Visit

Fortunately, the doctor had only been building up to the point. He continued, "Your condition isn't that serious, though. Compared to when you first arrived at the hospital, the marks on your body have already faded a little in just a few hours, so they'll disappear before long."

Could it really be that simple? Hanyu looked doubtful.

"If you're still worried about your condition, my advice is to get your chakra under control as soon as possible and use your own energy to resist the foreign influence. That's the most orthodox way to handle it." Seeing Hanyu's concern, the doctor offered his advice.

"I understand." With the matter put that plainly, Hanyu could only nod.

Chakra, shinobi—everything was so unfamiliar. Hanyu knew a little about the Hokage and the Shinobi World, but that knowledge came solely from the manga he'd read as a teenager in his previous life. Putting aside how accurate his memories were at this point, could the pictures on a page and the text of a story possibly compare to the sheer amount of information in a real world?

So Hanyu knew his memories could only serve as a reference, never as the basis for understanding the world.

"You can rest easy and recover here in the hospital. After all, a rare specimen like you is quite valuable for research." The doctor said it half-jokingly. Medical-nin were among the busiest types of shinobi, and he couldn't stay there chatting with Hanyu forever. But before turning to leave, he seemed to remember something and pulled a small glass bottle from his pocket.

"Oh, right. These are the fragments that were removed from your body earlier. You can keep them as a little memento." With that, the doctor left the room.

Hanyu stared blankly at the glass bottle. A layer of tiny blades covered its bottom. The largest were about the size of a fingernail, while the smallest were no bigger than clipped nails.

Looking at them, he suddenly realized something. When the Second had attacked him without warning, Hanyu had been carrying the ninja tools that belonged to the Cloud Village's rogue ninja, Kinkaku and Ginkaku. He couldn't remember what they were called, but he knew they could be traced back to the ancestor of the Shinobi World.

The gourd and the cleaver had both been made and used by the Sage of Six Paths.

Perhaps it was metal fatigue, or perhaps they'd simply gone past their expiration date after so many years. Whatever the reason, the two items had shattered beneath the Second's Water Severing Wave... And in this world, there was a rule: anything or any event connected to the Sage of Six Paths was either incredibly fortunate or utterly disastrous.

Hanyu had been covered in fragments from the shattered ninja tools. And their previous owners had always liked to cut things up and store all kinds of strange things inside them... At this point, Hanyu wasn't worried about chakra contamination anymore. He was worried about "cross-contamination."

With that in mind, Hanyu gently tugged at a bandage on his body. Beneath it, the tiny wound bore the same black marks of corruption.

So that was it.

Hanyu had known things wouldn't be so simple. But now, all he could do was hope the doctor was right and the marks would fade away on their own before long.

His concerns weren't baseless; they were well-founded. The problem was that he was worrying about something too far in the future... The crisis wasn't just something that might happen later. It was already unfolding right now.

Not long after the doctor left the room, another unexpected visitor arrived.

"Hanyu Yu... That's your name, right?"

"You are..." Hanyu recognized the young man in front of him, but forced down his surprise and pretended he knew nothing about him. Shimura Danzō, the shadow beneath Konoha's light. Of course, the young Danzō might not yet have reached the level he would later attain, but there was no denying that something about his face was unsettling.

"Shimura Danzō." The other man gave his name, then explained why he had come. "I have to say, Hanyu, your arrival and the news about the Second are both significant events, not just for Konoha but for the entire Shinobi World."

"N-no, it's not that important..."

Shimura Danzō cut off his pointless modesty. "I'm not praising you. I'm simply stating a fact. At a time like this, with the Shinobi World War underway, an event has taken place that could significantly affect the course of the war. Whether it's the alliance between the Cloud Village and Konoha, or the further deterioration of relations between them due to the deaths of the Hokage and Raikage, either could shape the course of the world. And now, you're the only person who knows what happened at the alliance ceremony."

"It's not just news about the Hokage. There's also the Raikage, not to mention Kinkaku and Ginkaku, the rogue ninja from the Cloud Village who attacked him. Every shinobi village wants this intelligence... and it's in your hands."

The more Hanyu heard, the more wrong it sounded. He couldn't help frowning. "Wait. Aside from the Hokage's whereabouts, I don't know anything about the other things you mentioned."

What Hanyu said was true, but his explanation seemed utterly unconvincing to Danzō. He continued, "No. As long as Konoha believes you know everything, then in the eyes of the other villages, you know everything... The moment you brought back news of the Hokage, the situation was already out of your hands."

"I'm just an insignificant nobody..."

"Whether in wartime or peacetime, Konoha always sends spies to hostile and potentially hostile villages, including the Cloud Village, the Mist Village, and the Sand Village. The other villages do the same to Konoha. No matter how tightly we secure our defenses, it's impossible to put a stop to it."

"So, without even realizing it, I've become bait?" Hanyu said. By now, Danzō's purpose was clear. "To find out what happened at the alliance ceremony, judge what will happen next between Konoha and the Cloud Village, and make further predictions about how the war will unfold, spies from other villages hiding in Konoha will all come after me, the 'witness,' right?"

Events had ultimately gone beyond what Hanyu had expected.

Shimura Danzō didn't answer directly. Instead, he said, "The spies have no reason to ignore intelligence this important, even if it means risking exposure... And when they begin gathering in one place, that's the perfect opportunity for Konoha to root them out."

An unfathomable light flickered in his eyes. His tone made it clear he wasn't discussing anything; he was simply announcing a "plan already set in stone."