Tsunade’s hand was inside Hoshina’s abdomen.
The longer it lingered, the gloomier her expression became.
The feedback from her Chakra was a hundred times worse than she had anticipated.
The fetus was not only in a transverse position, but its head was stuck at an extremely tricky angle.
It was wedged tightly against the pelvis and could not be moved at all!
This was not an ordinary difficult labor.
This was a textbook case of lethal dystocia.
Under the medical conditions of this era, it was almost unsolvable.
Tsunade tried to use Chakra to gently push the fetus’s body.
But with every exertion, Hoshina’s painful groans intensified, and the fluctuations in the fetus’s vital signs became even weaker.
Forcing a rotation would very likely cause the umbilical cord to be completely constricted, or cause Hyuga Hoshina’s uterus to rupture completely.
If that happened, not only would the fetus die in the womb, but Hyuga Hoshina would also very likely die from massive hemorrhaging!
Cold sweat suddenly streamed down Tsunade’s temple.
“In this situation…
with these medical conditions, are we really going to face that ultimate test?” A classic line that had been overused in countless movies and TV shows in her past life, one she had once scoffed at, uncontrollably surfaced in her mind: “Save the mother or save the child!” When she watched dramas before, she always thought this plot was melodramatic and stupid.
But reality had slapped her hard in the face.
In this Ninja World with limited productivity levels, there were no precision instruments, no modern operating rooms, and no sufficient blood banks or anti-infection drugs.
Facing such a complex difficult labor, most of the time, it was just a cruel multiple-choice question with only two options!
“Lady Tsunade!
I beg you!
You must save our mother!!” Two tearful, still-immature voices suddenly rang out beside her.
Tsunade was pulled back to reality by the sound and turned her head to look.
She saw two boys, looking almost identical and about seven or eight years old, who had rushed to the side of the delivery bed at some unknown moment.
With a ‘thud’, they knelt at her feet.
Both had the standard appearance of the Hyuga Clan: Byakugan eyes and tear-stained faces.
The look they gave Tsunade was filled with the last glimmer of hope amidst despair.
“Who are you…” “I am Hyuga Hiashi!
This is my younger brother, Hyuga Hizashi!” One of the boys cried out, “I beg you, Lady Tsunade, please save our mother!” The two future Hyuga twins were crying like helpless ordinary children at this moment.
Tsunade was shocked.
Hyuga Hiashi, Hyuga Hizashi…
Was this woman having the difficult labor the mother of the future head of the Hyuga Clan?!
But the next second, she laughed at her own thought.
Hyuga Hoshina was already the wife of the current clan head, Hyuga Munekazu.
It was only natural that she was the mother of the future clan head, wasn’t it?
What was there to be surprised about!
But this natural identity caused Tsunade’s heart to sink to the bottom of the valley instantly.
“If it is her…
then the outcome of this birth looks very ominous!” She quickly recalled the scattered information about the Hyuga Clan in her mind.
In the original story, Hyuga Hiashi and Hyuga Hizashi were twin brothers.
It seemed…
there was no mention of them having any younger brothers or sisters.
In other words, this birth…
likely failed.
Either “save the mother” and sacrifice this unborn child, or, even worse, both mother and child would perish!
Tsunade’s expression became extremely ugly, and cold sweat seeped from her palms.
She hadn’t expected that she had still thought of the matter too simply.
The first mission she took on as a “friend of women” was a hell-difficulty hot potato!
This wasn’t building rapport at all!
If she messed up, she would be making enemies!
Hiruzen Sarutobi’s words couldn’t help but appear in her mind.
Tsunade took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down, and slowly withdrew her hand from Hoshina’s body.
Her palm was covered in a sticky mixture of blood and amniotic fluid.
She stood up, walked to the side, and quickly washed her hands with clean water and alcohol.
Then she turned to Hyuga Munekazu, who had been guarding outside the door but had now been unable to resist coming in.
Hyuga Munekazu’s face was deathly pale, with a hint of lividity.
He looked at Tsunade’s grave expression, then looked at his wife on the bed, whose breathing was weak.
His fists were clenched so tightly they creaked.
Tsunade walked in front of him, opened her mouth, but for a moment, she couldn’t speak.
Seeing her hesitant and grave appearance, Hyuga Munekazu instantly understood everything.
As the head of the clan, he had seen life and death many times and had anticipated the worst-case scenario.
But when it was truly about to happen, that suffocating pain still seized him instantly.
He moved his feet with difficulty and gestured for Tsunade to follow him to the corner of the outer room of the delivery room, away from the bed.
“Tsunade…” Hyuga Munekazu’s voice was low and hoarse, with a hint of tremor.
“Can…
can you save one?” Tsunade’s body jolted!
She raised her head and looked into Hyuga Munekazu’s bloodshot eyes.
In them now surged despair, pain, and the last shred of humble pleading.
He wasn’t asking, “Can you save them?” but rather, “Can you save one?” This meant that the moment this clan head walked in and saw Tsunade’s expression, he had already prepared for the worst and was forced to start considering that cruel choice.
Tsunade’s throat went dry.
She met his gaze.
After hesitating for a moment, she finally nodded slowly and extremely heavily.
“Yes.” Saying these two words seemed to exhaust all her strength.
Hyuga Munekazu’s expression jolted first.
As if he had received some kind of confirmation, his entire spirit seemed to have been drained away.
He turned his neck with difficulty.
His gaze passed over Tsunade and landed on the woman on the delivery bed inside, who had been with him for many years.
After several seconds, he squeezed broken words out through his teeth: “Since that’s the case…
then save…” Just as Hyuga Munekazu was about to utter the words that would decide life and death!
“Wait!!” Tsunade suddenly raised her head, her voice raised, interrupting Hyuga Munekazu.