More than half a month had passed since Tachibana Kenji expressed his desire to become a medical ninja.
During that time, Tachibana Kenji had frequently met with Saionji Keiko to learn about medicine.
However, Saionji Keiko had never taken the initiative to mention the medical ninja selection process, and Tachibana Kenji hadn’t pressed her about it either.
Instead, he simply devoted himself even more diligently to studying and training.
At present, Tachibana Kenji’s daily routine consisted of attending classes, completing his daily missions, practicing ninjutsu, and studying medicine.
Perhaps because he had already triggered most of the easier achievements, the frequency with which Tachibana Kenji unlocked new achievements had noticeably decreased recently.
Fortunately, his daily missions remained reliable.
Tachibana Kenji estimated that by the end of the month, he should have saved enough for a ten-pull costing 1,600 coins.
The only question was whether he should pull from the Water-type pool or the Normal-type pool.
The Gold-tier rewards in both pools were certainly tempting enough to make anyone drool, but Tachibana Kenji wasn’t arrogant enough to believe his luck would be so good that he could obtain one within ten or twenty pulls.
For now, he was better off considering how the Purple-tier rewards could improve his strength.
The Water-type pool contained various Water Release techniques that, when combined with the Ability: Torrent he had already obtained, would likely provide a more consistent improvement to his overall strength.
The Normal-type pool, on the other hand, contained all sorts of strange and miscellaneous skills and items.
Some of them were ridiculously powerful, but if he happened to draw something like Growl or Defense Curl—moves better suited for looking cute—it would be a terrible waste of his precious pulls.
Just as Tachibana Kenji was studying the information on his system panel and making plans for the future, a conversation between two ninja who had just stepped out of a nearby sweet shop caught his attention.
“Did you hear?
The Third Kazekage of Sunagakure has disappeared.” “I heard about it.
But what does that have to do with us?
I can only say, that’s Sunagakure for you.
They’ve somehow managed to lose even their own Kage.” “Seriously.
Sunagakure is getting weaker and weaker.
It’s practically the shame of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.” “Tell me about it.” School had only just ended, and Tachibana Kenji was on his way to Kirigakure Hospital for another lesson in medical knowledge.
As the two ninja walked away, their conversation gradually became too faint to hear.
But Tachibana Kenji’s thoughts had already fallen into disarray.
Because he knew that the disappearance of Sunagakure’s Third Kazekage wasn’t entirely unrelated to Kirigakure.
Tachibana Kenji vaguely remembered that the Third Kazekage’s disappearance was the very incident that led Sunagakure to take advantage of the situation and launch hostilities against Konoha.
And that was the beginning of the Third Shinobi World War.
Kirigakure had remained isolated and uninvolved during the Second Shinobi World War.
That conflict had primarily been fought among the lands surrounding the Land of Rain, with Konoha, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure as its main participants.
But the Third Shinobi World War was a true free-for-all.
All five great nations would eventually be drawn into the conflict, and no village could escape it.
Thinking about the people who had fought and died during the war, as well as the sheer brutality of the conflict, Tachibana Kenji suddenly felt an urgent desire to become stronger once again.
Previously, he had believed that becoming a medical ninja would spare him from having to worry about the graduation examination.
Now, that sense of security had vanished.
He didn’t know how long the Third Kazekage had already been missing.
But if rumors of his disappearance had already reached ordinary ninja in Kirigakure, Sunagakure’s declaration of war against Konoha probably wasn’t far away.
The news gave Tachibana Kenji an immediate headache.
If war truly broke out, even ordinary medical personnel would inevitably be sent to the battlefield.
Becoming a medical ninja wouldn’t allow him to avoid it.
And if the war began too soon, his entire class might even be required to graduate early.
He had no idea whether that would disrupt his plans.
Unfortunately, these were things Tachibana Kenji had no power to change.
All he could do was pray that the war would come later—or at the very least, that Kirigakure would join the conflict as late as possible.
Feeling rather depressed, Tachibana Kenji instinctively wanted to complain to his little frog.
Only when his hand reached toward his shoulder did he remember that Lan wasn’t with him today.
A few days ago, Lan had made some progress in his training and independently learned the classic move Quick Attack.
Perhaps he had experienced the rewards of training firsthand, but Lan had recently become completely absorbed in his cultivation and no longer accompanied Tachibana Kenji whenever he went out.
Fortunately, with the Summoning Technique, Lan could still be called upon whenever an unexpected situation arose, so his absence didn’t affect Tachibana Kenji’s combat strength.
Speaking of Quick Attack, the move was somewhat similar to a Body Flicker Technique that allowed for a second change of direction.
