Not medical ninjutsu.
Yuji began performing actual surgical brain surgery on Kakashi.
Shizune watched the entire procedure from the side, not daring to breathe too loudly, her eyes growing wider and wider as it progressed.
Under Tsunade's quiet reminders from behind her, Shizune collected herself and began describing the surgical situation in a low voice.
Yuji was working purely through surgical technique, performing precise work on Kakashi's neural brain tissue and eye structures with his hands. Although medical ninjutsu was used at certain points throughout the procedure, the core of what he was doing was driven by conventional surgical methodology.
To Shizune, this was simply beyond imagining.
And it shook Tsunade to her core.
Furthermore, this operating table appeared to present no particular challenge for Yuji. His hands moved without pause from beginning to end, a continuous and fluid sequence from start to finish.
At the final stage of the procedure, Yuji deployed a form of medical ninjutsu that neither Shizune nor Tsunade had ever witnessed before.
He set down the instruments he had been holding, and from both fingertips shot what appeared to be extremely fine chakra filaments. Then with a single focused command, both hands swept through a rapid sequence of movements over Kakashi's neural brain tissue, completing everything in the space of a single breath, as though every neural connection throughout Kakashi's brain had been seamlessly sutured and restored to its original state through this technique alone.
Even though Shizune's own medical ninjutsu was nowhere near Yuji or Tsunade's level, after watching the entire procedure she was deeply moved. She had glimpsed a medical artistry that transcended what medical ninjutsu alone could offer. Pure surgical mastery elevated to its highest form.
Tsunade had not seen it with her own eyes, but from Shizune's description she could piece together the full picture. Although Yuji's surgery had been driven primarily by conventional surgical technique, medical ninjutsu had been interwoven throughout the process to support recovery, including chakra scalpel techniques that could precisely target specific areas without disturbing surrounding brain tissue.
Setting aside the medical ninjutsu craftsmanship entirely, completing surgical work of this delicacy required his eye technique to be playing an enormous role. Ordinary eyes simply could not see individual nerve pathways clearly enough to work with them. And even if someone could see the neural tissue clearly, without extensive surgical experience, the judgment and recognition needed to work precisely on brain nerves could not be developed through technique alone.
"Is this person some kind of monster?" Tsunade drew a slow breath.
Although she herself was called one of the finest medical ninja in the ninja world, the foundation of that reputation was the extraordinary level of her medical ninjutsu. She did possess some conventional surgical capability as well.
But compared to the Fourth Kazekage's transcendent medical craftsmanship, it was simply incomparable.
In other words, the Fourth Kazekage's terrifying capability as a medical ninja was not limited to medical ninjutsu. It was the comprehensive depth of knowledge, experience, and understanding that defined a truly complete physician.
Beyond that, the surgical instruments Yuji had summoned from his scroll were themselves enough to demonstrate how advanced the Sand Village's medical system had become.
Most people on the outside could never fully understand what this implied.
But Tsunade understood it all too clearly.
Once a hidden village possessed medical knowledge and capability at a level this far beyond conventional standards, what could be accomplished with it was not limited to healing and saving lives. It extended to the study of life itself. Biological experimentation, forbidden technique development, all of these could be accomplished through this kind of power.
In her understanding, someone like the Fourth Kazekage should not have been possible. The ninja world's current level of medical development simply should not have been capable of producing something like him. From the era of the warring states to the present, the advancement of medicine and medical ninjutsu had never accumulated enough depth for this.
The only explanation was that the Fourth Kazekage's talent was frightening beyond imagination. His advancement in medicine had not come from inheriting the accumulated insights of predecessors. It had come entirely from his own ongoing understanding and self-directed development.
"The surgery was completely successful. He will wake up shortly. There will be some minor discomfort for the first few days."
Less than half an hour from start to finish. Yuji stepped out of the operating room with an expression of quiet ease and gave Minato a brief update outside the door.
Tsunade and Shizune had not yet emerged. They were still inside checking on Kakashi's condition. Clearly they were worried about whether Yuji might have done something to Kakashi's head while he had the opportunity.
