The next morning, Koji had barely stepped into Konoha Hospital when he noticed something was wrong.
The entire place was unusually busy.
“Come with me to the basement.”
Yuya Kudo’s voice reached him almost immediately.
Koji’s first thought had been that the ANBU operative from last night had been discovered.
Yuya’s tone confirmed it.
Not that Koji was particularly worried.
His Shadow Clone had been the one responsible.
What did that have to do with the innocent medical ninja Koji?
Besides, if ANBU had actually found evidence pointing toward him, there was no chance he would have walked all the way to Konoha Hospital without being stopped.
They would have intercepted him long before he reached the building.
Whenever a shinobi died under suspicious circumstances, the body was usually sent to Konoha Hospital.
There were two reasons.
First, the medical ninja could examine the corpse and see whether the injuries revealed any useful clues.
Second…
someone eventually had to deal with the body.
This was Koji’s first time entering the hospital basement.
The moment he stepped inside, a harsh chemical smell struck him.
For a brief moment, he genuinely wanted to turn around and leave.
After all— he knew those wounds a little too well.
“You’ll inevitably deal with things like this in the future.”
Yuya apparently noticed his hesitation.
“You might as well get used to it early.”
With that, she pushed open the basement door.
A body lay on the operating table inside.
The dead ANBU operative had already been stitched back together after being recovered.
Koji stared at the corpse with genuine curiosity.
The Shadow Clone’s memories had returned to him, of course.
But he’d killed the man so quickly that even Koji himself hadn’t gotten a proper look at his face.
“The cut is extremely smooth.”
The medical ninja who had handled the reconstruction began reporting his findings the moment Yuya entered.
“There are signs of scorching around the wound.”
“Preliminary assessment suggests some kind of Lightning Release technique.”
Yuya nodded and carefully examined the reconstructed corpse.
Koji did the same.
After a short while, Yuya turned toward him.
“What do you think?”
Koji studied the wound.
“It looks somewhat similar to an injury caused by a Chakra Scalpel.”
The surrounding medical ninja immediately focused on him.
“But the Chakra Scalpel isn’t Lightning Release.”
Koji raised one hand.
“Of course, it’s possible someone familiar with the Chakra Scalpel recreated the same principle using Lightning-nature chakra.”
He formed a Chakra Scalpel around his hand and compared its shape with the wound.
“If something like that can still be called a scalpel.”
Several of the medical ninja who had been frowning moments earlier suddenly looked enlightened.
None of them had seriously considered combining the principles of the Chakra Scalpel with Lightning Release.
Yuya, meanwhile, merely nodded in satisfaction.
At her level, she had naturally noticed the resemblance already.
Still, Koji reaching the same conclusion so quickly was another sign of his ability.
Unfortunately…
A powerful Lightning Release user who also possessed knowledge of medical ninjutsu had appeared inside Konoha.
That was not good news.
“Report it to ANBU like this.”
Yuya didn’t dwell on the matter.
Konoha Hospital’s job was simply to provide whatever medical information they could obtain.
What happened afterward belonged to ANBU and the Hokage.
Once the decision was made, the group left the basement.
ANBU would retrieve the corpse later.
While walking back upstairs, Koji casually asked,
“What happened? Why was there an ANBU corpse here?”
He had arrived at the hospital and immediately been shown the body.
If he didn’t ask anything at all, that would have been strange.
“Probably the same thing as last time.”
One of the medical ninja answered without thinking.
“Maybe another Kumogakure spy—”
He stopped halfway through the sentence.
Yuya was looking at him.
Not angrily.
But certainly not approvingly.
Then the man remembered.
Koji’s teammates and captain had supposedly been killed by a Kumogakure spy.
And just like this ANBU operative…
they had supposedly been killed using Lightning Release.
The medical ninja glanced awkwardly toward Koji.
Koji looked tired.
His expression had clearly changed.
Naturally, the man assumed he’d reopened an old wound.
In reality…
Koji was simply exhausted from the fatigue his Shadow Clone had dumped back onto him the night before.
“Uh…”
The medical ninja opened his mouth.
Before he could make things worse, the colleague behind him grabbed him and pulled him away.
Koji said nothing.
At the same time, several ANBU operatives were gathered near a tree in the mountains behind Konoha.
At its base were the burned remains of several scrolls.
Tracking dogs had followed the scent trail all the way here.
Then— it vanished completely.
There was nothing else.
A scent couldn’t follow a Shadow Clone back to its original body.
Which meant Koji was completely safe.
It didn’t take long for the investigation report to reach the desk of the Third Hokage.
Hiruzen Sarutobi stared at the information provided by ANBU and Konoha Hospital.
“A Kumogakure spy?”
The aging Hokage looked genuinely confused.
His body had already begun reminding him more often that he was no longer young.
Now this mess had appeared on top of everything else.
The first problem was strange enough.
A supposed Kumogakure infiltrator had broken into Konoha…
to steal the most basic teaching scrolls from the Sealing Corps. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
That alone made very little sense.
Then came the second part.
After successfully stealing them, the infiltrator apparently decided the scrolls were useless— and burned them.
Hiruzen stared at the report.
Are the standards for spies really this low now?
Couldn’t they at least gather information before stealing something?
Hiruzen didn’t understand.
Unfortunately, incomprehensible or not, the incident had to be treated seriously.
An intruder had entered a restricted Konoha facility.
An ANBU operative was dead.
The village’s security had been compromised.
That alone was enough to demand action.
And so Konoha tightened its defenses once again.
Koji noticed the change immediately after leaving the hospital.
Normally, on the route between Konoha Hospital and his isolated home, he could detect at most three ANBU operatives hidden along the way.
Today?
There were more than twice that number.
Koji found the entire thing somewhat ridiculous.
If there really were a Kumogakure spy hiding in Konoha, the obvious thing to do right now would be to stay perfectly still.
Only an idiot would continue acting while the village was on maximum alert.
Still— whatever ANBU wanted to do had little to do with him.
That evening, Koji sat inside his room with a blank scroll in front of him.
Again and again, he practiced forming sealing formulas.
Ninjutsu generally worked by manipulating chakra directly.
Fūinjutsu took that chakra and converted it into specialized formulas capable of sealing, restricting, or suppressing a target.
Basic fūinjutsu wasn’t especially difficult to learn.
And practicing it was convenient.
All Koji needed was a clean scroll.
No explosions.
No obvious chakra surges.
Nothing likely to bring ANBU knocking on his door.
Even so, Koji stopped after only three hours.
He still had work at Konoha Hospital tomorrow.
There was no reason to ruin his performance by exhausting himself.
Days passed.
ANBU continued searching.
But after several days without finding the supposed Kumogakure infiltrator, the intensity of the investigation gradually declined.
Which only made Hiruzen more frustrated.
Koji, on the other hand, continued training.
And after several consecutive days of practice— his fūinjutsu finally crossed its first threshold.
[Fūinjutsu — Limit Break +1 (1%): Stability +1]
Koji studied the new entry.
This level of fūinjutsu obviously couldn’t compare with any famous sealing technique.
But it didn’t need to.
He wasn’t planning to seal a tailed beast.
He only needed something capable of restraining Danzo for a short period of time.
For that purpose— this was already enough.