Chojuro

When Chojuro awoke from the excruciating pain, the first thing he saw was a blurry figure pulling something out of his stomach.

Upon seeing him wake up, the dark figure turned its head, grinned, and gave a sinister smile.

He shuddered in terror, only to find himself bound to the bed, unable to move. Someone was calling his name; the voice came from a great distance, elusive and wavering, like the call of a demon from hell.

"Chojuro!"

Chojuro jolted awake, cold sweat pouring down his forehead, his dazed mind instantly clearing.

He struggled to lift his head, blinking hard. It wasn't a demon at all, but rather Mei Terumi looking at him with surprised and concerned eyes. The sinister, blurry figure wasn't a bad person either, but rather Konoha Ninja, Sakura Haruno.

The pink-haired girl had her hair tied in a ponytail and wore large-framed medical glasses, looking like an intellectual doctor. She turned her head and glanced at him with distant blue eyes.

"You're awake," she said calmly.

His words were devoid of surprise or excitement, as if he were stating something utterly ordinary. "It's faster than I expected."

I didn't die, I'm receiving treatment...

Chojuro relaxed his neck muscles, lay back on the pillow, and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Mei Terumi, and Sister Sakura Haruno... What's wrong with me?"

He asked weakly.

"Call me doctor, thank you." Sakura Haruno's eyebrows twitched slightly as she said, "I just performed a partial splenectomy on you..."

She brandished the fragments of internal organs in her hand, then turned to glance at Mei Terumi. "You treated the internal injuries too roughly before. That part of the internal organs was already necrotic, and I couldn't save them; I had to remove them. Internal organ damage is a typical Water Release injury; you should be quite experienced in this."

Mei Terumi gave a bitter smile, but had nothing to say.

Involving the sensitive decade or so of turmoil, even as the Mizukage, she couldn't explain it clearly to an outsider.

Sakura Haruno tossed the necrotic chunk of flesh into a plate beside her. As a Water Release -Water Release expert, she was well aware of the power of water-style techniques. Apart from her Water Gun Technique, which caused cutting damage, most Water Release relied on their unparalleled impact to cause blunt force trauma and internal injuries. In other words, while a ninja might appear unharmed and stagger for a while after being hit by Water Release, their internal organs might be bleeding profusely, and they would collapse suddenly before long.

Don't assume water is soft; water under high speed and pressure can be harder than cement! After being shaped and adjusted by Water Release, the damage caused by a large-scale Water Release rushing towards you is no less than that of a mountain crashing down. What's even more terrifying is that this impact is continuous, lasting until the entire Ninjutsu ends. The power of advanced Water Release is unimaginable.

The girl frowned slightly and pondered for a moment.

Judging from the injuries on Chojuro, Sakura Haruno could roughly estimate how much of Kisame's Water Release's power remained after he was turned into Human Puppet.

Well then, a Kisame at his peak, using his full Water Release technique, could knock Chojuro to the ground in a single exchange, shattering his internal organs and killing him instantly; he would never have had the strength to escape the pursuit, return to the village, and hold out until now.

"I also treated your old injuries. Rest well and take good care of yourself; you'll get better," she said softly.

Sakura Haruno's hands glowed with blue light as she began stitching up the incision on Chojuro's abdomen.

Chojuro forced a smile.

"I'm useless now!" The man patted his stomach, which was missing some parts, coughed twice, and said with a flushed face, "I can't be a ninja anymore..."

Chojuro felt the wound on his abdomen. The medical skills of the Konoha Ninja were beyond his expectations; the newly stitched wound hadn't left a scar. Chojuro was both surprised and helpless. "Mei Terumi, you don't need to waste your energy on a useless person like me... Dr. Haruno's Medical Ninjutsu should be used on other valuable people."

Sakura Haruno raised an eyebrow.

"The others' injuries aren't serious; your village's medical-nin can handle them." She glanced at Chojuro's hand rubbing his abdomen and added, "Looking for a scar? I had mine faded away while it was healing..."

Medical Ninjutsu is convenient and simple for skin rejuvenation and scar removal, and she used it so often that she unconsciously applied it to Chojuro as well, making a ridiculous and unnecessary mistake. She paused for a moment, then remembered the adage "scars are a man's badge of honor," scratched her cheek, and chuckled sheepishly, "I can help you fix them..."

The aesthetic standards of the past life and this world are not much different for women, but completely opposite for men. At least, the kind of fair-skinned, effeminate woman who wears makeup would never be popular in the ninja world. A handsome man is a valiant and strong man, preferably with a few scars on his body.

"Alright, that's fine then."

Mei Terumi shook her head and took Sakura Haruno's hand.

"Kuro, don't talk nonsense. We are no longer the Kirigakure known as the Village of Bloody Mist Village." She sighed and said, "If we can so easily abandon our comrades and discard our wounded like trash, then what was the point of our desperate struggle to overthrow Sōya's rule?"

"I will never give up on you!"

Chojuro gripped the bedsheet tightly, his eyes slightly red, and remained silent.

