Reinforcements

"Thank you, Lord Hoshino, for treating us. We sincerely apologize for our rudeness earlier!"

About the time it took to brew a cup of tea, the ward door opened. The ninjas who had looked so menacing moments ago came out, turned around, and bowed deeply to Hoshino Maki with respectful expressions.

Everyone present was stunned by the sight.

Some people had stayed behind hoping to see a fight. But there had been no angry shouting, no brawl, nothing at all. If they hadn't witnessed the earlier confrontation, they might have applauded this harmonious doctor-patient relationship.

"It's all right. As a member of the village, helping the ninjas who fight for it is my duty."

Hoshino Maki's expression was just as it had been with every other patient. Smiling, he waved and reminded them to take care on their way back.

"Ebisu, how did it go?"

The ninjas left the hospital, chatting and laughing as they walked around a corner. A tall ninja wearing a headscarf stepped out of the shadows.

"Lord Bokyu."

The ninjas instinctively brought their feet together and bowed their heads.

The Flower-faced Ninja, who led the group, lifted his head, looking rather pleased with himself. "It's taken care of. We gave that brat a good thrashing. He got on his knees and begged us to save him some face in front of outsiders. Ha ha!"

Bokyu stared at Ebisu's face, his brows furrowing as if something had come to mind. His expression changed, and he abruptly appeared in front of Ebisu, pressing a palm to his head. Chakra entered Ebisu's brain as Bokyu prepared to probe his memories.

"Ah—!"

Bokyu's hand sprang back as if he'd been shocked. His broad, powerful arm trembled uncontrollably, and his face turned ashen.

His hand had gone numb.

Half an hour earlier.

"The ward's a little cramped, so please, make yourselves comfortable."

Hoshino Maki's ward was a single room. Patients usually sat in the chair while he examined them from the bed, so there were only two chairs in the room. Hoshino Maki sat on the bed, clearly not inviting them to sit beside him.

"Hey, brat. What's that supposed to mean?"

A burly ninja behind the Flower-faced Ninja glared furiously and stepped in front of him, looking down at the seemingly frail young man.

"I don't like people standing over me when they talk."

"What did you say?"

The man could hardly believe the sudden change in Hoshino Maki's attitude. Looking at that repulsive smile, his anger shot straight to his head.

"I said... Get down on your knees!"

As Hoshino Maki uttered the final word, all five men's knees buckled. It was as if an invisible giant hand had pressed them down, slamming them against the hard floor.

"You little brat!"

The man struggled to lift his head and glare up at Hoshino Maki, his eyes bloodshot. He ground out a few words through clenched teeth.

"Kimura, that's enough."

As the only Jonin among them, the Flower-faced Ninja could still speak clearly. "Are those Chakra Threads?"

He circulated his chakra and felt his pathways being 'cut' to pieces. Invisible threads had pinned his limbs and neck in place, leaving him unable to move.

When had he laid down those Chakra Threads?

Setting a trap took a lot of time, especially with Chakra Threads, which demanded exceptional control from whoever deployed them.

"I'm very sorry, Lord Hoshino Maki. We were too eager to get medical care and spoke out of turn. Please forgive our rudeness!"

If he hadn't already been kneeling, he would have prostrated himself in apology.

"Ebisu!"

The others hadn't expected such a complete change in the Flower-faced Ninja's attitude. One of them couldn't help calling out.

Hoshino Maki raised an eyebrow and twitched his little finger. The Flower-faced Ninja 'slid' over to him.

"Ebisu, was it? Tell me, who sent you here?"

"No..." Ebisu met the kind gaze of the boy in front of him, but couldn't bring himself to finish the denial.

"No one—ugh!"

Kimura stuck out his neck and had only just opened his mouth when an arm came spinning to a stop in front of him. He screamed in terror.

But when he saw Hoshino Maki frown, he desperately tried to swallow the scream that had just forced its way out of his throat. It came out as a strange, shrill squeak instead.

What the hell was that noise?

For someone so big and burly, the man had a shockingly low tolerance. The person whose arm had been cut off hadn't even screamed, but Kimura was acting as if it had happened to him.

Was he screaming on the other guy's behalf?

"Oops, my hand slipped."

Hoshino Maki apologized without a hint of remorse, then cheerfully reattached the arm to the ninja behind Kimura, who was gritting his teeth and staring at him in terror.

"See? There we go. Oops, it's backwards."

With a grin, Hoshino Maki ripped off the arm he'd just put back on and reattached it properly to the ninja, who had fainted from the pain.

The others swallowed in unison as they watched. One thought sprang into their minds:

It was a criminal waste for this guy not to work in the Interrogation Department.

"By the way, your answer just now was..."

Hoshino Maki returned to the bed, crossed his legs, and looked toward Ebisu as if nothing had happened.

