Kazuki's expression shifted slightly.
It was the first time he had ever seen someone describe kidney deficiency with such "fresh elegance."
Everyone in the wooden house felt the same way—
This guy seemed unreliable. Maybe he wasn't even a real doctor.
But what the sleazy-looking doctor did next made them all shut up.
The middle-aged doctor examined Tamayū's wounds. His lewd grin disappeared instantly, replaced by stern seriousness. He methodically began pulling apart Tamayū's bandages.
In that moment, he looked exactly like the rigid, professional medical-nin Konoha was known for.
Then—
He froze.
He looked up at the group and asked,
"Who tied the bow knots on these bandages?"
Everyone blinked in confusion.
Izumi gave a sheepish grin, showing a little fang as she raised her right hand.
"I did!"
"This wrapping method isn't scientific," the doctor sighed. "Fine, fine. After I'm done saving him, I'll teach you some proper, scientific bandaging."
He kept unwrapping.
Izumi frowned and lowered her head. She had thought she was going to get praised.
Instead, she got this?
Her pride flared.
"I'm not learning."
"Why not? It's free," the doctor shot back, his hands never pausing.
"You're not proper."
"But my technique is proper."
"I said I'm not learning!"
The moment Izumi snapped, she regretted it.
Their squad really did need someone who understood medical treatment.
After a brief internal struggle—
For the sake of the team, she immediately made peace with herself and muttered weakly,
"Fine… fine. I'll learn."
The doctor nodded, fully focused on the bandages.
Mikoto wanted to laugh.
She forced it down—barely.
But she couldn't entirely stop it, so she forced herself to think about her dead husband instead, and her mood instantly sank.
Mikoto suddenly felt that this escape route…
It hadn't even been two days, and the flavor of everything was already going wrong.
Where exactly had Kazuki found all these bizarre people?
"Ss—! Be gentler, that hurts!"
Even Tamayū couldn't endure the pain of the bandages peeling away from torn flesh.
"Heh. Weren't you tough a second ago?" the doctor said, not slowing down. "I only hear words like that from the girls I 'save.'"
Tamayū clenched his teeth, enduring the pain.
Then he burst out laughing.
"Ever consider… they're probably lying to you?"
It hit like a knife.
The doctor froze.
His hands stopped.
His face fell.
The bandages were fully off now.
He didn't bother responding to Tamayū's mouth.
He studied the front of Tamayū's body and his brows slowly furrowed. His expression grew heavier by the second. He sucked in a sharp breath.
This wasn't one wound.
Or two.
Tamayū's entire front was mangled—flesh shredded, torn, raw—like a ruined steak hacked to pieces and charred in blood.
And yet he was still alive.
A medical miracle.
The doctor's face remained grave as he gathered pale green medical chakra in both hands and swept it over every wound across Tamayū's body.
Seeing the chakra, the Uchiha finally relaxed, no longer doubting the man's identity.
Even Kazuki felt a faint expectation stir.
A branch reward.
After the time it took for a cup of tea to steep—
The doctor stopped using his beginner-level medical technique, clicked his tongue, and shook his head.
"Can't save him."
"No hope."
"Just wait to die."
The hope that had risen in everyone's chest shattered in an instant.
This time, the doctor's expression was calm. He looked directly at Kazuki and explained seriously:
"He was hit by a large-area Wind Release technique."
"You're shinobi. You know how terrifying wind chakra is."
"After it slices into the body, wind chakra can seep deeper—right into the cells—destroying tissue around the wound on a wide scale."
"The penetration and destruction from strong wind chakra… can even be comparable to poison."
"Ten years ago, when I was at my peak and my control over medical chakra was strongest, I might have been able to treat wounds caused by wind chakra."
"But now…"
"I don't have that level anymore."
"I can only treat injuries caused by fire chakra and water chakra."
Nanpū panicked.
"There's no other way?"
The doctor looked at the man who had dragged him here and answered plainly:
"There is."
"Find a medical-nin better than me. That might work."
"But me? I can't."
"Still, he's got strong blood and a tough body."
"And you used crude battlefield methods in time to keep him breathing—primarily soldier pills—forcing chakra circulation to resist the ongoing damage from the wind chakra."
"Otherwise…"
"He should have died yesterday."
