Chapter 222: Courting Disaster and Reaping the Consequences
After Jiraiya and the other high-ranking commanders returned to the Konoha camp, the pressure on Taichi immediately eased by more than half.
At the very least, he no longer had to sit in the center of camp twenty-four hours a day acting as a human radar system.
As for the front lines, large numbers of Konoha ninja were still pursuing the retreating Sand forces. That cleanup operation would probably continue for another three days before everyone finally felt satisfied.
Thankfully, the command division had already anticipated this before the battle even began. Orders had long since been issued that, even in victory, pursuit was only allowed up to the border of the Land of Wind.
Otherwise, a victorious chase could easily turn into walking straight into an ambush.
Finally free for once, Taichi had originally planned to spend some time on his own matters.
Then he remembered—
There was still one idiot lying in the medical camp.
Judging by the time, Obito should've woken up long ago.
It was probably time to go see exactly how he'd managed to nearly kill himself.
Taichi strolled leisurely toward the medical tents.
Compared to the rest of the camp, his mood was unusually relaxed.
Most of the burdens on his shoulders had suddenly disappeared. Now, all he needed to worry about was assisting the medical division. Everything else could be left to the higher-ups.
Before he even entered the recovery tent, Obito's weak but energetic voice drifted out from inside.
"Rin, don't worry! Aren't I perfectly fine?"
"They say surviving a disaster brings future blessings!"
"Maybe I'll even awaken my two-tomoe Sharingan soon!"
Taichi rolled his eyes and lifted the tent flap.
The moment he saw Obito still talking nonsense while lying in bed, he couldn't resist frightening him.
"Whether you awaken a two-tomoe Sharingan or not, I don't know."
"But I do know one thing."
"You can forget about being a ninja for the rest of your life."
The tent instantly fell silent.
Everyone turned toward Taichi at once.
Kakashi and Rin both looked completely stunned.
When Taichi treated Obito yesterday, he definitely hadn't said the consequences were this severe.
How had things escalated overnight to the point where Obito could never be a ninja again?
Only Yōhei and Saori remained relatively calm.
They understood Taichi better than the others.
Judging from the dark look on his face, this was obviously just him trying to scare Obito.
Most likely, Obito's earlier nonsense had irritated him again.
If the situation were truly as serious as Taichi claimed, he'd probably be forcing a smile right now while trying to comfort Obito instead.
"N-No way…"
"T-Taichi… you're lying to me, right?!"
Obito's face instantly turned deathly pale.
His vision darkened, his head spun, and his half-raised body collapsed limply back onto the bed.
In that instant, all strength seemed to leave him.
Feeling his current weakness, Obito panicked even more.
Now he genuinely believed Taichi's words.
"T-Taichi…"
"You have to save me!"
"I still want to become Hokage!"
"I can't stop being a ninja!"
Taichi was speechless.
What even was this mindset?
The guy was practically crippled, yet his first thought was still becoming Hokage.
His determination really was terrifying in its own bizarre way.
Beside the bed, Rin was already on the verge of tears.
She looked at Taichi desperately.
"T-Taichi… is there really no way?"
Taichi could only stare at her helplessly.
This silly girl.
She'd studied medical ninjutsu too.
Had she seriously not checked Obito's condition herself earlier?
Even Saori couldn't watch this anymore.
She tugged lightly on Taichi's sleeve and laughed.
"Taichi, stop scaring him already."
"Look at him—his face is completely white!"
Obito's eyes lit up briefly after hearing that.
But the hope quickly faded again.
Lying there weakly, he muttered in despair:
"Saori-nee… don't try to comfort me…"
"I can tell…"
"My whole body feels weak…"
"I'm definitely finished…"
As he spoke, tears began sliding uncontrollably down the corners of his eyes.
He didn't even bother wiping them away.
He simply stared blankly upward while mumbling repeatedly:
"I'm done for…"
At that point, even Saori's expression darkened.
This idiot had lost a massive amount of blood and undergone surgery less than a day ago.
Feeling weak was completely normal.
Especially after all the pointless thrashing around he'd just been doing.
Honestly, the fact that he still looked this healthy was already impressive.
Thankfully, after Saori's reminder, Rin and Kakashi finally realized what was happening.
Unlike Obito, they weren't idiots.
They quickly pieced things together.
Originally, Taichi had intended to scare Obito a little longer.
It would do him good to learn some caution on the battlefield.
This time, he'd gotten a hole punched through his chest.
Next time, it might be straight through his skull.
But before Taichi could continue, Kakashi suddenly stepped forward and smacked Obito across the face.
"Idiot."
"You can't even tell what condition your own body's in?"
"And you still want to become Hokage?"
"Keep dreaming."
Kakashi didn't hold back at all.
