The finals/crush arc will likely be a few chapters, starting with the finals next chapter. I'm thinking I might delay the timeskip a few months and write that time into a chapter or two also so still not sure exactly when the skip will happen, but we're getting close. Also, I still haven't decided if the Shippuden half will be posted as a separate story. There seems to be positives and negatives to both choices.
I have no idea what's going on with the formatting but it's default setting has changed for me so bear with me if you don't like it.
Tsunade pursed her lips as she finished up her examination of Konoha's jinchuuriki. She allowed her mind to wander briefly as the hard part of her job was over.
Walking through the gates of the village had been hard. Rather, forcing herself to walk through had been hard. Actually being inside of the village wasn't as difficult as she had thought it would be. Jiraiya dragged her straight to the hospital, so she hadn't seen any of the places that would drag up the bad memories. Still, she had been pleasantly… apathetic to her return. The henge that kept people from recognizing her had helped too, she wasn't ready to be welcomed back. Not when she'd be turning around as soon as the genin in front of her was healed.
"Well?" Jiraiya broke her train of thought.
She dropped her stethoscope around her neck, and took a step back. She picked up the chart again and briefly flipped through it.
"It's not good Jiraiya."
"What?" Naruto asked from his seat on the table. "What do you mean it's not good?" His lip was trembling. He'd been so excited when Jiraiya returned with his old teammate, supposedly the only person that could heal him.
"Kid, the damage is bad. Your chakra system below the injury line is completely destroyed. Restoring injuries of that nature is a mess. Even I haven't done it successfully yet."
"I don't care." Naruto said. His hands gripped the sides of the table, the leather cover on it creaking under his hands. "I wanna do it."
"You could become completely paralyzed, you could lose all ability to use chakra. Worst case scenario you die."
"I. Don't. Care. You have to do it."
"I'm not going to let you die." Tsunade said, crossing her arms under her chest. "Take what you can get. I can heal the leg so you walk but that's it."
Naruto put his head down, clenching his jaw. His whole body began to shake. Jiraiya tried to bridge the gap to them. "Tsunade, maybe-"
"No." Naruto said quietly. "We will do the surgery. I won't lose my ability to use chakra, and I won't die." He looked up at Tsunade with tears in his blue eyes, staring into her brown ones. "Not until I become Hokage."
Tsunade gasped. For a brief moment she saw the ghost of her younger brother, and her former lover standing over the blond's shoulders.
"There are too many people counting on me. I can't fail. I have to protect my loved ones. That's my ninja way." There was a determination in his voice that Tsunade had rarely seen or heard. The memories of her own lost loved ones weighed heavy on her. It was a truly honorable way to live life. She wanted to root for Naruto, she really did. It would be best to hammer it into his thick skull now though. Wanting and hoping to protect your loved ones won't stop them from dying.
"Brat," She said. The bite in her tone was gone. It almost sounded like she was being forced to speak. "The world is a cruel place. Beyond these walls it's dark, and cold, and it doesn't look kindly upon anybody. If you're unlucky enough to survive as long as I have you will get unlucky. You will believe in people who let you down. And worst of all, just when things are looking like you might get a happily ever after…" A tear leaked down her left cheek, but she wiped it away quickly, keeping her tone even. "This world will stomp all over it, and you'll lose those that you love."
Naruto was quiet for a few seconds, taking in what she had said. He knew her story, or at least the gist of it, from Jiraiya. Honestly, it was hard for the old pervert to shut up about her once he got going.
He looked down at his own hands, seemingly contemplating their existence, studying the lines on his palms. The feint chakra burns on his left palm. The calluses and scars from kunai and shuriken on his right. Then he clenched them. So tight and forceful that the skin around his knuckles creaked. His hand snapped up, eyes blazing with a fire seldom seen.
"You think that losing your loved ones means you give up? You think that's what they would want?" His voice was slowly gaining volume and intensity as he spoke. "You think my parents think I should just stop trying? They died so that I would have the opportunity to protect those I love! The village that I love! They entrusted everything to me!" He rose to his full height on his one good leg, spiky hair barely coming above her breast as it shook. "Losing those you love doesn't mean you give up! It means you have to try that much harder for those that you still have!" He was breathing heavily now, and his chakra was stirring tumultuously. Restlessly.
Tsunade's eyes had long since opened wide in surprise. The kid was wise beyond his years it seemed, but she had experience that he didn't. She had felt the pain. Held Dan in her arms as he bled to death. Hadn't even been able to look upon the mangled corpse of her little brother. She knew the pain.
