Too Frail for Tonics, Kakashi Hatake

In the forest, that killing intent as thick as canned herring finally dissipated.

That pretty-boy Haku in the mask left cleanly and decisively, carrying Zabuza's "corpse."

Although Kakashi felt there was something suspiciously mystical about where those two Senbon had landed, he had no time to play detective now—his body had been drained into a broken bellows.

"Whew..."

Kakashi pulled down his forehead protector, covering that overpowered Sharingan.

He staggered over to Ye Tian and looked at the boy lying in Sakura's arms, "barely breathing."

That shout just now... the name sounded like a joke, but its power was utterly ridiculous, Kakashi muttered inwardly.

At that moment, Ye Tian's face was so pale he could have played a vampire on the spot, and the blood at the corner of his mouth had yet to dry.

"Ye Tian! Hang in there!" Sakura cried so hard her eye makeup had run, desperately shaking Ye Tian by the shoulders.

As an accomplished actor from the cultivation world, Ye Tian was currently using the Turtle Breath Technique, his heartbeat slow as an ancient tortoise's.

He had no choice but to act. That Gale Talisman had made far too much of a commotion. If he did not put himself into a fake-death state, a control freak like Kakashi would definitely suspect he was hiding some weapon of mass destruction in his pants.

Kakashi crouched down and placed two fingers against Ye Tian's carotid artery.

"His pulse is almost gone... this is the price of burning through his life force." Kakashi's voice was low. "To save everyone, this kid was willing to throw away his life. Naruto, Sasuke, look at him."

Naruto's eyes welled with tears, guilt-stricken enough to want to ram his head into a wall. Sasuke stared at Ye Tian, his expression as complicated as if he were looking at an unsolvable math problem.

"Alright, let's get them back first..."

Before Kakashi could finish, his vision suddenly went black. Like a refrigerator that had lost power, he toppled stiffly beside Ye Tian.

Well, there they were: two heroes, one "dead" and one down for the count.

In the end, Tazuna borrowed a shabby wooden cart used for hauling hay from a neighbor. Kakashi and Ye Tian lay side by side on it, and as the mountain road jolted them around, their bodies occasionally bumped together in ways that were strangely intimate.

When Ye Tian opened his eyes again, he was in Tazuna's wooden house, thick with the salty-fishy smell of the sea.

Ye Tian swept his gaze around, confirmed that no one was there, and released the Turtle Breath Technique in a second.

"System, settle the rewards."

[Ding! You used the Wind God Talisman and completed the deception achievement. Reward: 1 bottle of low-grade Qi-Replenishing Pills. Evaluation: Lung Capacity Technique? That name makes the Wind God want to kill himself.]

"Qi-Replenishing Pills. A miracle cure for restoring mana." Ye Tian's lips curled slightly.

A delighted shout came from next door. "Kakashi-sensei is awake!"

Ye Tian immediately lay back down, arranging himself into the frail appearance of someone recovering from a serious illness, then coughed twice.

"Cough, cough... Is this... hell?"

Sakura rushed in, overjoyed. "Ye Tian! You're alive! That's wonderful!"

With Sakura supporting him—her touch really was quite nice—Ye Tian slowly made his way next door.

Kakashi was slumped against the headboard with a dispirited expression, like an office worker who had just been drained dry.

"Oh, the 'Lung Capacity Master' is awake too." Kakashi teased, though his eyes were full of scrutiny.

"You flatter me." Ye Tian sat by the bed and casually took Kakashi's pulse.

"What are you doing?"

"A long illness makes a doctor. Let me take a look at you, Sensei." Ye Tian looked utterly serious.

He secretly sent in a thread of Spiritual Energy. It made a circuit through Kakashi's hollow Meridians, and all the feedback it gave him was one message: deficiency.

"Well?" Naruto asked nervously.

Ye Tian looked at Kakashi, took a deep breath, and spoke solemnly:

"Kakashi-sensei, forgive my bluntness. You are suffering from severe... kidney—no, mental depletion. You have excessively used a power that does not belong to you, causing an imbalance of yin and yang. Simply put, you are extremely depleted right now."

He lowered his voice and added in a volume only those in the room could hear, "If you keep pushing yourself like this, I'm afraid it may affect your... endurance in that department as a man."

"Pfft—!" Tazuna, who had been drinking water, sprayed Naruto right in the face.

Kakashi's old face instantly froze. Even through the mask, everyone could tell he was twitching violently.

"Hey, hey, don't just make things up..."

"You need to listen to a doctor." Ye Tian took out a Qi-Replenishing Pill from his robes—a chopped-up version—and stuffed it into Kakashi's hand. "This is my family's secret 'Qi-Replenishing Pill.' For the next two days, do not read that little yellow book of yours. Abstain, understand?"

Kakashi hesitated, then swallowed it. The next second, a clear current surged straight into his head. That hollow, drained feeling vanished by more than half in an instant.

Kakashi's pupils contracted sharply. This medicine was more than a level above a Medical Ninja's Rejuvenation Pill!

Night fell.

There were not enough rooms, so Ye Tian was forced to squeeze into the same cramped bedroom as Naruto and Sasuke.

Naruto was on his left, sleeping like a dead pig—snoring, grinding his teeth, and occasionally sticking his smelly feet toward Ye Tian's face. Sasuke was on his right, sleeping deeply with a frown, muttering, "Uchiha... Itachi... I'll kill you."

Caught between them, Ye Tian felt his Dao Heart crumbling.

"This isn't a bedroom. It's a mental hospital."

There was no way he could meditate and cultivate in such an environment. Looking at the drooling monster on his left and the bitter-faced guy on his right, he snorted and quietly traced two streaks of spiritual light with his fingertips.

[Silencing Talisman: One-Way Version]

In an instant, Naruto's snores and Sasuke's sleep-talking were completely sealed within their own blankets.

The world was quiet.

Ye Tian turned over and sat up, assuming the five-hearts-facing-heaven posture once more beneath the salty sea breeze and faint moonlight drifting in through the window.

Isatis root... Qi-Replenishing Pills... the seeds have all been planted. Next, it's time to meet that boy named Haku.

His Divine Sense had already detected that, in the dense forest five kilometers from the house, the masked boy was gathering herbs.

"Water-attribute spiritual perception... that is a ready-made catalyst for refining a Water Spirit Pearl."

Ye Tian closed his eyes, a calm yet greedy curve rising on his lips.