Konoha Hospital

The next day, Takahashi Yū did not linger in bed. He had already left before Mizuki Uzumaki got up to get ready.

Once outside, he headed straight for Konoha Hospital. It was just behind Hot Springs Street, very close to his home. Along the way, both the ninja and the ordinary people coming and going from the hospital gave him a wide berth.

It seemed Tsunade's remarks yesterday had already begun to spread. Takahashi Yū did not care, since the Third Hokage had already paid the price for her. Konoha's promotion of him as the "strongest Hokage" in the original story no longer held up. Now he was just another Kage Level opponent defeated by Takahashi Yū.

Konoha Hospital's landscaping was in a class of its own in the village as it stood. Lush flower beds were everywhere, along with straight trees that were not too tall. Perhaps it was also meant to help the wounded from the front recover emotionally, allowing them to quickly leave the battlefield environment behind.

As he walked through the hospital entrance, the smell of disinfectant filled Takahashi Yū's nose.

Why did the Shinobi World have disinfectant too?

With that thought, Takahashi Yū casually stopped a young nurse who trembled in fright at the sight of him.

"De... Lord Takahashi Yū, may I ask what you need?"

Whether frightened by the rumors or Takahashi Yū's imposing presence, the young nurse shook all over, clutching the clipboard containing patient information tightly to her chest.

"What room is Hyūga Ryūhei in?"

Takahashi Yū paid no mind to the young nurse's reaction and asked her.

"503."

"Thank you."

Watching Takahashi Yū head upstairs, the young nurse looked incredulous and dug at her ears. She could hardly believe that the demon the head nurse had gossiped about last night had actually said "thank you" to her. Hadn't she said he was cruel by nature and loved tormenting others?

Takahashi Yū ignored the people on the stairs who began avoiding him from far away. He was still a little surprised by how quickly those claims had spread, but then he recalled that practically every ninja in the village yesterday had been present, and let it go. It had only been a matter of time.

Takahashi Yū simply paid no attention to outside affairs. In the Land of Grass, rumors had already begun spreading that he enjoyed eating people. His reputation there could stop children from crying at night! At this rate, those rumors would reach Konoha before long.

Looking at a man facing the wall with his back to the stairs, one lower leg in a cast and a crutch in hand, Takahashi Yū was speechless. Was this really necessary?

"Ah!" Takahashi Yū let out a strange cry at the one-legged man.

"Aaah! Oww! Aaah!" Hearing Takahashi Yū "roar" at him, the one-legged man abandoned even his crutch and bolted down the corridor. In his panic, he landed on his injured leg, cries of pain mingling with his screams.

"Hahaha." The ridiculous scene made Takahashi Yū laugh, but then he remembered that his troubling reputation would affect his neighbors' businesses, and immediately grew distressed.

"You still have such a twisted sense of humor, Lord Takahashi Yū." A female doctor wearing glasses stood on the landing one floor above him.

As she spoke, she adjusted her round glasses. It looked as though she had watched the whole thing.

A little embarrassed at being caught, Takahashi Yū scratched his head and composed his expression.

"And you are?"

"My name is Zhipin. I'm Hyūga Ryūhei's attending physician." Zhipin adjusted her glasses again and secured her clipboard at her waist.

"Though I'm called his attending physician, I haven't actually been much help so far," Zhipin continued on her own.

Takahashi Yū raised his hand several times on the stairs, wanting to say something.

"We'll still have to wait for the new eyeballs before proceeding. Hmm... we'll also need to study their compatibility." Zhipin propped her chin on her fingers and gazed at the ceiling, completely forgetting Takahashi Yū below her.

Takahashi Yū gave up trying to speak and carefully edged past her. These doctors were not to be trifled with.

He climbed to the fifth floor and searched the corridor for room 503. Through the windows in the other rooms' doors, he also saw some of the other ninja caught up in yesterday's incident.

Takahashi Yū stopped outside room 503, knocked lightly, pressed down the handle, and pushed the door open.

Yamanaka Ayano sat in front of the hospital bed, peeling an apple. Ryūhei lay on the bed without the forehead protector he never took off, revealing the green mark of the Caged Bird Seal. Two or three IV bottles hung beside the bed, slowly dripping medication.

At the sound of the door opening, Ryūhei instinctively turned his head blankly toward the entrance, but his eyes were a sickly grayish white. Takahashi Yū clenched his fists.

"You're here early, Captain."

"I didn't have anything else to do. How's Ryūhei?"

"His mental world has barely stabilized, but he still isn't fully conscious."

Takahashi Yū pulled over a stool and sat on the other side of the bed. Flowers that Ayano had presumably brought stood beside it.

Seeing Hyūga Ryūhei in such a vacant, witless state made Takahashi Yū's heart clench. Could the Shinobi World really be called civilized when it could not even keep young children alive and safe?

