Eastern border forest of the Land of Fire.
On the bare yellow dirt road, a pair of perforated ninja blades lay scattered like junk metal. Two wisps of dense, blood-red threads, as fine as willow catkins, drifted on the breeze toward the trees.
They did not get far before snagging on branches along both sides of the road.
The wind sighed softly. Between leaves and boughs, the blood strands danced like loose hair, red and green intertwining. For a moment, the roadside willows looked strangely, bewitchingly vivid.
Team 7 had no time to appreciate the scenery.
They formed an uneven circle, worry written on their faces, watching Konome Taketori treat Tazuna in the middle.
The badly injured bridge builder lay on his back, his left hand pressing his straw hat over his face to block the increasingly harsh sun.
His collapsed right shoulder was now covered in a layer of earth. The solid yellow "cast" fit the curve of his shoulder perfectly and even matched the color of the road beneath him. Clearly, Konome had used Earth Release to improvise on the spot.
A lush green glow bloomed in Konome's palm.
Tazuna's body jerked violently. His left hand clenched the hat so hard his knuckles whitened. The others could not see his expression, but the bulging veins along his neck and his muffled, suppressed cries made it obvious he was suffering.
None of them had ever seen Konome use medical ninjutsu, let alone knew how skilled she was. With no other choice, they could only gamble and pray.
The emerald light flowed like water along his shoulder. With the Chakra Scalpel technique in effect, Konome rapidly repaired Tazuna's shoulder blade. Under the Byakugan's terrifying precision, shattered bone knit itself together at a visible pace.
Ever since perfecting the Reverse Eight Gates technique, she had not studied medical ninjutsu in a long time. Even the most practiced skill turned a little rusty when left unused.
Luckily, treating bones was nothing to her.
She carried the Shikotsumyaku bloodline. If anyone in this world could call themselves an authority in orthopedics, it was her. Even Lady Tsunade could not compare in that narrow field.
The medical glow gradually dimmed. Strangely, Tazuna no longer looked as agonized as before.
Seeing that, everyone's clenched nerves finally loosened. Their whispered discussion only grew louder.
"When did Konome even learn medical ninjutsu?" Naruto nudged Sasuke with his elbow, completely baffled.
He had never once seen her train it. She did not hang around the Konoha Hospital either. Other things, sure, she could "invent" herself, but medical ninjutsu was not something you casually figured out alone.
"With Shadow Clones, she can train like one day equals a hundred," Sasuke said, gaze full of envy as he watched the thick chakra in Konome's hand. "It wouldn't be strange no matter when she learned it."
Uchiha chakra was not actually low, but Sasuke was constantly surrounded by monsters like Konome and Naruto. Next to them, his own reserves felt pitiful.
He had once tried the same shortcut. He made four Shadow Clones in one go and nearly wrung himself dry. When the clones dispelled, the backlash of exhaustion almost killed him.
After one training session, he lay in bed for a full week.
When he did the math, the plan did not just fail. It made his progress slower.
The only upside was that the extreme fatigue and strain produced negative emotion that pushed the Sharingan's evolution. Even without life-and-death combat, his eyes had advanced to two tomoe, and three tomoe felt close.
Kakashi shook his head lightly as he listened.
The kids were inexperienced. He was not.
A healing effect this clean and efficient was unmistakably the Palm Sage Technique, an A-rank medical ninjutsu.
To use it this smoothly meant her medical skill had to be high. How high, Kakashi could not judge. He was not a medic. But even in Konoha, the birthplace of medical ninjutsu, shinobi who could use the Palm Sage Technique were rare.
Medical ninja were already uncommon. A medic of this caliber was easily one in ten thousand.
Konome was terrifying in battle, and now she had this too.
Kakashi did not know what she could not do. A true all-rounder like this was almost unheard of.
"How does it feel?" Konome asked.
The green light withdrew completely. She did not dare touch him again, so she made Tazuna test his arm himself.
Tazuna lifted the straw hat off his face. His beard was soaked with sweat, but his features were no longer twisted with agony. The pain was clearly easing.
