"Seimei."
The battle had ended, and Uchiha Shisui limped over. He looked at Seimei, clearly wanting to say something but hesitated.
Seeing this, Seimei frowned slightly and asked, "What's the matter?"
"Uh..."
Shisui hesitated for a moment but finally asked, "Why did you take Ao earlier?"
Hearing this, Seimei raised an eyebrow. The fact that Shisui could accurately say Ao's name indicated that he understood Ao's importance.
With that question...
'Is he worried that I'll clash with the Hyuga clan over the Byakugan?' Seimei thought to himself.
With this in mind, he shook his head slightly and said, "It's nothing. I just wanted to get some intel from him."
"Is that so..."
Shisui didn't seem fully convinced but, after pondering for a moment, decided not to dwell on the topic.
Clearly, he knew when to let things go.
He only brought it up to give Seimei a heads-up.
Shisui, though a bit naive, was genuinely considerate when it came to his friends, making it comfortable to be around him.
After a long silence, Seimei glanced at Shisui's right leg, noticing it was wrapped in several layers of bandages, with blood seeping through. Clearly, it was a serious injury.
Thinking for a moment, Seimei said, "Come over here. I'll treat you."
Shisui didn't put on airs and, after a brief thanks, walked over.
Seimei quickly unwrapped the bandages on Shisui's leg, carefully checked the injury, and confirmed it was just some ordinary wounds. He swiftly cleaned them.
Then, he formed hand signs and used the *Mystical Palm Technique* to begin healing him.
As the green glow merged with the wound, Shisui felt a tingling sensation—his flesh was regenerating, and the nerves were reconnecting.
Moments later, as he looked at the now-healed wound, Shisui was astonished.
Though he wasn't knowledgeable about medical ninjutsu, the speed at which Seimei healed him clearly indicated that his medical skills were quite advanced.
In fact, they were exceptionally high.
Realizing this, Shisui looked at the others and said, "Seimei, can you..."
Seimei understood what he meant.
Fortunately, after the intense battle, he had harvested a significant amount of chakra and was currently fully charged.
Given his condition, he didn't mind helping out the others, and it would give him some practice with his techniques.
Moreover, this gave him a perfect excuse to avoid the frontlines.
With these thoughts in mind, Seimei nodded and said, "Alright, Shisui, gather the injured over here."
"Okay!"
Shisui nodded enthusiastically and, without further words, disappeared to organize the injured.
Before long, several Konoha ninja stood in front of Seimei.
With a glance, he noticed that most of their injuries were severe. Further away, the lightly wounded were also receiving treatment.
Indeed, besides him, there were a few medical ninjas accompanying the squad.
However, their skills...
Seimei shook his head and turned to the first patient.
This person had several normal wounds but was also poisoned, as evident from his unconscious state.
Seimei didn't waste time. He first cleaned the wounds and then used the *Mystical Palm Technique* to heal them.
This way, he didn't have to worry about them dying from blood loss.
Now, he could focus on the dark, foul-smelling wound on the patient's chest.
The faint stench made Seimei frown.
Immediately, he used the *Delicate Illness Extraction Technique* to sense the distribution of toxins within the body.
After pinpointing the general location, without hesitation, he used the *Chakra Scalpel* to slice open the chest.
Blood flowed out, and the unconscious ninja's face contorted in pain.
Seimei didn't stop. He carefully used the *Delicate Illness Extraction Technique* again to remove the toxins.
After about five minutes, the poison was completely cleared.
Finally, he used the *Mystical Palm Technique* to stimulate the body's natural healing process, allowing the wound to begin to heal.
With that, the treatment was complete.
Seimei glanced at his stats panel and saw that, thanks to real-world practice, all of his techniques—the *Chakra Scalpel*, *Delicate Illness Extraction Technique*, and *Mystical Palm Technique*—had gained more proficiency than they did during boring training sessions.
Especially the *Delicate Illness Extraction Technique*, which had leveled up quickly, bringing him closer to level 6.
Satisfied, Seimei closed the panel, signaled for the two waiting attendants to carry the patient away, and then accepted the next injured ninja.
"Hmm?"
Looking at this ninja, Seimei frowned slightly and muttered, "Poisoned again?"
Indeed, this ninja had a similarly dark wound that emitted a faint stench, clearly also poisoned.
It's important to note that while ninja were taught about poison, it wasn't a commonly used technique. Only certain groups, like the ANBU, frequently used it.
There were two main reasons for this. First, good poisons were hard to obtain, and normal toxins could be resisted for quite some time by a ninja's body.
This made them largely ineffective in the heat of battle.
Second, poison was a double-edged sword—it could just as easily harm the user. Without proper training, it was risky to use.
Thus, poison was rarely seen on the frontlines.
But now, two poisoned patients in a row? And many others seriously injured by toxins?
This meant that the enemy was using poisoned weapons extensively.
Seimei was about to ask what was going on when he suddenly remembered. It seemed that the Mist ninja had prepared a lot of poisoned weapons to deal with him.
Now that he thought about it, the poison he encountered earlier was likely the same as what these others were dealing with.
"Ah... this."
Seimei felt a bit speechless.
Without overthinking it, he focused on treating the poisoned ninjas.
In a way, these people had been caught in the crossfire because of him. He felt obligated to treat them properly and, in the process, hoped to level up his *Delicate Illness Extraction Technique* to level 6.
······
An hour passed in a flash.
As expected, Sano Nobuhisa hadn't called him to support the eastern front.
Clearly, Sano didn't want to anger the lower-ranked ninja.
The people Seimei was treating weren't high-ranking—most were middle or lower-level ninja, with only two Jonin. However, they all had families and friends.
If any of them died due to Seimei's absence, their relatives would surely vent their frustrations on Sano.
As a Jonin from a civilian background, Sano couldn't afford to offend so many people.
Moreover, Seimei had already contributed enough in this battle, and Sano had no good reason to demand more from him.
So, he let it go.
As for Uchiha Shisui, though his injury had just been healed and he hadn't rested for long, he voluntarily went to the eastern front to provide support.
To this, Seimei could only say: everyone has their own path.
(End of chapter)