The setting sun dyed the ruins of Konoha into a dazzling blood red.
A full six hours have passed since Shinra Tensei razed the village. The originally bustling streets turned into piles of rubble as far as the eye could see. Broken steel bars, shattered wooden beams, and the remains of houses overturned by the shock wave were piled up in layers. The wind passed through the broken walls and kicked up dust mixed with the smell of blood, carrying dying moans and suppressed cries, floating in the dead ruins.
The temporary first aid shed was erected under the remaining half of the broken wall of the Hokage building. It was not so much a shed as a shelter barely held up by a few broken tarpaulins. The ground was densely covered with seriously injured people, ranging from children who had just learned how to run to white-haired old people, from civilians with broken arms and legs to ninjas covered in blood. They were crowded together in layers, and there was no room to even put their feet down.
The air was filled with the disgusting smell of blood, burnt flesh, and the rotten smell of tissue necrosis. The disinfectant had been used up a few hours ago. The remaining medical ninjas only had the simplest bandages and hemostatic drugs in their hands, and they were almost running out of needles and threads to suture wounds. Most of them also brought After suffering the injury for more than ten hours, Chakra had already dried up, and his eyes were filled with red bloodshot eyes. He was numbly doing the most basic steps to stop the bleeding of the injured. He saw that many people had just stopped the bleeding, but due to the massive bleeding from ruptured internal organs, their breathing became weaker and weaker, but nothing could be done.
"Doctor... doctor... save my child..." A mother with injuries all over her body, holding a child whose abdomen was pierced by gravel in her arms, knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing to the medical ninja passing by, causing blood to come out of her forehead. But the medical ninja just shook his head with red eyes, turned around and rushed to another wounded person who still had a heartbeat - he almost ran out of Chakra to save one person, and couldn't care about it at all.
At the innermost side of the shed, Tsunade was leaning against the broken wall, her face as pale as paper, and the diamond-shaped mark symbolizing Strength of a Hundred Technique on her forehead was so dim that it was almost invisible. As early as when Shinra Tensei erupted, almost all of her Chakra was transferred to Katsuyu. The Katsuyu clones in the village barely managed to save the lives of some people. But six hours later, the Chakra in her body completely bottomed out, and she could no longer even maintain the Katsuyu clones. The countless Katsuyu attached to the wounded lost their activity one by one and disappeared into pools of mucus.
"Lady Tsunade." Shizune staggered over and ran over. Her left arm was injured by gravel. The simple bandage was soaked with blood. Her voice was full of tears and despair that could not be concealed. "The temporary point in the west was called again, and the seriously injured were still being sent there. Come on, the drugs that can be used for first aid are completely gone. There are more than 120 critically ill patients with crushed internal organs and severed meridians. The regular Medical Ninjutsu is of no use at all. We... we can't save them anymore. In the past half hour, seventeen people have left."
Tsunade's fingertips were clenched tightly, her nails dug into her palms, and she didn't notice the blood oozing out. She was Shinobi World's top medical ninja, Konoha's Hokage, but now, she could only watch her villagers and subordinates, under her They were dying bit by bit in front of them, and there was no way to do anything. The hospital was completely razed, and medical equipment, medicines, and sterile operating rooms were all buried under dozens of meters of rubble. More than half of the medical ninjas were killed or injured, and the remaining people could not even protect themselves. In the face of this level of devastating trauma, the Medical Ninjutsu they learned was as insignificant as a drop in the bucket.
"Lady Tsunade." Shikaku dragged an injured leg over. His face was stained with blood, and his eyes were thick and black. He was followed by Shikamaru, who was also exhausted. The father and son looked at each other, and they could see the utter weakness in each other's eyes.
"The situation in the village is worse than we expected." Shikaku's voice was hoarse. "The search and rescue team is still digging through the ruins, and the number of survivors and wounded will continue to increase. Police Force and Jonin Commander has suffered heavy losses. The remaining ninjas have to maintain order, search and rescue survivors, and also be prepared to prevent Pain from attacking again. They are almost unable to hold on anymore. The most difficult thing is the seriously wounded. We... really have no choice."
Shikamaru pursed his chapped lips and added, "There are still many ninjas stabbed by Black Receiver. Chakra's circulation is completely disordered and their nerves are blocked. Conventional means cannot remove Black Receiver at all, nor can they eliminate the interference signals inside. Many people have already suffered from organ failure and will not be able to survive for long."
Tsunade closed her eyes, her mind was in a mess, countless dying faces were flashing in front of her eyes, and the village passed down by First Hokage had turned into the ruins in front of her. Her heart felt like it was being pressed by a boulder, and she couldn't breathe. It was too late. She tried all the methods she could think of, gave all the remaining Chakra to the seriously injured ninja, and took out all the first-aid medicines she had collected. But in the face of a disaster of this level, these efforts were not even a drop in the bucket.
