The Konoha Hidden Leaf Village has established branch hospitals in major cities of the Land of Fire to provide medical treatment for commoners and nobles alike. Since these are not the main Konoha Medical Department, there aren't many true medical ninja stationed there. They primarily offer medicinal treatments, and even if other personnel are needed for assistance, they are mostly ordinary people who have received education and training, and do not use medical ninjutsu.
The capital is where the monarch of the Land of Fire resides and is a symbol of the nation, so naturally, a large number of people live there. Therefore, the branch hospital established here is also quite large and has more medical ninja stationed, with its medical standards ranking among the best, perhaps even the very best, among all branch hospitals in the Land of Fire.
Mizuki rushed into the branch hospital with Asuna. The guards at the entrance, seeing the speed at which they charged in, instinctively stepped forward. Although they saw the Konoha headbands on them, they couldn't relax their vigilance.
Although the value of a branch hospital is not as high as the Konoha Medical Department, it still houses medical ninja trained by the Medical Department. Medical ninja are very precious resources, and Konoha Hidden Leaf Village's medical standards are the best among the Five Great Shinobi Villages. There's no guarantee that spies won't infiltrate to gather intelligence or assassinate medical ninja.
Therefore, in addition to medical ninja performing medical duties, Konoha Hidden Leaf Village also assigns Konoha ninja to guard. Besides some experienced ninja, newly graduated genin are often sent here for internships to gain experience.
"Hello, may I ask if she is…" The guard who stepped forward hadn't finished speaking when Mizuki anxiously interrupted him.
"I am Uchiha Mizuki, and she is the Hokage's daughter, Fumoei Asuna! Quickly call out your hospital's highest-ranking official and provide the best medical assistance! Hurry!" Mizuki immediately stated her purpose.
The guard's face showed surprise. He looked at Asuna, whose face was covered in blood, and thought she closely resembled the portrait of Asuna he had seen in newspapers—as a ninja granted the title of 'Flash' by the ninja world, she naturally qualified to appear in newspapers—he dared not delay, and sent his companion to call the person in charge, while he accompanied Mizuki inside.
Shortly after they entered, the others also arrived. Mizuki had run so fast that they almost couldn't keep up. After showing their Konoha ninja identification to the guards at the entrance, they asked, "Where are the people who just came in? Two girls."
"They're being taken to the emergency room. I'll have someone take you there," the guard said, then called a nurse from the hospital to accompany Fujimura Yuuki and the others to the emergency room entrance.
Upon arriving at the emergency room entrance, they saw Mizuki pacing restlessly, while the red light above the emergency room flickered, indicating that surgery was in progress.
"How's the situation?" Fujimura Yuuki asked.
"I don't know. The medical ninja in charge came out, looked, and had a very grim expression. I'm afraid the situation isn't good." Mizuki couldn't hide the worry on her face.
"Damn it. We were tricked by that guy." Fujimura Yuuki punched the wall, ignoring the pain. He still couldn't understand how that guy managed to avoid the explosion. Under those circumstances, Tobi shouldn't have had the opportunity to use any other ninjutsu; everyone had seen it clearly.
"There's no point in being anxious now. We can only wait for the results here," Uchiha Ken slowly said. Although his expression was calm, a ripple of emotion stirred within him. Asuna was caught in the explosion, just like his father's death scene years ago. Because the impression was so profound, every time he saw such an explosion, it reminded him of that situation.
After his heart-to-heart with Risa, Uchiha Ken's reactions were no longer as strong as before, but they would never completely disappear.
Time passed by the minute. By the time Hyuga Hiashi arrived at the hospital, Asuna still hadn't come out of the operating room. Although there weren't many true medical ninja in the branch hospital, and treatment certainly wouldn't be like in the Medical Department where all personnel were medical ninja, everyone was still burning with anxiety.
