"Thank you."
More than half a day had passed. Yuji feigned extreme exhaustion convincingly, and Yahiko bowed to him with genuine respect.
"Mm."
Yuji gave a measured nod, then turned and left the treatment area.
Yahiko glanced at Nagato, signaling him to keep an eye on their guest, then busied himself with the medical staff moving the treated patients to a more comfortable position.
"Leader. This person's Mystical Palm Technique is extraordinarily powerful. This kind of technique requires extremely precise chakra regulation. Without that precision, it causes damage to the patient's internal circulatory system. He..."
The person in charge of the medical staff hesitated for a moment when Yahiko approached, then spoke carefully.
"I understand," Yahiko said, nodding.
He understood exactly what was being implied. Having a medical ninja of this caliber available would be enormously beneficial to the organization in the battles against the Hidden Rain Village that lay ahead. However, everyone present also understood that the mysterious person's origins remained completely unknown, and for now he was only being temporarily held within the base.
Yahiko had no intention of recruiting him into the organization.
Yuji was returned to the stone chamber where he had been held, this time with Nagato accompanying him rather than guarding him with restraints. Nagato's attitude had clearly shifted.
Although he appeared to be resting on the ground, Yuji had opened the system interface in his mind.
"Not bad."
He smiled inwardly as he watched the experience points accumulating on the interface. Previously, due to the intense conflict between the Sand Village and Konoha, he had spent almost all his experience points on Senzu Beans and other items to support Shimizu and the others in battle.
Furthermore, because the village had needed reconstruction and the management of various projects after he became Kazekage, he had not been on any active battlefield since that time, which had caused his experience point growth to slow to a crawl.
Now that the village had withdrawn from the Great Ninja War, there were no longer any conventional avenues for accumulating experience through treating the wounded in large numbers.
Fortunately, by joining Akatsuki, he could leverage the ongoing conflict in the Land of Rain and collect some returns from the situation. In terms of experience points, the more he accumulated, the better equipped he would be to develop the Ope Ope no Mi's capabilities further down the line.
Even so, despite now being nominally a member of Akatsuki, he had no intention of directly interfering in the battles between the Hidden Rain Village and Akatsuki itself. His goal was to avoid being discovered for what he truly was while staying close enough to benefit.
Without direct battlefield involvement, the experience points gained would not be substantial. His actions here were primarily focused on accumulating what he could while remaining within the organization.
He could also clearly sense that, with the exception of Yahiko, the attitudes of the others toward him had already begun to shift. Beyond the medicinal resources, his healing abilities had proven themselves equally important in their eyes. As for Yahiko, that particular leader was someone he needed to treat carefully for the time being and not push too hard.
"Konoha, Iwagakure, and the Hidden Mist Village are still fighting fiercely. The next round of attention should shift toward the Hidden Mist Village and Konoha."
He also needed to think about the matter of sealing a Tailed Beast inside Nohara Rin, which would eventually lead to Kakashi killing her and Obito's descent into darkness.
"Akatsuki probably does not have much energy to manage that side of things at present. The main role White Zetsu is playing is monitoring and ensuring everything develops according to Madara's plan. Later, matters related to Akatsuki's transformation will be handed over to Obito."
He closed the system interface and continued thinking.
In the eyes of the ninja world, the Fourth Kazekage's known abilities were clear enough. These included the space-time ninjutsu he had displayed during his battles with the Third Raikage, along with his most famous capabilities: Blood Release, his doujutsu, his healing ninjutsu, and the thread-based assassination techniques he had demonstrated on the battlefield.
As long as none of those were revealed here, simply showcasing the Mystical Palm Technique and basic Earth Release and Water Release should not create any significant problems.
Looking across the ninja world, countless people with sufficient strength commanded two types of chakra transformation. It was not an unusual combination.
"But if White Zetsu is paying careful attention, there might still be some clues to find."
"If White Zetsu were to infiltrate the Sand Village, I am certain he would..."
He paused on that thought.
"Not while I am away from the village."
The more he thought about it, the more he recognized that his plan still carried a specific point of risk. He wondered whether Madara could anticipate it.
Right now, he was fairly certain that Madara's physical condition was not good, which made direct action inconvenient. Furthermore, Madara's attention was focused primarily on Konoha and the Hidden Mist Village.
Madara's personality was also extraordinarily arrogant and self-assured. In his eyes, his own plans and arrangements were capable of deceiving the entire ninja world. Even the Kage of each village were mostly insignificant obstacles in his assessment.
It was precisely because he understood Madara's nature that he felt a degree of reassurance. From beginning to end, Madara's eyes had been fixed almost exclusively on Senju Hashirama and everything connected to that obsession. That singular focus was, in the way of truly powerful people, his most significant blind spot.
No one was without weakness.
Otherwise, someone like Madara, combining terrifying strength with meticulous long-term planning and extraordinary intelligence, would have been an opponent against whom Yuji could see no realistic path forward at all.
Even now, with Madara approaching the very end of his lifespan, his strength remained formidable. The fundamental difference between them still lay in their overall power.
The more he ran the scenario through his mind, the clearer the conclusion became.
He had repeatedly replayed the situation: what would happen if he went to the Land of Grass right now and ambushed Uchiha Madara? The result was that he would most likely die. Not only was Madara present, but White Zetsu and Black Zetsu were there as well. With Madara's perception abilities and his doujutsu, there was nowhere to hide. Once discovered, a single hit from that doujutsu would be fatal.
His only genuine means of inflicting decisive damage on Madara was the Ope Ope no Mi. But this kind of space-time assimilation technique, like the Flying Thunder God Technique, had inherent weaknesses. One was range. The other was the window of vulnerability during the technique's execution itself.
Just as the Third Raikage's Lightning Release Taijutsu had been capable of optimizing nerve transmission to the point of reacting to the Flying Thunder God, the situation against Madara was even more unfavorable. To put it plainly, when his own fighting style and skill set clashed against Madara's particular character model, Madara needed to rely on nothing more than his eye techniques to neutralize every move available to him.
His only true advantage was the Ope Ope no Mi's spatial shattering effect, a technique that even Susanoo could not defend against. But facing this kind of enemy, Madara simply would not give him the opening to execute it.
Overall, any attempt to directly attack Uchiha Madara was still far too dangerous at this stage. As long as the system was there and experience points continued accumulating without an upper limit, opportunities would present themselves in the future.
There was no need to rush. Changing Yahiko's fate and working through Akatsuki first was the more productive path. That was a better use of the present than closing his eyes and waiting.
Just as he withdrew his thoughts, the entire underground space suddenly came alive with movement. Akatsuki members began mobilizing throughout the passageways.
"Leader, the Hidden Rain soldiers have begun searching the area from the battle zone where we engaged them earlier."
"They have now roughly determined the range of our hidden stronghold."
"We need to lure the enemy into shifting the direction of their search and buy enough time to relocate the stronghold's position."
"Your squad will handle the ambush. The other squad will handle blocking. Remember not to engage in prolonged combat with the enemy."
"Use the enemy as the primary target and draw them into pursuit. The others pack everything and take a different route out."
He listened to Yahiko and the other organization members talking outside the passageway. Clearly, another battle had broken out.
The frequency and intensity of these engagements were comparable in pace to the Great Ninja War, though the strength of the forces involved was considerably weaker by comparison.