Hospital

"Why does that voice sound so familiar?"

"Was that the beauty named Tsunade?" Supporting Jiraiya, Yizhe asked casually.

Jiraiya was badly injured and could barely speak, so he could only glare back fiercely, which counted as confirmation.

"Ah!" A startled cry came from behind him. Yizhe turned and saw a girl dressed entirely in black and gray. She looked about twelve or thirteen, with a round, adorable face.

"Lord Jiraiya! What happened to you? How did you get hurt this badly?" The girl clearly knew Jiraiya, and they seemed quite familiar with each other. The moment she came over, she stopped the two of them and began chattering away without pause.

"Miss, please stop asking! He's hurt so badly he can't even talk! Help me get him inside first and find a medical ninja to look at him. If this drags on any longer, I'm afraid he really will..." Yizhe was getting anxious. They had finally reached the hospital, yet they were stuck outside its entrance.

"Oh—sorry, sorry! I almost delayed something important!" The girl hurriedly apologized with a smile, finally closing her mouth.

"Hey! You two over there, come here! Hurry and help carry Lord Jiraiya inside!" She then called over two guards passing by the hospital entrance.

"I wonder if this guy's life can still be saved." Watching Jiraiya get carried away by the guards, Yizhe muttered to himself.

"Lord Jiraiya is seriously injured, but whoever attacked him was skilled. They didn't focus on his vital points, so he won't die immediately. Still, it's quite dangerous!"

"Hm? You're a medical ninja too?" Hearing the girl in black so readily assess Jiraiya's condition, Yizhe became somewhat interested in her.

"That's right! My name is Shizune, and I'm a medical ninja. What about you?" The girl smiled sweetly.

"Me?"

"My name is Hyuga Yizhe!" Without introducing himself further, Yizhe asked curiously, "Is medical ninjutsu easy to learn?"

"How could it be easy! If it were that simple, so many people wouldn't die on the battlefield!" Shizune's tone grew heavy. She had probably seen plenty on the battlefield.

"By the way, you still haven't told me how Lord Jiraiya got hurt like that!" Changing the subject, Shizune asked about the source of Jiraiya's injuries.

"That shameless guy was peeping on someone bathing and got beaten up!" Yizhe shrugged. Even he found the reason for Jiraiya's condition hard to say aloud.

"Ah—" Shizune cried out, her eyes widening. She had never expected Jiraiya's injuries to come from something like that. When she had seen the bath towel around him, she had thought he had been ambushed at a bathhouse.

"He got beaten that badly just for peeping?"

"With Lord Jiraiya's strength, there are only a handful of people in the Ninja World who could injure him that badly!" Shizune muttered.

Naturally, Jiraiya's target could not have been a man. And among the women in Leaf Village, there was only one who could beat Jiraiya that badly.

At that thought, Shizune suddenly understood.

"Lord Tsunade did this, didn't she?"

"Hm? You know that beauty too?" Yizhe was startled. What a coincidence—he had met someone at random who knew both Tsunade and Jiraiya.

"Hm? What do you mean, 'too'? Wouldn't it be stranger not to know them?" Shizune looked at the boy before her in surprise, as though she had encountered some rare species.

"You don't even know the famous Three Legendary Ninja of the Ninja World?"

"The Three Legendary Ninja?"

Seeing Yizhe's confused expression, Shizune realized he truly did not know about the Three Legendary Ninja. She could only patiently explain their reputation to him.

"So that's how it is..."

"Shizune!" An ill-timed voice interrupted their conversation.

A middle-aged man in a white medical uniform hurried toward them, his anxious expression making it clear that Shizune was his target.

"Uncle Yano, what is it? Why are you in such a hurry?" Seeing that the newcomer was someone she knew, the displeasure on Shizune's face eased somewhat.

"Shizune, hurry to Lord Tsunade! Lord Dan, he..."

"What happened to my uncle?" The girl's face instantly turned pale, and a sense of dread rose within her.

"The first operating room on the second floor!" The man did not elaborate, instead giving her the room location.

Without waiting to ask anything else, Shizune vanished around the stairway corner in a few quick steps.

Yizhe had originally planned to follow and take a look, but on second thought, this was not a place to satisfy his curiosity, so he gave up on the idea.

"Um... sir?"

"What is it, kid?" Only then did the ninja in the white uniform notice the little boy who had remained beside him.

"Lord Jiraiya was just brought in. Do you know which room he's in?" Since he could not go pry into Shizune's affairs, Yizhe figured he could at least check on Jiraiya. He had no intention of simply going home.

"Lord Jiraiya is injured too?" The man was somewhat surprised. In his eyes, ninjas of Jiraiya's caliber rarely got injured.

More precisely, it was extremely rare for someone to injure a ninja of Jiraiya's level badly enough to require hospitalization.

"I really don't know!" The man looked apologetic, then added, "I was over there helping Lord Tsunade save Lord Kato Dan just now!"

"I see... Then how is the situation over with Lord Tsunade?" Unable to find out where Jiraiya was, Yizhe did not press the matter.

"Lord Dan's injuries are far too severe. Even with Lord Tsunade's extraordinary medical ninjutsu, she cannot bring the dead back to life!" The man shook his head, his expression filled with indescribable sorrow.

"I see! You should get back to work. I'll ask someone else!" Sensing that the atmosphere was off, Yizhe could only send the medical ninja on his way.

After asking around the hospital several times, he finally found Jiraiya's room.

"Brat, you still dare show your face in front of me!" Jiraiya, who was lying in bed with nothing to do, spotted the boy the moment he stepped into the ward. He grabbed the cushion behind him and hurled it over.

It seemed that after receiving preliminary treatment, he had regained some ability to move. His life was probably no longer in danger.

"Ha—missed me!" Yizhe easily caught the cushion and made a face at Jiraiya on the bed.

"Brat, once I'm healed, I'm going to settle this with you!" Looking at that childish face, Jiraiya was nearly bursting with rage.

"What, are you going back on your word after crossing the bridge?"

"Back then, we agreed that if I brought you to the hospital, we'd be even. You blinked and agreed!" Hearing that Jiraiya still intended to settle the score later, Yizhe was thoroughly displeased. Pointing at Jiraiya's nose, he gave him a fierce scolding.

"My eye got sand in it, so I blinked!" Jiraiya's face reddened as he forced out an explanation.

"How can you be this shameless?" Yizhe was completely speechless. Still, judging by Jiraiya's condition, he was probably just stubborn and unwilling to admit defeat.

"Hey!" After looking around and confirming that no one else was there, Yizhe suddenly lowered his voice and leaned close to Jiraiya's bed.

"Her boyfriend is about to die. Aren't you going to give it a try?"

"Try what? I don't know how to save people!" Jiraiya immediately understood that Yizhe was talking about Tsunade.

"I mean, once her boyfriend is gone, your chance will come!" Seeing that Jiraiya still did not understand, Yizhe had no choice but to put it more bluntly.

Jiraiya froze. After a long while, he burst out laughing. "What does a little kid like you know?"

"Go, go, go! I need to rest!"

With that, he turned over and pretended to be asleep. No matter how Yizhe called to him, he ignored him.