There was only one name left in her mind, a person she never wanted to disturb unless absolutely necessary - Rinto.
But she knew Rinto's temperament very well. Before Pain invaded, she put down Hokage's body and begged him to take action, but he simply refused and only threw her a stack of defense talismans., clearly drew a clear line: the survival of Konoha and the life and death of the villagers have nothing to do with him. He only sees his research and the materials that can provide him with data. He will never change his principles because of human life or pleading.
What made her even more powerless was that from Pain's invasion to the present, the village had been destroyed and so many people had died. Rinto had stayed behind closed doors throughout the entire process without even a single incident. She later figured out that this gentleman probably had not taken this war and these casualties seriously from the beginning to the end.
And Rinto in the laboratory really never cared about life or death in this war.
He knew too well the final direction of this invasion. He knew that Naruto would break free from Chibaku Tensei, he knew that Nagato would be persuaded by Naruto, and he also knew that in this war, all those who were directly killed by Six Paths of Pain would only have their souls Complete, they will eventually be recalled from Pure Land by Rinne Rebirth and regain a new life. Whether Kakashi, those ninjas whose souls were taken away by Human Path, or even those killed on the spot by missiles and psychic beasts, their deaths are only temporary.
Since they are destined to be resurrected, the lives and deaths of these people are meaningless in his eyes. They are neither worthy of his distracted attention, nor worthy of him stopping the experiments and doing any unnecessary treatment. The only thing he cares about has always been the spells performed by Pain, and the measured data that can help him dismantle the rules.
The earth-shaking situation outside, in his eyes, is just a farce that is destined to end, and a free Rinnegan technique demonstration.
But now, she has no other choice. Most of the hundreds of dying people in the first aid shed were not killed directly by Pain. Their internal organs were shattered by the shock wave of Shinra Tensei, their meridians were broken by the ruins, and their organs were destroyed by Black Receiver. They are heading towards, It is a complete death on the physical level, a life failure that cannot be restored even if Rinne Rebirth is activated. If they stay in the first aid shed, they will definitely not survive tonight. The only hope is the man whose understanding of Chakra, the human body, and damage repair far exceeds that of the entire Shinobi World.
"Lady Tsunade, you don't want to..." Shizune looked at her expression and instantly guessed what she was thinking, and his face instantly turned pale, "No way Lady Tsunade! Before you Go ask Mr. Rinto to join the war, but he has clearly refused. You also know his temperament. He hates others interrupting his experiments. We have sent so many seriously injured people there. If we offend him, there will be no room left!"
"I know." Tsunade opened his eyes, and there was a hint of desperate determination in the tiredness in his eyes, "But do I have any other way? If they stay here, all these people will die. If they are sent over, even if there is only one in ten thousand chance, it is their only possibility to survive."
"But Mr. Rinto..." The medical ninja next to him was also anxious, "He never cares about these things. The hospital asked him for a universal repair model before, and he agreed because it could provide him with clinical data. With so many wounded people on the verge of death, does he not care at all?"
"What he cares about is data, research materials." Shikamaru suddenly said, his mind still the clearest among everyone present, "Before, he helped Guy-sensei optimize Eight Gates Released Formation's protection plan, helped Lord Hong with Genjutsu's backlash defense, and helped us optimize family secrets, all in order to obtain the corresponding research data.. These dying wounded are all cases of extreme injuries that cannot be seen in conventional medical treatment. The internal organs are crushed due to Shinra Tensei, the cell level necrosis caused by the shock wave, the Chakra circulation collapse caused by Black Receiver, and even the mental and soul level injuries. These things are materials that cannot be bought with money for his research."
He paused and added, "He won't do anything out of pity for these people, but he may do repair experiments for these extreme damage samples. This is our only chance."
Shikaku also nodded and said solemnly, "I agree with Shikamaru's judgment. Now there is no other choice. Instead of watching all these people die, it is better to give it a try. Even if he is only willing to save some of them, it is still good."
The people around him became quiet and looked at Tsunade with the last trace of hope in their eyes.
Tsunade took a deep breath and stood up straight while holding on to the broken wall. Even though Chakra was exhausted and exhausted, her back still showed the composure of Hokage. She looked at the densely packed shed. The dying and wounded man gritted his teeth and issued an order, "Notify all search and rescue teams and first aid points, gather all the dying and seriously injured people who cannot be treated by conventional medical methods, and send them to Mr. Rinto outside the hospital. Move quickly, and save as many as possible."
"Yes!"
After the order was given, the originally numb ninjas seemed to have grasped the last life-saving straw and immediately took action. They found usable wooden boards and door panels to make simple stretchers, carefully carried the seriously injured people with weak breaths, avoiding the gravel and broken walls on the road, and rushed towards the northwest corner of the village.
