A Chunin

That person slowly rose to his feet and stealthily approached the operating room.

"Hey! Unauthorized personnel keep out!" a member of the guard shouted, moving to intercept him.

The man suddenly lunged, plunging a kunai into the guard's chest before sprinting full-tilt toward the operating room. He intended to finish off Riyue, who was still in the middle of surgery!

"Quick! Stop him! That man is a spy!" the others cried out in shock and alarm.

At that moment, Riyue's surgery had reached a critical juncture. Although he had detected the intruder's movements, the procedure could not be stopped! The man kicked the door open and rushed inside, thrusting his kunai toward Riyue!

"Switch!" Riyue released his grip, letting his scalpel fall. His Shadow Clone caught the blade with split-second precision.

As the kunai neared his face, Riyue countered with a finger strike to the man's elbow. The attacker's arm went instantly numb, and the kunai clattered to the floor. Seizing the opening, Riyue slammed a palm into the man's stomach. The force vibrated through the attacker's internal organs, sending him flying backward; the impact of the Gentle Fist had dealt him severe internal injuries.

"Damn brat! You're all going to die!!" The attacker spat blood as he hit the ground. With eyes burning red, he pulled open his clothes with a twisted grin. His vest was plastered with a massive number of explosive tags—he had clearly prepared for a suicide attack!

"Oh no!" Riyue used the Body Flicker Technique to appear directly in front of the attacker. The explosive tags were about to ignite, and the room was filled with wounded patients!

Riyue grabbed the attacker: "[Body Flicker Technique]!" He forcibly teleported again, reappearing in the open space outside the door just as the tags ignited!

Riyue gritted his teeth and hoisted the attacker up; the explosion was imminent!

Simultaneously, Riyue pulled back his left hand, holding his palm steady as he gathered a surge of chakra. He thrust it upward into the attacker's abdomen.

"[Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm]!"

Chakra erupted violently, pushing against the air to form concentric ripples; the chakra and air combined into a spherical shockwave. This blast hit the attacker at point-blank range, the sheer force launching him high into the sky!

A split second later, the explosive tags detonated. A raging inferno and a shockwave erupted into a massive fireball that threatened to consume the crowd in the clearing—they were still too close!

"[Eight Trigrams Consecutive Vacuum Palm]!" Riyue's free right hand was already primed, and he unleashed another palm strike packed with chakra. The fireball from the explosion expanded rapidly, colliding head-on with the chakra shockwave!

"BOOM!!!" A deafening roar echoed as the two forces canceled each other out. The shockwave dispersed violently, sweeping across the ground and knocking people over as many ninjas raised their arms to shield themselves from the blast. Finally, the fireball was pierced from below like a punctured balloon, erupting fiercely into the sky before dissipating into black smoke.

The onlookers were stunned and terrified. They were terrified because of the violent explosion—they had nearly died; had it detonated inside the medical station, dozens would have been killed instantly. They were stunned because this young doctor was unexpectedly powerful! It took a while for the crowd to recover from the shock.

Then, someone remembered that this child was from the Hyuga Clan and looked to be about six or seven years old. The crowd immediately began to whisper.

"Hey, is that little doctor from the Hyuga Clan?"

"Yes, look at his Byakugan. So young, yet so strong—could he be?"

"I remember now! Have you heard? Half a year ago, a five-year-old Chunin appeared in the village. He's from the Hyuga Clan and is a student of Lady Tsunade! It matches!"

"How come we haven't heard of this?"

"You've been on the front lines for half a year, of course you wouldn't know."

"Are you saying that little brother is the child who became a Chunin at five, Lady Tsunade's student?"

"You know about that too? Of course! Such high-level medical skills could only come from Lady Tsunade's student! And he's from the Hyuga Clan, and the age matches. It has to be him!"

"When I first heard the news, I thought someone was joking. I didn't expect it to be true! And I've even seen him in person!"

"I told you Lady Tsunade wouldn't abandon us! She was prepared all along and sent her student to maintain the medical station!" The crowd nodded in agreement.

Riyue panted heavily; that had been a close call. Fortunately, he had not only mastered the [Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm] but could also use it with both hands simultaneously, upgrading it to the [Eight Trigrams Consecutive Vacuum Palm]. Only by firing both palms in succession had he managed to save their lives.

"I have Hizashi to thank for that scroll; I suppose I owe the main branch a favor. If I had tried to comprehend it on my own, I never would have mastered the Vacuum Palm so quickly." Between the two Vacuum Palms and the sheer number of Shadow Clones he had used earlier, Riyue was spent; his chakra reserves were bottoming out.

"Everyone, if you know my identity, please don't leak it. I'm just a Chunin, thank you." Riyue bowed to the crowd and spoke. He didn't want word of this to reach Tsunade's ears immediately: "What if Tsunade finds out I'm her 'cheap' student and rushes over to kick me out?"

Riyue had no desire to be associated with Tsunade. What did his medical skills have to do with her? He would wait until he could apprentice under the Third Hokage to learn medical ninjutsu and properly study pharmacology. Since the flora and fauna in the Naruto world differed significantly from his previous life, pharmacology was his weakest point. Yakushi Nonō often treated orphans; perhaps she was skilled in it.

