The man slowly rose to his feet, moving stealthily toward the surgery room.
"Hey! No unauthorized entry!" one of the medical guard squad barked, moving to block him.
Suddenly, the man exploded into action. A kunai flashed in his grip and plunged deep into the guard's chest. Without hesitation, he charged toward the operating room—his target was still on the table. He was here to kill Hinata Haruki.
"Quick! Stop him! He's an enemy spy!"The shout rang out as those nearby snapped out of their shock and rushed forward.
Inside, Haruki's operation was at a critical stage. He'd already noticed the assassin's movement, but stopping now wasn't an option. The doors burst open, and the man lunged inside, kunai stabbing straight for Haruki's face.
"Switch hands!"
Haruki let go of the scalpel mid-motion, and in the same instant, his shadow clone caught it without missing a beat.
The kunai came within inches of Haruki's eyes—
—but Haruki's hand darted out, a single finger striking the attacker's elbow.The man's arm went instantly numb; the kunai clattered to the floor.
Haruki stepped in, palm striking hard into the man's abdomen. The force sent the attacker flying backwards, his internal organs rattled by the Hyūga clan's Gentle Fist technique. The blow alone left him with serious internal injuries.
"Damn brat! You're all going to die!"
Blood spewed from his mouth as he hit the floor. His eyes, now bloodshot with madness, glinted with a wild grin as he tore open his shirt. Beneath, dozens of explosive tags were plastered to his torso—he'd come prepared for a suicide attack.
"No!"
In a flash, Haruki's body blurred—Shunshin no Jutsu—appearing directly before the man. The tags were seconds from igniting. All around them were injured patients; if the blast went off here, the casualties would be catastrophic.
Haruki grabbed the man by the collar. "Shunshin no Jutsu!"
In an instant, they vanished from the room and reappeared in an open space outside. The explosive tags were already alight.
Clenching his teeth, Haruki hoisted the man upward, chakra pooling in his left palm as he drew it back.
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"
His palm shot forward, unleashing a compressed wave of chakra that rippled through the air in concentric circles. The shockwave slammed into the attacker's body at point-blank range, hurling him high into the air.
The next second—
—The tags detonated.
A roaring inferno ballooned outward, a fiery shockwave threatening to engulf everyone nearby. It was still too close.
"Eight Trigrams Twin Vacuum Palms!"
Haruki's right palm thrust forward, unleashing a second wave of chakra. The blast collided with the expanding fireball.
A deafening boom split the air as the two forces clashed, shockwaves bursting outward and sweeping across the ground. The blast knocked people from their feet; ninja raised their arms to shield against the wind.
The fireball ballooned, then ruptured upward like a pierced sphere, dispersing into the sky before dissipating into curling black smoke.
Around them, people stood frozen in a mix of fear and awe. Fear—because the blast had nearly killed them all. If it had gone off inside the medical station, dozens would have died instantly. Awe—because the young medic before them had just stopped it.
Only after a long moment did people start breathing again.
"That kid… is he from the Hyūga clan?" someone murmured.
"Yeah, look at those Byakugan. This young… and already this strong. Could he be—?"
"I remember now! Six months ago, word went around about a five-year-old Chūnin from the Hyūga clan—Lady Tsunade's disciple! This matches perfectly!"
"We were at the frontlines all that time, so we didn't hear about it."
"You mean this boy is that same prodigy? Lady Tsunade's student?"
"You've heard too? Makes sense. This level of medical skill could only come from her pupil. And he's Hyūga, and about the right age—has to be him."
"When I first heard about it, I thought it was just some joke. Never thought it was real… and now we've met him in person!"
"See? Lady Tsunade hasn't abandoned us. She must've planned this—sending her disciple here to keep the medical station running."
People nodded in agreement, relief clear on their faces.
Haruki exhaled heavily. That had been close.
Good thing he'd not only mastered the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm but had also learned to unleash it from both hands in rapid succession, upgrading it into the Eight Trigrams Twin Vacuum Palms. Without that, they'd all be dead.
"All thanks to the scroll Hiashi gave me," Haruki thought, grimacing. "Guess I owe the main family a favor. No way I could've learned this technique so quickly on my own."
Two Vacuum Palms back-to-back, plus the earlier shadow clone work—his chakra reserves were nearly drained.
"Everyone—if you know who I am, please keep it quiet. I'm just a Chūnin, nothing more. Thank you."
He bowed slightly to the gathered ninja. The last thing he wanted was for word to get back to Tsunade immediately.
"What if she finds out her 'temporary disciple' is here and decides to drag me away?"
