When the four of them returned to headquarters camp, they found only commotion—no sign of any enemy attack.
No one came to explain why they'd been recalled, so they had to head back to their squad room and wait.
At the doorway a girl Ninja they didn't recognize was waiting. Spotting Higashino Shin, she stepped forward. "Excuse me, are you Higashino Shin?"
"I am. And you are?"
"I'm Tenshin Mai, a nurse from the camp's medical division. Director Mishima sent me to find you."
Gekko Yun Jian nodded. "Go on ahead. If anything comes up I'll have these two fetch you."
"All right. I'll go take a look."
Medical Ninja were always scarce; on the eastern front against Hidden Mist even more so. With the front stalemated and fighting rare, many medics had gone north with Hyuga Hiashi's relief force where the battle was fiercer and manpower desperately needed.
Arriving at the field hospital, Higashino Shin found the usual quiet replaced by a steady stream of wounded.
Several Medical Ninja and nurses were treating the worst-off; the lightly injured would simply have to wait.
Higashino Shin's squad had been garrisoned north of HQ on the Land of Waves line, where no major clashes had been reported lately.
So these casualties must have come from the southern Land of Whirlpools front.
Who knew what hell they'd walked through.
Then Shin noticed a vaguely familiar boy Ninja—thirteen or fourteen, about Might Guy's age—standing beside an injured teammate.
He stepped closer, studied the youth, and asked, "Iwa Zune?"
The dark-skinned, stocky boy looked up, puzzled. "Yeah… do I know you?"
"Five years ago, by a tributary of the Naka River. You tried to steal my grilled fish and I beat you up for it."
Iwa Zune squinted, thought for a moment, then remembered. "Oh, it's you. Sorry—we were just kids, didn't know better. Sorry for the trouble we caused."
Right: Iwa Zune was one of the little Konoha hooligans Shin had run into years ago. War had since knocked the swagger out of him; he looked almost meek now.
Shin bore no grudge over childish scuffles. "How come you're alone? Didn't your friends become Ninja?"
Zune's eyes dimmed. "They… they're all dead."
Shin didn't know what to say. Back then it had only been kids' mischief, no real hatred, yet in the blink of an eye only one of the four remained.
For the first time since arriving in the Ninja World, Higashino Shin truly understood how cheap a Ninja's life could be—even for children not yet grown.
He said nothing more, walked to Zune's teammate, unwrapped the bandages, found the wound already cleaned, and simply used the Mystical Palm to heal it.
The nurse, Tenshin Mai, watched without interrupting, amazed: under Shin's medical Chakra the injury closed far faster than usual.
When he finished, Shin clapped Zune on the shoulder. "All done. Your teammate's fine—take him to rest."
Zune bowed deeply. "Thank you… thank you so much!"
The streetwise Liu Qiangang once said: if the young aren't fiery, are they even young? Yet in Iwa Zune the fire had gone out before he'd reached the bright dawn of youth; he could no longer burn hot.
Watching him lead his teammate away, Shin wondered: the boy who once dreamed of becoming Hokage—how much of that dream still flickered inside him now?
Shaking off the thought, Higashino Shin made several Shadow Clones and set to work saving every wounded Ninja in the tent.
Tenshin Mai looked left and right, unsure which Shin to follow, finally settled on tagging along behind the original as his assistant.
She had never imagined a Medical Ninja could be so domineering—did having oceans of Chakra really let you do whatever you pleased?
Higashino Shin: Sorry, but I've got Chakra to burn—so yes, I can do whatever I want.
By the time treatment ended the little nurse was reverence itself.
The kid who looked several years younger than her turned out to be a heavyweight.
---
Outside a special ward sat Hyuga Tokuma, Muta Aburame, and Inuzuka Kiba, with Hoki the ninken sprawled on the floor.
All three humans and the dog wore identical gloom, clothes torn and filthy, looking a wreck—even Hoki's eyes had lost their usual clever gleam.
When Higashino Shin was brought over by Tenshin Mai, the sharp-eared Inuzuka mutt lifted its head for a look, then dropped it again, like a dog made to sit after shredding the sofa.
"Isn't Teacher Jitsugetsu in there?"
Hyuga Tokuma: "They're still fighting to save him!"
Higashino Shin drew a sharp breath. "Did the southern line you're holding get hit by a full-scale Hidden Mist invasion? Not only are there wounded everywhere outside, even your team's Jonin—"
This time Tokuma only nodded, saying nothing.
Just then, Mishima Toshio's voice came from the special treatment room: "Shin, get in here—quick."
The moment Shin stepped inside he saw an intricate, symmetrical seal pattern etched into the floor. Four Medical Ninja sat at the four cardinal points, maintaining hand seals as they channeled the jutsu.
This special ward was the very chamber for the Life Regeneration Technique.
Sarutobi Jitsugetsu lay stripped to his shorts in the center, his body riddled with wounds. Several massive piercing injuries through his abdomen were the worst—holes you could see straight through.
That he still clung to life after such damage spoke of terrifying vitality.
But only the Life Regeneration Technique could pull someone back from wounds this close to death.
Green Chakra streamed from the four medics, flowing through the seals to envelop Jitsugetsu, using healthy tissue elsewhere in his body to rebuild the ruined organs within.
The Life Regeneration Technique demanded not only pinpoint control but also an exhausting duration—far beyond what most Ninja could supply without relief.
Yet of the four medics present, only two had replacements waiting behind them.
The southeast front was short of Medical Ninja to begin with, and those capable of leading the Life Regeneration Technique were even fewer.
Shin split off a Shadow Clone carrying half his Chakra and stepped behind Mishima and another medic, ready to rotate in at any moment.
Mishima asked, "Are you sure about this?"
"It's fine, Uncle Mishima—my reserves are more than enough."
"All right—switch on my mark."
At the command, the four medics maintaining the jutsu—Mishima included—were relieved in sequence.
Shin now covered two positions at once. With his addition the healing pace quickened, but everyone was either locked in concentration or frantically recovering Chakra; no one had breath to marvel.
Had he wished, three clones plus himself could have finished even faster—but only if he matched the others' rhythm.
Yet Shin had no wish to outshine the grueling effort everyone else had already poured in.
Not until nightfall did Sarutobi Jitsugetsu stabilize: every wound closed, though his Origin Qi was so depleted he would need long bed-rest.
Watching Jitsugetsu moved to a normal ward, Shin exhaled in relief. They'd hauled him back from death's door; Konoha's medical arts truly outstripped every other village.
Tenshin Mai stepped up with a bento box. "Here, Dr. Higashino—you must be starving. I brought your dinner."
"Thanks, Mai-senpai."
Mishima and the other medics: "We're starving too!"
"Ah-haha, don't worry, seniors—I already left dinners on each of your desks."
"Huh? We get some too? Thanks!" Mishima called to his colleagues. "Come on, let's eat."
Starved after hours of nonstop Chakra expenditure, Shin tore into the box the instant it touched his hands.
Halfway through, Yūgao Uzuki arrived with another packed meal. She glanced at Shin's dinner, then at Mai standing nearby, and her eyes narrowed in instant vigilance.
Ever since Gekko Yun Jian's scare, every suitable girl looked to her like someone scheming to make babies with her Shin.
The girl pouted. "Looks like I came at a bad time."
"No, you came at the perfect time—you know how big my appetite is."
"Hmph—eat till you burst."
"Relax, I could finish two more boxes! Why only you?"
"Hayate's cultivating, and the teacher's still in the command center for the emergency meeting."
So it was because of the Hidden Mist's sudden all-out push. Whatever those lunatics were after, Konoha had to meet them with everything it had.