A proposal

To be honest, it was a little inconvenient, but thinking of Tsunade's value, Karn got up and answered anyway.

After leaving Tsunade waiting outside for a while, Karn changed his clothes and invited her in.

Once they sat down, Karn asked, "Tsunade-san, what brings you here?" If this was about the medicine, it would be inappropriate for Konoha to send Tsunade to see him again. Karn had always refused to mix personal relationships with business.

"There's something I'd like your opinion on. After all, you know a fair bit about medicine, and you contributed to the battlefield first aid manual."

"I didn't. That had nothing to do with me."

Karn shook his head. "Tsunade-san, I'm just a merchant. Please leave me out of Konoha's affairs."

"Don't be so stingy. How about this? I'll give you some business and buy all the chocolate in your food store." With a poorly acted smile, Tsunade waved a hand at Karn and continued, "Besides, my question has nothing to do with Konoha's affairs. It's a personal concern. Help me out, as a friend."

"We aren't friends, Tsunade-san. And chocolate sells just fine. If you buy it all, the people who can't get any will take their frustration out on my food store."

Karn spoke bluntly, but seeing that Tsunade was still smiling and showed no intention of leaving despite being called out, he sighed. "Fine, tell me. If it involves Konoha's government affairs, I'll pretend I heard nothing, and I won't answer."

"You really are cautious. Konoha doesn't think you're a spy."

Tsunade pursed her lips. Grandma Mito had already told her that Karn bore Konoha no ill will. He was simply overly cautious, shying away from anything involving Konoha's politics as though it were a tiger.

"It's about training Medical Ninjas. I just spoke to Teacher Sarutobi privately, but he doesn't want to do it at all. He has no intention of pursuing it, even though reforming the medical system would clearly reduce casualties among Konoha Ninjas. Do you think I should bring it up at the next Jonin meeting? I'm sure plenty of people would support my decision."

"You should give up. It won't work."

Karn poured cold water on Tsunade's enthusiasm without mercy. "Even if you get every Jonin on board, you won't succeed."

"Why? It's clearly a good thing. This war has already shown how important Medical Ninjas are."

Tsunade challenged him, unconvinced. It was clearly a good thing. Although Konoha now had Karn's medicine, which could effectively reduce deaths among the wounded, Medical Ninjas were irreplaceable. Increasing their numbers would not only help keep mission squads safe on the front lines, but also let ninjas on the battlefield quickly recover their strength.

"I don't know much about war, but training Medical Ninjas must take a lot of money and effort, right? Konoha seems a little short on funds at the moment. Otherwise, it wouldn't have used a few properties to cover the several million ryo it owed me."

Karn shook his head. His words made Tsunade blush a little. That arrangement really had been something of an attempt to fleece an outsider.

"And this medical system reform you mentioned-do you have any ideas or a concrete proposal?"

Tsunade faltered. After looking around for a while, she finally said, "A proposal... isn't that something everyone should work out together?"

"But you should at least present a preliminary plan. What's the goal? At what age should training begin? Will you introduce a new class at the Ninja Academy or establish a separate academy for Medical Ninjas? What are the selection criteria? What are the assessment standards? How will you prepare the curriculum? How much will it cost? What about compensation for Medical Ninjas? Will it be attractive enough? And so on."

"Once you present all that, even if the Third Hokage wants to refuse, he'll have trouble finding a reason. If all you bring is enthusiasm, there'll be hundreds or thousands of reasons to turn you down."

After hearing Karn's words, Tsunade froze. What he had said gave her considerable inspiration. She even began to get a sense of what she should do next.

"Yes, you're right." Many ideas flashed through Tsunade's mind, and she wholeheartedly agreed with Karn.

But he had brought up too many things at once for her to remember them all. She might forget them by the time she got back.

"Don't look at me. I told you, I'm a merchant. Medical reform involves plenty of different aspects of Konoha. What I just said was only meant to point you in the right direction. Don't bother me with the rest."

With that, Karn picked up his teacup, ready to see his guest out. Unfortunately, Tsunade failed to understand the signal, so he had to tell her outright that he was exhausted and needed to rest.

Then Karn pushed Tsunade out of the house. Of course, with her strength, he could never have budged her if she had refused to move, but lingering like that would have been rather rude.

After leaving the Karn Food Store, Tsunade hurried back to Konoha Hospital.

"Yano, Aosuke, come help me."

Tsunade called over the two Medical Ninjas who were best at organizing and summarizing information, then told them what she had heard from Karn that day.

"Help me write up a detailed plan. I'll go organize the Medical Ninjutsu."

After assigning the tasks, Tsunade got to work on what she did best.

Medical Ninjutsu still lacked a clear classification system. The most practical technique was the Mystical Palm Technique, but it required a high degree of chakra control. Tsunade intended to organize Medical Ninjutsu properly, from easiest to hardest, while also categorizing every technique according to its practical applications. If possible, she also planned to develop some complementary Medical Ninjutsu.

Tsunade even wanted to write a method for learning Medical Ninjutsu that anyone could use. Training a Medical Ninja was still rather difficult. Only by establishing a system could they train a steady stream of Medical Ninjas.

"Care and patience are the foundation for selecting Medical Ninjas. We could even start teaching some surgical procedures at the Ninja Academy. Teacher Sarutobi definitely won't agree to build a new academy for Medical Ninjas. As for selection criteria, should we use five assessments covering the Hemostasis Technique, written examinations, and routine surgery? That would be considerably harder than the Three Basic Techniques. It looks like I'll have to bring that up with Teacher Sarutobi too."

Suddenly brimming with inspiration, Tsunade kept writing at Konoha Hospital late into the night and was still hard at work. Every Medical Ninja who passed by was astonished at the sight. They even wondered whether someone inside had used the Transformation Technique to impersonate Lady Tsunade.

At this hour, Lady Tsunade should have been at an izakaya or a gambling den. For her to be scribbling away at Konoha Hospital in the middle of the night was far too unusual.

Around two or three in the morning, Tsunade suddenly felt that her classifications for routine surgery were a little vague and wanted to ask Karn about them. But when she saw the darkness outside the window, she suppressed the idea.

"Tsk, I forgot to buy chocolate too. I'll go see how much Kushina has left."

Once she had more or less finished writing the lesson plans for the Medical Ninjutsu course, Tsunade suddenly felt her heart flutter. When she wanted some chocolate, she remembered that she had forgotten to buy any that day. Still, the palpitations left her rather uneasy.

"Nothing bad is going to happen, is it?"

Then Tsunade shook her head. The war was over. Surely there couldn't be that many bad things left to happen.