After his visit with Yakumo, Saul made his way to the Konoha hospital. There were plenty of injured Ninja from the previous Sand and Sound village invasion. Ninja that Saul was obligated to attend to. Unfortunately, he did not find time for training in the regeneration technique.
Instead, Saul increased his familiarity with the new style of medical ninjutsu. Connecting with his patient's chakra through Genjutsu allowed him incredibly high treatment accuracy at the cost of being much slower and less efficient. It was a shortcut that most medical ninja grew to understand intuitively through their inability to correctly perform the Mystical palm technique.
Interacting with the will component of Chakra had become something familiar to Saul due to his numerous experiences with Genjutsu under the tutelage of Kurenai and his own human experiments. This, ironically, had the side effect of leading him to be much more competent than other medical nin using the Mystical Palm at completely removing his will.
This led to his healing becoming much more chakra efficient and faster than most others who learned the mystical palm, at the cost of needing to intellectually understand how exactly to heal the body.
Both methods had their advantages and disadvantages. Even the healing itself was akin to taking a test.
The connection method was like spending additional time and resources during each and every healing to gain access to a cheat sheet. His method required him to actually learn and understand the problems before encountering them on the test.
They did not conflict with each other, however. Saul would be able to use his method as the initial starter, taking the test himself. Once the answers were written down, he could then use the 'cheat sheet' to see if anything was wrong and learn from his mistakes. This methodology of healing was both chakra efficient, extremely accurate, and beneficial to his learning overall.
Saul even discovered that some of the answers he learned during experimentation were in fact just flat out wrong! For example, when he was healing bone injuries Saul created osteoblasts, mimicking the own body's natural methodology of healing. They were cells that essentially constantly divided to create 'concrete' of bone tissue in the area of the break. Once they were done, they'd differentiate back into full on bone tissue.
Saul mimicked this process fully externally. However, in the real body not all of the cells differentiated back into bone like he initially thought. Small clusters of osteoblasts were supposed to remain within the bone after a break, there to continually strengthen the area that was broken for a small period after. Thus his healing was actually inferior to the body's natural healing due to this blunder.
In this specific case his healing wasn't really detrimental, just not as good as it could be. Saul was concerned however because this was not necessarily the case in regards to his entire body. He had grown so strong as a result of continuously healing himself after training after all! What hidden dangers were left in his body? He'd have to check soon...
Saul finished up with his most recent patient and glanced outside at the sky above. Dark, grey clouds were covering the sky. The light coming from outside had dimmed significantly. He had worked at the hospital past noon.
Wiping his sweat-slicked brow, he turned toward the old man who was currently dressing up the wounds on another patient. Right now, the Konoha hospital was overloaded. Many patients were assigned to each room, some even being laid out on the floor where there was not enough space.
"I'm heading out, Doctor Shinno. Thank you for your generous assistance."
He smiled happily over at Saul. That damn, fake old bastard.
"Of course! It's my greatest joy to help those in need after all." The man carefully wrapped the patient's arm in gauze after applying some alcohol to sterilize the edges of the wound. "Hopefully in a few days we'll finally be able to have a chat. But not yet! Too many people need saving after all!"
Saul chuckled, "I'll be looking forward to it. Thanks again for the help."
Shinno's smile twitched. If it were up to him, he would have left this shitty village directly after he got the scrolls. Why would he waste time healing the enemy if not for this treacherous bastard?
"I'll be looking forward to seeing you tomorrow as well! So many people are injured; I'm afraid they're too much for these old bones to handle alone. If you're not here I might just collapse from exhaustion..."
Yeah, right. This old man was just trying to drag him back into volunteering at the hospital. At this point both of them had recognized the other was putting up a front. They were the same type of people: cold, detached, manipulative. Obviously neither of them wanted to stick around doing volunteer work for too long.
This was not a statement. It was a threat. If Saul didn't come back to help at the hospital, the old man would stage up a petty drama that would just waste both of their time just to get back at him. While the hospital was packed, he couldn't begin learning the regeneration technique after all. The old man wanted him to share in his suffering.
Unfortunately for Shinno's petty revenge, Saul actually planned to come to the hospital regardless. It was essential for his village 'persona', and his medical techniques were advancing leaps and bounds with this wide variety of free human experiments being simply offered up to him.
Unlike his test subjects where he continuously made targeted wounds to answer questions he had in mind, the wounds inflicted were varied in ways he might have never thought of and each patient was different. Saul was learning to answer questions he may not have even thought to ask before!
"Don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow. Everyone is doing their part to help out after all!"
Saul left the hospital. With a hand seal, his body was completely cloaked in all black. He walked towards the Hokage building while putting on a solemn expression.
