The early morning sun spilled gold across the Senju Clan's private training ground.
Dew clung to the blades of grass, glinting like glass as forty or so Senju shinobi stood in scattered rows. Most were Genin and Chunin, some with freshly bandaged arms, others with the grim posture of war veterans who didn't know what to expect.
In front of them, Tsunade stood tall, arms crossed, white coat fluttering in the breeze, She didn't speak right away, her presence alone did most of the talking.
Off to the side, half-shadowed beneath a wide cedar tree, Kuma Senju let out a slow sigh thinking, 'Only forty, out of hundreds.'
He folded his arms, eyes scanning the group with a mix of disappointment and practicality.
He'd heard whispers that morning. Some Genin wanted to come. Hell, many of them did but they had missions lined up for D-Rank errands, escort assignments, patrol rotations, most needed the Ryo more than the training.
Kuma closed his eyes, annoyed but understanding, money always won, even over medicine and survival.
"Looks like that 20 million reserve is getting touched," he muttered to himself.
He pulled a scroll from his flak vest, scribbling mental notes as he mentally restructured his budget, 10 million Ryo to form a Medical Training Stipend, 5 million to cover food, water, and supplies for trainees, and lastly, 5 million to hire staff and equipment if Tsunade wanted it.
"We pay them to learn," Kuma murmured, "And maybe they'll finally get the time to live."
He was about to turn and head back toward the compound, already mentally preparing himself for another afternoon of red ink and account balancing, when, "Kuma."
He froze as Tsunade's voice rang sharp across the field, turning and offering his best innocent smile.
"I was just....."
"Don't even start," she gestured toward the group, "You're staying. You're training."
Kuma blinked, "Me?"
"You," Tsunade said, voice firm, "You're a shinobi. You're a leader. And you're a medic-in-training now."
Kuma opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, "I have paperwork..."
"It can wait."
"I have a headache...."
"You'll survive."
"I have absolutely zero talent in...."
"I don't care."
Tsunade walked over, coat billowing like a war flag, and stood inches from him.
"You made this program happen. You rallied the clan. You bought the supplies, cleared the field, and convinced me to take this seriously."
She poked him in the chest, "So now you're going to take it seriously."
Kuma gave her a long, slow stare, then looked past her at the eager eyes of the Genin, the skeptical glances of the older Chunin.
"…Fine," he said at last "But if I pass out from chakra exhaustion, you're carrying me."
Tsunade grinned, "No promises."
Just as Tsunade stepped to the front of the gathering, her mouth opening to begin her first lesson, two figures stepped through the training ground gates.
Kuma, still brushing dirt from his sleeves, glanced up and blinked.
One was unmistakable, fiery red hair tied back in a bouncy ponytail, a glint of mischief and steel in her gait, the other, Blond, Calm, and the distant, focused gleam in his eyes.
Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze.
"They're kids," Kuma muttered under his breath, "Twelve? Thirteen, maybe?"
Both wore standard Konoha Genin gear, though Minato's flak vest looked like it had been tailored for movement. His presence felt calm, like a still lake hiding a whirlpool underneath and Kushina's, wild like lightning caught in a bottle.
Tsunade's eyes lit up as they approached, "Kushina! What are you doing here?"
Kushina gave a crooked smile and scratched the back of her head, "Grandma Mito said I should see how things are going. She said… something about the Senju getting serious."
Tsunade smirked, "And you brought your boyfriend, huh?"
Kushina's face instantly turned crimson, «W-What?! H-He's not....! I didn't....I mean we're not...!"
Kuma raised a hand casually, "It's okay, I saw you two holding hands earlier."
Minato's face flushed as red as Kushina's, "I... I was just making sure she didn't trip," he said, eyes darting anywhere but the crowd.
A few of the older Senju chuckled, Kushina buried her face in her hands, "Why are adults the worst?!"
Tsunade laughed, brushing it off with a wave, "Relax. I think it's cute."
Kushina muttered something that sounded about not waiting to be around Tsunade, while Minato, still recovering, cleared his throat.
"Jiraiya-sensei is in the Land of Rain for a while, we've had a few weeks of downtime, and I heard about this class. I… wanted to learn."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow, "You want to learn medical ninjutsu?"
Minato nodded, "I've seen what you can do. I want to be able to protect people like that too."
Kuma watched from the side, squinting slightly, "Land of Rain. That meant Jiraiya was already with the Ame orphans. Nagato, Konan, Yahiko… the dominoes were falling, just like I remember, ' thought Kuma suppressing a sigh.