He moved the arm cautiously. There was still a thin thread of soreness between the healed bone, but compared to the earlier, broken-bone torment, it was nothing.
"It really doesn't hurt anymore. Thank you, Konome. You're a miracle doctor!"
Tazuna was shocked into joy and hurried to thank her. He had already prepared himself to trade this arm for the Land of Waves' peace, yet the situation had turned on its head.
"No need to thank me. I'm the one who hurt you," Konome said quickly, waving it off. If she had not forgotten to control her strength, he never would have been injured.
"No, no. If you hadn't acted, I'd be dead already. Not just my arm. My life too."
After witnessing Konome's terrifying power, Tazuna's attitude had completely changed.
That jutsu that could slice a shinobi into threads of meat in an instant was beyond anything he had imagined. Now, all his hope rested on Team 7. An arm was nothing. Even his life would be worth it if it saved his family.
"Ah, Konome, you killed them too fast," Kakashi sighed, glancing at the blood strands hanging from the branches. He was unsettled and also frustrated. "I wanted to capture them and interrogate them for intel."
Tazuna was a civilian. He did not even know how many enemies there were, only that their leader was a jōnin.
But the difference between jōnin was greater than the difference between a person and a dog. In shinobi combat, information was everything. Charging in blind was not Kakashi's style.
Unfortunately, the two attackers had already been minced into something like dumpling filling. There was nothing left to interrogate. They could only plan again once they reached the Land of Waves.
"We can still ask," Konome said casually while using bandages and the earth cast to stabilize Tazuna's injury. She tied the bandages into two neat bows, almost as if she were wrapping a gift.
Tazuna was nearly sixty. His vitality was not what it used to be. Konome had only repaired the critical bones and tendons. The rest needed time and rest.
"You can revive the dead now?" Kakashi pointed at the human "lint" hanging from the trees, completely unconvinced. Even perfect medical ninjutsu could not do that. This was not a medical problem.
Konome did not answer.
She clasped her hands together solemnly and faced the spot where the two attackers had died.
"Secret Technique: Impure World Reincarnation!"
Rumble!
The ground shook violently. Dirt and stones sprayed. A jagged crack tore open across the road.
Tazuna yelped, startled out of his daze. Dragging his now-heavy right shoulder, he sprang to his feet in one jump. The movement was so nimble it did not look like an old man at all.
The ground kept trembling. From within the fissure, a neat block of earth rose up, slowly taking shape.
A coffin.
"Uuuh…"
Then it got worse.
A muffled, human whimper came from inside the earthen coffin. There were thuds too, pounding from within, as if a corpse was about to burst out and tear them apart.
"Don't tell me… you really revived them?" Naruto hugged his arms, goosebumps exploding across his skin. The heat of the afternoon suddenly felt cold.
"Idiot. How could that be possible?" Sasuke snapped, but his body betrayed him. He and Kakashi both activated their Sharingan at the same time, staring at the coffin.
After all, with Konome, nothing was truly impossible.
If Team 7 reacted like this, Tazuna's fear was even worse. To him, Konome could gather water from the sky, shred living men into drifting fibers, crush his bones and then heal them. Her methods were more terrifying than anything he could imagine.
"Open!" Konome barked, face grave.
The coffin door swung outward with a heavy boom, crashing into the dirt and kicking up a cloud of dust.
Kakashi and Sasuke's eyes widened.
Even with the dust, they could see a black-clad shinobi standing inside.
Bright, water-blue chakra pulsed within him.
He was alive.
So it was real?
Impure World Reincarnation.
A forbidden technique that could return the dead to life.
Even more horrifying was the thought that it required no price at all. Just clap your hands and someone who was shredded into dust rises again.
It was a direct challenge to everything they believed about the world.
Seeing everyone frozen in shock, Konome flicked her hand. A gust of wind tore the dust away, revealing the figure inside the coffin fully.
He wore an Iwagakure forehead protector, but he was a missing-nin. Mud the color of clay pinned his limbs inside the coffin, leaving only his face exposed. His clothing matched the attackers, but his body was thinner and weaker.