"Understood! Little brother! Since your identity needs to be kept secret, we won't tell anyone else." The crowd nodded; after all, being Lady Tsunade's student, perhaps secrecy was required.

Riyue called the guard team to secure the scene and ordered them to increase vigilance. He returned to the operating table to finish the surgery. Afterward, he dispelled his Shadow Clone; as his chakra returned, he felt utterly exhausted.

"Everyone, I'll leave the rest to you. If anything comes up, find me in the storage room. Please, keep my business a secret!" Riyue bid the other doctors farewell. Now that they knew he was Tsunade's student, no one questioned why his medical skills were so formidable; the looks they gave him were filled with admiration and respect.

"Little brother, thank you!" The doctor who had been on the ground reached out to shake Riyue's hand.

"Don't mention it. I'm just a Konoha Chunin." Riyue shook his hand, then turned and left the medical station.

Konoha Chunin—a very ordinary title, yet it bridged the distance between them. Watching Riyue leave, they whispered to themselves:

"Thank you, Chunin."

"[White Secret Technique: The Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu]!" Chiyo and Ebizo manipulated ten puppets with varying functions as they attacked Tsunade.

"Clack, clack!" The red-faced and white-faced puppets among the Ten of Chikamatsu combined; one transformed into a high-speed rotating four-bladed chakra saw, which the other puppet swung at Tsunade like a meteor hammer. A female puppet wielding dual blades simultaneously attacked Tsunade's back. Countless steel cables extended from the top of the blue-faced puppet's head, rapidly coiling toward Tsunade's limbs.

"Hmph! Take this!" Tsunade gathered a layer of chakra in her fist and slammed it hard into the sandy ground. "BOOM!!" A wave of sand surged into the sky, forming a massive pillar of sand accompanied by a shockwave, before the sand rippled outward like a tidal wave. The shockwave slammed into Chiyo's puppets, sending several of them flying.

Tsunade seized the opportunity to leap high, raising her right leg and bringing it down in a fierce axe-kick. Chiyo and Ebizo scrambled to jump away. Tsunade stomped on the ground: "BOOM!" Sand flew up as if from an explosion. The tremor was clearly felt even half a mile away.

"[Strength Enhancement Technique]?" Chiyo looked at Tsunade with a grim expression.

"Sister, if that hits, whether it's a puppet or a person, they're finished in one blow," Ebizo said, watching Tsunade with extreme caution. His puppets had only been grazed by the shockwave of her strength, yet they had sustained significant damage.

"Hmph, that's enough for today, you monster-strength woman! We're retreating," Chiyo said, before returning to the Hidden Sand camp.

"What did you say?! Don't run, you old hag!" A large vein throbbed on Tsunade's forehead as she shook her fist at Chiyo.

"Who are you calling an old hag?!" Chiyo's eyes widened into two large, round orbs, and she prepared to charge back for another round.

"Sister, don't go! I have a way to take her down!" Ebizo hurriedly grabbed Chiyo and pulled her back.

Watching the Hidden Sand elite forces retreat, Tsunade let out a sigh of relief. However, her heart sank immediately afterward; she wondered how the medical station was faring and how those critically injured were doing.

Rushing back to the camp without a moment's rest, Tsunade went straight to the medical station. To her surprise, the station was in perfect order; not only were the wounded properly settled, but there was no sign of dissatisfaction among them. Furthermore, there were fewer casualties than expected, as many had returned to the battlefield shortly after receiving treatment. Even more astonishing was that the number of patients treated today was double the usual amount, including a large number of critically injured individuals who had been successfully saved, with only a few passing away before they could be treated.

Tsunade was stunned. What on earth had happened in the medical station? There were no anesthetics, yet she heard no complaints or agonizing screams from the wounded. There was no blood plasma, yet she discovered that very little had been used today—only 18 bags for hundreds of patients.

There was no chaos, only higher efficiency and order. Her forced departure should have left these people in despair, yet the looks they gave her were devoid of anger or helplessness, filled instead with faint smiles and gratitude. What had happened here?

"Lady Tsunade, thank you!" a ninja greeted her with tears streaming down his face. "Thanks to you, my brother was saved."

"Uh? Yes..." Tsunade didn't know what to say, so she could only offer an awkward smile.

"Lady Tsunade, you've finally returned!" a doctor walked over, beaming with joy. Although he was exhausted, he could say this had been the happiest day of his life.

"What happened here?" Tsunade asked.

"Everything is great here," the doctor replied, looking confused by her question.

"What are those wristbands on the wounded? Some are green, and others are red."

"Hm? Lady Tsunade, those are the Triage Classification System tags." The doctor felt strange; wasn't this something she had given to her student, Hyuga Nichigetsu?

"Oh... how did things go so well today?"

"Isn't that because of you..." The doctor remembered Nichigetsu's request for secrecy and changed his tune, "It was because of the assistance from a chunin."

"A chunin? From the village?" Tsunade was even more puzzled.

"Yes! Thanks to him, we were able to resolve the crisis," another doctor added. He briefly explained what Nichigetsu had done. The techniques he had witnessed today made him feel as though he had caught a glimpse of a whole new door in medicine.

Tsunade inquired further about the patients' conditions, but the questions in her heart only grew. Superb surgical skills? A triage classification system? New medical methods that didn't require anesthesia or blood transfusions?

"What is going on here? Who exactly is that chunin?!"