"Naruto, do you see this necklace?" She retrieved it from between her chest, holding it up in an open palm for him to see. "It was my grandfathers, forged from his chakra. When he passed it down to my mother, he said it symbolized his Will of Fire. His will to protect the village. I gave it to my brother when he was about your age. A genin. He wanted to become Hokage and protect the village, just like Grandad. He died the next day. Simple carrier mission gone wrong."
Naruto looked like he wanted to respond, but Tsunade held her hand up. "Just listen... I was crushed. Broken over it even. I lobbied sensei to have more medic nin trained. I thought maybe if there was a real medic there he might have survived. That was how I met Dan. He saw it the same as I, and like my brother, he had a dream of being Hokage. Over time, I healed, little by little. I gave Dan the necklace, entrusting my grandfathers will to him too. He died in my arms the next day. It was like the universe said, 'you think more med nin will help? Well not even you can save him.'" She shook her head, trying to fight back tears. "So just take it from me, kid. You can be the greatest ever at what you do, and it still won't be enough. It's better to just give up on all that now. Become a tea shop owner or farmer or something. It'll save you a lot of pain." She said sullenly.
Throughout her speech, Jiraiya saw the emotion progressively slip from Naruto's face. It'd been a long time since he'd seen that look. He used to turn to it when Jiraiya would broach the touchier subjects in their early days together. This wasn't that though. This was like the time when Jiraiya had eaten Naruto's ramen stash when he drank too much sake in one of the towns, then tried to tell him it was just ramen… He hoped the hospital structure had passed it's most recent inspection.
Slowly, Naruto's face began to betray his emotions. He'd been suppressing it, but the signs had still shown. Squeezing the chair, raising his voice, loosening his hold on his chakra. Smaller things, at least for a soon to be 13 year old. Now there was rage written across his features, and a smattering of what looked to be betrayal. Jiraiya was beginning to wonder if it was safe for him to be here. Naruto's temper could rage, but Tsunade's could and would surpass his. The genin's next words would have to be chosen carefully.
"You have no right to talk down on my dreams, just because you've given up on yours." His tone was cold as ice, shaking slightly in his attempt to keep his cool. "You have no right to wear that necklace and what it stands for. Not while talking like this. Your brother and Dan are probably rolling over in their graves right now!"
Jiraiya's eyes widened. Those were not the right words. They were fucked. He was on Naruto's side. Always. But this time it was really going to suck, because Tsunade was going to try and kill one of them.
Tsunade, to her credit, didn't explode immediately and destroy the room. She balled her hands into fists, squeezing so hard they shook. "You think the necklace is so great? You think you deserve the necklace more than me? You want the fucking necklace!? Come and get it you little brat!" She yelled, before whispering her last words. "Outside. Now."
This was bad. Jiraiya had seen Tsunade angry many times, usually his fault, but the only time she'd been this mad he'd nearly died. That was also the last time he ever peeped on her in the baths.
He tried to slow her down as she led them to a training ground, leaving cracks in the ground as she stomped her way there.
"Tsunade, c'mon now he's just a kid, he doesn't know any better." He pleaded, striding by her side to keep up. Naruto, to his credit, was only a few steps behind. He had gotten pretty agile on his crutches.
Tsunade took a blind swipe at Jiraiya's head, one he nimbly dodged. She let out a grunt in frustration as she felt her fist barely swipe some of her teammates hair.
"He's gotta learn the lesson sooner or later, Jiraiya." She huffed, "Might as well learn it right now, and who better to learn it from than me." She smiled humorlessly.
They reached the training ground, and a memory nearly assaulted her. She hadn't had a place in mind, but her feet had brought her to where Sarutobi-sensei had given them the bell test. There was the stump Jiraiya had been tied to. Over there was where Orochimaru had mastered sensei's signature jutsu on his first go.
And there, behind it all, lay the memorial stone. It's kunai shape jutting out of the ground cruelly. Dan's name was on there. So was Nawaki's. Her Grandfather. Her Great Uncle. Nearly everybody she had loved. She was frozen in time, lost in her memories for a moment. Naruto's voice brought her out of it.
"Whatsa matter, Granny? Having second thoughts?" He taunted.
Just like that she was snapped back to reality. She spun on her heel and spoke.