Finally, the light went out, and the medical ninja in charge of the main treatment walked out, looking exhausted. Because there weren't many medical ninja, the chakra consumption of these attending physicians was always particularly high. In any field requiring medical ninjutsu, if there were many surgeries, there wasn't even time for shifts, and having other ordinary physicians perform them would be too slow.
However, a hint of relief was on their face, causing the stone in everyone's hearts to slightly drop. They knew Asuna was the Hokage's daughter, and since they understood this, yet could still show such an expression, what they were about to say should be good news.
Sure enough, their first sentence was: "Miss Asuna is out of danger, and now it's just a matter of recuperation."
"That's great." The stone in Mizuki's heart completely fell, and she sat weakly on a nearby chair.
"Thank you for your efforts. I will write a letter to inform the Hokage about this," Hyuga Hiashi nodded to the doctor. "Please compile a list of everyone involved in this surgery and give it to me. I will certainly apply for commendations for you."
"Our credit isn't particularly great. Miss Asuna defended her vital points as much as possible and received emergency medication in time. Moreover, Miss Asuna has an excellent physique. If it were an ordinary person, they would probably still be in critical condition, but Asuna successfully pulled through," the medical ninja said.
"Regardless, your efforts are commendable," Hyuga Hiashi said earnestly. "Please give me the list when you have it. When can we see Asuna?"
"Let us observe the situation for a while. Everyone is tense, so please calm down first and come back to the hospital in the afternoon," the medical ninja said.
"Alright, thank you," Hyuga Hiashi nodded in thanks.
Just then, the operating room door opened, and nurses pushed out a cart. Asuna lay on it, her face pale, still unconscious. Mizuki, standing beside her, looked at Asuna and felt a pang of heartache.
In her heart, her resentment towards that Tobi was almost overflowing. She had known before that this Tobi was their enemy. If there might have been any variables before, now there was only one outcome: she would never let this bastard go!
Asuna was about to be taken to a ward by the nurses, and the others also needed to re-organize their thoughts and calm down. Hyuga Hiashi patted Mizuki's shoulder. Mizuki turned around, saw Hyuga Hiashi's gaze, and understood what she should do now, only reluctantly watching Asuna being taken away.
#
Asuna's last memory was of an explosion so bright it seemed to blind her, and a deafening roar that almost ruptured her eardrums. After feeling a dizzying spin, she lost consciousness. When she woke up, she found herself lying in a hospital room. She instinctively moved, and a piercing pain shot through her body, making her gasp.
Asuna's gaze shifted slightly downwards, and she saw the bandages wrapped around her body and smelled the scent of medicine. To be honest, the scent of this medicine was indescribable.
Asuna gently exhaled, feeling joy that she had survived. At that distance, she couldn't be sure if she could truly escape. She had just tried her best to use every means at her disposal. Now it seemed her luck was good; she hadn't died in the explosion.
Speaking of which, what happened to that Tobi? After feeling the joy of life, the first thing Asuna thought of was Tobi's situation. Tobi was a dangerous enemy of the ninja village. If he had died in the explosion, then a great enemy would have been removed from the ninja village, and the price she paid would be worth it.
Asuna felt that Tobi shouldn't have had any other way to escape, believing he was already dead. Just as she was secretly pleased about this, someone entered.
The person who entered was Mizuki. At first, she hadn't noticed Asuna was awake, holding some daily care items. When she turned around, she saw Asuna looking at her, her eyes as bright as ever.
"Asuna!" Mizuki let out a small gasp, taking a step forward, almost embracing Asuna. But remembering Asuna's injuries, she didn't make such a move, only excitedly saying, "You're awake."
"I'm sorry for making you worry," Asuna said apologetically, seeing Mizuki's expression and knowing she had worried about her for a long time.
"It's good that you're awake, it's good." Mizuki pulled the door open again. "I'll go call the others over."
After a while, everyone else arrived, including Ten'ichi, the guardian ninja of the Fire Temple. They were all happy about Asuna's awakening. Hyuga Hiashi asked, "Asuna, how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine." Although Asuna's face lacked some color, and her relatively slender physique gave her a frail appearance, her physical condition was actually not bad.
