Medical Ninja

Night fell over Konoha, at the Hokage Residence.

The Hokage's home was quite spacious, with a small Training Ground in the backyard.

Sarutobi Toru was currently training there. Calling it training was a bit of a stretch, though—it was really just physical exercises like sit-ups, push-ups, and running.

After all, he was only five years old. Toru did not dare attempt training that could easily leave lasting injuries, such as weightlifting or striking posts. Even his physical training only lasted around an hour.

For an ordinary human from Earth, that amount of training would have been suicidal. But people in the Shinobi World truly had different constitutions, especially after extracting Chakra. Toru felt completely unlike an ordinary person now; both his speed and strength surpassed those of a typical adult.

After finishing his physical training, Toru let out a breath, wiped away his sweat with a towel, and began Chakra control training.

As a transmigrator, Toru's Mental Strength and Chakra control far exceeded those of ordinary people. He had nearly mastered tree climbing in a single attempt, and water walking after only a few tries. What he was practicing now was a technique he had developed himself: One Reed Crossing the River.

He tossed a reed into the pool and stood on it. Rather than releasing Chakra directly from the soles of his feet, he poured it into the reed and transmitted it to the water's surface. This not only greatly increased the difficulty of control, but also posed a major test of his balance.

The reed was thin and fragile; the slightest carelessness would snap it. Thus, while pouring Chakra into it, he had to maintain its buoyancy while also reinforcing its strength. Any lapse, and the entire reed would be destroyed by his Chakra.

Just as Toru's training was entering its stride, a figure suddenly appeared in the middle of the Training Ground. Startled, he heard a sharp crack beneath his feet, and the entire reed instantly broke into several pieces.

Fortunately, Toru reacted quickly. In an instant, he shifted his Chakra control to simple water walking and avoided becoming a drowned rat.

"Uncle Hiruzen, can you stop using the Body Flicker Technique in your own house? You scared the hell out of me!"

The person standing in the middle of the Training Ground was none other than Konoha's current Acting Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen. Now that the war was over, he would likely soon become the official Third Hokage.

"Haha, training should be constant and woven into everyday life. You said that yourself, Toru!"

Toru sighed. "I suspect you just wanted to scare me, but I have no proof."

Hiruzen merely smiled unconcernedly. He had indeed deliberately startled his genius, precocious nephew. The still-young Hiruzen retained a bit of a mischievous streak, unlike the steady and composed man he would become later.

"How was school today, Toru?"

"Not bad. I didn't get much out of the teacher's lessons, but I did meet quite a few interesting classmates." (Like Orochimaru, Tsunade, Hiruko, and other useful tools.)

"Oh, it's good that you made new friends." Hiruzen spoke with relief.

Hiruzen had always felt guilty toward Toru.

Back when he inherited the Hokage's duties from the Second Hokage, only the six disciples had been present. There had been no election or vote of confidence from the Jōnin, so his position as Hokage had not been secure.

In order to win Konoha's shinobi over and earn their support, he had spent all his time racing across the battlefield. Meanwhile, Toru's father, Hiruzen's cousin Sarutobi Mitsuru, had protected him as a shadow guard and ultimately died on the battlefield two years ago.

Toru's mother had also died in childbirth, leaving him a complete orphan. Wanting to repay that debt and make amends, Hiruzen had adopted Toru.

However, Toru had not disappointed him. At such a young age, he already possessed All Five Natures. Both his talent and diligence were exceptional, and his mind was mature beyond anything expected of a five-year-old. Hiruzen had initially worried that such a mature child would disdain his classmates at the ninja academy, but it seemed Toru's emotional intelligence was no less impressive. He could get along well with his peers.

There was only one problem...

"Toru, your foundation is already solid enough. How about I teach you a Ninjutsu today?"

"Forget it. I really don't want to become an all-rounder who masters every nature like you, Uncle. I just want to develop Medical Ninjutsu!"

Hiruzen sighed inwardly. This was what dissatisfied him most about his nephew. Toru clearly had such an incredible talent for mastering all five natures, and had even proposed the concept of an S-rank Ninjutsu like the Five Element Consecutive Bullet, yet he insisted on developing Medical Ninjutsu.

"Toru, shinobi ultimately have to carry out missions. Medical Ninjutsu can't help you defeat enemies."

Toru also sighed inwardly. His uncle was good in every other way, but he was always trying to make Toru inherit his legacy. Yet being passable at everything was inferior to excelling at one thing. Even if Toru learned everything perfectly from him, what would it amount to?

