"Arai-sensei."
The next day, Yuji greeted Arai warmly when they crossed paths at the hospital. The man had just returned from outside the village.
Both of their expressions were completely natural.
They hadn't operated as a squad together in several years, but Yuji's way of addressing him had never changed.
"Yuji, did you need something from me?"
Arai laughed softly.
"Come, I want to show you something." Yuji stood and pulled him toward the hospital's research lab.
The room they entered was simple in its furnishings, shelves lined with jars and bottles, raw medicinal materials categorized and stacked, herbal plants alongside what appeared to be animal flesh and organs.
Various things, organized but abundant. In the corner sat several tanks resembling culture dishes. Shiori and the others were busy mixing compounds and paid the two of them little attention.
The village had been aware in a general sense that Yuji was conducting some kind of research, but the series of conflict events had consumed everyone's focus, and the higher-ups had no spare energy to track the specifics.
They knew he had borrowed several people with pharmacological expertise. Beyond that, the details had remained unclear.
Yuji opened a box on the table and took out several small white tablets.
"What is this?" Arai asked.
"A type of antibiotic." Yuji smiled.
"Antibiotic?" Arai had never heard the word.
"Think of it simply as something that strengthens the body's ability to fight infection. The Ninja World has similar things, and I've used them before, but their effects are poor.
They can't fully clear wound infections or eliminate bacteria that have already entered the body." Yuji set the tablet down.
"The pharmacological focus of every ninja village, when you look at it honestly, is oriented toward killing or becoming stronger rather than genuinely saving people.
It's not that no one has had the idea of developing this kind of medicine, it's that they never had enough time and energy to commit to it. And their knowledge in this area simply can't compare to mine."
He rubbed his nose with a hint of self-satisfaction.
"It's not a potion?"
Arai's eyelids twitched.
The tablet in Yuji's hand was barely the size of a fingernail. He didn't know much about medicine, but the idea that something this small could outperform a full bottle of potion seemed difficult to accept. Even standard pills were several times larger.
"The tablet form is easy to carry and package, which makes it better for distribution outside the village. The shelf life is long.
As for the effects, at minimum they are dozens of times more effective than anything currently available on the market." Yuji paused. "That said, this is still limited by current production tools and technology. Many aspects are immature. This is the best we can achieve right now. It will improve."
He said it in the tone of someone mildly dissatisfied with an acceptable result.
"Dozens of times?" Arai repeated.
"This grey powder is for external application. It promotes cell and tissue repair. The effect isn't as immediate as Medical Ninjutsu, a course of treatment takes at least a few days to show results, but the advantage is that it requires no ninja present to administer it.
In emergency situations where no Medical Ninja is available, it provides real relief."
Yuji moved to another container.
"This one is for pain. One tablet, takes effect quickly."
He picked up another.
"This stimulates bone regeneration. Even fractures, with a sufficient dosage, will recover in a substantially reduced timeframe."
"And this one..."
"Hold on." Arai held up a hand. "You researched all of this?"
He glanced instinctively at Shiori.
"Don't look at me," Shiori said without turning around. "He's the Director. I follow his instructions."
Arai's expression hadn't fully recovered. As Medical Ninja, Shiori and the rest of the lab had understood immediately what Yuji's results meant.
The moment the formulas were tested and the efficacy confirmed, the entire room had erupted. Arai was not a Medical Ninja and didn't have the framework to measure what he was looking at, but the reaction of the people who did told him enough.
"The village has had a lot going on lately, as you know." Yuji smiled slightly. "My thinking was that I shouldn't inform the Kazekage or the higher-ups until something concrete existed.
Raising hopes before success would have been counterproductive."
He gestured at the table.
"What you're looking at is only part of what we've developed, and mostly the battlefield-oriented portion. During my year outside, I also studied the main illnesses affecting the lower classes across the ninja world and developed medicines suited to ordinary people for daily use."
Yuji stopped talking and let the silence settle.
He looked at Arai directly. "You understand what this means."
It wasn't a question.
For a moment Arai stood very still. Then the full weight of it arrived all at once, and his scalp prickled.
Right under everyone's noses, without anyone noticing, Yuji had done this.
Just the battlefield medicines alone would dramatically reduce the village's medical pressure. Injuries that currently required a Medical Ninja's immediate attention could now be managed with a tablet and time.
Sustained combat capability across an entire force would increase simply because fighters could continue operating through wounds that would previously have pulled them from the line. Every ninja village in the world would compete for these supplies.
And then the civilian medicines.
He hadn't seen them yet, but he didn't need to. Whatever Yuji had developed for the general population would be things the ninja world currently lacked entirely.
Common people across every country died of illness more reliably than they died from war. That market was enormous and completely unserved.
Once distribution opened, the Hidden Sand Village would have a revenue stream that didn't depend on missions or the Daimyo's goodwill or battlefield results.
They would have leverage over every other village and every hostile force through something as simple as medicine being necessary.
They had found a treasure.
No, Yuji had found a treasure and quietly built it into something real over a year and a half while the village was consumed by its internal crisis.
Arai's thoughts went one step further and his mind went blank.
With these medicines, survival rates across the entire ninja world would rise. Not just for ninja. For the people at the bottom of every country, the ones who died not from war but from infections and disease and injuries that never received proper treatment.
The Hidden Sand Village was about to enter a completely different era.
After a while, Arai found himself being guided out of the research lab in a state that could fairly be described as dazed.
He hadn't fully returned to himself by the time they reached Yuji's director's office.
The two of them were alone.
Yuji closed the door. Turned around. Looked at him.
"Arai-sensei."
A pause.
"Can I trust you?"
"Huh?"
Arai stared at him.
Something in Yuji's expression carried a weight he couldn't immediately name. Not warmth, not the easy openness Yuji usually projected. Something beneath that, looking directly at him.
His heart clenched.
The premonition he had been resisting was about to be confirmed.