Hong Meiling Sleepwalks Through the Heavens

The battle rages on.

Without his trusty sword, Jinpachi Munashi’s strength was greatly diminished. In his weakness, Hong Meiling took the opportunity to fire a stray orb of qi to kill him.

The news spread like wildfire across the battlefield: O-one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist are dead? A-and our Lord too?

Clearly, the morale of the Hidden Mist ninjas took a great toll. Their morale was steadily increasing after coping with their Lord’s death, but with another powerful ally down, their morale plummeted to rock bottom once more.

Yesterday’s battle took place by the coast, while today’s battle was by the lush, green mountains, with many trees and rocks standing as guardians for the ninjas. Hence, the casualties were significantly lesser than yesterday.

Hidden Eddy Village lost another 200 ninjas, while the enemy ninjas lost another 300.

However, due to the shocking death of Jinpachi, the enemy found it hard to break through Hidden Eddy’s strategic defense that utilized nature’s own cover, and they were forced to retreat back to the coast.

And over the next few days, the enemy’s offense weakened significantly.

Their morale was weakened inch-by-inch; carved by the hands of that strange red-haired girl. With her chisel, she struck them from their high ground one kick after another, and the enemy’s attacks on the subsequent days became weaker and weaker.

Finally, on the 5th day of war, the enemy ninjas painstakingly captured the mountains, forcing the Hidden Eddy ninjas back.

The Hidden Eddy ninjas retreated to a town to the East of the Land of Whirlpools. This town is the only way to get into Hidden Eddy Village, and the ninjas were ready to utilize the town as a stronghold to make a last stand.

Of course, the original residents were redirected further into the village over the previous few days.

Now, there were only more than a thousand Hidden Eddy ninjas left fighting in the front lines, yet, the situation seemed far from optimistic.

Meiling, however, knew that the current scenario is far better than what happened in the original timeline. Originally, by day 5, Hidden Eddy Village was completely wiped out.

Hidden Eddy suffered a lot of casualties, but due to the ninjas’ noble sacrifices, the enemy ninjas have yet to infiltrate into town.

Plus, the enemy forces have lost more than half of their ninjas. Sooner or later, the proportion of casualties may be deemed unethical to them, and they may finally retreat and leave Hidden Eddy alone.

Soon, good news came to the Hidden Eddy camp at night.

Tsunade, one of the Sannin (a.k.a, part of the Legendary Three Ninjas) of Hidden Leaf Village, sneaked into town in a hurry.

She suffers from the severe fear of blood due to the tragic deaths of her partner and younger brother during the Second Shinobi World War, and withdrew from battle. Frustrated with herself, she left Hidden Leaf and became a vagrant with a crippling gambling addiction.

However, Hidden Eddy Village is still close to her heart – her grandfather is none other than Hashirama Senju, and her grandmother is Mito Uzumaki. Mito would occasionally bring Tsunade along to Hidden Eddy to visit her relatives – Ashina Uzumaki and other senior officials of Hidden Eddy were also well acquainted with her.

Tsunade could be considered a shut-in. She spends all day at the casino to gamble and rarely steps outside. When she heard the news that Hidden Eddy Village was about to face a genocide, it was already the fourth night of the war.

Immediately, she tossed all of her money and ran towards Hidden Eddy as urgently as possible.

Her arrival is naturally, excellent news for them.

She still has a crippling fear of blood, and even the sight of bleeding ninjas caused her to freeze. Even so, she acted as an important figure in camp. Ninjas that suffered from internal injuries were directed to her, and her personal slug, Katsuyu, tended to the bleeding ninjas with healing ninjutsu.

With her help, a heavy load was taken off from the medical ninjas of Hidden Eddy. Even the ninjas who suffered debilitating injuries will be able to participate in battle again tomorrow.

With her miraculous touch, 200 ninjas were in tip-top condition once more. After an entire night of toiling away in a villager’s house acting as a temporary clinic, she finally finished readjusting the final ninja’s arm.

Finally, Hong Meiling thought to herself. I get to see the Fifth Hokage with my very own eyes.

Originally, when Meiling heard that the legendary Tsunade was on her way, she wanted to see her. However, Tsunade was busy treating the injured ninjas, and she didn’t want to disturb her. Now that all the injured ninjas were healed, Meiling stepped into the house.

