumped up onto Jiraiya's shoulders before preparing their throats to match their harmonies and soon enough they began to sing!

"OO WA AA AA OO WA AA AA…" As soon as the sound waves bounced off of everything in the room and entered the unconscious Tsunade's ears her body trembled slightly. Within moments, Jiraiya was standing in a new environment, a special space created by the genjutsu inside the target's mind where the target was trapped inside a barrier box filled with water surrounded by four giant toad samurai.

As soon as that happened, Jiraiya saw Tsunade trying to bash her bloodied head against the floor of the barrier, so he quickly called out with worry.

"Tsunade!" Confused by the sudden new voice in her head, Tsunade froze. Then she slowly looked up, causing Jiraiya to freeze. Tsunade's face was full of blood from her head, her eyes were puffy and tears had made a mess out of her face.

"Ji- Jiraiya?" Tsunade asked, confused.

"Are you here to tell me just how terrible I am too?"

"Terrible!? What!? No! I'm worried about you Tsunade. It's been four hours since you fell into that strange person's genjutsu. What happened to you? Are you not alright? Do you want me to find you a way to break you out of there?!" Tsunade's mind stalled for a second before it restarted.

'I still have people that worry about me…'

'Just like I worried about my brother… I still have people who worry about me.' Sigh…

'I'm not worthless at all… all those things I did… no matter how fake they were… in the end it happened the way it did because I was responsible for it.'

'All the bad things as well… the deaths of my friends… the deaths of my closest ones… all of that happened because of me too…'

'They could've happened because at some point I started to think nothing could beat me anymore… or simply because they were fated deaths…'

'But Hanzo and that person should've been a reminder to me about my inherent weakness…'

'I should've grown stronger instead of stagnating.'

'I shouldn't have run away from blood even if I came to fear it… I should've forced myself to look at it and accept it regardless of how I felt about it so that I could do better…'

'Just like how this illusion forced me to confront my deepest fears… I must've done so from the start on my own…'

'This is all my fault…'

'But that does not mean that I'm useless.'

'I will only remain useless if I stop myself from changing…' Tsunade said nothing in those few moments, but the demeanour about her changed. Her mind cleared and her body felt refreshed. She looked at Jiraiya and spoke fearlessly, "It's alright. You can go now." Jiraiya looked at her for a second and then sighed deeply, "It seems you've gotten over whatever was bothering you on your own… you're just as impressive as ever Tsunade…"

"Hmpf! Of course I am!" Tsunade said with a heave, causing Jiraiya to chuckle as he nodded.

"Of course, see you soon Tsunade."

"See you soon." Tsunade said as the genjutsu that the toad sages had created ended.