The fortieth anniversary of Naruto.
The Second Shinobi World War had come to an end, at least on the surface.
After treating the wounded man, Yubi quietly stepped back to one side. The cave fell silent again, but the way the older shinobi looked at him had already changed. At the very least, he had proven that he could be useful here, not just Sasori.
After graduating from the Ninja Academy, he had taken a few missions, but they had mostly been the sort assigned to fresh genin—escorting caravans, hunting down bandits, or doing routine village work. In another situation, someone like him might have ended up interning in a hospital instead. Aside from Sasori, most newly graduated genin followed that kind of path.
They were lucky, really. If they had been born two years earlier, they would have been thrown into a far crueler battlefield.
Things were relatively comfortable now.
At least, comfortable compared to the bloodiest years of the war.
From what Yubi knew, very few of the shinobi who had graduated only a few years ahead of them were still alive. The Second Shinobi World War had chewed through the younger generation without mercy.
The true core of that war had never really been all five great nations at once. The main participants had been the Land of Wind, the Land of Fire, and the Land of Rain. The other major villages had fought as well, but not on that same massive scale.
Even so, Sunagakure had been hit terribly hard.
Inside the village hospital, Yubi had already seen too many wounded for a child his age to count. Broken limbs. Ruptured organs. Shinobi who would never fight again, and shinobi who would never wake up at all.
Sunagakure simply did not have Konoha's deep foundation. And in this war, it had paid a heavier price than most.
The Ninja Academy system itself had first been proposed and reformed by the Second Hokage. Before that, it had only been a school in the loose sense. It was Konoha that had folded it into a proper military and political system, and only then had the other villages gradually followed suit.
Even the use of medical ninja on the battlefield had become more standardized because of Konoha's example.
During this war, Konoha's arrangements had shown the other villages just how valuable a proper medical system could be. The idea of perfecting battlefield medical support had also been raised by Tsunade herself.
The entire ninja world had been shaped, one way or another, by Konoha.
The Will of Fire really was something remarkable.
There was no point denying it.
"Let's move. I'll show you the territory we're responsible for patrolling, and the routes we need to scout," Nomura said after a short rest.
Yubi rose with the others and followed him out of the cave.
Sasori did not move.
He remained seated where he was, as still as a carved figure, with no intention of joining them at all.
No one seemed to care.
"This canyon is the area we're assigned to patrol," Nomura said as he led them forward. "If the enemy wants to slip deeper into our territory, this is the most concealed route they can take."
"There are other patrol teams nearby too, but those teams are operating in more exposed positions. They're easier to spot."
The group leaped from ledge to ledge through the canyon. As they moved, Nomura would occasionally stop, point toward some narrow gap or rock wall, and explain the terrain in detail.
He was not only covering the lay of the land. He was teaching them how to survive in it.
The canyon was vast, and once the new arrivals settled in, their team would have to divide its work into two shifts. Every path, blind corner, elevation drop, and possible hiding place mattered.
Nomura was exceptionally responsible. He explained each route thoroughly, making sure the three younger shinobi understood how the environment itself could be used in an emergency.
"Our border here touches both the Land of Rain and the Land of Birds, so our primary enemies are Amegakure and Iwagakure," he continued.
"For Konoha, infiltrating through this area would be difficult. But the Land of Birds hasn't been heavily affected by the recent war, so Iwagakure shinobi can use it as a corridor and cross into our borders."
He paused on a ridge, the wind hissing past them in a stream of dry sand.
"The real main battlefield of this war has always been the Land of Rain. The Land of Birds is more of a strategic buffer zone. They rarely involve themselves directly, but the Land of Earth has been using them all the same."
He kept explaining the current situation as they traveled.
"Patrol and escort missions are good opportunities for you to sharpen your tracking and reconnaissance. Don't waste them."
Then his eyes turned to Yubi, and his tone softened by a fraction.
"Yubi, you're a medical ninja. That makes you an important asset to the team. You'll patrol with us older ones so you can watch our backs."
He smiled faintly.
"Understood," Yubi replied.
The other two genin glanced at him, and there was a trace of envy in their eyes.
That was the value of a medical ninja.
In a small squad or on a full battlefield, a capable healer could decide whether people lived or died. And unlike ordinary ninja, medical ninja could not simply be trained through hard work alone.
