Naruto: Chronicles of A Fire Ninja

Kaida was tied to the bed like a patient from a mental hospital, while three people surrounded him. It resembled a scene from some crazy scientist anime.

I, taking the lead, asked Kaida to activate the seal on his forehead. With just a thought, his whole body was covered by black markings, ready to provide chakra to the healing seals in his body.

"Kaida, you have to stay awake during this whole procedure, and just endure it for some time. I'm not giving you a pain suppressant because this is the first time such a procedure is being conducted on this seal, and the risk of adding an external variable is too high. So, bear this pain with all your strength," Hiruzen said.

Kaida just nodded because his mouth was already gagged with a cloth to prevent him from biting his tongue.

Without waiting another second, Hiruzen began removing the paths created by two fuinjutsu grandmasters, one by one. Not every path was removed, just the ones occupying too much space or those with only one destination. Their main goal was to create paths that connected many healing seals, something utterly difficult but important. But for Kaida, nothing else mattered.

What he felt when Hiruzen removed the seal was *PAIN*, and not just any pain, but true pain. If the initial application of the seals had felt like someone scratching him from the inside, this time, the scratching was twofold, and sometimes done twice to remove the path completely. Hiruzen had to scratch a little deeper to remove the seal. What Jiraiya had said was true—the pain was much worse than what Kaida had felt before. Unknowingly, his Sharingan activated, and he started healing the pain inside his body, but Mitsuru stopped him, as it could have affected the procedure.

"Don't worry, I will heal it after every minute. Just endure until then."

'One minute? I'll die in the next ten seconds! Stop this! I don't want to upgrade my seal—stooopppp,' Kaida was shouting in his mind, but no one could hear him. Or they chose not to. After all, someone at the level of Jiraiya and Hiruzen could sense a person's intentions just by looking at their face, even if they tried to hide it. Let alone Kaida, whose thoughts were as clear as day: I want to quit.

The procedure continued. After every minute, Hiruzen would stop, and Mitsuru would heal Kaida, while Jiraiya worked on maintaining the seal on Kaida's head. For the next hour, they slowly removed the seal and created paths for the new one.

"Finally, the erasing part is done. Now we just need to make the new one, which will be significantly less painful," Mitsuru said, her earlier cheerful personality gone. It was hard to maintain that when her student's face was smeared with snot and tears. Kaida hadn't cried last time because he'd somehow been able to endure the pain, but this time it was far beyond his limit.

If Sharingan could evolve from pain, he would have achieved the eternal Mangekyo Sharingan by now. Mitsuru took out her handkerchief and slowly wiped Kaida's face.

Even though Mitsuru was trying to comfort him, Kaida couldn't hear her at all. His only focus was keeping himself awake because they were in the middle of a crucial part of the procedure. If something went wrong now, not only would he lose the additional benefit from the seal, but even the previous one would be destroyed.

Suffering all this pain and getting nothing in return? He would rather die. Hiruzen and Jiraiya smiled, seeing the burning resolve in Kaida's eyes.

Both of them were more than capable of managing the situation even if Kaida fainted. Heck, even a painkiller wouldn't have affected someone at Hiruzen's level. So why didn't they give Kaida painkillers? Because that's how the world works—you don't get everything you want just by asking. You must have the guts to handle the consequences of your request. Jiraiya and Hiruzen had worked on a single seal for a week, and this was the first time something like this had happened in a decade.

To get the benefit of their hard work for free? Kaida wasn't that lucky. This was a test of sorts for Kaida. He never truly wanted to back away from it. If he did, Jiraiya would have allowed him to quit before they even reached the Hokage building, and Kaida would never have this chance again in his life.

Now, seeing the boy's immense willpower, both Hiruzen and Jiraiya were satisfied that their work wasn't in vain. And this wasn't entirely wasteful for Kaida—having high pain tolerance was never a bad thing for a ninja.

Jiraiya smiled and placed his hand on Kaida's eyes, gently closing them. Kaida, who had been holding on to consciousness until now, couldn't continue any longer and finally let himself fall into a deep slumber.

Jiraiya then blocked some of Kaida's acupoints to prevent him from waking up during the procedure.

"Let's continue, Sensei," Jiraiya said.

"Yes," Hiruzen replied.

Jiraiya now had to work extra hard to maintain control over the seals and prevent them from going off, but he did it without any problems, while Hiruzen created better and more concise paths in Kaida's seal, which he had erased.

After completing the mitotic regeneration jutsu seals, Hiruzen started making new seals around Kaida's hands, legs, back, torso—every part a ninja usually strengthens using chakra—and connected them to the already existing pathways of the mitotic regeneration seal.

Now, Kaida's body had more black markings than before, but unlike before, where the markings looked like straight lines drawn with a ruler, this time they were more refined and pleasing to the eye. Not because Hiruzen paid attention to aesthetics, but because the seal was now perfect. Except for the healing seals, everything else was on par or better than what Tsunade had, but those healing seals made Kaida's version inferior to Tsunade's.

Why? Because those healing seals of Tsunade were made by Tsunade herself, the best medical ninja in the world. How could they be on the same level as Mitsuru's? Though talented, Mitsuru was not on Tsunade's level, and even with the help of his Sharingan, Kaida's healing was still a bit inferior to Tsunade's. The combination of these factors meant Kaida's healing seals were not as strong as Tsunade's.

To compare, if someone bisected Tsunade, she could reattach herself, but Kaida? He would simply die. This difference was extreme but real.

When everything was completed, Hiruzen turned to Jiraiya. "I'm going home. You can stay here or let an Anbu guard him," Hiruzen said, then left.

Mitsuru also followed behind him. This place was off-limits to anyone other than the Hokage and Anbu captains. To stay here, one needed Hiruzen's permission, and since Hiruzen had only given it to Jiraiya, Mitsuru quietly left the basement.

"You've got quite the willpower, boy. Maybe taking you as my student won't be such a bad thing," Jiraiya said, sitting down next to Kaida, silently waiting for him to wake up.

...

"Where am I?" Kaida said, waking from a deep slumber, only a blanket covering him. 'Being completely naked is not a good feeling at all,' he thought, remembering why he was here.

"You're finally awake. You're more fragile than I thought, sleeping for ten hours just because of that much pain," Jiraiya said.