"Bzz... bzz..."
The special fluctuations of Creation Rebirth-level Medical Chakra emitted an extremely low hum, slowly spreading through the abnormally vast, silent primeval forest.
Hirohiko...
Suppressing the rage in his heart, Chiba shifted his gaze away from Nao and toward the young man slumped crookedly between the roots, his eyes gouged out and blood streaming like tears. He could not help but close his eyes.
Although Hirohiko had no fatal wounds, compared to Nao, he looked even more miserable. His eyes had been gouged out alive. Though his unconscious body was clearly still alive, it was utterly lifeless, like a withered log.
Memories of the years he had spent with Hirohiko surfaced in his mind.
Their battle when they first met...
The awkwardness when they had just graduated, when Hirohiko put on an aloof front but wanted to make up for not greeting him properly...
The tacit understanding they had after graduating and forming a team...
That faint smile when Hirohiko snatched his char siu...
Their shared fear of Kushina...
Every perfect support...
Every intermittent conversation by candlelight...
Everything slowly emerged in his mind.
This guy was a poker face who rarely showed emotion. No, even when he did, he still showed no emotion.
And he seemed to have the kind of constitution where smiling would cause trouble.
Yet ever since they had met, aside from that first battle, he had always silently stood behind him.
His full support when they freed Kushina... his timely assistance during the Defense Map mission...
Although they rarely carried out missions together, whenever they did, Chiba always had more options.
Many bolder options with better results!
During missions, rather than saying he led the team, it was more accurate to say that Hirohiko and Yukina silently supported him together.
Without him, Chiba would have