Under the astonished gazes of passersby, the two of them arrived at their destination.
The white building stood three stories tall, with lights still on in several windows. Outside the courtyard wall, a bare cherry tree swayed gently in the night breeze, its branches rustling.
A wooden sign hung above the hospital's main entrance. The words "Konoha Hospital" were painted on it, though some of the paint had peeled away, exposing the gray-white wood beneath.
Yongye walked up the steps and pushed open the front door.
Lights were on in the lobby. Their white glow fell across the white walls, illuminating the entire room.
A nurse on duty sat at the front desk, bent over something she was writing. Hearing footsteps, she looked up. At the sight of Yongye and Nonō Yakushi, she froze in shock, her pen motionless against the paper.
She opened her mouth to speak, but when she met Yongye's pitch-black eyes, she swallowed her words. She lowered her head and stared at the paper on her desk, gripping her pen tighter.
Yongye ignored her. He crossed the lobby, entered the corridor, and headed for the stairs.
Yakushi Nonō followed behind him. She gave the nurse a helpless smile, then lowered her head and fixed her eyes on Yongye's heels.
The doors to the patient rooms on either side of the corridor were closed. Faint light seeped through the gaps beneath them.
Low coughs and muffled sleep-talk came from a few rooms. Others were quiet, with only bedside lamps casting narrow strips of light across the corridor floor.
On the third floor, at the end of the corridor.
Shisui's room door was closed, with warm yellow light spilling through the gap beneath it. A slip of paper bearing the neatly written name "Shisui Uchiha" was pasted to