Still, Sunagakure is already ahead of all other major villages except Konoha in this field.
Chiyo's medical ninjutsu is currently second only to Tsunade's. Even if Sunagakure's medical foundation is not as deep as Konoha's, at least they can set up a framework to use for now.
Later, once Konoha's medical system is fully established, they can imitate it and gradually fill in the gaps.
But right now, before medical ninja have emerged on a large scale and before the medical system is fully established, if Hardy wants to learn medical ninjutsu, it's fine to get started with Miyuki's help, but if she wants to achieve real mastery, it will be hard to find someone to teach her.
"By the way, Miyuki, which Reina-senpai were you talking about just now? How come I've never heard of such a skilled medical ninja in the village?"
Hardy placed the date cookies he brought as a gift on the table and asked curiously.
"Oh, Sister Reina! She's really amazing!"
When Miyuki mentioned Reina, a gentle smile appeared on her lips.
"She's about twenty years old this year. Although she's only a chunin, she comes from a family of doctors and has a wealth of medical knowledge. So in the medical training class, she quickly surpassed all of us in terms of progress. Whenever Elder Chiyo isn't around, she's the one guiding us!"
"I see."
Hardy nodded, chatted with Miyuki for a while longer, then left the classroom with the reading list.
"Reina-senpai!"
"Sister Reina!"
As Hardy and Miyuki reached the door, they saw a woman in the traditional white robe of Sunagakure entering, with many people around greeting her.
It was clear she had a certain charisma, was well respected, and had a very friendly appearance.
She had smooth, long blonde hair, a gentle smile, and a pair of black-framed glasses that made her look completely harmless.
Hardy's movements paused almost imperceptibly.
"Sister Reina, when I was using the Mystical Palm Technique to repair a lizard's spinal connection, I just couldn't get the nerves to connect properly. Can you teach me how to do it?"
Miyuki ran up and hugged Reina, rubbing her cheek against Reina's arm.
"You must not have enough sensory precision. With your background in the puppet corps, your chakra control should be fine. What you need to pay attention to is…"
Reina gently flicked Miyuki's nose and patiently explained with a doting expression.
"Miyuki, I'll be going now."
Hardy waved at Miyuki, indicating he was leaving.
Miyuki nodded to show she understood.
"Who was that just now…"
Reina glanced at Hardy and asked Miyuki.
"Oh, that's my teammate from the puppet corps, Hardy."
"I see. To enter the puppet corps at such a young age, he must be a genius."
"he's only a tiny bit better than me!"
Miyuki replied shamelessly.
Naturally, Hardy, who had already left, didn't know Reina was probing Miyuki for information about her, but he had already become wary of Reina in her heart.
"Her background seems clean and ordinary, yet she's suddenly become an important figure in the newly established medical class in a reasonable way, gets along well with everyone, and has advanced medical ninjutsu… Could she be the Wandering Shrine Maiden?"
Hardy couldn't be sure, but he found Reina suspicious.
Mainly because her appearance was just too similar to Yakushi Nono from her memories!
As the ace intelligence operative of Root, details like Yakushi Nono's height and appearance were top secret, known only to Konoha's upper echelons.
Those who knew Yakushi Nono wouldn't know her identity as a spy, and those who knew the title of the Wandering Shrine Maiden would never know her real name or appearance.
Except for Hardy, the transmigrator.
"This woman is now an important figure in the medical class and is trusted enough to help Chiyo teach. She's not someone ordinary people can touch. I'll have to investigate her in secret."
Hardy walked along the road, thinking.
A minute later, Hardy turned a corner and arrived at the neighboring puppet corps base.
Time for daily puppet technique training.
Can't let it go—after all, there are free training facilities here, so why not make use of them? Besides, Sasori often gets the urge to challenge Hardy to a match, which means another chance to borrow Chiyo's books.
...
...
Meanwhile, in the Kazekage Building, inside the Kazekage's office.
The office was spacious. In addition to the Third Kazekage's desk, an extra large table had been set up, piled high with all kinds of documents and scrolls.
"So, it seems those three young ones have performed quite well. But there's no need for them to take on missions too frequently. Balancing work and rest is important, and they also need time to train and digest what they've learned from missions. Especially for a puppeteer like Hardy—if he's always out on missions, he won't have time to improve or create new puppets."
Elder Ebizō spoke as he flipped through the mission scrolls submitted by Kazekage's aide, Kazekage Chiran.
"I understand, Elder Ebizō. That was my intention as well. The three of them are already stronger than most chunin, and their foundations are solid. In the next few years, as long as they shore up their weaknesses during regular training, they should all be able to become qualified jonin within three years. In fact, even now, if they work together, the three of them could easily hold their own against a standard jonin."
Kazekage Chiran replied calmly.
"That will depend on how this war unfolds. If it ends soon, there will be several years of peace for the new generation to grow. But you and I both know—that's unlikely."
Ebizō closed the file and sighed.
The Hidden Sand Village was already poor—its local logistics alone were insufficient. They had only managed to hold out this long by waging war and looting resources from outside.
But the premise for sustaining war with war is that you keep winning—only then can you keep acquiring enough spoils to resupply.
If they suffer a major defeat, the Sand would face logistical collapse—either a rout, or a strategic retreat to preserve their main forces.
"No one expected Hanzo to show mercy to the Third Hokage's three disciples, or even to turn and cooperate with Konoha. Otherwise, according to our 'set the wolf against the tiger' plan, if Hanzo had killed those three from Konoha, the village's high-end fighting power would have been weakened, and they wouldn't have been able to face two great ninja villages at once. But…"
The Kazekage's office fell into a long silence.
What happened next was that Hanzo chose to ally with Konoha, hoping to use the strength of the most powerful village to drive out both Iwagakure and Sunagakure from the Land of Rain.