A bright red handprint instantly appeared on Obito's cheek.
But that slap finally knocked some sense into him.
Thinking back over everything that had just happened, Obito stared at Taichi in disbelief.
"So…"
"I'm really okay?"
"Hahahahaha!"
A burst of laughter erupted from the surrounding beds.
Obito wasn't the only patient in the tent.
The relatively small recovery area housed more than a dozen injured ninja.
Camp life was unbearably dull most of the time.
Who would've thought they'd get such entertaining drama today?
This injury suddenly felt worth it.
Hearing the laughter, Obito finally realized he'd been completely played.
His already pale face instantly turned bright red.
Whether from embarrassment or anger, nobody knew.
Taichi ignored him entirely.
He stepped forward, pulled away the blanket, and ignored Obito's weak resistance while opening his clothes to inspect the wound on his chest.
Then he spread his chakra senses through Obito's body.
After confirming everything was stable, he finally sat down beside the bed.
Forming hand seals, he slapped a palm beside the bed frame.
A simple soundproof barrier instantly spread around them.
Only then did Taichi finally ask:
"Alright."
"Explain."
"How exactly did Obito end up like this?"
"He was one step away from not making it back alive."
The moment Taichi asked the question, the entire group fell silent.
Taichi didn't rush them.
He simply sat there quietly, waiting for an answer.
It wasn't that he wanted to expose their embarrassment for fun.
This was necessary.
Only by fully understanding their mistakes could they avoid repeating them in the future.
After a long pause, Yōhei finally sighed.
"There's nothing to hide…"
"It's our fault."
"Our strength wasn't enough, and we didn't follow your instructions."
"That's why Obito ended up heavily injured."
"You split up?" Taichi immediately guessed.
Before the battle, he had repeatedly warned them to maintain formation and never act alone.
Yet in the end, they still failed to follow orders.
Of course, he conveniently ignored the fact that the first person to abandon formation had been himself.
The battle had barely started before he threw the team aside and rushed off alone to fight a tailed beast.
"Well… not exactly split up," Yōhei said awkwardly before explaining everything that happened after Taichi left the team.
At first, they'd strictly followed Taichi's instructions.
The five of them maintained formation while fighting through the chaotic battlefield.
Although the pressure had been intense, they'd only suffered light injuries.
On a battlefield that massive and chaotic, minor wounds were unavoidable.
The injuries on Yōhei, Saori, Kakashi, and Rin had all come from that phase of the battle.
But once the frontal battlefield collapsed and the Sand ninja began retreating, Konoha launched a full pursuit.
And suddenly, maintaining formation became inconvenient.
It severely slowed down their efficiency while chasing enemies.
Watching other Konoha ninja charging around alone, pursuing two or three Sand ninja by themselves, Obito became jealous first.
And naturally—
He was also the first to suggest breaking formation.
Initially, Yōhei refused.
But the problem was that everyone around them was doing the same thing.
Then even Kakashi started persuading him.
And honestly…
Yōhei himself had started getting tempted too.
So in the end, he gave in.
You really had to admit—
Battle formations were incredibly useful.
Not only did they allow teammates to complement each other's strengths, they also covered each other's weaknesses.
During the earlier chaos of the frontal war, countless sneak attacks from blind spots had been intercepted by another teammate within the formation.
As long as everyone only needed to focus on attacks from one direction, survival became far easier.
But the moment they split apart, disaster struck almost immediately.
Not long after separating, Obito was ambushed by two Sand chunin working together.
Individually, neither opponent was necessarily stronger than him.
But they fought as a coordinated pair.
One distracted him.
The other attacked.
Within only a few exchanges, Obito was stabbed straight through the chest.
If Yōhei and the others hadn't arrived in time, one more strike would've been enough to send Obito's name straight onto the memorial stone.
After hearing the full story, Taichi honestly didn't know what to say.
The only thing he could think was:
You reap what you sow.
The Konoha squad that should've maintained formation split apart for greater pursuit efficiency.
Meanwhile, the scattered Sand ninja—who should've been fleeing chaotically—formed small coordinated teams instead.
And in the end, the pursuing Konoha ninja were nearly counter-killed by weaker opponents working together.
The irony was almost painful.
No wonder Yōhei and the others looked so ashamed talking about it.
This really was humiliating.
"War is different from ordinary team missions," Taichi said seriously.
"And even during normal missions, teamwork matters."
"On the battlefield, it matters even more."
He hoped they'd truly learn something from this incident.
"There are too many variables on a battlefield."
"Unknown enemies."
"Strange jutsu."
"Attacks flying everywhere."
"You can't predict any of it."
"One person's attention is limited."
"That's why formations exist."
"That's why comrades exist."
"Only by relying on each other do you improve your chances of surviving a battlefield."
