Medical Ninjas Are a Scarce Resource

Kai had already packed his things and covered his tracks, a good habit indispensable for any qualified ninja, to leave as few traces as possible for others to find.

"An eyelid twitch isn't always a bad omen; haven't you heard that the left eye twitching means wealth and the right eye twitching means disaster? Which eye of yours is twitching?" After being teased by Xing Ran, Nara Izumi, somewhat annoyed, sought balance with Kai.

"...Both of my eyelids are twitching." Kai honestly felt it and replied somewhat innocently.

"Then it's a mix of fortune and disaster." Nara Izumi put on an expression of detached amusement, eager to watch the show.

But Kai was a strange being. On the surface, he seemed carefree, even a bit forgetful, but his beast-like intuition was often scarily accurate. In the original story, the most profound impression Xing Ran had of him was the episode where Kakashi revealed his true face. Everyone else failed to see through Kakashi's disguise, but Kai sensed something was wrong. This ability couldn't be learned.

"Full speed ahead, let's rush to the destination." Upon hearing "a mix of fortune and disaster," Kai jolted. For no reason, he just felt something was wrong. With his two teammates looking bewildered, he gave the order to proceed at full speed.

Kai was the captain and an elite Chunin. It was rumored that after this war, he would be promoted to Special Jonin. Although this was just gossip from Nara Izumi, Xing Ran knew it was only a matter of time. He even suspected if his own butterfly effect was the reason Kai hadn't been promoted to Special Jonin yet. In the original story, as he aged, he became the strongest ninja without Kaguya's bloodline, the man who almost kicked the ending into motion.

Xing Ran and Nara Izumi were still his subordinates. In many situations, Kai's orders were absolute. The three stopped fooling around, and a sense of inexplicable tension began to spread among them, the feeling of impending battle.

With their speed fully unleashed, the skill levels of the three were laid bare. As Nara Clan members who stayed behind to provide battlefield support, their stamina and Chakra reserves were far from impressive. However, Xing Ran, combining his Chakra with his underdeveloped Steel Body, could still keep up with Kai's speed. Thus, their formation became a two-one formation, with the two in front constantly adjusting to the speed of the one behind. Every time Kai wanted to speed up, he quickly slowed down, just to wait for Nara Izumi.

Before, he hadn't felt it, but now that the three were in combat readiness mode, Xing Ran suddenly realized that their current combination was a knock-off version of Ino-Shika-Cho. The only difference was that the Akimichi, responsible for defense and offense, had been replaced by a blue beast.

At the same time, due to this team composition, Xing Ran also saw Konoha's weakness. The Ino-Shika-Cho three-person formation was indeed difficult to find. While there were cases like Hai Yi and Ino teaming up with peers, combinations with age differences within five years could still be found.

But just finding members of secret jutsu clans wasn't enough; they had to have comparable strength to form a coordinated team. A master leading a novice might seem balanced, but they often died faster.

Xing Ran's generation had no Akimichi members who matched his and Izumi's strength. Being arranged like this by the Naruto was unavoidable.

"There's something." As the scout of the squad, although Xing Ran had activated his sub-profession, his primary skill as a Sensor Ninja was not weak. After Kai showed a solemn expression, Xing Ran's vigilance reached its peak, and he was the first to discover a Konoha camp in the distance that was almost razed to the ground.

Since he found no trace of the enemy, Xing Ran did not request increased vigilance but instead told everyone to continue on their way, describing the scene they saw along the route.

Soon, the three arrived at a devastated border camp.

This place had just been attacked. The attackers were extremely aggressive, almost recklessly expending resources to clear the traps and defensive facilities outside the camp. After entering the camp, they caused heavy casualties and withdrew rapidly. The enemy was very cunning; their swift assault and retreat prevented the nearby camps from mounting any rescue efforts.

"Where is your person in charge? I am Might Kai, the leading Chunin assigned by the Naruto for rotation." Kai grabbed a lightly injured Konoha ninja and began to inquire.

The result was terrible. The person in charge was dead. Out of the 18-person small camp, fewer than 10 were alive, and all were in a sorry state. The squad that was supposed to rotate with Kai's team had been completely wiped out, a truly tragic scene.

Xing Ran's feelings were conflicted, and he was also trying hard to adapt to this tragic environment. The mission had just reached its destination, and an opportunity to test the knowledge he had learned recently presented itself. However, Xing Ran felt that such an opportunity would be better off not existing. Many people in this ninja world had long given up hope. He had only transmigrated here not long ago, and he would encounter such scenes many more times in the future.

Xing Ran fell silent and began to open his portable medicine pouch. It contained some unprocessed herbs, as well as many ready-to-use bandages, hemostatic cotton, and so on.

The nine survivors could be seen at a glance. Four of them appeared uninjured, two had minor injuries, and the rest were severely wounded. Xing Ran scanned them. With his Super vision combined with the Yamanaka Clan's sensory abilities, it took him less than two seconds to locate the most severely injured person.

"Mystical Palm Technique!"

After Grandma Qiu's correction, the green light emitted by the Mystical Palm Technique no longer diffused into the surrounding environment but became increasingly concentrated in his palm. The originally pale green luster became a more vibrant emerald green.

The injured man had a huge knife wound on his chest, so deep that his internal organs were visible. Although a comrade was helping him press a towel against the wound, excessive blood loss was inevitable, and the injured man had already lost consciousness.

Xing Ran placed one hand, glowing with dense fluorescence, on the wound, and with the other, he quickly took out a few herb leaves. The conditions were rudimentary, and Xing Ran didn't think too much about it. He directly threw them into his mouth and began to chew.

Soon, the juice from the herbs mixed with his saliva, turning the leaves into a green paste. Xing Ran didn't delay for a second, smearing the paste onto several other bleeding wounds on the injured man. These wounds were not fatal, but they were still bleeding. If he didn't stop the bleeding promptly, it would be difficult for the injured man to survive until the main wound healed.

Kai and Izumi also had some first-aid knowledge. In fact, most ninjas had some battlefield first-aid skills. It was useless for major injuries, but it was fine for dealing with minor ones.

However, even so, everyone present couldn't help but steal glances at Xing Ran's actions while they were busy.

This was a Medical Ninja who knew Mystical Palm Technique, quite a rare sight on the front lines. The despair they had felt earlier had unknowingly vanished upon seeing Xing Ran's hands glowing with green light.

Often, because ninjas valued their ability to survive, they could endure injuries for a longer time. This allowed many ninjas to survive until the end of a battle, but surviving until the end of a battle didn't mean they were fine.

To be continued