"Sounds good."
Facing Chihaya Tō's invitation, Hikari flashed a fake smile.
Learning medical ninjutsu from him seemed like a solid opportunity. But she hadn't forgotten that day at the hospital, when she saw the terrifying greed and desire glowing above his head.
That intense emotion was like a massive underground cavern, so dark not a speck of light could be seen.
After leaving the hospital, she kept tabs on him with her Byakugan for a while.
The medical report about her on his desk, the cryptic scribbles on white paper—it all pointed to one thing:
This guy's got secrets, and he's plotting something against her.
As a Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone), her core duty—beyond helping the real Hikari train—was to clear obstacles and sniff out danger for her.
Letting a clone face danger was a hundred times better than risking the real deal.
"Is your house far, Chihaya-sensei?" Hikari asked, feigning innocence.
"Konoha's city center real estate isn't cheap," Chihaya Tō replied with a wry, broke-guy smile, his cheeks dimpling. He swapped his white coat for casual clothes and led Hikari out of Konoha Hospital, one behind the other.
They walked down the street.
Golden autumn leaves crunched under their shoes with a crisp snap.
It was the weekend, so the streets lacked the usual hustle and exhaustion.
A chubby middle-aged man ducked into an izakaya with a buddy, arm around his shoulder. Teenage girls in short skirts, flashing pale legs, giggled as they passed. Chihaya Tō kept his eyes down, trudging like a camel hauling cargo across a desert.
Above his head, two emotional glows—one good, one evil—clashed like black and white clouds on a rainy day.
Hikari followed, hands behind her back, her limited chakra flowing gently.
"Ninja Academy Hikari" got the least chakra, barely worth mentioning. Next was "Yin-ton Hikari," not a training priority.
Since today was a lesson day, this clone got the most chakra—about a third of the real Hikari's, which, given her high-quality chakra, was more than an average Jōnin's total.
Her Byakugan locked onto Chihaya Tō's scrawny frame. His chakra was even less than this clone's, and his physical stats were pitiful. If he made one wrong move, he'd eat a lightning strike strong enough to drop a Jōnin.
"Chihaya-sensei, what's the difference between the life energy in medical ninjutsu and actual human life force?" Hikari asked, suppressing the killing intent sparked by her lightning.
Chihaya Tō paused, then answered while walking:
"It's simple—one's fake, the other's real."
"What's that mean?"
Hikari narrowed her eyes, a spark of thought flickering.
"Think about it. Is the water you make with Suiton (Water Release) real water? Can you drink it to quench your thirst? If you can, it's real. If not, it's fake.
Medical ninjutsu is Yang-ton (Yang Release). It's just chakra that looks like life force—way different from the real thing."
"But Suiton chakra can control real water," Hikari countered.
"You don't think medical ninjutsu's healing comes entirely from that fake life force, do you? That'd burn through way too much chakra!"
Chihaya Tō glanced back at Hikari, who seemed to get it, and kept walking.
"You can't save someone who's lost their life force with medical ninjutsu. There are exceptions, though—if you're willing to pour your own life force into someone, you might bring them back."
Injecting life force?
Isshō Tensei no Jutsu (One's Own Life Reincarnation)?
Hikari's eyes lit up, instantly recalling Chiyo's secret revival technique used on Gaara.
Converting chakra into life force was a rare skill in the ninja world, but manipulating someone else's life force with medical ninjutsu? Way easier.
She'd been fixated on converting tailed beast chakra into life force, but that was a huge leap.
What if she skipped that step for now? Used medical ninjutsu to siphon someone else's life force and channel it into her Hachimon Tonkō (Eight Gates)? That could work.
Using someone else's ready-made life force was less complex, didn't require human sacrifices, and avoided tangling with tailed beasts.
A carp's life force, for instance, looked pretty lively to her.
Start small—siphon life force from regular animals to neutralize her Shikotsumyaku (Dead Bone Pulse) crisis. Then, later, figure out chakra-to-life-force conversion. Totally doable.
Big help, Chihaya-sensei.
