3 3. Discharge from Hospital
"Yo, Yuji! How are you feeling right now?"
A blond-haired kid with blue eyes and spiky hair greets him. The kid is in a white t-shirt with black pants. He has a bucket of fruits in his hands.
"Nii-san!" A two-and half-year little girl hugs him.
The little girl has black eyes and shoulder-length black hairs. The little girl is wearing a pink frock with blue carvings on it.
"Hana-chan!" Yuji stares in the pure eyes of the little girl.
'So, she is my little sister, Hana!'
Strange emotions unknown to his previous emotionless heart fill his heart. Yuji subconsciously raises his hand and pats her head.
"Mm…" Hana closes her eyes and enjoys the head pat.
'Why… why do I have a sudden urge to protect her?' Yuji questions himself.
'My memories are still a bit messy.'
Ahem…
The blond-boy interrupts them.
"Is it Miina again?"
"Mm…"
The blond-haired kid picks up an apple. He peels the apple with a small kitchen knife. The kid chops the apple into four pieces and passes three of them to Yuji while eating the last piece.
"Hey, Yuji… why don't you stay in the hospital for a bit longer? Once you discharge from here, we won't be able to eat such tasty fruits every day."
The blond kid peels another apple and passes it to Yuji.
"No, I can't stay for too long. The academy is about to start a new session. I will miss it if I stay here. Also, Miina is paying for these fruits from her pocket. We can't take advantage of her." Yuji shakes his head and takes another bite from the apple. He chops a portion into little pieces and hands them over to the little girl.
"Eat slowly! You will choke if you eat quickly."
"Aaah…" The little girl opens her mouth. Yuji feeds the apple to her. Numerous thoughts run through his mind while feeding the little girl.
'I don't want to stay in this place for much longer after witnessing and listening to those screams.'
Yuji recalls an incident from half a month ago. A bunch of medics in white robes were carrying an odd-looking kid with them on a stretcher at midnight. He managed to sneak a glance at the kid and witnessed the apathy in the kid's eyes.
It was only for a moment, but he saw several plants growing out of the kid's body. The lower half of the kid was made of a dried tree rather than of a human body. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the kid was a subject of human experimentation. That wasn't all. Every four days, a similar situation will happen every night.
In his past life as Silver, he witnessed several such cruel experiments being carried out in the organization and even in other such facilities. Even he himself was a part of such experimentation. His physical capabilities were improved behind a normal human by such experimentation. He was the sole survivor of the 'Perfect Assassin Program,' after all. As his reward for survival, he was injected with a drug that enhanced his abilities to above human levels. The program was a filter meant to choose the best subject out of all. He and his nameless friend were the only survivor and were both fit for the drug administration.
However, the director didn't want a soldier with emotions; he wanted an assassin with no emotions. So, as the last test; both of them were pitted against each other.
In the end, my first and only friend sacrificed his life to help me survive. Later, I was injected with the drug and enhanced beyond human levels. The serum granted me enhanced strength equivalent to ten human athletes, a speed faster than the fastest human, and a regeneration ability to heal wounds at a ten times faster rate than normal.
During my career as an assassin, I had multiple close shaves with death. There was a time when I assassinated the president of a country in his penthouse. I barely made out of that with fifteen bullets lodged in my body. Not only did I survive, I even returned for payback by assassinating the vice president in the next six months.
Then there was another incident where I assassinated the military chief of a country. Those ruthless people blew my escape route with a missile. My skin was charred beyond recognition. When I was rescued by the operatives of the organization, I had fourth-degree burns and was barely holding onto life. And yet, it just took me nine months to make a complete recovery.
This wasn't the sole reason for my survival. Apparently, the drug had a special side effect or mutation on my body, which was discovered much later. Every time I encountered a life-death situation and survived; the recovery ability of my body will improve to another level.
