On the border of the Land of Fire, the stench of death hung thick and heavy, like a putrid swamp.
Kanzaki's consciousness drifted in the darkness, like a small boat about to capsize.
Hunger, like a branding iron, repeatedly seared his stomach, burning away the last vestiges of his strength. He was curled up beneath the gnarled roots of a tree, his small body almost blending with the dirt. Only a faint, almost imperceptible breath proved he was still alive.
It had been several days since he transmigrated into the body of a child just a few years old. There was no food, no water, only an endless forest and the fear of death.
He didn't know where he was, nor why he was there. He just woke up to find himself a three or four-year-old boy.
But now he felt like he was going to starve to death in this forest.
Just as his consciousness was about to completely dissipate, a powerful energy fluctuation erupted in the distance, like thunder rolling across the earth.
After crawling around in this forest for so many days, this was the first time Kanzaki had heard a sound other than insects and birds, and such a violent explosion at that.
In that instant, Kanzaki's survival instinct overwhelmed everything, like an invisible thread pulling his broken body forward.
He used his last bit of strength to crawl forward, hands and feet scraping the ground, his fingernails tearing at the dirt, leaving shallow bloodstains. His vision was already blurry; the world in his eyes was just shifting light and color blocks.
Finally, he crawled out of the dense forest, and a chaotic battlefield came into his remaining sight.
Broken kunai (ninja tool), scorched earth, and several already cold corpses. The air was thick with the pungent smell of blood, char, and earth.
That primal survival instinct drained his last bit of energy. His vision went black, and Kanzaki completely lost consciousness. His small body collapsed softly into the grass at the edge of the battlefield, his life force as faint as a candle in the wind.
"The mission is finally over. These Iwagakure guys are as stubborn and stinky as rocks in an outhouse."
A boisterous male voice broke the silence of the battlefield. Jiraiya shook his long white hair, his hands clasped behind his head, looking completely carefree.
"Jiraiya, please watch your language," Shizune, who was following behind, reminded him softly, a hint of helplessness on her face.
The blonde woman walking at the front paid no attention to the bickering behind her.
Tsunade frowned, her amber eyes sweeping across the brutal battlefield. A persistent sense of irritation and sadness lingered in her brows. Every time she saw such a scene, the faces of her brother, Senju Nawaki, and her boyfriend, Kato Dan, would uncontrollably appear before her, and her heart would feel as if an invisible hand was tightly squeezing it, making her feel suffocated.
Her Chakra also became chaotic as a result, like a tangled mess.
"Let's go, back to the Village for a drink," Tsunade urged impatiently, wanting only to leave this suffocating place as quickly as possible.
Tsunade planned to stop all missions after returning to the Village this time, even to leave Konoha Village and stay away from war and missions forever.
However, the moment she turned around, her steps faltered.
As a top-tier Medical Ninja, her perception of life force far surpassed that of ordinary people. In this land shrouded in death, she detected an extremely faint, yet incredibly pure, spark of life, just in the grass not far away, as if it would extinguish at any second.
"What's wrong, Tsunade?" Jiraiya noticed her unusual behavior.
Tsunade didn't answer, walking directly towards the direction of her perception. She pushed aside the waist-high weeds, and a small, curled-up figure appeared before her.
It was a child, appearing to be only four or five years old, his black hair messy with dirt and grass, his small face filthy, his lips cracked and pale, and his body clad in tattered clothes, so thin he was skin and bones.
He lay there silently, like an abandoned kitten. If not for the almost imperceptible rise and fall of his chest, he would have been indistinguishable from a corpse.
"Lady Tsunade, it's a child!" Shizune exclaimed, rushing over, her eyes filled with worry.
Jiraiya also put away his playful expression, his demeanor becoming serious. The appearance of a child of unknown origin on a battlefield was by no means ordinary. He vigilantly scanned the surroundings, sensing for any possible ambush.
Tsunade, however, had already knelt down. Her instincts as a healer made her immediately reach out a finger to the boy's neck.
His pulse was so weak it was almost non-existent.
"He can still be saved."
She struggled greatly internally, but ultimately, green light emanated from her hands as she gently placed them on the boy's frail chest.
