(òwó?)! The hell?!
Qianyu stared at Fugaku, speechless. The man's words were so utterly staggering that Qianyu's brain short-circuited.
Did… did such a self-disciplined man truly exist in this world?!
Maybe only that legendary guy who refused an umbrella in the rain could compare!
"I… is that really okay?" Qianyu asked, voice full of disbelief.
"Of course, my friend." Fugaku nodded, a knowing, almost conspiratorial smile spreading across his face. "If your heart is sincere, I would be happy to… facilitate an introduction between you and Mikoto."
"Hssss…"
Moments later, Qianyu stumbled out of the Uchiha tent, mind reeling.
What… just happened?
He tried to process it. "Fugaku just asked if I wanted a wife. Said if I just said the word, he'd… send his own wife over?"
Logically, Qianyu knew his butterfly effect had probably doomed any chance of a Fugaku-Mikoto pairing. But still… the mental image was wildly, stupidly thrilling.
"Hey, medic! Come quick! My friend's unconscious, he needs help!"
"Ah—right, right."
Snapped from his daze by a panicked, mustachioed shinobi, Qianyu was dragged to a distant medical tent housing the wounded.
…
"I'm sorry," Qianyu said after a frantic examination, shaking his head with genuine regret. "Your friend… there's nothing more I can do."
The man on the cot had been hit with two conflicting, vicious toxins. The golden window for treatment was long gone. The poison had already shredded his internal organs.
Not everyone had the freakish vitality of a Senju or an Uchiha, able to hang on for days with mortal wounds. The fact this guy had lasted long enough for Qianyu to arrive was a miracle in itself.
"Quack! You useless quack!" The mustachioed shinobi put on a show of grief-stricken fury, jabbing a finger at Qianyu's face. "If you hadn't pissed off the Tsuchikage, so many of our brothers wouldn't have died today! And now you've killed my friend too! You're a jinx! A curse!"
His voice boomed, drawing the attention of nearby shinobi. Their eyes narrowed on Qianyu, turning hostile.
They all had loved ones, comrades who'd died today. A bellyful of rage with no outlet. Qianyu, standing there, became the perfect target.
Deep down, they knew the war with Iwa would have happened with or without him. But that didn't matter. Blaming him was easier. It was human nature.
"You jinx! You're not welcome in our camp! Get out!" the mustachioed man raged, emboldened by the growing crowd.
The other Leaf shinobi didn't speak. They just moved silently to stand behind him. A wall of cold, accusing stares.
"Your friend's condition was critical. I did my best," Qianyu tried to explain.
"Bullshit!" the man cut him off, feigning fury. "He was fine just a moment ago! You're the one who killed him!"
"Fine… just a moment ago?"
Qianyu's brow furrowed. He looked at the dead man on the cot. Then at the mustachioed accuser. The furrow in his brow slowly smoothed out.
This is a setup. A premeditated hit job.
Something was off.
The Uchiha tents weren't exactly next door. There would have been other medics along the way. This guy had come looking for him, specifically.
Plenty of people in camp already resent me. This bastard's throwing mud, and it's sticking. Gotta deflect. Fast.
After a moment's thought, Qianyu put on his own act of flustered indignation. "Impossible! My skills are not the problem!"
"Your friend was showing severe symptoms earlier! You must have left him unattended, missed the critical window!"
Before the mustachioed man could retort, the shinobi behind him erupted.
"Liar! Yasaburou was right here the whole time! He only left to find a doctor when none came!"
"Pathetic. Can't you see he's just making stuff up now? Trying to shift the blame!"
"Lousy doctor and a lousier person. Why are we even protecting trash like this? Makes the brothers who died feel worthless!"
A chorus of condemnation. Pointed fingers from the moral high ground.
"You hear that?" The mustachioed man—Yasaburou—spread his arms, sneering. "I was here the whole time! Everyone can vouch for me! What do you have to say now?"
"That's strange then," Qianyu said, feigning confusion. "Your friend had two different toxins. Acute multi-organ failure. You were with him the whole time… and you didn't notice anything wrong?"
"I—"
Qianyu didn't let him finish. "Stranger still, if he got both poisons on the battlefield, he shouldn't have made it back at all. Unless… one was administered recently."
"You were with him the whole time, right? Did you see anyone suspicious come near?"
"One… administered recently?"
"Is the doctor saying…?"
The mood in the tent shifted. Suspicious glances now flicked toward Yasaburou.
"More bullshit!" Yasaburou's face flushed with theatrical outrage. "Are you saying I poisoned my friend?! Everyone knows how close we were! You're just incompetent and trying to turn the tables!"
"Everyone who died today died because of you!" he shouted again, hammering the point.
The watching shinobi looked back and forth, uncertain.
"Wait… didn't someone say this Qianyu kid was supposed to be good?"
"But Yasaburou and his buddy were like brothers. Thick as thieves. Even shared a…"
"Yeah, they… wait, shared a what?!"
"Enough acting," Qianyu said, his voice dropping to a calm, cold monotone. "You gave your friend one untraceable poison. Then you called for me, hoping he'd 'die' under my care. A neat way to frame me."
"But your understanding of toxins is amateur. You didn't realize that with both poisons in his system, your friend never stood a chance of surviving the trip back from the frontline."
"I—!"
Qianyu cut off his sputtering. "Don't bother. If you still think I'm incompetent, fetch another medic. Any competent one will tell you the same thing."
A flicker of genuine panic finally crossed Yasaburou's face.
"Admit it. Your goal from the start was to get me expelled from this camp."
Qianyu pressed the advantage, voice sharp. "And given that motive, it's reasonable to suspect you're an Iwa spy planted right here in the Leaf camp!"
"That's right…" A member of the communications team suddenly spoke up, eyes widening. "Now that I think about it… Yasaburou was the one pushing hardest to lure Qianyu's team back earlier!"
"Ridiculous."
Yasaburou had regained his composure, his voice icy. "You're the one who messed up, and now you're trying to bite back. Everyone knows you medics stick together. Getting one to cover for you would be easy."
"I, Yasaburou, have served the Leaf faithfully for years. You think your baseless accusations mean anything? These people," he gestured to the crowd, "know who I am far better than some outsider like you."
Two sentences. Clever. First, he cast doubt on the entire medical corps' impartiality. Second, he played the loyalty card, pulling most of the shinobi back to his side.
The hostile glares returned to Qianyu, fiercer now. They felt tricked, manipulated.
Yes, the spy is me. So what if you guessed?
Yasaburou's eyes held a trace of mockery as he looked at Qianyu, standing alone, isolated by the entire crowd.
The poison's long gone. No evidence. What can you do?
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