As he neared the center of the village, he saw more and more ninja dressed in black walking as well. Anbu stood along the rooftops, watching, observing the crowd below openly. In this public memorial service, Konoha was not only showing its honor for the deceased but also the village's strength. Maybe as a show of intimidation? Or maybe something else...
"Saul-kun~!"
A cheery girl stood by his side. Hinata. He had left her this morning with Kurenai to take care of his business. This was part of his efforts to create some physical distance with the clingy woman, and it was already paying dividends on his side. His real body was free to go do the things he wished to do without her presence. Hinata obviously felt more sadness and anxiety in general, but when he came back it also had the side benefit of causing her to be even more happy when she saw him.
Saul couldn't help but smile. "Good evening, Hinata. It's good to see you. And Kurenai-sensei."
The white eyed girl took her place at his arm. She gave it a tight squeeze, then held it to her chest gently. While the red eyed woman with messy black hair, looked at him with a small, forced smile. Saul could tell there was a lot of grief hidden behind it. She held a bouquet of white lilies in her arms.
"Hey. Once she saw you, Hinata practically dragged me here. Could you ask her to go find Yakumo? I asked her, but..."
Was Hinata such a troublemaker when he wasn't around?
"Hinata, could you please find Yakumo for me? It would be good to meet up as a team before the Hokage's funeral."
With a soft swish of her hair, Hinata instantly nodded.
"Of course, Saul-kun!"
Her Byakugan activated once more to search through the streets of Konoha. Not finding her there, it then checked the Kurama clan household. Yakumo wasn't there either. Her gaze finally swept across her house where she saw Yakumo with her father, Murakumo. They were not dressed to attend the funeral. Instead, he was taking care of his sick daughter.
"Yakumo is with her father at her house right now. They don't look like they're coming."
Saul scratched his head. "Actually Kurenai-sensei, when I came to visit, Yakumo was pretty ill. I couldn't do much as the root cause seemed to be related to her Kekkai Genkai."
Kurenai pursed her lips. "I-I see. That's understandable then..."
Ever since Kurenai had broken her promise to Yakumo, the woman had been cold to her at every turn. When she came to Yakumo's house in grief, the closest living person she had left last night, Yakumo, had rejected her presence. That's why she had shown up at Saul's place. She had betrayed her trust under the Third Hokage's orders, but... Even now, no, especially now, she could never tell Yakumo the truth of why she did it.
Doing so would dishonor the Third Hokage's memory. The man had been like a surrogate father to her after hers was taken away by the nine-tails, and Kurenai had always been grateful to Hiruzen for it. She would rather be the bad woman who betrayed Yakumo's trust for the sake of her employer and accept the blame. It was the least she could do.
The third had died protecting all of them. A few sacrifices had to be made. And yet...
Now she had no one to talk to aside from Anko. But she didn't want to burden the secretly vulnerable woman further. Anko had already endured enough from the village as the missing nin, Orochimaru's, disciple. Now that Orochimaru had gone and done such a thing to the village, Kurenai was sure Anko must be dealing with much, much worse.
Asuma wasn't really an option either. Orochimaru's revelations had left her feeling both guilty and despicable about herself every time she saw him. Even if he had been well intentioned, Kurenai could never accept such a thing. She already had survivor's guilt from the third great ninja war, and she had taken to drinking to cope with the trauma. Now his very presence reminded her of her grief, of the fact she shouldn't even be alive.
Without any other support network to lean upon, Kurenai had fallen back upon one of the Genin she was supposed to be protecting. It was weak of her. Unbefitting of her station. And yet, unlike Yakumo, who had cut her off. Or Hinata, who seemed to merely tolerate her presence. Saul seemed to actively attempt to take care of her.
This Genin, which she was once wary of due to his tendency to go above and beyond for the sake of others, was now someone Kurenai had grown to rely upon. These types of Ninja were the most likely to get themselves killed in the context of war. They might even drag others along into their foolishness, leading to an annihilation of a unit. But Saul was not foolish. No. He was the opposite of foolish.
Kurenai often found herself listening to the man's advice or suggestions during missions. Within their team, Saul was second in command for good reason. She was sure he would be promoted to Chunin after his performance within the exams.
Now that she was the one he was going above and beyond for, as the woman in need, Kurenai was starting to want to rely on him. But she couldn't, could she? She was their sensei after all. She had to be strong.
"Kurenai-sensei. What's wrong?"
The red eyed woman took a deep breath. "Nothing. Nothing at all, Saul. Let's just get going."
Author's Note: I'm back! Feeling much more refreshed after my break lol (was announced in the discord). The thing is I was starting to just finish the chapters as soon as possible in order just to get them out, and it left me feeling like I didn't want to write. This is no way to be writing a fan fiction, so I took a break to recollect my thoughts and rest.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Kurenai's thoughts were interesting to write. I've also got an R-18 chapter coming soon for you all lol. Stay tuned for more.