Her slender body was only due to the Fumori clan's influence on physical growth; even drinking the Shikkotsu Forest spring water, which greatly improved her physique, hadn't affected this bloodline inheritance. However, her strength was by no means small, as she also possessed the Senju clan's bloodline, which was equally excellent in terms of cellular activity.
Another point was her practice of Sage Mode; the powerful natural energy, each time it passed through her body, subtly affected her constitution. It was precisely because of this that, even without relatively complete medical measures, Asuna had recovered quickly. An ordinary person would probably still be in critical condition now.
"How long have I been unconscious?" Asuna asked.
"Two days. We initially thought you'd wake up much sooner," Hyuga Hiashi said. "The Daimyo was also quite concerned about your safety, so he had us temporarily come to watch over you."
"Concerned, huh." Asuna pouted. She understood the true meaning behind the Daimyo's concern. If it weren't for fear of incurring the wrath of Konoha Hidden Leaf Village, the Daimyo probably wouldn't be so worried; he would likely be secretly pleased.
"But he should also feel some heartache, having lost Tobi," she said.
Asuna originally thought everyone else felt the same way, but she didn't expect their expressions to be somewhat subtle, which made her a little curious. She asked, "What's wrong?"
"Asuna, that bastard isn't dead. He's still alive," Mizuki spoke for everyone.
"What?" Asuna was a little surprised. She didn't yet understand the detailed situation, thinking Tobi had been lucky enough to survive like herself. "Then he's really lucky."
Hearing the tone of Asuna's words, Mizuki knew Asuna had misunderstood, and quickly added, "No, Asuna, that guy Tobi wasn't injured at all! After you were knocked unconscious by the explosion, he appeared before us completely unharmed, as if he hadn't been caught in the explosion at all."
"What?!" Asuna's eyes widened instantly. This truly shocked her. "How could he be completely unharmed after an explosion like that?"
"We can't understand it either, but that's the result," Hyuga Hiashi said.
"That shouldn't be," Asuna showed a very puzzled expression. "Unless the one caught in the explosion was a Shadow Clone, but that's impossible. From his reaction speed, he was exactly the same as the Tobi who fought me earlier. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been possible to trigger such an explosion."
If it were a Shadow Clone, due to the chakra distribution, it would result in a decrease in combat ability. If the Tobi who appeared in Asuna's field of vision at the end was a Shadow Clone, with the physical abilities of a Shadow Clone, he wouldn't have had time to use Fire Release before Asuna's blade fell.
Asuna had heard her father talk about the tactics Tobi used. The Third Raikage used a similar method to fight Asuna, and the Third Tsuchikage did the same. This tactic has a very high requirement: excellent timing. If the explosion is too early, it won't harm the opponent; if it's too late, the opponent will cut off your head first.
Asuna had judged that although Tobi claimed her speed was as slow as a crawl in his eyes, Tobi's physical abilities were barely enough to keep up with her. If it were a Shadow Clone, he wouldn't have been able to seize that opportunity and would have only been killed by her.
Hearing Asuna confirm that Tobi's physical reaction ability was exactly the same as before, everyone felt it couldn't have been a Shadow Clone. Then there were only two possibilities: one, Tobi possessed a mysterious and unpredictable secret jutsu; or two, the Tobi at the start of the battle was a Shadow Clone, which could explain this point.
"If it's the latter, then there's nothing to fear about this Tobi; he's just a bit stronger. But if it's the former, I think everyone needs to be careful; his abilities might exceed our imagination," Asuna said seriously.
Then, Asuna stated that she would write a detailed report of this battle and send it back to Konoha Hidden Leaf Village, so that the Konoha higher-ups would be aware of this matter. Originally, everyone's arrival in the capital included the responsibility of gathering intelligence, so they had no objections to this, nodding in agreement, and the report would be written by Asuna herself.