During this period, two major events took place outside Konoha.
The first was that Konoha won a major victory on the southwestern front. Not only did they successfully halt Sunagakure's advance, they actually pushed the battle line back from the Land of Fire's border straight into the Land of Rivers. When the good news reached the village, all of Konoha erupted in celebration, with lights and decorations everywhere.
The second was Kumogakure's blitz attack on the Land of Hot Water.
On the surface, that had nothing to do with Konoha.
But the Land of Hot Water sat between the Land of Lightning and the Land of Fire as a buffer state, and it had always leaned more toward Konoha. Now that Kumogakure had occupied it, they could theoretically station troops right on the border and threaten the safety of the Land of Fire. The Hidden Hot Water Village had therefore sent a request for aid to Konoha, putting Konoha in a difficult position.
They definitely had to help, but if things went badly, they might end up clashing directly with Kumogakure. If that turned into a two-front war, it would be a real headache.
Against this stormy backdrop, something important also happened in the Mikami household:
Mikami Tajima finally completed several surgeries, had his cast removed, and began basic rehabilitation training.
"Here. Your father's post-op evaluation report."
In her office, Tsunade casually tossed a report over.
"For now, the surgery seems to have gone pretty well. The original projected success rate of thirty percent has gone up to seventy. As long as nothing goes wrong this month and his nerve function recovers smoothly, there shouldn't be any real problem."
"That's great. Thank you, Lady Tsunade, for the treatment plan and guidance."
Mikami Yuu thanked her.
"Heh."
Tsunade pushed her chair back and stood up with her arms folded. "Rin said you've been awfully busy lately, running around mysteriously all the time and barely even resting. Don't tell me you've been sneaking off to date some girl?"
"There's no way. It's just that the team's had a lot of missions lately, the training load went up, and I've also been studying the sealing notes Minato-sensei and Kushina-senpai gave me, so I've been a little overwhelmed. But I'll try to balance things better going forward."
"Really?"
Tsunade frowned slightly, then suddenly stepped right up in front of him. Her fair, beautiful face instantly filled his vision, those amber eyes staring straight into him as if trying to see what he was thinking through his pupils. Her golden twin ponytails swayed softly with the motion.
"Gah."
Mikami Yuu instinctively leaned his head back a little.
Since he wasn't even ten yet and still growing, he was naturally shorter than Tsunade. So when she suddenly moved closer, his eyes ended up level with her lips. Just below that, he could see the pale, deep valley beneath—
If he moved just a little, he could probably bury his whole face in there and experience the full deluxe treatment.
But if he actually did that, the fist that once broke several of Jiraiya's ribs would probably be coming straight for his skull.
"Hmph. Fine, I'll assume you're telling the truth."
After staring at him for a few seconds and finding no obvious crack in his story, Tsunade straightened up again. "You've been in the advanced medical class for about half a year now, right?"
"About that."
Mikami Yuu nodded.
He had only gotten into the advanced class thanks to Hebishi's recommendation letter, and counting it out, it had indeed been more than half a year. If he counted from the medical training class before that, then he'd been in contact with medical ninjutsu for close to a full year.
Tsunade nodded slightly. "Your practical medical skills have improved a lot lately, and you're pretty comfortable with Healing Technique now. The patients treated by you recover noticeably better than the others. But don't get cocky.
"There may be a large batch of seriously wounded patients transferred back here in the next few days, so both you and Rin had better stay sharp. Don't fall apart when it matters!"
Then her tone softened a little, carrying a hint of temptation. "If you perform well this time, then once we finish treating this batch of wounded, I might consider teaching you something new. That's special treatment, by the way."
Something new?
Monster Strength? Mystical Palm?
Mikami Yuu's eyes lit up.
But Tsunade didn't say another word. She turned and strode out of the equipment room, her heels clicking crisply against the tile floor.
"Congrats, Dad, you can put weight on it now!"
In the hospital corridor, Mikami Yuu let go of his support and grinned as he watched Mikami Tajima hobble along with a cane.
Tajima himself looked thrilled, carefully feeling what it was like to stand on solid ground again, his face full of joy.
But after that excitement lasted for a bit, his expression froze, and a feeling of confusion slowly crept over him.
"Being able to stand again really is great, but…"
"Yuu… the doctor said even if my leg heals up, there's an eighty percent chance I still won't be able to be a ninja anymore. So in the future… what am I supposed to do?"
The average lifespan of ninja wasn't very high.
Even now, after the war was over, because conflict kept breaking out, most ninja only lived to around forty or fifty. Reaching sixty was already rare enough to count as old age.
So for someone like Mikami Tajima, forced into disability retirement halfway through his life, it was hard not to feel lost.
But on that question—
Mikami Yuu had already thought it through.
He helped Tajima over to a bench by the side of the corridor, sat him down, organized his words, and spoke softly.
"Dad, what if… you tried doing a little business instead? That spot next to Ichiraku Ramen looks pretty good. There's a lot of foot traffic. You could open a small general shop and sell drinks.
"To be honest, while I've been studying pharmacology with Lady Tsunade, I happened to come up with a kind of sparkling drink. It's sweet, refreshing, and really good. I could write the recipe down for you. If you make it and sell it under the name Konoha Raw Cola, it'd definitely be popular.
"I even already thought of the slogan: 'Drink Konoha Raw Cola—make your chakra glow!'
"And if not that, you could open a bookstore—sell books, rent them out, something like that. Or you could even write novels yourself. Better than sitting around with nothing to do."
"A little shop?"
Mikami Tajima imagined it for a moment, and a trace of interest appeared on his face. "That actually doesn't sound too bad. It'd be a lot steadier than being a ninja. Writing books, though—that's out. Your old man doesn't have enough learning in him to write anything worth reading."
"Ahem, who says books have to be highbrow? You could write something that doesn't require too much literary skill. Like…"
Mikami Yuu blinked mischievously.
"Erotica?"
"Pfft—cough, cough, cough!"
Mikami Tajima nearly choked on his own saliva. His face instantly turned bright red. He first glanced around instinctively to make sure nobody else had heard, then said in embarrassment, "E-erotica?! Yuu! What are you saying?! How can a ninja do something like that? That's way too—"
~~~
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