Chapter 175 – Anxiety, Breakthrough
"Say that again!"
Chiyo's face was filled with shock. It sounded utterly absurd—how could the leader of an entire village simply go missing? Did they think a Kage was some careless child?
"The Third Kazekage has indeed gone missing. It happened yesterday. Our squad was assigned to search this area for any trace of him."
For a moment, Chiyo's vision went dark, her body swaying slightly. She steadied herself with effort, trying to press for more details, but the squad leader shook his head.
"That's all we know. For specifics, you'll have to return to camp and ask."
"…Fine. Thank you. I'll remember you—you're Yūta, right?"
"Yes! I didn't expect you to remember me, Elder Chiyo. It's my honor!" The young squad leader flushed with excitement.
After a few perfunctory words of encouragement, Chiyo immediately set off with the hundred-plus released prisoners, hurrying toward the front-line camp.
Along the way, countless thoughts raced through her mind.
How could the Kazekage have gone missing? What would become of Sunagakure now? Who would take the position of the Fourth Kazekage?
No matter the answer, one thing was certain—Sunagakure was about to enter a period of internal turmoil.
Silently, she quickened her pace.
The newly released shinobi were already exhausted; while they could manage a normal pace, Chiyo's increasing speed soon began to strain them. Yet none of them complained. Even without hearing the full details, they had seen the drastic change in Chiyo's expression—something serious had clearly happened.
So they gritted their teeth and followed.
A journey that should have taken an hour was completed in just over forty minutes.
Upon arriving at the border camp, Chiyo didn't even spare a glance at the released prisoners. After ordering an accompanying jōnin to handle their arrangements and inspections, she went straight to the camp commander.
"Sharo, explain this to me. What do you mean the Kazekage is missing?"
"I… only received the information through village orders," Sharo replied helplessly. "I don't know much either. I've only been dispatching search teams as instructed."
"Then tell me everything you do know!"
"According to the report, the Kazekage engaged in a battle at the central oasis… and afterward, he disappeared. As for who the opponent was or why they fought… there's no information."
Chiyo fell silent. The report was frustratingly vague—but understandable. The village would never disclose such sensitive details openly.
It seemed she would have to return personally.
"Carefully screen those returning shinobi," she ordered. "Check for any signs of betrayal. I won't stay here—I'm leaving immediately."
After giving further instructions, especially regarding the handling of the prisoners, Chiyo departed without delay, heading straight for Sunagakure with her three companions.
Back at the Konoha camp, Taichi returned to his tent after leaving the command center. He was utterly exhausted. The moment he lay down in his sleeping bag, a faint snore echoed within seconds.
He slept until around five the next morning, waking naturally by his internal clock.
The tent was empty. After a quick wash, he stepped outside.
The camp was already bustling—some training, some preparing breakfast. Taichi took a walk around but couldn't find Yōhei, Saori, Kakashi, Obito, or Rin.
They must have gone out on a mission again.
Finding an open space, Taichi began his usual morning training.
Now that both his strength and agility had reached jōnin-level thresholds—and not just one, but both at 25 points—his movements carried a completely different presence. As he practiced advanced taijutsu, his strikes cut through the air with force, and chakra began to flow visibly around his body, forming a faint blue glow.
This external manifestation of chakra had never appeared before. It was only after breaking through that threshold that such changes emerged.
As he focused, Taichi could feel his skin and muscles being subtly reinforced.
By the time he completed one full cycle of taijutsu, he could clearly tell—the effect was nearly twice as strong as before. His skin, in particular, felt noticeably tougher.
He nodded in satisfaction. The improvement might be small for now, but over time—if every training session enhanced him like this—then eventually not just his skin, but his muscles, organs, even bones could all be strengthened.
At that point…
Even facing the Ōtsutsuki wouldn't be impossible.
Lost in his imagination, Taichi almost started drooling.
Snapping back to reality, he quickly wiped his mouth and glanced around. Fortunately, he had chosen a secluded spot—no one had seen his embarrassing moment.
Shaking off the distraction, he moved on to advanced meditation.
Unfortunately, meditation showed no such breakthrough. It continued steadily refining his mental strength, just as before.
After finishing his morning routine and breakfast, Taichi created a shadow clone to continue training while his main body headed to the medical camp. His Yang Release transformation was on the verge of leveling up—and the medical camp was the perfect place to train it.
"Director Fujita, is there anything I can help with?"
Fujita looked up in surprise and delight. "Taichi? Didn't you just go on a mission? You're back already?"
Even as she spoke, her hands moved quickly, flipping through recent medical reports, clearly hoping to find something difficult enough to assign to him.
After all, free labor—especially someone of Taichi's caliber—was always welcome.
But after searching thoroughly, she couldn't find a single severe case. Taichi had already handled all the difficult patients before leaving, and with the recent lull in fighting, there simply weren't many serious injuries.
"Taichi… there really aren't any critical cases right now. How about you teach the other medical ninja? Most of them are only half-trained and lack proper guidance."
Taichi gave her a strange look. She was really squeezing every ounce of value out of him. Still, he didn't refuse. Teaching would also help refine his own skills—after all, revisiting fundamentals was always beneficial.
Fujita, slightly embarrassed under his gaze, tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and stood up. "Come on, I'll introduce you. They'll definitely be happy."
And so, she began rounding people up—grabbing one here, pulling another there. Before long, eight medical ninja were gathered behind them.
