The bodies hit the ground with a wet, final sound. For a moment, all I could do was stare.
Mokuton…
My vision pulsed, and my lungs seized. The world around me felt too big and sharp as my breathing quickened. The pain in my thigh and stomach flared so violently that black spots danced across my vision, but none of it compared to what struck my mind.
If anyone saw this…
If anyone knew I could use this…
They would hunt me to the ends of the earth.
Iwa. Kumo. Every nation.
I wasn't even sure what Konoha would do. That was just how powerful Hashirama's ability was…
The roots still stood tall in the moonlight, like a death sentence. My breath hitched. I forced my shaking hand into a half Ram seal.
Hide it.
Hide it NOW!
I pushed whatever scraps of chakra I had left into the living wood. The roots shuddered violently for a second, then slowly began sinking back into the earth, dragging the corpses with them. The effort tore something inside me as my chakra network strained. A raw scream clawed up my throat but never escaped I clenched my teeth.
"Come on…" I rasped. "Go down… go down…"
The wood resisted but ultimately obeyed. The ground swallowed the last branch and sealed over it, leaving nothing but churned soil and blood-soaked leaves.
No evidence… Good.
My vision blurred completely. Every heartbeat felt like a hammer strike. I tried—God, I tried—to push myself up, to move, to flee deeper into the forest. The enemies were still out here. But my arms buckled, and my legs gave out.
I collapsed onto my side, my cheek pressing into mud and blood. My fingers twitched uselessly toward the tanto still strapped to my back.
Move…
Move…
Nothing. I could barely breathe. A cold numbness crawled up my limbs. And right as the last thread of consciousness began to snap—
I felt it.
A chakra signature. Controlled and familiar.
Shigure…?
Her chakra sliced through the haze like a sharp, urgent ray of light, heading straight toward me. I exhaled shakily as my body finally gave out.
The darkness consumed everything.
My thoughts scattered and flickered, dissolving into static as consciousness faded.
Somewhere between fading and waking, I felt movement.
Arms slipped under my shoulders. A body lifted mine.
My head lolled back, my vision breaking into spots of white and black.
A strained, breathless voice reached me. "A little more, and his intestines would've spilled…"
The world tilted.
Cold air brushed against my wounds, and I gasped, or thought I did. My throat barely functioned. Every bump sent fire coursing up my spine.
Fabric tore, the cold edge of a kunai sliced through my waistband, then my shirt or what remained of it, peeled away.
Warmth.
A wave of warm chakra pressed against my lower stomach, spreading through torn flesh. It didn't erase the pain but dulled it, pulling it back from the brink. My breathing steadied into shallow, desperate gulps.
"Stay with me," a soft, focused voice murmured, familiar through the haze.
Shigure…?
A shadow passed over my face.
Darkness engulfed everything again.
I resurfaced hours later, maybe more, maybe less.
A ceiling swam into view, white and sterile.
My limbs felt heavy. My head buzzed as if someone had stuffed bees into my skull.
Hospital?
I blinked until the shapes sharpened. A drip line hung beside me, bandages wrapped around my abdomen and thigh, stiff with dried antiseptic.
Slowly, carefully, I pushed myself upright.
Pain flared immediately, dull and sore, but it wasn't unbearable.
Instinctively, I reached for chakra. What I found was a flickering flame inside my coils, my burned-out channels protesting even the slightest use.
I let out a long, careful breath and turned my head toward the window.
Sunlight streamed in.
And beyond the glass…
My heart stopped.
Hokage Mountain towered in the distance, its carved faces illuminated by morning light. The stone visages gazed down over the village with quiet authority.
Konoha.
I was back in Konoha.
I let my head rest against the wall, breath shuddering once.
Relief hit harder than the pain.
I'm alive.
The door slid open.
A nurse stepped in—young, bright-eyed, hair tied back in a messy bun. Her smile hit me like a flashbang.
"Oh! You're awake!" she chirped. "Good! We were expecting you to wake up soon."
I blinked. "…Hi."
"You were out for two days," she continued without missing a beat, already circling me to check my vitals. "Chakra exhaustion, internal trauma, and deep lacerations."
Two days... ?
That explained the burn in my coils.
"How… did I get here?" I rasped.
"Oh, your squadmate brought you in!" she said cheerfully, as if discussing groceries. "She didn't stay long after delivering you here. I don't know the details."
She pressed her palm over my bandaged abdomen, a diagnostic jutsu pulsing faint green.
"Hmm. Tissue regeneration is stable. Internal bleeding stopped. You'll be sore for days, but you're not dying. Good news, right?"
I stared at her for a moment. "…Yeah. Great news."
"Perfect! Then you're cleared for release today. You can leave when you're feeling up to it." She wagged a finger. "But you must come back tomorrow for a follow-up."
"Release… today?" I repeated, still trying to catch up.
"Mhm! Oh, and you need to submit yourself to Administration Hall for mission return processing," she added, already moving toward the door. "Standard post-deployment protocols."
I opened my mouth to ask more, but she was already halfway out of the room.
"Welcome back to the village!" she called brightly, and the door slid shut.
I stared at the empty doorway.
