socalfunplaces Chapter 364 He Needs Me to Live
Chapter 364 He Needs Me to Live
Chapter 364 He Needs Me to Live
"It's not about confirming," Shikamaru said. "It's about confirming Izumi's exact location in Konoha. Raku can only tell him the general directions: east, west, south, and north. But Konoha is a large village; the medical ward, the Hokage Building, the Anbu base, and the sealing squad are all in different locations. He needs the precise coordinates down to the room level."
Kagura interjected, "That's why he needs Hisai to come to Konoha. Because once Hisai arrives, he'll definitely visit Ikezumi at the medical department."
By tracking Jiujing's movements, Helian could pinpoint Chiquan's hospital room.
Shikamaru suddenly looked at Ikezumi.
Chi Quan's expression didn't change, but he tapped under the blanket again with his right index finger.
"Shikamaru".
"explain."
"If Helian is locating me by tracking Jiujing, then Jiujing himself is Helian's 'eyes'."
Hisai frowned.
"You mean I've been marked with a water-based mark?"
Chi Quan shook his head.
"It wasn't on you. It was the vial of blood you brought back. The blood sample Helian sent you might not have contained just my blood. He might have mixed the Water Probe into his blood. You carried that vial of blood all the way, and the probe was like a thread, stretching from the border all the way to Konoha. Helian didn't need to see the brand; he only needed to see that thread."
Hisai's expression finally changed.
He immediately pulled the vial of blood from his pocket—a small, sealed glass tube containing dark red, layered blood. He held it up to his eyes and examined it against the light.
"I did not detect any components other than the derived water."
Chi Quan said, "Use your membrane to stick to the pipe wall."
Hisai hesitated for a second, but did as instructed. The moment the transparent film touched the glass tube, its color changed from grayish-blue to a deep purple that was almost black, like bruising.
Hisai's hand trembled slightly.
"There's something between the blood and the glass. Not blood, not the Water-Evolving Insect. It's—" He paused, taking a deep breath, "...insect eggs. Water-Evolving Insect eggs. Extremely fine, extremely thin, stuck to the inner wall of the glass, invisible to the naked eye, undetectable by chakra sensing, because it has no chakra reaction. It's alive, but its life is the life of water, not the life of chakra."
Kagura strode over, snatched the vial of blood, and walked to the window to examine it closely in the light.
"Water-evolving worms." Her voice was low. "I've only ever seen this name in old files. They were biological probes bred by the Hamura family during their heyday. They feed on blood and travel through water. Adult worms can attach to a person's skin, enter capillaries through sweat, and then lay eggs inside the host. The eggs travel with the blood and eventually gather in the most moist organs."
Shikamaru asked, "And then what?"
Kagura puts down the test tube.
"The host will begin to ebb away." Every mucous membrane in the body will seep water out—sweat, tears, saliva, even fluid from the alveoli. The person will drown themselves from the inside.
Hisai took a step back and leaned against the wall.
"I carried it all the way. From the border to Konoha, five days. This vial of blood has been in the dark pouch on my chest the whole time." His voice tightened. "The eggs of the Water-Eating Worm may have crawled from the test tube wall onto my clothes, and from my clothes onto my skin."
Chi Quan suddenly sat up straight in bed.
The movement was too fast, and the wound on his abdomen was aggravated, causing a patch of red blood to seep through the bandage. He ignored it. He walked barefoot to Hisai, reached out his right hand, and grabbed Hisai's left wrist.
Jiujing was stunned.
Chi Quan closed his eyes.
Everyone was looking at him.
After about ten seconds, Ikezumi opened her eyes and released Hisai's wrist.
"You don't have it on you."
Hisai asked in a hoarse voice, "How can you be so sure?"
"Luo reacts to Yan Shui. If you have Yan Shui worms on your body, even just eggs, Luo will feel cold. It didn't feel cold."
Hisai looked down at his wrist. There were several faint finger marks on his skin where Izumi had scratched.
Kagura placed the test tube on the windowsill, away from everyone else.
"This tube of stuff cannot be kept."
"Don't destroy it yet," Shikamaru said. "Helian didn't send this entirely to harm Kujira. He wants Kujira to take it to Konoha, to the medical department, and to the vicinity of the pond. If the insect eggs hatch in the medical department, the entire medical department will become a source of infection."
Hisai shook his head: "Incubation requires blood. Fresh blood. The egg will only activate the moment it comes into contact with fresh blood. The dried blood on the test tube wall alone is not enough."
