Naruto: Lost to Hinata on Purpose, and Now Everything's a Mess Chapter 49 49 : Uzuki Yugao Team Is In Distress

However, for more than a month, all the missions assigned to the team were D-rank—catching stray cats and dogs, picking up litter, weeding, and other nial chores.

As for Riku, every mission he participated in was handled by his Shadow Clones. The real Riku had been training in the forests behind Konoha the entire ti.

Strangely enough, the Third Hokage had started visiting him every day during this period—to play a ga of shogi.

Riku couldn't quite figure out the Hokage's intentions, but his own shogi skills were decent. Each ga would last over an hour, and the Third Hokage seed to enjoy their long conversations.

He didn't seem to mind at all that Riku used Shadow Clones to complete his assigned missions.

That day, while Riku was practicing in the mountains behind the village, Yugao appeared in front of him—bandaged and wounded.

Riku frowned and approached her. "Sister Yugao, what happened? Who did this to you?"

Although Yugao was classified as a Special Jonin, her strength was far from weak.

Besides the ti she'd been seriously injured during a classified mission, Riku could hardly imagine who could hurt her so badly again—especially to the point of needing bandages across her chest and abdon.

Yugao removed her ANBU mask, revealing a pale face.

Seeing her like this, Riku's expression grew serious.

"Lie down. Let examine the wound," he said.

Yugao silently nodded. Since Riku had already seen her in this state, she had nothing to hide from him.

She trusted him implicitly, knowing he had no ulterior motives.

She lay on the grass. Riku began to unwrap the blood-stained bandages, revealing a ghastly wound that had just barely stopped bleeding.

"This is a bad one," Riku muttered. "I'll use Healing Jutsu. Is that okay, Sister Yugao?"

He had previously spent ti studying in the Konoha Hospital and had learned advanced dical ninjutsu.

In fact, Riku's dical knowledge now exceeded that of most Konoha Hospital doctors. Only three dical-nin in the hospital could use Healing Jutsu, and Riku had learned from one of them—a doctor-nin willing to ntor him. Over the span of a year, Riku's skills had improved so dramatically that even his teacher had been humbled.

Because of this, Yugao placed absolute trust in his abilities.

Riku pressed his hands over her wound, letting a gentle, green dical chakra flow from his palms.

The jagged wound began to knit itself back together slowly.

As he worked, Riku asked, "Sister Yugao, can you tell what happened?"

He knew that as an ANBU squad leader, there were things she might not be permitted to share, but he asked anyway.

Yugao was silent for a mont. Watching him work so seriously without even glancing at her inappropriately, she finally spoke.

"A group of blood-sucking shinobi appeared in a town near the borders of the Land of Grass."

"They're vicious… and powerful. The whole town has fallen to them. After growing accustod to the blood of civilians, three of them now have Jonin-level strength, and five are at Chunin level."

"Hidden Grass couldn't handle them alone. They requested aid from Konoha. Lord Hokage sent with a team to assist…"

Her voice broke.

"They killed all three of my comrades. They died so I could escape."

Tears stread down her face.

Three fellow ANBU… dead. All to buy her a chance to make it out alive.

She had received only minimal treatnt at the hospital before coming straight to Riku. In the past, whenever sothing weighed on her heart, she ca to talk to him.

As he treated her, Riku gently reassured her.

"Don't worry. The village will avenge your comrades. That explains the strange chakra I sensed in your bloodstream—it's tainted with corpse chakra."

"Chakra like that carries the aura of death."

In the shinobi world, everyone possessed chakra—even ordinary civilians—though most couldn't manipulate it. These blood-sucking shinobi, however, had apparently discovered a thod to extract chakra from human blood.

Though the chakra acquired this way was minimal, it could still be absorbed and converted into usable chakra, just like naturally generated chakra within the body.

But the process was incredibly inefficient—and considered taboo.

Such techniques were strictly forbidden. Most shinobi would never tolerate the existence of those who used such vile thods.

Yugao's expression darkened. "Do you know how they're doing it?"

Though she had escaped from the town alive, she'd only witnessed the surface of the enemy's abilities. All she knew was that the more blood they consud, the stronger they beca.

Compared to standard Chunin, their speed, strength, and reflexes were far superior. Even ANBU Chunin couldn't match them.

But Yugao had no idea why blood could enhance them so drastically.

As he untied the bandage across her abdon, Riku responded calmly, "I ca across it during my dical training. There's a banned technique—part of the dark side of dical ninjutsu—that transfers chakra directly from the blood of others into the user's body."

"The absorbed chakra fuses with the user's own, strengthening them. The more powerful the person whose blood is taken, the greater the chakra feedback."

"But it's highly unethical and officially prohibited."

Yugao asked, "Do they still function like normal humans after absorbing the blood?"

She had noticed their terrifying strength but didn't fully understand its cause.

Riku shook his head. "Not exactly. Their physical capabilities—speed, reflexes, strength—are far beyond human average. That's because the chakra they've absorbed has transford their cells."

"Rember—chakra is produced by the body's cells. The more chakra you absorb, the more your body evolves to handle it."

"But there's a limit to this kind of forced transformation. The original strength of their bodies determines how much they can improve. My guess? They were already martial artists or taijutsu specialists before they began using this technique."

Yugao's eyes lit up. "That makes sense. Their taijutsu is insanely strong—they barely use ninjutsu."

The wound on her abdon had nearly closed.

As Riku gently unwrapped the bandage across her chest, Yugao's face flushed with embarrassnt. She knew Riku was still young, and he had seen her injuries before, but she still couldn't help the heat rising in her cheeks.

Riku, however, was focused entirely on the treatnt, paying no mind to her body.

His hands continued emitting green chakra, steadily repairing the wound.

To distract her from the awkwardness, he asked, "So what's the village leadership planning to do? Are they giving up on the mission?"

Yugao's attention snapped back to the topic. "No. The mission has been upgraded from A-rank to S-rank. The village is forming a new team to handle it."

"The Land of Grass borders the Land of Fire. We can't just ignore what's happening there."