Leading them into a treatment tent, she turned and announced, "From today, you'll all follow Taichi. I've asked him to teach you medical techniques. This is a rare opportunity—make sure you learn well."
The moment they heard this, the entire group lit up with excitement.
During this period, Taichi had already become the person they admired most.
His medical ninjutsu was so refined that even those on the brink of death could be snatched back from the hands of the Reaper. Just imagining reaching that level someday sent a shiver through his entire body—it was simply too exciting.
Before long, a peculiar scene unfolded in the medical camp. Eight medical ninja followed behind a young shinobi like students trailing their teacher, each one respectful and attentive, listening carefully to his explanations.
And his teaching truly lived up to the reverence. He broke down cases from the simplest fundamentals to deeper complexities, expanding into related conditions with ease. With an actual patient right in front of them as a live example, the effectiveness of his explanations was far beyond anything theoretical study could achieve.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the patients.
Each one became a "practice subject," examined repeatedly by all eight medical ninja in turn. Anyone who had experienced it would know—it was equal parts embarrassing and utterly miserable.
Take, for example, a poor shinobi with a fractured arm. After being inspected over and over again, the sweat on his forehead was no longer cold sweat—it was pure pain.
"Please, I'm begging you… can you just treat me already?" he groaned. "If not, just let Taichi-sama handle it… stop torturing me!"
The genin was on the verge of collapse. It felt like these people were one step away from healing his arm just to break it again—over and over—just so they could practice how to fix fractures.
To be fair, he wasn't wrong to complain. Among all the patients in the tent, he was the only one with a bone fracture. Everyone else had cuts or ninjutsu-related injuries—so naturally, all the attention fell on him.
Even Taichi couldn't stand it anymore.
With a few swift moves, he finished the treatment cleanly and sent the man out of the medical camp.
"I mean it—you guys need to know when to stop," Taichi said, wiping his hands. "Don't keep tormenting the same person."
"Sorry, Taichi-sensei…" one of them said sheepishly. "He's the only fracture case here. There's no one else for us to practice on…"
A bead of cold sweat slid down Taichi's temple.
These guys are definitely going to be trouble in the future…
He could only hope that when they inevitably embarrassed themselves out there, they wouldn't go around mentioning his name—otherwise, his reputation would be completely ruined.
Still, overall, the day had been incredibly fruitful for them. Not only had their theoretical understanding deepened, but they had also been exposed to medical techniques and applications they had never even considered before.
These were methods accumulated over years—decades—by seasoned medical ninja. Not something that would normally be taught so freely.
And when the day finally came to an end, all eight of them sincerely expressed their gratitude to Taichi.
After dinner, Taichi returned to his training ground and dispelled the shadow clones he had scattered throughout the day. As their memories flowed back into him, he finally had the time to check what mattered most.
[Yang Attribute Nature Transformation Lv10 (12/2000)]
Through a full day of teaching and hands-on practice, his Yang Release had finally reached Level 10.
Without hesitation, he used one skill point immediately.
The panel updated.
[Yang Attribute Nature Transformation Lv11 (1/3000)]
A massive flood of insight surged into his mind—far greater than anything he had experienced when upgrading Fire, Wind, or Water Release.
Perhaps this was the unique nature of Yang Release. Taichi didn't know for certain. All he could do was focus and absorb everything before even a fragment slipped away.
About ten minutes later, the process finally completed.
Only then did he truly understand what Level 11 Yang Release meant.
Unlike the five basic elements—Lightning, Fire, Wind, Earth, and Water—which were widely understood, Yin and Yang Release remained largely mysterious to most people.
Yang Release represented the power of the body—derived from physical energy, governing life itself. It could breathe life into tangible forms.
Yin Release, on the other hand, represented spiritual energy—governing imagination, capable of shaping the intangible into form.
That was the fundamental nature Taichi grasped from this insight.
Of course, at Level 11, he was still far from being able to truly "grant life" to objects. But even so, this breakthrough brought undeniable changes.
The most immediate was his physique—rising from 27 to 28.
More importantly, he could feel part of his chakra constantly converting into Yang chakra, which in turn continuously nourished every cell in his body.
And all of this happened instinctively—without conscious effort.
It reminded him of Hashirama's legendary Sage Body.
He was nowhere near that level yet, but this… could at least be considered a "budget version" of it.
And as his Yang Release continued to grow, reaching that level—or even surpassing it—might not be impossible.
Next came the enhancement to his medical ninjutsu.
Forming hand seals, Taichi activated Mystical Palm Technique and carefully observed the subtle differences.
This was one of his most frequently used techniques. He didn't need a specific target—his experience alone was enough to gauge the improvement.
As expected of a power capable of "infusing life," Yang Release had fundamentally changed the technique.
Previously, Mystical Palm worked by stimulating cellular activity and accelerating division—healing at the cost of long-term vitality.
Now, however, the Yang chakra acted like a universal remedy, partially offsetting the toll of excessive cell division and reducing the damage to lifespan.
That alone was a massive improvement.
Before, Taichi had always needed to exercise restraint when using the technique. Now, he could use it freely—and achieve even better results.
After testing everything, he felt thoroughly satisfied.
There had been no explosive leap in combat power, but his foundation had been significantly strengthened. That single point of constitution alone had likely saved him half a year of training.
With his evening training complete, Taichi returned to his tent to rest.
All that remained… was to wait for Yōhei to return—and test how much more effective his enhanced Yang Release would be on the Mangekyō Sharingan.