Chapter 167 — Treatment, Reflection
When Taichi woke again, four hours had already passed. Night had fallen, and the camp was lit with flickering bonfires.
He glanced around. His teammates were still asleep—Yōhei and Obito had somehow ended up leaning against each other. It was almost a shame he didn't have a camera; capturing this moment and showing it to them later would definitely be entertaining.
Checking his condition, he sensed that more than half of his chakra had recovered.
A faint smile crossed his face. With this much chakra, combined with his medical ninjutsu, keeping critically injured patients alive would be no problem at all.
Without hesitation, he stood and headed straight for the medical tent.
---
The camp was still bustling with activity. People moved in every direction, busy with their tasks. At the entrance, shinobi came and went, some carrying injured comrades on their backs.
Clearly, rescue operations outside the camp were still ongoing.
Taichi didn't delay. Following behind a ninja carrying a wounded man, he quickened his pace toward the medical tent.
Inside, it was already overflowing.
At the entrance, two medical assistants were triaging patients with rapid precision.
"Fractured arm, no vascular damage—minor injury. Wait in Zone 1."
"Fire-style burns, mild internal bleeding—minor injury. Zone 2."
"Explosion trauma, severe internal bleeding—critical! Zone 4, emergency!"
"You've just got a cut from a kunai—don't clog the line. Go bandage it yourself."
---
This was the scene Taichi walked into—order within chaos.
But there were simply too many wounded. Far beyond what the medical team could handle.
"Ta—Taichi-sama… you're finally here!" One of the assistants recognized him immediately, tears welling in her eyes.
In the past few hours alone, she had seen too many die simply because treatment couldn't come in time.
Her words struck like thunder, instantly lifting the morale of the medical team. Many of them had wanted to go find Taichi earlier—if he had been here, countless critically injured could have been saved.
But Fujita had stopped them.
She understood Taichi wasn't just a medic—he was also a frontline combatant. From morning until afternoon, he had been fighting nonstop. If he could have come, he would have come immediately.
If he hadn't shown up… it meant he simply had nothing left.
And yet—
Now he was here.
Which meant these critically injured… still had a chance to live.
---
Taichi gave a brief nod and walked straight in without wasting a word.
Scanning the tent, he quickly located the most urgent area—over twenty critically injured patients in the northwest corner, with only five medics attending them.
No time for talk.
He formed hand seals rapidly.
Boar—Dog—Rooster—Monkey—Sheep.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
With a soft poof, Katsuyu appeared.
"Taichi-sama."
"Katsuyu, it's urgent. Please help stabilize these critically injured patients—buy us time for treatment."
Katsuyu's feelers swayed gently as she assessed the situation.
"Understood. I will do my best."
Her large body immediately split apart, dividing into dozens of smaller slugs, each about the size of a palm. They slithered toward the patients, climbing onto their bodies.
A soft green glow spread from each of them, enveloping the wounded.
Almost instantly, the pain-stricken expressions of the patients eased.
---
"That's Lady Tsunade's summon—Katsuyu!"
"So it's true… Taichi-sama really is her disciple!"
"With him here, these people will live…"
"If only he had come earlier… maybe Yūjirō would have—"
Whispers filled the tent—admiration, relief… and regret.
But Taichi paid them no mind.
---
He was already at the side of a patient on the brink of death.
Green chakra flared in his right hand, spreading over the man's body—stabilizing vital signs while simultaneously diagnosing the injury.
Right-side rib fracture… punctured lung… severe pulmonary damage… internal hemorrhage.
The patient's airway had already been opened, relying on assisted breathing. But if nothing was done immediately, internal bleeding alone would kill him.
Worse—blood pooling in the lungs was preventing them from expanding.
Even with a respirator—
He couldn't breathe.
---
Diagnosis complete.
Taichi formed a chakra scalpel in his left hand and made a precise incision along the patient's side, carefully avoiding major vessels and nerves.
Dark blood and trapped air began to flow out.
The patient's chest visibly deflated back to normal, and his breathing gradually stabilized.
Next, Taichi altered the form of his chakra scalpel.
Instead of cutting—
It became something like a hand.
Without reopening the wound further, he manipulated the chakra directly inside the body, gently extracting the bone fragment from the lung and repositioning it correctly.
Then—
Mystical Palm Technique.
Stop the bleeding.
Stimulate regeneration.
---
It sounded simple.
But in reality, even a seasoned jōnin medic would struggle to replicate it.
For most, just opening the body, removing bone fragments, and resetting them would take an enormous amount of time.
This was the difference between mastery and mere competence.
---
One patient after another passed through Taichi's hands.
But even he had limits.
He couldn't fully heal everyone.
So he focused only on the fatal injuries—stabilizing them, turning life-threatening wounds into manageable ones.
The rest—
Would be handled by the medical team.
This way, he could save more lives with the chakra he had.
---
Even so, by the time the last critical patient was treated, Taichi was drenched in sweat, his face pale.
"Director Fujita… I'll leave the rest to you. I need to rest again…"
His voice was weak, his body swaying as if a gust of wind could knock him over.
"Go rest," Fujita said gently. "Leave this to us."
Watching him, she couldn't help but think of Tsunade.
Back then, she too had carried the entire medical corps on her shoulders alone.
Truly… master and disciple.
---
Step by step, Taichi made his way out of the tent, under the grateful and respectful gazes of everyone present.
It was already deep into the night.
The command tent still blazed with light, with people constantly coming and going. Clearly, no one would be sleeping tonight.
From the silhouettes inside, Taichi could tell—
Jiraiya hadn't returned yet.
Inside, it was likely still Nara Shikaku managing everything.
---
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