Welcome to the Real Konoha

Kaedeji calmly began assisting Morino Ise as well, pressing one hand against Tobitake Tonbo's forehead as pale blue Chakra emerged from his palm.

"It's you..." Tobitake Tonbo mumbled groggily.

"You know him?" Morino Ise asked casually as he carefully put on his gloves.

"Yeah, I know him. We partnered up once two months ago."

"Then you should know even better what needs to be done. He may have overheard some of what we said earlier. When it's time to make a decision, you absolutely cannot hesitate. That is a quality a qualified ninja should possess." Morino Ise meticulously donned his protective clothing.

Tobitake Tonbo wanted desperately to struggle, only to find that he could do nothing. Despair immediately appeared on his face. It was not merely the pain of facing death, but the crushing sensation of having his entire worldview collapse.

Is this Konoha? Is this what Konoha Ninja are supposed to do? Was this the result Tobitake Tonbo received after risking his life on the battlefield?

Yes, it was all real.

"Tobitake Tonbo, welcome to the shadows beneath the flourishing tree, where sunlight can scarcely reach. This is the real Konoha."

And this was still Konoha during a comparatively "gentle" period.

After all, it was the late stage of the Second Great Ninja War. With the fighting so difficult, a few isolated extreme incidents could still be understood.

Once the Second Great Ninja War ended, during the peaceful period before the Third Great Ninja War broke out, the many insane measures Konoha carried out with the Third Hokage's tacit approval—or even his personal consent—would be the ones that truly shattered one's worldview.

It would not be until the era of Naruto and Sasuke that Konoha's atmosphere noticeably improved. Sunlight, for the first time since the First Hokage, would once again spread into every corner, illuminating the Will of Fire, which had somehow long since twisted beyond recognition, in everyone's heart.

Kaedeji said, "Your fate has already been decided. This is an order from above. Right now, I have no right to resist. If I do not do it, someone else will. If I do it, perhaps I can lessen your suffering."

When the dust of an era fell upon a person, it became a mountain. In the Naruto World, this was being displayed in an even crueler fashion.

Simply using a living specimen like Tobitake Tonbo to study the poisons of Sunagakure and provide Tsunade with some reference material was already a B-rank Mission, existing as one piece of Tsunade's mission.

That meant Tsunade's work of creating an antidote for this poison was at least an A-rank mission, perhaps even an S-rank mission.

Normally, an S-rank mission was an extremely difficult task requiring one to face multiple jonin, or even battle Kage-level strong persons.

"Sunagakure, huh? I hear it's a village exceptionally skilled at using poison, especially its Puppet Masters," Kaedeji suddenly said.

Morino Ise said, "You would not want to fight Sunagakure's ninja. The Land of Wind has the weakest overall national strength among the Five Great Nations, and Sunagakure also has the most strained finances among them. But they are skilled at using all kinds of troublesome and lethal poisons to make up for their lack of manpower. And every new poison means large numbers of ninja die before they can receive an antidote in time."

Breaking down poisons and creating antidotes required time. More importantly, it required some Konoha Ninja to risk their lives testing them—without sacrificing some lives to confirm that they had been struck by an entirely new lethal poison, how could they confirm that Sunagakure had used one?

Without sacrificing the lives of some Konoha Ninja to determine the poison's basic characteristics, how could they help those developing antidotes reduce their research time?

Could they rely entirely on a Medical Ninja of Tsunade's caliber to constantly charge to the front lines and observe every poison Sunagakure used at close range? That was simply impossible. There was only one Tsunade in all of Konoha.

For example, if using the life of an ordinary ninja like Tobitake Tonbo could save Tsunade even a little time, Konoha's higher-ups would consider it absolutely worthwhile. Tsunade would create and distribute the antidote to the ninja on the front lines more quickly, thereby saving more lives.

Perhaps even a seemingly ordinary action taken by a high-ranking ninja contained the life-risking efforts of low-ranking ninja like Kaedeji.

The results developed by countless lower departments were gathered and piled up layer upon layer before they finally gained enough value for someone important like Tsunade to spare them a glance and think about them for a few seconds. In the end, they would be reduced to an insignificant sentence in some decision affecting even more people.

"Then I'll begin."

Kaedeji guided his Chakra through Tobitake Tonbo's forehead and into his dying brain. As he watched this companion who had once fought alongside him, the light gradually faded from Tobitake Tonbo's eyes, and they slowly closed.

Not long after, the corpse's eyelids twitched slightly, and a swan-like death cry escaped its mouth.

One colleague jumped in fright. "Wha—this is also one of the effects of the poison? It actually stimulates the human nervous system. I thought it paralyzed the nerves."

Morino Ise's expression shifted slightly. He glanced at Kaedeji. "This is not the time to modify a corpse with your Dead Soul Technique. Even if you are capable of improving and further developing that technique, this corpse is of great importance."

Kaedeji's expression remained calm. "Perhaps some of the nerves have not yet been completely corroded by the poison and reacted when stimulated. I said earlier that I would lessen his suffering. This is also one of the few things I can do... Mercy is truly an extravagant word in a department like ours."

He focused seriously on his work, consuming his scarce Chakra as he threaded needle and line, as though he were truly preparing to use the Dead Soul Technique—merely to fool Morino Ise and the Root Ninja. Then he used a scalpel to cut open the chest completely. The others began working as well, with one person specifically responsible for recording everything and compiling it into a neat report that was easy to read and understand.

The shadowless lamp cast a cold glow over Tobitake Tonbo's bluish-purple face. Kaedeji's rubber-gloved hand brushed over the dark purple puncture wound in the corpse's neck, and viscous poisoned blood dripped through the groove of the scalpel into a glass dish with a corrosive hiss.

"This poison is practically a perfect combination of different chemical agents... It must have been developed by ninja at the level of the Third Kazekage, Chiyo, and Ebizo."

Morino Ise used tweezers to pick up a piece of ulcerated liver. The tissue fluid was corroding nearly imperceptible pits into the metal tweezers. "This poison destroys the glands first. The salivary glands swell, while the tear glands dry up like a snake's shed skin left in the sun for three days."

Kaedeji's blade opened the chest cavity, and clumps of cotton-like black matter poured out of the lungs. This was not ordinary tissue necrosis—the venom was transforming the internal organs into some kind of fibrous cocoon. He dipped into the poisoned blood and smeared it across a slide. Under the microscope, the cells resembled insect pupae bound tightly by spider silk, while the Chakra pathways displayed an eerie coloration.

"It is primarily a neurotoxin mixed with extremely fine mineral sand crystals."

Kaedeji cut away a piece of blackened heart tissue while the ninja beside him recorded it quickly.

Everyone present was an old hand. They completed all the records in short order, and the entire process was exceptionally efficient.

Before long, the analysis report was delivered by Root Ninja to the appropriate department. It would soon reach Tsunade's hands.