"Brother, it's very bad. The Seventh has a crushed ribcage. I can only keep him from dying. Only mother can heal him," the Twenty Second reported. Over the past three-plus months, Kenshin had mastered the basics of iryōninjutsu and passed that knowledge to Hitomi's sons, making them novice medic ninja.
"We need to survive ourselves... Damn client—if I survive, I'll strangle him with my own hands!" Ichiro raged, then took a deep breath and calmed down. He decided to use their last chance for salvation, so when the mist cleared almost completely, he did as his father taught and activated the formation.
Suddenly, all five talismans glowed, and the atmosphere on the battlefield changed. Zabuza knew perfectly well that his enemies were staying put and not trying to flee, so he just waited for the mist to clear. Suddenly, he felt the air grow heavier and looked toward where his enemies were based.
His eyes narrowed in surprise at what he saw. Thirty meters away stood a huge, three-meter-tall man in plate armor and a brutal closed helmet with small horns on his head.
"Friend, let them go. The Nakayama Family loves its children and doesn't want them dead. Name your price, and the Nakayama Family will pay for its children's lives," the three-meter man boomed.
Zabuza first checked his mind for genjutsu but found nothing. He silently watched the majestic warrior standing before him and felt fear for the first time in a very long time.
Having survived hundreds of deadly battles, Momochi Zabuza had a supernatural sense for all kinds of dangers, and now it told him that a wrong decision here would cost him his life.
"Half a million Ryo right here in three days. If you try to deceive me, I'll hunt everyone with the Nakayama name," Zabuza declared to the "pups," then turned to the majestic figure, sheathed his sword, nodded respectfully, and vanished in an unknown direction a moment later.
The Twenty Second picked up the Seventh and carefully secured him on his back, using chakra to keep the crushed ribcage from worsening, and under the watch of the huge samurai figure, all the brothers hastily retreated from the battle site.
"Seems all clear, no pursuit," Ichiro sighed after an hour of running. They decided to make a stop and let the Twenty Second stabilize the Seventh a bit. He couldn't speak and only wheezed in pain.
"Looks like his lung is punctured. How much longer to home?" the Twenty Second asked.
"Another three and a half hours at this pace," Ichiro replied.
"We won't make it. Need to extract the bone fragment," the Twenty Second decided, quickly unfolding a large white cloth on the ground, then laying his older brother on it and carefully cutting open the exo-suit. After several modifications, Kenshin had made mechanical damage possible under certain conditions.
He lightning-fast drew a small scalpel, ran chakra over it to kill all microorganisms as his mother taught, then took a deep breath, activated Byakugan, and made an incision, clamping all major vessels with chakra.
Five minutes later, he wiped sweat from his forehead and sighed contentedly:
"Phew, seems it worked. Mom could extract the fragment without an incision; we need to rush him to my mother," he said, carefully hoisting his older brother onto his back again, and Team One headed home.
Kenshin perfectly sensed when Ichiro activated the "Intimidation Formation" and immediately jumped to his feet. Unfortunately, he had no access to the piece of consciousness he implanted in the formation, so he could only send a quick-response team to the approximate mission location for the first team and wait, clenching his fists and cursing his weakness.
"What happened, dear?" Hitomi asked, hugging him from behind. Over the last few months, she had blossomed as a loving and caring wife, surpassing the other wives, who due to age were a bit more playful and flighty and didn't always catch their husband's mood.
"Looks like the first team ran into serious trouble, but no one's dead yet..." Kenshin sighed in reply, and Hitomi only worried a little.
"If any of them dies, you'll find out who did it, and we can avenge them later!" Hitomi declared resolutely, somewhat surprising Kenshin. She was usually very tender and affectionate, and he couldn't understand why she wasn't worried about the first team.
"We will definitely avenge them, but the dead won't come back. Aren't you worried at all? The Twenty Second is there..." Kenshin whispered.
"Of course I'm worried, and I'd gladly switch places with him to rip a chunk of meat from the enemy's throat, but it's impossible. Kenshin, in my life I've seen a huge number of deaths, and in our world, attitudes toward death differ from yours. Your world is full of kindness and colors, while ours is full of wars and suffering. My older brother died in one of the skirmishes with Suna, and my mother and father were happy that he took out several enemies before dying. I was little then and didn't understand, but later I grew up and saw far more deaths than even my parents," Hitomi whispered, caressing Kenshin's ear with her breath.
"I want to say that you shouldn't torment yourself so much because someone might get hurt on a mission. They are all shinobi, and they would all consider it an honor to die for the family. Imagine what would happen to any great village if, for example, the Hokage worried so much about the life of every one of his warriors? That village would be doomed to extinction."
"But Konoha's shinobi aren't the Hokage's sons!" Kenshin parried.
"Hashirama's son was killed in the Second World War. Hiruzen's two eldest sons were killed in the Third. Understand, Kenshin, they are warriors, and war is raging around us. You won't be able to save everyone." Hitomi said with a sigh, hugging him tighter from behind, wanting to share his worries.
"But nothing stops me from trying, right?" he replied with a smile, stroking her tender hands.