Chapter 72

Usually, the one-eyed old man was distinguished by considerable geniality, and rarely did any of his subordinates see him upset or angry, which had a very positive effect on the employees of Konoha's main hospital. However, this time the village council had to witness a visibly angered Hyuga, as evidenced by the weak chakra waves emanating from the veteran and the bulging veins on his right temple from an active Byakugan.

While this effect remained almost imperceptible to strong shinobi, ordinary people felt very uncomfortable and quietly perspired in anticipation of the Hokage, trying to distance themselves from such a restless neighbor as much as possible.

However, the wait did not last long, as a couple of minutes after the last council member took their seat, the doors of the hall swung open and Hiruzen Sarutobi appeared, accompanied by his usual advisors. After responding to the greetings of those assembled, the Hokage and his advisors took their places at the head of the table, and the village leader signaled to the ANBU guards to lock the entrance, thus marking the beginning of the session.

The first thing Hiruzen did was to give a dressing down to the ordinary members of the council who had squandered the village's inviolable reserve allocated for the most urgent needs — including hospital supplies. It was news to the shinobi that a substantial sum of money had already been withdrawn from the accounts of those who attempted such dealings. Old Hyuga grinned happily and, with a meaningful squint towards the peaceful part of the council, began to ponder how to avenge the people responsible for such dismal support of his beloved hospital.

Lost in sweet dreams of revenge, he paid no attention to the discussion of the embassy to Suna and the terms of signing a peace treaty with the defeated village. Indeed, the veteran was not overly concerned with the political maneuvers of the village leadership. Much more important was the fact that most competent medical ninjas were being sent to the front, and the remaining staff simply could not meet the demand for qualified medical personnel.

Therefore, the old Hyuga patiently waited his turn and tried not to exert too much chakra on those around him, remembering the number of shinobi who did not survive due to lack of timely qualified assistance and those who became disabled due to the lack of medicines in the hospital.

"Hyuga-san, what can you say about the hospital?" the Hokage addressed the veteran, after all the more pressing issues had been discussed and decisions made.

"I can say a lot, and the overwhelming majority of those words would make even dockworkers blush, so I'll just present the statistics," the medical ninja grimaced. "Over the past year, three hundred twenty-nine shinobi have died simply because they did not wait their turn for treatment or due to the absence of necessary medicines at the time of surgery. Another seven hundred remain disabled simply because all available personnel were occupied saving the dying. At present, there are only ninety-three medical ninjas of the fourth and fifth degrees working in the main hospital and its branches, twelve of the third degree, and only three of the second degree. Not a single first-degree. Considering that just a month ago we were already struggling with an influx of patients, and after the recent departure of a significant number of experienced staff to the front with Iwa, it can be confidently stated that losses will only continue to rise. I have on my desk about twenty resignation letters simply because medical ninjas do not even have time to properly rest between shifts, and cases of fainting due to simple chakra exhaustion are becoming more common. Moreover, over the past three years of war, the number of medics has halved due to combat losses, with about twenty new ones coming in, none of whom have risen above the fourth degree. If this trend continues and the village does not allocate funds for the training of new medical ninjas, then in the near future, combat losses will reach a much more significant figure, and recovery after the war will take us more than a decade. That's all from me."

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