They needed talent, precision, knowledge, discipline. They had to learn ninjutsu, anatomy, pharmacology, treatment methods, and countless textbook principles besides.
It was not a path someone could walk just because they wanted to.
As they moved, Yubi's gaze drifted to the system interface floating before him.
Host: Yubi.Identity: Sunagakure Genin (Medical Ninja).Age: 8 years old.Current stored positive experience points (saving lives): 126.Current stored negative experience points (killing): 0.Currently redeemed items and abilities in the shop: Black Jack's Medical Notes and Insights, Special Scalpel (Black Jack).
Black Jack—the unlicensed surgeon from another world—had no proper medical license, but that did not change the terrifying level of his skill. His surgical techniques, his instincts, his medical understanding... none of it could be questioned.
From the moment the system had appeared in Yubi's life, it had almost decided his path for him.
As a doctor, he gained experience points whether he saved people or killed them. Those two forms of experience could then be exchanged in the system shop for different kinds of medical items, abilities, and knowledge.
It was precisely because he had spent so much time treating patients at the village hospital that he had accumulated enough experience to redeem Black Jack's notes. And after mastering what those notes contained, he had obtained abilities far beyond what a normal eight-year-old should possess.
In other words, what other people casually called "talent."
"Unfortunately..." Yubi thought, his eyes narrowing slightly. "In Sunagakure, the only person who can truly be called an outstanding medical ninja is Granny Chiyo. And even she doesn't have a deep enough foundation in medical ninjutsu. The collection of techniques in the village is too thin. Even if I keep advancing as a medical ninja here, the environment itself will limit how far I can go."
That was Sunagakure's problem.
But fortunately, he had the system.
He did not need to worry too much about his future path.
Medical ninjutsu could also be redeemed in the shop.
"That should cover the basics for now," Nomura said after more than an hour of winding through the canyon. "I'll assign your daily patrol routes later. For the first half of the month, we'll personally guide you. After that, you'll be on your own."
"Yes," the three of them answered together.
By the time they returned to the cave, the sky had gone completely dark.
The sandstorm in the canyon had weakened somewhat, but the air still carried that dry, biting chill unique to the desert night.
The moment they stepped inside, one of the Chunin frowned and said in a low voice, "He's overdue. Shimada still hasn't come back."
Nomura's expression hardened at once.
"Something's wrong," he said. "We didn't run into him on the way back."
"I'll go check," another Chunin said immediately.
"Be careful," Nomura warned. "If anything happens, your first priority is to relay intelligence."
"Understood."
The man vanished the moment he finished speaking.
Watching him leave, Yubi and the others could not help growing tense as well.
Their very first day, and it already looked as if something was about to happen.
"Endo, stay here and look after them," Nomura ordered the last Chunin remaining in the cave. "I'll report to the nearby squad bases."
He did not waste another breath. After giving the instruction, he disappeared into the night as well.
This was not the front line, but Sunagakure had laid out a dense reconnaissance network all along the border. Even the slightest disturbance could ripple through the entire system and trigger a rapid response.
Inside the cave, only two people remained besides the younger trio.
One was the injured Chunin Yubi had treated earlier, who still could not move properly.
The other was a Chunin named Endo.
Endo was the sort of man whose face made his personality obvious. There was something mean-spirited in the way he smiled, something that suggested he took pleasure in other people's discomfort.
He looked at the two pale-faced academy graduates beside Yubi and curled his lips upward.
"Heh. Kids, are you ready for a real fight?"
"Without being tempered by blood, you can never become a qualified ninja."
The moment he said it, the two genin next to Yubi turned even whiter.
Their fear was plain to see.
Yubi, however, remained calm.
He had already prepared himself mentally for this kind of situation. Ever since deciding to walk the path of a medical ninja, he had known that the battlefield would eventually open its jaws in front of him.
At that exact moment, Sasori moved.
The boy who had been sitting cross-legged near the cave entrance silently packed several puppet components back into his scroll. Then he rose to his feet without a word.
His expression did not change.
Whoosh.
In the blink of an eye, he was gone from the cave.
No one knew where he had gone.
Yubi stared toward the entrance, eyes narrowing slightly.
Something really was about to happen.