"Listen here, Brat. You land a single blow on me, and this necklace is yours. If you have a death wish that's fine by me. You won't be able to though, because no matter how hard you try, there are things in this world you just can't do. One of those things for you is beat me. One blow, and I'll even spot you. I bet you that I can stop you with one finger." She held up her index to emphasize the point. Off to the side Jiraiya cringed.
"Tch." Naruto said, borrowing from Sasuke's vocabulary. "Gonna take a lot more than a finger to put me down, Granny." Tsunade turned red in anger at the slight on her age. "You'll see." He whispered more to himself than her.
Naruto tossed the crutch in his left hand to Jiraiya. He couldn't use any chakra if his one good hand was occupied. He lined up across from Tsunade, the only Sannin he hadn't faced yet. He was 0/2 all time, but that just meant things could only go up from here.
Jiraiya made a few comments about not having to do this, both of which were ignored by both of them. Finally, he gave in and raised his hand to start the fight. It dropped hesitantly.
Tsunade didn't move. If the brat wanted the necklace he could come get it. Sure it was a little cruel to make him do the moving considering the state he was in, but that was the whole point, wasn't it.
Naruto lazily popped a few kunai from storage scrolls plastered on his side. He might not be able to make hand signs with his right hand, or bear weight on his right leg, but he had a few tricks left still. And one very powerful jutsu. He hoped.
He transferred the kunai to his right hand, and formed a half ram seal with his left. He took a big breath of air, and molded his chakra. Since the seal had been placed on him, his chakra control had been erratic. Luckily, chakra control could be trained, and he hadn't had much else to do lately. It wasn't as good as before, but it wasn't as much of a struggle as it was during the preliminaries either.
His chakra condensed, feeling the flow and rhythm of it, the swirl in his gut. He spat out a wave of water between him and the Sannin, letting it fan out as much as possible. It wouldn't be powerful enough to make her move anyway. He flung the three kunai with his right hand, and used a burst of wind chakra from his left to give them speed. And then he charged chakra into his good leg, and moved.
Tsunade was surprised when the little brat spit out enough water to put a chunin down for the day with nothing but half a hand sign. It lacked power and control, but it was impressive nonetheless. Clearly a diversion however, so she readied herself.
Two kunai spit through the water, moving unnaturally through the air. She dodged them with a wide berth. She felt the ripple of the wind they made as they passed by. Did he use wind chakra to propel them? Two chakra natures? Her surprise was interrupted by another. The boy had lunged to her left, around the edge of his water jutsu. It was a peculiar thing watching someone so young move so fast on one leg. He planted, clearly using chakra to enhance his strength and speed, turned and leapt towards her. His speed was impressive, but nothing for her to worry about whatsoever.
Another kunai made its way to his right hand as he came through the air. He flung it at her, and cocked his left hand back like he was going to boost it with chakra again. The kunai was going to miss to the right of her head. No issue. Then her senses screamed at her, the sixth sense honed through hundreds of fights and battles and war. She looked up in time to see a kunai falling from the sky, aimed for the left side of her head. It was going to reach her first. She leaned out of the way, straight into the oncoming path of the other kunai.
She wouldn't have time to safely dodge, not while off balance. Instead, she reached out with her index finger, intending on deflecting the kunai with it. This time, there was a literal scream to accompany her senses. The scream of chakra grinding.
As Naruto flew at Tsunade and let loose his kunai throw, he knew he'd timed it just right. His one chance. He cocked his left hand back, almost as if he was going to push the kunai with his chakra. Hopefully she'd picked up on the wind earlier. He couldn't be sure because the water had blocked his view of her reaction.
He saw her begin to dodge to her right, his left, and he knew he had her. If only he could hold the jutsu long enough. He focused with all he had, flying through the air as he was. Chakra began to swirl in his hand, forming a ball. It span quickly into a shaky ball, leaving a screaming sound behind him as he moved. His eyes picked up on Tsunade using her finger to deflect the kunai. She'd never be able to block him in time.
Time seemed to slow down for him as he approached her. He saw her eyes go wide. He willed the jutsu to hold together. He'd been practicing and practicing. If he couldn't do jutsu with hand signs, then he'd master jutsu that didn't need them. Just before he landed, he planted the crutch in the ground, allowing him to pivot around it. It gave him just enough leverage to do so before it snapped. Good. He hated those things anyway. He let loose a scream as his left hand came down on her.
