Now...
The matter with those two Hyuga boys was considered settled.
The next few old scholars would not be easy to deal with either. Though devoted to academia, after day after day, year after year of finding ways to swindle... ah, no, apply for funding, and facing the General Affairs Department's endless stalling and wrangling, they had become old hands themselves.
Ordinary excuses really would not fool them.
As Chiba slowly entered the gates of Konoha Hospital, he glanced at the outpatient entrance, turned right, and headed straight toward the area reserved for doctors and laboratories.
Yet with each step, the brows that had relaxed after resolving the previous matter gradually furrowed again.
He suddenly realized that the excuse he had prepared earlier—"This blood sample was found on the battlefield, and its owner possessed a very unusual ability, so I'd like you to study it. It might greatly advance the village's medical field"—might not be persuasive enough for these old scholars.
It might even backfire, making them interested in the sample's origins. And that sort of "interest" was absolutely not a good thing. It would only make matters more troublesome and increase the risk of exposing the problem with his body.
Especially now, when "Orochimaru must have already begun human experimentation," this was the secret that could least afford to be exposed.
As for a new excuse, Chiba could not think of a perfect one at the moment.
Was it because too many things had happened all at once?
I hadn't thought enough about many details, and there were far more oversights. Thinking about it now, was I too hasty? As he pondered, this thought could not help crossing Chiba's mind. For such a crucial "excuse" to reveal flaws, even inadequacies, right before he was about to use it—this was