Her jumbled thoughts cleared, ideas sparking like fireworks. Hikari mulled over the feasibility, and both fell into a heavy silence.
Crunch, crunch!
Dry leaves crackled underfoot.
The evening autumn breeze carried a crisp, peculiar chill.
Hikari rubbed her cool arms and looked up.
Unnoticed, they'd walked far. The streets were empty, even the pavement fading into a rough dirt path.
The roadside flora grew wild, massive tree canopies hiding distant buildings, casting dense shadows on the ground.
Chihaya Tō kept walking ahead, unhurried, with no sign of stopping.
"Still not there?" Hikari asked.
"My place is pretty out of the way," he replied, his voice colder, more detached—maybe his true colors showing.
Following him, Hikari scanned the surroundings. At some point, twelve glaring chakra signatures had surrounded them.
Crunch!
A black ninja boot crushed leaves to dust. Hikari slowed to a stop, her fingers behind her back sparking with arcs. "Doesn't seem that remote. You've got plenty of neighbors."
Whoosh!
Before her words settled, a gleaming shuriken spun out from the dense foliage, aiming for her cheek.
Probing with a shuriken before a fight—was that some unspoken ninja rule? Hikari inwardly scoffed at the textbook tactic.
Lightning surged through her nervous system, her Byakugan's pure pupil power enveloping the space.
Buzz~
Raiton Chakra Mode and Byakugan worked in sync.
Her accelerated reflexes and superhuman dynamic vision made the spinning shuriken look like a fan with its power cut, slowing to a crawl. She could even count the four nicks on its blades—definitely a veteran's weapon.
Hikari eyed the twelve masked figures emerging around her, waiting until the shuriken reached her.
Three fingers pinched it steady.
The high-impact shuriken sat tamely in her palm, like a fallen leaf.
Her fingers hooked the shuriken's central hole.
Zzt zzt!
Raiton surged from her heart.
High-energy particles activated her muscle cells, fibers contracting in unison, raw physical power pooling at her fingertips.
Above her, at the top of the lush canopy, a woman blended with the leaves, motionless, her chakra core flickering like a firefly—or a peacock flashing its tail to draw attention.
It worked.
Hikari's Byakugan pupils contracted, locking onto the enemy's chakra core.
Her tendons snapped taut like a bowstring.
Power surged from her feet—calves, thighs, torso, arms, fingertips—forming a perfect kinetic chain.
Snap!
Boom!
Her tendons vibrated like a hundred-stone bow firing.
The shuriken blurred into nothingness.
"—!"
"Ngh~"
The masked ninja hidden in the canopy looked down in disbelief.
Her hair fell over her chest, but it couldn't stem the fountain of blood.
Her heart was torn open by an unseen force, a star-shaped cavity the size of a bowl gushing blood. Golden sunlight pierced her back, illuminating her eyes.
It was her first time seeing sunlight like this.
So… fast!
Boom!
Crash!
Her body plummeted from the canopy, smashing through countless dry leaves before hitting the ground, blood soaking the leaves a dark red.
No mourning, no roars.
The eleven remaining shadows fanned out, surrounding Hikari. Their masks' swirling patterns spun in the leafy shadows, like eyes peering into her soul.
ChihAYA Tō, still cold and detached, kept walking against the crowd, leaving only a frail silhouette.
Four Jōnin-level chakra signatures, seven Tokubetsu Jōnin.
Quite the lineup.
This deathly silence—was it Root?
Lightning popped between her fingers. The silver-haired blind girl tilted her head, her smile more chilling than cold indifference—pure, innocent menace.
"Something up, folks?"
Her answer was a wave of blade-sharp killing intent.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two Anbu ninja, wielding kunai, burst from the group. Their high-speed forms blurred into black lines, closing in on Hikari in a blink.
At the same time, four Jōnin wove hand signs so fast they left afterimages. Eerie Yin-ton power crossed the space, joined by unknown Doton (Earth Release), Suiton (Water Release), and Futon (Wind Release) techniques.
