Konoha Village, Root.
Hiruko emerged from the examination room, his face pale. He let out a long breath.
Orochimaru and Sarutobi Toru had been waiting for him at the door.
"How did it feel? Did they find anything?" Orochimaru licked his lips and asked mockingly.
Anyone who had been captured had to undergo a thorough physical examination. After all, there were countless jutsu in the Shinobi World capable of controlling a person. The higher one's position, the more cautious one had to be about such matters.
First, they had to examine the brain to see whether he had been affected by any genjutsu. Then they examined the Chakra throughout his body to see whether he had been subjected to any jutsu such as Cursed Seals. Finally, they had to inspect his entire body to check for bodily modifications, parasitic insects, or anything similar.
After all that, he definitely could not have felt very good. Hiruko's miserable expression made that obvious enough.
Hiruko rolled his eyes. "If they had found something, would I still be standing here talking?"
If they had found a problem, he would definitely have been sent to Root's treatment room to have it dealt with. That would have been far more painful than a simple examination.
Whether it was the sensation of the Yamanaka Clan's Mind Secret Technique stirring around inside his brain, the Uzumaki Clan using Chakra to blast apart a Cursed Seal, or lying on an operating table waiting for medical ninja to cut him open, none of it was remotely pleasant.
"All right, no one expected the Third Raikage to suddenly appear on the battlefield. You can only say this time that you lost through no fault of your own," Sarutobi Toru said, trying to smooth things over.
Hiruko fell silent for a moment.