The special consultation room on the third floor of Konoha Hospital was filled with the smell of disinfectant and a faint, almost imperceptible stench of decay.
Hyuga Xiao stood half a step behind Tsunade, his pale eyes calmly sweeping across the room. This was the Medical Division's highest-grade consultation room. Complex sealing formulas were carved into the walls, capable of isolating chakra fluctuations and sound. Besides Tsunade and him, there were three medical elite ninja in the room, along with an ANBU ninja lying on the central hospital bed.
The ANBU ninja wore a mask, but the skin exposed on his neck and arms was an unnatural bluish gray, as if something had corroded him from within. His breathing was shallow, nearly inaudible. Only the steady beeping of the heart monitor proved that he was still alive.
"Wednesday's consultation case. Codename: Withered Wood."
Tsunade's voice rang through the room, carrying the calm unique to a medical ninja. She walked to the bedside and undid the ANBU ninja's shirt, exposing his chest. The skin there had already become semi-transparent, revealing milky-white tissue writhing slowly beneath it like a living creature.
"Three days ago, he encountered an unknown attack while patrolling the border. He was conscious when brought back, but the chakra in his body has been draining at a rate of five percent per hour. Standard hemostasis techniques, detoxification techniques, and sealing techniques have all failed."
Tsunade pressed her fingers against the patient's chest, and pale green medical chakra seeped into his skin. The milky-white tissue reacted like a disturbed swarm of insects, suddenly writhing faster as it greedily devoured Tsunade's chakra.
"Do you see?" Tsunade withdrew her hand, her brows tightly furrowed. "It actively absorbs chakra. The more it absorbs, the faster it grows. We tried physical removal, but it