Saul accompanied the man through the halls of the hospital, indecisive. He wasn't sure of the old man, Shinno's, strength. As a retired ninja, the man should possess some degree of combat skill if retired. If he made a move now in ambush, would it work? The old man certainly had no reason to believe he would attack him here - an ambush would certainly take him off guard. The real question was whether Saul could quickly knock him unconscious with said ambush.
Eyeing the man out of the corner of his eye, he decided not to. Sure if he made his move here, even if he failed he'd quickly receive backup. There was no real risk to his safety if he attacked now. However, if the old man put up enough resistance then the resulting commotion would almost definitely not benefit him. Saul didn't necessarily want to expose the man as the spy he was after all.
Plus, this man had more value than being the key to reviving the Zero tails. Saul was very interested in the regeneration technique that preceded Tsunade's Creation Rebirth and Orochimaru's seemingly infinite life saving abilities. The two Sannin had pushed the technique to the point of conditional immortality, and in the movies he claimed his technique could even counteract the side-effects of the Eight Gates!
Saul was very interested in the principles behind this so-called autonomous regeneration. He could not achieve anything similar with his current understanding of Medical Ninjutsu, after all.
The Mystical Palm Ninjutsu worked by first converting your chakra to something completely harmless to the patient's body, compatible with their chakra. This step could be easily skipped. There was no conversion needed in regards to his own body, after all.
However, Saul could not yet omit the use of the Mystical Palm when it came to healing his own body. The second function of the Jutsu, an introspection of the body, was crucial for healing. If he did not have access to this, then the healing could very easily go wrong. So Saul had to use the Mystical Palm ninjutsu still if he wanted to heal himself.
This was not viable in most combat scenarios.
The real issue lay in the repair process. How was he to do something as focus intensive and delicate as repairing his own cells in the middle of combat? Sure it could easily be done with simple wounds like tears in tissue or cuts, but burn wounds and blunt force trauma are notoriously difficult to heal!
Not to mention any complex wound, if healed wrong, could cripple the body. The cells had to be guided to divide correctly. Especially when Chakra was involved. Healing was only beneficial if it was done correctly. Once you unnaturally screwed something up, your body would not be able to correct your mistake. The damage would be permanently done until you externally took action to correct your wrong.
Plus, splitting your focus like this in the midst of combat was a recipe for disaster. Once wounded, you were already at a disadvantage. If you then also had to split your focus to heal yourself, your opponent would get many opportunities that they otherwise would not have gotten by applying more pressure.
Thus, for many reasons this Technique of Shinno's had to be autonomous, at least to a certain extent. Otherwise Orochimaru and Tsunade would not be able to use it to such degrees of success in canon.
How would he get the technique out of this old man? If he captured him, maybe he could learn it from his memories? This was doable. It came with risks, however. Saul would have to take action alone or with Hinata's assistance at most. Said action could not be done within Konoha.
No, to begin with, was this even a surefire method even if he successfully captured the old man? Saul had been dealing with Ninja without protected minds, but he recalled specific counter intelligence techniques that made mind control and reading much more difficult, if not impossible. This man was a spy to begin with. It was highly likely he at least had some form of defense over his mind.
Saul pursed his lips. He was not arrogant enough to believe his unique expertise in the realm of the mind would lead him to be able to crack the already established Ninja intelligence methods.
Saul developed his own methods independent of any foundational knowledge within the ninja world. To crack his hypnosis seal would be akin to attempting to learn a completely foreign language by simply listening to audio of it being spoken. With no teacher to guide, it would take long periods of study and large amounts of reference material to comprehend. However, he was in a similar scenario when it came to cracking the ninja world's counter intelligence methods.
Becoming openly hostile then, with Shinno, was not a viable option. It was too risky no matter what angle one looked at it from. Saul did not see a way to get what he wanted by force.
"You seem like a good person, Shinno. Or should I call you Shinno-sama?"
The two now stood before a nice looking door. Saul had led him to the Hospital director's office. He opened the door for Shinno politely and smiled. The old man walked inside.
"Shinno is fine, Ninja-sama."
Saul walked inside after him.
"Oh, no need for any of that. After I saw you back there treating one of our Ninja, I realized I probably made the wrong assumption about you. Actions speak louder than words, after all."
Saul pulled open a nearby cabinet. Inside were a couple of scrolls along with certain basic medical supplies.
"These are actually the acting Director's supplies, but I'll pay him back later. I'm sure he won't mind if the purpose is to save a life, after all."
"Your director sounds like a good man."
Saul smiled. Probing, was he? This old man wasn't playing around. Yet he'd 'fall' for it. Better to keep the man off guard, after all.
