"Yakushi Nonō isn't a criminal in the Medical Department. She's our spiritual pillar..."
The nurse standing off to the side trembled. As if trying to summon her courage, she raised her voice and shouted.
"Spiritual pillar, huh? She sent the doctors of Konoha's Medical Department to the front lines, where they were ambushed by enemy ninja and more than sixty percent of those elite doctors were lost. It was the greatest loss in the Medical Department's history!" The middle-aged man sneered. "You call that a spiritual pillar? Even if she resigned as head of the Medical Department, she still couldn't hide her mistakes and crimes..."
The nurse's fair face flushed red as she shouted back, "Th-that's not what happened! So many ninja died in that battle because it took too long to carry the wounded from the front lines to the rear, and they couldn't be treated in time. Nonō and many other Konoha doctors couldn't bear to watch the ninja on the front lines die in agony, so they went there themselves. They were all heroes of Konoha..."
"Do you know how many doctors that kind of thinking could get killed? It takes a great deal of time to train every elite doctor. What do you think would happen if doctors who can't fight faced the enemy's combat ninja? What kind of losses would that cause? What would a mere nurse like you know?" The middle-aged man's eyes were bloodshot as he glared at her viciously, as if he wanted to devour her. "You've never been to the battlefield. Who put these ideas in your head...? Tell me!"
Only the old doctors who had followed Yakushi Nonō back then knew about this. He'd never imagined that the Medical Department still had her admirers and supporters. If someone like that stayed in the department and managed to rise through the ranks, it would be a disaster. He couldn't let her remain.
The middle-aged man's ideals were at odds with Yakushi Nonō's. Perhaps in Nonō's heart, it had all come from a pure desire to save lives. He, on the other hand, acted for the Medical Department as a whole—for its growth and its future.
Terrified by the rebuke from a senior member of the Medical Department, the nurse trembled. Just then, a young, scornful voice came from the hospital bed. "The ninja at the front should be ready to face the threat of death. Are you saying that the lives of Medical Department members are more precious than those of other ninja? Is that your excuse for being cowards?"
Everyone turned toward the voice. The child Tsunade had just treated was sitting on the medical bed, soaked from head to toe and looking exhausted, yet a mocking expression showed on his cute, delicate face.
"You little brat, what do you know?"
The middle-aged man flew into a rage and was about to lash out. But then he realized the boy in front of him was only five years old, and reluctantly stopped.
"Compared to your closed-minded, stubborn thinking, Yakushi Nonō is not only beautiful and kindhearted, but far more perceptive than any of you. The idea that medical personnel can't go to the battlefield is absurd. Yakushi Nonō already came up with a way to deal with it!"
"With this method, even medical personnel can go to the front lines!"
Sato Hideaka clenched his fist on the medical bed and declared in a firm, childish voice.
"Nonō? You know Nonō? What nonsense are you talking about? How can medical personnel go to the front lines...?" The middle-aged man strode forward angrily, ready to grab Hideaka and stop him from speaking. The boy was spreading dangerous ideas.
Tsunade waved a hand to stop the man, then looked at Sato Hideaka with a beaming smile. "Little brother, you said Nonō had come up with a way for medical personnel to go to the front lines. Can you tell big sister what it is?"
"Why should I tell you? You hurt me so much just now!" Sato Hideaka watched Tsunade warily. Her expression made her look like the creepy old man from his previous life who tricked children.
"Damn it...!"
Tsunade punched Sato Hideaka on the head. She'd gone to the trouble of smiling at him, only for this brat to look at her with such disdain. It infuriated the fiercely competitive Tsunade.
Sato Hideaka cried out in pain and clutched his head. Seeing Tsunade draw back her fist to hit him again, he hurriedly said, "All right, all right! I'll tell you, I'll tell you... Consider it a thank-you for healing my injuries. Hmph!"
"Nonō told me it's called the Medical Ninja System!"
"Medical ninja? Do you think we haven't tried that? Even medical ninja with some ability to defend themselves are easily killed by professional combat ninja!" The middle-aged man snorted, his words full of contempt.
"Hey, old man with outdated ideas, could you wait until I've finished talking? Hasn't anyone ever told you it's rude to interrupt? I'm only five, and even I know that..."
Tsunade and the nurse both wore strange expressions as they struggled to hold back their laughter. The middle-aged man grew even more furious, seething with rage. If Princess Tsunade hadn't been there, he would have gone over and taught Sato Hideaka a lesson about respecting his elders.
Sato Hideaka paid him no mind. He simply held up three fingers and calmly began:
"First, establish specialized training classes for medical ninja. Teach them to survive on the battlefield, then divide them into 'Frontline Battlefield Medical Ninjas' and 'Logistics Battlefield Medical Ninjas.' Since the two groups work in different environments, their training methods should differ too..."
"'Frontline Battlefield Medical Ninjas' would be created by gathering some sensory-type ninja and training them as support medical ninja. They could sense danger and avoid it, as well as provide emergency treatment for wounds. Then they could hand the stabilized patients over to specialized 'Logistics Battlefield Medical Ninjas' for further treatment, preventing deaths caused by delays in care."
"Second, we can prepare special 'Ninjutsu Scrolls' for 'Frontline Battlefield Medical Ninjas' to use as secret weapons to save their lives. For example, we can seal 'Defensive Ninjutsu' and 'Control Ninjutsu' inside the scrolls. When needed, the user can pour in chakra and release them."
"Imagine this: an enemy attack-type ninja targets one of our medical ninja. Our medical ninja might not know any offensive techniques, but if they pour chakra into a scroll and unleash Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique, they can wash the enemy away. That would buy our ninja time to protect the medical ninja, wouldn't it?"
Tsunade's eyes lit up. She listened carefully to Sato Hideaka's suggestions and realized both were highly practical. They broke away from the old-fashioned thinking of traditional medical personnel and showed remarkable foresight.
That was because Sato Hideaka had a broader perspective, having lived in an age of information explosion. Besides, both ideas had appeared in the Naruto anime, and they'd seemed to work quite well.
The first idea: Hyuga Hinata, a sensory-type ninja, had learned simple Medical Ninjutsu. She could treat minor wounds and prevent injuries from worsening. Her Byakugan let her observe the enemy and avoid danger, and she could also help treat the wounded as a medical ninja.
The second idea: Jiraiya had once used the Fire Sealing Method to seal Uchiha Itachi's Amaterasu. If they sealed Great Waterfall Technique or Earth Style: Earth Wall in a scroll, then released it using the reverse method, they could attack the enemy and buy time.
"Third... a mindset that ensures the team can fight at its best!" Sato Hideaka gave Tsunade a strange look, but finally went on. "These are the Three Principles of Medical Ninjas. First: a medical ninja must never give up treatment before a teammate's life is exhausted. Second: a medical ninja must never be at the very front of the battlefield. Third: a medical ninja must never die before every other member of the team."
The Three Principles of Medical Ninjas were guidelines Tsunade herself had proposed. They reflected her fiercely competitive nature. Aside from protecting the lives of medical ninja, the other principles were all about ensuring victory for the team!
All medical ninja who came after her treated these three principles as their guiding doctrine. They also greatly improved the standing of medical ninja on the battlefield.
At those words, Tsunade was stunned. The three principles perfectly matched her own ideas. More importantly, the first two methods filled in the gap in her thinking: how to ensure the safety of medical ninja.
Had Yakushi Nonō really thought of all this on her own?
It was an astonishingly advanced way of thinking, a whole era ahead of its time!