Things were moving faster than he liked, still, he forced a smile, "Well, welcome to the Senju class, kids. I'm Kuma, Clan Head, Occasional paper-pusher."
Tsunade rolled her eyes.
Minato smiled, "I know who you are. Your duel with Shigusa-senpai… I've never seen anything like it. You turned Water Release into a weapon I didn't think was possible."
Kushina grinned, fire returning to her eyes. "Grandma Mito talks about you all the time. Kuma-sama this, Kuma-sama that. I'm surprised she hasn't tried to marry you off to some distant Uzumaki cousin."
Kuma paled, Tsunade raised an eyebrow, "Don't give her ideas."
The class chuckled again, Kuma coughed, "Right, well... Tsunade-sensei, I think the floor's yours."
Tsunade stepped forward, her presence radiating command like the front line of a battlefield.
"Alright!" Her voice rang out, sharp as a blade, "I'm Tsunade Senju, yes, that Tsunade. If you don't know who I am, then congratulations. You've been living under a rock."
A few chuckles broke the tension among the forty Senju shinobi in front of her, even Minato smiled faintly, standing politely beside a very red-faced Kushina who was still recovering from Tsunade and Kuma's earlier teasing.
Kuma leaned lazily against a tree off to the side, arms crossed and posture casual but his eyes were focused.
Tsunade pointed toward the long scroll now laid out across the training ground floor. With a puff of chakra, the parchment glowed, revealing an intricate illustration of the human body, muscles, veins, chakra coils, and pressure points, a masterpiece of medical art.
"I'm here to teach you medical ninjutsu," she said, "And before any of you ask when you'll learn to 'heal wounds with a touch' or 'bring someone back from the brink of death', you can't."
She let that hang in the air, "Not yet. Maybe not ever. Because before you learn healing… You have to learn this."
She jabbed her finger at the scroll, "The human body, every tendon, every vessel, every seal-sensitive zone. You will memorize this, not for a test or a promotion but because on the battlefield, knowing where the liver is isn't trivia, it's life or death."
Kuma yawned softly.
*Smack!*
Tsunade threw a piece of chalk at Kuma, smacking him squarely on the top of the head.
"Eyes forward, Clan Head," she said coolly.
"I am watching," Kuma muttered, rubbing his scalp.
"You're watching your next nap dream," she shot back, "Stay awake or I start making examples."
The students burst into laughter, and Kuma offered a sarcastic two-finger salute.
Tsunade didn't miss a beat, she moved like a conductor across the scroll, explaining muscle groupings and chakra circulation pathways. She drew invisible lines of chakra across the air to demonstrate the flow from heart to fingertips, the importance of chakra control in fine movement.
"Too much force, you rupture a vessel, or too little, you waste time while your comrade bleeds out. Precision is everything."
Minato's hand never stopped moving over his notebook, his eyes intense and focused. Even Kushina, usually the first to shout or interrupt, sat with her hands in her lap, nodding.
"Tell me the difference between the pericardium and the pleura," Tsunade challenged, pointing to one of the older Genin.
"Uh… one's around the heart, and the other is around the lungs?"
"Correct," she said, "Live one more day."
Another ripple of laughter followed, but beneath it was respect, earned and growing.
Time passed unnoticed.
Tsunade's teaching style was brutal, yes but captivating, she spoke with authority, not arrogance. Her lessons were practical, her tone sharp, her corrections immediate but constructive.
Even Kuma found himself sitting straighter as she dove into pressure point healing techniques and the chakra scalpel theory.
"Class," she said after an intense 20-minute segment on lung punctures, "who here can direct chakra into only the fingertips without activating the whole palm?"
Two hands rose, Minato and, surprisingly, Kushina, Tsunade nodded approvingly, "You're ahead of your age group. Good. That control will save you pain later."
She walked back to the front, arms crossed behind her, "This class won't be easy. Some of you will drop out. Some of you will hate me but those who finish?"
She looked around, "You'll be more than just shinobi, you'll be saviors and heroes."
And with that, she dismissed them.
As the students filed out, chatting and wiping sweat from their brows, Kuma slowly stood and stretched with a groan.
His shoulders ached, his head pulsed, and his chakra felt like it had been dragged through a needle's eye.
He didn't even say goodbye, he just trudged off down the path, hands stuffed in his pockets, eyes drooping.
Back at the compound, the world seemed quieter, too quiet, every corner of his body ached for bed, for a steaming bath, and the kind of sleep that didn't involve chakra theory or medical scrolls or endless paperwork.