"Kito-sama really is. Every day he comes to the hospital and works for a meager salary as a retired ninja, even though he could make much more returning to his old line of work. He works himself to exhaustion every single day just to save another life."
"He's an honorable man. Honorable men like these, who are passionate about saving lives, deserve gratitude and respect."
"That's true."
Shinno gave a toothy grin, "And wise too. He keeps up his reading, I see."
"Reading? Ah, you mean these old things?"
Saul picked up one of the scrolls casually. Shinno didn't openly react to their presence, but Saul knew he was interested in them. He subtly guided the conversation from the absent director to put him off guard, and then he shifted the focus of the talk quite naturally.
Shinno nodded. "A wise man is a well learned one."
Saul took a look at some of the titles. These were not books. They were techniques. Obscure ones at that.
"I never even see Kito-sama looking at these. These are some pretty useless techniques."
Shinno furrowed his brows. "If someone took the time and effort to record them, surely they must have a use. May I have a look?"
Interesting... Saul could learn a thing or two from this man! The purpose of his little setup from earlier was revealed. If he refused now, wouldn't he be contradicting himself? After all, he wouldn't be showing the 'respect' and 'gratitude' that the old man 'deserved' for healing others so selflessly! Shinno had gotten him to vocally agree with his earlier words for this very purpose. It was a subtle way of abusing your target's ego for your own benefit.
The fact that he set things up so hard for this moment though meant that these scrolls were most definitely his aim. Saul didn't know what exactly he needed from them, but he would not prove so easy to manipulate.
"Ah, sorry sorry." Saul put the scrolls back on the shelf. "These are the hospital's property. Even I should not be looking at them so casually, much less someone not even from Konoha. Here you go."
Saul handed Shinno the replenishments he had been asking for. The corner of the man's eyebrow twitched as he forced a smile.
"Thank you very much."
"No problem! Actually I wanted to ask, what kind of reward would you like for healing our village's ninja? We're all incredibly grateful for your assistance."
Where was this so-called gratefulness when he merely asked to glance at some old scrolls! He didn't even know if they held what he was looking for!
Shinno glanced at the young man in front of him. He reminded him of that Snake. Bad news, this one was.
"Nothing, nothing!" The old man smiled, "It's already my greatest honor to save a few more lives. I'm a traveling doctor, after all. A hearty meal and some nice company would be all I can ask for. Maybe you could introduce me to this 'Kito-sama' you spoke so highly of? I'd love to meet a man who seems to share the same values as I!"
Oh no, you couldn't just escape that easily...
Saul chuckled, "Really now? Are you sure you wouldn't want a better look at those scrolls in the cabinet? Maybe I could make an exception for such a kind doctor like yourself."
...Was this young man playing with him? Shinno narrowed his eyes. Still though, he kept up the pretense. Maybe it was just a suspicion rather than a certainty.
"No need for that. It was just an old man's curiosity speaking earlier - I wouldn't want to intrude on anyone's private secrets."
"...But I insist."
Saul dropped the light, cheery smile he had adopted for the conversation.
"Shinno-sama, right now you're in the middle of a paranoid Konoha who just dealt with an invasion from Otogakure and Sunagakure. What do you think would happen if... I don't know... I discovered a hostile spy who took the chance to infiltrate from the Land of Sky?"
Sweat dripped down from the old man's forehead now.
"W-why would you think that? I'm not your enemy, I swear! Please let me meet with the one known as Tsunade - she can vouch for me! I'm just a traveling doctor! Don't do this to me, please!"
Saul smiled. "I'm not your enemy either, Shinno-sama, if you truly are who you say you are. Tsunade has not been seen in the village for quite some time; she cannot verify you truly are who you say you are. Teach me the regeneration technique you taught Tsunade, and I'll believe you're a friend of Konoha."
"A-are you trying to blackmail me!?"
"Even if I am, does it matter?"
Saul thought for a moment, then even went as far as pocketing the scrolls from the glass cabinet. He chuckled after seeing the incredulous expression on the old man's face.
"Friends of Konoha deserve rewards for healing our ninja. But those who intend to take advantage of us and kick us while we're down will only receive our harshest retribution. Make your choice, Shinno. Are you a friend or an enemy of Konoha?"
The old man gritted his teeth angrily.
Author's Note: If you wish to chat / provide feedback, the link to the discord is here: discord gg YwperMGsBq ("." before gg and "/" after gg, no spaces)
Also if you can support me on SubscribeStar that would be great. Remember - the more supporters it has, the more chapters that will be written for everyone. I'd really appreciate some support!
subscribestar adult naruto-paradise-for-one ("." before adult and "/" after it, no spaces)