"RASENGAN!" The swirling orb of chakra began to destabilize as it reached her, but it didn't matter. Before he could made contact with her, his whole body was snapped back. The foot in his gut rocketing him across the training ground, leaving a small channel in the ground as he burrowed across it. He crashed into the training post, coming to a stop.
Jiraiya was on him in an instant. Checking him over. He wasn't too worried though, the kid was tough as nails, and Tsunade had really held back on that kick.
"Jiraiya-sensei," He said wearily. "I did it." He said. The contentment in his voice lightened Jiraiya's burden quite a bit. Naruto then proceeded to turn over on to his side and throw up, clutching his stomach.
"Yeah, yeah you did, Naruto. I think you're the only person who could have too." Jiraiya said proudly, patting him on the back. "When were you gonna tell me you almost had the rasengan down?"
Naruto rolled back over, and sat up slowly. "It was better before the exams. I could keep it running better. It's not mastered though. Learning jutsu is hard without clones." He lamented.
"Yeah, welcome to the land of mortals, Kid."
Tsunade came walking over at that moment, a small look of confusion on her otherwise schooled face. She knelt down, and her hands glowed green. She began to heal the damage she'd just inflicted on Naruto.
"I told you, Granny. I won't fail." He said, much more timidly than his usual bravado.
Tsunade chose to ignore him, and instead berated Jiraiya. "What are you doing teaching such a dangerous jutsu to a child! Do you know how dangerous that is!?"
Jiraiya grinned unabashedly. "Well, technically Kakashi taught him, but even then he just gave him the tools. Nobody really told him how it works, he figured it out by himself.
"That's a weak excuse and you know it. He could blow a hand off trying to learn that."
"I almost did actually, it was pretty cool though." Naruto tossed in.
Jiraiya glared at him, trying to silently tell him to shut up. It was too late, Tsunade whipped her head around at him.
"What the hell are you thinking. Do you realize I could have made your injuries much worse if I'd kicked you harder? You can't leave yourself exposed flying through the air like that. DIdn't Jiraiya teach you anything?" She was clearly angry, but it sounded oddly like she cared. It was a different tone from before.
"However," She continued. "I-I was wrong to say the things I said. You clearly have a bright future ahead of you." He voice got real soft. "I just don't want anybody to have to go through what I did."
"A bright future?" Naruto questioned. "Does that mean you'll do the surgery?"
"Naruto," She said. "I don't think you properly understand the risks. Bijuu chakra was flooded into your limbs. You might have a tolerance to your Bijuu, but it's still toxic. Your tenketsu and coils are destroyed, and those aren't rebuilt as simply as muscles and bones." She said seriously. "I would have run a stent from your chakra core all the way down to both your leg and arm, which means I have to rebreak both your arm and your leg. Then I have to run it to your central nervous system. That is dangerous. Each of those are 50/50 at best. You could be paralyzed. You could die. I just can't do it, it's not safe." The sad look on his face almost crushed her.
"Just take some time and rest. I'll look into it some more." She moved to take her necklace off for him, he'd won after all, when she'd had to kick him. His hand touched her elbow lightly.
"I don't want it, not yet. If I can't protect my village, then I don't deserve the necklace." He said sadly.
She dropped her hands. This kid was something else. She nodded and flickered out of there, intent on doing some research.
Jiraiya helped Naruto to his feet, handing him the one good crutch. He didn't really need the second one to walk anymore anyway. "C'mon kid, let's go to Ichiraku's and you can get me caught up on how the hell you managed two sannin and a jinchuuriki in the same month."
Naruto snorted in return, the ridiculousness of the statement was not lost on him. "Actually," He returned, "I think technically it's been 29 days since you last sparred with us, so it's all three sannin, a jinchuuriki, and I almost got in a fight with Jiji." He said.
"Oh you've got to tell me that story." Jiraiya said, laying an arm around Naruto's shoulders with a chuckle. Naruto let loose a soft one of his own as they walked. There wasn't a lot of joy in it, but there was more than there'd been in the last couple of weeks.
—
Shizune found her in the hospital of all places. She wasn't near any of the blood upstairs of course, but still, coming to the archives and research floor was a big step for her.
She'd been happy to be able to run off and catch up with friends for the first time in she didn't know how many years. Three if she was counting right, since the last time Tsunade had let her leave to visit the village. After lunch with friends, she'd gone and gotten them a hotel room, knowing Tsunade wouldn't want to spend her time in the Senju compound where the memories would be plentiful and painful.
