A Chunin

The man slowly got to his feet and crept toward the operating room.

"Hey! No unauthorized personnel!" one of the guards shouted, moving to stop him.

The man suddenly lunged. He drove a kunai into the guard's chest, then charged at the operating room with all his might. He was going to kill Nichigetsu while he was still in surgery!

"Quick! Stop him! He's a spy!" the others shouted in alarm.

Nichigetsu's operation was at a critical point. He had noticed the man's movements, but he couldn't stop the surgery! The man burst through the door and lunged at Nichigetsu with his kunai!

"Switch!" Nichigetsu let go, and the scalpel in his hand began to fall. His Shadow Clone caught it at the exact same moment.

As the kunai reached his face, Nichigetsu jabbed the man's elbow with a finger. The man's arm went numb, and the kunai clattered to the floor. Nichigetsu seized the chance to strike him in the stomach. The attacker's internal organs shuddered, and he was sent flying. The impact of Nichigetsu's Gentle Fist had injured his insides.

"Damn brat! You're all going to die!" The attacker fell to the ground, spitting blood. His eyes were bloodshot as he frantically pulled open his clothes, a grim smile on his face. His outfit was covered in Explosive Tags. It seemed he'd prepared a suicide attack long ago!

"Not good!" Nichigetsu used the Body Flicker Technique to appear in front of the attacker. The Explosive Tags were about to ignite, and the wounded were all around them!

Nichigetsu grabbed the attacker. "[Body Flicker Technique]!" He forcefully used the technique again, teleporting them to the open ground outside. The Explosive Tags had already ignited!

Grimacing, Nichigetsu hoisted the attacker up. The Explosive Tags were about to detonate!

At the same time, Nichigetsu raised his left hand, drawing his palm back without releasing it. His chakra had finished building up. He thrust his palm upward into the attacker's abdomen.

"[Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm]!"

Chakra burst out, pushing the air aside and forming rippling circles. The chakra combined with the air to create a circular shockwave. It struck the attacker at point-blank range, and the tremendous force sent him flying into the sky!

The next moment, the Explosive Tags detonated. A violent burst of flames and hot air erupted into a huge fireball, about to engulf everyone on the open ground. They were still too close!

"[Eight Trigrams Consecutive Vacuum Palm]!" Nichigetsu's free right hand was already poised to strike. He sent another chakra-charged palm forward. The expanding fireball met the chakra shockwave!

"BOOM!!!" A tremendous crash rang out as the two forces canceled each other. The blast of air swept across the ground, knocking people over. Many shinobi raised their arms to shield themselves. At last, the fireball burst violently into the sky, like a balloon punctured from below. Black smoke scattered and vanished.

Everyone nearby was stunned and shocked. The explosion had been terrifying—they'd nearly died. If it had gone off inside the Medical Station, dozens of people would have been killed on the spot. They were also shocked that the little doctor before them was so strong! It took a while for everyone to recover.

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

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

"Yeah, look at his Byakugan. He's so young, and 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 was from the Hyuga Clan and was Lady Tsunade's student! It all adds up!"

"How come none of us have heard about that?"

"You've been on the front lines for six months. Of course you haven't heard."

"You're saying that little guy is the child who became a Chunin at five, Lady Tsunade's student?"

"You've heard the news too? Of course! With medical skills that good, he has to be Lady Tsunade's student! He's from the Hyuga Clan, and the age matches. It's definitely him!"

"I thought someone was joking when I first heard the news. I can't believe it's true! And now I've seen him in person!"

"I knew Lady Tsunade wouldn't abandon us! She'd made preparations long ago and sent her student to keep the Medical Station running!" Everyone nodded in agreement.

Nichigetsu panted heavily. That had been close. Luckily, he hadn't just learned the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm—he'd also figured out how to use it with both hands at once, upgrading it to the Eight Trigrams Consecutive Vacuum Palm. Only by striking twice had he barely managed to stay alive.

"I have to thank Hiashi for the scroll he gave me. I guess I owe the Main Family a favor. If I'd had to figure out the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm on my own, I couldn't have learned it this quickly." After using the technique twice and making so many Shadow Clones earlier, Nichigetsu was worn out. His chakra was almost gone.

"Everyone, if you know who I am, please keep it to yourselves. I'm just a Chunin. Thank you." Nichigetsu bowed to the crowd and spoke. He didn't want word of his identity reaching Tsunade right away. What if she finds out I'm her honorary student and rushes over to send me home?

Nichigetsu didn't want anything to do with Tsunade. What did his medical skills have to do with her? Once he became the Third Hokage's student, he'd learn Medical Ninjutsu and study pharmacology. Since the plants and animals in the Naruto world differed so much from those in his previous life, pharmacology was his weakest subject. Yakushi Nonō treated orphans often, so perhaps she was good at pharmacology.

"Understood, little brother! If your identity needs to be kept secret, we won't tell anyone." The crowd nodded. After all, he was Lady Tsunade's student. Perhaps his identity had to be kept secret.