Mystical Palm Technique (Shōsen Jutsu).
Pure and immense medical Chakra, carrying the inherent vast vitality of the Senju Clan, surged into Kanzaki's collapsing body like a warm torrent.
In the endless darkness, Kanzaki's consciousness was slightly awakened by this warm current.
So warm... so comfortable... it was like being immersed in a mother's amniotic fluid, every parched cell greedily absorbing this life energy.
And at this moment, a cold, emotionless mechanical voice exploded in the depths of his mind.
[Detecting a suitable energy source... "god-tier stealing system" passively activated...]
[Analyzing target... Analysis complete.]
[Detected stealable target: Senju Tsunade.]
[Stealable abilities: A. (Talent); B. Medical Ninjutsu (Proficient); C. Latent Wood Style Bloodline (First Hokage's legacy).]
Cold characters listed in Kanzaki's mind. Even with his consciousness blurry, he instantly understood what this was.
Golden finger! A transmigrator's standard equipment!
Steal abilities?
And the target... is Tsunade!
Tsunade? Wood Release? Is this Naruto? Have I transmigrated to the Naruto world?
In an instant, the desire to survive, like a wildfire, instantly consumed all his thoughts. There was no time to hesitate, no energy to think about the consequences.
Wood Release! That was the power the First Hokage used to quell the chaotic era, a divine power that surpassed the Tailed Beasts!
"The third one, Wood Style Bloodline."
He screamed this command with all his might in his heart.
[Command confirmed... Beginning to steal "Latent Wood Style Bloodline"...]
The next moment, a life-origin force, co-originating with Tsunade's medical Chakra but even more ancient, gentler, and more immense, silently flowed upstream along the green light, surging into Kanzaki's limbs and bones.
It wasn't a plunder; it was more like a... return.
As if this power originally belonged to him, and now it was simply returning to its rightful owner. Every cell in his body cheered, frantically devouring and merging with this power. There was no rejection, no pain, only a feeling of comfort like being reborn.
The parched riverbed welcomed the sweet rain, and the withered trees sprouted new buds.
Tsunade, who was concentrating on healing, suddenly furrowed her brow.
She felt something was wrong.
Her Chakra was flowing out too quickly, like a floodgate opening, uncontrollably rushing into the child's body. And the child's body was like a bottomless whirlpool, greedily absorbing everything.
"Hey, Tsunade, this kid..." Jiraiya also noticed the anomaly. The speed at which Chakra was being consumed was not at all like healing an ordinary child.
However, an even stranger thing happened.
The moment the stealing was completed, a mysterious connection was established between Kanzaki and Tsunade.
In his perception, the world before him was no longer blurry light and shadows. He "saw."
He "saw" that within Tsunade's immense Chakra, countless gray-black negative emotions, full of sadness, self-reproach, and regret, were intertwined. In the depths of that sea of emotions, he saw the figure of a smiling boy wearing a forehead protector—that was Nawaki.
It was these emotions, like maggots clinging to bone, that made her powerful Chakra chaotic and unruly, hiding a heart riddled with holes beneath her strong exterior.
So... she was in so much pain internally?
Almost subconsciously, Kanzaki mobilized the newfound power within him—that vibrant Wood Release Chakra.
A subtle, almost imperceptible aura, like a tender spring sprout breaking through the earth, emanated from his small body.
This aura was not aggressive, not invasive. It was like the gentlest breeze of spring, like the freshest scent of grass and trees after rain, softly and gently caressing Tsunade's chaotic Chakra.
Buzz—
Tsunade's body trembled violently, and her amber pupils suddenly constricted!
That immense grief that had plagued her heart for years, keeping her awake at night, driving her to drink, and making her tremble uncontrollably at the sight of blood—at this moment, it seemed to be gently smoothed away by a warm hand.
That Chakra, which had gone wild and chaotic due to her emotions, also miraculously calmed down under the soothing influence of this aura, becoming docile and flowing smoothly again.
This was a... never-before-felt tranquility.
"This... this is..." Tsunade's voice trembled. She looked at the unconscious boy beneath her palms with disbelief, her eyes filled with shock and confusion that overturned her understanding.