"N-no, I just didn't expect you to see right away that I had someone backing me. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"

Ebisu's face was covered in a fawning smile.

Hoshino Maki glanced at him. He hadn't expected the Jonin to have such flexible morals.

If Ebisu's chakra level hadn't been impossible to fake, Hoshino Maki would have wondered how he'd ever become a Jonin.

As long as Ebisu was willing to cooperate, this would be easy.

"I have a bad memory."

Smiling, Hoshino Maki took a pen and paper from the bedside drawer and set them in front of the five men. "Write everything down. Remember to sign at the end, or I might mix them up. Fingerprints would be even better. Of course, it's all voluntary. If you don't want to write, that's fine too."

The five men looked at each other. Just as they were about to pick up their pens, that devilish voice spoke again. "Oh, I forgot to mention: if anyone takes their eyes off their own paper, I'll give them a pair of good eyes. Eyes that won't wander. Don't worry, it won't hurt."

A devil!

They'd rather face the people in the Interrogation Department than deal with this guy again!

Their last little schemes were snuffed out, and they hurriedly wrote. It didn't take long for them to finish.

Hoshino Maki collected the papers and skimmed them. None of them had tried anything clever, and their accounts were more or less the same. The one called Ebisu, who had led the group, knew a little more, but none of it was particularly confidential.

They were all just low-level operatives.

Hoshino Maki set the papers on the bedside table and tapped his fingers against it in a steady rhythm, his gaze unfocused.

The five men had finished their statements, but their moods rose and fell with the tapping of his fingers.

"All right. Now that the misunderstanding's cleared up, let's get you treated."

After a while, Hoshino Maki stopped tapping. He seemed a little embarrassed by his momentary distraction and smiled apologetically at the five men.

They stood there, stunned, not knowing what to say.

"Don't just stand there. Kimura, you're always coughing up phlegm and feeling tightness in your chest, right? Get over here."

"Huh?"

The men exchanged astonished looks, then remembered what Hoshino Maki had just said and quickly lowered their heads in fright.

"Don't be scared. I'm actually pretty easy to get along with. Come here and let me take a look."

After Hoshino Maki treated them one by one, the five stood in a row, their expressions complicated. Without his permission, none of them dared go anywhere.

They hadn't been able to breathe this easily in ages.

People who lived in the desert for a long time were prone to Pneumoconiosis. The more ore Sunagakure mined, the higher the chance of contracting the disease.

Ordinary Medical Ninjas couldn't clean out a patient's lungs, though. Even Ebisu, a Jonin, was receiving this kind of treatment for the first time.

"My lord, please put us under hypnosis."

Ebisu suddenly spoke.

"Ebisu!"

The other four stared at him in shock.

Volunteering to be hypnotized meant more than handing someone else control over your life and death. It meant baring your entire mind and letting them rummage through it at will, leaving you with no secrets.

"If we don't do this, do you have any way to lie to Lord Bokyu's face when he asks about it?"

The four fell silent.

Deputy Chief Kubo of the Interrogation Department was notorious among the Sunagakure Shinobi, especially for his keen powers of observation. They said no one could lie to his face.

They'd been bound by Chakra Threads as soon as they came in, then subjected to all sorts of psychological manipulation. Their nerves had been kept taut, leaving them no time to think. Now that they were about to leave, they'd remembered Kubo's terrifying face.

If Hoshino Maki hypnotized them, a lot of problems would disappear.

He could alter their memories and make them believe they'd completed their mission. As long as Hoshino Maki played along, it would be easy to fool the others.

And even if Bokyu realized they'd been hypnotized, that would only mean they hadn't been strong enough to resist. It wouldn't mean they'd willingly betrayed anyone.

Besides, Ebisu's instincts as a Jonin told him that Lord Bokyu might not be able to break Hoshino Maki's hypnosis.

"If you need me to, I'd be happy to help."

Hoshino Maki spread his hands, looking as if he'd done them a huge favor.

"Th-thank you."

Having to thank someone for hypnotizing them left the four with a strange feeling. They felt both humiliated and as if it were only natural.

They needed his help, after all. Saying thank you didn't seem unreasonable.

Hoshino Maki turned and went back to his ward, methodically removing the Chakra Threads and barriers he'd set up around the room.

These guys weren't as willing to die for their cause as he'd imagined.

Even with Chakra Threads cinched around their necks, not one of them had chosen to die rather than submit. They'd obediently explained everything, and the Flower-faced Ninja had even asked for hypnosis himself.

He was a clever one.

If they'd been a bunch of hardheaded fools, Hoshino Maki would have been in a bind. So many people had seen them enter his room with him. If things had gotten too loud, he wouldn't have been confident he could have contained the fallout.

Hoshino Maki locked the door, picked up the written statements, and regarded them thoughtfully.

