Konoha Hospital.
Tsunade stared blankly into the air with lifeless eyes, looking like she had completely given up. She had zero interest in dealing with the matter of training more medical-nin.
After drifting around for four years as a lazy soul, even when she returned to take command of the eastern front, she had simply delegated everything to her staff officers. She had called it "training their abilities."
Now that the war—the most urgent matter—was over, she had no motivation whatsoever to seriously act as hospital director.
The real reasons she had come back were simple. First, to stabilize public morale. Second—and more importantly—to support her own student.
Therefore—
"Taiichi, you go draft a proposal and hand it to me tomorrow."
Why do the work yourself when you have a perfectly good disciple?
With such an excellent workhorse available, why bother using her own brain?
Besides, the whole reason she had taken him from the old man in the first place was for moments like this!
Taiichi's eyes widened in shock. He stared at Tsunade in disbelief, wondering if he had misheard her.
"Sensei, you want me to handle something like this? That doesn't seem appropriate."
"Stop wasting time. I'm the director. I'm only responsible for the big picture. Of course the actual work has to be done by you people. Otherwise, what do I even need you for?"
Tsunade spoke with complete confidence, conveniently forgetting that she had just signed a stack of documents without even glancing at their contents.
Taiichi could only sigh in resignation. With a teacher and superior like this, what else could he do? He bowed and accepted the order before leaving.
Soon, every department in the hospital received an order from Taiichi: each department had to submit at least three ideas for training more medical-nin before the end of the workday.
For a while, the entire hospital was thrown into confusion.
Ninjas—whether combat types or medical types—were fundamentally people of action. Ask them to do something and they would perform exceptionally well. But ask them to come up with ideas, and things became difficult.
Even so, this showed just how much influence Taiichi now commanded. Although the order was somewhat unreasonable, the entire hospital staff spent the whole day actively discussing possible measures.
As Taiichi walked through the corridors, he could hear medical staff discussing various feasible plans during their breaks.
By evening, when he looked over the compiled opinions that had been sent to him, he couldn't help but marvel at the power of collective wisdom.
Of course, many of the suggestions were completely unrealistic.
For example, one proposal suggested asking the village to double the hospital's budget. If the village actually had that kind of money lying around, they wouldn't have needed to put Tsunade in charge of this matter in the first place.
Everyone understood that money made things easier.
However, there were also quite a few genuinely good ideas mixed in.
The next day, Taiichi compiled the suggestions into a proper document and brought it to Tsunade.
She accepted the file and gave him a strange look, but still began reading through it. Even as she read, she kept muttering under her breath.
"You little brat… you learn pretty fast."
"Haha, that's all thanks to your excellent teaching, Tsunade-sensei."
Taiichi showed no shame. Instead, he looked rather proud as he watched Tsunade put what she had "learned" into practice.
Tsunade continued muttering, but as she read deeper into the document, she gradually stopped thinking about Taiichi's "laziness." Her expression grew serious.
After a long while, she put the document down and looked up at Taiichi with a solemn expression.
"The things you've proposed… I'm afraid Konoha Hospital alone won't be able to carry them out. We'll need to coordinate with the old man."
"Sensei, we're only submitting suggestions. For something that involves multiple departments, of course the Hokage has to make the final decision on how to implement it."
"Not bad. Your thinking is quite good."
Tsunade stood up immediately, grabbed the document, and headed for the door. As she passed Taiichi, she even patted him on the shoulder.
"Come on. We're going to the Hokage's office right now to get this settled with the old man."
Without waiting for a reply, she strode out of the director's office with decisive energy.
Taiichi watched her retreating figure and shook his head helplessly.
She was the one slacking off, and now she was the one in a hurry.
Women's minds really were impossible to understand.
"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and follow me!"
Tsunade's urging voice came from outside, clearly annoyed at his hesitation.
"Coming, coming!"
Hokage's Office.
Hiruzen Sarutobi looked over the document Tsunade had submitted and smiled with satisfaction.
Not because the plan itself was particularly brilliant, but because Tsunade was actually putting real effort into her work at the hospital instead of spending all day at the casino. That alone was enough to please him.
"Expanding the training of ordinary medical personnel within the hospital is something you can decide on your own.
The reason you've come to me is because you want me to establish a dedicated medical-nin course at the Ninja Academy, correct?"
Although it was phrased as a question, his tone was completely certain. As expected of someone who had been Hokage for many years—he had seen straight through their intentions.
