A Tacit Understanding

Konoha Hospital, Third Operating Room.

Under the stark white light of the surgical lamp, the air was thick with the mingled smells of blood and disinfectant.

"Hemostat."

"Here."

"Prepare the sutures."

"Understood."

Doctor Ueno issued her orders with crisp brevity. Across from her, a pair of small hands glowing with faint green light steadily held the patient's injuries in check.

It was a penetrating wound. Though it had missed the vital organs, a ruptured artery had caused massive blood loss.

Aoba wore a focused expression, his sunglasses having long since been removed and hung around his neck.

His eyes remained fixed on the wound. Chakra flowed from his palms like viscous glue, forcibly "sealing" the ruptured blood vessels to stop the bleeding, buying Doctor Ueno an excellent field of view and precious time for suturing.

Ten minutes, twenty minutes...

It was not until forty minutes later, when Doctor Ueno cut the suture thread and let out a long breath to announce the end of the operation, that the green glow finally faded.

"All right, Aoba did well."

Ueno removed her mask, her gaze toward Aoba full of undisguised praise. "Especially that final stimulation of the damaged tissue's activity. It was just right—you didn't cause any secondary harm to the patient, and it ensured a faster recovery."

"How did you notice it?"

"Well, hadn't I been reading through those files all this time? I happened to come across a similar case a couple of days ago. I was worried Teacher Ueno would be angry that I made the decision on my own."

Aoba explained somewhat awkwardly, as though he truly feared Ueno's reprimand.

"We're doctors. Saving our patients' lives is our responsibility. As long as it benefits the patient, it's the right thing to do. Besides, you're the assistant—this is your responsibility too."

Ueno imparted her experience to Aoba, while the others nearby could not help revealing envious looks.

The name Yamashiro Aoba had already begun to quietly spread through Konoha Hospital.

At first, everyone had merely teased him as an administrator. Even after Director Ueno took a liking to him and brought him into the operating room, they only thought the kid had gotten lucky. But as one operation followed another, the Medical Ninjutsu Aoba displayed could no longer be overlooked.

Soon afterward, people also heard from the interns about Aoba being the "little teacher" in the internship class.

Everyone took it as a joke when a bunch of rookies called another rookie "little teacher." But since Tsunade herself had approved that title, it was a different matter entirely.

To be noticed by Tsunade at least meant that Yamashiro Aoba was a genius.

There were actually quite a few geniuses in Konohagakure, but they all excelled in ninjutsu and combat. In terms of medical ninja, Tsunade was the only one.

She was skilled in medicine and combat, and even her summoning beast possessed medical abilities.

Everyone was guessing who the next "Tsunade" would be.

But ever since the Second Shinobi World War ended, no one capable of filling that role had emerged.

Aside from Tsunade, there were seven people at Konoha Hospital with the finest medical skills, including Director Ueno. The more famous one was Sarutobi Biwako, the current Hokage's wife and Konoha Hospital's director.

However, all of them were older than Tsunade, and their medical skills seemed to have reached their limits. So everyone turned their attention to the next generation.

Unfortunately, no promising talents had appeared in recent years.

Yamashiro Aoba did give everyone a pleasant surprise, but only briefly.

The reason was simple: Aoba was too young. Even Tsunade had only become famous throughout the Shinobi World at the age of twenty-five or twenty-six.

Aoba was not even ten yet. Leaving aside whether he possessed talent comparable to Tsunade's, even if he did, they would have to wait another decade or two.

By then, the Third Shinobi World War might have already begun—especially since the borders had started growing restless again.

Although the village still appeared peaceful and prosperous, the number of wounded returning from the front lines showed that the situation was worsening by the day.

Even so, no one regarded him as an ordinary child.

In the corridor outside the operating room.

Aoba leaned against the wall and put his sunglasses back on. Blue light flickered in his eyes as he reviewed the operation.

What would he have done if he had been the lead surgeon? How many possible approaches were there? Which one was better? Which could help the patient recover faster?

That operation had lasted more than three hours. A chunin carrying out a mission at the border had been injured by an Explosive Tag, suffering a penetrating abdominal wound and multiple ruptured internal organs.

During the surgery, he discovered a large amount of abnormal chakra lingering inside the chunin's body. That chakra did not belong to the wounded man, but to others—and more than one person at that.

"Looks like the border situation is worse than I imagined."

After spending some time at the hospital, he had already figured out the capabilities of most people here.

He could show his genius, but he absolutely could not become the kind of dazzling, one-in-a-million super genius.

Konohagakure already had one of those.

The White Fang's son, Hatake Kakashi.

A genius ninja who had graduated early from the Ninja Academy at the age of four.

He had the pedigree and the record.

Was White Fang impressive? Dead or alive, Kakashi carried White Fang's bloodline and had graduated from the Ninja Academy at four. Surpassing his father was surely only a matter of time.

A super genius like that was bound to draw attention.

Even in the perpetually busy hospital, rumors about Kakashi could occasionally be heard.

Ever since White Fang's suicide, Kakashi's personality had become somewhat obsessive.

His beliefs as a ninja had changed drastically. He elevated "missions" above all else and would abandon his comrades for their sake.

That extreme behavior caused the others in his squad to reject him, and he was eventually forced to transfer to another team.

The name of a genius came with endless scrutiny and criticism.

Aoba had no desire to live under that kind of spotlight.

So, he chose to keep a low profile, conceal his medical skills, and make himself less conspicuous.

Teacher Ueno also seemed to have noticed Aoba's habit of hiding his abilities.

She had discovered that Aoba clearly understood the answers to many difficult cases, yet unless she called on him by name, he would never say another word.

Rather than reproaching him for it, Ueno thought it was quite good.

In this cruel ninja world, those who were too flamboyant and sharp-edged often did not live long.

A tacit understanding formed between teacher and student.

Once she understood Aoba's level, Teacher Ueno opened her personal materials to him. These were medical documents Ueno had collected and organized over the years, and they were immensely valuable.

Aoba was overjoyed!

With Teacher Ueno's theoretical materials supplementing it, Aoba's Chip Database became vastly more complete in terms of medical theory.

This made the Chip's simulations and deductions more realistic, greatly improving its efficiency as well.

Just as he was systematically organizing these precious materials, an unexpected discovery drew his full attention.

Inside the pages of an old handwritten notebook, he found an incomplete technique.

The technique was unfinished, merely a prototype, but its concept and reasoning made Aoba want to slam the table in admiration.

The creator of this technique had clearly developed it based on the principles of the Delicate Illness Extraction Technique.

But they had boldly changed the target from "extracting bacteria and viruses" to something more abstract and fundamental—chakra.

A technique capable of directly extracting chakra from an enemy's body!