Choice

"Congratulations on successfully completing the surgery, Director Chosokabe. It's an honor to serve as your assistant, and I'm grateful you gave me such a valuable opportunity to learn."

As the lead surgeon, Soji didn't let his momentary success go to his head.

He stuck to his humble, cautious approach. Not only did he have no intention of gloating or retaliating against those who had wronged him, he even began by crediting his superior with the main share of the success.

First "congratulations," then "thank you."

The clear chain of logic made it plain that the surgery had achieved such gratifying results only under the wise leadership of the director.

As for the young man himself, he had merely made a small contribution, a single screw in the structure of a much larger project. It was hardly worth mentioning...

Any ordinary superior would have been delighted to have a subordinate as capable and tactful as Soji.

Whatever they truly thought in their hearts, all they needed to do was offer a few words of encouragement, then make some promises about future prospects. Their relationship would become exceptionally warm in an instant; they might even have been ready to swear an oath of brotherhood on the spot!

But Chosokabe Masayuki didn't play along...

The old man adjusted his hearing aid, closed his eyes halfway, and sat quietly behind his desk, without saying a word for a long while.

Considering this reaction alongside the twists and turns before and after the surgery, Soji, perceptive as ever, immediately realized what was wrong.

So he swallowed all the other flowery pleasantries, remained slightly bent forward, and kept silent as well.

...After a long pause, the old director pressed one hand against the desktop and braced the other against its corner. At last, he broke the silence.

"The liver repair surgery was highly successful. The patient is recovering, and barring any unforeseen complications, you've saved the Uchiha's life."

Those were kind words, but there was clearly no positive sentiment behind them.

So when Soji spoke again, he dropped his earlier pleasantries and addressed the matter directly.

"The Filth-Licking Technique is far from perfect. Our success this time was partly due to luck, and I also owe a great deal to your guidance and support, Director."

"What's good is good, and what works works. You deserve more than ninety percent of the credit for that surgery. I have no habit of taking credit for someone else's work."

"You're too kind."

"I haven't finished speaking!"

The old man curled his fingers into a fist, and the corners of his eyes tilted upward. His solemn expression radiated the authority he had built up over years of running Konoha Hospital.

...By this point in the conversation, Soji had more or less guessed what the other man was thinking.

But this time, the usually tactful young man had no intention of compromising.

"If there's a problem, please say it plainly. I'll answer everything you ask."

"Good! Then answer me this. When the patient's vital signs began to fluctuate, you chose to continue the surgery. If the Filth-Licking Technique had failed, how sure were you that you could keep the patient alive?"

"If the treatment technique hadn't worked as intended, I would have immediately asked you and the other experienced doctors to help stabilize the patient." Soji's tone was firm, but he didn't raise his head or give a direct answer.

"I asked how sure you were!" the old man pressed.

"The surgery carried risks from the start. Given the circumstances, all I could do was my best," Soji replied, still evading the question.

"You were gambling with the patient's life!"

"I was racing against death."

One sought to save a person; the other, to treat an illness.

Setting aside the undercurrents beyond the operating room, the conflict between the young man and the old director came down to their differing philosophies of medical care.

Director Chosokabe believed that a patient's life must be protected above all else. If an immature treatment strategy was recklessly applied and worsened the patient's condition, it would violate the principle of putting people first—and constitute the gravest dereliction of a doctor's duty!

From Yamada Soji's perspective, however, eliminating the illness within a patient might require taking risks and using more aggressive treatment methods in extreme cases. Any consequences that followed had to be accepted without flinching.

The debate between procedural justice and justice in outcome had raged since time immemorial...

These two concepts began from different premises, and neither was inherently right or wrong.

But that was precisely what made the issue so troublesome!

The open-ended nature of the problem meant that neither side could easily persuade the other.

If they forced the debate to continue, they would likely end up listing case studies and technical analyses to support their positions. At that point, the issue would only grow more complicated!

Yet even though Soji knew all this, he still didn't fall back on his usual roundabout tactics when he answered.

...To be sure, with his eloquence, he could have been vague and shifted the meaning of things, easily talking his way out of trouble with a bit of wordplay.

But that sort of clever improvisation was only useful in ordinary circumstances. Given the situation, showing off his verbal skills would have insulted both their intelligence!

In fact, the director's words sounded more like judgments than questions.

This showed that the seasoned director, with his deep medical knowledge and life experience, had already judged Soji's actions before he ever opened his mouth.

Now that the old man was asking him directly, he wasn't really seeking confirmation from the person involved so much as giving the young man a chance to express himself.

...Once someone had made up his mind, there was little point in talking at length.

Given that both sides had already laid their cards on the table, the best strategy left to the young man was simply to tell the truth.

Besides, compared to the obscure Ninja Academy student he had been half a year ago, Yamada Soji was no longer the same person.

Saving a member of the Uchiha Clan was already enough to serve as his stepping stone to advancement. Even if Director Chosokabe disagreed with the young man's philosophy, the broader conflict between the old and new factions meant he couldn't casually make an example of him!

If he stubbornly insisted on doing so, he would provoke an all-out confrontation between the Conservative Faction and the younger generation. Even from a purely practical standpoint, the old guard had no desire to see the upheaval that would follow!

It was precisely because the general momentum was on his side that Soji had, for the first time, expressed his principles so directly.

To some extent, he had even stood on equal footing with the old director!

But at the same time...

It meant that their disagreement had grown beyond a clash of positions into a deeper conflict, one that would become increasingly apparent over the coming months!

At the thought, the young man couldn't help feeling a little helpless.

For Yamada Soji, who had come from humble beginnings, building alliances was crucial if he wanted to seize the moment and rise to a position of power.

Rather than defeat his enemies, he would much rather turn them into allies.

But life rarely went the way people wanted.

Soji had seized his opportunity and temporarily escaped the danger of fighting on the front lines. Yet on the more hidden "second battlefield," a clash of philosophies was quietly brewing—a dispute over the future direction of Konoha's medical system...

And the Konoha Ninja of the present could hardly have guessed that the upheaval it caused would eventually change the course of the Second Shinobi World War!

...Compared with such grand narratives, distant and intangible, people were more interested in concrete matters right in front of them.

For instance, an eleven-year-old Ninja Academy student had invented a new form of Medical Ninjutsu.

Or that Uchiha Fugaku, the son of an Uchiha Clan elder, had been treated and was now out of danger.