His uncle had already reached the limits of an ordinary shinobi, yet wasn't his strength in the final battle merely so-so?

In this Shinobi World, bloodlines came first, Secret Techniques second. Ordinary elemental techniques simply had too low a ceiling.

More importantly, Toru sought immortality. Developing Forbidden Jutsu and bloodlines might at least offer a theoretical possibility of eternal life, but no matter how far elemental techniques were developed, they could never grant immortality.

Of course, he could not simply tell Hiruzen, Your Ninjutsu are too low-level. I'm not interested. Stop interrupting my path to immortality. He could only reason with him instead.

"Uncle, what do you think shinobi complete missions for?"

Hiruzen gave him a puzzled look. "A shinobi's duty is to complete missions. Why ask why?"

Black lines appeared across Toru's forehead. "Shinobi complete missions for money! What do you mean, duty? Who would risk their life for you without getting paid?"

Hiruzen blinked. "Toru, that's rather blunt, isn't it?" He had not expected a five-year-old Toru to be so pragmatic. He had thought the boy wanted to discuss dreams or ideals.

Ignoring his uncle, Toru continued, "Every mission shinobi undertake basically revolves around money. From D-rank missions like clearing trash and farming fields, all the way up to the Shinobi World War we just experienced, nearly all of them are caused by money. Uncle, am I right?"

Hiruzen frowned. Though Toru's words were realistic and nakedly blunt, utterly at odds with the Will of Fire, he had to admit that Toru was absolutely correct.

Why had the Shinobi World War broken out? Nations and hidden villages were not truly a unified whole. Even if other villages invaded the Land of Fire, they could only plunder it. Occupy the Land of Fire? Shinobi did not even know how to collect taxes, so what the hell was the point of occupying it?

The real reason was that Konoha stood unrivaled in the Shinobi World and had seized a huge share of missions. Furthermore, if they could force the Land of Fire to cede territory, they could obtain large amounts of funding from the Daimyo in the future. That was why they had acted so eagerly. In the end, it was all for money!

Hiruzen reluctantly nodded. He had not expected his nephew to see things so clearly. "Don't say things like that in the future, understand?"

Toru rolled his eyes. "Don't worry. I'm the Hokage's nephew, after all. I have at least that much political awareness."

Hiruzen could only smile wryly. If precocious children were not so common in the Shinobi World, he would have suspected that some ancient monster had possessed his nephew.

Unaware that Hiruzen had nearly guessed the truth of his origins, Toru continued, "Then what kind of shinobi makes the most money? Medical ninja, of course!"

"What do wealthy people fear most? Aging and illness! As long as medical ninja can cure diseases and slow aging, those rich people will wave around piles of cash and flood into Konoha like mad!"

Hiruzen imagined the scene Toru described and could not help feeling deeply tempted. Yet the concerns in his heart made him calm down again.

"But if shinobi invest too much into Medical Ninjutsu, the village's combat power may decline. That would be truly dangerous."

"Uncle, you don't think there are a lot of people capable of becoming medical ninja, do you?"

Hiruzen coughed awkwardly. Though he was broadly knowledgeable and even knew a little Healing Technique, he truly did not know much about the requirements for becoming a medical ninja.

"To become a medical ninja, one must first possess Yang Release chakra. That alone eliminates eighty percent of candidates."

Yang Release chakra was no rarer than other attributes, but while the five elemental Chakra natures could be developed through later training, there was no known method for cultivating Yin and Yang attributes afterward.

"They also need exceptional Chakra control and extensive medical knowledge. At this stage, saying only one out of a hundred shinobi can become medical ninja might be an exaggeration, but one out of fifty certainly isn't. So even if Konoha has medical ninja, they will only be a small minority and won't affect its overall combat power."

Hiruzen sighed and finally relented. "Fine. I'll allow you to research Medical Ninjutsu, and I'll support your research. But the prospects of Medical Ninjutsu remain uncertain, so you cannot stop your combat training! And I will assess you. If you fail to satisfy me, forget about pursuing anything else!"

Toru said confidently, "Then just wait and see, Uncle!"

He had long since planned out his future path. To protect himself in this brutal Shinobi World, he also needed powerful combat strength.

And the combat template he had chosen was Namikaze Minato!

Since he could traverse worlds, he had long determined that he possessed an extremely high aptitude for space-time techniques. Combined with the Rasengan he had already copied, he would become the first Sarutobi Flash!