Naruto: Chronicles of A Fire Ninja

Even though the situation was absurd, the T&I department chalked it up to a unique case and moved forward. They didn't know what was about to happen next.

Kaida's clone, who had submitted the paperwork for completion of the mission, went to take another assignment. Within the next hour, another ninja was lying in front of Kaida in the hospital, going through the same thought process as the previous ninja, praying to all the gods to save him.

But Kaida was oblivious to all this, as the tape on the ninja's face prevented them from uttering a single sound, let alone a plea.

This operation was better than the previous one. Kaida once again noted the findings, and the process repeated. He completed all other operations while the clone went to take and complete missions, sending ninjas to the T&I department before bringing another.

More of his clones were constantly treating other patients. Days passed like this, and at the end of the week, Ibiki finally had enough. Kaida's clone had brought almost 20 ninjas to the department, all having a memory of a doctor preparing for surgery before they went to some place similar to hell,

which he knew was genjutsu – and a particularly powerful one at that. After this experience, all those ninjas became the most noble people possible. Ibiki knew the reason behind it, as the time before torture was the real torture for a person. Being the head of the department, he knew this fairly well.

But what was bugging his mind was the news about the doctor. Since Kaida was fairly well known as a doctor due to his recent two-plus months of work at the hospital, he could guess who the doctor was in those memories.

Konoha had a history of losing talented ninjas who went astray in their experiments, finally using Konoha ninja as subjects. Not wanting to take any risks, even though he had checked the ninja himself for any changes, he decided to report it to the Hokage who could handle things from then on.

...

"Human experimentation?" Hiruzen asked, his brow rising.

"It is just speculation, Lord Third, but there is a chance. That's why I decided to report it, though I don't think it is anything significant as he himself brought those ninja to our department even though he could have easily killed them without any suspicion, as it was allowed in the mission," Ibiki said, trying to clearly explain that he wasn't accusing an Uchiha of anything and it was just speculation.

"I understand. I will handle this from now on. Don't share anything about this with others," Hiruzen said, though he didn't emphasize keeping it secret, especially since the person in front of him was the last person in the world who would indulge in mindless gossip.

Ibiki nodded his head, bowed one last time before leaving the office.

'Human experimentation, huh?' Hiruzen thought, his eyes looking in the direction of the Konoha hospital. Without a word or movement, a shadow clone appeared near him and went toward the hospital.

After his earlier experience, he himself was a little sensitive toward all this and didn't want to take any risks, even though he knew there was very little chance of this being true.

...

The Hospital in Konoha was as busy as it could get, now with an unexpected visitor. The receptionist at the front nearly jumped up to greet him.

"Good morning, Lord Third."

"Good morning, please continue your task. I have some work here, so I will intrude a little," Hiruzen's clone said with a grandfatherly smile.

"Then let me accompany you, sir. I will try my best to help you," the receptionist said, trying to impress the almost-king of Konoha.

"No need. I don't want to increase your already huge workload. Please continue your work," Hiruzen said as he made his way toward Mitsuru's office.

The receptionist was left behind, unable to go against the Hokage's order, no matter how politely it was phrased.

While the receptionist was brooding, Hiruzen's shadow clone made his way toward Mitsuru's office.

Knock Knock

"Come in," Mitsuru said, keeping her eyes on the papers as she thought it was some nurse there to get her signature for an operation.

"As hardworking as always. That's why I want to appoint you as the temporary head of the hospital in Tsunade's absence," Hiruzen's clone said.

"Good morning, Lord Third, and I have to politely decline once again, as I don't think I am worthy enough to take Lady Tsunade's seat even if it is for a temporary time period." Mitsuru, who already had her hands full with the workload of chief medical ninja, declined Hiruzen's offer for the nth time – the same offer others would jump to get but weren't worthy enough to receive.

Hiruzen's clone could only shake his head at that.

"I assume you have something else, other than trying to forcefully promote me, Lord Third?" Mitsuru asked, closing the files in front of her and standing up.

"Yes, I have gotten some interesting news about your disciple and wanted to meet him myself. Do you know what he is doing nowadays?" Hiruzen's clone asked.

"He said he wanted to keep his mind away from all of the things that happened to him recently, so I allowed him to take back his role here, and he has been doing really well. Though not at the same level as before, he is still doing the work of ten medical ninja all by himself.

Though I don't know full details about him for now, as you can see I am busy as well, since the hospital is not getting enough funds to hire or train more medical ninjas," Mitsuru replied with a slightly accusatory tone, which just slipped through the thick skin of Hiruzen, not even paying attention to that.

"Since you also don't know about what your student is doing, let's go and check it out," Hiruzen said.

Mitsuru could only sigh at that, as she knew she would not get anywhere pursuing this matter further, and Hiruzen was not going to increase the funding no matter what.

So she simply followed his command and went toward her disciple's office, which was just next to hers. As she and Hiruzen went near the door, they both felt a concentration of seals inside the room, which were working to conceal themselves as well as whatever was happening inside. Hiruzen felt his body tense up, with a feeling of sadness trying to rise as he thought something he didn't want was really happening inside.

With a heavy heart, he nodded his head and Mitsuru opened the door, and the scene inside the room really surprised them to their core.

All of the office from ground floor, walls to roof was covered with loads and loads of notes, while a ninja was lying unconscious on the table. Being a jonin rank, he was the hardest to catch alive and had to be rendered unconscious before he was brought here, which happened just a few minutes before.

Kaida was focused on the enormous number of books in front of him, looking like a college student studying for days without sleep for finals.

"What the hell are you doing?" Mitsuru was the first one to ask the question going through the minds of both of them