While walking down a busy street in the Hidden Leaf Village with Kikyo Uzumaki, Uchiha Kei suddenly noticed two new gold mental points had appeared.
He paused, falling into deep thought.
Who triggered a gold mental burst this time?
Could it be Uchiha Madara again?
No, the game that triggered it this time was *Homecoming*.
Hiss\~\~\~
With *Homecoming's* storyline? Which Kage-level shinobi could've triggered two gold mental points?
Kei mentally cycled through all current Kage-tier individuals in the shinobi world, then used the system to trace the coordinates and distance of the mental burst before manually identifying its source on a map.
What? Why go through such an old-school method? Doesn't the system have a built-in map function?
Uh…
There *is* a chance the dumb system has such a function—but because it still thinks it's on Earth, the GPS is all messed up. Opening the system map only shows a globe with "No Signal," like a broken satellite navigator.
So, yeah. The system was abstract as hell. With its map useless, Kei had no choice but to rely on traditional manual mapping—using the direction and distance given by the system to locate it himself.
Thankfully, he'd already mastered these skills—both from his past life knowledge and as part of a shinobi's basic training.
Soon enough, Kei identified the location.
"Tanzaku Street? What Kage-level ninja would be there? Jiraiya?"
"No… Jiraiya wouldn't be emotionally triggered by *Homecoming's* plot like that. So… that means…"
"Tsunade."
Realization hit.
If it was Tsunade, then it made sense for her to emotionally break down over *Homecoming*. After all, the brother-sister dynamic in the game's story was inspired by her and Nawaki.
It wasn't intentional emotional sabotage—their story simply represented a condensed tragedy of the shinobi world.
Don't be fooled by the cheerful depictions of the Konoha 12 in the original story—most with living parents and perfect homes. That was a survivor's bias.
Born and raised in the ninja world, Kei knew the truth: loss of parents was the norm. Many ninja were orphans of war.
Thanks to the brutal Shinobi World Wars and ongoing conflicts, casualty rates were extremely high. After each war, families were shattered, leaving countless children alone.
Kei's own team—himself, Minato Namikaze, and the others—didn't have a single living parent among them. That was normal. If you were lucky, you had siblings like Tsunade and Nawaki.
But even that came with a price. One sibling dying in war was tragically common—an iconic reflection of life in the shinobi world.
It was because Kei understood how cruel and sickly this world was that he had written *Homecoming*'s plot the way he did.
It was brutally realistic. No fiction at all.
Back when Kei wrote it, he had wondered if Tsunade would break down after playing. But he hadn't expected her to be hit *that* hard.
Especially since *Homecoming* had gore scenes—and with Tsunade's hemophobia, she shouldn't have been able to keep playing. And yet, the player who triggered that mental burst clearly played for over two hours, probably finishing the whole thing.
After thinking for a bit, Kei realized—Tsunade had likely played the special "censored" version of the game. One that enabled Harmony Mode, turning blood green, with low realism. That would've allowed her to keep going.
"…I just hope this doesn't push her hemophobia over the edge. If it does, I'm screwed…"
Kei couldn't help muttering to himself.
Very few knew of Tsunade's condition. At this point in time, her hemophobia wasn't as severe as it would be in the original timeline.
The Princess of the Leaf had indeed developed a psychological trauma from losing her brother Nawaki and her lover Dan Katō.
But judging by her fight against Hanzō the Salamander near the end of the Second Shinobi World War, and her various flashbacks (including in *The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Ninja*), she had remained active until the end of the Third War—treating patients and taking missions. Her fear of blood wasn't apparent.
So between the Second and Third Wars, Tsunade's hemophobia existed—but wasn't serious.
Her condition likely worsened during the most brutal phase of the Third War. Constantly treating severely wounded comrades, surrounded by death and agony, probably reminded her of Nawaki and Dan's deaths—perhaps even seeing others in the same state.
That may have been the final trigger that caused her phobia to fully explode—prompting her to leave the Leaf Village and wander with Shizune.
Being a native of this world, Kei understood all this well. And because of that, he now felt genuine dread—
If his game caused Tsunade to break down… that would be a huge problem.
She was Konoha's top medical ninja during the entire Third War. She saved countless lives. She was the pillar of the village's support system.
If she collapsed now, the Leaf would suffer tremendous losses—and the Third War would become even costlier.
And Kei… Kei would be the scapegoat.
This wouldn't be something solvable by politics or profit. Once enough people die, money can't fix things.
And with someone like Danzo Shimura lurking around? Kei and the Uchiha would become public enemies in an instant.
"No… I need to prepare ahead of time. If Tsunade's hemophobia really explodes, I *must* find a way to cure her."
Muttering to himself, Kei frowned and began thinking.
Kikyo, walking beside him, noticed his expression turning serious and asked with concern, "Kei-nii, what's wrong?"
Pulled out of his thoughts, Kei shook his head. "Nothing. I was just thinking about how to cure someone's hemophobia."
Kikyo blinked. "Hemophobia? Uh… is this for a new character in your next game?"
Lately, their relationship had been warming up. Kikyo, ever enthusiastic and open, would often visit Kei, and much of their time together involved discussion about the genjutsu game.
Kei was a classic straight-laced man. Even around girls, he mostly talked business. On Earth, he'd have been outed online as a cold, unromantic type.
But Kikyo—being a hidden gem—wasn't bothered. On the contrary, she loved hearing Kei talk about work.
It made her happy. It made her feel like she could stand beside him and help.
This kind of joy made her truly content. She wished their days would stay like this forever.
So, when Kei mentioned hemophobia, her first thought naturally went to game mechanics. She'd already heard him brainstorm countless wild, dream-like ideas.
Kei merely nodded. "Kind of. I was wondering how to treat hemophobia."
Kikyo furrowed her brows. "That sounds like something only medical ninja could deal with. I've learned some medical ninjutsu, but this isn't something I've ever studied."
"A rare psychological condition like that—only someone like Lady Tsunade could probably cure it."
Kei's face twitched. The urge to roast her statement surged—but he held back.
Just then, both he and Kikyo were distracted by a group of housewives gossiping on the street.
They were talking about the Uchiha—and the now wildly popular genjutsu game.
And it wasn't good talk.
They were vividly claiming the game was an evil tool created by the Uchiha to manipulate people's minds. That anyone who played it would become a puppet of the Uchiha without even realizing it.
These women fully embraced their gift for gossip and slander, claiming they'd seen neighbors, friends, relatives—shinobi—all addicted to the game, abandoning missions to play nonstop. Clearly, they said, it was mind control.
As if on cue, their faces turned pale, whispering as if they knew some terrifying truth—and feared being silenced.
Kei was speechless.
Kikyo's eyes widened in shock, then her expression turned indignant. "What? How can they just say that?! Controlled by the genjutsu game? Those shinobi are using the game to *train*, for goodness' sake!"
"No way! I'm going to confront them! I won't let them spread lies like this!"
And off she went—ready to verbally spar with the gossipers.
And if that didn't work?
Well, being a true-blooded Uzumaki, she didn't mind throwing hands.
Not everyone had the knightly patience of the White Fang of the Leaf. If these civilians started shouting and pointing fingers, she'd show them exactly why, outside the village, commoners didn't even dare meet a shinobi's eyes.