Changing to a serious topic, Killer B asked in his normal voice.
Yugito raised her eyes to look at Killer B. A faint, underlying trace of exhaustion and agony flashed across those pitch-black eyes as she replied flatly, "He left."
"He left?"
Killer B had always been a man with a rugged exterior but a meticulous mind. He instinctively sensed that something profound had happened to Yugito. Detecting the coldness in her tone, he shifted his gaze toward Samui, only to find that she remained entirely silent, her eyes shifting erratically as if she were desperately trying to avoid something.
"Samui, did Shimizu Uchiha do anything to you?" Killer B questioned.
Samui jolted slightly, snapping out of her daze. She raised her head and forced out a strained smile, "Of course not... I'm just a little tired."
Faced with both women uniformly claiming that nothing had happened, Killer B found it inappropriate to press any further. As long as they were both alive, that was enough.
"Let's head back to the camp first."
The two women nodded silently, joining the Kumogakure shinobi as they began their journey back.
Along the way, as Yugito listened to the crowd marveling at her strength, she felt that nothing in the world could be more ironic.
Samui tightly held Yugito's hand out of concern and whispered, "We will definitely exact our revenge on Shimizu Uchiha."
"Revenge..."
The hatred swirling within Yugito's pupils matched Samui's exactly. Having shared the same agonizing ordeal, both of them harbored a deep, bone-deep hatred for Shimizu Uchiha.
"Yes, we will have our revenge." Yugito nodded, though her expression remained shrouded in sorrow.
She could see further than Samui. Even with the assistance of mercenaries like Akatsuki, the overall trend of the war moving toward peace was completely inevitable. The other shinobi villages had already begun to rest and recuperate, leaving only Konohagakure and Kumogakure locked in an endless, draining conflict. If this persisted, the strength of both villages would simultaneously plummet out of the top tiers of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. The higher-ups, who were mostly driven by profit and pragmatism, would eventually align their views and sign a peace treaty. This current campaign was merely an attempt to project Kumogakure's formidable might, allowing them to demand a higher price during the upcoming treaty negotiations.
Once peace arrived, would they even still have the chance to seek vengeance against Shimizu Uchiha?
Meanwhile, back at the Konohagakure outpost, Asuma Sarutobi was still fretting over how to win his goddess's favor when he suddenly spotted a dark silhouette on the horizon. A lone figure was rapidly flying toward the base, vibrating a pair of flame-like wings.
Looking closer, wasn't that Shimizu, who had dashed off to abduct a Kumogakure kunoichi earlier?
"Where's that female shinobi?" Asuma asked as Shimizu landed.
"She was taken back by the Two-Tails Jinchuriki."
"The Two-Tails, huh... Well, as long as you came back uninjured, that's what matters." Asuma patted Shimizu on the back.
Even while standing at the back of the crowd earlier, he had felt an immense pressure radiating from that Tailed Beast Jinchuriki. For Shimizu to successfully escape from her grasp was quite an impressive feat. No wonder he was known as Body Flicker Shimizu.
"You got off easy. Take a look at my back." Asuma lifted his chainmail, exposing a heavily bandaged back that was visibly saturated with oozing blood. "After you left, that guy with the purple eyes suddenly unleashed a terrifying jutsu..."
Asuma recounted the entire sequence of events to Shimizu in meticulous detail. If Shimizu hadn't left when he did, he probably would have caught the brunt of that attack as well.
"Hey, do you think Kurenai will fall for me after this?" Asuma mused, feeling that his heroic act of shielding his beauty should at least cause her favorability to skyrocket, if not make her gratefully marry him on the spot. This was the epitome of a man's finest hour, after all.
"Who knows."
This time, it was Shimizu's turn to pat Asuma on the shoulder. Leaving behind those deeply meaningful words, he walked away from the area.
"Shimizu?"
Kushina, who had just stepped out of a medical tent, froze in surprise. She immediately grabbed Shimizu and pulled him inside.
"Quick, come check on Minato," Kushina urged anxiously.