A piercing whistle cut the air.
Clank clank clank!
Five steel cables shot from the sleeves of five Tokubetsu Jōnin, arcing from different angles, their ends glowing with faint blue chakra.
The glow traced intricate patterns, like a mad beast lunging for the blue figure at the center.
Taijutsu, Genjutsu, Ninjutsu, sealing techniques—it was like Hikari had stumbled into a suffocating, meticulously woven trap, the killing intent peaking in an instant.
Her heart pounded.
Byakugan!!!
Bang!
Like a glass cup shattering on concrete, the eerie Yin-ton power crumbled under her pupil power. The unknown Genjutsu collapsed into scattered light before it could take hold.
The two Taijutsu attackers finally reached her.
One leaped, slashing a knife at her Baihui acupoint. The other, crouching, thrust a kunai at her abdomen, like a ravenous wolf.
Zzt zzt!
Blinding lightning flared, a white glow flooding their vision.
A feral glint flashed in Hikari's eyes. She tilted her head, dodging the overhead strike. Her black ninja boot stomped the blade aimed at her gut, using it as leverage to spin and slam her right leg into the crouched Anbu's neck.
Her boot carved a half-moon arc, a black crescent in the air.
Crack!
Blood and bone fragments sprayed.
The Anbu's neck snapped under the kick, his head dangling at a grotesque angle, blood-soaked like a red lantern hung for the New Year.
A cyan glow brewed in her mouth. Her pink tongue flicked at the Anbu inches from her face.
Buzz!
In an instant, the Anbu was torn in half by Futon, collapsing to the ground.
So fast his brain hadn't registered the split, his limbs crawled left and right, oblivious.
In a quarter of a second, Hikari had cut down two Taijutsu-focused Tokubetsu Jōnin.
Only then did the assorted Ninjutsu and sealing cables arrive.
Boom!
Suiton, Futon, and Doton clashed, their chakra erupting in a terrifying shockwave. The two corpses were shredded by stray Futon chakra, blood and flesh mixing with dust. The steel cables shattered under the blast.
Rumble—
Trees toppled, leaves scattered.
Thick dust clouded the center of the field.
No one asked pointless questions like "Is she done?" The Futon ninja quickly formed three simplified seals, spitting a gust of wind.
Whoosh~
The harmless breeze cleared the dust, revealing a massive, blood-red pit.
The center was a gory mess of flesh and mud, indistinguishable.
"She's dead," the Futon Anbu said, colder than a northern glacier, scanning the pit where their comrades lay.
"No way she's dead," Chihaya Tō said with absolute certainty, staring at the pit.
As Hikari's doctor, no one knew better than him how freakish her survival skills were. A wound exposing her lungs? She'd sleep it off, be wheeled around the hospital by the Sandaime the next day, and discharge three days later.
Her Yang-infused chakra was so potent it could make plants sprout just by being near it.
He wouldn't be surprised if she could regrow flesh in hours, even if skinned and deboned.
"Find her, quick!"
The Genjutsu Anbu, shaking off the mental backlash, gritted through throbbing temples and cast a sensory technique.
"There!"
His shout drew all eyes. Following his finger, they saw her.
Twenty meters up, on a bent tree branch, a small figure stood on one leg, cloaked in black and crackling with lightning, overlooking them.
Too far to see her expression, but the heavy, tangible pressure crushed their hearts, making it hard to breathe.
Genjutsu? Useless.
The stealth-assassin "Cat Tanuki" was one-shotted by a shuriken. The speed-specialist "Wolf" got his neck snapped, and "Eagle" was inexplicably torn in half.
Her speed was unreal—regular Ninjutsu and sealing techniques couldn't catch a Taijutsu ninja this fast.
Per Chihaya Tō's intel, her recovery and defense were top-tier.
Add her no-hand-sign Suiton, an unknown Kekkei Genkai, and possible Hachimon Tonkō—she was an enemy with no weaknesses!
Her dossier flashed through their minds like a carousel, their breaths growing heavy and strained.