"Third Hokage?"
The door to the hospital room opened.
The person who walked in was Sarutobi Hiruzen.
But an unfamiliar elderly woman followed behind him.
Hearing Hyuga Yunchuan's surprised tone, Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled gently at him before turning to the elderly woman behind him with a sigh. "I'll have to trouble you, Koharu."
"Fine, fine. This old woman is only useful for this much anyway."
Utatane Koharu shot him a glance and grumbled irritably before stepping toward Akamichi Chodo.
Akamichi Chodo had suffered moderate burns to his respiratory tract, which had already spread to his trachea and main bronchi.
It was like swallowing a mouthful of scorching gravel. Every breath scraped against his throat, while the rusty stench of blood filled his nasal cavity. It was as though feathers kept scratching at his windpipe—the more he coughed, the itchier it became, and the itchier it became, the more he coughed.
"Cough, cough! Cough!"
Akamichi Chodo looked as though he was about to cough out his lungs. His hoarse coughing was more shrill than the wind outside, and the black phlegm he spat out resembled bloody mucus mixed with coal dust.
Treating this kind of burn usually required lavage and the removal of necrotic mucosa and soot. In severe cases, emergency intubation or a tracheotomy was needed to prevent laryngeal edema from sealing off the airway.
However, Sarutobi Hiruzen seemed quite confident in Utatane Koharu. He had not even summoned other medical ninja in a grand display.
Though Utatane Koharu seemed somewhat indecisive between Shimura Danzō and Sarutobi Hiruzen, she had at least been a member of Tobirama's elite guard unit in her youth.
Sshh.
Utatane Koharu first used a scalpel to cut open the affected area, then extended her palm before Akamichi Chodo. As chakra flowed meticulously into the wound, blackish-purple necrotic mucosa and pus-filled blood were drawn out.
The Delicate Illness Extraction Technique was a B-rank Medical Ninjutsu. By sensing the chaotic chakra within the body, it could identify subtle harmful sources such as toxins and pathogens, extracting the toxins while healing the damaged area.
Even among Medical Ninjutsu, which were generally difficult to master, this technique was considered highly challenging.
Hyuga Yunchuan stared intently at Utatane Koharu's movements. He even activated his Byakugan without hesitation to directly copy the technique, but Sarutobi Hiruzen merely assumed he was worried.
"Don't worry." Sarutobi Hiruzen placed his Hokage Hat on the coat rack and sat down in another chair. "In all of Konoha, apart from Tsunade, it would be difficult to find a medical ninja more experienced than this grandmother."
"Third Hokage..."
Hearing that, Hyuga Yunchuan seemed to finally relax and look away. Noticing Sarutobi Hiruzen's gentle gaze upon him, guilt and disappointment appeared on his face.
He was about to rise from his chair when Sarutobi Hiruzen stopped him, reaching out to lightly press a hand onto his shoulder. "Just sit. I already understand the general circumstances. Chodo and I both know this wasn't your fault."
"The doctor said you were injured too. How are you feeling now?"
Hyuga Yunchuan was gently pressed back into his chair. Feeling the warm touch on his shoulder, he placed his hands helplessly on his knees, his face faintly flushed as though he were nervous and excited.
After all, the gap between their statuses was like heaven and earth. They should never have been sitting together and speaking so intimately in their entire lives, so Hyuga Yunchuan's reaction pleased Sarutobi Hiruzen.
"Thank you for your concern. Thanks to Senior Chodo, I only suffered some minor injuries."
Hyuga Yunchuan did not insist on standing again. He met Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes, his tone filled with humility, sincerity, and gratitude.
"Those weren't minor injuries." Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed. "Aside from Chodo, you were the closest to the blast. If it had been anyone else, even if they survived, they would have been crippled."
Hearing the implication in his words, Hyuga Yunchuan's face turned slightly pale. He hurriedly said, "Third Hokage, I... I didn't intentionally copy Rotation. I just..."
"Yunchuan, I'm not blaming you." Before he could finish, Sarutobi Hiruzen smiled. "If you and Chodo hadn't stood at the front, the escort team's casualties would have been far worse."
"I simply didn't expect your improvement to be so great, or your performance to be so outstanding."
Hearing Sarutobi Hiruzen's gentle tone, Hyuga Yunchuan seemed to relax considerably. He pursed his lips and hesitated. "I... I don't know why either. Ever since I awakened the Byakugan three months ago, my control over my body and chakra seems to have grown stronger."
Seeing the confusion and innocence in Hyuga Yunchuan's eyes, Sarutobi Hiruzen narrowed his eyes slightly. Having found nothing unusual, he formed his own guess about Yunchuan's changes.
Did these changes only appear after he awakened the Byakugan three months ago?
No, they should have appeared after Orochimaru defected, right?
It seemed Orochimaru had indeed done something to this child. No wonder he had wanted to take the child with him when he fled. Unfortunately, it was still impossible to tell what exactly was abnormal. He could keep the child by his side and continue observing him.
Sarutobi Hiruzen could forgive, tolerate, and even directly recruit people like Hatake Kakashi and Yamato, who had tried to assassinate him and their comrades, into the Anbu as his personal guards. He had even less reason to reject Hyuga Yunchuan, who had always embraced the Will of Fire.
At least for now, Hyuga Yunchuan's temperament and loyalty were both good. His strength and talent also seemed to have benefited from misfortune, having been completed by Orochimaru.
At that thought, Sarutobi Hiruzen set aside the last trace of suspicion in his heart. No longer testing him, he instead asked seriously, "Yunchuan, Chodo and the others said that before you left, you saw the aftermath with your Byakugan. Is that right?"
"I want to know what happened to you, who you encountered, and what ultimately took place."
The concern had been shown, and the testing had been done. It was time to get to the point.
As though he had recalled that horrifying scene once again, terror appeared on Hyuga Yunchuan's face.
"Dead. They were all dead." His voice trembled slightly. "That guy wasn't human at all. That kind of power was not something a human could possess."
Meanwhile, at the border of the Land of Hot Water, four figures stood silently in the night.
"Whew..."
Samui let out a deep breath, as though exhaling the chill in her heart, and calmed her lingering fear.
From where they stood, they could now clearly see the terrain of the area.
It was like the cap of a mushroom. Their position was the highest point, while the surrounding terrain lay lower than where they stood.
Apart from where they stood, the ground throughout the surrounding area was filled with savage ravines stretching from their side all the way to the distant end, a thousand meters away. The devastated landscape revealed the violence and terror that had passed through this place.
Merely looking at those traces was enough to make one feel a sharp, cutting force.
Samui closed her eyes and imagined what had happened here.
One person had stood at the center and released some kind of tornado-like Wind Style Ninjutsu, grinding everything before him into powder and turning the land into a barren, desolate wasteland.
Not only that, he had even controlled the tornado and turned in a circle, sweeping away and destroying everything around him as though he were clearing trash.
A terrifying power that could be called a Natural Disaster Hurricane moved at his command like an extension of his limbs. The people and objects that had tried to block his path with their flesh and blood had all become clouds of dust. Blood, flesh, and bone had turned into fertilizer, buried beneath the soil of this region.
This kind of power...
Before you continue