Silence settled over the room, broken only by Ayano peeling the apple and the dripping IV. Ayano split the peeled apple in half and handed one piece to Takahashi Yū.

"Captain, why did you have me collect our fallen teammates' bodies and forbid their burial?" Ever since they were in the Land of Wind, Takahashi Yū had instructed Yamanaka Ayano to preserve their teammates' bodies as best she could.

Most of the teammates who had died on the battlefield were inside Ayano's sealing scrolls. She had also collected hair and scraps of skin from every teammate in case the situation became so dire that even their bodies could not be recovered.

"I won't let brave souls sleep forever underground! Keep them safe. Don't let petty scum desecrate their bodies."

Takahashi Yū swallowed the half apple Ayano had handed him in a single mouthful.

"Let me know when Ryūhei wakes up." Takahashi Yū rose and left the room.

He pulled the door open and walked along the corridor, with its silence peculiar to hospitals. Just as he was about to turn the corner and head downstairs, he encountered someone unexpected.

Looking haggard, Tsunade was talking to Zhipin, the doctor he had met earlier, on the stair landing.

"To check whether the eyeballs are compatible, it's best to connect some human tissue to them and look for rejection..."

Tsunade noticed Takahashi Yū as well. She stopped her lengthy explanation and looked at him with a complicated expression.

Hearing that the woman seemed quite concerned about Ryūhei's eyes, Takahashi Yū abandoned any intention of mocking her. He acted as though he had not seen her and turned to go downstairs. Beside her, Zhipin seemed oblivious to the atmosphere and continued pressing Tsunade for specifics.

Tsunade pushed aside Doctor Zhipin, who had leaned closer. "We'll discuss it once the eyes arrive!"

With that, she ignored the somewhat slow-witted doctor behind her and headed straight for the last room on the hospital's fifth floor.

Without knocking, she pulled open the wooden door and walked in. The room was full of incomprehensible instruments, some of them blinking incessantly. Unlike the imagined scene of people all wearing white coats, most of those in the room were ninja, along with two middle-aged nurses in uniform.

This was Dan Katō's room. After courting death yesterday, his soul had been injured, and he still showed no sign of waking.

The Yamanaka Clan Head stood with his hand on Dan Katō's head, his eyes closed and brows furrowed. Around him, the others forming hand seals with one hand and channeling chakra into Dan Katō with the other were also members of the Yamanaka Clan.

The nurses on either side also watched the instruments connected to Dan Katō intently. When Tsunade entered, they merely nodded in greeting before immediately returning their attention to the screens in front of them.

The Yamanaka Clan Head sighed and waved for the surrounding clan members to stop.

Tsunade asked impatiently, "How is he, Elder Yamanaka?"

The Yamanaka Clan Head shook his head.

"His soul and mind are severely injured. From what I can sense, Dan Katō's soul is no longer whole."

As a top medical ninja, Tsunade had naturally done some research into the mind as well. At those words, her gaze dimmed somewhat, but she still refused to give up and asked.

"Elder, is there any way?"

The Yamanaka Clan Head hesitated at her question. After all, both Secret Techniques and secret medicines for nourishing and strengthening the soul were the foundations of a Shinobi Clan.

Moreover, they might not even work when part of the soul was missing. In the end, the Yamanaka Clan Head sighed again. She was the First's granddaughter, after all. What exactly was so charming about Dan Katō that our Princess Tsunade cared so much about him?

"Tsunade, our clan specializes in the mind. We do have some inherited Secret Techniques for nourishing the soul..."

"Elder! I, Tsunade, swear on the Senju name that I will never reveal them!" Hope rekindled in Tsunade's dim eyes, and she hurried to swear before the Yamanaka Clan Head could finish.

"Let me finish. Dan Katō has to wake up first, and they may not work. After all, our clan has never encountered anything like this. Even prisoners whose memories were forcibly searched weren't this badly injured!"

The Yamanaka Clan Head had to make things clear to Tsunade, or the kindness of offering a Secret Technique could turn into resentment over deception. After all, offering hope that did not exist was offering despair.

Tsunade nodded at his words. As long as there was hope. If even Konoha's foremost expert on the mind could do nothing, then Dan Katō could only lie in his hospital bed and wait for death.

While Tsunade and the Yamanaka Clan Head talked, Takahashi Yū returned home under the villagers' wary gazes.

He watched with keen interest as Uzumaki Shui Ling taught the Three Little Ones. The old woman's explanations were utterly bewildering, and Takahashi Yū was just about to complain when he saw Mizuki and the others nodding repeatedly as they listened. Perhaps Sealing Jutsu was more profound than ninjutsu? He spared himself the embarrassment.

He lay on the sofa, enjoying the sounds of everyone else training hard, when a knock suddenly came from the door.

Mizuki hurriedly pulled herself out of her studies and opened the front door.

Hizashi Hyuga!