When Shimizu walked into the inner section, he was greeted by the sight of Minato Namikaze, whose lower body was wrapped in layer upon layer of bandages. A middle-aged man was currently treating him.
"Medical-nin Shimizu." The middle-aged man extended his hand with a polite smile.
As a member of the medical community, he naturally recognized Shimizu, who had skyrocketed to fame during the Third Shinobi World War. This was especially true given how exceptionally young Shimizu was; medical expertise was a field heavily reliant on age and experience, making Shimizu a prodigy with boundless, immeasurable potential. Following the standard set by Tsunade, ordinary medical-nin placed a high value on cultivating professional networks early on. After all, no one knew if a brilliant young talent might suddenly leave the village just like Tsunade did, becoming an unattainable entity that they couldn't even dream of associating with once they achieved legendary status.
Shimizu bypassed the handshake, looking directly at Minato. "What happened to Minato-sensei?"
The middle-aged man awkwardly withdrew his hand. Seeing that Shimizu was merely anxious about his mentor, he dropped the social pleasantries. "His lower body sustained a severe injury."
The middle-aged doctor reached toward the bandages, seemingly intending to show Shimizu the exact state of the wound, but suddenly stopped himself upon remembering that there was still a woman present in the tent.
"I'm fine," Minato Namikaze said, his face noticeably pale.
During combat, the human body secretes adrenaline to suppress pain. Now that he had safely returned to camp and successfully delivered the intelligence, the immense mental burden had lifted, allowing waves of excruciating agony to relentlessly crash over him.
"Kushina, please step outside for a moment," Minato requested, his lips dry and chapped.
"Alright, Minato. Don't worry, I'll be right outside with you the whole time."
Anxiety and profound worry continuously alternated within Kushina's eyes. Seeing that entire area heavily swathed in bandages combined with the middle-aged doctor's dead-serious expression, it was glaringly obvious that the injury was catastrophic. However, Kushina couldn't do anything to help, so she could only silently exit the tent. Even if Minato suffered a permanent injury to that specific region, Kushina wouldn't care in the slightest. The two of them shared true, absolute love!
Once Kushina had cleared the tent, the bandages were completely unwound, revealing the true state of the injury underneath.
The scale of his "unicorn" could only be described as thoroughly average, but it was now utterly battered and broken, even missing an entire segment. Shimizu took one look and knew that this particular unicorn was completely ruined.
To be perfectly honest, even Shimizu hadn't anticipated that Minato Namikaze would end up in such a state. His simulator hadn't explicitly mentioned that Minato would nearly be castrated; it had merely stated he would sustain an injury that would impact his combat capabilities. Looking at it now, this went far beyond a mere impact on his combat skills; anyone with slightly weaker psychological fortitude might have emulated Sakumo Hatake and committed suicide at home.
"This is going to be rather difficult to treat," Shimizu muttered, rubbing his chin.
He couldn't magically regenerate a missing segment out of thin air. Furthermore, with only two orbs residing below, this unicorn had essentially gone blind in one eye right out of the gate, making it a truly gruesome sight. To completely heal an injury of this nature was virtually impossible with the current level of technology available in the world. Cloning had never been as convenient as people imagined due to the profound complications arising from physical tissue rejection. Even if a perfect clone was synthesized, it would be utterly useless if the body rejected the transplant.
The only reason Danzo Shimura had successfully grafted an entire arm covered in Sharingan was due to sheer, extraordinary luck. Orochimaru had fortunately discovered an experimental subject whose body possessed an absolute lack of rejection responses toward any grafted tissue or foreign cellular structure. That subject's original surname was untraceable, known only by the name "Shin." Danzo's arm was actually Shin's arm; Orochimaru had meticulously transplanted all the Sharingan that Danzo had collected during the night of the Uchiha downfall into that specific limb before delivering it to him. Furthermore, he had infused Hashirama cells into it, significantly mitigating the continuous, draining chakra consumption of the Sharingan. Otherwise, considering how heavily a single Sharingan burdened Kakashi, Danzo's massive collection would have drained his chakra reserves entirely, killing him on the very first day.
