Chapter 17: A Skilled Physician
Upon arriving at the Raikage's tower, Arashi navigated the halls with practiced ease and led them to the Raikage's office. The Third Raikage was buried behind a mountain of paperwork.
Looking at the towering stacks, Dana imagined that for every document his father finished, his secretary probably added two more, effectively trapping him in an infinite loop.
"Dad, I've got something to report," Arashi announced casually.
"I've told you, in the Raikage's tower, you're to address me as 'Lord Raikage'—oh, never mind. What is it?" Seeing a perfectly good excuse to escape his work, A pushed the documents aside, a look of relief in his eyes. Without Arashi's interruption, he would have been stuck here all night, breaking his promise to his wife to be home for dinner.
"Dad, on my last mission, I met a really amazing doctor in the Land of Hot Water," Arashi said, his voice filled with excitement. "No, actually, he was a medical-nin. I told him a little about Dana's condition, and he said he's treated a similar case before."
A's eyes widened in surprise. "Is this information reliable? What makes you think he can cure Dana?"
Arashi explained that his squad had been ambushed on their mission. One of his Chunin teammates had his arm severed. Although they managed to retrieve the limb, they were too far from the village to get back in time for it to be reattached.
The arm was a lost cause, but the wound still needed to be treated. Arashi's squad secretly searched for a local doctor and, by a stroke of luck, found a reclusive physician who was living in the area. The locals said he was a master of medicine with a kind heart and a variety of miraculous healing techniques.
So, Arashi's team sought him out and met the old man, who looked like he was one foot in the grave.
They had concealed their identities as ninja, and the old man didn't ask any questions. He took one look at the severed arm and asked if they still had it. When they said yes, he told them it could be reattached.
Arashi's team hadn't thought it was possible, so they hadn't preserved the arm very well. The old man picked it up, gave it a sniff, and said it was a little smelly, but not too bad, and still usable. Then, he used medical ninjutsu to reattach it.
Hearing this, Dana rolled his eyes so hard he nearly saw his own brain. An arm that had started to rot could be reattached? This sounded like the plot of a supernatural thriller.
But then again, this was a world where chakra could control the shape of lightning, bring the dead back to life, and create clones with independent memories. In that context, reattaching a slightly smelly arm didn't seem so far-fetched. At least it sounded more plausible than the plug-and-play USB Sharingan.
According to Arashi, his teammate's arm had healed without any complications. Even with the recent advancements in the Cloud's medical ninjutsu thanks to the Fire Thief Initiative, reattaching a severed limb—smelly or not—would have resulted in a significant loss of strength and dexterity. The shinobi's career would have been over. But this teammate's arm was back to normal in just a few days. Seeing this, and the old man's treatment of other patients, Arashi realized he was the real deal. In certain areas, his medical skills far surpassed anything the village currently possessed.
Vastly surpassed.
So, Arashi had fabricated a story and vaguely described his brother's condition. To his surprise, the old man was able to deduce the general situation from the few details he provided and claimed to have treated a similar illness long ago.
At this point, A's "recruit them all" instinct, honed by years of the Fire Thief Initiative, kicked in. "Then why didn't you invite him to the village?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the word "invite."
Dana rolled his eyes again, this time so hard he thought the Hyuga clan might show up to claim him as one of their own.
Arashi sighed. The Fire Thief Initiative was a long-term, clandestine mission for all Cloud ninja. Normally, they would have tried to bring such a person back to the village, and the Cloud would have offered generous terms.
"But the old man is just... too old," Arashi explained. "He's nimble enough when he's treating patients, but the rest of the time, he looks like he could drop dead at any moment. I asked him, but he refused. We didn't dare to try and force him. Besides, since this is for Dana, I felt we should be respectful. Even if we dragged him here, he might not do his best work. So, I was hoping we could follow his request and take Dana to him."
The old man was eccentric and looked like he was about to crumble into dust. Arashi was worried that if they tried to abduct him, they'd end up carrying a corpse back to the village, which would defeat the purpose.
A stroked his yellowish beard. "The Land of Hot Water, you say? That's not too far..."
The Land of Hot Water was still within the Land of Lightning's sphere of influence.
Suddenly, it dawned on Dana. Does this mean I get to leave the village?
A wave of pure joy washed over him. In all his time in this new world, he had never once set foot outside the Hidden Cloud. He was going stir-crazy. He had been dying to see the outside world, and now he might even get to visit another country. He had to do everything he could to make this happen.
"But it's too soon to make a decision," A said, glancing at Dana before trailing off. "The clan elders won't agree to it easily..."
Dana's face fell.
"I left a teammate behind with the old man," Arashi said urgently. "If you're worried, we can send more people. But that old man looks like he could kick the bucket at any second. I think we need to move on this... fast!"
"Hmm..." A considered. "I'll speak with the elders tonight and we'll make a decision as soon as possible. By the way, I haven't had a chance to read your mission report yet. Is there anything else you need to report?"
"It's all in the report. Nothing major. The only thing is, there's been some unusual activity near the border with the Land of Fire. We suspect enemy ninja have infiltrated the area, but we haven't found anyone."
Even in peacetime, the espionage and friction between the great villages never ceased, though it was usually more covert.
A's sharp mind immediately made a connection. During the recent relocation of the Red Eye clan from the Land of Birds, they had been attacked by assailants disguised as Cloud ninja. The Cloud had won that skirmish, and the Red Eye clan was now safely within the Land of Lightning's borders. But A suspected that the other villages were starting to become aware of the Fire Thief Initiative.
It didn't matter. It was bound to happen eventually, and he already had countermeasures in place.
But could a reclusive medical-nin in the Land of Hot Water really cure Dana?
It was worth a try, at the very least. The village's medical arts had improved by leaps and bounds in recent years, but they were still completely stumped by Dana's condition.
Looks like I'll have to try and persuade those old geezers again, A thought. What a pain.
At the same time, Dana was plotting how he could turn on the charm and convince the clan elders to let him go.