Personal Connections

At a life-or-death moment, Hanyu wasn't unwilling to sacrifice an arm... All right, he was very reluctant. To a ninja, an arm was as important as a third leg.

The bigger problem was that even if Hanyu steeled himself to cut off his arm cleanly, it was already a little too late. The poison would spread throughout his body through his bloodstream in just a dozen or so seconds, so severing the arm wouldn't eliminate the source of the poison... The only good news was that Hanyu's wound was very shallow, and the amount of poison in his system was negligible. He'd also taken a dip in the water, which had unwittingly caused most of the small amount of poison in his body to spread into it.

Overall, Hanyu was a little worried about being poisoned, but not excessively so. He took a small bottle from his ninja pouch with his good hand, poured out several pills, and swallowed them... This was a common antidote. During battles against the Sand Village, every Konoha Ninja on the front lines was issued some, to guard against ninjas who used poison.

While Hanyu took the medicine, Chichiwa respected his wishes. She didn't go so far as to hack off his arm; instead, she used the Kunai in her hand to cut a large cross-shaped gash into his poisoned arm. Then she repeatedly squeezed around the wound, trying to force out as much of the pooled blood and remaining poison as she could.

There was no medical ninja in the team, so that was all they could do for emergency treatment. Drops of purple blood fell onto the water's surface, and by then Hanyu had lost all feeling in his arm.

"We need to get him back to the front-line hospital as soon as possible... Renjuro and I will stay here. Chichiwa, take Hanyu back." Nara made the call without hesitation. With no way of knowing how severely the poison would affect Hanyu, they had to assume the worst. He needed prompt, professional treatment.

Chichiwa nodded to show she understood. Without any fuss, she draped Hanyu's arm over her shoulder and carried him on her back. Nara and Renjuro stayed behind to meet the ninjas who would be arriving later, while she hurried with Hanyu toward Konoha's main camp.

The poison had left Hanyu unable to move on his own. Being carried by a woman was a little embarrassing, but he had no mind to worry about that now. When you're out in the world, you do what you have to... Besides, at least Chichiwa hadn't carried him in her arms all the way to camp.

Hanyu had learned his lesson this time. When facing an enemy like a puppeteer, he either had to keep them from getting close at all or be quicker and more agile than they were. Otherwise, it was easy to dodge an obvious attack, but hard to guard against a hidden one. Those puppeteers were always using poison—it was completely beneath a ninja's honor... All right, Monzaemon's conduct was perfectly in keeping with a ninja's code. Honorably facing an opponent—that was a joke. Weren't ninjas just underhanded creatures who stopped at nothing?

The first option was more reliable, but hard to pull off, since ninjas couldn't always avoid close combat. As for the second, it meant raising one's Taijutsu skills to a higher level. Honestly, that didn't seem like something that could be done overnight.

At any rate, for a Genin, Hanyu had already done everything he could. The only question was whether Konoha's elite Jonin team could take down Monzaemon.

Even now, Hanyu had the time to think about all this... After all, he wasn't the one running until his legs gave out. He was just being carried.

Chichiwa spared no effort and got Hanyu back to Konoha's camp at top speed, then hurriedly brought him into the front-line hospital.

The front-line hospital stood at the very center of Konoha's camp. It was the most important part of the camp after the command center.

"What happened?" A medical ninja in the hospital immediately asked when Chichiwa rushed in with Hanyu on her back... The pace at the front-line hospital was exceptionally fast. Medical ninjas got straight to the point and never wasted words if they could help it.

"Poisoned. It was Monzaemon of the Sand Village, a puppeteer. He didn't get much poison into him, and he's already had basic emergency treatment." Chichiwa quickly explained Hanyu's condition.

Hanyu's mind was perfectly clear, but he found that he couldn't open his mouth to speak... If there had been a mirror in front of him, he would have fully understood what it meant to have a face as black as a soot-covered pot.

At the mention of Monzaemon's name, the medical ninja said nothing more. He took Hanyu from Chichiwa and quickly carried him toward a tent at the back.

Chichiwa tried to follow, but the medical ninja stopped her with a hand. "We'll do everything we can to save him. Following us won't help. Wait here, and we'll inform you promptly no matter what happens."

Hanyu thought, Why did that sound so ominous?

Then he felt the wind rush past his ears before the medical ninja laid him on a hospital bed.

"Teacher Koga, this one was poisoned by Monzaemon." After setting Hanyu down, the medical ninja spoke to another medical ninja in the tent. It seemed the other man was the expert on antidotes.

At the call, Hanyu saw someone hurry over to him. He was sure he didn't know the man, yet the medical ninja recognized him at first glance.

"Hanyu?"

"Teacher Koga, you know him?" asked the first medical ninja. He hadn't expected this young man to be an acquaintance.

"No, this is the first time I've met him in person. But Sanshao has often told me about this boy... Poison from Monzaemon, you say? Give him the usual detoxification treatment first. I'll study the poison's composition."

As he spoke, Koga took a blood sample from Hanyu's arm, then quickly moved to a table covered with bottles and jars on the other side of the tent.

Everything looked so makeshift, yet the medical ninjas moved calmly and methodically. Hanyu finally relaxed... Not because he trusted the medical ninjas' sense of responsibility, nor because he trusted Konoha's advanced medical technology, but because he'd finally grasped a fundamental truth—he was connected.

Thanks to Sanshao, at least these two medical ninjas wouldn't give him halfhearted treatment or carelessly let him die.

A cool, vibrant sensation kept spreading through Hanyu's arm. Then the numbness faded, replaced by an unbearable burning sensation. The cool feeling began to struggle back and forth against the burning in his arm.

He knew the burning was the poison at work, while the coolness came from the medical ninja's Medical Ninjutsu. Since the medical ninja had driven away the numbness and was trying to suppress the poison's spread, that at least proved his Medical Ninjutsu was working.

"I've figured it out. It seems Monzaemon has been staying at the front lines this whole time, without returning to the Sand Village, so the poison he's using now hasn't changed much from the sample we got last time... This kid's lucky. He was poisoned, but we'll have an antidote ready soon." It didn't take Koga long to finish analyzing the poison, and he brought good news.

The poison used by puppeteers wasn't just vicious. More importantly, its formula varied constantly. Without extensive research, it was impossible to make an antidote. But even if they did manage to make one, the enemy would just use a different poison next time...

That was exactly why Koga said Hanyu was lucky.