Meeting

After thinking it over for a long time, Qi ultimately gave up on the idea of turning Yakushi Kabuto into one of his own.

As the only top-tier puppet master capable of creating human puppets, Sasori's control techniques over the human brain were first-rate. Although Orochimaru had successfully removed the jutsu placed in Kabuto's brain in the original story, Orochimaru had once been Sasori's companion and knew enough about Sasori's methods. Qi did not have that advantage. If he casually made a move against Kabuto under these circumstances, this future double agent and medical genius would most likely fail to have the technique removed and die on the spot. Without sufficient evidence proving Kabuto was a spy, even Qi would have a hard time explaining himself.

Of course, that was not the main point. The real reason was that Qi had always felt the chances of making Kabuto loyal to Konoha were far too low. There was no need to offend Yakushi Zen over it.

The current head of Konoha's Medical Corps was a truly important figure. Unlike Tsunade, who had first been a ninja before taking the medical path, Yakushi Zen was the complete opposite. He had studied medicine first and had already become a highly skilled physician before becoming a ninja.

That resulted in the old man possessing extraordinary prestige. Tsunade was certainly famous, but that was within the ninja world. Yakushi Zen, on the other hand, was immensely renowned even among ordinary people. Tsunade's medical ninjutsu was ninjutsu first and medicine second; she had killed more people than she had saved. Yakushi Zen, however, fully lived up to the "Zen" in his name. To him, saving lives was the proper thing to do, while killing was only ever a last resort.

Therefore, if one asked whose reputation