Chapter 3

I awoke the next morning, yawning loudly as I sat up. I look over at Urushi who was hanging half off his bed, his mouth wide open snoring, his pillow and blanket were on the floor. I then look to the other side, at Kabuto. He still hat his helmet above his head, but I saw a pair of glasses folded up inside it too. They looked an awful lot like mother's glasses..

"Umonooom..."

I look at Urushi, gargling in his sleep. "Idiot." I mock, getting out of bed.

"Noo...ooo...nugh.."

I step towards Urushi's bed and hold his nose.

"Uur-GWAH!" Urushi started to choke until he woke up, but fell off the bed. I grin down at him.

"MORNING!" I shout. His eyes narrow intensely, and he lays there for a moment.

"G...Good.. m-morning.." Not entirely recognising that voice, I look over my shoulder, it was Kabuto. He was rubbing his eyes, sitting up in his bed.

I smile. "Morning!"

"Ah ahh! Kabuto you're up!" Urushi pushes me down as he stands up. I hit my face on the wooden floor boards.

"Y-yeah.."

"Did'ja sleep alright? Well, did'ja?" Urushi questions, standing on me. He is so heavy it made me grunt.

"..Y.. yeah I di-"

"Hey! Aren't those mother's glasses?"

"Yes I-"

"Why are you wearing them! Hm?"

I roll over, causing Urushi to fall. He lands with a thud. I swear the whole building vibrated. "Urushi you're fat!" I exclaim as I stand up and brush myself off. "And stop yelling at Kabuto! It's not nice!" I stand beside Kabuto, protectively.

"Ayiee.. jeez Kei." He sits up rubbing his head.

I ignore him and face Kabuto. "Hey they do look like mother's glasses! How come you're wearing them?" I ask in a gentle tone, ignoring Urushi's groans.

"W.. well I couldn't s.. sleep last night.. and.. I wanted... t.. to thank mother... for everything.. but I got... in tr.. trouble.. and they got me to read the.. clock.. but I couldn't see it properly... and she gave these to me..." He explains, slowly and nervously, his eyes were at the ground the whole time.

I tilt my head slightly. "So you can't see properly? Huh.. I guess that explains the whole reason why you couldn't see that squirrel yesterday!"

He nods.

"Right, I'm hungry, lets go get breakfast!" Urushi exclaims, plopping an arm on both our shoulders, and pushing us out the door, ready for another day!

After breakfast mother approached us with a charming smile. "Urushi, Kei, Kabuto, please gather everyone, myself and the rest of us are going to teach you all medical ninjutsu."

3 years later and we were still doing the same old routines, only, we were getting to be quite talented with our medical ninjutsu.

We had to travel to a village somewhat far from the orphanage, it's called Konohagakure. I'd read about it in some books I found, it seemed like a nice place. It was flourishing with nature, flowers and other interesting plants were growing everywhere.

Our reason for being there was, to provide medical assistance to victims of the Third Great Shinobi War because they were lacking medical ninjas. We were shown to a small shelter with a tarp roof with a few low wooden tables and futons everywhere.

Urushi and I had set ourselves a small competition, on who could heal the most shinobis.

So far we had both healed 3 each. I was working on the forth, working beside Kabuto whom was also healing someone. Urushi was standing by us watching, waiting to be called for assistance.

"Kabuto, can you continue?" Mother called out.

"Yes, mother." Kabuto replies.

"And you Kei?"

"Yes, mother, I'm fine." I answer.

"I know it's for the institute, but why do we have to work with these shinobi?" Urushi complains.

"Money doesn't come from nothing... can you get me a bandage?" Kabuto replies.

"Yeah, I'll need one too, and a syringe. Thanks Urushi." I say.

Urushi groans at me then wonders off.

The patient Kabuto was working on began to speak. "You have a talent with medical ninjutsu, and you're not even a shinobi..."

"Mother taught us." Kabuto reaplies.

"Your name is Kabuto, isn't it? Why don't you become a shinobi? It would suit you. I'm sure of it."

"Sorry I'm not interested." Kabuto replies.

"Besides, the shinobi world looks really harsh and dangerous.." I mention.

"Yeah, and if we're going to be medical assistants like this, then we're better off to stay safe. Besides, I want to save money and be of help to the orphanage and mother. She did so much for me, yet the only thing I was able to do for her is give her glasses as a present." Kabuto explains.

"Haha yeah, she was so surprised." I laugh.

"Really? That's a pity.." The man spoke. Urushi came back with the bandages and syringe. I gave my patient a shot of medication and laid him down to rest. Kabuto bandaged his patient and walked to a wall, on the other side was a room where mother and the other owners went. He was listening in, I decided to not to pay much attention and continue helping patients.

After we were done we began heading back to the orphanage.

"I so won, I totally did." Urushi explains.

"Shut up already." I groan. "It was by one person anyway."

"But I still won! Right Kabuto! R- oi! Kabuto stop spacing already!" Urushi gushes.

I look at Kabuto curiously. He has seemed pretty spacey since he stopped listening in to that room..

"Oh, sorry. What did you say?"

Urushi frowns and sighs. "Don't worry! Just ignore me!"

"No, I wasn't ignoring you Urushi. Tell me."

"Ugh, so you reckon I'm way better than Kei, right? At medical ninjutsu and stuff, right? Right?"

"... No, from my observations, Kei is more skilled than you." Kabuto explains. I blink.

"Thanks!" I reply.

"NO! I healed more people than her! How the hell could you say that?" Urushi snarls.

Kabuto rolls his eyes. "Urushi, it's not the amount of people you can manage to heal, it's how good you are."

"Yeah but.. how the hell is Kei better than me? She's a girl!"

"Gender doesn't matter. Mother's better than all of us." Kabuto mentions.

"Yeah but she's older and more experienced!"

"It doesn't matter." Kabuto replies.

"Well, face the truth Urushi, I'm way better than you." I boast.

"But I'm better than you both." Kabuto sniggers. I roll my eyes, and upon seeing the orphanage coming up I nudge them both.

"Oi, race you guys there!" I shout.

"Deal!" Urushi shouts.

Kabuto laughs and runs as we do. Only he gets far ahead. Of course, Kabuto beat us back and went straight to his room. Urushi and I follow. Mother also followed, she had a very sad expression upon her. I couldn't ignore it.

"Mother, what's wrong?" I inquire.

She sighs and looks at Kabuto, whom was folding up the blankets on his bed. He then placed the helmet on top of the folded blankets, and turned to face us.

"Guys, I told you I'm the most skilled of us all." Kabuto says.

"You're not. But what? You're acting strange! The hell man!" Urushi gushes.

"I.. I'm going.. to be a shinobi.." Kabuto says.

Our jaws hit the ground.