The operating room at Konoha Hospital was a sanctuary of silence and white light. The pale, sterile green walls seemed to absorb all sound, creating an atmosphere of concentration so dense it was almost suffocating. The only noise was the soft hum of the chakra monitors and the hiss of the ventilation system. In the center of the room, under a powerful, shadowless lamp, lay Rock Lee.
Tsunade stood at the forefront, her gloved hands moving with an economy of motion that was almost hypnotic. To her right stood Sakura, her face pale beneath her surgical mask, her hands trembling so slightly it was nearly imperceptible. To her left, Shizune prepared the tools with a professional calm that belied the tension in her shoulders.
In a corner of the room, sitting on low stools, were Naruto and Hinata. They weren't mere spectators; they were a fundamental part of the operation. Naruto's hand rested on Lee's, a conduit of vital energy. Hinata's hand was placed gently on Naruto's shoulder, acting as a regulator, her white eyes activated with the Byakugan, watching not the surgery, but the energy flows that made it possible. Gai-sensei waited outside, having been kindly but firmly ejected from the room.
"Chakra scalpel, Sakura. Calibrated to three. I need to cut the scar tissue around the radial nerve."
Tsunade's voice was calm, precise, that of a commander on a battlefield.
Sakura swallowed, the sound dry in her own throat. She held out her hand, her palm glowing with a green light. A chakra scalpel, incredibly fine and sharp, formed over her fingers. But it was shaking.
"Don't tremble, kid," Tsunade said without looking away from the open wound in Lee's arm. "Your fear is the only thing that can kill him now. Breathe. Focus. You're my apprentice. Act like it."
The words were harsh, but not cruel. They centered her. Sakura took a deep breath, the air filling her lungs, and the trembling ceased. The chakra scalpel became as steady as steel.
"Yes, Tsunade-sama," she replied, her voice now steady.
Meanwhile, Naruto was fighting his own silent battle. Channeling his chakra wasn't the problem; the overwhelming amount of it was. He needed a precise, delicate flow.
"Naruto, keep the flow at two percent," Tsunade ordered, not taking her eyes off the surgical field. "Not a drop more."
Naruto glanced at Hinata, a bead of sweat running down his temple.
"Two percent?" he whispered, his voice barely audible. "How am I supposed to know what that is?"
Tsunade arched an eyebrow, her gaze dry and sharp even without direct eye contact.
"You'll know because if you go up to three, Lee's nervous system will overload and he'll start convulsing. You want to test that?"
Naruto shuddered, imagining Lee's body seizing on the table. He lowered his voice.
"...Two percent, got it. Super precise, zero convulsions."
"Naruto-kun, you're doing fine," Hinata's voice was a soft whisper in his ear, a calm in the middle of his internal storm. " I'll take care of diverting and regulating the rest."
With her Byakugan, Hinata didn't just see the chakra; she felt it, understood it. She saw Naruto's chaotic blue torrent flowing into Lee, and she saw her own pale, serene chakra wrapping around that torrent, filtering it, guiding it, allowing only a thin, precise stream to reach the patient. It was an act of control so delicate and exhausting that the veins around her temples stood out with intensity.
Naruto took a deep breath, feeling Hinata's help as a fundamental support. He smiled at her under the duck-patterned mask Shizune had found for him.
"Thanks, Hinata. You're like a human instruction manual."
"I wish you were this obedient when I tell you to rest, brat," Tsunade muttered as she sealed a small blood vessel with a perfect application of her own chakra.
"And miss all this? No way," Naruto replied in a low voice. "Besides… I'm part of the team."
Tsunade glanced at him for a second, and in the look in her visible eye above the mask, there was a flash of something that looked a lot like pride.
"'Tsk. Annoying, but useful," she said. "Fine… part of the team."
The surgery continued. Hour after hour. The room filled with a sequence of calm orders, efficient responses, and the held breath of four people working as one.
"Sakura, threads. I need to retract the peroneal muscle without touching the artery. Thin as a hair."
