Because there were few companions who had mastered Medical Ninjutsu, and even fewer who had mastered advanced Medical Ninjutsu. As for companions who had mastered advanced Medical Ninjutsu and could arrive in time to treat the wounded after a battle, encountering one was purely a matter of luck.
Today, they had been unfortunate, but they had also been lucky. Some ninja whose aortas had been injured or who faced the risk of amputation no longer had to worry about being crippled. Some severely wounded ninja who could not have held on until they returned to the village no longer had to die.
The usual situation where someone survived the battle but died before receiving treatment would no longer happen. The camp's originally oppressive atmosphere gradually eased, and Xing Ran earned the respect of his new comrades in this new environment.
Sure enough, as long as you had ability, you would quickly shine wherever you went.
In just half an hour, Xing Ran treated every wounded person in the camp. The bandages he had brought with him had long since run out, but fortunately, not all the supplies in the camp had been destroyed. With barely enough to make do, Xing Ran still used up most of the hemostatic and wound-healing herbs he had gathered along the way.
After Xing Ran had settled all the wounded, Might Guy broke down in tears again. He shouted about how youth blossomed amidst blood and fire, repeatedly rejoiced that Xing Ran, a doctor, was here, and hugged him while smearing snot and tears all over him.
Then something truly remarkable happened. The jonin here had died, and among the chunin, Might Guy was in the best condition. Thus, Might Guy, who had only just arrived to report in, temporarily became the person in charge of the camp.
Fortunately, although Might Guy was usually somewhat absurd, when it came to getting things done, he absolutely lived up to his strength. With the quick-witted Nara Izumi assisting him, the battered camp soon began to recover.
This continued until an hour later, when nearby reinforcements arrived. The addition of fresh forces accelerated the camp's restoration. Before night fell, at least from the outside, the camp had regained its functionality.
However, all the wooden buildings that had originally stood in the camp had become tents.
Only then did Xing Ran and the others understand what had happened. The attackers had been Cloud Ninja. Ever since the Third Shinobi World War entered its final stages, fighting between Kumogakure and Konoha had continued in this manner, with small-scale attacks and counterattacks constantly occurring between them.
However, several older ninja said that this attack had been somewhat different from the previous ones. Although it had still been one side attacking fiercely while the other defended and awaited reinforcements, the enemy had done several things that were highly unusual.
First, they had spared no expense in their assault. Second, after breaking into the camp, they had not focused all their efforts on slaughtering the Konoha Ninja. Several Cloud Ninja had searched while destroying the camp, as though they were looking for something, or perhaps simply trying to learn what the buildings were used for. Their behavior had been extremely strange.
By sparing no expense, they did not mean using lives to overwhelm the camp's defensive installations. They meant expending huge amounts of Chakra, practically plowing through the camp's outer defenses and perimeter walls. While doing so could reduce casualties, the massive Chakra expenditure meant that those who entered the camp afterward had very little Chakra left. In business terms, they had risen early only to arrive late at the market; the return was too low for the risk involved.
That was also why the enemy had taken the initiative to withdraw despite clearly having stormed into the camp. They had many men, but they were in poor condition. Rather than fight the remaining ninja in the camp like trapped beasts, it was better to quit while they were ahead.
Their commander clearly understood business. They had suffered no deaths, while the jonin in charge of the camp had died. Though every one of them had been injured as a result, it had been worth it. Better to sever one finger than injure a hand.
Moreover, their prearranged surveillance measures had detected Xing Ran and the others rapidly approaching, and they had mistaken them for reinforcements arriving ahead of schedule. To avoid being pinned down, even though they had spotted only three people, they could not rule out that Konoha's reinforcements would arrive right behind them. To be safe, the Cloud Ninja chose the prudent course of taking their gains and leaving.
Of course, Xing Ran could not understand why these Cloud Ninja had gone to such trouble to stage this attack. In his view, their raid had undoubtedly been highly successful. They had inflicted as much damage as possible on the enemy without losing a single person, profoundly embodying the essence of the sixteen-character maxim. Yet this method was entirely dependent on luck. They had spent too much Chakra on the camp's outer defenses, and if anything went wrong, they could easily have been counterattacked after entering the camp. It was an extremely irrational approach.
If not for the incorrect intelligence from above claiming that the Cloud Ninja were unlikely to make any moves soon, coupled with the border forces receiving orders to rotate their defenses and becoming lax to a certain degree, the Cloud Ninja being counterkilled would have been an overwhelmingly likely outcome.
Xing Ran had no interest in dwelling on this lack of essential intelligence. Yet the very next day, the camp received word from the rear. At the same time yesterday, three Konoha camps had been attacked, and the methods had been identical: indiscriminately flattening the camps' defensive strength at great expense, then prioritizing the destruction of camp facilities. Killing was not their primary objective.
The message stated that this might have been a warning from the Raikage. Avoiding heavy casualties was meant to express a certain degree of sincerity. The purpose was to pressure Konoha into making concessions and quickly reaching a ceasefire agreement. Every unit merely needed to remain vigilant; the situation was still within the upper ranks' expectations.
Yet after reading this message, Xing Ran inexplicably felt uneasy. Since he had transmigrated into this world, every word and action of his could create a butterfly effect. Especially after he had gone to the Land of Earth, participated in a mission that affected the international situation, and incidentally changed the fates of Kabuto and Nonō. With the Land of Earth so decisively declaring that it would stay out of the conflict and had no intention of tangling with the Land of Fire, could it have sent the Land of Lightning some mistaken signal and caused the subsequent plot to change drastically?
Xing Ran felt that what he suspected was indeed possible. Although he still did not know that his gambling in Iwagakure had caused the influential figures behind the casino to pressure Ōnoki, as a transmigrator, he was naturally highly sensitive to butterfly effects. He had only just arrived at the front lines, yet Konoha's upper ranks had already issued two somewhat contradictory messages in succession. That was clearly abnormal.
If Konoha had just issued an order to rotate defenses based on negotiations, then Xing Ran could still roughly conclude, based on the plot from his previous life, that things matched history. But the Cloud Ninja's actions now were surely meant to pave the way for their next operation. Otherwise, their careful investigation of the camp could not be fully explained. If they only wanted to destroy it, why search inside the buildings? One Explosive Tag would have been enough. A frontline camp would not contain anything valuable or any important figures. Searching the rooms was likely intended to determine what each building was used for. Were they confirming the locations of the armory and supply depot?
To be continued
Before you continue