At that moment, Shikamaru and Choji exchanged a glance before turning to face the other three.
"Wait a minute... why are you three so quiet today?"
Raising a brow, Shikamaru looked Naruto up and down. Normally, that idiot would've jumped right in to help roast Choji, but today he was weirdly silent.
And looking closely—his complexion was way off. A pale grayish-white hue clung to his face, and beads of cold sweat shimmered on his forehead.
"Hey—Naruto, are you okay?"
Choji noticed too now. It was obvious: this kind of expression only came from real pain.
"I'm fine... just... my hands still hurt a bit..."
Forcing a smile, Naruto grit his teeth as he spoke. Only then did they notice his hands were wrapped in thick bandages—same with Sasuke and Hinata.
"...Don't worry. It's just a bit of pain... Still, if I'd known we'd be punished by standing, I wouldn't have come to class today."
Hinata's face was pale as well, her voice barely a whisper. It was clear now—their conditions were all thanks to that hellish training from the day before.
Though she'd mentally prepared herself, Hinata realized she had still underestimated how painful and intense this round would be. Even pouring every ounce of chakra into shielding her hands, her fingers had suffered serious burns.
Though she'd used expensive herbs to treat them, the residual burns still screamed with relentless agony.
Same for Sasuke and Naruto. Worse, their hands had been chemically boosted to regenerate faster, which only made the pain of new flesh forming over destroyed skin ten times more brutal.
"I'm... fine..."
Sasuke's voice was low and hoarse. But just as the words left his lips, the world tilted. Darkness engulfed his vision as he swayed and—thump—collapsed to the ground.
"Hey—! Sasuke?! You okay?!"
Choji cried out in alarm. Naruto barely managed to turn his head.
"...Heh... that smug jerk... guess he couldn't hang after all..."
No sooner had Naruto muttered the words than the world blurred for him too. With a dull crash, he dropped like a bag of bricks.
"Naruto?!"
Shikamaru's calm shattered. The usually lazy boy rushed to catch his friend and shouted to Choji, "Choji! Grab Sasuke—we're getting them to the hospital!"
Meanwhile, Hinata chuckled quietly where she leaned against the wall. Her body, long since drained, slowly slid down to sit on the floor. As darkness clouded her own vision, she whispered smugly and bitterly:
"...See...? You two... there's no way..."
"You'll ever beat me..."
(TL: Inferiority Complex much.)
---
So, how to put it? The situation right now was... pretty damn tragic.
"Ow ow ow ow ow!!"
Naruto's face scrunched up like a steamed bun as the nurse worked on his hands. Her expression showed real pity as she spoke softly, "Hold still—there's still some iron sand stuck under your skin."
The blonde's hands were a terrifying, raw red—like they'd been skinned alive. Beneath the exposed muscle, tiny black specks glinted in the light—iron sand shards embedded deep within the flesh.
That was the aftermath of yesterday's training. The spinning sand not only ripped a layer of skin off his hands but also drove those tiny shards deep into the muscle, like a thousand embedded needles.
The only way to remove them? One. By. One. With a needle. Each time it poked, it sent lightning bolts of pain through him.
"Aaagh!!"
Before Naruto could cry out again, another agonized shout came from a nearby bed—Sasuke's. His injuries weren't surface-level like Naruto's. His were internal, caused by high-voltage electrocution.
His training pot had been rigged with a full-on 1000-volt current. Each brief contact might have seemed survivable, but accumulated over time, the internal damage was no joke. If he hadn't already gained some resistance from that previous electric-chair training, he'd probably be dead.
A medic-nin pressed her palm against his chest, steadily channeling healing chakra to repair the scorched organs inside.
"Oi, Sasuke! That scream was pathetic!"
Naruto's pain turned smug the instant he heard Sasuke yell. Sasuke grit his teeth and growled through clenched jaws.
"Shut up... you damn dead-last... you screamed first!"
"Yeah, but I didn't wail like a dying pig! You should just quit now!"
"I was... about to say the same to you!"
The pain stripped away their filters, and the two boys snapped back and forth. Meanwhile, their nurses took the chance to speed up the healing.
Hinata, in contrast, was eerily quiet. Of course, it wasn't that she felt no pain—far from it. She'd broken her fingers in training more times than she could count. This kind of pain was already familiar.
That said, her condition wasn't much better. Her hands were swollen and red, the tissue scorched so thoroughly it had begun to rot. In modern terms, she had third-degree burns. Luckily, this was the ninja world—healing techniques here worked miracles. They just had to purge the dead flesh and regenerate the new.
Problem was, that process hurt like hell. Healing accelerated the pain as well as the regeneration.
"Um, Lady Hinata, are you okay?"
The young female medic treating her looked at her with awe and worry. She knew just how severe Hinata's injuries were—this kind of damage would leave most adults howling in agony. But the Hyuga heiress sat there like ice. Not a single cry. Not even a wince.
It wasn't because she wasn't in pain. In fact, sweat dripped from her pale chin to the floor in steady drops. She was just enduring it all through sheer force of will.
"This... isn't Mystical Palm Technique, is it?"
Hinata asked softly. She remembered from the anime: Mystical Palm was an A-rank healing jutsu, super effective and used by top medics. If they had that, she wouldn't still be in so much pain.
"Ah—no, sorry. This is just standard Healing Jutsu. I haven't learned Mystical Palm yet..."
The medic looked down in embarrassment. Clearly, she sensed Hinata's dissatisfaction.
Hinata shook her head and waved it off. "It's fine. Keep going."
She'd already realized it: even with preparation, her improvised "Nanto Seiken" training regimen was brutally harsh. But that only confirmed it—this path would lead to power.
Still, there was no denying the damage it caused. If they kept ending up in the hospital, it might affect morale—and worse, draw unwanted attention from higher-ups.
So...
Hinata smiled coldly.
She remembered clearly: mastering Mystical Palm took extremely refined chakra control. In the original story, very few had learned it. Tsunade and Shizune, sure—but among the Konoha 12? Sakura and Ino were both known to have learned it.
Well, well, well~~ Since I've been suffering this much... wouldn't it be unfair if those two had it easy?
"Excuse me, miss... quick question. You sell scrolls for Healing and Mystical Palm at the Konoha Library, right?"
Hinata smiled sweetly as she turned to the medic.
"Y-yes, Lady Hinata. They're available at the library—but they're not cheap. Are you thinking of learning them yourself?"
"Not quite~ I've got a couple of friends who might be interested. I figured I'd pick up a little 'gift' for them."