Haruki had no desire to be tied to her publicly. His medical skills had nothing to do with her, after all. Later, he planned to become the Sandaime's student, study medical ninjutsu properly, and dive deeper into pharmacology—his weakest subject so far. After all, the flora and fauna of this world differed greatly from his previous life. If someone like Nono Yakushi could treat orphans so well, mastering pharmacology had to be worth it.
"We understand, young man! If your identity needs to be kept secret, we won't breathe a word," someone promised.
Haruki instructed the guard squad to secure the scene and increase vigilance. Then he returned to finish the surgery he'd been in the middle of.
Once done, he dispelled his shadow clones, recovering a bit of chakra. Exhaustion hit him hard.
"I'll leave things here in your hands. If anything comes up, find me in the supply tent. And remember—keep my involvement private."
Now that everyone knew he was Tsunade's disciple, no one doubted his skill anymore; admiration and respect filled their eyes.
"Thank you, young man!" The doctor Haruki had saved earlier reached out a hand.
"No need. I'm just a Chūnin of Konoha." Haruki shook his hand, then turned to leave the medical station.
It was a plain title, but it bridged the distance between them. As they watched him go, the thought was the same in every heart:
Thank you, Chūnin.
"White Secret Technique: Chikamatsu's Ten Puppets!"
Chiyo and Ebizō controlled ten unique puppets, each with a different function, driving them toward Tsunade.
With a clack-clack, the red-faced puppet and white-faced puppet combined—one transforming into a rapidly spinning four-bladed chakra saw, hurled like a meteor hammer toward Tsunade. A female puppet wielding twin blades darted in for an attack on her back, while the blue-faced puppet shot out dozens of sharp steel cables aimed to entangle her limbs.
"Hmph! Try this!"
Chakra flared along Tsunade's fist, and she slammed it into the sand with explosive force. Boom! Sand erupted skyward in a towering column, shockwaves rippling outward like a wave. Several of Chiyo's puppets were blasted aside.
Tsunade seized the moment, leaping high, right leg raised. She brought it down in a crushing axe kick. Chiyo and Ebizō barely jumped clear before her heel smashed into the ground.
The earth trembled violently even half a kilometer away.
"Monster Strength, is it?" Chiyo muttered darkly.
"One hit from that, and whether it's a puppet or a person—they're done for," Ebizō said grimly. Even the glancing shockwave had damaged his puppets.
"Hmph. That's enough for today, monster woman. We're withdrawing."
"You say what?! Don't run, you old hag!" Tsunade roared, a throbbing vein forming on her forehead as she brandished her fists.
"Who are you calling an old hag?!" Chiyo's eyes bulged in rage, and she looked ready to charge again.
"Don't, sister! I have a way to deal with her!" Ebizō pulled her back.
Watching the Sunagakure elite retreat, Tsunade let out a breath—only for worry to cloud her features again. How was the medical station? The heavily injured?
She hurried back to camp and headed straight for the medics.
To her surprise, the station was calm and orderly. Patients were well cared for, and no one seemed dissatisfied. Even more astonishing, there were fewer injured than expected returning from the battlefield, and many were being treated and sent back out quickly.
But what truly shocked her was that the number of patients saved today was double the usual—most of them severe cases—and only a handful had died before treatment could be given.
Tsunade froze. What had happened here?
No anesthetics—yet no chorus of screams.No blood plasma—yet they'd barely used any at all. Out of hundreds of patients, only eighteen bags had been needed today.
No chaos—just efficiency and discipline.
She'd expected her sudden absence to throw the station into despair. Instead, people were greeting her with faint smiles and gratitude.
"Lady Tsunade, thank you!" a shinobi called, tears in his eyes. "If not for you, my brother wouldn't have survived."
"Eh? Oh… I see…" Tsunade could only manage an awkward smile.
"Lady Tsunade! You're back!" a doctor said joyfully. Despite the fatigue etched into his features, he looked like this had been his best day in months.
"What happened here?" Tsunade asked.
"Everything's fine," the doctor replied, looking confused.
"What are those wristbands? Some are green, others red."
"Oh? Those are triage markers for emergency treatment," the doctor said—though inwardly thinking, Wasn't this something your disciple, Hinata Haruki, introduced?
"I see… but how did everything go so well today?"
"Well, that's thanks to—" the doctor stopped short, remembering Haruki's request for secrecy. "—thanks to the help of a Chūnin."
"A Chūnin? From the village?"
"Yes! Without him, we wouldn't have managed to get through this crisis," another doctor added, briefly describing some of what Haruki had done. The techniques he'd seen today felt like a whole new dimension of medicine.
Tsunade questioned them further about the patients, but her curiosity only grew.
Advanced surgical skill. A triage system. New methods that avoided the need for anesthetics or transfusions.
"What on earth…? Just who is this Chūnin?"