Chapter 77 – Chakra Scalpel Performs a Great Service
The dice tables were crowded, lively with cheers and groans.
This time, Tsunade didn't rush into the game. Instead, she stood quietly off to the side, sharp golden eyes scanning the dealers. She intended to observe carefully—if there was cheating, she would spot it. Only once she was certain the play was fair would she risk her last bet.
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While Tsunade was plotting her comeback, Shizune had already arrived at her destination.
The small farming village nestled at the foot of the mountains. By now it was past midday, and most of the villagers were already working their fields.
Looking closely, Shizune saw the devastation—uprooted crops, trampled furrows, deep hoofprints gouging the soil. A massive wild boar had definitely been rampaging here.
When the farmers spotted the Konoha forehead protector on her brow, they immediately hurried to fetch the village chief.
The request for help had been issued under his name, after all.
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Before long, an elderly man with white hair, supported by two villagers, came shuffling forward.
"May I ask… are you a ninja from Konoha?"
The old man, his eyes clouded with age, was about to kneel in respect. Shizune quickly stepped forward to stop him, bowing instead.
"Elder, please, don't do that."
She introduced herself as the shinobi dispatched from Konoha to deal with the boar. Then, gently, she asked if they had seen any recent signs of it.
But she noticed the hesitation in their eyes—the same doubt she had seen many times before. A young woman, arriving alone. Could she really handle a monster like that?
Shizune smiled faintly. To ease their worry, she pulled back her sleeve, revealing the slim launch device hidden at her wrist.
"See this? The senbon fired from here are coated with a strong poison. More than enough to bring down a wild boar."
The villagers finally relaxed. Poisoned needles fired at a distance meant far less risk than close combat. Even if she failed to kill it, she would have time to retreat.
The village chief nodded slowly. "Very well. We've kept watch. For two nights it has come down to destroy our fields. During the day, it sleeps in a pit on the north slope. Our young men tracked it there."
A rare smile cracked his face. If this beast was not stopped, the village would lose its harvest, and next year their children would starve.
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"That helps greatly," Shizune said. "I don't know the terrain. May I trouble someone to guide me there?"
"Of course," the old man said immediately, turning to a young man at his side. "Ah Hu, you run fast. Lead the ninja-sama."
"Yes, Grandpa."
Ah Hu bowed his head, not daring to meet Shizune's eyes. He had never been beyond his tiny village. To suddenly stand before a kunoichi from Konoha, and one so striking at that, left him timid and awed.
Shizune only smiled, gesturing for him to lead the way.
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Together they moved into the forest. As they crested a slope, the boy pointed ahead.
There, in a massive hollow, lay the beast.
The boar was colossal—its hulking body as large as a small house, its bristled hide dark and thick.
Normal wild boars could never grow so large. Shizune's sharp gaze narrowed. So it carries the blood of some summoning beast… no wonder.
If it had the intelligence of even a child, driving it away would be pointless. It would only return in vengeance. It had to be dealt with here and now.
"Ninja-sama… why are you going closer?" Ah Hu whispered anxiously. "Didn't you say you would use poisoned needles from a distance?"
Shizune raised a finger to her lips. Quiet.
The boy swallowed his words. Though uneasy, he trusted she must have a reason.
Originally, Shizune had intended to poison it quickly. But the images of the children she had seen earlier—their thin faces, their hungry eyes—weighed on her heart.
If she killed the boar with poison, some of its flesh might be unusable. But if she killed it cleanly with a precise strike, its meat could feed the villagers through the winter.
Decision made, she approached the pit in silence.
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Her palm glowed pale blue.
This was Chakra Scalpel, an A-rank medical ninjutsu. Normally used to cut with surgical precision in the operating room, it could also be deadly in combat—slicing tendons, severing muscles, or striking directly at an enemy's vital points.
The technique concentrated chakra into her hand until it became a blade sharper than steel.
Ah Hu stared in awe. The kunoichi's white hand seemed to shine with a surgeon's light as she reached the sleeping beast.
Then, with a single fluid motion, Shizune pressed her glowing palm to the boar's throat.
The chakra edge slipped through hide and flesh as if through water.
The monster gave a shuddering grunt—then went still.
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