The bone on Tsunade's desk gleamed under the morning light. Small. Delicate.
*Human.*
The boy—*her* boy—licked his lips, his dark eyes gleaming with something far older than innocence.
**"I was hungry,"** he said simply.
Tsunade's hands shook. Not from fear. From fury.
She had made a deal with a ghost.
Now she would break it.
---
### **The Breaking Point**
She grabbed him by the collar, slamming him against the wall hard enough to crack the plaster.
**"What did you do?"** Her voice was a snarl.
The boy didn't struggle. He just smiled, his teeth still stained crimson.
"You *promised* to take care of me." His voice twisted, deepening into something guttural. **"A mother shouldn't lie to her child."**
His skin rippled, veins bulging black beneath the surface. His jaw unhinged, rows of needle-like teeth sprouting from bleeding gums.
Tsunade recoiled—
But she didn't let go.
---
### **The Truth Beneath**
Memories flooded her.
*Not just hers.*
*His.*
A stillborn breath. A tiny coffin. A grief so thick it festered in the earth, fusing with the whispers of other lost children.
*They had called to her.*
*And she had answered.*
But this thing wearing her child's face wasn't him.
It was *theirs*—
A hollow thing made of sorrow and hunger.
And it would never be satisfied.
---
### **The Sacrifice**
She could kill it.
One punch. One strike to the heart where no heart beat.
But then what?
The stolen children would return to the dark.
The village would never know the cost.
And she would be alone again.
The boy's claws pricked her wrists, drawing blood.
**"You can't get rid of me,"** he whispered. **"I'm yours."**
Tsunade closed her eyes.
And *pulled him close.*
---
### **The Last Seal**
Her hands moved on instinct, weaving the signs of a forbidden Uzumaki ritual—one she had studied decades ago in a moment of weakness.
*The Ketsueki no Saigo—The Last Blood.*
A contract of binding.
Of *shared fate.*
She pressed her forehead to his, her voice raw.
**"If you stay, you obey."**
**"No more killing."**
**"No more lies."**
The boy—the *monster*—shrieked, his form writhing as her chakra seared into him.
For a moment, he fought.
Then—
He went still.
---
### **The After**
When the ANBU found them, Tsunade was slumped against the wall, her arms wrapped tight around a sleeping child.
A *real* child.
Breathing. Warm.
*Human.*
The marks on her wrist were gone.
But when she met Shizune's eyes, the message was clear.
*It was over.*
---
### **The Price**
The boy didn't remember.
The hunger. The teeth. The bones.
He just called her "Mama" and clung to her hand like she was the only thing keeping him grounded.
*Maybe she was.*
But sometimes, in the dead of night, she'd wake to find him staring at her from the foot of her bed.
**"Do you love me?"** he'd whisper.
And she'd answer the only way she could.
**"Yes."**
Even if it was a lie.
Even if they both knew the truth.
---
### **The End…?**
Years later, on a quiet evening, Tsunade would find a small, gnawed bone hidden under his pillow.
And she'd say nothing.
Because some horrors never leave.
They just learn to pretend.
---
**The End.**