Protective, Treatment, Gains

"Tsunade, you're being far too reckless! Is this a place you can come and go as you please?" Danzo seized the chance to question Tsunade.

But Tsunade did not spare him a glance. She focused intently on examining Taiichi's injuries, then sent her chakra into his body to check for internal damage.

Seeing this, Chi Xiao hurriedly said to the Hokage, "Hokage-sama, if there's nothing else, I'll be taking my leave."

"Alright. You should go get some rest too. You've been busy all night," the Hokage said with concern.

"It was my duty." With that, Chi Xiao left the Hokage's Office.

Tsunade finished examining Taiichi and immediately frowned. "How did your chakra pathways sustain such serious damage? Do you have any idea how dangerous this is? Do you not want to be a ninja anymore? And you were still here giving a report!" Tsunade rebuked him harshly.

Taiichi was startled by her words. Were the injuries inside my body really that serious?

Hiruzen Sarutobi asked anxiously, "What is it, Tsunade? Is it serious? Taiichi looks perfectly fine to me."

Danzo sneered inwardly. If I can't have him, then it would be best if he were ruined.

"The external injuries are minor. The serious damage is internal. Prolonged, high-intensity use of ninjutsu overloaded his chakra pathways and pushed them to the brink of collapse." Tsunade's expression was grave. "I need to take him to the hospital for treatment immediately."

"Then go, quickly!" The Hokage no longer cared about anything else and urged Tsunade on. Such a promising talent could not be ruined by something like this.

Watching Tsunade leave the office with Taiichi, Sarutobi spoke first. "What do you all think about this? Do you have any leads?"

"I think Cloud Village is most likely behind this. Last time, they failed to abduct Kushina, so this time they came to steal children from other bloodline families. Sarutobi, we absolutely cannot let them off this time."

"No matter who did it, we must retaliate." x2

Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura likewise supported retaliation. If this could happen to the Kurama Family today, it could happen to the Hyuga Family tomorrow. The day after that, it might happen to their own families.

If they did not retaliate, once the other families learned of it, everyone would feel endangered. Once people's hearts scattered, the team would become difficult to lead.

Besides, Konoha was no longer the Konoha desperately recovering after the Third Shinobi World War. Konoha's current upper echelon consisted of ninja in their prime, all of them high-spirited and proud.

"Then it's settled. We'll wait for the Interrogation Department's final confirmation and see which village dared to do such a thing!" Hiruzen Sarutobi made the final decision.

Outside the Hokage Building.

"Tsunade, are my injuries really that serious?" Taiichi finally asked after holding it in for so long. He was beginning to wonder whether he had learned Medical Ninjutsu incorrectly.

Tsunade rolled her eyes at him. "If I hadn't said that, would you have gotten out of that mud pit? Would Danzo have let you go?" It turned out that Tsunade had heard the conversation inside before entering the room, which was why she had devised this plan to take Taiichi away.

"Thank you, Tsunade." Taiichi felt deeply grateful that she had considered him so carefully.

"Don't be happy too soon. Your chakra pathways really are badly injured. You'll definitely need to stay in the hospital for a few days to recuperate. Also, who did this bandaging? Other than serving as an emergency measure, it's completely useless." Looking at the bandages around Taiichi's body, Tsunade mocked them without mercy.

"Ah, I still have to be hospitalized?" Taiichi immediately drooped in disappointment. Being hospitalized would waste several more days.

Konoha Hospital was as crowded as ever. After arriving, Tsunade personally handled Taiichi's admission procedures and brought him to the Trauma Department.

This was the very department where Taiichi had once interned. Yet this time, he had come not as a healer, but as a patient. Life truly was unpredictable.

Director Fujita, who had treated him before, was the one receiving Taiichi. When she saw Tsunade leading in a Taiichi covered head to toe in bandages, she was utterly astonished.

"Taiichi, I never expected us to meet again like this!" Director Fujita teased.

"Director, please don't make fun of me. I'll have to trouble you with all these injuries," Taiichi said awkwardly.

"Alright, sit over there." Director Fujita pointed at a nearby chair. "Nanako, bring over all the wound-cleaning tools."

"Well then, Fujita." Tsunade pointed outside. "I'll leave Taiichi to you. I'll wait outside."

"Alright, don't worry." Fujita did not even turn around as she began cutting away Taiichi's messy old bandages.

"Ah—It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!" Taiichi wailed miserably. He had not felt it so much in battle, but now the pain was nearly unbearable. "Director, be gentler! I'm injured!"

"You're already a ninja, yet you're still so afraid of pain. Aren't you ashamed to scream so loudly?" Director Fujita scolded.

But as more and more bandages came off, Fujita fell silent. There were simply too many wounds.

