Laymen watch for the excitement, but professionals look for the technique.
The core criterion for judging whether the Healing Resuscitation Regeneration Technique is effective is whether the lead surgeon possesses the ability to stimulate cells to accelerate generation at a microscopic level and extract them with precision.
From this perspective, even though it was Hyuga Yu's first time performing a surgery of this caliber, Furofuki could already determine that he had mastered the essentials of the Healing Resuscitation Regeneration Technique.
The boost the Byakugan provided to medical ninjutsu had completely exceeded Furofuki's expectations!
This wasn't surprising. Before this, Hyuga Yu had already mastered the Delicate Illness Extraction Technique—the lower-ranked version of this A-rank medical ninjutsu—to its absolute limit. He had even used himself as a guinea pig, forcibly opening the Eight Inner Gates by severing and reconstructing his cranial chakra pathway system to deceive the Caged Bird Curse Seal, successfully pulling off a feat of celestial deception.
Reaching this level now was well within Yu's expectations.
However, the difficulty of the surgery clearly did not lie there. The challenge was identical to the Byakugan: Wind Style Chakra Mode he wanted to construct.
The patients he took over were all "living dead," hovering on the brink of death. Their lives were inherently fragile. Even if Yu's surgical process ensured that the final, fatal lesions could be excised and repaired, the most critical and troublesome issue remained: whether the patient could hold on until then.
This was the root cause that troubled the high-ranking members of the Medical Corps and left even a medical ninja of Furofuki's caliber unable to save them.
In other words, to complete the surgery and revive them—to let these people regain conscious awareness long enough to speak the vital intelligence they had obtained in their final moments—Yu had to construct a temporary operational system of the Byakugan: Wind Style Chakra Mode within their bodies.
He had to trade their life force by accelerating cellular metabolism, ensuring their fragile bodies could survive the grueling process of surgery without anesthesia.
The surgery had been underway for two hours.
The patient was clearly unable to hold on any longer. Out of desperation, Yu began to construct the Byakugan: Wind Style Chakra Mode system within the patient's body, a concept that had previously existed only in his hypotheses.
Unexpected complications followed immediately.
Squelch!
A jet of blood sprayed from the abdominal cavity, splashing across Hyuga Yu's face. The rapid beep-beep of the monitoring equipment beside them began to ring frantically.
"Beep, beep, beep, beep!"
"It's acute renal failure!"
"Quick, get the norepinephrine! 2ml of dopamine!"
Seeing this, Furofuki's expression tightened instantly. She grabbed a handful of medicine and rushed forward with a sharp shout.
After being tortured by surgery without anesthesia for two hours, the agonized Chunin finally showed a look of relief. As if experiencing a final spark of life before death, he looked at Hyuga Yu—the one who had put him through endless torment—with a flash of resentment. His consciousness returned slightly; his mouth moved as if he wanted to shout an insult.
But in the end, he only managed to wheeze out a series of faint, intermittent words:
"Kusunami Coast... Third Mizukage... Executioner's Blade... blood... blood..."
Soon after—
"Beep—"
Following a long, shrill tone, the jumping line on the heart rate monitor flattened into a monotonous horizontal stripe.
Hyuga Yu lowered his hands expressionlessly, a trace of heaviness flashing in his eyes.
At that moment, Shigaraki Tanuki, who had been standing in the back, suddenly pushed Yu aside. He looked at the deceased Chunin with a grim expression and immediately clapped his hands twice toward the ceiling.
Clap! Clap!
In the next instant, several Root ninjas who had been hiding in the shadows arrived via Body Flicker, surrounding Hyuga Yu and Furofuki at the operating table.
"Presumptuous! What do you think you're doing!?"
Furofuki barked a sharp reprimand upon seeing this. She shielded Hyuga Yu behind her, her brow furrowed with an air of natural authority.
