The mood in Kaida's house was still somber. Hae and Yomi had gone to Ryota's house—Hae to offer some help, and Yomi to spend time with Ryota's family in their grief. Meanwhile, Naruto was preparing to leave for the academy after making sure his brother was fine. When Naruto first found out that Kaida was injured, he wanted to be there for him and help.
But Kaida had been away from the village, receiving treatment. By the time Kaida returned, the situation was so tense that he couldn't find a way to fit himself into it. Instead, he sat quietly, relieved to know his brother was okay now. Yet, the house remained heavy with sadness—a sadness that stemmed from the loss of big brother Ryota, who had died saving his big sister.
Naruto couldn't stop thinking about how weak he felt. If even someone as strong as big brother Ryota couldn't survive, how could he? Would he ever be strong enough to protect the people he cared about if the need arose? These thoughts weighed heavily on the small boy, not much older than four years.
Despite Hae and Yomi's best efforts to hide their grief in front of him, it didn't change the atmosphere much. Naruto was young, not dumb. He could see through their forced smiles and kind words. He was starting to think for himself now.
Kaida, on the other hand, hadn't given much thought to hiding the truth from Naruto. At first, he had been too occupied to think clearly, and now it was too late. When Kaida noticed Naruto sitting with a serious expression, lost in his thoughts, he sighed and walked over to him. Placing a hand on his brother's head, he ruffled his hair gently.
"You don't have to worry about such things right now," Kaida said, his voice soft but firm. "Just focus on your studies and your friends. Leave the complex stuff to us adults, okay?"
Naruto gave a small nod, though his eyes still reflected the weight of his thoughts. Kaida watched as Naruto left for the academy. 'He's too young to carry such burdens,' Kaida thought, shaking his head. 'But this world doesn't give anyone the luxury of staying innocent forever.'
Turning back to the house, Kaida noticed Kenta exercising on his own. Kiba and Kenta had become friends when they were introduced to each other, but the death of a close friend had been a significant turning point for Kenta as well. Now, he wanted to be strong enough to protect those he held dear. Watching him train so diligently, Kaida couldn't help but smile.
'Everyone is moving on,' he thought. 'We're all trying to make sure we don't lose anyone else.'
With these thoughts in his mind, he also went out to make sure he would never lose someone important to him ever, EVER again.
...
"What are you doing here? I know what happened to your friend. You can take some more rest if you want; we can manage on our own for now," Mitsuru said to the boy standing in front of her. He was gone for just 2-3 weeks, but for some reason, he looked different than the disciple she remembered.
With height increased and body becoming much more fit, gaining more muscles while still looking lean, his facial features becoming more sharp as well, like he had gone through some body modification.
But the thing that worried her more was the news she got about Kaida. Losing a friend in front of oneself is never, never easy. Being a medical ninja, she had taken part in many missions herself and was part of the Third Great Ninja War too. She couldn't even begin to describe the feeling of losing a friend in front of you when you knew you could have saved him if the timing was just a little right, if he was brought to you a little earlier, if…
"Don't worry, sensei. I am fine now. If I remain idle, I will just think about that time only, so I wanted to busy myself with work," Kaida said, releasing a soft smile.
"Fine, do as you wish," Mitsuru sighed and gave her permission.
"Thank you, sensei," Kaida said and left the office, creating a shadow clone which went to the library to study about a particularly tricky disease while he went to look for any particular case that needed a hand, making his way toward the administrative department.
"Hello, are there any pending cases or vacant ones? I am free for now and could take one or two myself if there are any," Kaida said to a nurse sitting at the reception desk. He didn't specify his name and rank because he was already quite famous in the hospital for handling a massive workload alone for two months straight.
The nurse looked toward Kaida and then toward the file in front of her. With her hands moving fast, she compiled a list of cases that were either still vacant or the medical ninja who would take those cases already had more than he could handle.
In a minute, Kaida had a list with more than 40 patients.
"If you complete them, come back. I will arrange more for you," the nurse, who was almost the same age as Hae, said with a smile. The hospital had long stopped underestimating the boy who was not even a teen yet, with many thinking of the possibilities of him taking Tsunade's place when he grows up.
The idea of an Uchiha taking the place of the Senju princess was as absurd as it could get, but seeing the boy's performance, many couldn't help but think about the possibility. Kaida nodded his head. With the list in his hand, he sent a shadow clone to his office after giving a copy to the receptionist to send those patients to him while he went to the patients who needed immediate attention or surgery.
For the next few hours, Kaida was busy, with his clone going through all records present about a particular disease or anything similar to it, while searching for the files of patients with similar cases and how they were treated. Multiple clones went through many files multiple times, taking notes and finding other doctors who were taking some rest as Kaida took their cases for pointers.
This process continued for three whole days, with Kaida having talked with each and every doctor who was ever part of any such case related to the disease, finding out everything that could go wrong and what could be done to protect against it.
After three days, Kaida's clone went to the Hokage building to check for any missions related to rogue ninja, which was very easy to find since most of them were like that.
The clone took a mission from the board.
"Do I have to capture him alive?"
"No, if we can find out the info required from just his body, so you can take any action on the mission and don't have to take any unnecessary risk," the ninja in charge of distributing missions replied, completely misunderstanding why Kaida was asking that. The clone nodded, though, and disappeared from his position in the next second.
Within two hours, a ninja was lying in front of Kaida in the hospital, while his clone continued to take care of the patients. He started the task he had been preparing so hard for in the past three days: operating on the chakra network, one of the most crucial and delicate operations possible. If it had to be compared, it was three to four times more difficult than neurosurgery.
The worst thing about it was that it couldn't be practiced on dead people, as they lose their chakra network. So the only other option was a person who was going to die anyway.
At least this way, he could use his life for something good one last time, though it didn't make using a live person for practice any better. Kaida had long since lost such strict moral values; now he had morals, but they were much more practical than the superficial ones he had when he came to this world.
***
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