Once all the extra bandages had been removed and Taiichi's injuries were fully exposed, Fujita and the young nurse Nanako both sucked in a sharp breath.

Taiichi had as many as eleven lacerations of varying sizes across his body. The most dangerous one had narrowly missed an artery in his arm. A difference of only a few millimeters would have resulted in massive blood loss.

They hurriedly began carefully cleaning the wounds and stitching up the larger ones. It took nearly an hour before all his injuries were finally treated.

At that point, Fujita and Nanako looked at Taiichi with admiration. Not every ninja could endure injuries like these. Judging by the placement of the wounds, Taiichi could only have received them through direct, face-to-face combat with an enemy.

Taiichi finally breathed a sigh of relief as well. It was not that he could not endure pain; watching someone stitch him up with needle and thread was truly a form of torture.

After bidding Director Fujita farewell, Taiichi met up with Tsunade outside and headed for the inpatient ward.

Lying on the bed, Taiichi began receiving Tsunade's specialized treatment. Her gentle Mystical Palm Technique settled over him like a warm spring breeze, soothing his chakra pathways and easing the pain in them.

Taiichi hummed comfortably as he recounted everything that had happened that day to Tsunade in detail.

When Tsunade heard how Taiichi had devised a plan to defeat the first Special Jonin, she could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. But when she heard that a severely injured Jonin had appeared afterward, her heart, which had just settled, rose into her throat again.

By the time she finally finished listening to Taiichi's account, Tsunade felt more exhausted than if she had fought a battle herself.

By then, Tsunade's treatment had ended. After giving Taiichi a few instructions, she prepared to leave.

She had plenty of matters of her own to handle. If she had not heard about Taiichi's situation, she would already have been wreaking havoc at the casino.

Just as Tsunade stepped out the door, Taiichi called after her. "Tsunade, please help me find my supervising Jonin. His name is Masasuke Yamaguchi. We were supposed to meet at nine tomorrow morning for a mission, but I'll probably need to take leave now."

"Alright, I got it. What a bother..." Her voice drifted back from afar.

After Tsunade left, Taiichi was alone in the hospital room. At last, he could check the gains from this battle after filtering out the unimportant panel notifications.

[Your Constitution attribute +2]

[Your Hatake Style Kenjutsu skill has improved. Experience +500]

[Enlightenment in battle. Your Fire Nature Transformation +500]

[Enlightenment in battle. Your Wind Release Nature Transformation +500]

[Inspiration in battle. Your Water Nature Transformation +1000]

[Breakthrough in battle. You combined Water Style: Water Formation Wall and Water Style: Water Prison Technique, elevating them in battle and creating the A-rank Water Style: Great Water Prison Technique]

[Water Style: Great Water Prison Technique: Creates Water Walls around where a distant enemy stands, trapping the enemy inside a Water Prison formed by the surrounding Water Walls]

...

Name: Taichi Matsushita

Class: Genin Lv2 (45/200)

Talents: Diligence Makes Up for Mediocrity, Academic Overachiever, Potent

Age: 8

Constitution: 21

Strength: 20

Agility: 18

Spirit: 23

Chakra: 14000 (16400)

Attribute Points: 12

Skill Points: 14

Fire Nature Transformation Lv7 (350/1200)

Wind Release Nature Transformation Lv7 (412/1200)

Water Nature Transformation Lv6 (812/1000)

Yang Release Nature Transformation Lv6 (459/800)

Chakra Shape Transformation Lv6 (467/1000)

Chakra Control Lv5 (476/800)

Skills: Advanced Taijutsu Lv0 (976/1000), Advanced Meditation Lv0 (934/1000), Hatake Style Kenjutsu Lv10 (1478/2000)

[Fire Style: B-rank Fire Dragon Flame Bullet Lv7 (777/1200), B-rank Searing Migraine Lv3 (357/400)]

[Wind Style: C-rank Air Palm Lv8 (724/1400), B-rank Pressure Damage Lv4 (26/600)]

[Water Style: B-rank Water Formation Wall Lv9 (453/1600), C-rank Water Prison Lv6 (124/1000), C-rank Water Clone Lv6 (153/1000), B-rank Water Dragon Bullet Lv3 (275/400)]

[Medical Ninjutsu: Mystical Palm Technique Lv9 (329/1600), Delicate Illness Extraction Technique Lv8 (463/1400), Chakra Scalpel Lv6 (464/1000)]

[Max Level:...]

Evaluation: You have passed a trial of life and death. Your growth in strength was bought with your life.

Just as the evaluation said, every brush with death brought a tremendous leap in strength. But Taiichi still hoped to improve step by step, rather than face blades and swords every day...