"This is none of your business." Shigaraki Tanuki frowned and glanced at Furofuki, feeling slightly inconvenienced. Then, he turned his cold gaze toward Hyuga Yu and questioned him:
"You... your name is Hyuga Yu, right? Tell me, what did he just say!?"
Hyuga Yu took a deep breath. Mimicking the other man's tone, he repeated the final words:
"Kusunami Coast, Third Mizukage, Executioner's Blade... blood... blood..."
Shigaraki Tanuki did not dare to delay. His face was full of gravity as he gave orders to the four Root ninjas beside him:
"Classify these words as Top-Secret intelligence!"
"Spread out and report this to the higher-ups immediately!"
"Yes!"
The Root ninjas knelt on one knee in obedience before vanishing from the spot. With a few leaps, they charged out of the tent and disappeared over the horizon.
Soon, only the "living dead" patients and the three living people—Furofuki, Hyuga Yu, and Shigaraki Tanuki—remained in the tent.
Shigaraki Tanuki's expression softened slightly. He looked at the two of them and smiled reassuringly.
"Don't be nervous. You are both excellent medical ninjas of the Leaf; I won't do anything to you. However, there is a non-disclosure agreement that you both need to sign."
"Of course, this agreement will be sent to the Third Hokage's desk."
"Lady Furofuki, you should understand the regulations regarding information security, right?"
Furofuki didn't look pleased, but under Shigaraki Tanuki's explanation, she eventually snorted and said, "I know."
Shigaraki Tanuki quickly brought over a document for Furofuki to sign. In the interval while she was signing, he suddenly caught Yu's eye and quietly pointed in a certain direction.
It was the direction of the abandoned laboratory.
Yu gave him an almost imperceptible nod.
After signing the document, Furofuki felt a strange sense of displeasure. She swept a wary glance over Shigaraki Tanuki, then walked to Yu's side and said in a low voice:
"Go back and rest first. I'll handle the rest here."
As she spoke, the old woman's tone couldn't help but turn stern again: "The surgery just now was brilliant, but do not—under any circumstances—become arrogant. There were still flaws in your technique. Also, that metabolic cycle you tried to establish in the patient... Forget it, we'll talk about that later."
"Go on, get out of here!"
"I understand, Furofuki-sensei."
Hyuga Yu nodded. He wasn't surprised that Furofuki had seen through what he was trying to do. After all, she was a medical ninja in the Hidden Leaf second only to the level of Tsunade.
Furthermore, he hadn't intended to hide it. Furofuki was a leading figure in the ninja world regarding biological research; Yu had already planned to consult her about his concept for the Wind Style: Chakra Scalpel.
After a two-hour surgery, Hyuga Yu was physically and mentally exhausted.
But at this moment, he scanned his physical condition. Feeling that he could still refine nearly half of his total Cyan Chakra, he couldn't help but let out a low chuckle.
Following a day and night of subtle, gradual changes, the Cyan Chakra had completed the final transformation of his body. Yu's base Chakra Capacity had reached Stamina: 5.
Furthermore...
"The quality is about 1.5 times higher than ordinary chakra. For the same jutsu, the power I release will be stronger than that of an average ninja, and it's more stable when used for medical ninjutsu. And... similar to Byakugan Chakra, this chakra possesses a certain degree of penetrative power. Other characteristics remain to be verified."
"Looking at it comprehensively, it seems... this is a higher-order form of Byakugan Chakra."
"A type of Byakugan Chakra that isn't limited to the Gentle Fist and can be used in other areas."
Feeling slightly pleased, Hyuga Yu walked out of the Mortuary Corps camp. However, he did not return to his own tent. After activating his Byakugan to scan the surroundings, he changed direction and walked quickly toward the abandoned laboratory twenty kilometers south of the camp.
Aside from Shigaraki Tanuki seemingly having business with him, Yu was also quite interested in the Zero-Tails and Gozu Tennō projects Shigaraki was researching.
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