It was only at three in the afternoon that Tsunade finally returned to the hospital. Spotting Uchiha Ran, she beamed like a straight-A student who had come for praise.
"What's with that face?" Ran asked, curious. "Where were you?"
"The pharmaceutical department!" Tsunade answered proudly.
"What?!" Ran jumped up, a wave of dread rising in his chest. "What were you doing there?"
"Helping you, of course!" Tsunade seemed genuinely puzzled by his reaction. "Why are you so worked up?"
"Wait... you went there on your own? Did Koharu ask you to?"
At that moment, Uchiha Ran wanted to die.
No. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. Everything had gone horribly, terribly wrong. Maybe he really did only have a few days left…
"What the hell is going on?!"
He had planned it all as a calculated, risky move — and instead, he'd overplayed his hand and shattered the board.
"Nooo, I found her myself!" Tsunade still had no idea of the catastrophe she'd triggered. "They said you get furious every time you come back from the pharmaceutical department, so I figured — I won't let them upset you anymore!"
"You… found her… yourself…" Ran's face twisted into a tortured grimace.
"Hahaha… on my own…" he suddenly burst out laughing. Wildly. Madly. He laughed so hard that Tsunade kept trying to stop him, to no avail.
"On your own, ahahaha! That's just… ahahaha!"
"Ran, that's enough! What's going on with you?!" Tsunade shouted, finally snapping him out of his hysterical laughter.
Ran froze. His gaze turned dark and cold.
"Tsunade… if I die soon — don't come to my funeral. I won't forgive you, even as a ghost," he said through gritted teeth.
And then, as if he'd lost his soul, he slowly left the hospital, still laughing like a madman. He walked off into the deserted back alleys of the village.
---
By the stream, Uchiha Ran was picking up stones and tossing them into the water. Splash. Occasionally a startled fish would leap out, only to vanish again beneath the surface.
He felt like that fish: no matter how high he jumped, no matter how hard he tried — he'd always be pulled back down. Into the water. Into the dark. Into hopelessness.
Tsunade quietly followed him. Once she was sure he had calmed down, she approached him from behind.
"Ran… are you okay?" she asked nervously.
"Go away. I don't want to see you," he replied flatly, completely devoid of emotion.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Tsunade flared up. Everything that had happened was throwing her off balance. She couldn't understand what had triggered such fury.
She'd gone over countless possibilities on the way there, but none of them made sense.
It all started with her trying to help in the pharmaceutical department.
Could there really be some dark secret in that?
"Go away," Ran repeated. That was all he said.
"You really don't want to see me that badly?"
"Ahahaha…" Ran laughed again, but now there was no joy in it — only a frozen hatred. "When someone's trying their best to kill you — what do you think? Would you want to see them?"
"Explain yourself! When have I ever wanted to kill you?!" Tsunade was completely lost. But she desperately needed an answer.
"You want to know?" Ran asked with venomous sarcasm.
"Of course!" she snapped. Her voice trembled, and her fingers clenched the hem of her clothes so tightly her knuckles turned white.
She didn't understand what was happening, but his words were tearing her heart apart.
"Fine. Then listen. But after this, there will be nothing left between us. Nothing at all. Agreed?"
"You said it. Don't you dare regret it later!" Her teeth were clenched, tears nearly spilling. But she didn't back down.
"Hatake Sakumo, for the love of god, just come out already!"
She never got Ran's explanation.
Instead, what she got was him roaring.
Three seconds later, a figure appeared behind Uchiha Ran and Tsunade.
"Hatake Sakumo," Ran stared at him coldly and sneered. "I need to tell Tsunade something in private. Want to listen in?"
"Uh…" Sakumo glanced at Tsunade uncertainly, not sure what to do.
"Senpai, please give us ten minutes," Tsunade said, barely restraining her anger.
"Got it," Sakumo nodded and vanished using Shunshin no Jutsu.
"Now will you talk?" Tsunade said icily, her expression like she was ready to rip someone's throat out.
She swore to herself: after this day, no matter what Ran said, she wouldn't speak to him again.
She hadn't done anything wrong. And this was the response? No matter what excuse he had — she wouldn't accept it. Not ever.
Uchiha Ran knew exactly what Tsunade was feeling right now. And he didn't care.
He didn't need her love. To survive, he needed guilt. Her guilt.
Only real, all-consuming guilt would make Tsunade help him — truly help him — without question.
He'd been preparing this for too long.
Would this break Tsunade's heart?
And who cared?
His own heart had been broken for seven years straight, and no one had given a damn. So why should he care about hers?
He took a deep breath. As if diving into memories, he began to speak, with not the slightest emotion in his voice:
"Twelve years ago, my father died. Killed in the war. I was suddenly an orphan and had no idea what to do. I had no money, no relatives. I didn't know how to go on. But Konoha had decent support payments. I was given compensation — not much, but if I was careful, the money from my parents would have been enough to last until I made chunin. Eventually, I accepted reality. Started learning how to live. Alone. Without support. Without care. I was just… surviving."
Tsunade frowned.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Don't listen if you don't want to," Ran said, his voice distant, as if he were speaking about someone else.
Tsunade didn't leave. He took that as permission to continue:
"It's not easy for a five-year-old to survive. But my father told me that only those who survive can hope for anything. That's how five years passed. I fully recovered from the shock of my parents' death. Back then, I naively thought: 'Just two more years — I'll graduate from the Academy. I'll become a ninja. I'll follow in my father's footsteps.'"
"But what I got… wasn't graduation. It was expulsion. I didn't understand a thing. But reality didn't give me time to figure it out. Right after that came my removal from the Uchiha clan. They kicked me out of the compound. And then the surveillance started. ANBU followed me day and night. Not that it matters now. Think of it as just complaining. So they watched me — big deal. I found a job at the hospital. As long as my hands work, I'll survive."
"But… when I turned twelve, I noticed the chakra of a few of the ANBU watching me started to change. I forgot to mention — I'm not just a medical ninja. I'm also a sensor. My sensory abilities are extremely sharp. So sharp that at close range, I can detect even the slightest shifts in someone's chakra. When I felt a cold, subtle undertone of killing intent in theirs… I knew: the orders they'd received had changed.