With Taiichi stabilizing him, everyone finally relaxed. They followed him quickly toward the medical tents.
On the way, Taiichi asked the question that had been bothering him. "What the hell happened to him? How did he get this messed up?"
No one answered right away. Taiichi turned and caught the guilty looks on their faces. Even Rin, who'd been crying earlier, was awkwardly wiping her eyes.
He had a pretty good idea what that meant. These idiots probably ignored everything he'd told them about staying in formation the second he left to deal with Shukaku.
Yohei spoke up while still carrying Obito. "Save him first. Someone ran a sword straight through his chest. He's only alive because Rin did emergency treatment on the spot."
Taiichi didn't push for details yet. They reached the medical area and he laid Obito on an empty cot. He'd already scanned the injuries on the way over.
Obito's lung had been punctured and he'd bled heavily. Rin's emergency care had stopped the worst of it, but the wound was messy. The tissue had healed in all the wrong ways. If they left it like that, Obito would be dealing with chronic problems for the rest of his life.
When Taiichi explained the damage, Rin went pale. She'd been the one who treated him in the field. Hearing what could've happened made her realize how close she'd come to screwing up badly.
Taiichi saw her expression and eased off. "You did fine under the circumstances. It was an emergency. But remember—normal treatment can't be that sloppy. Fixing messed-up tissue later is a lot harder than doing it right the first time."
He turned his full attention back to Obito. The guy had taken a sword through the chest and had several broken ribs on top of it. Taiichi formed a chakra scalpel and cut Obito's shirt open with surgical precision, not even nicking skin.
He cleaned the area and studied the ugly, twisted scar already forming. Then he placed both hands over the wound. Bright green chakra flared, but underneath it Taiichi was carefully breaking down the bad tissue while forcing proper cell growth to replace it. This level of work took serious focus and control.
Sweat beaded on his forehead within minutes. He'd fought Shukaku without breaking a sweat, but this kind of delicate medical work was exhausting in a different way.
Half an hour later he finally pulled his hands back. Obito's chest wound was closed and stable, though the broken ribs still needed time to heal properly. He'd lost a lot of blood and was unconscious, but he should wake up soon.
Taiichi wiped his face and looked at Rin. "His chest is fixed, but the bones are still broken. I stabilized everything. He'll be out for a while from blood loss. You know what to watch for."
Rin nodded quickly, relief clear on her face.
Taiichi glanced at the rest of the team. "You guys don't need to hang around here. If something important happened, wait until Obito wakes up. I've got to get back to guarding the camp. If you're not hurt too bad, you should probably help patrol. We're short on people right now."
Yohei answered for everyone. "Got it. We'll head out soon."
Taiichi didn't push for answers about what went wrong. He had too much to do. His shadow clones were already stretched thin. Whatever mess his team had made, it could wait.
He spent the rest of the night and into the next morning sitting in the center of camp, senses wide open. Just after sunrise, Jiraiya and the rest of the command staff finally returned. They were all smiling.
The second they walked through the gate they spotted Taiichi still on watch. Several of them grinned. Having someone this strong holding the rear had let them fight on the front without constantly worrying about getting stabbed in the back.
Jiraiya walked straight over and clapped a heavy hand on Taiichi's shoulder. "You did good, kid. Fighting on the front then coming back to guard this place all night? That's above and beyond."
Taiichi just smiled and didn't argue. Jiraiya was clearly in a great mood.
They moved into the main command tent for a meeting. Taiichi was directed to sit on Jiraiya's right side—Minato's usual spot. No one objected.
Once everyone settled, Jiraiya got things started. "Alright, we've had our fun. Time to go over the actual results and figure out what we're reporting back to the village."
Shikaku stood up and gave the numbers.
Sand had lost over five hundred confirmed dead, including twenty-four jonin. Another hundred and three were captured. Leaf losses were one hundred and forty-six total, with only four jonin dead.
The tent went loud with approval. Those were crushing numbers, and the fighting wasn't even fully over yet.
Shikaku continued. "The biggest result is the death of the One-Tail jinchuriki. Sand won't be using that card again for years."
Every eye in the tent turned to Taiichi. There was respect, approval, and more than a little awe. He looked down at the table, face warm.
Jiraiya wrapped up the meeting quickly. They'd send a preliminary victory report to the village right away. Detailed follow-up could come later.
Then the complaints started rolling in.
Weapons and explosive tags were nearly gone. Food and soldier pills wouldn't last more than a week with all the new prisoners and wounded. Medical supplies were running low and the healers were exhausted from working around the clock.
Taiichi stayed quiet through most of it. He knew the medical situation wasn't quite as dire as they were making it sound, but he understood the game. Ask for everything, settle for what you can get.
When someone mentioned the food shortage, Taiichi spoke up. "What if we ask the Daimyo of the Land of Rivers to lend us some grain?"
The suggestion landed like a stone in a pond. The Daimyo had betrayed Leaf once before. Using their victory to lean on him made sense to some and felt dirty to others.
Jiraiya and Shikaku exchanged a look. They liked the idea. Victory gave them leverage, and the Daimyo owed them. They decided Shikaku would handle the negotiation.
Taiichi didn't stick around after that. He had patients to check on and a camp to watch. The politics could wait.