"Garou, you're back!"
"Finally! Garou, we've been stuck on the military ration pill enhancements...."
"Wait your turn, Hyakusa! My chakra needle research is clearly more urgent!"
"Are you kidding me?"
"Enough already!"
The commanding voice cut through the noise like a blade through mist. Kitayama stepped in, her gaze sharp and her voice brooking no argument.
"You're all swarming him like ants on sugar. He's just one person. He can't clone himself!"
Her presence alone cooled the chaos in the medical ward.
She walked briskly to Garou and grabbed his arm without a second glance at the others.
Hyakusa let out a theatrical sigh. "Can't split himself, huh? That's rich. More like you just want him all to yourself."
"What was that?" Kitayama snapped, not even turning around.
"Leader, wise and all-knowing, as always!" Hyakusa said, flashing a sheepish grin.
Kitayama gave her a long, withering stare until Hyakusa looked away, scratching her head. With a huff, Kitayama led Garou down the hallway.
Inside her office, she finally released his arm, slumping into her chair with a groan.
She rubbed her temples like the pressure of a decade was weighing on her. "Before you got here, this place was sluggish. People clocked in, patched wounds, and left. But ever since you arrived, everyone's been pushing harder."
Garou blinked. "That's… bad?"
She glanced up, lips twitching with restrained amusement. "Depends who you ask. For me, it's a mixed blessing. Sure, ambition's rising, but the ability to keep up? Not so much. That cooperative healing jutsu blueprint you handed over? Brilliant. But we're barely scratching the surface."
She slid a thick notebook across the desk. "Here's everything we've tried."
Garou flipped through it slowly. The logs were meticulous, charts, diagrams, chakra flow mappings, theoretical overlays, but every path ended the same: limited success, then failure.
"So, the multi-user surgery technique?" he asked.
"It's finally functional. The lead medic can concentrate more and delegate precisely. We're starting to implement it across trauma centers."
She pointed to another page and frowned. "But the remote viewing jutsu? Total mystery."
"I told you before," Garou said, tapping the paper, "it's not meant to be a healing technique. It's designed to detect specific chakra signatures remotely."
"Surveillance-based," she muttered. "We're jumping ahead. Walk before we sprint."
Garou nodded. "Exactly. Let's say you want to find a tumor inside a patient, right? You're trying to locate it and observe it in real-time. That's too much. First, build a technique to detect anomalies. Once that's solid, then add a live monitoring layer."
Kitayama's brow furrowed, then slowly lifted as the logic sank in. "Split it into stages…"
"Right. Chakra diagnostics comes first. Then you expand."
She blinked once, tension ebbing from her posture. "…That actually makes sense. We already train to sense irregularities. We just need to refine that into a specialized technique."
"There you go. Start from what you know. Innovate upward."
Garou's words clicked. Her eyes sparked with renewed clarity, though her expression flickered with mild embarrassment.
"Why didn't I think of that earlier?" she muttered.
"You're too close to the problem," Garou said gently. "It happens to all of us."
"Would using a barrier technique help?" she asked suddenly.
"Now you're thinking," he said. "Try a sensory-type barrier. Calibrate it to register abnormal chakra fluctuations instead of enemy chakra."
Her eyes widened. "That's perfect! We've got someone who worked with a sensory squad during the last recon cycle. I'll loop him in."
She scribbled a quick note, and around them, the tension lifted, replaced by a quiet hum of strategic focus.
Soon, the rest of the medical division trickled in, peppering Garou with questions.
Most were follow-ups from lectures he'd given before. He answered each calmly, methodically, with sharp insight and patience.
Eventually, Kitayama pulled out another file and slid it toward him. "Now, about the latest soldier pill variant. Hyakusa's team hit a wall. Can you take a look?"
Garou skimmed through the report, eyebrows rising.
"This is based on the Akimichi clan's secret formula?"
"Yeah. Your prototype was used as the base. But testing's been minimal, the side effects are brutal."
"No surprise," he muttered. "The Akimichi can handle it thanks to their physiology. Average shinobi? It'll knock them flat."
"The second formula's even stronger," she added. "But the backlash is worse."
"Let me guess. They tried using milder herbs?"
"Exactly."
"And somehow ended up with a bigger punch. Hyakusa's cooking up a kamikaze candy."
He flipped to the ingredient list. Milder components were used, yes, but chakra interaction wasn't linear. Layered energy signatures could create volatile effects when improperly harmonized.
"This actually isn't bad. The chakra efficiency is incredible. Cheap, potent… just lethal."
Kitayama grimaced. "We can't use something that knocks people unconscious for three days."
"Have you tried reducing the dosage?"
She paused, teacup halfway to her lips. "…What?"
"Cutting the dosage," he repeated. "If a full tablet causes heavy backlash, try half. Maybe even quarter doses. Small increments, test gradually. See where the sweet spot lies."
She set her cup down slowly, as if seeing a ghost. "…I can't believe no one thought of that."
"They're probably too deep into the theory to take a step back."
Kitayama buried her face in her hands and let out a muffled laugh. "We really are greenhorns."
"You're doing fine," Garou said calmly.
"You've stepped from triage into R&D. That's a battlefield of its own."
He meant every word.
A year ago, this department couldn't dream of pioneering its own techniques. Now, they were shaping Konoha's medical future.
"One day," he said quietly, "you'll be leading your own corps. Maybe even surpass me."
She gave a dry chuckle. "One step at a time."
After leaving the office, Garou checked the Bodhi Seed sealed in his consciousness. The fifth mark, the Absorption Barrier, had darkened and matured. Its ancient pattern had grown more symmetrical, with golden motes shimmering along its edges. The other four marks glowed faintly, pulsing with restrained power.
The medical breakthroughs had clearly fed into it.
But what exactly did the fifth mark do?
Garou could feel a shift, sharper clarity, denser chakra around him, but the true effect remained elusive.
Outside, he decided to jog a few laps around the village to center his thoughts.
Halfway through his second, a commanding voice rang across the training grounds.
"Fifty handstand laps! Fail, and you're running a hundred full circuits around Konoha!"
Garou instinctively turned.
There stood Might Guy, grinning like a sunrise. As usual, Lee was with him, fired up and shouting, but this time, they had company.
Nami was sprinting beside them. And right behind her, upside down and determined, was a pale-eyed boy in white Hyūga robes.
Garou blinked. Is that… Neji?
Their eyes met briefly. Neji's expression flickered, mortification, frustration, but he quickly masked it and pressed forward.
Garou smirked.
Not long ago, Neji would have scoffed at such displays of "youthful madness."
Now, he was training under Guy.
And that likely had everything to do with Garou's earlier influence.
The idea of Neji mastering the Eight Gates was… wild. The elegance of Hyūga techniques mixed with raw taijutsu force?
It sent a chill down Garou's spine.
A sin against symmetry, maybe, but brutally effective.
At least Neji was learning to defy limits. That said, the curse seal on his forehead remained.
Even if he became the greatest Hyūga to ever live, the Caged Bird seal would always shackle him.
Garou doubted the Main Family had even devised a method to release it.
Why would they?
They never planned for failure. They never planned for change.
And therein lay the tragedy.
______________________
Bonus chapter at 300 PS
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