Discovery of Medical Ninjutsu

"Mirai-kun, why would you say that?"

Yuhi Kurenai looked at Hyuga Mirai with incomprehension in her ruby-like eyes. She knew of the Konoha White Fang as well. He was her classmate Kakashi's father, a powerful Ninja of the village.

Yet on the very day she had returned to the village, Yuhi Kurenai had heard such a baffling statement from Hyuga Mirai.

Hyuga Kiyomi also glanced at Hyuga Mirai, but she did not ask anything. Instead, she waited for his answer.

"Because the discussions on the streets suddenly stopped, just like that fruit Merchant."

Hyuga Mirai pointed to a fruit stand ten meters away as he slowly explained.

"Whenever I passed by here before, I would see that stall owner talking about how the Konoha White Fang abandoned his mission. But today, he has served four groups of customers without saying a word. Only when someone dies do rumors disappear, right?"

After hearing Hyuga Mirai's explanation, Hyuga Kiyomi and Yuhi Kurenai instinctively looked at the people along the commercial street.

Thinking back more carefully, they realized it was indeed as Hyuga Mirai had said. Whenever they passed through here at this time before, they would always hear these Civilian Merchants condemning the Konoha White Fang. Yet today was unusually "quiet."

Yuhi Kurenai tried to argue, "That might not necessarily be—"

"They've kept up this condemnation for more than half a year. There's no reason for it to suddenly stop today. Kurenai, if you don't believe me, you can ask them later. Their answers will probably all be that they simply don't want to talk about it anymore."

After speaking, Hyuga Mirai shook his head.

Whether the Konoha White Fang killed himself or not had nothing to do with him. He still had plenty of his own problems to solve. How could he have the mind to care about an elite stronger than a Kage?

At Hyuga Mirai's urging, Yuhi Kurenai temporarily set aside the thought of going over to ask and went to eat with her teammates first.

Yet she remained absentminded throughout the meal. Hyuga Mirai and Hyuga Kiyomi both noticed, but neither said anything.

After eating, the team disbanded on the spot, and everyone returned home to rest.

However, Yuhi Kurenai still could not forget what Hyuga Mirai had said before the meal. She went straight to Konoha's commercial street, bought some apples from the fruit stand, and asked about the Konoha White Fang.

"The Konoha White Fang? What does he have to do with us?"

"We were just talking. We were bored, but now we don't want to talk about it anymore. Not wanting to means not wanting to!"

Yuhi Kurenai asked four or five people on the commercial street in succession, but their answers were all more or less the same.

This left Yuhi Kurenai deeply puzzled. It was almost exactly what Hyuga Mirai had said. Could the White Fang really have died?

By the time Yuhi Kurenai returned home, it was already late. Whenever she completed a mission, she usually ate with her teammates, so Yūhi Kurenai had not prepared dinner for his daughter as usual.

But when Yūhi Kurenai saw the confused look on his daughter's face, he could not help asking, "Kurenai, did you run into some trouble?"

"Father."

Yuhi Kurenai set down what she was holding, then sat at the table. After lowering her head to think for a moment, she asked,

"Did the Konoha White Fang die?"

Yūhi Kurenai's expression shifted slightly in surprise, then grew somewhat more solemn. "Kurenai, how did you find out?" This had only happened yesterday, and after the Konoha White Fang's suicide, the Third Hokage had issued a gag order. Although Hatake Sakumo had been buried as a hero, the matter was still being kept secret.

Yuhi Kurenai had only returned today, yet she already knew about it?

"It was my teammate."

After hesitating for a moment, Yuhi Kurenai recounted what had happened that day, including how she had later questioned the Civilians on the commercial street.

"Kurenai, this teammate of yours is quite extraordinary."

After hearing her out, Yūhi Kurenai fell silent for a while before saying that. Then, with an extremely serious expression, he told his daughter,

"Don't investigate this matter any further. The village does not allow anyone to discuss it now."

"Then that means it really—"

"Kurenai!"

Yūhi Kurenai called out sternly once more before slowly saying, "The Third Hokage has issued a gag order. No one is allowed to discuss this matter."

Yuhi Kurenai froze. She had merely been curious about why the Konoha White Fang had committed suicide, but seeing how serious her father was, she could only promise not to ask about it again.

Unlike Yuhi Kurenai, Hyuga Mirai did not waste even a trace of time. After returning home and tidying up, he immediately went to train in the forest at the edge of the village.

Hyuga Mirai was becoming increasingly proficient at refining and controlling Yang Release Chakra. Using himself as an example, he could almost sense the minute changes in his wounds when he treated himself.

"It's time to apply to Konoha Hospital for a Laboratory."

Hyuga Mirai thought that after this B-rank Mission ended, there should be a long period of rest. If not, he would submit a request to Kaminari Kaede.

Even crash courses did not push people this hard. They were still children. After months of constant killing, Hyuga Mirai could feel that Hyuga Kiyomi was nearly developing a violent temperament.

These past few months of using Shadow Clones to practice Medical Ninjutsu had gradually allowed Hyuga Mirai to grasp the principles behind Tsunade's Creation Rebirth Technique.

Chakra was a product of combining physical energy and spiritual energy. Normally, these two energies needed hand seals before they could merge into Chakra. Some Chunin or Jonin could refine Chakra skillfully enough to skip the hand seals.

Yang Release Chakra required even more precise refinement and Yang Release transformation. Even Medical-nin with excellent Chakra control found it difficult to instantly extract Yang Release Chakra.

If it could not be controlled, Chakra was difficult to preserve inside a Ninja's body for long periods.

However, Yang Release Chakra could be preserved through special methods, such as Sealing Techniques. If Exploding Tags sealed fire-nature Chakra onto paper, then Yang Release Chakra could likewise be made into Medical Talismans through the same method.

"Strange. Why has no one thought of such a simple idea?"

Hyuga Mirai could not be blamed for wondering. Konoha's Medical system was the strongest among the Five Great Nations, but it could be said that Konoha's Medical system had been advanced and implemented solely by Tsunade.

From the end of the Second Shinobi War to before the Third Shinobi War, less than ten years had passed. Being able to perfect the training system for Medical-nin in that short time was already quite impressive.

Later, Tsunade's Lover died, and she developed hemophobia. Konoha's Medical system then nearly stagnated, like a windmill that had stopped turning.

After Tsunade stopped handling matters, neither the Third Hokage nor his advisory council intended to continue developing the Medical system. They only knew how to train more Medical-nin.

Thus, in a sense, Konoha's Medical system had already fallen into stagnation and was not developing at all.

Without Tsunade, the Medical system was like a person with both legs broken. Being able to crawl forward slowly was already good enough, so there was no point in dreaming of continued progress.

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