He was not one of the two who had died.
"Mmmph!"
The man began struggling wildly the moment he saw Team 7. Only then did they notice his mouth was sealed with mud as well.
"Who is that?" Tazuna asked shakily, half-crouched behind Konome, only daring to show his eyes.
Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke also stared, confused.
"He's their accomplice," Konome said, looking amused. "He was hiding under my feet, waiting to ambush. I noticed him and trapped him with Earth Release."
With her inhuman weight, Konome always compacted the ground before she walked, otherwise she would destroy the road beneath her.
This idiot did not know that and tried to use the Hiding Like a Mole Technique from below. The "soil" under her was harder than granite. He could not break through, and she sealed him underground before he could escape.
If she had not staged this fake "reanimation" to dig him out, he would have run out of chakra and been buried alive.
"Tch. I thought you really revived the dead," Sasuke muttered, and Naruto looked equally speechless.
Kakashi's dead-fish eyes narrowed with the bitter feeling of having his emotions toyed with. For a moment, he had truly believed she could bring back the dead. He had even almost let his mind drift toward people he had lost.
"Impure World Reincarnation," Kakashi said with a sigh, full of regret. "You made up a name that sounds convincing."
He stepped in front of the coffin and spun his Sharingan, the three tomoe rotating as he began to cast a genjutsu.
"I never said I could revive the dead," Konome replied, spreading her hands innocently.
The Impure World Reincarnation technique did exist. She just did not know it yet.
She had seen the Second Hokage's development notes in Root. The version recorded on the sealing scrolls was only a crude prototype. The reanimated dead had no real combat power.
It had not been designed for battle in the first place. Its purpose was interrogation, reviving the dead to extract information.
The terrifying version in the original story was a completed masterpiece, refined by Orochimaru and Yakushi Kabuto.
Once she returned from the Land of Waves, the jutsu would practically deliver itself to her doorstep.
While she was thinking, Kakashi had already subdued the man.
The captive's eyes took on a faint red sheen. His struggles quieted. Konome dissolved the mud sealing his mouth.
Kakashi's Sharingan burned chakra quickly, so his words were sharp and simple.
"I ask. You answer."
"Y… yes."
The man's head drooped. His eyes glowed faintly red. In an instant, he looked less like a living man and more like a puppet.
Tazuna, who had just managed to stand, immediately crouched again, shrinking behind Konome as if her back were the only safe thing in the world.
His only injury came from her hand, yet only her shadow could make him feel secure.
"What's your name, and where are you from?" Kakashi asked.
"Sōya. Missing-nin from Iwagakure, in the Land of Earth."
He answered without hesitation. Kakashi glanced at the forehead protector. It was indeed Iwa's symbol, slashed with a single scar.
"Why did you attack us? What was your mission? How many ninja does Gatō have? Who is the jōnin leading them?"
Kakashi fired the questions like kunai.
Tazuna quickly stuck his head out and added, "And what's happening in the Land of Waves?"
Sōya's hypnotized mind seemed sluggish. He paused for a long moment before answering in a dull, disjointed sequence.
"Gatō hired us to kill the Wave ninja. He insulted the boss. He's been locked in a coffin waiting for a funeral."
"The leader jōnin is… the boss. His name is Kurosuki Raiga. One of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. He specializes in Lightning Release."
"The Land of Waves is occupied by the boss. He recruited the Kurosuki group. Anyone who refuses is locked in coffins to wait for funerals."
The man's words were messy and out of order, but Kakashi's expression changed.
He knew Kurosuki Raiga.
Among the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, Raiga was one of the more dangerous names. Ten years ago, he already had elite jōnin-level strength. After a decade, he might have even brushed the doorway to Kage-class.
This was nothing like those disposable ambushers.
So it was not Zabuza and Haku.
Konome, who had listened quietly the entire time, raised an eyebrow.
Her main reason for coming to the Land of Waves was to find the chakra structure diagram for Ice Release.
But now the boss had changed.
So what happened to her Ice Release?
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