In the original Naruto, Tsunade was nowhere to be seen when Hidden Eddy was under attack… that must be because Hidden Eddy was no longer there when she arrived.

The fate of Hidden Eddy, no, the fate of the entirety of the Land of Whirlpools will be changed now that she’s here, Meiling thought.

Peering into the house, Meiling saw Tsunade, and she looked just about twenty-years-old.

Of course, she doesn’t look that much different from what she will look like when she’s fifty. Despite this, she still exuded a young aura.

Strangely enough, she had a frown on her face.

Not long after entering town, Tsunade immediately met up with Ashina Uzumaki. She ran up to him in the dead of night and urged him, “Why didn’t you ask Hidden Leaf for help?”

“…we did. On the very first day of war, I sent people to Hidden Leaf to request for assistance.”

Tsunade felt a chill down her spine hearing his answer.

When she learnt that Hidden Eddy was under attack, it took her less than a day to rush back to the village. It didn’t make sense that Hidden Leaf’s reinforcements would take that long to help them.

She is not dumb, of course – she is the granddaughter of the first Hokage, so she has knowledge of what goes behind the scenes. With something as concerning as this, several chilling possibilities popped up in her head.

I… I don’t want to admit it, she breathed to herself. But what other reasons could cause Hidden Leaf’s delay?

Ashina glanced at her, fully aware of her thoughts. He knew very well why Hidden Leaf’s reinforcements were late, but he couldn’t do anything about it other than feel the painful, cold tinge of betrayal.

Back to reality, Tsunade saw Meiling stepping into the house.

Tsunade heard of Meiling through Ashina – a strange, chakra-less girl who suddenly appeared on the battlefield, yet, she holds incredible strength and unexplainable prowess in physical combat. Ashina divulged that she may hold a power that is different from chakra and senjutsu.

Many questions were left up in the air regarding her strange existence, but there is absolutely no doubt that she played the most important part of defending the Land of Whirlpools. If she didn’t kill Sandaime Mizukage on the very first day of war, Hidden Eddy might not be standing today.

As Meiling walked closer to her, Tsunade nodded and smiled at her, “What’s the matter, Miss Hong? Are you injured anywhere?”

Meiling turned and inspected her body for injuries. Yes, she may have accumulated minor injuries, but they weren’t serious enough to warrant treatment.

“Nope!” Meiling smiled and gave her a thumbs up. “And please, just call me Meiling, and I’ll call you Tsunade. No formalities needed!”

Tsunade’s eyes widened with a tinge of amusement, That’s a first.

As the granddaughter of a Hokage, ninjas, and even elders, would usually address her as “Tsunade-sama,” save for her teacher and Ashina.

Aren’t you being a little too familiar with me? She wondered internally, “Very well, Meiling. Are you sure you don’t need treatment?”

“Nope!” Meiling flashed a toothy grin. “I’m just here to see the legendary Sannin of Hidden Leaf… and possibly, be her friend!”

Tsunade smiled as she heard this.

[Sannin] is the title given to her after she, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru defeated Hanzo, the leader of Amegakure. Some may fear her solely for this title, but she thinks that this title is not of a glorious deed.

And, she has no intention of making friends.

During the Second Shinobi World War, her partner and younger brother were killed horrifically, and Tsunade considered herself a living death-star. Anybody who gets too close to her may face misfortune, so she tends to avoid forming relationships with anyone.

Tsunade put her feelings away and masked her mourning by gambling. She wasn’t sure why she even rushed back to Hidden Eddy, but she knew that her heart yearned to help those in need.

Plus, if the enemy attacked Hidden Leaf instead of Hidden Eddy, she would still continue to gamble. After all, Hidden Leaf is big – there was no need to worry about it getting destroyed.

To Tsunade, if Meiling hadn’t helped Hidden Eddy in a meaningful way, she wouldn’t pay her any mind.

Moreover, Meiling has never met Tsunade before, but she was eager to be friends with her. How peculiar, she wondered to herself.

“Well,” Tsunade smiled back. “We only just met. No need to rush into becoming friends – how about just getting along with one another for now?”