Tsukikage's face twitched—his first time hearing frailty described so whimsically.
Everyone in the cabin doubted this doctor's legitimacy.
But Nagi's next actions silenced them.
The middle-aged doctor examined Tamao's wounds, his sleazy demeanor vanishing, replaced by stern focus. He methodically unwrapped Tamao's bandages, exuding the aura of a disciplined medical ninja.
Suddenly—
Nagi froze, glancing at the room. "Who tied the butterfly knot on these bandages?"
The Uchiha blinked, stunned.
Izumi grinned sheepishly, showing her small canines, raising her hand. "Me!"
"This wrapping's unscientific. Fine, I'll teach you proper bandaging after I'm done," Nagi sighed, resuming his work.
Izumi frowned, expecting praise, not critique. She huffed proudly, "I won't learn!"
"Why not? It's free!" Nagi retorted, hands steady.
"You're shady!"
"My technique's legitimate!"
"I said no!" Izumi snapped, instantly regretting it.
Their team lacked a medic.
After a moment's thought, for the team's sake, she relented softly, "Fine, I'll learn."
Nagi nodded, focused on the bandages.
Mikoto stifled a laugh, but thoughts of her departed soul, Fugaku, sobered her.
Barely two days into their escape, things felt off. Where did Tsukikage find these oddballs?
"Ow… easy, that hurts!" Tamao groaned, the bandage peeling from his wounds.
"Hmph, weren't you tough earlier? I've only heard such complaints from the girls I've saved," Nagi quipped, undeterred.
Tamao gritted his teeth, then laughed. "Ever think they might've been faking it?"
Nagi's face fell, hands pausing, bandages fully removed. Ignoring Tamao's jab, he studied the youth's wounds, brows knitting, expression grim, sucking in a breath.
The injuries weren't singular—his front was blood-soaked, sliced flesh, like a mangled cut of meat.
Yet he lived.
"A miracle of medical arts," Nagi muttered, his hands glowing with jade-green chakra, passing over Tamao's wounds.
Seeing medical ninjutsu, the Uchiha relaxed, their doubts easing.
Tsukikage anticipated a "side mission" reward.
After a cup of tea's time, Nagi ceased his basic medical ninjutsu, shaking his head. "Can't be saved, no hope, wait for death!"
The Uchiha's budding hope shattered.
Nagi, calm, met Tsukikage's gaze, explaining, "He was hit by a wide-area Wind Release ninjutsu. As ninja, you know wind chakra's terror. It cuts flesh and seeps into cells, devastating nearby tissue. Potent wind chakra's damage rivals poison. Ten years ago, at my peak, I might've healed such wounds. Not now—I can only treat Fire or Water Release injuries."
Minamikaze pressed, "No other way?"
Nagi glanced at his captor. "Find a medical ninja skilled beyond me. I can't help. Luckily, his vitality and physique are strong, and your battlefield first aid—soldier pills to activate chakra—countered the wind chakra's lingering damage. Otherwise, he'd be dead."
Tamao scoffed, "Are you Joking? I trained daily in the hospital—my physique's top-notch!"
Minamikaze's mouth twitched, thinking, That's why you tanked Danzō's Wind Release?
Tsukikage pondered.
Ignoring Tamao, Nagi resumed treatment, seemingly futile, then looked at Tsukikage. "I can only ease his pain, so he dies less miserably."
Tamao muttered, "You've got some ethics."
"Aren't you holding back?" an Uchiha asked.
Others echoed, questioning.
The cabin buzzed.
Tap—tap. Tsukikage's fingers rapped the table, silencing the room. Faces grim, they looked to him.
"How long?" Tsukikage asked Nagi.
"Ten minutes," Nagi replied crisply.
Tsukikage nodded, addressing the others. "Pack up. We leave in ten."
The Uchiha's faces fell. Heading northwest meant leaving the Land of Fire's border, where finding another medical ninja was unlikely.
Tamao would be their first loss on this escape.
With so few Uchiha left, Minamikaze couldn't bear it.
Tamao's two teammates teared up, fists clenched, despair and helplessness rising.
"Oh, don't carry him if you want him to die comfortably," Nagi added. "Little lady, come here. I'll show you proper bandaging. Watch closely—I'll do it once."
Amid Nagi's instructions, the cabin sank into silence.
The Uchiha grieved, even Mikoto unwilling to see another clansman fall.
She felt she should be the one to die.
The warm atmosphere dissolved.
Yakari, long silent, felt their despair keenly, recalling his own family's ruin. He understood.
Meeting Tsukikage had given him a path to Kikyō-yama. Last year, chopping wood, he met Miri under a tree.
His happy family owed everything to Tsukikage.
Yakari resolved to act, even if it meant breaking his "honor." Some things outweighed it.
"Nagi-sensei, remember me? A while back, my wife and I brought our son to you," Yakari said, stepping forward.
The Uchiha looked puzzled.
Nagi glanced at him, then away, shaking his head. "Sorry, too many patients in Kikyō no Sato, and I save those poor women nightly—memory's fuzzy."
Yakari, embarrassed but determined, said, "Newborn respiratory distress!"
Nagi turned, recalling something. "Your son… that infant… dead?"
For a doctor like Nagi, faces blurred, but show him a hemorrhoid surgery scar, and he'd clap excitedly, "I did that last year! Satisfied with my work? Keep up those exercises!"
Yakari smiled. "He's alive, fully healed!"
Nagi's pupils shrank, face trembling.
Newborn respiratory distress, a leading cause of infant death, caused low oxygen and lung collapse, triggering complications.
He couldn't cure it but remembered a recent case vividly.
Tamao jabbed, "You're pathetic!"
Yakari, speechless, approached Tsukikage. "Captain, two evenings ago, a yellow-haired woman with round glasses, dressed in a black-and-white shrine maiden's attire, stayed at our lodge. She cured my son's illness. But… she asked us not to tell anyone."
(End of Chapter)