Anesthetize.
Clean.
Disinfect.
Heal.
That had become Koji’s daily routine in the treatment room.
Ten days had passed since he started following Rie Shibata around, and by now he could handle practically every minor injury that came through the door.
Medical ninja at this level mostly dealt with trauma and external wounds anyway.
Actual illnesses generally required more specialized personnel.
As Koji became increasingly competent, Rie became increasingly lazy.
At first, she had stayed beside him and watched everything he did.
But after Koji successfully handled the initial treatment of a child who had fallen and broken his leg almost entirely on his own…
Rie started disappearing more and more often.
The Healing Jutsu could accelerate the recovery of muscles, blood vessels, nerves, and skin.
Bones, however, were another matter entirely.
Which meant that if a ninja broke a bone, they still had to resign themselves to wearing a cast.
Even ordinary wounds required some recovery time.
After all, the Healing Jutsu worked by accelerating the patient’s own cellular division.
And the number of times cells could divide over the course of a person’s life was limited.
Once that limit was reached…
even a medical ninja would be powerless.
“How is that kid doing?”
After yet another day of successfully slacking off, Rie found herself summoned to the director’s office.
Yuya Kudo had already heard quite a bit about Koji.
A medical-ninjutsu genius was not something the director of Konoha Hospital could simply ignore.
Konoha had made considerable progress in improving both the number and quality of ordinary shinobi.
Medical ninja were a different story.
Konoha had enough of them in terms of sheer numbers.
What it lacked were truly elite medical specialists.
Ever since Tsunade had left the village because of her hemophobia, no one had emerged who could truly replace her.
It sounded somewhat exaggerated when stated that way.
But it was simply the truth.
Training an ordinary medical ninja wasn’t particularly difficult.
Training an elite medical ninja required talent.
The clearest example was the Mystical Palm Jutsu.
Countless medical ninja had reached a wall while trying to learn it.
And yet Koji— a genin who had only recently learned the Healing Jutsu— was already healing wounds faster than medical ninja who had been working for more than ten years.
There was only one reasonable explanation.
Exceptional talent.
“He’s very good.”
Rie answered without hesitation.
“I think he could already be added to the treatment-room rotation.”
She had known this day would eventually come.
But Rie had no reason to dislike Koji.
He worked hard.
He never complained.
And whenever she asked him to do something, he did it properly.
There was no reason for her to deliberately make him look worse than he was.
Besides, she didn’t even need to praise him much.
The treatment records themselves were the best evidence.
“He’s already reached that level?”
Yuya looked genuinely surprised.
“I underestimated him after all.”
She had already thought highly of Koji.
Apparently, not highly enough.
It was difficult to reconcile the young medical genius Rie was describing with the hollow-eyed boy Yuya had first met—the supposed lone survivor of a team massacre.
“He has extremely precise chakra control,” Rie continued.
“After learning the Healing Jutsu, whether he was practicing the technique itself or treating actual wounds, he handled everything carefully.”
“And once he makes a mistake, he never makes the same one twice.”
Rie tried to keep her voice calm.
She still remembered how shocked she’d been when she first realized what she was watching.
A genin who had only recently learned the Healing Jutsu had already surpassed her in both healing precision and wound treatment.
And Rie had been a medical ninja for ten years.
If she hadn’t witnessed it herself, she would have thought the entire thing was ridiculous.
“In that case…”
Yuya thought for only a moment before turning toward a nearby bookshelf.
“Starting tomorrow, have him study this.”
She removed an old scroll from the shelf and handed it to Rie.
“If he can learn it, all the better.”
“If he still hasn’t made any progress after one month, then put him on the treatment-room rotation.”
Rie looked down at the scroll.
She immediately understood.
Her convenient little workhorse of the past half month was finally about to leave her.
She had studied this very same scroll before.
And eventually returned it without accomplishing anything.
The technique recorded inside was the advanced form of the Healing Jutsu.
A medical ninjutsu technique distinguished by its ability to rapidly accelerate healing.
The Mystical Palm Jutsu.
It was one of the defining techniques of a high-level medical ninja.
And across all of Konoha Hospital— the number of people capable of using it could be counted on one hand.
“I think he can learn it.”
The words slipped out before Rie could stop herself.
Holding the Mystical Palm Jutsu scroll, she found herself thinking back to the way Koji had originally learned the Healing Jutsu.
Whether he had genuinely been studying the technique back then or simply staring blankly into space, no one except Koji himself truly knew.
But judging by the level of Healing Jutsu he later displayed…
And if he really had understood the Healing Jutsu that thoroughly— then learning the Mystical Palm Jutsu should only be a matter of time.
“I hope the next time I see you, you’ll be bringing me good news.”
Yuya nodded.
She felt much the same.
Nearly every medical ninja at Konoha Hospital had studied this scroll at some point.
After the one-month study period ended, they were even permitted to make their own copy.
Yet after all these years, only a tiny number had actually succeeded in learning the technique.
Some had studied until they forgot to eat and sleep.
And still gained nothing.
In the end, ninja depended on talent.
Medical ninja were no exception.
The next morning, Rie waited for Koji inside the training room.
For once, she was nervous.
She kept thinking about how she should explain the situation without negatively affecting his mentality.
Ever since learning the Healing Jutsu, Koji’s progress had been almost absurdly smooth.
That kind of constant success could easily affect someone’s mindset.
And he had only graduated from the Ninja Academy relatively recently.
He was still young.
Still at the age where pride could become a problem.
What if he can’t learn the Mystical Palm Jutsu?
What if the failure hits him too hard?
Remembering Director Kudo’s expectations from the previous day only made Rie’s headache worse.
Would telling Koji how highly the director regarded him place unnecessary pressure on him?
“Instructor, are we going to the treatment room again today?”
Koji’s voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts.
Rie looked up.
He had already noticed the old scroll sitting on the treatment table the moment he entered.
But outwardly, he remained completely calm.
“You won’t be going to the treatment room.”
Rie hesitated briefly.
“For the next month, you can try studying this scroll instead.”
In the end, she decided not to explain anything more.
She simply told Koji to focus on the scroll for the next month.
What happened afterward could be discussed later.
Rie left the scroll behind and walked out of the training room.
Ever since Koji had become capable of perfectly treating even an octopus with the Healing Jutsu, he’d been given yet another separate training room.
There would be no outsiders disturbing him here.
Koji watched Rie leave.
Then he reached toward the treatment table and slowly unrolled the old scroll.
It looked somewhat worn.
Dense lines of ink covered its surface.
And written clearly across the very first line were the words—
Mystical Palm Jutsu.