"How are they doing?"

Before leaving the Sand Village, he deliberately made a trip to the special department within the hospital. It was the former medicinal research lab, now transformed into a rather specialized room that remained a restricted area for outsiders.

He pushed open the door and looked at the figures lying on the hospital beds.

"Lord Kazekage."

Several Sand Village ninja were immediately startled upon seeing him and moved to bow. He stopped them with a raised hand.

"How is the condition?"

"Fortunately, Lord Kazekage’s prescribed medicine prevented us from experiencing an overly severe rejection reaction," the Sand Village ninja replied with a smile.

"Although the rejection problem has been managed, the cells being introduced are those of the Third Raikage, and the strength of his cellular composition is no joke."

Yuji approached one of the Sand Village ninja lying in bed and lifted a corner of the patient uniform, revealing a distinctly different patch of skin on the abdomen.

The wound showed no signs of stitching and appeared as a single solid piece. However, at the border between the two different skin colors there were faint signs of cellular stress where the different tissues were still integrating.

He had transplanted the Third Raikage’s cells into selected Sand Village experimental subjects. He had also cultivated and preserved a separate portion of the Third Raikage’s flesh and blood cells for ongoing research.

After an extended period of study, the Third Raikage’s corpse had yielded most of its value to the Sand Village’s research. A few days prior, he had arranged for the corpse to be quietly delivered to the Land of Rivers and handed over to Sasori for use as material.

"It seems that to completely absorb and assimilate these cells will require additional time."

Yuji opened his eyes fully and observed the person’s physical condition carefully, then said softly, "Can you use lightning-attribute chakra now?"

"Yes."

The Sand Village ninja nodded and extended his hand, revealing a faint flash of lightning crackling in his palm.

"Is there any black lightning?"

Yuji glanced toward the other figures resting inside the room. They exchanged glances and shook their heads.

"Nothing to worry about. Being able to extract certain technique properties from the Third Raikage’s cells and channel them during the process of assimilation is already a very significant achievement."

He said it encouragingly.

The movement of the Third Raikage’s cells was something he had carefully selected and prepared for. For an ordinary ninja, extracting the technique properties embedded within those cells and being able to reproduce them while simultaneously accepting and assimilating the foreign cellular material was genuinely difficult.

He offered a few more words of encouragement, expressing genuine appreciation for their willingness to serve the village in this way, and acknowledged that what they had achieved was already impressive.

After a brief exchange, he excused himself and left.

He found Chiyo and indicated that he needed to go out to handle some business connected to the village’s ongoing development projects.

Chiyo did not think too much of it. She assumed it was the same as before, another round of negotiations with small nations about resources or cooperation arrangements. She never imagined that this time he would be leaving entirely alone without any escort.

He was planning to slip into the Land of Water by himself.

If she had known the truth, her anger would not have been something simple to manage. After all, the Third Kazekage’s death outside the village still remained an unresolved mystery to this day. In the eyes of Chiyo and the others, the Third Kazekage had also died outside the village under unknown circumstances.

Now this Fourth Kazekage, who had only been in power for half a year, was doing something that carried the same kind of risk. If something happened to him as it had to the Third Kazekage, the blow to the Sand Village would not merely be significant. It would be fatal.

After changing into ordinary clothes, he quietly left the Sand Village.

The following day, he arrived at the defensive line the village had established along the coastal area. He naturally could not show himself openly.

If word reached the village, his whereabouts would immediately be discovered by Chiyo and the others. Therefore, his brief stop here was simply to meet with his students.

The Great Ninja War had been going on for one year now. Compared to the battlefields facing the Hidden Leaf and Hidden Stone Villages, the pressure on this particular front was without question the lightest of all active fronts.

The Hidden Mist Village had not taken any major offensive action from the beginning of the conflict. But even without deploying heavy troops, the Hidden Mist’s infiltration activities and the objectively persistent large-scale squad harassment operations during the relative quieter periods were still considerable threats in their own right.

Furthermore, the Sand Village had arranged its defensive forces here mostly around its newer and less experienced ninja. For them, confronting the Hidden Mist Village directly was still extremely dangerous regardless of the scale.

On the other hand, because of the different battlefield environment created by the coastal terrain, the fighting between the Sand Village and the Hidden Mist was primarily dispersed high-frequency squad-based combat, similar in structure to the training operations Pakura and her group had conducted here previously, though the difficulty level and degree of danger were now somewhat higher.

However, thanks to the training they had accumulated during that year of coastal operations, Pakura and the others had gained considerable experience fighting the Hidden Mist Village, allowing them to quickly integrate into the tactical system and adapt to the battlefield upon returning to active duty.

The village, even though it did not pay particular attention to the battle reports from this quieter front, showed that among those stationed here, the most outstanding performances were undoubtedly Pakura and Yashamaru. Sakamoto and Fukushima Taki were also performing well.

At minimum, none of them wanted to be further embarrassed in front of their teacher.

That night, a small Sand Village squad of ten was concealed within a pile of rocks on a rocky outcrop in the desert. This area was one of the Hidden Mist Village’s preferred routes for infiltrating the Land of Wind, and also a frequent contested ground between Sand Village and Hidden Mist forces.

The ten-person squad was responsible for both reconnaissance and defending against any sudden Hidden Mist movements. Two Sand Village ninja were on active guard duty while the other eight took the opportunity to rest.

The night sandstorm carried a biting chill that seeped through every crack in the rocks and reached all of them. Their faces showed the weariness of people who had been out on continuous missions for some time without returning to base.

Pakura leaned against the rock with her eyes closed, drifting toward sleep.

At that moment, without any warning, something suddenly landed on her. She instantly opened her eyes, grabbed the object by reflex, and her body tensed sharply.

When she saw clearly what was in her hand, her expression shifted to stunned disbelief.

Then her eyes lit up with genuine joy.

The object was all too familiar. It was the same beautifully crafted sword she had received as a gift years ago.

After recovering from the shock, she immediately stood up and looked toward the outside of the rock pile. Not far away, a familiar figure was standing there, waving at her with a relaxed gesture.

At this close range, neither of the two patrolling teammates had noticed anything at all.

"What is wrong?" One of the guards, noticing Pakura’s sudden movement, asked.

"I am stepping out for a moment," Pakura replied.

Then she turned and woke three of the others nearby.

"You two come with me as well."

"Huh?"

Sakamoto, still half-asleep and somewhat dazed, looked confused.

"Hurry up. Do not dawdle," Pakura said with a cold urgency that left no room for argument.

The four of them left together, moving quickly toward the figure waiting in the distance.