"So Helian is waiting for it to come into contact with fresh blood," Shikamaru said. "For example—when Hisai was checking Ikezumi's injuries, he accidentally cut his finger."
All eyes were on Hisai's right hand.
Hisai slowly opened his right palm. There was a very thin, newly scabbed wound at the base of his middle finger, as if it had been cut with paper.
Hisai's voice lowered.
"Last night, when I was unpacking a package at the hotel, I was cut by a shard of glass from the mouth of a test tube."
The temperature in the ward seemed to drop two degrees suddenly.
Kagura quickly walked up to Hisai, took his right hand, and covered it with chakra. Green light spread across Hisai's palm, from his fingers to his wrist, and from his wrist to his forearm.
Kagura's lips were pressed into a thin line.
"There's something under your skin. It's thin and inactive, but it's definitely there."
Hisai closed his eyes.
"How long is it?"
"From your fingers to the wrist crease. It's about three centimeters. It's not fast because your body temperature is lower than your blood temperature. It prefers warmth. If you hadn't been standing by the window in the cold wind, it might have already passed your elbow."
Shikamaru immediately walked to the door, opened it, and said something to the medical ninja in the corridor.
"Call Shizune over here. Immediately. Also, clear out all non-essential personnel from this floor."
Hurried footsteps echoed down the corridor.
Shikamaru closed the door and turned to look at the people in the ward. Kagura was still using chakra to suppress the spread of the insect eggs on Hisai's forearm. Hisai leaned against the wall, his face ashen, but his eyes remained calm. Ikezumi stood between the bed and the window, barefoot, blood seeping through his hospital gown, his right hand hanging at his side, like a wounded soldier just dragged from the battlefield, but his back was ramrod straight.
Shikamaru walked up to Izumi.
"Go back to bed."
"Need not."
Your wound is bleeding.
"I know."
"Every drop of blood you shed provides food for any potential water worms that may exist."
Chi Quan glanced down at the bandage on his side. The redness was spreading, slowly but steadily.
He paused for two seconds, then turned and sat back on the bed. His right hand pressed against his abdomen, holding down the bandage.
When Jingyin rushed in, she almost tripped over the chair by the door.
"What's going on?"
Shikamaru quickly described the test tubes Helian had sent, the eggs of the water worm, the wound on Hisai's hand, and how the eggs had moved three centimeters under the skin. As he spoke, Shizune opened her medicine box and took out three vials of different colors.
"Kagura-san, let go." Shizune knelt down in front of Hisai, took his right hand, examined it, and then drew a pale yellow vial into a syringe. "This is antivenom serum; it might not work, but give it to me first."
When the needle pierced Hisai's forearm, Hisai let out a muffled groan.
After administering the medication silently, they switched to a blue one.
"This is a chakra blocker that can stop the flow of your local meridians. If insect eggs rely on absorbing chakra or nutrients from bodily fluids to grow, they will enter a dormant state after the supply is cut off."
After the second injection, Shizune placed her hand on Hisai's forearm and closed her eyes to feel for a few seconds.
"It stopped. It didn't continue."
Kagura breathed a sigh of relief.
Shikamaru doesn't have it.
"It can hibernate, but it can also wake up. We need to take it out."
Jingyin nodded: "I know. But removing the eggs requires surgery, and the operating room is downstairs. He can't move around right now; if he does, he might shake the eggs deeper into the cavity."
Hisai spoke up: "I can walk by myself."
Silent shook her head: "No. Carry him over there."
Shikamaru looked at Kagura: "Kagura-san, please go with Shizune. If the eggs show signs of hydrolysis during the surgery, you can deal with it immediately."
Kagura nodded.
Shizune was already calling for the people outside to prepare a stretcher. Two medical ninjas came in and helped Hisai onto the stretcher. Before Hisai was carried out, he looked back at Izumi.
"You guessed it."
It's not a question, it's a statement.
Chi Quan leaned against the pillow, his right hand still pressed on the bandage on his abdomen.
"It wasn't a guess. It was a feeling."
"What do you feel?"
"That stuff in the vial isn't blood," Chi Quan said. "When you took it out of your pocket, my brace felt a sudden chill. It was very light, like someone breathed on the back of my neck. I wasn't sure what it was then, but now I know. It was water worm eggs testing the surrounding area for fresh blood."
Hisai stared at him for two seconds.
"Your body is more sensitive to the Yan Shui than any other descendant of the Hamura family I have ever seen."
Chi Quan didn't answer.
