The next day, Yamanaka Tohru brought the mission order the Anbu had delivered to him the night before and reported for work at Konoha Hospital.
He hadn't been to Konoha Hospital in nearly two years, yet surprisingly, hardly anything had changed.
In Year 42 of Konoha, relations between the villages grew increasingly tense. Even Konoha had recently become watchful and on edge, ready to treat every blade of grass as an enemy.
Most of the village's funds went toward stockpiling supplies for war, leaving no money to spare for renovating Konoha Hospital.
Yamanaka Tohru took the mission order to the director's office. Though they hadn't seen each other in two years, the director recognized him at a glance. The hospital director still remembered the young, talented Medical Ninja vividly.
Yamanaka Tohru was assigned to the emergency ward, where the patients were all shinobi returning from border duty.
Injured people were sent to Konoha Hospital from time to time, and Tohru knew his own abilities. He had a clear understanding of his skill with Medical Ninjutsu.
After Yamanaka Tohru saved White Fang, word had begun to spread through the village that he was a Medical Ninja on par with Tsunade.
When it came to treating external injuries and performing surgery, Tohru was confident he was no worse than Tsunade.
His surgical skills came from the five years of experience he'd gained in his previous life, while his skill in treating external injuries came from using the Healing Technique with a change in chakra nature, which had allowed him to master the advanced Medical Ninjutsu known as the Mystical Palm Technique.
In other areas, however, Yamanaka Tohru still lagged far behind Tsunade. His greatest weakness was dealing with poison.
The world of Naruto was different from his previous life. Sunagakure existed here, and its puppet masters were highly skilled in using poison.
One reason Yamanaka Tohru had agreed to the Third Hokage's offer to work at Konoha Hospital was that he wanted to learn more about Sunagakure's poisons.
During her time as a Medical Ninja, Tohru's mother, Yamanaka Seiko, had served on the front lines of the Sunagakure battlefield, treating poisoned shinobi. After learning about Sunagakure's poisons, Tohru planned to study antidotes with his mother.
The Third Shinobi World War was about to break out. Tohru had to improve his Medical Ninjutsu as much as possible before the war began. If he could, he also wanted to bring one of his ideas to fruition before then.
For several days, Tohru didn't see any shinobi returning from the Sunagakure border. Only after asking one of his seniors did he learn that Sunagakure's poisons were so deadly that most poisoned shinobi died at the border without timely treatment.
On his sixth day at Konoha Hospital, Tohru finally saw the first shinobi to return from the Sunagakure border.
The shinobi had been treated soon after being poisoned by a Medical Ninja traveling with him. The treatment had slowed the spread of the toxin and barely kept him alive long enough to make it back to the village.
Back in his previous life, Tohru hadn't learned much about poison at university. He only knew that poisons could be divided by their effects into fast-acting and slow-acting types, by how noticeable they were into obvious and hidden types, and by what they affected into neurotoxins and blood toxins.
Most of the poisons used by Sunagakure's puppet masters were fast-acting and obvious. If a victim wasn't treated within a certain amount of time, they would die quickly.
Tohru and the other Medical Ninjas spent hours trying to save the wounded shinobi before they finally managed to stabilize him. The man had been poisoned by a blood toxin, which would quickly spread throughout the body as the blood circulated.
Later, while chatting with his seniors, Tohru learned that most of Sunagakure's poisons worked this way. He concluded that nearly all of their poisons were blood toxins.
When he learned that most of Sunagakure's poisons were blood toxins, Tohru breathed a sigh of relief. He could use Ice Release to temporarily freeze the body and stop the blood from circulating, then find a way to remove the toxin.
Over the following days, Tohru worked at Konoha Hospital while studying changes in chakra nature with Yamanaka Seiko to improve his Healing Technique.
By adding changes in chakra nature to the Healing Technique, it was possible to achieve a variety of effects, including detoxification.
After Konoha Hospital had been busy for a while, things suddenly quieted down. The atmosphere in the village grew increasingly tense, and shinobi hurried in and out of the village every day.
After studying Medical Ninjutsu with Yamanaka Seiko for over half a month, Tohru had learned to use the Healing Technique to deal with most poisons.
Once things had quieted down at Konoha Hospital, Tohru wasn't given any other assignments. Instead, he was transferred to the outpatient department to treat civilians and shinobi from the village.
Hardly anyone came to the outpatient department all day, so Tohru spent his ample free time reading through Tsunade's notes, hoping to find something related to Medical Ninjutsu.
One day, while he was engrossed in the notes, a patient came in: a little girl with purple hair.
Yamanaka Tohru could swear before all the gods that he wasn't a lolicon. It was just that the girls he happened to like were all little girls.
Tohru felt as if his whole being had been healed. In his previous life, he'd lived to the age of thirty-two without ever falling for a girl. And in his nine years in the world of Naruto, he hadn't been interested in any of the beautiful women from the original story.
Until today, Yugao was the first girl who had struck Tohru as adorable at first sight.
"Um, I sprained my wrist while practicing Taijutsu. Could you treat it, Mr. Ninja?" the little girl asked, holding out her right hand. Her voice was so sweet that Tohru's heart practically melted as he listened.
Tohru did his best to put on the air of a friendly older brother. He gently reassured the little girl as he treated her injury.
With the Mystical Palm Technique, her sprain healed quickly.
"Thank you, Mr. Ninja!" the little girl said politely.
"You don't have to be so formal, little miss. What's your name?"
"My name is Uzuki Yugao."
So it was her! Of course Yamanaka Tohru remembered Uzuki Yugao. She didn't appear often in the original story, but she was quite popular. Part of that was due to her beauty—she ranked among the most beautiful kunoichi in Naruto—and part of it was her name.
Yugao was also the name of a flower: the moonflower. Its language of flowers was eternal love.
In the original story, most of Konoha's kunoichi had found partners: Naruto and Hinata, Sasuke and Sakura, Sai and Ino, Asuma and Kurenai. Only Tsunade and Uzuki Yugao remained alone.
After Jiraiya was killed in Amegakure, Tsunade never got together with anyone else.
Uzuki Yugao's boyfriend, Gekko Hayate, had died early on at the hands of Baki of Sunagakure and Yakushi Kabuto.
Yamanaka Tohru liked Yugao, but not romantically. It was more like the affection an older brother felt for his little sister.
"Yugao, that's a lovely name. I'm Yamanaka Tohru. You don't need to call me Mr. Ninja. Just call me Tohru or Big Brother Tohru." Tohru decided to make friends with Uzuki Yugao as soon as possible.
"Then I'll call you Tohru-senpai! My father taught me to be polite, so I shouldn't call someone I've just met by their first name."
To Uzuki Yugao, Yamanaka Tohru was, of course, a stranger since they had only just met, even if he'd made a good impression.
As they chatted, Tohru learned that Uzuki Yugao was four years old. She had practiced Taijutsu for the first time that day and accidentally injured herself.
Tohru recalled that Uzuki Yugao used a sword in the original story. "Yugao, are you planning to learn swordsmanship?"
"Yeah! How did you know, Tohru-senpai?"
"That's not important. What matters is that I can find someone to teach you."
"Really? Who?"
"Of course. Come to Konoha Hospital tomorrow, and you'll find out." Tohru kept it a secret. He already had someone in mind to teach Uzuki Yugao.
"Okay! See you tomorrow, Tohru-senpai."
"See you tomorrow!"
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