Pain Makes People Happy

"Your consciousness seems quite clear; in that case, there will certainly be no problem with 'the medicine curing the illness'." As he spoke, Koga injected a properly prepared, potent antidote into Hanyu's body. Following this, the iron-blue pallor of his face quickly returned to a healthy complexion.

Do not think that medical ninjas handle conditions too quickly, because the situation for most poisoned ninjas is generally like this... either it is neutralized on the spot, or it can never be neutralized at all.

"Next..."

"I know, next is to drink more hot water." Hanyu regained perception of his body and immediately guessed the medical advice the medical ninja was about to give.

Koga smiled. "Yes, that is the general idea. Eat and drink more to accelerate the body's metabolism, which will help you recover as quickly as possible."

Of course, it could not be as simple as just drinking hot water. Hanyu was no longer in any life-threatening danger, but to completely eliminate the residual toxins in his body, both medicinal treatment and dietary therapy had to be coordinated.

"Overall, you are lucky. You only encountered Monzaemon. He is the most old-school puppeteer of the Sand Village, but he is not the strongest. The poison of the latter is not so easy to neutralize."

Hanyu was stunned for a moment before he realized that the "strongest puppeteer" the other party was referring to must be Chiyo... Although Chiyo was held firmly in check by the Slug Princess of Konoha during the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars, giving the impression that they were rivals of the same generation, in fact, in terms of age, Chiyo was of the same generation as the Third Hokage.

Moreover, even from the perspective of later times, Chiyo was the strongest puppeteer. As for the present, perhaps her poison-using techniques had not yet reached the absolute pinnacle they would later attain, but they were still of the type that Konoha could hardly neutralize with all its might at this time—on this battlefield, she was the most lethal weapon of the Sand Village.

"No matter who I encounter, it makes no difference to me right now; it is just a matter of life hanging by a thread," Hanyu said. Being poisoned to death should be the most stifling way for a ninja to die; the enemy could kill someone silently with just a small trick. Rather than that, Hanyu felt it would be better to fight with all his might and be chopped into pieces by a puppet. At least that would be dying in battle, which felt more heroic.

"In any case, just stay here for a few days. Don't be too hard on yourself. Ninjas who are sent to the hospital after their first time on the battlefield are everywhere, and there is even a large portion of newcomers who don't even get the chance to return to the hospital." It was unclear whether Koga's words were meant to comfort Hanyu or if he was simply laying out the cruelest of facts.

Hanyu was not blaming himself; after all, having encountered a ninja of Monzaemon's caliber, what else could he have done? Even under Koga's reminder, he recalled the situation: he had arrived at the front line today, walked onto the battlefield at noon, and was sent to the hospital by evening... This was a bit too much of a "one-stop service."

After the detoxification was completed, Hanyu was subsequently sent to a general ward. On the front line, there were no conditions like those at the Konoha Hospital in the village; the so-called ward was nothing more than a large tent filled with hospital beds.

However, what Hanyu did not expect was that he would run into an acquaintance here.

"Hatake, why are you here? Are you injured too?" The "patient" lying in the bed adjacent to Hanyu was none other than Hatake Sakumo, whom he had not seen for some time.

"Hanyu? You were also transferred to the front line?"

"I'm fine, it's just... a bit of malnutrition." Hatake Sakumo, lying on the bed, managed to lift his head with difficulty after hearing someone call his name, and then he looked at Hanyu with some surprise.

Hatake was currently receiving an IV drip; his figure was exceptionally thin, and his voice was very weak.

"Malnutrition?" Hanyu was a bit surprised. Why would a front-line ninja suffer from such a miraculous disease? This was even rarer than being poisoned. And judging by Hatake's appearance, it was less like malnutrition and more like he had starved to the point of being skin and bones.

"Yeah." Hatake nodded and then gave a brief explanation of his current situation.

It turned out that a month ago, he had participated in an offensive operation against the Sand Village, but in the chaos, he became separated from the main Konoha force. Furthermore, after the battle ended, he missed the opportunity to withdraw with the main army, which meant he was trapped in the area controlled by the Sand Village.

Because he was surrounded by Sand Village ninjas, Hatake had no choice but to hide while looking for an opportunity to open a path back to Konoha's sphere of influence. However, because the Sand Village's defenses were too tight, he remained in hiding for a whole month. Gradually, Hatake's supplies were exhausted.

Moreover, in enemy-occupied territory, he had to remain silent and could not make any big moves to obtain supplies, thus falling into a state of "malnutrition." It wasn't until a month later that he finally found an opportunity to return to the Konoha side, and thus, a moving, epic version of a ninja's "homeward journey" was staged.

To be honest, Hatake Sakumo's experience was incredibly miserable. Starvation was one of the most painful experiences for a human being, and one should certainly praise the willpower of Hatake Sakumo for having gone through such a thing, and hold his experience with sympathy and respect. However...

Hanyu burst into laughter, and then laughed louder and louder.

Sorry, he really couldn't help it.

Just by associating the serious, unsmiling, powerful "White Fang of the Leaf" who would later dominate the ninja world with the fact that he had almost starved to death, and then looking at the innocent, miserable appearance of Hatake lying on the bed... the comedy and absurdity of war were vividly presented.

"Sorry, I don't mean to laugh at you, I... I am not truly happy, my laughter is just a protective color."

No matter how much Hanyu denied it, after seeing that someone stronger than himself was in an even more miserable state, his mood inexplicably improved.

This laughter made Hatake Sakumo feel depressed, but it did not make him angry. Hanyu's laughter could not possibly be mockery; at most, it was just teasing. During wartime, it was nothing more than finding joy in bitterness. Being a source of amusement to relieve a friend's pressure was not bad... who told Hatake that his current physical condition made it impossible for him to fight back directly.

"What about you, Hanyu? What happened to you?" After Hanyu finished laughing, Hatake asked.

"Me? I arrived at the front line today, and then immediately got poisoned. I almost ended up going to the battlefield in the morning and being cremated in the evening." As he spoke, Hanyu raised his injured arm to show the other party.

After this sentence, a long silence fell between the two. Their experiences were but a tiny, insignificant part of the war.

Hanyu certainly did not like war, yet at this moment, he suddenly discovered that he did not seem to hate it either. This was a truly strange feeling; he had almost died on the battlefield, yet the conclusion he reached was "not hate." Only when sitting at the gambling table could he truly understand the gambler's mentality.

Deep in his nature, Hanyu had a rather indifferent side toward life.

Not long after, Chichiwa, along with Nara Nagisa and Renjuro who had withdrawn from the battlefield, arrived at Hanyu's ward.

"Hanyu, are you alright?" Nara asked Hanyu.

"Yeah, the poison has been neutralized." Hanyu first indicated that he was fine, then he said to Chichiwa, "Chichiwa, thank you, both for the earlier warning and for sending me back in time."

In a sense, Chichiwa had played a very important role in this brief engagement. Hearing Hanyu's gratitude, she just nodded without saying much.

"There's nothing wrong with my body, it's just that I have to stay in the ward for a few days. This is a good thing for everyone; at least you can rest for a few days," Hanyu said, though this was another ill-timed joke.

In his absence, this squad naturally could not operate, unless the operations headquarters was prepared to disband the squad just like that.

"By the way, how is the battle situation? Was Monzaemon taken care of?" Hanyu asked again.

"We didn't get any news when we withdrew," Nara said.

"...Is that so?"

Actually, everyone knew that this was just a euphemism. Not getting any news meant that it was very likely that Monzaemon had successfully escaped and the jonin squad's mission had failed.