Hisai was carried away. Kagura followed behind, and before closing the door, she said to Shikamaru, "Keep an eye on that test tube. Don't let anyone touch it."
After the door closed, only Shikamaru, Ikezumi, and the tube of dark red blood on the windowsill remained in the ward.
Shikamaru walked to the window, stood next to the test tube, put his hands in his pockets, and looked down at the tube.
"Was what you just told Hisai true? Is the brand really cold?"
"real."
"How much colder?"
"Very light."
Shikamaru turned around, his back to the windowsill, and looked at Ikezumi.
"Then we need to revise our previous conclusions. Helian isn't just tracking you; he's also using you to test the water worms' reactions. You are his living detector."
Chi Quan lowered his hand from his side. The redness on the bandage neither continued to spread nor shrank.
"Hisai said my bloodline isn't from Chunyu Village. He doesn't know the other half. Perhaps I'm not just a detector; I'm the vessel Helian is looking for."
"container?"
"A container for something that's a mixture of the two bloodlines," Izumi said. "Hamura said I'd make sure you remember next time." Remember what? Remember how to control that mixed bloodline? If I've had two bloodlines in my body since birth, but Hamura's half is suppressed and the other half is dormant—then I really need to remember."
Shikamaru's head started to hurt.
It's not a migraine, it's the kind of pain caused by too much information, too big a puzzle, and too little time.
"You suspect that you had some kind of bloodline seal done when you were a child, sealing off your half of Hamura, so you never knew you had the Yanshui bloodline."
Chi Quan nodded.
"Who sealed it?"
"have no idea."
"Why the lockdown?"
"have no idea."
Shikamaru took a deep breath and then exhaled.
"How many things do you not know?"
Chi Quan thought for a moment.
"At least five."
"List them."
Chi Quan closed his eyes, as if he were organizing an internal file.
"First, what is the other half of the bloodline? Second, who sealed my Hamura bloodline? Third, what exactly is the relationship between Helian and me? Does he just want revenge, or does he need something from me? Fourth, what exactly does Hamura Saku mean by 'remembering'? Fifth..."
He opened his eyes.
Fifth, am I still able to completely control the brand?
Shikamaru waits.
Chi Quan looked at him.
"I can."
Shikamaru did not believe it immediately.
"You said you could when you were on the windowsill. You said you could before Hisai came. Now you say you can. But your body—"
"My body is bleeding because I have four true wounds," Chi Quan interrupted him. "It has nothing to do with the branding. I can solve the branding problem. But I need time to deal with the wounds."
"Then why did you get out of bed just now?"
"Because there is a possibility that Hisai has water worm eggs on his wrist. I can't let him stand two meters away from me with the eggs on his wrist."
Shikamaru opened his mouth, then closed it again.
After a while, he said, "You got out of bed to protect Hisai."
"It's also to protect all of you," Chi Quan said. "If the eggs hatch, the first wave of infected people will be the people in this ward."
Shikamaru suddenly realized something.
"From the moment Hisai mentioned the insect eggs, you were already prepared. You probably even guessed before Hisai finished speaking that the contents of the test tube weren't just blood."
Chi Quan did not deny it.
"So you were already figuring out how to handle it the moment you guessed it."
"right."
"No hesitation?"
"no."
"Aren't you scared?"
Chi Quan remained silent for a moment.
"have."
Shikamaru was taken aback. He had never heard Izumi use the word "fear." Never.
"What are you afraid of?"
Chi Quan's gaze fell on the vial of blood on the windowsill.
"I'm afraid Helian knows my body better than I do. He knows there are two marks in my blood. He knows I can sense the Yan Shui."
He probably even knows when I'll get cold, how cold I'll get before I move, and how cold I'll get before I stop. He sent this vial of blood not just to lure Kujira back to Konoha, he's testing my reaction limits.
A scene flashed through Shikamaru's mind.
Helian sat somewhere unknown to him, a row of test tubes in front of him, each corresponding to a different concentration of distilled water. He added Chi Quan's blood to them, observing which tube would cool, heat, or change color. He was searching for the critical point, the maximum resonance intensity that Chi Quan could withstand.
"He's checking the accuracy," Shikamaru said in a low voice.
"Yes. He's calibrating his weapon," so that it can just wound me, but not kill me. Because he needs me alive."
"To live and become what he wants."
"right."
Shikamaru turned to look out the window. The persimmon tree downstairs in the medical department was still there, but the crows had flown away. In the distance, the roof of the Hokage Building gleamed gray in the afternoon light, and the Hokage flag on the flagpole fluttered in the wind.