"Most adult ninjas outside the hospital are already set in their ways and focused on combat. No matter how much the hospital recruits and trains externally, the pool of candidates is limited.
The Academy is different. Every year it produces a steady stream of fresh blood. That's the part we should be focusing on most if we want to develop more medical-nin."
Hiruzen frowned as he carefully weighed the pros and cons.
"Tsunade, you have to understand—while medical-nin are important, combat is still a ninja's primary duty. If we start training medical-nin directly at the Academy, won't that be putting the cart before the horse?"
Although Hiruzen had chosen his words carefully, they still touched on an old wound for Tsunade.
Back when she had first proposed reforming Konoha's medical-nin system, she had faced exactly this kind of traditional resistance and suppression.
Tsunade took a deep breath and shot a fierce glare at Taiichi, who was standing nearby watching the show.
"You. You came up with this plan. You explain it to the Third Hokage yourself!"
With that, she turned around and walked toward the balcony, completely ignoring the two of them.
Taiichi looked completely innocent. He had been caught in the crossfire of Tsunade's anger, but since she had given him the task, he still had to complete it.
"Lord Hokage, I've looked into the Academy. During peacetime, many students fail to graduate every year.
A lot of them aren't lacking in talent—they simply don't have talent for combat. Those are exactly the students we should be recruiting.
Besides, most children who want to become ninjas aim to be combat-nin. Those with real talent for fighting won't choose to become medical-nin anyway.
As for the truly talented students, this would simply give them an opportunity to gain more abilities."
Taiichi's explanation was clear and logical. He made it obvious that they weren't trying to steal students from the combat track, which eased Hiruzen's concern about a future shortage of combat-nin.
Hiruzen was a decisive man. He wanted to resolve as many problems as possible while he was still in office, so he could leave a relatively clean Konoha for the Fourth Hokage.
Matters like adding a new course at the Ninja Academy would be much easier for him to handle. If it were left to Minato after he took office, the new Hokage would face far more obstacles.
Since Taiichi had given a reasonable explanation, Hiruzen no longer hesitated.
"Very well. Since that's the case, go ahead and do it. I'll speak with the Academy. However, when it comes to the instructors and teaching materials—"
Hiruzen turned his head toward the balcony and raised his voice.
"Tsunade, those are things you'll have to prepare yourselves."
Taiichi suddenly had a bad feeling. Before he could react, that feeling became reality.
Upon hearing Hiruzen's words, Tsunade walked back into the office. She didn't even look at the Hokage. She simply looked straight at Taiichi and said,
"You heard him. This matter is now in your hands. The teachers and the curriculum—you handle it."
With that, she waved casually at Hiruzen as a greeting and walked straight out of the Hokage's office.
Taiichi's mouth twitched. This woman… she was one step ahead.
He bowed to Hiruzen and quickly chased after Tsunade's retreating figure.
Hiruzen watched the two of them leave and felt that something was off. He picked up the document again and examined it carefully. Finally, he noticed that the handwriting appeared to be Taiichi's.
Combined with what Tsunade had said earlier, a guess immediately formed in his mind.
This woman… had she pushed all the work onto Taiichi?
Outside the Hokage Tower.
"Sensei! Sensei!"
Taiichi kept accelerating as he chased after Tsunade. Unfortunately, Tsunade was clearly trying to avoid him and kept speeding up as well.
Left with no choice, Taiichi had to shout out loud, which finally forced her to stop.
"You little brat, what are you yelling for? I'm not running away."
Taiichi pursed his lips. She said she wasn't running, but if she had really wanted to escape, she would have disappeared long ago.
He complained inwardly, but his mouth remained just as dishonest.
"Sensei, the curriculum is one thing, but where am I supposed to find qualified teachers for you?
His voice was loud enough to attract the attention of passing ninjas.
However, when they saw that it was Matsushita Taiichi and Tsunade arguing, they all wisely quickened their pace and left.
Clearly, they had no interest in getting involved in whatever drama this master-disciple pair was stirring up.
Tsunade turned around and looked at Taiichi's troubled expression. Perhaps she also felt that she had gone a bit too far.
More importantly, from the corner of her eye she noticed the smiling old man standing on the balcony of the Hokage Tower, watching their argument with obvious amusement.
"You little brat, you did that on purpose, didn't you? Hurry up and come back with me."