Shin would eventually make his appearance much later in Naruto Gaiden: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring, adopting the name Shin Uchiha and even awakening a Mangekyo Sharingan. All of this served as a testament to how profoundly unique Shin's constitution truly was.
However, Minato Namikaze did not possess such a miraculous constitution. Unless an exceptionally brilliant scientist like Amado Sanzu—whose technological expertise and cloning research far surpassed Orochimaru and everyone else in existence—came to treat Minato, there was no hope. Amado was a core member of Kara. Shimizu was currently uncertain whether the Kara organization had even been formally established at this point in time. For the time being, he had no intention of clashing with them; the leader of Kara was Jigen, who served as the current vessel for Isshiki Otsutsuki, with Isshiki himself hiding directly inside Jigen's ear. Who could possibly know exactly how much of his original strength he had recovered?
Even Naruto's Baryon Mode, which came at the literal cost of the Nine-Tails' life force, could only forcefully suppress Isshiki Otsutsuki for a mere few minutes. If Baryon Mode hadn't possessed that miraculous attribute of shaving away the enemy's remaining lifespan with every strike, both Naruto and Sasuke would have perished in that fateful battle.
"This is nothing major for a shinobi," Minato Namikaze murmured, feeling a bit awkward having his own student witness him in his most vulnerable and undignified state. However, that fleeting embarrassment vanished in an instant. For a man like him who harbored grand ideals for the world, a minor physical defect in his mortal shell meant absolutely nothing.
"Minato-sensei, the eras are constantly progressing. For now, you just need to focus on quietly resting. The lack of a solution today doesn't mean there won't be a solution in the future," Shimizu said, shaking his head.
Grafting some Hashirama cells onto the area would yield a similar result; after all, Naruto's prosthetic arm didn't utilize Shin's cells, but was comprised entirely of Hashirama cells. At worst, it would gradually erode the physical body after a few years, carrying side effects like a shortened lifespan. However, providing such a solution brought absolutely no benefits to Shimizu, and he saw no reason to go through immense trouble to reverse-engineer technologies he hadn't mastered yet. Doing so would only hinder the speed of his own progression toward becoming stronger.
"I see." Upon hearing this, a spark of hope returned to Minato's eyes. Given the choice, what man would willingly choose to remain physically incomplete? His capacity to carry on his lineage should still be intact, though considering the current length of a mere fingernail, Minato didn't believe the appendage could be used for much else.
Shimizu performed some basic medical stabilization on Minato before exiting the tent. If Minato Namikaze still ended up dying during the night of the Nine-Tails' Incident as dictated by history, his Reanimated form via Edo Tensei should theoretically manifest a physically flawless body, since the vessel of Reanimation is molded entirely based on the state of the soul. Of course, that was strictly contingent upon the precision of the Reanimation jutsu being sufficiently high.
"...Shimizu, how is Minato doing?" The moment Shimizu emerged, Kushina immediately grabbed him.
"He just needs to quietly recuperate for a period of time, and he'll be fine."
Choosing to convey the positive news while omitting the grim details, Shimizu benevolently preserved the final shred of a man's dignity for Minato. After spending a few moments comforting Kushina, Shimizu took his leave.
Meanwhile, inside the Hokage Residence in Konohagakure.
Hiruzen Sarutobi had just received an urgent, encrypted missive detailing the entire situation regarding the Akatsuki organization.
Bam!
Hiruzen couldn't restrain his frustration, slamming his tobacco pipe heavily onto the desk. Both factions had practically exhausted their resources, yet an unexpected variable had suddenly emerged from the shadows.
"Hiruzen, we must strike back immediately!" Danzo Shimura stood up, unable to contain his urgency.
Back then, he had actively participated in the joint operation to wipe out the Akatsuki organization; in fact, it could be said that he was the primary mastermind behind that plot. If the forces of Akatsuki were allowed to grow into a massive entity, their very first target for vengeance would undoubtedly be himself. No, the absolute first target would likely be Hanzo of the Salamander. Danzo's face turned incredibly grim as he wondered about the current status of Hanzo.
--
Support me & read more advance & fast update chapter on my patreon:
pat reon .com/yuuwand