"What's going on?" Yamanaka Daishan couldn't make sense of what he was seeing.
Could he have seen it wrong? But he quickly came to his senses. There was no time to dwell on it; the mission came first.
Without time to think, he instinctively caught the blood with his beak, but the little bird was instantly corroded away, and the blood fell to the ground again.
Naruto was focused entirely on Hinata, who hadn't noticed what was happening behind her.
He helped Hinata sit against a tree, then carefully lifted her hands.
The concern in his eyes practically spilled over.
Her hands were already covered in scratches, inflicted by the wild boar's bristles.
"Don't worry, Naruto. I'll be fine soon."
Seeing the look on Naruto's face, Hinata felt a little shy, but she was also very happy.
"It's okay. I'll blow on them for you." Naruto scratched his head and thought for a moment. Suddenly, an idea came to him.
He gently blew on Hinata's wounds.
Hinata was delighted, but soon realized that the wounds on her arm were slowly healing.
"Naruto-kun, you know Medical Ninjutsu?" Hinata blinked her big eyes, looking surprised.
"No. This is a special property of my own chakra," Naruto explained after a moment's thought.
Actually, this was the power of the Six Thief Immortals.
Naruto had now reached the level of the five organs. Each organ contained special chakra, and since the liver belonged to the Wood element, it was perfect for healing wounds.
So he could do what Medical Ninjutsu could.
"Cough, cough." Sasuke's voice came from farther away.
Only then did Naruto remember that he had another teammate lying there.
Naruto hurried over to Sasuke, who was lying on the ground.
"How are you?" Naruto asked with concern.
"I'm not dead yet." Sasuke felt an even sharper pain in his chest.
"That's good. If you can move, get up by yourself." Though he said that, Naruto still sent chakra into Sasuke's body to help heal him.
"You know Medical Ninjutsu?" Sasuke felt his body recovering and found it hard to believe.
"Yeah." Naruto didn't explain.
The three gathered around the wild boar on the ground.
"Let's take it back." The other two looked at Naruto. He shrugged and said helplessly,
Naruto went over to the boar Hinata had hunted and easily lifted it with one hand. After a moment's thought, he made several Shadow Clones.
"I can do it myself." Sasuke was annoyed by what Naruto was doing.
"Don't waste time here. Use it to go back and train properly." Naruto rolled his eyes, knowing Sasuke's stubborn streak had flared up again.
Sasuke said nothing, which meant he agreed.
After the three had gone some distance, two figures suddenly appeared there.
"Daishan, are you sure you're not lying? Where exactly is the blood?" Though he knew Daishan wouldn't lie, he still found it hard to imagine that what Yamanaka Daishan had described was real.
Yamanaka Daishan was already tired of explaining. If he hadn't felt it himself, he wouldn't have believed it either.
Yamanaka Daishan soon reached the spot where Naruto had been standing.
There was a small hole in the ground, so inconspicuous that it was almost impossible to notice without looking closely. He took out a Sealing Scroll and retrieved a glass container for blood. He didn't know whether it could hold the other person's blood, but they had no choice but to try.
They retrieved the blood. It was still as full and eerie as when it had first flowed out. Seeing it with their own eyes was different from merely sensing it. Both of them could feel the chakra contained in the blood.
Just as Torune was about to say something, the other man stopped him. The two took the container and quickly left.
"Are you sure this is a Jinchūriki's blood?" Torune still found it hard to believe that this could be human blood.
"There's no mistake." Yamanaka Daishan nodded. Both men felt weighed down. They had seen all kinds of strange things in Root. Hashirama Cells were strange enough: once they entered another living being's body, they devoured it and eventually turned it into a tree. But what they had seen today had shattered their understanding of the world.
"Don't dwell on it. Let's go back and hand it over to Lord Danzo." They both knew they had stumbled upon some incredible secret.
Naruto had no idea that Danzo had set his sights on him once again.
This was already on the outskirts of the village, so they soon returned to Root's base. When they went to report the mission, surprise flashed through Danzo's single eye. He hadn't expected things to go so smoothly.
But when Danzo saw that drop of blood, the shock in his single eye nearly made him blurt something out. Fortunately, as Root's leader, he couldn't lose face in front of his subordinates.
He took several deep breaths in secret before he managed to calm himself.
"Did you see with your own eyes that this came from a Jinchūriki?" Danzo asked skeptically.
"Yes, sir. Uzumaki Naruto was injured unconsciously while trying to save Hinata from danger, and this blood was left behind." Yamanaka Daishan didn't dare hide anything and carefully described what had happened.
After hearing the whole story, Danzo sat in silence, lost in thought.
"You may leave." After saying that, Danzo sat there and began to think.
The two withdrew silently.
Danzo was left alone in the vast, dark hall, sitting and thinking.
"The Senju Clan, the Uchiha Clan, the Uzumaki Clan... What secrets do they hold? Or are only certain individuals among them special?" Danzo couldn't help but ponder. Naruto's situation had made him suspicious. There was no need to mention the Senju Clan—Hashirama had been especially remarkable. As for the Uchiha Clan, although Danzo had never studied Madara Uchiha, he had read countless records about him and naturally knew how exceptional he was. And now another Uzumaki, Naruto Uzumaki, had appeared. It made Danzo wonder whether these were all exceptional cases.
After an unknown amount of time, Danzo stood and headed toward the deeper levels of Root.
He held Naruto's drop of blood in his hand. In the darkness underground, its unusual nature appeared even more eerie. Looking closely, one could clearly see that it gave off a faint red glow.
Danzo couldn't help but stop.
He slowly unwound the bandages over his right eye, revealing a Three-Tomoe Sharingan, and stared intently at the blood in his hand.
Apart from the chakra it contained, he couldn't see anything else.
The Three-Tomoe Sharingan slowly spun, and its tomoe eventually joined together to form a four-pointed pinwheel: Shisui Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan.
Looking at the red blood in his hand again, he could now see not only the red chakra but also a miniature Nine-Tails roaring at him.
"Is this the Nine-Tails' influence?" A flicker of confusion passed through Danzo's eyes.
He had never studied the previous two Jinchūriki, so he didn't know whether they had been like Naruto Uzumaki.
He continued deeper into Root.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, he reached a stone door and went inside. A researcher was in there, studying something.