It was part of the reason the government decided to take me down by blowing me up with a nuclear weapon. By the end of my career, the tenacity of my body was at such an absurd level that I could recover from gunshots within minutes. Explosive wounds will take months to recover under a proper medical facility.
Yuji picks up the last apple and stares out of the window.
Swoosh… whoosh…
Multiple shinobis flicker across the roofs of the village as they go on their way to complete their tasks.
'To think that such a world exists, where a normal soldier is almost, if not many times, more powerful than me in my prime. The ability of this energy called chakra is truly marvelous.'
During this past month, he made several observations of his own body and compared it with others. One of his test subjects was the blond boy in front of him.
'Except for a few additional nerves, arteries, and veins; the rest of the human body is similar to the one I knew in my past life. There is a new circulatory system in the body that circulates the chakra, but I am unable to locate it without the proper tools. There might be an additional organ or something like that to produce chakra in the body, but I am not and will not be privy to such information for the time being.'
After witnessing the marvelous powers of a shinobi, Yuji's inner nature decided to delve into the profession.
'This world is based on the survival of the fittest and the shinobis are the top predators in this world. If I want to survive, then I have to get stronger.'
Yuji recalls the fate of this body a month ago.
'I need power and to gain that power, I need to walk the path of a shinobi. And for that, my first step is to join the shinobi academy.'
"Hey Yuji, are you alright?"
The blond kind slightly taps his forehead.
"I am fine. Just spacing out a little while thinking of the academy." Yuji shakes his head.
"Yes, I am also excited about the academy. The admission to enter the academy will start next week. You need to be five years or older to be admitted to the academy. I turned five last month, so I am eligible for admission." The blond-haired boy speaks in excitation.
"I will also turn five a day before the admission, so I should be fine too." Yuji smiles warily.
"Wow! That's really close. If you missed it even by a day, then you would have to wait for six more months." The blond-haired kid pats his chest and heaves a sigh of relief.
"You and Nono are my only friend in the orphanage. Nono is already in the academy and now it's just you and me. I would be sad if you were left behind."
"Alright! Enough talk. The time is up." A medic in a nurse outfit enters the room.
"See you soon, Yuji!"
"See you soon too, Minato!" Yuji waves his hand to the blond-haired kid.
'My only friend, huh?'
Yuji closes his eyes. The hazy face of his first friend from his last life merges with Minato.
'I hope things won't go the way they did previously.'
----------------------
Four days later,
"You recovered a lot sooner than expected!' A medic with an examination report glances at Yuji.
"You have almost made a complete recovery. Though I will advise staying for another week, but if you wish to leave, then so be it." He stamps the discharge paper and hands them over to Yuji.
"Go submit them at the reception and you are free to go. I hope you won't come here again!" With a grumpy voice, the medic walks out of the room.
Yuji collects the papers and locates the reception after asking around a few times.
A green-haired woman in her early twenties is sitting at the reception desk. Yuji hands over the papers to her.
"I want to discharge from the hospital."
The woman accepts his papers.
"Give me a moment!"
She records his information and matches it with the old records.
"Name: Kura Yuji Age: 4 years, 11 months, 24 days,"
She notes down his name and passes an envelope to him. Yuji grabs the envelope and curiously turns to her for an explanation.
"This is the compensation for your injuries. Apparently, the case settled with the perpetrator being fined to pay monetary compensation after being visited by the Konoha Police Force. The scale of your injuries even drew the attention of the Hokage-sama."
Yuji tear opens the envelope. A stack of fifteen one thousand Ryo notes appears in his sight. He pockets the envelope and grabs his old clothes and walks towards the exit.
The receptionist enviously stares at his back.
'That's almost one and half times my monthly wage.'
Outside the hospital, Minato waves his hand at him. Yuji walks towards Minato.
"Let's go. Miina and Nono are waiting for you."
"Mm… before we go to the orphanage, we have somewhere else to go."
He grabs Minato's hand and walks away.
"But… that's the opposite path to the orphanage."
"Shut up and just follow me!"
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