Everyone could tell Taichi genuinely cared about his teammates.
But unfortunately—
Some people simply couldn't keep their mouths shut.
If Obito didn't say something stupid every few minutes, he physically became uncomfortable.
"Easy for you to say…"
"Aren't you the one who ran off alone first?"
Although he muttered it quietly, everyone present possessed absurdly sharp hearing.
Naturally, they all heard him perfectly.
Yōhei and Kakashi twitched slightly, barely suppressing their laughter to save Taichi some dignity.
Rin, who deeply respected Taichi—especially since he had personally taught her medical ninjutsu—only looked nervously toward Obito.
Saori, however, was another matter entirely.
As one of Taichi's earliest teammates, she had far fewer reservations.
Though she tried restraining herself, she still covered her mouth while laughing.
"Hehe…"
The suppressed laughter sounded especially obvious inside the quiet tent.
And Saori made absolutely no effort to stop.
A vein bulged visibly on Taichi's forehead.
Looking at Obito lying there blissfully unaware of danger, Taichi forced out a smile and casually patted Obito's arm.
A faint green glow flashed across his hand.
"Yōhei…"
"Looks like Obito's training still isn't enough."
"Getting folded by two chunin is pretty embarrassing."
"Once he recovers, increase his training intensity."
Yōhei looked at Obito sympathetically.
This idiot really had no survival instincts.
Of all people to provoke, he chose Taichi.
And Taichi could be incredibly petty sometimes.
Especially when he smiled like that.
The green light flashing from his hand earlier definitely wasn't anything good.
"Taichi…"
Yōhei tried helping Obito one last time.
"They say broken bones take a hundred days to heal."
"Obito broke quite a few ribs."
"Even with medical ninjutsu, full recovery should still take a long time, right?"
Unfortunately, Obito completely failed to understand Yōhei's desperate attempt to save him.
Instead, he proudly declared:
"Don't worry, Cousin Yōhei!"
"I'll recover quickly!"
Taichi nodded calmly.
"Of course he will."
"I just stimulated his bone cells."
"That should double his recovery speed."
Then he added casually:
"Though…"
"It might get a little itchy."
Turning toward Obito, Taichi smiled warmly.
"Obito, I'm sure you can handle such a tiny hardship, right?"
For some reason, the moment Obito saw that smile, a chill shot straight from his tailbone to the top of his skull.
Still, he forced himself to nod.
"N-No problem!"
Taichi stood up and smoothed out his wrinkled clothes.
"I'll head back to work now."
"And don't stay here too long."
"You'll disturb the other patients."
With a wave of his hand, the soundproof barrier dispersed.
Then he slowly walked out of the tent.
Only after Taichi fully disappeared did everyone finally turn back toward Obito with expressions full of sympathy.
Poor guy.
Even now, he still hadn't realized how serious the situation truly was.
Obito himself wasn't actually stupid.
Just slow.
Seeing everyone's strange expressions, he began feeling vaguely uneasy.
But before he could ask anything—
A faint itch suddenly emerged from the broken bones in his chest.
The sensation came from deep inside the bone itself.
It wasn't particularly intense.
But it was impossible to ignore.
He scratched at himself instinctively, yet it provided absolutely no relief.
"Rin…"
"Taichi was right…"
"I'm actually getting itchy…"
"Is there anything you can do to stop it?"
"It feels awful…"
Rin looked at him pitifully.
"That's part of the nerve reconstruction process."
"Because your recovery speed increased, the itching also became much stronger."
"You'll… just have to endure it."
"It should pass eventually."
Hearing that, Obito finally understood exactly what had happened.
Internally cursing his own big mouth, he stared blankly at the tent ceiling while silently enduring the steadily worsening itch.
…
Meanwhile, as time passed, the fighting at the front lines gradually died down.
Throughout the Land of Rivers, every Sand ninja that could be found was systematically eliminated.
Even now, Konoha ninja could frequently be seen moving back and forth between the battlefield and the border of the Land of Wind.
These were the cleanup teams dispatched specifically to handle the aftermath.
Sunagakure, meanwhile, wisely chose to withdraw its remaining forces and fortify the border instead of sending additional troops into the Land of Rivers.
It wasn't that they didn't want to continue fighting.
They simply no longer had the manpower.
The border with Iwagakure still required defenders.
Although the two sides appeared to be in a temporary ceasefire, nobody could guarantee that Iwagakure wouldn't seize the opportunity to stab Sunagakure while it was weakened.
Meanwhile, the eastern coastline also demanded constant protection.
Kirigakure harassment had never truly stopped.
The hostility between Sand and Mist went back years.
Which was precisely why Sunagakure's other "hero" Pakura of the Scorch Release, remained stationed there year-round.