Go back? Taiichi wasn't falling for that. If they went back now, this whole matter would truly be dumped on his shoulders.
He deliberately slowed his steps, letting Tsunade drag him along while showing no urgency whatsoever.
"Sensei, you can't just throw everything at me. The choice of teachers is extremely important. They need to have a solid foundation.
People like that are already rare. Once we start the internal training program at the hospital, we'll have even fewer people available to serve as instructors—"
Tsunade watched as Taiichi's speech gradually became more and more hesitant. A sense of unease began to spread in her chest.
"Spit it out already, or I'm really leaving!"
"Sensei, you're usually pretty free anyway. Why don't you go teach at the Academy yourself?"
"What?! Say that again!"
Tsunade's eyes widened as she stared at Taiichi, wondering if her ears were playing tricks on her.
In contrast, Taiichi actually quickened his pace. He grabbed Tsunade's arm and continued speaking as they walked.
"Sensei, there's no need to be surprised. According to my plan, this medical-nin training class is only being opened for the graduating students.
We'll only be teaching those who are actually interested in medical ninjutsu. The number won't be large—forming even one full class would already be pretty good.
A class of that size would be perfect for you to teach. You could give the children the most solid foundation while also having a legitimate reason to escape the office and slack off."
Faced with Taiichi's blatant temptation, Tsunade knew he had ulterior motives, but she couldn't help following his line of thought for a moment.
It was true. Compared to teaching a bunch of brats at the Academy, spending her days buried in paperwork really was a form of torture.
More importantly, her gaze unconsciously drifted toward Taiichi beside her. In the future, it wouldn't be impossible to—
Both of them had their own little schemes.
One wanted his teacher to take on more work.
The other wanted her student to handle more of her responsibilities.
"Oh—"
"Oh—"
Two long sighs of realization rang out at the same time. It seemed both of them had figured everything out. At this moment, the master and disciple were walking shoulder to shoulder, unconsciously quickening their steps as they headed back toward the hospital.
Wind Country.
In the desert, fierce winds swept across the land. Yellow sand filled the sky under the force of the gale, turning the entire world into a sea of yellow. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but sand.
Yet within this vast desert stood a small city. Because of its extremely remote location and lack of valuable resources, it existed independently of the Wind Country's rule.
It had become a tiny independent nation within the Wind Country—Roran.
At this moment, any Sunagakure ninja who saw the current state of Roran would have been shocked.
The Roran of the past had been nothing more than a small, struggling city that was slowly declining to the point where even the Mist-nin had stopped paying attention to it.
Otherwise, how could the Wind Country have left such a juicy piece of meat sitting right in its own territory?
But now, Roran was filled with buildings. Tall, tower-like structures stood everywhere throughout the city.
While it couldn't yet be called prosperous, it was certainly no longer struggling.
All of this was connected to a man who had suddenly appeared in Roran four years ago and was now a high-ranking minister—An Lushan.
Inside Roran's tallest building, in a magnificent grand hall, Queen Seramu sat upon her throne, receiving her minister, An Lushan.
"Lord An Lushan, may I ask why I summoned you here so urgently?"
An Lushan, now in his thirties, had a full beard and appeared to have a kind, benevolent face.
He maintained a respectful attitude toward the queen on the throne.
"An Lushan, many of my people have told me recently that their husbands and children have gone missing without any explanation. Are you aware of this?"
Seramu treated the matter with extreme seriousness. Roran was a small country with a sparse population, so every citizen was precious.
Moreover, this time dozens of people had disappeared—and all of them were able-bodied men in their prime. The queen could not afford to ignore it.
Still, the young queen showed considerable trust in her minister. She believed that as long as she explained the problem, An Lushan would thoroughly investigate the matter.
"Your Majesty, I have also heard about this. Before coming here, I already sent people to investigate. I believe we will have results very soon."
"An Lushan, you must handle this carefully. Roran's population is already small. We cannot afford such losses."
"Please rest assured, Your Majesty. At the latest, within two days, I will uncover the truth!"
An Lushan's face showed a confident smile, as if he already had complete control over the situation.
"In that case, I can rest easy. You may withdraw."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
An Lushan kept smiling as he respectfully took a few steps back under the queen's gaze before turning to leave the hall.
What the queen on the throne did not notice was that the moment An Lushan turned around, the smile on his face completely vanished—replaced by a bone-chilling coldness.