"Lord Third?"
The door to the hospital room was open.
The man who entered was indeed Hiruzen Sarutobi.
However, an unfamiliar old woman followed behind him.
Hearing the surprise in Hyūga Kumokawa's tone, Hiruzen gave him a gentle smile, then sighed as he looked at the old woman behind him. "I'm sorry to trouble you, Koharu."
"Alright, alright. This old woman is only good for this much," Koharu Utatane glanced at him, grumbling with a hint of exasperation, before walking towards Akimichi Chōza.
Chōza had sustained moderate respiratory burns, affecting his trachea and primary bronchi.
It felt like swallowing a mouthful of scorching sand. Every breath scraped his throat. His nostrils were filled with the metallic scent of iron. It was like feathers repeatedly tickling his windpipe—the more he coughed, the itchier it got, and the itchier it got, the more he coughed.
"Cough! Cough-cough!"
At this moment, Chōza seemed about to cough his lungs out. His hoarse coughs were even more shrill than the wind outside the window. The black phlegm he coughed up resembled bloody mucus mixed with coal dust.
Treating such burns typically required lavage to remove necrotic mucosa and soot, possibly even an emergency tracheotomy to prevent laryngeal edema from sealing off the airway.
However, Hiruzen appeared quite confident in Utatane's abilities. He hadn't even bothered summoning other medical ninjas.
One shouldn't underestimate Koharu Utatane. Though she might seem like a bit of a fence-sitter between Danzō and Hiruzen, in her youth, she had been a member of the elite Escort Unit under the Second Hokage.
Sssst.
Utatane first used a scalpel to incise the affected area. Then, she placed her palm over Chōza's chest. As her chakra flowed with microscopic precision into the wound, the dark purple necrotic tissue and pus were extracted.
Mystical Palm: Fine Extraction Technique. A B-rank medical ninjutsu. By sensing the chaotic chakra within the body, it identifies minute harmful sources like toxins and pathogens, extracting the poison while simultaneously healing the damaged area.
Even among the generally difficult field of medical ninjutsu, this technique was considered extremely high-level.
Hyūga Kumokawa stared intently at Utatane's actions, unabashedly activating his Byakugan to steal the technique outright. But Hiruzen merely thought he was watching out of concern.
"Don't worry," Hiruzen said, placing his Hokage hat on a coat rack before sitting in another chair. He comforted him, "In all of Konoha, besides Tsunade, it's hard to find a medical ninja with more experience than this granny."
"Lord Third…"
Hearing this, Kumokawa seemed to finally relax, averting his gaze. Noticing Hiruzen's gentle gaze upon him, a look of guilt and despondency appeared on his face.
He began to rise from his chair, but Hiruzen gently stopped him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Sit," he reassured him. "It's fine. I already have a general understanding of what happened. Both Chōza and I know this wasn't your fault."
"The doctors said you were also injured. How are you feeling now?"
Kumokawa was gently pressed back into the chair. Feeling the gentle warmth on his shoulder, he placed his hands timidly on his knees, his face flushing slightly, seemingly somewhat excited.
After all, there was a world of difference in their status. They should never have had the chance to sit together and talk so closely. Kumokawa's demeanor satisfied Hiruzen greatly.
"Thank you for your concern. Thanks to Senior Chōza, I only suffered some minor injuries."
Kumokawa no longer insisted on standing. Meeting Hiruzen's gaze, his tone was full of humble sincerity and gratitude.
"Those are hardly minor injuries," Hiruzen sighed. "Aside from Chōza, you were closest to the blast. Anyone else would have been killed or crippled."
Hearing the implication in his words, Hyūga Kumokawa's face paled slightly. He hurriedly said, "Lord Third, I… I didn't deliberately steal the Revolving Heaven. It's just…"
"Kumokawa, I'm not blaming you," Hiruzen interrupted him with a smile. "If it weren't for you and Chōza blocking the front, the casualties in the escort team would have been much worse."
"I simply didn't expect your progress to be so remarkable, your performance so outstanding."
Hearing Hiruzen's still-gentle tone, Kumokawa seemed to relax considerably. He pursed his lips, hesitatingly saying, "I… I don't know why either. Ever since I awakened the Byakugan three months ago, my control over my body and chakra seems to have become much stronger."
Seeing the ignorant confusion in Kumokawa's eyes and detecting nothing amiss, Hiruzen narrowed his eyes slightly, forming his own hypothesis about the changes in the boy.
'A change that appeared only after awakening the Byakugan three months ago?
No, it was probably after Orochimaru defected, wasn't it?
It seems Orochimaru did indeed do something to this child. No wonder he tried to take the boy with him when he fled. It's a pity we still can't discern the exact abnormality. Perhaps I should keep the boy close for further observation.'
Even individuals like Hatake Kakashi and Yamato, who had once attempted to assassinate him and their comrades, had been forgiven, tolerated, and even directly incorporated into the ANBU, his personal guard. Faced with Hyūga Kumokawa, who had always upheld the "Will of Fire," he had even less reason to push him away.
At least from what he could see now, Kumokawa's character and loyalty were commendable. And his strength and talent seemed to have ironically been completed by Orochimaru's actions.
With this thought, Hiruzen let go of his last lingering thread of suspicion. He ceased testing and instead asked seriously, "Kumokawa, I heard from Chōza and the others that before you left, you used your Byakugan to see the subsequent outcome, correct?"
"I want to know what you encountered, who you met, and what ultimately happened."
The concern and probing were over. It was time to get to the main topic.
As if reliving that terrifying scene, a look of fear appeared on Kumokawa's face.
"Dead. All dead." His voice trembled slightly. "That thing... it wasn't human. That kind of power... is not something a human could possess."
Meanwhile, at the border of the Land of Hot Water, four figures stood silently in the night.
"Haaah…"
Samui took a deep breath, as if exhaling the chill from her heart, trying to calm the terror within.
Standing here and looking around, the topography of the area had become clearly visible.
It resembled the cap of a mushroom. Their position was the highest point, with the surrounding terrain sloping downwards.
Apart from where they stood, the ground elsewhere was covered in grotesque gullies, stretching from their position all the way to the end a thousand meters away. The devastated, messy scene spoke of the violence and terror that had passed through here.
Just looking at those marks felt sharp.
Samui closed her eyes, imagining what must have happened here in her mind.
A single person standing at the center, releasing a Wind Release ninjutsu akin to a tornado, shredding everything before them into fine powder, turning it into a barren wasteland.
Not only that, but that entity then controlled the tornado, spinning it in a circle, sweeping and destroying everything around it like trash.
Terrifying power sufficient to be called a natural disaster was wielded in its grasp as easily as moving an arm. Those who tried to block its path with mere flesh and blood turned into dust and mist. Blood, flesh, and bone all became fertilizer, buried within the soil of this area.
This kind of power…