Then leaned back against the pillows, exhaling through the lingering pain.
What now…?
Whatever it was, it wouldn't be simple.
Being discharged so easily…
That alone told me one thing:
No one knew about the Mokuton.
If they did, I wouldn't be walking out of here. I'd be surrounded by ANBU, interrogated politely, and not allowed to leave.
The fact that they let me go meant I was safe.
For now.
I let out a slow breath and moved stiffly toward the small cabinet beside the bed. The hospital had left a set of clothes for discharged shinobi, a simple black long-sleeve shirt, dark pants, and standard sandals.
I winced as I pulled the shirt over my bandaged torso. The fabric dragged against tender skin, but it was better than a hospital gown. My legs felt weak when I stood, but not dangerously so.
The IV needle slid out as I removed it, and I wrapped the small spot with a Band-Aid.
Time to move.
I stepped out of the room and into the hallway.
It was busier than I expected.
Medics rushed back and forth, pushing trolleys, carrying stacks of forms, calling for assistance. Shinobi sat on benches lined against the walls, some with bandages around their heads and limbs, some barely conscious. The smell of antiseptic hung thick in the air.
War hadn't slowed this village down at all...
I walked past two medic nins moving a sedated man on a stretcher, his flak jacket cut open and his chest covered in gauze. A medic barked orders.
No one paid me any attention, just another wounded shinobi among dozens.
Good.
I descended the stairs carefully, each step sending a dull ache through my abdomen. Outside, sunlight hit me full in the face. The air was crisp, smelling faintly of trees and food from nearby shops.
Konoha was… alive.
Children ran past the hospital courtyard, laughing. Civilians chatted on the street, merchants opened stalls, and birds chirped on rooftops.
You wouldn't think this village was fighting three nations.
I stood there for a moment, absorbing it.
I understood the scale of Konoha's strength, the power behind this quiet normalcy.
Then I started walking.
The administrative building sat beside the Hokage Tower. I could feel chakra signatures pulsing all around it. The closer I got, the more I sensed them—dozens of shinobi moving in and out, some in flak jackets, others dressed formally for debriefs, and some more casually, like me.
And towering above it all…
I stopped.
The Hokage Monument rose over the village, carved faces gazing out over rooftops and forests. Hashirama. Tobirama. Hiruzen. Silent guardians watching over the people.
In a way, it was awe-inspiring.
"I'm… back in Konoha," I murmured.
In the heart of it, no less.
Eventually, I reached the administrative building. My pulse quickened. I half-expected someone to drag me aside, demand answers, question me about my original mission, and why I survived when others didn't.
But none of that happened.
A clerk looked up when I approached the counter.
"Name?"
"Basara."
She flipped through a ledger, nodded once. "War returnee, Grass front. You're checked in. Compensation has been added to your account; you may retrieve it from the treasury. You are granted one week of medical leave."
"…That's it?"
She barely glanced at me. "Yes. Next."
And that was it.
No interrogation.
No extra screening.
Nothing...
Either they were too overwhelmed…
Or I really had slipped under the radar.
I stepped outside again, blinking in the sunlight.
It all felt too easy. But standing still wouldn't help.
I needed to know if my squad was even alive.
I didn't know where any of them lived, Sayuri, Hanami, Riku… and Shigure.
I owed her my life...
None of that had ever come up. But I did know where to start:
The Inuzuka Compound.
If Tsume were alive, Riku would be with her.
I headed toward the Inuzuka clan district. I could hear the sharp barking of ninken echoing across the compound walls. Two guards stood at the entrance, both accompanied by ninken.
One of them stepped forward.
"State your business."
"I'm looking for Inuzuka Tsume," I said. "Or Riku Inuzuka."
The guard's eyes narrowed slightly, evaluating me.
"I fought alongside them on the Grass front. I just want to know if they're alive."
He didn't relax.
So I added quietly:
"Tell them… Basara is here."
The second guard raised an eyebrow, then jerked his head. "Wait here."
He walked deeper into the compound.
I exhaled and stood there in silence, hands loose at my sides, heart racing a little too fast.
Tsume arrived quickly.
I didn't even have time to fully take in the outer walls of the Inuzuka compound, the carved dog statues, the faint smell of wet earth and ninken musk—before a voice barked from deeper inside:
"Move, I'm coming through!"
A pair of clan guards stepped aside, and Tsume Inuzuka strode into view, Kuromaru padding behind her.
She spotted me instantly.
Her grin broke wide, sharp and relieved all at once. "Well, look what the dog dragged in, you're actually alive."
I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "Yeah. Barely."
She closed the distance in a few quick steps, looking me up and down, taking in the hospital-issue clothes, the stiffness in my posture, and the faint wince I couldn't quite hide when I shifted my weight.
The grin faded into something tighter, more serious, but still warm.
"Good," she said quietly. "Really good. We were worried, y'know."
Kuromaru snorted low, as if in agreement.
Tsume jerked her chin toward the compound interior. "Come on. You're not standing out here like some lost civilian. Let's get you inside."
I swallowed—partly nerves, partly something like relief, and stepped forward as she held the gate open.