Chapter 71

"Kushi-chan, I'm here," I loudly announced to the surroundings as soon as I found myself inside the barrier that surrounded the Uzumaki women's dwelling.

"Ryu-nii! You're here!"

With that cry, a red streak flew out from behind nearby bushes and jumped right into me.

"Uff!"

Stepping back a pace, I caught the red-haired little one in my arms and spun her around in the air, eliciting happy squeals and giggles.

"So, did Mito-ba-chan give you any trouble?" I asked her, finally setting her down on the ground.

"Oh-ho-ho, don't worry, Ryu-kun, Kushina is a well-behaved girl and behaves perfectly, especially when she knows you're coming to visit," the ancient Uzumaki informed me, coming out of the house and smiling warmly.

Since Ma started going missing on missions, home had become quite dull and lonely, not to mention the decline in the quality of food, so another invitation to visit, this time from Mito Uzumaki, came in very handy.

At first, one, then another along with an offer to study fuinjutsu, and my visits to distant relatives became a regular occurrence. In other words, when I had free time or wanted to study seals, I went to the Senju district to see Mito and Kushina. The guards at the gates had long since memorized me and let me pass without any questions. Of course, this didn't mean I practically moved in with them, but I showed up two or four times a week for sure.

However, the significantly increased workload at the hospital over the past six months consumed a lot of time, which forced me to even reduce the number of clones to four, excluding the researcher and the one studying fuinjutsu, and redistributing the rest to several different tasks instead of just one.

Given the almost complete depletion of chakra by the end of the shift, sending a Shadow Clone made no sense — it dispersed literally after a few hours of work. And it's not just that the number of patients increased only twofold due to the reduced number of high-level iryo-nin, but also due to the war, severely wounded soldiers started arriving, albeit somewhat treated on the front lines, who needed further recovery under the supervision of medics, as well as the teams that were engaged in capturing enemy shinobi saboteurs sneaking past the border posts.

Even Ma ended up on a hospital bed a couple of times with moderate injuries, despite my medical seal, which I had to apply practically anew after every other outing. No, seriously, why does she keep rushing ahead?!

For a full-fledged Jonin, her taijutsu level barely reaches the average level, and every time she risks against more experienced opponents — it's just suicidal! And she continues to do so even after I've had a serious talk with her about it! And the fact that my heart stops and it becomes impossible to breathe every time I see her injured is just too much!

The only plus in the current situation is the increase in my iryo-nin experience — when there aren't enough hands, even novice medics are allowed to perform complex surgeries. And considering my huge reserves for this profession and the ability to create Shadow Clones, sometimes I work in four wards simultaneously.

So, if this emergency continues a little longer, the next degree won't be far off! At least with medical ninjutsu, I've already learned to work a little, including patching up small damage to chakra channels and somehow restoring the burnt nerve endings in various taijutsu-damaged limbs, which is also not bad.

Of course, I shouldn't have abandoned fuinjutsu, but the alternative that came in the form of Mito-ba-chan turned out to be much more effective. Under her guidance, I realized the difference between a talented self-taught person with textbooks and a student of a master.

Both can achieve mastery, but the former only through trial and error, while the latter by obeying the guiding hand of the teacher. It's clear which case will yield faster results. By comparison — on my own, I reached the level of a solid apprentice, capable of using fairly complex and multifunctional seals, modifying existing ones, and creating relatively simple ones from scratch.

On the other hand, an ordinary Uzumaki can CREATE complex seals by the age of nine, which I can only modify for now. The difference in level is obvious. Again, where I need to draw a seal and test it in action to find any errors, then redraw it, repeating the process many times to achieve a positive result, with Mito, all I have to do is show her the scroll, and a couple of moments later, she'll simply point out the mistake and explain it. All I have to do is correct it, and the seal is ready.