Kaede Tsukasa calmly began assisting Morino Isuke, placing one hand on Fubuki Tonbo's forehead as faint blue chakra started to glow in his palm.
"It's you…" Fubuki Tonbo mumbled in a daze.
"You know him?" Morino Isuke casually asked as he carefully put on his gloves.
"Yeah, I know him. Two months ago, I partnered with him once."
"Then you should know even better what needs to be done. He might have overheard part of our conversation just now. At the critical moment, you absolutely cannot hesitate. That's the quality a qualified shinobi must have." Morino Isuke meticulously suited up in protective gear.
Fubuki Tonbo wanted to struggle, but realized he couldn't do anything at all. Despair immediately spread across his face — not only the pain of facing death, but the collapse of his entire worldview.
This was Konoha?
Was this what Konoha shinobi did?
Was this the result for Fubuki Tonbo, who had fought life and death battles on the front lines?
Yes. All of it was real.
"Fubuki Tonbo, welcome to the shadows beneath the great flourishing tree. In the places where sunlight cannot reach — this is the real Konoha."
And this was still considered one of the more "gentle" periods of Konoha.
After all, it was the late stage of the Second Shinobi War. The fighting was harsh, and a few extreme incidents could still be understood.
But after the war ended, in the peaceful period before the Third Shinobi War broke out, with the tacit approval — or even personal endorsement — of the Third Hokage, many of the insane operations carried out in Konoha truly shattered worldviews.
Only in the era of Naruto and Sasuke did the atmosphere of Konoha begin to visibly improve again. For the first time since the First Hokage, sunlight spread into every corner, once more etching the twisted, deformed Will of Fire into everyone's heart.
Kaede Tsukasa said: "Your fate is already sealed. This is an order from above. Right now, I don't have the right to resist. If I don't do it, someone else will. If I'm the one to do it, maybe I can at least lessen your pain."
The dust of the era falling on an individual is like a mountain crushing down. In the world of shinobi, this truth revealed itself in an even more brutal form.
Just by using Fubuki Tonbo as a living test subject to study the poisons from Sunagakure and provide Tsunade with references, it already counted as a B-rank mission — a mere puzzle piece in Tsunade's larger undertaking.
That meant Tsunade creating an antidote for such a poison would be at least an A-rank mission, possibly even an S-rank mission.
S-rank missions normally meant facing multiple jōnin, or even confronting kage-level powerhouses — missions of extreme difficulty.
"Sunagakure, huh? I heard it's a village very skilled in using poison, especially their puppet masters," Kaede Tsukasa suddenly remarked.
Morino Isuke replied: "You wouldn't want to go up against shinobi from Sunagakure. The Land of Wind is the weakest of the Five Great Nations in terms of overall national strength, and Sunagakure is the most financially strained of the Hidden Villages. But they make up for their lack of manpower with all sorts of troublesome poisons. And every new poison means countless shinobi dying because they can't get the antidote in time."
Breaking down poisons, creating antidotes — it all required time, and it demanded some Konoha shinobi step on the landmines with their lives. Without some lives sacrificed to confirm the presence of a brand-new toxin, how could they know Sunagakure had used one?
Without sacrificing some Konoha shinobi to determine the poison's basic properties, how could they help the antidote makers cut down the time needed for research?
What, were they supposed to rely solely on a medical ninja of Tsunade's level, charging to the frontlines at every moment, personally observing every poison Sunagakure deployed? That was impossible. After all, there was only one Tsunade in all of Konoha.
For example, right now — if the life of a mediocre shinobi like Fubuki Tonbo could save Tsunade just a little time, then to Konoha's higher-ups it was absolutely worth it. Tsunade would be able to prepare the antidote faster, distribute it to the frontline shinobi, and in turn save more lives.
Perhaps every seemingly trivial action taken by the higher-ups contained within it the desperate efforts of lower-ranked shinobi like Kaede Tsukasa.
The countless results developed by subordinate divisions piled up, layer after layer, until they finally held just enough value for someone like Tsunade to glance at, to ponder for a few seconds — only to then be condensed into a single, insignificant sentence within some decision that would affect countless others.
"I'll begin."
Kaede Tsukasa channeled his chakra into Fubuki Tonbo's dying brain through his forehead. Watching this comrade — with whom he had once fought side by side — slowly lose the light in his eyes, Tsukasa gently closed them.
Not long after, the corpse's eyelids trembled slightly, and a sound like a dying swan's cry escaped his mouth.
A colleague jumped in surprise. "Uh, is that one of the effects of the poison too? To actually stimulate the human nerves? I thought it just paralyzed them."
Morino Isuke's expression shifted as he gave Tsukasa a glance. "This isn't the time to use your Dead Soul technique to modify the corpse. Even if you have the ability to refine or develop that technique further, this body is too important."
Kaede Tsukasa remained calm. "It's probably just some nerves that haven't been completely corroded by the poison yet, reacting under stimulation. I told you earlier, I would lessen his pain. This is one of the very few things I can still do… Mercy, in our kind of department, really is a luxury."
He worked with focus, draining his scarce chakra, threading and weaving as though he truly were preparing for Zombie Release — a performance to fool Morino Isuke and the Root shinobi. Then, with a scalpel, he sliced the chest wide open. The others began their tasks; one shinobi was specifically assigned to record everything, compiling it into a neat, easily understood report.
The surgical light cast a cold gleam across Fubuki Tonbo's bluish-purple face. Kaede Tsukasa's rubber gloves traced the purplish-black puncture wound on the corpse's neck. Thick poisoned blood dripped down the groove of the scalpel into a glass dish, sizzling with corrosive sounds.
"This poison… it's a flawless combination of different chemical agents. It must have been developed by someone on the level of the Third Kazekage, Chiyo, or Ebizō."
Morino Isuke used tweezers to lift a piece of the rotting liver. The tissue fluid etched faint pits into the metal tips. "This poison first destroys the glands. The salivary glands swell, while the tear glands dry up like a snake's shed skin left under the sun for three days."
Kaede Tsukasa's scalpel lifted open the thoracic cavity. Clumps of black, cotton-like material surged from the lungs. This was no ordinary necrosis — the toxin was transforming the organs into some kind of fibrous cocoon. He dabbed poisoned blood onto a slide, and under the microscope, the cells looked like cocoons strangled in spider silk. The chakra pathways shone with a bizarre hue.
"Primarily neurotoxic… mixed with extremely fine mineral sand crystals."
Kaede Tsukasa cut away a blackened piece of heart tissue while the shinobi beside him quickly jotted down notes.
Everyone present was a veteran. The documentation was completed quickly, the entire process highly efficient.
Before long, the analysis report was carried away by a Root shinobi to the proper division. Soon, it would be in Tsunade's hands.