It could also add the momentum generated by high-speed movement to the user’s attack, making it a highly effective offensive technique.
Unfortunately, although Tachibana Kenji was considerably stronger than Lan overall, he lacked the little frog’s unique leg structure and extraordinary jumping ability.
As a result, he was unable to learn the move.
That meant that of Lan’s four currently known moves, Pound was of little use to him, while Growl and Water Gun could be performed without hand seals and were more akin to innate abilities.
As for Quick Attack, his body simply didn’t meet the necessary requirements.
Tachibana Kenji had hoped to secretly learn a few of Lan’s moves to improve his own strength, only to discover that he couldn’t learn a single one of them.
With his mind full of worries, Tachibana Kenji eventually arrived outside Saionji Keiko’s office.
However, Saionji Keiko wasn’t there.
Tachibana Kenji had grown accustomed to this; as the director of Kirigakure Hospital, she was naturally quite busy.
Without bothering to wait, Tachibana Kenji sat down at Saionji Keiko’s desk, opened a medical scroll, and continued studying diligently from where he had stopped the previous day.
At present, Tachibana Kenji had only learned two medical ninjutsu techniques: the Healing Technique and Aqua Ring.
For the time being, they were more than sufficient for his needs.
He devoted most of his energy to practicing precise Chakra control and studying medicine and human anatomy.
Whenever he had spare time, he would also ask Saionji Keiko about pharmacology.
As a result, Tachibana Kenji’s brain had recently become somewhat overloaded with knowledge, and his ninjutsu training had progressed painfully slowly after he returned home each night.
Not only was his Water Clone Technique still incapable of forming a proper human shape, but even the simpler Hidden Mist Technique remained a work in progress.
Time passed quietly as Tachibana Kenji immersed himself in his studies, and the sun was already close to setting.
Creak— The office door was suddenly pushed open, and Saionji Keiko walked in, looking somewhat exhausted.
However, when she saw the scroll spread out on Tachibana Kenji’s desk, a faint, gratified smile appeared on her face.
“Aunt Keiko, you haven’t eaten yet, have you?
I bought some sweet on my way here after school.” Seeing how tired Saionji Keiko looked, Tachibana Kenji asked with concern.
“No, thank you.
I still have a surgery to perform later.
I mainly came here to tell you something.” Tachibana Kenji immediately had a feeling of what was coming.
Sure enough, Saionji Keiko continued.
“The plan to select students from the Ninja Academy for medical ninja training has been approved.
The Academy will receive official notice from the higher-ups within the next few days.
They’ll be selecting candidates from among the students due to graduate this year.
With your abilities, Ju, you certainly won’t have any problems.” “After the selection, there will be a two-month medical ninja training program.
Those who successfully complete the training will be directly granted the rank of genin.” Doesn’t that mean I might become a genin even before Zabuza?
Naturally, Tachibana Kenji had already assumed that he would pass the selection.
Among the current students at the Ninja Academy—and even including the instructors—his medical knowledge was probably in a league of its own.
“All right, Ju.
I need to get back to work.
You should head home early as well.” With that, Saionji Keiko hurried out of the office.
From the moment she entered to the moment she left, less than two minutes had passed.
Tachibana Kenji could only tidy up the office before getting up and heading home himself.
Over the next few days, Tachibana Kenji found himself somewhat distracted.
Although he constantly reminded himself that a ninja must possess sufficient patience, it only helped him maintain a calm appearance.
No wonder ninja like Zabuza and Kakashi wear masks in the future.
Keeping your emotions from showing is way too difficult!
Fortunately, he didn’t have to suffer through the anticipation for long.
Three days later, one morning, the students were preparing for class as usual when their homeroom teacher entered the classroom and delivered news that left them stunned.
“What?
Who wants to become a medical ninja?” “Exactly!
Does a medical ninja even count as a real ninja?
Don’t underestimate us, Ueda-sensei!” “We’re ninja of the Bloody Mist!
Only cowards would want to become doctors!
I’m not going to hide in the back lines on the battlefield.” Most of the students responded to their homeroom teacher’s announcement with utter disdain.
Even the occasional underachiever who understood the limits of their own strength didn’t want to subject themselves to their classmates’ ridicule by participating in some medical ninja selection.
Regardless of their actual strength, every student was trying their best to appear brave.
That was simply the atmosphere in Kirigakure.
Even the homeroom teacher standing at the front of the classroom didn’t bother correcting their basic misconception that medical ninja accompanied their teams into battle and were not powerless doctors who simply hid in the rear.
But at that moment, Tachibana Kenji stood up.
“Ueda-sensei, I would like to participate in the medical ninja selection.”