"Let's go." He said to Li Hekai, "Leave this place to Anbu. We are going back to Leaf."
"Yes!" Rock Lee forced himself to salute, then rolled his eyes and fainted.
"Lee!" Kai screamed, "Don't fall asleep at this time! Someone push my wheelchair!"
Konoha Hospital, Intensive Care Unit.
This is the place in the whole village that Naruto is most familiar with and hates the most except Hokage's Office.
The smell of disinfectant went straight to his forehead. Naruto stared at the fluorescent lamp on the ceiling, trying to count how many dead flies there were in order to divert the pain from everywhere in his body.
"Stop counting, there are three in total." A cold voice came from the next bed.
Naruto turned his head with difficulty. Sasuke was lying over there, with a plaster on his left Teuchi and gauze covering his right eye. He was holding an apple in one hand and peeling it. He had peeled the apple into pits, and the skin was thicker than the flesh.
"You haven't slept either." Naruto's voice was hoarse, "I said, are we getting old? In the past, Kaguya could jump when he hit him, but now he has to lie down for three days to hit a stone monster."
"It was you who lay there for three days." Sasuke corrected, "I was just Chakra overdrawn and woke up yesterday. I stayed here because Sakura wouldn't let me leave."
"Ah...Sakura ah..." Naruto shrank, "She's not angry, is she?"
As soon as he finished speaking, the door of the ward was violently pushed open.
"What do you think?"
Sakura was wearing a white coat, holding a thick stack of medical records in her hand, and her back seemed to be burning with black flames. She strode to Naruto's bed and slapped the medical records on the bedside table.
"Soft tissue contusion all over the body, penetrating injury to the right shoulder, Chakra's meridians were severely damaged, and there was a slight concussion." Sakura looked at him with a smile, "Naruto, do you think that without Kurama, you would be made of iron?"
"Um... it was an emergency situation..." Naruto tried to cover his head with the quilt.
"How dare you talk back!" Sakura lifted the quilt and said, "Lie down quietly! And you, Sasuke! Don't think I didn't see you trying to secretly pull out the needle!"
Sasuke silently retracted his hand into the quilt and looked out the window. "I didn't."
"You two are almost a hundred years old together, can you please save me some peace of mind!" Sakura sighed and softened his tone, "Boruto and Sarada are waiting outside. Let the children think what they have done."
Naruto was silent for a moment and scratched his head. "Sorry, Sakura."
"Forget it." Sakura took out an apple from his pocket, flashed Chakra Scalpel in his hand, and instantly cut out a perfect rabbit shape, and handed it to Naruto, "Eat it. Replenish your brain."
Sasuke looked at the apple in his hand that looked like it had been chewed by a dog, and silently put it back on the plate.
Visiting hours.
Boruto slowly came in while Earth Flow was holding a bag of hamburgers. He looked at Naruto who was covered in bandages with an awkward expression.
"Mom made a lunch box. She said the food in the hospital is not delicious." Boruto put the bag on the table, "And... well, Himawari drew a picture for you."
Naruto took the painting. On the painting was a huge orange stickman kicking a gray stone monster away. Next to it were crooked words. "Dad is the Strongest!"
Naruto had a sore nose and giggled. "The painting is really good."
"Tch, he was obviously beaten to death." Boruto muttered, but instead of turning around and leaving like before, he pulled up a chair and sat down, "Hey, stinking dad."
"Huh?"
"How did you see through that monster's move?" Boruto stared at the floor, "I want to learn it too. It's not the cheating method of relying on a wedge, but like you... rely on yourself."
Naruto was stunned. He looked at his son, the boy who was always impatient and wanted to take shortcuts. At this moment, his eyes became more calm.
"Well..." Naruto took a bite of the burger, "When I'm discharged from the hospital, let Uncle Sasuke teach you. He's better at theory than me."
Sasuke snorted coldly over there, "Don't put the trouble on me."
At this rare moment of tenderness, the ward door was pushed open again. This time it was Shikamaru who came in, still holding the damn pile of documents in his hand, and his face was uglier than the patient's.
"I'm disturbing your family happiness." Shikamaru closed the door with a solemn expression, "But there is something you must see."
He took out a photo and placed it on Naruto's quilt.
That was a close-up of the petrified monster in the Kikyo Castle square. When Anbu was cleaning up the scene, he smashed the shell of the stone statue and found a strange device at its core.
"What is this?" Naruto picked up the photo. The device looks like a sealed metal tube with complex patterns engraved on it.
"Delivery order." Sasuke suddenly said.
"What?"
"That monster is not wild." Sasuke sat up straight, "It was "sent" by someone. This metal tube contains an inducer, which is specially used to attract it to a specific place. And the ingredients of the inducer..."
Sasuke paused and looked at Shikamaru.
"It's Black Oil from Land of Earth." Shikamaru took over, "Only the black market near Iwagakure can circulate rare mineral oil. Moreover, the Fuinjutsu style on this thing has the traces of the dedicated craftsmen of Damingfu."
The air in the ward suddenly solidified.
"You mean..." Naruto frowned, "This thing was created by a certain famous person?"
"I'm not sure if it's the daimyo himself, but it must have something to do with the aristocracy." Shikamaru rubbed his temples, "Kikyo Castle is the ancient capital of Land of Fire, where many retired old nobles live. This attack seems to be targeting civilians, but in fact, the monster's route cleverly avoided several mansions."
"Someone is using that monster as a sword." Sasuke said coldly, "Maybe they want to use this to test Leaf's authenticity and eliminate some political enemies."
Naruto clenched his fists, and the photo in his hand was crumpled.
"Luring monsters into civilian areas just for this kind of boring political struggle?" Naruto's voice deepened, with suppressed anger, "What do you think of human life?"
"This is politics, Naruto." Shikamaru sighed, "And the trouble is, Land of Fire Daimyo just sent an urgent message. Not only did he not express condolences, but he blamed Leaf for his poor protection, which led to Kikyo Castle being damaged. He asked Hokage to go to Daming Mansion in person to "explain"."
"Explanation?" Naruto sneered, an expression that rarely appeared on his face, "Okay. I'll explain it to him."
"Don't be impulsive." Shikamaru held him down, "That's the daimyo. If you mess around, it will be regarded as rebellion. Shinobi World The situation is unstable now. If you fall out with the daimyo, other countries will take advantage of it."