Chapter 36: The Dilemma
Under Nara Takuma's orders, the entire camp was to fully cooperate with Nan's treatment plan.
First, the medical ninja were instructed to sort the poisoned patients based on the severity of their symptoms.
Those with milder cases were to be stabilized using traditional methods to prolong their survival.
The more critical cases, however, were to be treated directly by Nan using his unique and highly effective technique—ensuring the best possible outcome for the camp as a whole.
To improve efficiency, Nan created ten shadow clones.
By the time they had completely treated all of the critically poisoned ninja in the camp, he was drenched in sweat.
He had never pushed himself this far before.
In the past, even during intense training sessions with clones, he'd never summoned more than five.
Although his chakra reserves had improved over the past year, it wasn't by much. Summoning ten clones nearly pushed him to the brink of collapse.
It was more exhausting than the brutal taijutsu sessions he'd endured training with Guy-sensei.
Whenever his chakra dropped too low, a few of the other medical ninja would step in to help restore his chakra with recovery techniques—allowing him to continue his work without stopping for long.
Even so, the pace of Nan's healing couldn't keep up with the rate at which patients were deteriorating.
More and more people were slipping into critical condition.
Truth be told, Nan wasn't completely out of options.
He still had the Phantom Body Technique, capable of using medical ninjutsu and possessing chakra reserves that surpassed even his own current self.
If he used that, his efficiency would skyrocket.
But Nan had his reasons for holding back.
His tireless efforts were driven by two things: his professional ethics from his past life, and his desire to leave a strong impression on the village leadership and his fellow shinobi.
He wasn't about to reveal one of his greatest secrets just for the sake of strangers—not yet.
Still, his hard work was paying off.
As he detoxified more and more patients, his understanding of the poison deepened significantly.
He could now identify exactly which organs it attacked most aggressively, and which areas it only lightly affected.
His knowledge had become precise and reliable.
Moreover, the results were clear—every patient personally treated by Nan made a full recovery.
The trace amounts of toxin that remained after treatment were soon destroyed by the patient's own immune system.
There were no relapses. His specialized extraction technique had proven to be highly effective against the poison.
With this growing expertise, Nan created a detailed treatment protocol and personally trained and supervised the other medical ninja in its use.
However, the procedure was grueling.
Unlike Nan, who could use genjutsu to gently place patients under hypnosis, the other medical ninja had no such finesse.
They also couldn't use anesthetics for fear of interfering with the treatment process.
Instead, they had to rely on brute force—restraining patients' limbs while they operated, causing immense pain and distress.
And, just as Nan feared, their results were far less reliable.
Many patients treated by the other ninja still had lingering poison in their systems.
These residual toxins couldn't be completely eliminated with follow-up treatments, and would eventually flare up again.
When that happened, the entire process would need to be repeated from the start.
This wasn't just inefficient—it was dangerous.
The repeated pain and stress of treatment wore down the patients, preventing them from regaining full combat readiness.
Over time, some even suffered permanent damage. Nan knew this method was only a temporary fix.
Still, the results were a vast improvement from before.
The old treatment methods couldn't even delay the inevitable—most poisoned ninja would simply die within hours or days.
Now, thanks to Nan, even if the treatment was painful and laborious, it bought survivors time.
Time to look for better solutions, or even a true antidote.
With Nan's method rapidly adopted throughout the camp, the condition of every poisoned ninja stabilized.
None were in immediate danger of death anymore.
Other camps, upon hearing the news, were eager to learn the technique too—hoping to ease the crisis on their end as well.
After receiving requests from the other camps, Nara Takuma quickly sought out Nan to discuss the matter.
Since the treatment method had been developed by Nan himself—and only he had truly mastered it—passing it on would require him to personally visit each and every camp to teach it.
But Nan was just one person, and there were dozens of Konoha camps scattered across the Wind Country battlefield.
Even if he traveled non-stop, how long would it take him to reach them all and train their medical teams?
Yet upon hearing the situation, Nan confidently promised that he would ensure the method was transmitted to every camp without delay.
Takuma was curious—how was he planning to accomplish that?
To his surprise, Nan performed the Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu, instantly creating twenty clones.
With this many, he could distribute the treatment technique to all the camps rapidly and efficiently.
Takuma was stunned.
It wasn't unheard of to create dozens—or even hundreds—of shadow clones, and many powerful ninja were capable of it.
But for someone so young to possess this much chakra? That was astonishing.
Still, there was one critical flaw:
Normally, shadow clones couldn't stray too far from the original body. If they did, the chakra link would become unstable and the jutsu would dispel.
Even if Nan could create that many clones, could he really ensure they'd reach distant camps and remain active?
In most cases, clones couldn't travel far—how far they could go depended on the user's mastery of the technique.
But Nan had a secret advantage, one that came from his lineage.
His father in this life, Uchiha Chiye, had been a reconnaissance ninja.
His specialty was gathering intel by creating shadow clones to tail enemies and use the Sharingan to record information.
Once the mission was done, he'd dispel the clone—leaving no trace of his presence behind.
To remain undetected while still collecting valuable intel, Chiye had refined the Shadow Clone Jutsu to an extraordinary degree.
Nan had inherited this skill—both by training under his father.
As a result, Nan now possessed a highly advanced version of the technique, capable of sending clones over long distances.
And once he awakened Mangekyō Sharingan, Nan's control over his clones grew even more precise.
The constant chakra transmission required for communication with his illusionary bodies was similar to what was needed to maintain distant clones—perhaps that's what boosted his range even further.
Even Nan wasn't sure just how far his clones could now go—but it was far enough.
After repeated assurances, Takuma finally believed Nan could pull it off.
He quickly assembled several available ninja squads to escort the shadow clones to their destinations safely.
It didn't take long.
Nan's clones successfully reached every Konoha camp, spreading his knowledge of the poison and teaching the treatment protocol to all available medical ninja.
In some camps, they even personally healed those in critical condition.
Once the clones were dispelled and their memories returned, Nan was finally able to confirm that every camp had received his knowledge.
For now, Konoha no longer had to worry about anyone dying from this toxin.
However, there was still a major problem.
Any ninja who had been poisoned—even if they were now stabilized—had effectively lost their combat capability.
Recovering full strength would be difficult, if not impossible.
And it was simply unrealistic for Nan to personally detox every poisoned shinobi across all camps.
Which meant developing a true antidote was now more urgent than ever.
Thanks to Nan's treatment method, Konoha had bought itself precious time—so research on a cure resumed in earnest.
But even with Nan's deepened understanding of the toxin, progress remained painfully slow.
Outside of the small number Nan had personally cured, any ninja who became poisoned was effectively out of the war.
With Konoha already stretched thin—fighting four nations at once—the mounting casualties only increased the pressure on every front.