Kakashi’s team stares, eyes locked.
How did all of that come out of a bag that small?
And the saw—that is going too far.
The Plague Doctor sets to work.
Naruto and the others see something they will spend the rest of their lives trying to forget.
Off the screen, a lot of people hit the floor and throw up at the first glimpse.
“Heavens. How can anyone be that cruel?”
“Ugh—I can’t. He’s stitching a corpse on the spot. He actually did it.”
“I believe it now. This Plague Doctor is definitely—ugh—not a good thing.”
**Kirigakure**
Yuan Shi hates the traitor Zabuza enough to tear him apart with his own hands.
Seeing it done like *this* is another matter.
On the path, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are on the ground, still heaving.
Kakashi has seen worse.
He holds.
Tazuna is already on his back, eyes rolled white.
More than ten minutes later the Plague Doctor stops.
The voice under the beak is calm again.
“Not bad. Rough, but the surgery succeeded.”
“The treatment works. Imperfect—but a success.”
Kakashi’s brow ticks.
**Konoha**
The Third watches him straighten up, frown deep.
What does “successful surgery” mean?
Is it really what the file said—bringing the dead back?
On the screen, under the team’s stunned stares, the two bodies that were dead a moment ago twitch.
Then they stand.
Unsteady.
Upright.
“This… this… they came back?”
Even Kakashi gives two steps.
This thing is too much.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura sit in the dirt, pupils shaking.
That kind uncle from the boat—why is he like *this*?
**Otogakure**
Orochimaru’s eyes light.
Kill a man, stitch him, raise him, and *own* the corpse.
That is the jutsu he has dreamed of.
With it, his reach would grow much faster.
And it is cleaner than Impure World Reincarnation.
“Plague Doctor… I want you.”
**Kirigakure**
Yuan Shi, only just hauled to his feet by his men, sits down again.
Shock has him.
Not only killed.
Stitched.
Turned into *that*.
It is Impure World Reincarnation in another skin.
That thing is not human.
Yuan Shi’s eyes roll back.
He faints.
**Konoha — Hokage’s office**
The Third is geared to leave for the Land of Waves himself.
A knot of shinobi blocks the door and will not move.
“Hokage-sama, you cannot go out!”
“If something happens to you, what happens to Konoha?”
“The Anbu are already on the way. They *will* bring Kakashi’s team back.”
His brow locks.
He snaps at them.
“Out of my way! Naruto is that man’s son. I will not let his bloodline end here!”
He will not allow the Fourth’s line to take even a scratch.
And besides Naruto—there is Sasuke as well.
On the path, the team is still locked in shock.
Watching how the Plague Doctor works, Kakashi finds it harder and harder not to put him in the same box as Orochimaru.