But he knew what awaited him the moment he walked through the office doors and sure enough, the pile was bigger than yesterday.
"I will die surrounded by paperwork," Kuma muttered darkly, "Buried in ink and bureaucracy."
He slumped into his chair, dragging the first scroll toward him, but in the back of his mind, something felt… lighter.
Tsunade had started something today, something real, and for the first time in a long time, the Senju didn't feel like a dying clan, it felt like a living one.
The second morning of Medical Ninjutsu training dawned brighter and louder than the last.
Kuma Senju stood at the edge of the training ground with his arms crossed, sunglasses on, and a cocky smile carved into his face like it was tattooed there.
Beside him, Tsunade Senju stared ahead at the field, then turned to stare harder at Kuma.
Ahead of them, more than two hundred Senju shinobi, ranging from older Genin to seasoned Chunin, and even a handful of special Jōnin stood in scattered formations across the open field. Some wore gear, others medical robes, and a few came with simple notebooks in hand but it wasn't just shinobi, there were civilians.
Young women and men from within the Senju compound, people with no chakra control to speak of, yet determined eyes. Some carried books while others wore simple work uniforms.
They weren't here to fight, instead, they were here to learn.
"Impressed?" Kuma asked, grinning as if he were waiting for applause, Tsunade rubbed her temples, "Impressed? You tripled the damn class size overnight!"
Kuma's grin widened, "After finishing paperwork and draining 20 million Ryo from the treasury… I'd better see results."
She turned slowly to face him, arms crossed, "You spent 20 million Ryo on recruitment?"
"I invested 20 million Ryo," Kuma corrected, "Covered living stipends for two months. Paid mission compensation for the Genin who couldn't afford to skip jobs. Sent bonuses to the wounded veterans. Even offered free lunches during class hours."
Tsunade blinked, "And the civilians?"
Kuma tilted his head, "Konoha's medical corps needs more than chakra users. Nurses, pharmacists, logistics managers. The war proved that support systems save lives. I figured, why limit it to just shinobi?"
Tsunade exhaled sharply, trying not to look impressed, "Still," she said, "it would've been nice if you warned me before tripling the student body."
"I wanted to see the look on your face," he said smugly.
"Which one?" she replied, "The one where I smack you unconscious, or the one where I snap your spine with a chakra thread?"
Kuma didn't answer, he simply reached into his flak vest and pulled out a scroll, sealed in gold wax.
She caught it midair as he tossed it to her, "Your budget," he said, "Five million Ryo. Hiring, supplies, and teaching tools. Whatever you need. Just make sure none of it ends up at the casino."
Tsunade's expression froze, The scroll was heavy metaphorically, She unsealed the scroll and her eyes widened at the clean ledger attached to it.
Five million Ryo, liquid, unrestricted, earmarked for personnel, medical tools, emergency healing kits, and a stipend for teaching staff.
Kuma whistled innocently, "That's your baby now. It goes into your program. No side bets. No miracle slot machines."
Tsunade stared at him, then at the scroll, then, without warning, threw her arms around him and pulled him into a hug so fierce it cracked his spine.
Kuma gasped, "Oof.... hug me after the paperwork, not before!"
"You're a stubborn, smug bastard," she muttered.
"I get that a lot."
"But you're a good Clan Head," she added softly, stepping back and gripping the scroll tightly.
He tilted his head. "Don't say that too loud. You'll ruin your reputation."
She smirked but didn't deny it, as she turned back toward the gathered students, scroll still in hand, her mind flicked briefly through the options.
'Five million Ryo, I could build an entire mobile medical wing, hire retired nurses, subsidize hospital apprenticeships, order high-level chakra thread kits from Kumo or Kiri, and… maybe gamble just a tiny portion, if I played it smart,' she thought with a mental sigh.
She had enough supplies, and she knew a few old medics at the Konoha Hospital who owed her favors. If she called in the right people, pulled the right strings… she could stretch this money into ten times its worth.
"Don't you worry, cousin," she murmured under her breath, "You gave me the wheel, now let's see how fast this thing can go."
She stepped forward, chakra surging lightly into her voice, "EVERYONE LINE UP! First lesson, don't collapse when I raise my voice!"
A few students yelped, Kuma stepped back, arms folded, watching her command the crowd with ease and presence.
She'd always been like that, Tsunade didn't just teach but led, Kuma exhaled deeply, letting the moment settle in thinking, 'this… this was what rebuilding looked like, not in jutsu or strong shinobi but in sweat, structure, and screaming students who had no idea what they were about to endure.'