She then went to find her master, checking all the bars and gambling halls she knew of. Oddly enough she didn't find her in any of them. It wasn't until she saw Jiraiya's white hair hanging off a stool that she had any luck. She went up to him, introducing herself and TonTon to Naruto in the process, and then inquired to Jiraiya.
Jiraiya thought for a second, and then directed her to the hospital, saying she said she was going to look into Naruto's case some more. That was a shock to Shizune, and she hadn't really expected to find her there. But there she was, twin blonde tails of her hanging down her back as she hunched over a large book. She didn't even look up when Shizune entered.
Most shockingly, was the lack of any visual or olfactory evidence of alcohol. She was sober.
Tsunade looked up, a focused look on her face, and saw Shizune.
"Oh good, you're here. Grab the book on coil regeneration in the corner. I want to see what's been updated since I was last in a hospital." Without awaiting a response, she turned back to her book, intently reading. As Shizune set her pig down, a younger lady in a lab coat strutted through the doors.
"Here's the file you requested, Tsunade-sama." The assistant said.
Tsunade pointed to an empty space on the table without looking up. The assistant placed the folder down, before bowing and exiting. Shizune smiled. It was good to see her back to work. She walked over to the book, and pulled it out. They got to work.
—-
Naruto found himself on the same examination table he'd last been on, 3 days after the fact. He'd been down the last few days, but Jiraiya being around had helped. He kept practicing, knowing it was good for him, but also a good distraction. He almost was able to form one of his chakra chains now, The rasengan hadn't improved though.
Tsunade strutted in, looking for all the world like a new woman. She wore a white coat, and had a concentrated look on her face. Most importantly, she moved with a purpose. Naruto almost smiled seeing her.
"Here's the deal." She said. "There's been some medical advancements. Shizune and I have worked day and night to come up with a new treatment." She held a hand up to curb Naruto's enthusiasm. "It's safer. Less risk of permanent damage, however…" She waited till Naruto's full attention was on her. "It will probably be extremely painful. We'll have to graft on stem cells and connect them to your existing coils." Naruto didn't seem to understand what that meant, so she continued to explain. "It will almost be like an organ transplant. The success rate is much higher, but there's two issues."
She held up a finger sharply. "One. Because it's like a transplant, if your body rejects the tissue, your own chakra will essentially turn on you, and you will most likely die." Naruto was steadfastly staring at her, so she continued. She held up a second finger. "Two. We don't know how the Kyuubi's chakra will react. I understand that Orochimaru messed with your seal so you can't access the foxes chakra, and sensei decided to leave it that way, for fear of what it might do to your injuries?" Naruto nodded. "It will have to stay that way until it's completely healed and integrated. That could take up to a year by my estimates. The Kyuubi could theoretically heal it and integrate it much faster, but there's far too many variables to consider that an option. That means chakra control won't be improved during that time."
Naruto nodded slowly, taking it all in.
"So…" She said. "Do you still want to go ahead with it?"
Naruto looked at Jiraiya.
"It's your decision, Kid. You've been given all the information possible. Keep a level head and assess the situation. I'll go along with whatever you decide."
Naruto nodded again, more firmly this time. He turned to Tsunade.
"Alright, Granny. Let's do this."
Tsunade scoffed at the nickname, but ignored it otherwise. "I thought you might say that. Surgery is tomorrow at noon. The surgery itself isn't that intensive, though your arm and leg will still have to be fractured, so you'll be out of the hospital in time to watch your friends in the chunin exams. Your pink haired friend told me that would be of utmost importance to you."
Naruto shot a blinding smile at Tsunade. Sakura knew him too well, and of course she'd ran into Tsunade in the hospital, and of course she'd spoken her mind about Naruto. She was a good friend to have.
"And Naruto," she added. "Just because it might work doesn't mean things will be the same. Your jutsu might not be as strong. Your chakra might not flow as smoothly." She said. "I would tell you not to get your hopes up but I'm beginning to understand you'll just take that as a challenge."
He grinned again. "You got that right, Granny! Naruto Uzumaki is gonna become Hokage no matter what, just you watch! I'll have the rasengan mastered and surpass you and no time, ya know!"
She rolled her eyes at the boy, but couldn't hide the smirk that appeared after she turned to leave from Shizune. Her student herself sported a big smile, as did Jiraiya. The blond firecracker is infectious, thats for sure.