"Yes, Master."
Sakura, with a concentration so intense it made her head ache, projected chakra threads so fine they were nearly invisible. They latched onto the tissue with surgical precision, moving it aside by millimeters, clearing Tsunade's field of view.
"Shizune, the patient's chakra levels are dropping. Compensate with the anesthetic."
"Understood, Lady Tsunade. Adjusting the drip."
Shizune, using her own chakra threads, monitored Lee's every vital function, adjusting the mix of anesthetic and stimulants with a precision no hospital equipment could match.
"Naruto, Hinata, maintain the flow. Steady. We need a constant stream of vitality to promote cell regeneration while I work."
"Got it!" they both responded in unison.
Naruto could feel the sweat running down his back. Maintaining that control was more exhausting than any fight he had ever been in. Beside him, Hinata trembled from the effort of regulating a power that wasn't her own, but her determination was unshakable.
At one point, while Tsunade was working on reconstructing a shattered nerve, a bone fragment, sharp as a needle, shifted unexpectedly, threatening to puncture a major artery in Lee's leg.
"Dammit!" Tsunade hissed.
Before she could react, Sakura had already moved.
"Fracture Point!"
With her evolved Analytic Eye, she had not only seen the danger but had predicted the fragment's exact trajectory. With a chakra scalpel she deflected it. An incredibly precise touch that changed its angle, causing it to pass a millimeter away from the artery.
"Forceps," Sakura said, her voice trembling with adrenaline but her hands firm.
Tsunade looked at her, stunned for an instant, then passed her the forceps. Sakura extracted the bone fragment.
"Good work, apprentice," Tsunade said, and the praise, so rare and so genuine, was like a medal to Sakura.
The hours passed. They reconstructed bones. They sutured nerves. They reconnected chakra pathways that had seemed irreparably damaged. It was meticulous, exhausting work, a miracle built stitch by stitch, cell by cell.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Tsunade stepped back.
"Close him up," she ordered.
Sakura and Shizune worked together, closing the incisions with a skill that was a testament to their training and their new power. The final stitch dissolved, leaving only a thin pink line where a war wound had been.
Tsunade placed her hands over Lee's body and released an immense wave of her own healing chakra to give the body the final push it needed to begin its own healing.
"It's over," she said, her voice hoarse with fatigue.
Naruto and Hinata cut the flow of chakra, both nearly collapsing from exhaustion. Shizune and Sakura stepped back from the table, their legs shaking.
On the bed, Rock Lee's chakra monitor, which had been blinking a dangerous red for twelve hours, changed. It stabilized into a steady, healthy green.
They had won.
They left the operating room. The late afternoon sunlight blinded them. Gai-sensei leaped to his feet, his face a mask of anxiety.
"How is he?" he asked, his voice a broken whisper.
Tsunade pulled off her mask. She was pale and exhausted, but in her eyes was a wild, triumphant smile, the look of a gambler who had bet everything and won.
"The surgery was a success," she declared. "His path as a ninja… is not over."
Gai's cry of joy and relief echoed through the hospital. He fell to his knees, weeping, thanking them over and over again.
The team walked away, leaving him with his student. They moved down the hallway in an exhausted silence.
Naruto leaned heavily on Sakura's shoulder. Hinata walked on his other side, offering him silent support. Shizune was smiling, a tired but deeply happy smile.
Tsunade watched them. She saw Sakura, who had gone from a terrified novice to a competent surgeon in a single afternoon. She saw Shizune, whose skill now rivaled that of many Jōnin medics. She saw Hinata, whose empathy had become an invaluable support weapon. And she saw Naruto. The boy who was the centerpiece of it all. The loudmouthed idiot who had brought them together, who had given them the strength to achieve the impossible.
"You did a good job, brats," she said, ruffling Naruto's hair with a roughness that was purely affectionate. "All of you. I'm proud."
The praise, so direct and so sincere, left them speechless.
"Now," she continued, her tone becoming practical again, "go home and get some sleep. The real training begins tomorrow."