Chương 159: Yugakure Is the Enemy Within

Setting aside their status as members of the Fourth Hokage's personal guard, Dongye zhen and his team were still ANBU operatives. Their missions came directly from the Hokage, and the Hokage alone. Even if they encountered a Konoha jonin while on assignment, that jonin had no authority over them. Should circumstances change unexpectedly, the ANBU captain held absolute decision-making power.

In other words, if an ANBU squad witnessed a Konoha team in danger and intervening would jeopardize their own mission, they were fully within their rights to ignore it. The Hokage would not hold them accountable afterward. That said, most ANBU were still human. Faced with fellow villagers in peril, they would usually lend a hand. Only Root's operatives behaved like emotionless machines, watching comrades die without batting an eye if it served the mission.

Sarutobi Hizuki had likely explained all this to Tokuma's team beforehand. That was why, even after the husky recognized Dongye zhen's identity earlier, none of them had approached to greet him. Now that the dog had come looking for them anyway, something serious must have happened. Loki twitched his nose.

"ANBU aren't all that professional. I can still identify you by scent." Yugao shoved the dog's face away.

"Not everyone has a nose as ridiculous as yours." ANBU members routinely used special solutions to suppress their scent as much as possible. The reason Loki could still identify them was simple. He was a dog. And aside from Yamato, Dongye zhen, Hayate, and Yugao were all familiar enough with him for their scents to remain recognizable. Dongye zhen sighed.

"Quit wasting time. What do you want?"

"Well..." Loki scratched behind an ear.

"Something went wrong at the palace. Our protection target is about to die."

"I see." Dongye zhen immediately turned.

"Let's go." Loki blinked.

"Won't that interfere with your mission?"

"Nah. If the mission fails, I'll just blame it on you."

"..." Then Dongye zhen glanced toward his own teammates.

"And the three of you. Have you become too dependent on my sensory abilities?" The three froze.

"That mutt got right up in your faces and none of you noticed. Your vigilance is slipping." Yamato, Hayate, and Yugao collectively fell silent. A short while later, they arrived at a reception hall within the Daimyo's palace. Waiting there were Tokuma's four-man team, Chikura and a squad of Yugakure shinobi, along with several lavishly dressed ministers. Sarutobi Hizuki didn't appear particularly anxious. The death of a protection target would mean mission failure, certainly. But the Daimyo had plenty of sons.

If one died, another could inherit. The broader situation wouldn't change. The ministers looked worried on the surface, but inwardly they were calm. Who became Daimyo made little difference to them. Their positions were secure either way. Only Chikura wore a dark expression. He looked genuinely upset. Without wasting words, Dongye zhen was led into an inner bedroom. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

There he finally saw the Land of Hot Water's crown prince and future Daimyo—Yuangeng. He appeared roughly the same age as his younger brother Yuanchen. At the moment, however, he lay motionless in bed. His complexion was deathly pale. He looked more like a corpse than a living man. After a brief examination, Dongye zhen determined that the man had fallen into a deep coma. There was only one wound. A stab wound to the lower abdomen.

Under normal circumstances, such an injury wasn't fatal by shinobi-world medical standards. The real problem was the poison coating the blade. That venom was dragging him steadily toward the Pure Land. Emergency treatment had already been administered, but it would only buy him another thirty minutes at most. Not enough time for an ordinary physician to identify the toxin and formulate an antidote. Even using the Delicate Illness Extraction Technique would be difficult.

The technique required painstaking precision, extracting poison from individual cells little by little. It wasn't fast. This highlighted one of the key differences between civilians and shinobi. Ninja might be fragile compared to monsters, but their resistance to physical trauma was still astonishing. Many could smash through several trees and survive. While chakra couldn't force poison out like internal energy from martial arts novels, it did allow shinobi to endure toxins far longer.

That was why Sunagakure's poisons were a nuisance rather than a game-breaking advantage against the other Great Villages. Ordinary civilians possessed chakra too. But without training, they couldn't exploit it the way shinobi could. Fortunately, there happened to be a technique perfectly suited to the situation. Sage Art: Sealing Technique—Yin-Yang Seal Dongye zhen first stabilized the patient's life force with a sealing technique.

Then he administered several antidotes tailored to the visible symptoms, slowing the poison's spread. Immediately afterward, he ordered Yugao to begin preparing the sterile extraction solution required for treatment. A civilian's vitality was nowhere near that of a ninja. In the past, Dongye zhen wouldn't have been confident he could remove the toxin before the patient died. But things were different now. After a lengthy and meticulous treatment process, he finally succeeded.