"You don't need to despair too much," Sakura Haruno nodded and smiled, "your foot injury might still have a chance to improve. In fact—"

She was interrupted halfway through her sentence by a boy who suddenly rushed into the ward.

"Brother! Chōjūrō kicked open the door with a bang, shouting as he rushed in, "Listen to Konoha— "

Chōjūrō's voice abruptly stopped upon seeing Mei Terumi Sakura Haruno in the hospital room.

He glanced at the girl's Konoha Forehead Protector, blushed, and gave an awkward smile, "Ah... so the treatment is already finished."

Chojuro shrank back, utterly ashamed to watch his younger brother's embarrassing performance.

"Chōjūrō... you idiot!"

He stole a glance at Sakura Haruno. The girl and her younger brother were about the same age, but the former had a quiet and elegant demeanor, while the latter was flustered and panicked. They were worlds apart.

Following closely behind Chōjūrō was a medical-nin with an annoyed expression. He angrily grabbed Chōjūrō's ear and said, "Your brother just finished surgery. Don't bother him and disturb his rest!" He then dragged Chōjūrō away.

Mei Terumi Sakura Haruno exchanged a smile.

This incident interrupted Sakura Haruno's explanation, so she simply stopped talking, since Sakura couldn't guarantee that the matter would definitely succeed.

Sometimes, giving someone hope only to leave them disappointed is worse than never giving them any hope at all.

After his Chōjūrō was taken away, Chojuro quickly became listless. Seeing this, Sakura Haruno and Mei Terumi didn't linger. They asked him a few questions about his fight with Sasori before quietly leaving.

Back at the Mizukage Building, Sakura Haruno reviewed the intelligence brought back by the other Kirigakure teams. Unfortunately, only Chokuro had successfully engaged Chojuro in a direct confrontation and escaped, making that one piece of information the most valuable. The rest were either severely distorted, fragmented, contradictory, or even just baseless speculation.

After working for half the day, Sakura Haruno still hadn't gotten anything.

Deciding not to waste any more time, he bid farewell to Mei Terumi, left the Mizukage Building, and returned to his temporary residence—the same courtyard where Sakura Haruno's Team had stayed during his last visit.

"If the intelligence is correct, then it seems the enemy possesses all five elemental Release Techniques: wind, thunder, earth, fire, and water. Isn't that Kakuzu?" On the way back, she was still analyzing it in her mind.

However, we'd be lucky if even half of that information was credible. So whether the other person is Kakuzu is still unknown.

--It's even difficult to determine how many people Xiao actually came.

The girl recalled the impression that the Kakuzu had left in her heart.

"That Kakuzu, like Sasori, is also a perverted character who's interested in other people's corpses..." the girl said disdainfully, curling her lip. If Sasori's eyes were merely cold and dangerous, Kakuzu's gaze gave off a greasy and greedy disgusting feeling.

"Get up... Deidara's body was taken away by them too, wasn't it?"

Before long, she had crossed the waterfall, left the core area of Mist Ninja, and returned to the courtyard.

As Gate of Opening, she was still muttering to herself, "I wonder if Deidara ended up as Sasori's or Kakuzu's possession..." Just then, two boys from the team came out of the bathroom, their eyes glazed over, shirtless, revealing chests that were either slender or muscular, with towels wrapped around their waists, their bodies wet and steaming.

"Um...?"

Sakura Haruno froze in place as she tried to take off her shoes.

She paused for a moment, then subconsciously reached up to rub her chin, her strange gaze shifting back and forth between the two boys.

"You... just finished showering?" the girl asked with a meaningful smile.

"Yeah, Sasuke and I just practiced all afternoon, we're exhausted," Naruto replied straightforwardly. "After working up a sweat, a bath felt so good!"

While Sakura Haruno was treating patients and reviewing documents with Mei Terumi, they weren't idle either. They urgently conducted a coordinated combat exercise with the Mist Ninjas, practicing until sunset before returning.

However, that's not what Sakura wanted to ask.

"There's a big bath here; three or four people can soak in it without feeling crowded," Sasuke quickly explained. "Would you like to come? The water's still warm; I can heat it up for you. Soaking in a bath is a great way to relieve fatigue."

He didn't know why, even though he had just taken a bath with Naruto in a very ordinary way, just like he would in a public bathhouse, nothing out of the ordinary; even though he could understand Sakura Haruno's teasing look and teasing tone, he still subconsciously had to explain it to her.

"Let's do it later." Sakura Haruno smiled, didn't say anything more, waved her hand and said seriously, "Before that, let's get down to business."

She paused for a moment, waiting for Sasuke and Naruto to straighten their expressions, before continuing.

"Make the most of tonight's rest. This might be the last comfortable day of recuperation for the next few miles! The missions that follow will be long, arduous, and fraught with danger..."

The girl's expression turned solemn as she spoke in a deep voice.

You need to be mentally prepared!

Naruto clenched his fist, his expression solemn, and smiled slightly, "Don't worry, Sakura... I can't wait to take on the challenge!"

[A friendly recommendation for my friend's book, "Gaara's Psychic Father"]