Chapter 58 – Return to Konoha
Nan immediately activated the Flying Thunder God and vanished, reappearing back in the safety of Konoha.
At the same time, far away on the battlefield, the young Sunagakure genin Nan had deliberately spared—Takahashi—finally broke free of the genjutsu after a full day of entrapment.
When he awoke, the first thing he saw were the corpses of his three senior comrades, laid neatly side by side. Horrified, he stumbled upright and instinctively reached for his weapons—only to find his pouch empty. Looking down, he realized every single tool had been scattered on the ground.
In a panic, he snatched up a kunai, clutching it defensively as though some unseen beast might leap out of the shadows at any moment.
But after a long, tense wait, he realized he was alone. The Konoha shinobi who had slain his mentors was already gone. At last, he let out a trembling sigh of relief.
Steeling himself, Takahashi searched the battlefield, eventually finding the bodies of the other four who had been killed elsewhere. With clumsy hands, he performed a simple burial. He knew he had to return to the village immediately—both to report what had happened and to request reinforcements to retrieve the remains of all seven fallen comrades.
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Meanwhile, Nan had wasted no time. As soon as he was back in Konoha, he headed straight for the Hokage's office and once again stood before the Third Hokage.
The antidote was ready—and distributing it across the war front could not be delayed a single moment longer.
The moment he entered, Nan raised his voice in feigned excitement, as though bursting with relief:
"Lord Hokage! Tsunade-sama and I finally completed the antidote! Our comrades will be saved!"
The Third blinked in surprise. According to Minato's reports, Nan had remained by Tsunade's side to continue development of the cure. He had been anxiously awaiting word of its completion and had even dispatched ANBU to watch the village gates, ready to bring Nan to him the instant he returned.
And yet here Nan was, standing right in front of him—without any report beforehand.
Still, this was hardly the time to dwell on such trivial matters. The antidote was complete, and Nan had brought it home. The Third let out a long breath of relief.
For over a month, Konoha shinobi on the Wind Country front had been succumbing to poison, losing combat effectiveness by the dozens. The pressure on him had been mounting unbearably.
Now, with the antidote in hand, the problem would finally be solved.
He immediately summoned ANBU and ordered them to deliver the formula at once to every encampment across the Wind Country battlefield, where medical ninja would begin mass production without delay. Soon, poisoned shinobi would regain their fighting strength.
Only after issuing all these commands did the Hokage notice the bloodstains on Nan's clothes, the small tears in his fabric—as if he had just returned from battle. His expression darkened.
"Nan, what happened on your way back? This blood—are you injured?"
Nan, of course, had not been harmed. The blood belonged to the Sunagakure shinobi he had killed. He had had plenty of time to change into clean clothing before returning, but chose not to. Better to reinforce the image of a loyal Konoha shinobi—willing to bleed and suffer for the village without complaint.
So he gave a casual shrug and replied with deliberate nonchalance:
"Nothing much. Just ran into Sand's ambush on the road. Took a few hits, but it's nothing serious—I've already healed myself."
"What? You were ambushed!?"
The Third Hokage slammed a hand on the desk and rose sharply to his feet.
Nan might have said it as if it were nothing, but the Hokage immediately grasped the deeper implication. If Suna had dispatched assassins, then they must have somehow learned he would be carrying the antidote back. Such a mission would not be entrusted to weaklings.
"How many?" the Hokage pressed. "How many shinobi did Suna send, and of what rank?"
Nan launched into his carefully prepared tale, embellishing it just enough for dramatic effect.
He explained how his Sharingan had allowed him to sense the ambushers before they struck, preventing a disastrous surprise. How he cleverly split them apart with shadow clones, defeating them one by one.
What he didn't mention was how easily most had fallen to his ambushes. Instead, he painted each encounter as a harrowing clash—deadly duels where he had been forced to pull out every trick, every jutsu, barely scraping victory by the skin of his teeth.
In his telling, the fights were fierce, desperate, and hard-won. A story worthy of an exceptional young hero.
When describing the final battle against the Sunagakure puppeteer, Nan painted his foe as a terrifyingly skilled elite jōnin, a master of puppetry who had pushed him to the very brink.
According to his tale, the fight had been a desperate clash filled with close calls, and only when his chakra was completely depleted had he been forced to unleash the Yin Seal he had just mastered. Wounded and exhausted, he had barely managed to strike the killing blow.
In truth, Watanabe had been nowhere near that level. At best, the puppeteer had only just touched the threshold of elite jōnin strength—still far inferior to Nan in every way. And as a puppeteer, his weakness in close-quarters combat left him completely vulnerable when Nan suddenly burst forward with overwhelming speed. He hadn't even been able to react before he was cut down.
And that had been after Nan had already fought through three other squads of Suna shinobi. Had he been at full strength, he wouldn't have needed to unlock the Yin Seal at all; his natural chakra reserves alone would have been enough to finish the fight.
But Nan's version of events was half-truth, half-fiction—and convincing enough to fool the Third Hokage.
This was intentional. He wanted his "narrow victory" to spread as rumor. The sole surviving enemy hadn't witnessed the whole battle and could only guess from fragments, corpses, and battlefield traces. Paired with Nan's own account, the story fit together seamlessly.
By portraying the fights as harrowing rather than effortless, Nan avoided revealing the full extent of his ability. Better to let the world see him as brilliant—but not invincible.
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"So you really did master Lady Mito's Yin Seal…" Hiruzen's voice carried a note of awe. "A technique designed for medical shinobi, handed down from the Uzumaki clan. Lady Mito passed it to Tsunade, and no one else ever learned it. For you to grasp it in such a short time… remarkable."
"Yes," Nan answered with a solemn nod. "Without the chakra surge from the Yin Seal, I doubt I would have made it back alive."
Hiruzen felt a chill at the thought. Had Nan fallen in that ambush, Konoha would have lost not only its long-awaited antidote, but also one of its brightest young geniuses. The village had narrowly escaped a disaster.
"By the way," Hiruzen added suddenly, frowning, "I stationed ANBU at the village gates to await your return. How did you slip past their watch and appear here directly?"
At this, Nan allowed himself a proud smile.
"Lord Hokage, I've already begun to master the Flying Thunder God. On my way back, I sensed the mark I'd left within the village and teleported straight here—so I never passed through the main gates."
The revelation stunned the Third once again. Ever since the Second Hokage's death, no one had managed to learn the technique. Not until Minato came along—and even then, he alone had ever succeeded. Hiruzen had given Nan the notes on Flying Thunder God almost as an experiment, never truly expecting results.
And yet, Nan had done it.
To wield the technique, even imperfectly, was already to step halfway into the realm of Kage-level shinobi. If Nan continued to refine it, he could one day stand shoulder to shoulder with Minato—the epitome of a natural-born genius.
Moreover, Hiruzen recalled how Nan had deliberately spared a helpless Suna shinobi, choosing mercy where others might have chosen cruelty. It proved the boy's heart was compassionate, his nature kind. Just the sort of shinobi the Third valued most.
Talent, strength, and character—all in perfect balance. With Nan's future shining ever brighter, Hiruzen's faith in him only grew stronger.