Not only did he save the man's life, he casually healed the stab wound as well. The poison had already damaged Yuangeng's foundation. For the rest of his life, he would likely suffer chronic weakness. His lifespan had probably been shortened by at least five to ten years. But that was no longer Konoha's concern. Once the treatment was complete, Dongye zhen released the Yin-Yang Seal. The physician who had been standing nearby looked openly envious of the miraculous methods available to ninja.

Unfortunately, he possessed no such abilities himself.

"How is the Young Lord now?" Dongye zhen wiped his hands.

"He'll live. Just make sure he recuperates properly." The doctor nearly sagged with relief.

"Thank you. Thank you, Lord Shinobi." When Dongye zhen emerged from the room, he gave Sarutobi Hizuki's team a small nod. All four visibly relaxed. At least the mission hadn't failed. Dongye zhen glanced at them.

"If I remember correctly, the attackers never got close to the Young Lord. And nobody stayed behind during their retreat." He frowned.

"So how was he injured?" Sarutobi Hizuki turned toward Chikura, Yugakure's strongest shinobi. The man looked uncomfortable.

"It was one of our own." His voice carried obvious embarrassment.

"A member of the protection detail was bribed by Kumogakure." An insider. There it was. Sometimes the greatest threat didn't come from outside enemies. It came from traitors within. After a moment's thought, Sarutobi Hizuki asked,"What happened to the rogue ninja?"

"We've dealt with them." Chikura hesitated.

"However... we still can't lower our guard. Who knows how many more sleeper agents are hiding within Yugakure?"

"We'll conduct a thorough investigation and purge them. I guarantee this won't happen again." Neither Dongye zhen nor Sarutobi Hizuki believed a word of it. During the previous battle outside Yugakure, a fair number of Hot Water shinobi had practically thrown themselves into the meat grinder for Kumogakure. How many friends and relatives of those people still lived in the village? Could Chikura truly purge them all? Impossible. Small villages survived by playing both sides.

No leadership would ever allow every faction inside the village to align completely with a single power. Rather than waste time on a purge, Chikura would be better served figuring out how to survive the wrath of the future Daimyo. After all, the village he'd funded with his own treasury had nearly gotten him killed. Anyone would be furious. No wonder this pathetic village would one day decline so badly that Hidan could practically plow through it alone from one end to the other.

Since the crisis had been resolved, Dongye zhen's team had no intention of lingering. Just then, the Minister of Defense suddenly spoke.

"Um... honored shinobi of Konoha." He looked at Dongye zhen with hopeful eyes.

"Since you were able to save the Young Lord, you must be an extraordinary medical ninja, correct?" Dongye zhen stared at him.

"You sick?"

"Huh?" The minister froze.

"No, no, that's not what I meant. I was hoping you could—" The Minister of State immediately yanked on his sleeve and cut him off. Then he turned to Dongye zhen with a polite smile.

"We have no further concerns. Thank you for Konoha's assistance. The Land of Hot Water will remember this kindness." Dongye zhen nodded. He understood exactly what the Defense Minister had wanted. The man hoped he could save the old Daimyo. Unfortunately... The old man was already at death's door. In Dongye zhen's perception, his life force had nearly burned out. This wasn't injury. It wasn't disease. It was simple old age. The natural end of a human life. Ordinary medical ninjutsu couldn't cure that.

Of course, the shinobi world wasn't an ordinary world. With supernatural power, extending a life for a few more years was entirely possible. All it required was transferring vitality. Techniques like One's Own Life Reincarnation or Dragon Life Reincarnation could do it. The price, however, was one life for another. Dongye zhen didn't possess those resurrection techniques. Yet his near-perfect Yang Release and abundant life force would still allow him to prolong the old man's life by several years if he wished.

The problem was simple. He wasn't nearly saintly enough to sacrifice his own vitality for a dying old noble. The Daimyo wasn't his father. Why should he? The Minister of State clearly agreed. Otherwise he wouldn't have stopped his colleague. Truth be told, most of them were waiting eagerly for the old man to finally kick the bucket so the new ruler could ascend the throne. A white funeral shroud. A room full of ministers weeping tears of joy while pretending to mourn. Wasn't that the perfect ending?