Tamayū scoffed.
"Joke's on you. I train every day in the hospital—of course my body's strong!"
Nanpū's mouth twitched.
So that was why Tamayū had tried to tank Danzō's Wind Release with raw flesh.
Kazuki fell into silence.
The doctor didn't even look at Tamayū. He crouched again and resumed using medical ninjutsu—seemingly pointless work as he continued treatment—then lifted his head toward Kazuki.
"All I can do is reduce his pain."
"So when he dies…"
"It won't hurt as much."
Tamayū murmured,
"You've got some medical ethics, I'll give you that."
"Are you sure you used your full effort?" one of the Uchiha demanded.
Others joined in, questioning him one after another.
The wooden house grew noisy.
Tap. Tap.
Kazuki's fingers lightly knocked on the tabletop.
Silence fell immediately.
Grief sat on every face as they looked toward him.
"How long do you need?" Kazuki asked the doctor.
The doctor answered crisply.
"Ten minutes."
Kazuki nodded, then looked at the others.
"Pack up."
"In ten minutes, we leave."
As the words landed, sorrow deepened in the Uchiha's eyes.
If they moved northwest from here, they would soon leave the Land of Fire border.
After that, finding a medical-nin would be nearly impossible.
Which meant—
Tamayū really would become the first clan member to die on their escape route.
With so few Uchiha left…
Losing even one was unbearable.
Nanpū felt it like a weight crushing his chest.
Tamayū's two subordinates' eyes reddened. They lowered their heads, fists clenched, helpless despair rising inside them.
"Oh, right," the doctor added casually. "If you want him to die more comfortably, don't carry him on your back."
"And little girl—come here. I'll demonstrate proper bandaging."
"Watch carefully. I'll only do it once."
With the doctor's steady instructions—
The wooden house sank into dead silence.
The Uchiha were mournful.
Even Mikoto didn't want to see this happen again, not to the last remaining members of her own clan.
In her heart, Mikoto thought—
She was the one who deserved to die.
The harmony from earlier vanished like smoke.
Jaeger, who had been silent for a long time, could clearly feel their helplessness, despair, and powerlessness.
He understood.
He had felt the same thing when his home was destroyed and his family died.
The difference was—
Jaeger had met Kazuki.
And Kazuki had pointed him to a path forward.
He had told Jaeger to bring his people to Kikyo Mountain.
Early last year, while gathering firewood as a hunter, Jaeger had met the woman who was now his wife beneath a tree.
In a sense, his current happiness was also something Kazuki had given him.
So Jaeger believed—
He should do something.
Even if it meant breaking his "credibility."
Some things were worth doing even if they came at a cost.
Some things mattered more than anything.
"Doctor Nake," Jaeger stepped out of the crowd. "Do you still remember me?"
"Not long ago, my wife and I brought our baby to see you."
The others looked at Jaeger in confusion.
The doctor glanced back at him, then shook his head, his eyes already returning to his work.
"Sorry. No memory. Too many people come to me in Kikyo Castle."
"And every night I still have to go rescue those poor women."
"My memory isn't great."
Jaeger's face tightened with embarrassment, but his resolve hardened.
He said,
"Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome."
Doctor Nake's head snapped back around.
Something sparked in his eyes as he stared at Jaeger.
"Your son…"
"That newborn baby…"
"Did he already die?"
For a doctor, faces were easy to forget.
But certain cases—
Certain wounds—
You only needed one look.
Jaeger smiled.
"He didn't die. He's already fully recovered."
Nake's pupils shrank.
His facial muscles twitched.
Neonatal respiratory distress syndrome was one of the illnesses most likely to kill newborns.
It could cause hypoxemia, alveolar collapse, and a chain of complications.
Nake couldn't treat it.
But he remembered clearly that not long ago, a baby had come to him with exactly that condition.
Tamayū stabbed in mercilessly,
"You really are cursed."
Jaeger choked, then forced himself onward. He walked to Kazuki's side and spoke quickly:
"Captain Kazuki… the day before yesterday at dusk, a woman came to our lodge."
"Blond hair. Round glasses."
"She wore black-and-white robes—almost like a shrine maiden."
"She cured my son."
"But…"
"She warned us."
"We're not allowed to tell anyone about it."
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