How a Workhorse Is Forged

That bastard Tsunade!

Aoba's fists clenched hard. He really wanted to rush over and throw a couple punches at Tsunade.

Of course, that was all he could do—think about it.

He couldn't beat her, after all~

Sigh...

Looking at the crooked, twisted meridian diagrams on the blackboard, then at the pairs of clear eyes around him, Aoba felt his head throbbing.

"Shizune, um... give me two more of those stimulants, please. Ugh~"

Running into such an irresponsible teacher was simply the worst luck of his life.

It wasn't as if knowing the principles behind a jutsu and its hand seals meant one could perform ninjutsu.

It was like going to driving school, where the instructor told you, this was the clutch, brake, accelerator, gearshift, and steering wheel.

Then told you, "You can hit the road now."

That was exactly the situation Aoba had run into.

If they really got everyone into a car, half of them would probably die, while the rest would spend the rest of their lives in the hospital.

There was no helping it. Since he had already been tricked into this, he could only grit his teeth and accept it.

"Alright, everyone, look over here."

Aoba walked up to the blackboard, picked up a piece of chalk, and made some "minor" adjustments to Tsunade's original diagram, allowing everyone to see it more clearly.

Without comparison, there was no damage. It was the same hand meridian diagram.

Aoba's was both attractive and clear. Compared to Tsunade's abstract mess that relied entirely on imagination, they were worlds apart.

Only then did everyone realize that Aoba could draw—and he was actually quite good at it.

"When you first begin casting, you must remain steady. Medical Ninjutsu is a sustained process, a slow and steady flow."

"The body's meridian system is like a river, and chakra is the water. Your job is to guide that current where it is needed. It cannot be too fast and wash away the riverbanks, nor too slow and become ineffective."

He marked several important meridian nodes on the blackboard.

"The essence of Medical Ninjutsu is using chakra to stimulate cellular activity and accelerate wound healing. But this is not simply pouring chakra into the body. You need to precisely control both the direction and intensity of the chakra flow."

Aoba spoke as he wrote on the blackboard.

The classroom fell quiet, and everyone listened attentively.

An hour later, Aoba finally stopped, his throat somewhat dry.

"Aoba-kun, you've worked hard."

Rin handed him a cup of water at just the right time, her eyes full of admiration.

"Thank you."

Aoba took the water and drained it in one gulp before asking again.

"Alright, does anyone have any questions?"

Everyone looked at one another. It felt like they had many questions, yet also none at all.

They did not even know what to ask.

Aoba knew that this was a common psychological and cognitive phenomenon.

At the end of the day, ninjutsu had to be performed. Like learning to drive, after understanding a vehicle's controls, you still had to start the car and drive it a few steps first.

"Everyone, follow my movements and form the hand seals together."

With that, he began directing them.

"First, the 'Boar' seal. Begin mobilizing your chakra..."

"Relax. Gather the chakra in your palm and slowly feed it in."

"Yes, like that... No, your chakra is too chaotic. Start over."

Aoba moved through the classroom, guiding every student. By the time class ended, a few of them could already use Basic Medical Ninjutsu.

However, none of them could sustain it. It flickered twice before sputtering out.

Still, this greatly ignited the students' enthusiasm for learning. It proved that what Aoba taught was correct.

Their failure to learn it was their own problem, and it also showed just how difficult Medical Ninjutsu was.

When the bell rang, Aoba finally breathed a sigh of relief. He wiped the nonexistent sweat from his forehead and secretly lamented that being a teacher was not easy.

Only then did Aoba notice that Tsunade, that bastard, had somehow returned to the classroom and was sitting in an inconspicuous corner, drinking tea.

Aoba's anger flared up at once.

Before Aoba could explode, Tsunade gave him a thumbs-up, then vanished from the spot with a swoosh.

Aaaah!

Aoba went completely berserk on the spot.

Shizune and Rin could not help exchanging a glance. Both saw the sympathy in the other's eyes.

On the streets of Konohagakure, the afterglow of the setting sun spilled across the ground, stretching out his shadow.

Aoba rolled his neck, found a random eatery to fill his stomach, then headed toward the hospital.

"Yumiko, I'm here."

"Mm, let's go."

In the days that followed, Aoba's life became exceptionally full.

After school, he was the "administrator" of Konoha Hospital's Archives Room.

The doctors and nurses at the hospital watched Aoba head into the Archives Room every day, rain or shine, and their expressions gradually became strange.

Some admired the child's perseverance, while others bet on how many more days he could last.

After all, the Archives Room contained nothing but old records from years ago. Aside from the smell of mildew, they seemed to hold little value.

Aoba did not merely browse through them. He also organized all the materials in the Archives Room, reclassifying them by year, symptoms, and category.

This made things much more convenient for those who came looking for information later on. Yumiko simply had an extra key made for him, and Aoba thus became the hospital's unofficial staff member, bearing the title of Archives Room "administrator." Naturally, there was no salary.

Though his body was exhausted, seeing the growing amount of data in the Chip Database still filled Aoba with a painful yet satisfying sense of fulfillment.

During the day, he was the "little teacher" of the medical Experimental Class.

Not only did he have to demonstrate, he also had to personally correct this group of idiots' mistakes in chakra flow.

"Wrong! Shizune, the chakra needs to be gentler. Imagine you're saving someone, not grilling fish!"

"Rin, don't hesitate. Make the incision decisively so you can stop the bleeding in time!"

"Hey, you there, stop feeding chakra into the fish's eyes. Are you trying to make it mutate?"

Aoba felt like an old mother worrying herself sick.

Meanwhile, the actual teacher, Lady Tsunade, sat leisurely in the corner, drinking tea and watching quietly. Every now and then, she would say a few words just to remind everyone she existed.

Aoba had gone completely numb.

He could not hold it in and exploded twice during that time. After getting two lumps hammered onto his head, his eyes became much clearer, and he obediently settled into the life of a workhorse.

Time always passed quickly.

A new batch of Ninja Academy students entered through its gates under their parents' eager expectations.

Meanwhile, Aoba and his classmates naturally advanced to third-year students, becoming the "seniors" people spoke of.

During this time, undercurrents stirred throughout the Shinobi World.

The Land of Fire and the Land of Earth once again broke out into a small-scale military conflict along their border. Though it was not large in scale, the tense standoff between both sides filled the entire Shinobi World with unease.

The other major nations continued to watch from the sidelines, fearing that this conflict would once again ignite the entire Shinobi World and trigger the Third Shinobi World War. Fortunately, both sides exercised restraint, preventing a further armed conflict.

Although the village still appeared peaceful, with food stalls along the streets sending up clouds of steam and children running past with pinwheels in hand, laughing and playing, the shadow of war hung over everyone's hearts like dark clouds that could not be driven away.