The sunset gradually sank into the distant mountains, and the sky gradually darkened. In the ruins, groups of ninjas carrying stretchers walked silently, their steps as heavy as lead. Some of the wounded on the stretchers fell into coma, some let out weak moans of pain, and some Halfway through, he was completely out of breath. The escorting ninjas could only grit their teeth, put the body covered with white cloth on the roadside, and continued to carry the still breathing people forward. They did not dare to delay, even if it was faster, the people on the stretcher would have more hope of survival.
The northwest corner where Rinto's laboratory is located is the only intact area in Shinra Tensei in the entire Konoha. All the surrounding houses were razed to the ground, and only here, next to There is an invisible space barrier, and there is not even a piece of gravel. Tsunade and Shikamaru have been here before, and they know that this seemingly open space is where Rinto's courtyard gate is.
The first batch of stretchers arrived first. The ninjas carefully put down the stretchers and placed them as gently as possible in the open space outside the courtyard gate, for fear of disturbing the people inside. Soon, the second batch, the third batch... a steady stream of stretchers were delivered, and the open space outside the courtyard gate was densely packed with stretchers. Hundreds of seriously injured people were lying here. The weak breathing and painful moans were intertwined, making them appear particularly heavy in the increasingly dark sky.
The medical ninjas stood by the stretcher, holding the few remaining bandages in their hands. They watched helplessly as the vital signs of the wounded dropped little by little. They looked at the closed door from time to time, and they were filled with anxiety. They didn't know whether the gentleman inside the door would open the door, or whether he would be willing to save these people. They didn't even dare to speak loudly, and even breathed softly, for fear of upsetting the people inside and driving them all away.
Tsunade also came. She dragged her exhausted body and stood at the edge of the open space filled with stretchers. She looked at the scene in front of her, looking at the dying wounded, her heart seemed to be tightly grasped by a hand. She opened her mouth in the direction of the hospital door, but she didn't know what to say. Begging? Pleading? She knew that these were meaningless to Rinto.
She could only stand here, wait, and take a gamble that Rinto would be interested in these research materials on extreme injuries.
And inside the courtyard gate, in the laboratory where the space is folded and wrapped, Rinto was sitting in front of the sterile operating table, disassembling the Chakra conduction configuration inside Black Receiver. The outside was broken. The sound of intermittent footsteps, the sound of stretchers rubbing against the ground, and increasingly dense fluctuations of weak vital signs came through the outer camouflage barrier, causing his hand holding the tweezers to pause, his brows instantly furrowed, and his eyes filled with obvious impatience.
What he hates the most is being interrupted in his experiment. Pain's artillery fire has delayed him a lot of time before, and now it's noisy and noisy outside.
He casually put down the tool in his hand, released a ray of perception, and swept towards the door of the courtyard.
The next second, his frown relaxed, and the impatience in his eyes instantly dissipated, replaced by an almost burning, extreme interest.
In his perception, there are hundreds of human bodies on the verge of collapse, each one carrying extreme damage samples that he has rarely come into contact with before.
There are systemic blunt injuries caused by the Shinra Tensei shock wave, pulverizing rupture of internal organs, severed meridians throughout the body, complete bone fragmentation, and extensive necrosis at the cellular level. This is an extreme trauma that is almost impossible to occur in routine clinical cases;
There is complete disorder of Chakra circulation caused by Black Receiver, blockage of nerve conduction, and even Chakra erosion at the cellular level. The sample size far exceeds the sporadic data he obtained before;
There are large-scale body lacerations caused by the claws of psychic beasts, and there are even extreme cases of limb defects and exposed organs;
There are more than a dozen cases, due to the collapse of mental power caused by shock waves, Genjutsu backlash, and Chakra rampage, and the loosening of the anchor between the soul and the body. This is the damage at the soul level that he has only scratched the surface before, but did not have enough samples to study in depth.
More importantly, he knows better than anyone else that these dying people lying outside the courtyard are completely different from those who were directly killed by Pain on the battlefield. The latter will be resurrected in Rinne Rebirth soon, and these people died of irreversible physical trauma and weapons. Due to organ failure, even if Nagato activates Rinne Rebirth, it is impossible to bring them back from the brink of death. Once they die, they will be completely destroyed. These unique and extreme damage research materials will also disappear completely and will never be found again.
The research on Black Receiver can be postponed. He has already collected the basic data of Rinnegan, but if these extreme damage samples of living bodies are missed, they will never be seen again.
Rinto's eyes swept over the sterile operating table, and the Black Receiver sample that had not yet been studied was put aside without hesitation. He stood up, took off the experimental gloves stained with reagents, threw them aside, turned around and walked towards the door of the laboratory, towards the courtyard door that isolated life and death from the outside world.
The sky outside has turned completely dark. In the open space outside the courtyard gate, the medical ninjas lit up the few Chakra lamps. The weak light illuminated the painful and desperate faces. Everyone's attention was focused on the closed courtyard door, and they did not even dare to breathe.
At this moment, the lock of the courtyard door made a very light "click" sound, but it was particularly clear in the dead silence.