"Waaah!"
Naruto reached out with his chubby little fingers, grabbing tightly onto Amamiya Rei's clothes, refusing to let go.
Whenever Rei tried to gently pull his hand away, the child's lips would instantly tremble, and tears as round as beans welled up in those large, blue, watery eyes.
Amamiya Rei: "..."
Lately, he didn't quite understand why, but his duties at Sarutobi Hiruzen's side had been decreasing.
Not only that, but his missions had also become very few.
Sometimes, he didn't even see Hiruzen more than a couple of times in an entire week.
With his schedule free, Rei spent his spare time caring for Naruto, and when possible, he would also lend a hand at Konoha Hospital.
Now, staring at the stubborn little hand gripping his clothes with unyielding strength, Rei realized that Naruto had decided to challenge him today.
The two locked eyes.
Three seconds later—
Rei picked up a baby carrier and fastened Naruto securely onto his back.
Naruto lay there obediently, resting against him, babbling softly while chewing on his plump little hands.
Carrying the child, Amamiya Rei stepped outside. The sunlight spilled down upon him; he drew in a deep breath and cast a sidelong glance at the small figure on his back.
After all the trouble he had gone through—feeding him, changing him, raising him day and night—when Naruto grew up, wasn't it fair that he let Rei eat a few extra bites in return?
With that thought, Rei entered the hospital carrying Naruto.
But the moment he stepped into the main hall, a suffocating stench of blood nearly overwhelmed him.
The hall was crammed with injured shinobi; the wards, even more so.
Everywhere he looked, shinobi lay sprawled across the hall, their bodies soaked in blood. Their wounds varied, but their faces all wore the same mix of numbness and agony.
A small number of medical-nin rushed back and forth between them, brows furrowed, their footsteps hurried and heavy.
Rei wasted no time. He immediately returned Naruto home.
The hospital's current condition was no place for an infant to stay.
Ignoring the baby's desperate cries, Rei rushed back to the hospital with swift steps.
The first person he noticed amidst the chaos was Honma Mei, weaving between patients.
Sensing his gaze, Mei looked back. Her eyes were bloodshot, with dark circles hanging heavily beneath them—clear signs that she had gone far too long without rest.
"You're here."
Her voice was filled with exhaustion.
She pointed toward the inner corridor of the hall and said, "The ones inside are in worse condition. Among us, your medical ninjutsu is the best. I'll leave them to you."
What she didn't say out loud was that those inside had, for the most part, already been abandoned.
The time and effort it would take to save them was far too great. With the same time and effort, nearly a dozen other shinobi could be treated.
It wasn't that the medical-nin didn't want to save them; it was simply the cruel arithmetic of choosing between one life and many.
In such dire times, there was no other choice.
If there had only been more medical-nin available, it would not have come to this.
But whenever war broke out, medical-nin were always the rarest resource.
Rei pushed open the ward door.
A rancid stench nearly made him faint.
The room was overflowing with shinobi. At first glance, one could easily mistake them for corpses.
Their breathing was so faint it seemed that death would claim them at any moment.
Rei quickly began his work.
Saving people—of course, he would also take his payment.
Each time he wrested a life back from the Shinigami, they would pay him in meat, which increased his sunlight value and chakra.
Yet as he looked down at the patient before him, Rei felt, for just a brief moment, at a complete loss.
The shinobi's eyes were tightly shut, his body riddled with fragments of broken weapons. Just removing them would take an enormous amount of time.
That sense of helplessness lasted only a second.
Rei swiftly picked up his tweezers and began extracting the shards embedded in the man's body.
His movements were rapid, yet every detail was handled with meticulous care.
Just removing the fragments alone took nearly an hour. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Rei glanced at the others lying in the ward, then quickly moved on to treating the man's external injuries.
But as he worked, he noticed something was wrong—this shinobi needed surgery.
His internal organs had ruptured. They would need to be sutured, and the shredded flesh inside his body carefully removed.
That process consumed yet another hour.
Finally, when the shinobi on the operating table began to show signs of life returning, Rei let out a breath of relief.
Then, without hesitation, he sank his teeth into the only uninjured spot on the man's waist.
Once done, he swiftly stopped the bleeding and wheeled the patient out of the ward.
From there, others would naturally transfer him to a standard ward.
Rei had no time to listen to the system's notifications—another patient awaited.
One after another, he worked without pause. Only when the dead of night had fallen did Rei finally push out the last of the critical patients.
"Knock, knock—"
Rei turned toward the door.
There stood Honma Mei, looking as though her very life force had been drained. She tilted her chin toward him and said,"Come out and eat something. Otherwise, your body won't hold up."
By the time Rei walked back into the hall, the chaos had quieted. The space was now eerily empty, though bloodstains still streaked the floor.
None of the medical-nin had left. They sat together in a circle, eating bento meals.
Seeing Rei and Mei arrive, they quickly made space and passed bentos to them.
"Finally, an hour to rest."
One medic across from Rei rubbed his temples.
"Treasure this one hour while it lasts!" another added.
Rei ate slowly, almost mechanically, from the box in front of him.
Mei asked softly, "Does it not suit your taste?"
Rei shook his head.
The medic opposite him tried to reassure him. "It's normal for your appetite to be affected after seeing so many patients in such terrible condition. But remember—your own health is the most important."
Rei looked around at the gathered medical-nin and asked, "Is every war like this?"
Everyone froze for a moment. Then, an older medical-nin gave a weary sigh.
"Yes. This is war. And there are times far worse than this. The shinobi who make it back here for treatment… they're actually the lucky ones. Most of them—many who still could have been saved—end up dying right there on the battlefield instead…"
The elder medic cut herself off abruptly.
She tried to encourage Rei instead. "Our strength has limits. All we can do is devote ourselves to treating them day and night in the hospital—that alone is already the greatest help we can give."
Rei lowered his head and said nothing.
The medical-nin exchanged uneasy glances, then looked pleadingly toward Honma Mei.
Rei was young, kindhearted, and unique in her own way. They truly feared their words might have left her with thoughts she shouldn't bear.
Mei only shrugged. What could she do? She couldn't interfere with Rei's decisions either.
The group had barely rested when the sound of countless hurried footsteps once again stormed into the hall.
"Hurry!"
"He's not going to make it!"
"Save him!"
"..."
Amidst the frantic cries, Amamiya Rei stood motionless for a moment.
Mei placed a hand on his shoulder. "You're not a full-time medical-nin—you're still an Anbu. You've already done more than enough today. Go back and rest now."
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