Ch.347 They Still Stick to Reason!

Soon, medical teams from each village entered the Death Forest.

Under a large tree in the Death Forest.

Suigetsu tilted his head and panted heavily: "This is ridiculous! Chōjūrō, did you see clearly just now? How was I blasted away like that?"

Hanging from a tree, equally immobilized, Chōjūrō replied, "I was flying too, didn't see it clearly!"

"Tch!"

Suigetsu spat lightly.

Chōjūrō looked a little downcast: "Ah, I lost so badly... Lord Mei Terumi will surely be disappointed in me!"

Suigetsu muttered in his heart: "My dream... I'm supposed to collect all seven ninja swords! How can I lose here? Uchiha Shinji is detestable!"

He was incredibly frustrated.

In the previous skirmish with Shinji, he hadn't actually performed as poorly as it appeared. He had been overly confident, thinking Shinji was exhausted from fighting continuously and had been forced into a desperate situation by Yakumo. This made him let his guard down.

Whoosh WhooshAt this moment, two medical shinobi from the Hidden Mist arrived and began treating them.

At the same time, medical shinobi from the Hidden Stone were digging through the forest.

Yes, they were digging!

Although the tree sea on the battlefield had calmed down after Yakumo's 'Wood Release' chakra was gone, returning to normal trees, Kurotsuchi was still trapped deep in the forest, almost dragged to its deepest part by the branches. Several medical shinobi from the Hidden Stone spent considerable effort to finally rescue the unconscious Kurotsuchi.

The leading jōnin of the Hidden Stone asked nervously, "Is she alright?"

The Hidden Stone medical ninja checked and sighed in relief: "She's fine, just chakra exhaustion, temporarily unconscious."

The Hidden Stone jōnin then remembered that 'Wood Release' could absorb chakra.

It was a good thing that Yakumo hadn't activated that ability of 'Wood Release,' or Kurotsuchi would be in a far worse state than just being unconscious.

Elsewhere...

The leading jōnin from the Hidden Cloud, along with two medical shinobi, arrived at the battlefield where Darui and the others had fought with Kyūmaro.

Looking at the dazed Darui and the hands-over-head Omoi, the Hidden Cloud jōnin yelled: "What are you doing? Have you lost even your confidence?"

Darui and Omoi both looked up.

The Hidden Cloud jōnin continued, "It's just one match. If you can't even get through this, how will you shoulder the future of our Hidden Cloud Village?"

Darui and Omoi lowered their heads in guilt.

Before long, these proud young shinobi from various villages, who had been so high and mighty before the exam, met again in the Hidden Leaf Hospital.

Seeing Kurotsuchi, who looked completely drained, as though her vitality had been sucked out, Suigetsu couldn't help but laugh: "Hey, you're in a pretty bad state, huh?"

Kurotsuchi coldly glared at Suigetsu: "You, the idiot with a cane, don't have the right to mock me!"

Obviously.

The blow from Shinji had struck Suigetsu's lumbar spine, and now he could only rely on a cane to walk.

The three from the Hidden Cloud walked past Kurotsuchi and Suigetsu.

Seeing that the Hidden Cloud trio had only wrapped some simple bandages, Suigetsu muttered, "Tch, these Hidden Cloud guys are really tough!"

Kurotsuchi nodded heavily.

Hearing Suigetsu's complaints behind them, Darui's face darkened. Omoi immediately turned around and snapped, "Hey, you idiot, who are you talking about? Want to throw hands?"

Kurotsuchi snorted coldly: "What are you being so arrogant about? Didn't you get your butt kicked too?"

Omoi immediately exploded in rage: "How dare you say that! Didn't you go after Kyūmaro? How is it that he swaggered in front of us without any trouble?"

Already on the verge of exploding, Kurotsuchi retorted angrily: "And didn't you say you were going to deal with Yakumo? But look, Yakumo's just fine!"

Darui sighed: "You should probably look around first."

After Darui's reminder, Kurotsuchi and Omoi quickly scanned their surroundings and noticed many Hidden Leaf patients in the hospital pointing at them, whispering. Some nurses even couldn't help but chuckle behind their hands.Seeing this, they had no choice but to keep quiet and make peace.

Suigetsu suddenly said in a mocking tone: "I didn't know Kyūmaro was a Hidden Mist ninja. Didn't expect him to be this strong."

This time, even Darui couldn't take it anymore and glared at Suigetsu.

"Get lost!"

At that moment, Gaara and his group from the Hidden Sand appeared in the hallway.

Compared to the embarrassed groups from the Hidden Mist, Hidden Stone, and Hidden Cloud, the three from the Hidden Sand appeared much more composed.

After his battle with Naruto, Gaara had taken some damage, but as a jinchūriki, his recovery was strong, so after simple treatment, he was mostly fine.

As for Temari and Kankuro, they had hardly fought at all, so they weren't injured.

Everyone looked at Gaara, their faces full of frustration.

Previously, they were all intimidated by Gaara's powerful chakra and didn't want to engage in direct confrontation with him.

But now, with the other villages' boys all having taken beatings from the Hidden Leaf ninja, they could no longer tolerate Gaara's arrogance.

Suigetsu was the first to speak up: "Tch, at least I was beaten by Uchiha Shinji. What about you? What's with the arrogance?"

Kurotsuchi shrugged: "I lost to Yakumo. What about you?"

Omoi added, "Yeah, I was beaten by Kyūmaro. What about you?"

Gaara hesitated for a moment.

Suigetsu dug into his ear and teased: "I heard you got beaten by a guy named Naruto Uzumaki, a 'bottom of the class' student from the Hidden Leaf ninja school, right? We lost to a few geniuses from the Hidden Leaf, and you couldn't even handle a bottom-of-the-class student? Aren't you embarrassed?"

Gaara looked surprised.

He really hadn't expected Suigetsu, who was all wrapped up in bandages and leaning on a cane, to mock him from this angle, and for a moment, he couldn't retort.

Just as the situation was about to escalate, Kusa Ino, dressed in the Hidden Leaf medical ninja uniform, appeared in front of them and softly reminded: "Please, this is the Hidden Leaf Hospital, keep it quiet!"

The already tense group shot glares at her.

"You..."

Kusa Ino flinched and took a few steps back.

At that moment, a voice called out: "Ino-sensei, what's going on?"

Looking up, Ino saw Shinji walking toward them. She quickly shook her head, signaling him not to interfere.

She knew these were ninja from other villages, very proud and hard to deal with.

Shinji, also dressed in the Hidden Leaf medical ninja uniform, arrived at the front of the group with a warm smile: "Everyone, is there something wrong with our Hidden Leaf Hospital?"

"How... how could there be?" Suigetsu laughed awkwardly, and Chōjūrō quickly pulled him away.

Kurotsuchi shot Shinji a wary glance and silently turned away.

Darui and Omoi exchanged looks, then put away their angry expressions and calmly walked away.

Gaara was still puzzled by how suddenly everyone calmed down, and was pulled away by Temari and Kankuro.

Once everyone had dispersed, Shinji smiled and said to Kusa Ino: "See? They're still reasonable people!"