Nichigetsu called over the guard team to deal with the scene and told them to step up security. He returned to the operating table and finished the surgery he'd been performing. Then he released his Shadow Clone, and some of his chakra returned. Nichigetsu felt completely exhausted.

"Everyone, I'll leave things here to you. If anything comes up, find me in the warehouse. Please keep my identity a secret!" Nichigetsu said goodbye to the doctors. Now that they knew he was Lady Tsunade's student, no one questioned how he could be so skilled. They looked at him with admiration and respect.

"Little brother, thank you!" The doctor who had been lying on the ground reached out to Nichigetsu.

"No need. I'm just a Konoha Chunin." Nichigetsu shook his hand, then turned and left the Medical Station.

"Konoha Chunin" was an ordinary title, but it brought them closer together. As they watched Nichigetsu leave, they silently said to themselves:

"Thank you, Chunin."

"[White Secret Technique: The Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu]!" Chiyo and Ebizo controlled ten puppets, each with a different function, and sent them attacking Tsunade.

"Click-clack!" The red-faced and white-faced puppets among the Chikamatsu Ten Puppets joined together. One puppet transformed into a rapidly spinning four-bladed Chakra Blade, which another puppet swung at Tsunade like a meteor hammer. A female puppet wielding two swords attacked Tsunade from behind at the same time. Countless pointed steel cables shot from the top of the blue-faced puppet, quickly wrapping around Tsunade's limbs.

"Hmph! Take this!" Chakra gathered around Tsunade's fist. She slammed it into the sand. "Boom!" A wave of sand surged into the sky, rising with the shockwave to form a huge pillar. Then the sand swept outward like a tidal wave. The shockwave struck Chiyo's puppets, and several were sent flying by the blast.

Tsunade seized the chance to leap high into the air. She raised her right leg and brought it down in a vicious kick. Chiyo and Ebizo hurriedly jumped away. Tsunade stomped the ground. "Boom!" Sand flew up as if an explosion had gone off. The earth shook so hard that people could feel it half a mile away.

"Monster Strength Technique?" Chiyo watched Tsunade with a dark expression.

"Big sister, if that move hits, it'll take out a puppet or a person in one blow," Ebizo said, watching Tsunade warily. His puppets had only been grazed by the force of her attack, yet several parts were already damaged.

"Hmph, that's enough for today, Monster Strength Woman! We're retreating," Chiyo said before returning to the Hidden Sand forces.

"What did you say?! Don't run away, you old hag!" Tsunade shouted, a large vein bulging on her forehead as she shook her fist at Chiyo.

"Who are you calling an old hag?!" Chiyo's eyes widened until they were almost pure white. She was about to rush over and fight again.

"Big sister, don't go. I have a way to kill her!" Ebizo hurriedly held Chiyo back and dragged her away.

Watching the elite Hidden Sand forces retreat, Tsunade let out a sigh of relief. But then her heart sank. She didn't know how things were going at the Medical Station. How were the seriously injured patients?

Tsunade rushed back to camp and immediately went to the Medical Station. To her surprise, everything inside was orderly. The wounded had been properly settled, and no one seemed dissatisfied. There weren't as many wounded as she'd expected, either. Many had been treated and quickly returned to the battlefield. Even more astonishing, twice as many wounded had been treated today as before. Many seriously injured patients had been successfully saved, and only a few had died before they could be treated.

Tsunade froze. What had happened at the Medical Station? They'd run out of anesthetic, yet she hadn't heard the wounded complaining or screaming. They'd run out of blood, yet hardly any had been used today. There had been hundreds of wounded and sick, but only eighteen bags of blood had been used.

There'd been no chaos, only greater efficiency and order. She'd been forced to leave, and that should have left everyone desperate. Yet the people here didn't look angry or helpless when they saw Tsunade. Instead, they wore faint smiles and looked grateful. What had happened?

"Lady Tsunade, thank you!" A shinobi greeted Tsunade with tears in his eyes. "Thanks to you, my brother was saved."

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

"Lady Tsunade, you're finally back!" A doctor came over, delighted. He was exhausted, but today had been the happiest day he'd had in a long time.

"What happened here?" Tsunade asked.

"It's fine here." The doctor was baffled by her question.

"What are those bands on the wounded people's hands? Some are green, and others are red."

"Hmm? Lady Tsunade, those are the Triage Classification System bands." The doctor was puzzled. Hadn't she taught it to her student, Hyuga Nichigetsu?

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

"Wasn't it because of you...?" Remembering Nichigetsu's request to keep his identity secret, the doctor changed his answer. "It was thanks to help from a Chunin."

"A Chunin? From the village?" Tsunade was even more confused.

"That's right! We only got through the crisis thanks to him," another doctor said. He briefly explained what Nichigetsu had done. The skills he'd seen today made him feel as if he'd glimpsed a whole new world of medicine.

Tsunade asked about the patients, but the questions in her mind only grew. Remarkable surgical skills? A triage system? New medical techniques that didn't require anesthetic or transfusions?

"What on earth is going on? Who is that Chunin?!"