—
8 hours, and 29 minutes after losing consciousness, Naruto Uzumaki awoke in a hospital room. His arm was once again in a cast, and his leg had been given a new one. He couldn't pay that much attention to it though, because despite the dark hour, and the big event tomorrow, his room was full. 11 genin, his comrades were in the room. The three jonin sensei and Kakashi were also there, a step behind their students. Jiraiya's burly frame filled the corner of his vision. Tsunade took a majority of it centered in front of him.
"The operation went off without a hitch, Naruto." She said, a small amount of warmth leaking into her voice. "Now, we play the waiting game. You have a standing reservation at noon here every single day. They'll give you the details when you're discharged."
Most of the room cheered in happiness. Naruto couldn't help but smile along with them. Even Neji looked like the stick wasn't quite so far up his butt today.
"Thank you, Granny Tsunade. I mean it." And he did. He was extremely grateful to her. "Thank you for going out of your way to do this. I promise I won't let it go to waste." He turned to his fellow genin. "Thank you all for being here. I can't wait to watch you fight tomorrow and get back out there with you guys. You should go home though and get some rest."
After a few weak arguments, they all began to file out of the hospital room and head to their respective homes. Sasuke and Hinata were the last two to leave bidding him good buy with a hug and a wave respectively. He was worried about them. He knew Hinata would be alright in her fight, she had plenty of experience with fighting against wind jutsu after all. Sasuke though was another story. He trusted his teammate, but Gaara was a different beast.
He was brought out of his thoughts by Tsunade.
"Remember, Kid. It's going to take a while for you to heal from the surgery. You're on crutches until I clear you. Don't try and push it. I mean it."
Naruto nodded at her enthusiastically. "Don't worry, Granny. I won't. Whether it's two months or a year, I'll make sure to do it properly." He responded contently.
A comfortable silence hung in the air between them. To the side, Jiraiya sat in a chair happily smiling, Shizune doing the same. An idea popped into Naruto's head, and he perked up. "Would you and Shizune like to sit with Jiraiya-sensei and I tomorrow? We got great seats!"
Tsunade smiled softly at the boy, his enthusiasm overriding the voice in her head telling her to shut herself in and down a bottle of sake. "Sure, Naruto. We would be happy to. We can leave straight from here since you won't be discharged until tomorrow anyway." She said.
Not even the fact that he'd have to stay overnight in one of his least favorite places could put him down at this point.
He sat back in his bed, feeling cozy for the first time in quite a while. His dream wasn't over. He could still become Hokage. He could still protect his loved ones.
The Sannin and Shizune left him so that he could rest, and he slept soundlessly. Everything would be alright.
Okay, I know that this all kind of happened real fast, but there was only so much I could write about in the meantime at this stage, and the story is already getting long considering we're only at the exams, so I just kinda got to the point. Lots of people seemed upset that Naruto could possibly turn out crippled. That's kind of life though? He would have probably been fine without fixing his chakra system as long as he can run. In canon the only jutsu that technically requires two hands are shadow clone (which he does with one after he loses his arm) and summoning, but he could probably find a way around it. I think I would've gone the route of kenjutsu with the right hand and Fuinjutsu with the left. He'd be basically as strong as canon that way, assuming not being able to channel chakra to one of his legs didn't turn out to be too much of a problem. Anyway there's no reason to get so pressed about it.
Secondly, people commented that hurting the main character to nerf him because you make him too strong is bad writing. I didn't hurt him to nerf him though. Gaara is really powerful for a genin obviously, and Naruto not being at full power gives him a good chance of losing, especially when he himself doesn't exactly know what's going on. It's also a chance for him to reflect on himself and his life, which is a lot better at this point in time than it was in the past. I would say the draw to not push to be a strong shinobi was much stronger here than it would have been at this point in canon.
It's all moot since the surgery went well, though it's unlikely his life will be easy breezy from here on out. Main characters tend to suffer to become stronger. So do people in real life so it all checks out.
Next chapter is basically written as I release this one, so expect it by next weekend at the latest, but shooting for Wednesday. It will have a little more focus on the fights of the exams, since I had a few complaints about the skimmed over ones in the preliminaries. Hoping to give our Hyuga fighters and Rock Lee some more screen time here.
Lastly, there were a lot of reviews over the last chapter, which in my mind means I wrote it well, and motivated me much more to push these last two chapters. So if you like my writing or just really need something to read, please leave a review, and don't forget to follow the story :)