Naruto: From Extra to Savior

"It doesn't seem like she's injured. It looks more like her body entered a state of automatic self-protection, which caused the coma. What exactly happened?"

Mizuki knew something about Anko Mitarashi. If she remained unconscious, the cursed seal was likely the primary cause.

"It wasn't anything else. The battle situation was intense, so she exhausted all her chakra, and then this happened," replied Aoba Yamashiro.

"Has that thing on her neck remained in this state?" [Evil Sealing Method] was still working, but clearly couldn't completely suppress the cursed seal's activity. [Runes] floated faintly across her skin—no longer spreading, yet not retreating either.

Mizuki himself didn't fully understand this condition. Anko Mitarashi had received the Cursed Seal of Heaven quite early, though it hadn't shown any extraordinary effects back then, so Orochimaru discarded her as useless. There hadn't been any [second-stage cursed seal activation] or similar phenomena. Whether the seal had changed over the years was hard to say.

Mizuki reached out with his right hand and gently touched the cursed seal on Anko Mitarashi's neck.

"Compared to the surrounding skin, aside from being slightly warmer, nothing particularly unusual seems to be happening..."

Even Mizuki's own [incomplete Cursed Seal], stabilized through improved physical conditioning, no longer produced the uneasy chakra fluctuations it once had when near an active [Cursed Seal of Heaven]—at most, a faint [resonate] remained.

"Did anyone come see her recently?"

"Elder Danzo Shimura came by earlier..."

"Huh? What did he want?" Mizuki asked, surprised.

"Could he be trying to find out Orochimaru's status through Anko Mitarashi? If that's the case, does Danzo actually understand cursed seals too? Seems like the connection between Danzo and Orochimaru runs far deeper than I imagined."

Aoba Yamashiro wasn't entirely clear about Mizuki's question. "Earlier, when Sasuke Uchiha and those genin returned, Elder Danzo was there too. He apparently tried to take Sasuke Uchiha away, but failed."

"Oh? Who stopped him? Kakashi?"

"Yes." Aoba nodded. "People from Root always raise suspicions. Of course, nobody really wants to get involved with such dark places anyway."

Mizuki understood what Aoba meant by "Root." Not many people knew about its existence, but there were certainly some who did; shinobi with decent connections usually caught wind of it sooner or later. Obviously, Aoba belonged to the well-connected category.

"This is Kakashi's problem to worry about." Mizuki didn't want to dwell much on Konoha's darker side. "How about those two Sand ninja? Especially the One-Tail Jinchuriki?"

"They're inside the hospital now. Elder Danzo seemed interested in interfering, but was stopped by the two advisors..."

"I see," Mizuki said knowingly. "That's actually not bad."

As the defeated side, complete destruction wasn't feasible. Even attempting to seize the jinchuriki would provoke serious controversy and potentially draw other villages' intervention—especially after heavy damages suffered during this conflict. Provocative actions were definitely ill-advised. Danzo's overly aggressive methods might lead to unpredictable consequences, which Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane simply couldn't accept.

With victory secured, the most important matter now is gaining greater benefits. Without direct control over the captured individuals and Tailed Beasts, adopting a moderate policy of appeasement and cooperation would be the best strategy.

"Leave that for later," Aoba Yamashiro suggested. "What are you going to do about Anko Mitarashi here?"

"I have some methods, though they're only temporary fixes that'll suffice for now," Mizuki replied. "Still feels like I'm coming out at a disadvantage though. She doesn't seem like the type who remembers to return favors."

Truthfully, Anko wasn't in any critical condition. Without Mizuki's interference, she'd simply remain unconscious for several more days and require additional time to recover.

"Anyway, the village needs ninja personnel right now. It's better to wake her up early and free up a hospital bed."

"Why are you so concerned about her? I thought the two of you weren't particularly close?"

"Well...you could call it comrades-in-arms bond," Aoba said awkwardly. "Without her help, I probably wouldn't have made it back. Just returning a favor, I guess..."

"Do as you like," Mizuki shrugged indifferently. "It's just extra work anyway. But haven't you still not kept your promise to treat me to a meal after our mission in the Land of Waves? Now you're piling new debts on old ones?"

"I haven't forgotten. Once Gekko wakes up, let's all have a big meal together..."

"That works," Mizuki said. He had originally planned to add another joke but stopped himself. "It's been over half a month already. About time he woke up, don't you think?"

According to Mizuki's assessment, once the sealing technique's effects wore off, she might awaken soon if her condition improved. However, further delays could lead to an unfavorable prognosis.

Saying this, Mizuki took out the Sealing Scroll.

[I made thorough preparations, gathering an enormous amount of chakra.]

First, he injected Anko with a large dose of nutrient solution, then surrounded her with a barrier that isolated the inside from outside interference.

"That's it?" Aoba asked suspiciously. "You finished so quickly."

"You thought it was difficult?" Mizuki replied while putting away his tools. "The real difficulty wasn't here. Constructing this barrier itself required complex techniques and extremely delicate control. To put it bluntly—if you could channel every last drop of your chakra, maintaining it for even a single minute would be impressive."

"You really enjoy researching these strange things," came a sudden voice from behind as Kakashi Hatake arrived.

"Did you already arrange for Naruto and Sasuke?" Mizuki turned to ask Kakashi.

"They're both in the hospital beds now, fortunately unharmed," Kakashi answered. "Judging from their injuries, I can only imagine how perilous the situation must have been."

"Glad to hear that. The two of them taking down a Jinchuriki? Something even you couldn't accomplish, Kakashi?"

"Probably wouldn't stand a chance," Kakashi nodded in agreement. "Thanks for handling them, especially Sasuke..."

After hearing Sasuke's full account, Kakashi remained grateful toward Mizuki for risking tremendous danger to rescue Sasuke from Orochimaru. Not everyone had the courage to face Orochimaru, even when he was severely injured and not at his best.

Sasuke might not know much about Mizuki's strength, but Kakashi Hatake clearly understood the level of opponent Mizuki had faced.

"This is a Mission, isn't it? No need to be so polite," Mizuki said. "That kid's got some serious arrogance. Someone else would've lost their temper by now. And more importantly, it's his cursed seal. You might have quite some trouble dealing with that later on."

Kakashi scratched his head. "It can't be helped. I did choose to become their teacher, after all." 

"Come to think of it, wasn't it you who placed the seal on the One-Tail Jinchuriki?" 

"The Sealing Team had a hell of a time removing it. Looks like your sealing techniques have surpassed mine by quite a bit." 

"Sealing Team? Did you run into Tsubaki?" 

"Yeah, she was there. Seems like nothing happened to her." 

"That's good then." Knowing his fiancée was safe, Mizuki felt a wave of relief at last. Thankfully, the massive chaos far worse than expected hadn't touched Tsubaki after all. 

Just as he was about to speak again, Mizuki noticed both Kakashi and Aoba Yamashiro staring behind him. Realizing something, he turned around sharply. 

'As expected. He woke up during our conversation.' 

The power of this barrier surpassed imagination. Its resistance to Chakra was shockingly intense. With enough Chakra, Mizuki could even generate a pocket dimension akin to Mount Myoboku, Ryuchi Cave, or Shikkotsu Forest. Still, these kinds of Barriers shared similar strengths and weaknesses. Their principle wasn't overly complicated, yet not entirely straightforward either. The main issue was the enormous consumption of Chakra. In short, they just weren't practical.

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