Bokyu, whom the men had named, definitely wasn't the one behind all this.

Why would a deputy chief of the Interrogation Department target him at the hospital for no reason?

The only possibility was that someone behind Bokyu had ordered him to do it.

And in Sunagakure, the only people with enough clout to give him orders were the factions led by Chiyo, Chōjūrō, and Rasa.

Chiyo had only just started working with him. They were still in their honeymoon period, so there was no reason for her to cause him trouble now.

And although he'd clashed with Rasa, Chiyo certainly wouldn't tell Rasa that he'd been the one to ask her not to send him to the front lines. So Rasa had no reason to go after him. That left only Chōjūrō.

"Are you this sensitive?"

Hoshino Maki thought it over. Chiyo must have begun influencing the appointment of the Medical Corps Commander, making Chōjūrō feel threatened.

And if Chōjūrō had pinpointed him so precisely, that meant Chiyo had probably already submitted the appointment list to the Elder Council.

It looked like he'd be heading to the front lines soon.

As Hoshino Maki considered his next move, the door was kicked open.

"Lord Hoshino, we're here to save you!"

Mei's pretty face was flushed, and she was panting heavily.

"Uh..."

Seeing Hoshino Maki staring at her in surprise, Mei gave an awkward smile and couldn't find the words.

"Is everything taken care of?"

Moyuzi walked in with a calm expression. From the situation outside, she'd already guessed that the crisis was over.

She hadn't been worried about Hoshino Maki's safety. She'd been worried that he might go too far and leave them with a mess to clean up.

But judging by the undamaged walls around them, things seemed to have stayed under control.

"It's all right now."

Hoshino Maki smiled and nodded.

He didn't tell them what he suspected. That might only complicate things.

Moyuzi glanced at him and nodded. "Get ready. The original Medical Corps Commander has resigned due to illness. Given your performance at the hospital, the Elder Council has decided to appoint you as the new Medical Corps Commander."

Moyuzi's expression was a little strange.

It was one thing that the commander, who'd been doing perfectly well in the rear, had suddenly fallen ill. But even if he had, there were twenty people ahead of Hoshino Maki in line.

Apparently, when the leadership said he was qualified, he was qualified.

Remembering the other elders' faces when she placed the new commander's name on the council table, Moyuzi couldn't help reflecting that not all elders were created equal.

Some elders were surrounded by a crowd who hounded them into voting. Others could decide the village's affairs without even showing up.

"When?"

"First thing tomorrow morning. You'll set out with the Reinforcement Unit. You can ask the ninja coming to escort you for the details."

Hoshino Maki nodded. "I'd like to see Lady Chiyo."

"Lady Chiyo has gone into seclusion. She asked me to give you this scroll on the Puppet Technique."

Moyuzi sounded a little envious.

Sunagakure was famous throughout the Shinobi World for its Puppet Technique, Magnet Release, and Wind Release. Now that Chiyo had passed on the Puppet Technique to Hoshino Maki, she was clearly grooming him as one of the village's future leaders.

"Please thank Lady Chiyo for me."

Hoshino Maki accepted the scroll without opening it, wondering why Chiyo had gone into seclusion at this particular time.

Could she have gone looking for Sasori?

If she'd figured out from their conversation that Sasori was still in the Land of Wind, her obsession with finding him might have driven her to sneak away and search for him.

If she found Sasori before he did, could their partnership still survive?

Hoshino Maki wasn't sure.

He squeezed the scroll in his hand. In the end, it all came down to strength. If he were strong enough, their partnership could continue without Sasori as leverage—and he could even take the lead.

The next day, before dawn, the sky was still dark. The stars and moon remained overhead, but an orange-red glow had quietly appeared where the dunes met the night sky.

It was a unique sight in the desert, but the people of Sunagakure had seen it so often that all they felt was the cold.

The biting wind drove the sand along, forcing even the mobility-minded ninjas to pull on heavy, earth-yellow padded coats.

The Reinforcement Unit had already assembled in formation.

Hoshino Maki stood among them with forty Medical Ninjas, surveying the unit.

The Reinforcement Unit numbered about a thousand. Hoshino Maki swept his gaze over them from the corner of his eye. There were elite, chunin, and Genin among them. It seemed the war wasn't going as smoothly as he'd imagined; otherwise, they wouldn't have sent Genin to the battlefield.

Of the thousand shinobi, only forty were Medical Ninja. That ratio made Hoshino Maki realize that a great many of the people before him would likely die in this war. Behind each of them was a family on the verge of being shattered.

When he considered the matter from the Kazekage's perspective, he agreed that a war could bring Sunagakure greater benefits.

But standing among the Reinforcement Unit, he couldn't help but despise the war.

What was this supposed to be? Having it both ways?

Hoshino Maki gave a self-deprecating smile.