The two of them waited a short while before Tsunade finally came out of the operating room. Every trace of the earlier alcohol-induced haziness was completely gone from her expression. Her eyes were clear and sharp.
She and Minato exchanged a silent glance.
Minato read what that meant and understood that Kakashi was fine.
He smiled at Yuji.
"Thank you."
"No need for thanks. Payment for services rendered," Yuji replied.
"Fourth Kazekage." Tsunade suddenly spoke up.
"Konoha would like to acquire some of the Sand Village's medical instruments. Would it be possible for us to reach a cooperation agreement in this area?"
Yuji's mouth curved slightly.
"Not just the medical instruments. Ideally, you would have Sand Village professional medical personnel come to Konoha to conduct training and instruction. This would naturally include the medical knowledge and academic materials our Sand Village has developed. I know that to strengthen our medical system, we produced specialized medical curricula and textbooks, and trained many specialists across different areas."
Treating Kakashi had been an incidental matter. What Tsunade had actually come here tonight to accomplish, what her real purpose was, had just become clear to him.
"As long as payment is involved, everything is negotiable," Yuji said without refusing.
"However, given the current instability within Konoha, for the safety of our village's personnel, they will not be coming here. If you want to learn, you can send a delegation to the Sand Village to study."
The Sand Village's medical system was itself something Yuji had always intended to exchange for resources of value. The enormous energy and financial investment the Sand Village had poured into building this system was not without purpose.
The Sand Village's medical system was equally a project intended to elevate the ninja world's medical standards and fundamentally reshape the ninja world's approach to medicine.
The pharmaceutical resources had come first. The Sand Village's medicines had already changed part of the ninja world's ecosystem and conditions. The next step was to have the other hidden villages and nations follow and imitate.
The earlier arrangements the Sand Village had made with smaller nations and forces, inviting medical teams under village contracts, had been laying groundwork for exactly this.
It was simply that during the war, the value of pharmaceutical resources had been so blinding in its obvious brilliance that the various powers of the ninja world had not looked carefully at the Sand Village's medical system's comprehensiveness or its foundational depth.
What Yuji was referring to here was not medical ninja. He was talking about ordinary medical personnel.
The ninja world was still accustomed to measuring a person's or a system's strength through the lens of ninjutsu value and ninjutsu capability. But Tsunade had now understood that even conventional medical technique and medical knowledge, given sufficient depth, could radiate a brilliance no less impressive than medical ninjutsu.
Everyone had assumed the Sand Village's medical system was powerful because of its large numbers of medical personnel, its complete institutional framework, and its pharmaceutical resource backing. No one had paid attention to the solid foundational medical knowledge and advanced conceptual framework underlying individual practitioners.
Even without abundant medical ninjutsu resources, even without large numbers of medical ninja, even with only ordinary people, as long as they carried this depth of medical knowledge, a hidden village's medical institution could be completely transformed from within.
Tsunade was the first person to genuinely feel this.
Going to study, as in sending Konoha's people to the Sand Village to learn?
Both Tsunade and Minato felt a quiet stirring in their chests.
"There is no rush. After you return, discuss it carefully."
"Our Sand Village is willing to teach your people. Consider it an opportunity we are extending to allow Konoha, following the pharmaceutical resource model, to imitate our medical system training and operation as the next step."
"This is partly because of Konoha's willingness to establish a friendly diplomatic relationship with us."
Yuji smiled lightly and looked at Tsunade.
"You should understand clearly that the true foundation of our Sand Village's medical system is knowledge. Not the institutional framework itself. If it were only the framework, Konoha would have begun reforming yours long ago, would it not?"
Tsunade remained silent.
She understood clearly. The Sand Village medical system's core competitive advantage was not really any particular body of knowledge.
It was simply this one person standing in front of her.
As long as he existed, the Sand Village's medical system would keep evolving.
So what appeared to be the Sand Village generously offering Konoha a path to study and learn was actually Yuji operating from a position of absolute confidence in himself.
With him present, even if the Sand Village's medical system were copied and replicated by other hidden villages and competition emerged, the Sand Village's position in this domain could never truly be shaken.
...
STONESSSS
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