Hearing the voice from beside her, Kurenai Yuhi shuddered and instinctively turned to look.
She had initially thought it was an enemy's voice, and that by now they had probably taken him to the Stone ninja's territory, ready to torture her for information.
But that was not how things had turned out.
A young boy stood before her.
He was not very old, only around eight or nine, but his features were handsome, giving him a different air.
He stood there, covered in blood from head to toe, yet still wore a smile as he watched her.
"Yū?"
Looking at the boy before her, Kurenai Yuhi felt her heart tremble and almost thought she was hallucinating. "Did you save me?"
The scene before she lost consciousness surfaced, and the image of that middle-aged Stone ninja still lingered in her mind.
Without a doubt, if he had succeeded, she and Hyuga Fu should have been in Stone ninja territory by now.
Yet the one before her was Namikawa Yū, which already indicated certain things to some extent.
"Ah, I wouldn't really call it saving you."
Meeting Kurenai Yuhi's gaze, Namikawa Yū smiled. "That man was about to leave with the two of you, and I happened to run into him."
"I pretended to be a Stone ninja, found an opening to ambush him, and just barely managed to kill him."
His voice was gentle as he spoke, and he seemed quite relaxed.
But Kurenai Yuhi could imagine that the process could not have gone so smoothly.
Beneath Namikawa Yū's casual words lay a harrowing fight to the death.
"Your hand."
At that moment, Kurenai Yuhi noticed Namikawa Yū's hand.
Namikawa Yū was practically covered in wounds.
The most horrifying of them was his right hand, stained with blood and bearing wounds from an explosive tag.
The injuries on his body were so horrifying and gruesome that the mere sight of them made one's heart pound with fear.
Seeing all those injuries concentrated on a child's body brought an even more indescribable ache to the heart.
"They're just minor injuries."
Still smiling, Namikawa Yū met Kurenai Yuhi's gaze and said softly, "They're nothing much."
"For us, being able to survive this time is good enough. The rest doesn't really matter."
He kept smiling as he spoke, as though none of it mattered to him, seeming very relaxed.
Unfortunately, his body, which kept trembling as he spoke, betrayed his true feelings in the end.
He had been enduring the pain all along; he simply had not shown it in front of Kurenai Yuhi.
Looking at Namikawa Yū forcing himself to hold on before her, Kurenai Yuhi felt an inexplicable stirring and an urge to cry.
"Thank you for all you've done."
Only after a long while did she wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes and speak to Namikawa Yū. "It's getting late. We'd better leave as soon as possible."
"Your injuries are too serious. We have to get back and find someone to treat them right away."
"And Fu is still unconscious. He needs treatment from the medical team too."
She stood up, pulling herself together again.
Whatever else had happened, at least her companions were still alive.
To her, that was the best possible outcome.
As long as they could return to camp, their mission would be over.
"Mm, all right."
Namikawa Yū nodded with a smile, looking as calm as ever.
Following Kurenai Yuhi, he headed forward, making his way toward the camp.
It was several full days before they returned to camp.
"How did they get hurt so badly?"
"Medical team! Hurry!"
Once they returned to camp, Kurenai Yuhi and the other two immediately drew the attention of those around them.
Namikawa Yū and Hyuga Fu were taken away at once and sent to the medical team for treatment.
Namikawa Yū's injuries, in particular, were a horrifying sight.
The densely packed wounds made people's hearts tremble, leaving them unable to imagine just how fierce a fight he had endured.
In reality, however, Namikawa Yū had inflicted all these injuries on himself.
After all, he had escaped from Stone ninja territory. It would hardly seem realistic if he had no injuries.
As it happened, he was fairly accomplished in this regard, so he had simply made the disguise more convincing.
His injuries looked serious and would certainly have been fatal to an ordinary person, but to Namikawa Yū, they were actually nothing unusual.
After all, his body had been transformed by Karma and was now different from an ordinary person's.
There were already subtle differences in his physiology.
But judging by the reactions of those around him, he seemed to have gone a little too far.
"What on earth were you people doing?!"
The medical team leader's face was filled with anger. "Yū is only eight years old, and he's the most outstanding Medical Ninja we have here. Yet you sent a child like him on such a dangerous mission!"
Back at the field hospital, Namikawa Yū had been the youngest Medical Ninja there.
Though young, his skill in Medical Ninjutsu was extremely high, earning the wholehearted recognition of many ninja there.
When Namikawa Yū had been selected for the mission, the medical team leader had been the one to object.
And now Namikawa Yū had been brought back in this state, looking as though he had nearly died on the battlefield.
A promising young talent with the potential to become a top Medical Ninja had come so close to dying just like that.
He had every reason to be angry about this.
"It's all right."
In response to the medical team leader's anger, Namikawa Yū spoke softly. "I volunteered for this mission. It wasn't anyone else's fault."
"Besides, I came back alive, didn't I?"
He spoke with a smile, but paired with his current miserable appearance, it made for a rather heartbreaking sight.
"Yū, you..."
Looking at Namikawa Yū smiling before him as though he did not care, Murakami Se could not help sighing. "You're just too easygoing. That's why these people managed to drag you onto the battlefield."
"But it's good that you're back."
"Rest well here. After some time, when the war here is over, go back to the village and rest."
Namikawa Yū merely smiled and nodded at his words.
After having his wounds briefly bandaged, he returned to his lodgings to rest.
When he arrived, he noticed footprints outside the door. It seemed someone had visited earlier.
"I was worried something might have happened to you, but it looks like I don't need to worry too much now."
A voice came from the side.
Kakashi emerged from a corner and stood there, looking at Namikawa Yū.
"Senior Kakashi."
Namikawa Yū looked at Kakashi, somewhat surprised. "Have you recovered already?"
"Mm. After you've looked after me for so long, it's about time I recovered."
Kakashi nodded. "Your injuries, on the other hand, will probably take a long time to heal."