"Your mind seems perfectly clear, so the antidote should definitely do the trick." As he spoke, Koga injected Hanyu with a carefully prepared, potent antidote. The pallor of Hanyu's face quickly faded, and color returned to his cheeks.
Don't think medical ninjas treated injuries too quickly. Most cases of ninja poisoning went about like this... either the poison was neutralized on the spot, or it could never be neutralized at all.
"Next..."
"I know. Next, I need to drink lots of hot water." Hanyu had regained his sense of his body and immediately guessed what medical advice the medical ninja was about to give him.
Koga smiled. "Yes, more or less. Eat and drink plenty. Speeding up your metabolism will help you recover as quickly as possible."
Of course, it wasn't as simple as drinking hot water. Hanyu was no longer in any mortal danger, but to flush the remaining toxins from his body completely, he'd need both medicine and dietary therapy.
"Overall, you were lucky. The only one you ran into was Monzaemon. He's the most old-fashioned puppeteer in the Sand Village, but not the strongest. The strongest one's poison isn't so easy to neutralize."
Hanyu froze for a moment, then realized the strongest puppeteer he meant was probably Chiyo... Although Chiyo had been thoroughly countered by Konoha's Slug Princess during the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars, making them seem like rivals of the same generation, in reality, Chiyo was the same age as the Third Hokage.
And even looking back from the future, Chiyo was still the strongest puppeteer. As for the present, perhaps her poisoning techniques hadn't yet reached the heights they would later, but Konoha would still struggle to counter them even if it committed all its resources. On this battlefield, she was the Sand Village's deadliest weapon.
"Whoever I ran into, it wouldn't have made much difference to me right now. Either way, I was on the brink of death," Hanyu said. Being poisoned to death was probably the most frustrating way for a ninja to die. A tiny trick from the enemy could kill you without a sound. If that was the choice, Hanyu would rather fight with everything he had and then get chopped into pieces by a puppet. At least he'd have fallen fighting, which felt more heroic.
"Anyway, stay here for a few days. Don't be too hard on yourself. Plenty of ninjas end up in the hospital after their first time on the battlefield. And a great many rookies don't even make it back to the hospital." Koga might have been trying to comfort Hanyu, or he might simply have been laying out the brutal truth.
Hanyu wasn't blaming himself. What could he have done against a ninja like Monzaemon? It was only when Koga reminded him that he realized how it had gone: he'd arrived at the front that morning, headed onto the battlefield at noon, and ended up in the hospital by nightfall... It was a little too much of a "one-stop service."
Once the antidote had been administered, Hanyu was moved to an ordinary ward. There were no facilities like Konoha Hospital back in the village on the front lines. The so-called ward was nothing more than a large tent crammed with beds.
But Hanyu hadn't expected to run into someone he knew there.
"Hatake, what are you doing here? Were you injured too?" The "patient" lying in the bed next to Hanyu was none other than Hatake Sakumo, whom he hadn't seen in quite some time.
"Hanyu? You were sent to the front too?"
"I'm fine. I'm just... a little malnourished." After hearing someone call his name, Hatake Sakumo, who was lying in bed, struggled to lift his head. Then he looked at Hanyu in surprise.
Hatake was hooked up to an IV. He was startlingly thin, and his voice was weak.
"Malnourished?" Hanyu was puzzled. How could a ninja on the front lines come down with such an unusual condition? It was much rarer than getting poisoned, surely. And looking at Hatake, he seemed less malnourished than starved down to skin and bones.
"Yeah." Hatake nodded, then briefly explained his current situation.
It turned out that a month earlier, he'd taken part in an assault on the Sand Village. During the chaos, he'd become separated from Konoha's main force. Then, when the battle ended, he missed his chance to retreat with the others, leaving him stranded in territory controlled by the Sand Village.
With Sand ninjas all around him, Hatake had no choice but to lie low while looking for an opportunity to break through and return to Konoha-held territory. But the Sand Village's defenses were too tight, and he ended up hiding for a whole month. Before long, his supplies ran out.
And while behind enemy lines, he could only keep still. He couldn't make a commotion trying to get supplies, so he'd fallen into a state of "malnutrition." Only after a month had passed did he finally find a chance to make it back to Konoha's side. And so, a tearjerking ninja version of Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey had played out before them.
Honestly, Hatake Sakumo's ordeal had been utterly miserable. Hunger and starvation were among the most painful things a person could endure. Anyone who'd gone through that deserved praise for his willpower, along with sympathy and respect for what he'd suffered. And yet...
Hanyu burst out laughing, then laughed louder and louder.
Sorry, he just couldn't hold it in.
All it took was a little imagination: the stern, unsmiling, powerful "White Fang of the Leaf," who would later dominate the Shinobi World, had nearly starved to death. And then there was Hatake, lying in bed with such an innocent, miserable look on his face... The farce and absurdity of war had come vividly to life.
"Sorry, I'm not laughing at you. I... I'm not really happy. My laughter is just a defense mechanism."
No matter how much Hanyu denied it, seeing someone stronger than him suffer even worse made him feel inexplicably better.
Hatake Sakumo was annoyed by Hanyu's laughter, but he wasn't angry. Hanyu obviously wasn't laughing at him; at most, he was teasing him. In wartime, you had to find ways to laugh through the pain. Being the punchline and relieving a friend's stress wasn't so bad... especially since Hatake couldn't get up and do anything about it in his current condition.
Once Hanyu had laughed enough, Hatake asked, "What happened to you?"
"Me? I only arrived at the front today, and then I got poisoned almost immediately. I nearly ended up going onto the battlefield in the morning and being cremated by nightfall." As he spoke, Hanyu raised his injured arm to show him.
After that, the two fell silent for a long time. Their experiences were only a tiny part of the war.
Hanyu certainly didn't like war. But at this point, he suddenly realized that perhaps he didn't hate it either. It was a strange feeling. He'd nearly died on the battlefield, yet his conclusion was still that he "didn't hate it." Only when sitting at a gambling table could he truly understand a gambler's mindset.
Deep down, there was a part of Hanyu that was remarkably indifferent to life.
Not long after, Chichiwa, along with Nara Nagisa and Renjuro, who had withdrawn from the battlefield, came to Hanyu's ward.
"Hanyu, are you all right?" Nara asked.
"Yeah, they neutralized the poison." Hanyu first assured him that he was fine, then turned to Chichiwa. "Chichiwa, thank you—for warning me earlier and for getting me back here in time."
In a way, Chichiwa had played a vital role in that brief clash. She simply nodded at Hanyu's thanks and said nothing more.
"I'm fine. I just have to stay in the ward for a few days. That's a good thing for everyone; at least you'll get a few days of rest." Hanyu made another ill-timed joke.
Without him, the squad couldn't operate, unless the command headquarters planned to disband it outright.
"By the way, how's the battle going? Did they take out Monzaemon?" Hanyu asked.
"We hadn't heard anything by the time we pulled out," Nara said.
"...I see?"
Everyone knew that was just a tactful way of putting it. Not having heard anything meant Monzaemon had probably escaped, and the jonin squad had failed its mission.
Before you continue