"Got it, sis! I'm not an idiot!" Shane Mountain grumbled in frustration. Why did everyone treat him like a child?
After leaving Tsunade's tent, Shane and Nawaki went straight to the medical camp. Because Tsunade had already notified the medics, they weren't stopped at the entrance. A young medic led them inside, nervously reminding them not to touch anything that could make his job harder.
As soon as they stepped into the emergency tent, the sound of low, pained groans filled the air.
All around them, wounded shinobi lay on the ground, each resting on nothing but a thin white sheet.
Their faces had turned pale with a bluish tint, lips darkened to purple, and cold sweat streamed down their foreheads, soaking through the fabric beneath them. Their bodies twitched and shifted unconsciously, as if those tiny movements could somehow ease the pain.
The entire tent was filled with the same haunting sight—one shinobi after another, suffering in silence. Some no longer even moved, having slipped into deep unconsciousness.
The scene hit hard. Nawaki instinctively stepped back, the grim reality freezing him in place. But before he could act, Shane grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the tent.
"Master?" Nawaki blinked in confusion.
"Let's go. We'll just get in the way here."
Shane didn't elaborate, but Nawaki understood well enough. He had no skill in medical ninjutsu; staying there would only make things worse.
After disposing of their gas masks and disinfecting their hands, the two returned quietly to their tent.
Nawaki stayed uncharacteristically silent the entire way back, lost in thought. He kept wondering what he could do to actually help.
When they arrived, Minato greeted them with a bright smile. "You're back. Lunch was delivered—eat up! After that, we'll start our afternoon training."
"Yeah," Shane said casually. "Keep working on your chakra nature transformation. I've got some new training of my own to focus on."
"New training?!" Minato's eyes immediately lit up, curiosity taking over.
Shane scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Uh, yeah. I've been sensing a strange kind of energy lately. Still figuring out what it is."
"Strange energy?" Minato tilted his head.
"Hard to describe. When I draw it into my body, I feel… stronger. Just a bit, but it's there."
—
The next few days passed in quiet rhythm. Shane continued his experiments, Minato and the others trained daily, and Nawaki kept pestering Chiyo from the Sand Village with bold challenges.
Between training sessions, Shane tended to a small batch of mysterious mold he'd been cultivating inside a newly built "laboratory tent."
Three days later, his efforts finally paid off.
"Success." Shane's face lit up with joy.
After days of sleepless tinkering, he had finally succeeded—he had created penicillin.
The miracle drug had made its debut in the shinobi world.
"You've been working all this time… just to make that stuff?" Minato asked, eyeing the vial curiously. "What's it for?"
"Classified," Shane replied with a grin, refusing to explain. He grabbed the vial and hurried toward Tsunade's tent.
Minato pouted. "He's so secretive! Master's no fun at all."
When Shane entered Tsunade's tent, he found her examining a moldy orange with deep focus. She looked up at him lazily. "What is it? Did Nawaki cause more trouble again?"
Shane shook his head and handed her the vial. "Penicillin—the bane of infection and poison."
"Bane of poison?" Tsunade repeated skeptically. Shane might have been a genius in combat, but medicine was another matter entirely.
"Yes. You can test it yourself. Your lab setup's way better than mine. Oh, and remember to run an allergy test before using it, or it might kill someone."
He set the vial on her desk and stretched, a satisfied grin on his face. The exhaustion of the past few days melted away.
He had done everything he could. Refining penicillin with his limited tools had already pushed his skill to the limit. Now, it was up to Tsunade to take it further.
With that, Shane left the tent and went back to his own. Recently, his training with natural energy—what he called "sage cultivation"—had advanced rapidly. His body's immense endurance allowed him to absorb nature energy easily, not like Naruto's borrowed Sage Mode, but something purer. Something more like true cultivation.
Sometimes, he even felt his lifespan increasing.
After Shane left, Tsunade examined the vial thoughtfully. She opened it and let the Slug use chakra to analyze its contents.
"Oh, Lady Tsunade!" the Slug gasped. "This substance is extraordinary! With it, many incurable toxins could be neutralized with ease!"
"What?!" Tsunade's eyes widened in shock. After confirming the result multiple times, she stared at the vial with awe.
"That kid…"
She already knew Shane was brilliant, but this was beyond genius—it bordered on divine.
The fatigue that had been weighing her down vanished. She clenched her fist and smiled with renewed fire.
"If this really works, then victory will belong to Konoha!"
She rushed to the medical camp and immediately began experimenting with the penicillin, mixing it into antidotes. When the previously unstoppable poison dissolved effortlessly before her eyes, her heart soared.
"We've won this war!"
Without hesitation, she took a syringe and prepared to test the antidote on one of the suffering shinobi—then paused, remembering Shane's warning.
Right. Allergy test first.
Carefully, she placed a drop of the mixture on the patient's skin and waited. After ten long minutes with no reaction, she injected the antidote.
Almost instantly, the man's complexion improved, his breathing steadying as color returned to his lips.
"It worked! It really worked!" Tsunade's voice trembled with emotion.
The other medics broke into cheers. The unstoppable poison that had crippled so many was finally defeated.
Tsunade handed the remaining antidote to the Slug.
"Please, distribute it."
"Leave it to me, Lady Tsunade." The Slug's massive form shimmered, splitting into countless smaller bodies that spread throughout the battlefield, bringing salvation wherever they went.
—
Back at Shane's tent, Minato and the others surrounded him eagerly.
"Shane! What was that stuff? What did it do?" Minato asked.
Shane smirked. "A miracle medicine. By tomorrow, Tsunade will have cured Chiyo's poison completely."
"A miracle medicine?" the others echoed in disbelief.
Only Jive, ever calm behind his dark shades, muttered, "Chiyo's like… what, late forties? Not exactly a granny yet, huh?"
Shane rubbed his chin. "Hmm, true. She's not that old. But from our perspective, calling her 'granny' isn't wrong either."
He waved a hand dismissively. "Anyway, I'm going to train."
Stretching out on his bed, Shane closed his eyes, sinking back into meditation as natural energy swirled gently around him.
Minato sighed and shook his head with a smile. "He calls that training?"
Outside, the golden-haired shinobi led the others to the riverbank, continuing their daily drills.
Meanwhile, in the medical camp, Tsunade's laughter echoed brightly for the first time in days.
Her eyes gleamed with pride and relief as she whispered, "We've done it, Shane… we've saved them all."
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