Disclaimer: If you think I own…see a shrink…and I don't mean someone who's been shrunk…

Chapter 25: Paper, Pencil, Flesh and Bone

Before Ayaka left, Sakura asked her to bring a few things down to her. Ayaka gave her a well practiced bow and said that she would, and then she left, allowing Sakura and her students to eat. As they ate, Sakura forced herself to think on a lesson plan for today. First she'd have to find out what Tobi could do and what he knew about healing. After that…she would probably have to do some demonstrations, but what kind of demonstrations she'd have to do wouldn't be known until after she'd tested Tobi.

Speaking of Tobi, he'd taken his food and disappeared somewhere in the library. Sakura got the feeling he didn't want to be seen eating. Sakura's thoughts then floated to Tobi's sister, Ayaka. She hadn't been able to get much of an answer from Tobi about himself, but maybe she could ask Ayaka about it. She didn't know why, but Sakura got the odd feeling that Tobi's past could be important…but maybe that was just her imagination.

Sakura had just finished eating when Tobi returned and sat down next to Noya as if he hadn't just disappeared, Sakura didn't say anything about his disappearance, however. Once everyone had finished eating, Sakura explained to Tobi what tests she was going to do. By the time she had finished explaining, Ayaka had returned with a cart (how she got the cart down the stairs, Sakura wasn't going to ask) that held everything Sakura had asked for…and more.

After an hour, Sakura concluded her test on Tobi. She now had a pretty good idea of the range of his ability. He was actually halfway decent at healing flesh wounds, though he was very slow at doing so. He could barely do anything about internal bleeding unless he cut the patient open to actually get to the internal bleeding…not a good sign. He couldn't heal broken bones to save his life…or Sakura's, if it came to that…and that wasn't a good thing either.

Sakura sighed before she decided to explain to Tobi (and her cousins, who had been watching everything she had Tobi do with wide eyes) something she'd noticed. "Ok, everyone listen up. This may currently only be Tobi's problem, but it may become the three of yours' problem once you reach his level…so pay attention."

Sakura took a deep breath before she began, focusing her eyes on Tobi, "I've notice that when you heal, you are unable to keep your Chakra steady. Because it is continually fluctuating, you overcompensate to make sure that something happens. But your control is weak, so when you add more Chakra to what you're doing to make up for the low points in the fluctuation, you stress your patient. You keep adding Chakra, and the pressure that your Chakra emits on the patient increases."

"This is why you can heal flesh wounds to a point, but are unable to deal with bones. Flesh has some resilience, it can deal with extra pressure without too much effort, and it can rebound once the pressure is removed with little to show. Bones, on the other hand, are not made to give way to pressure. When you keep adding Chakra…keep adding pressure…to a bone, the bone fights you, because that's what a bone does. Because the bone fights you, you add more Chakra, making it have to fight you even more. Finally it gets to the point where the bone can no longer fight, but at the same time, it cannot give in and be healed, because the pressure still exists…so it breaks under that pressure."

Sakura paused, and noticed that only Noya looked like he understood what she was saying. Sakura sighed again, then tried another way of explaining. "You've all written on paper before, correct?" All four of her students nodded, and she continued, "Then you know that it's easiest to write on a flat, hard, surface. But you can write on surfaces other than that, it's just not as easy, and the work is of a lesser quality."

Sakura turned to the cart Ayaka had brought and pulled out a couple of sheets of paper and pencils before she turned back to her students. "First, let me show you what I've said so far." Sakura walked over to the side of a bookcase and put a piece of paper up against its flat wooden side. She thought a moment, and drew a simple, four-petaled, flower. Sakura sat back down and showed the drawing to her students, saying, "Now you draw something, keep it small, and keep it simple." as she handed each of them a paper and a pencil. Her students each drew something than returned to her, all but Noya looking confused.

Sakura waited until everyone had settled, before she took her paper and placed it on her leg and began to draw the flower a second time and said, "Draw it again, this time using your leg instead of the bookcase." As they drew, Sakura drew another drawing, but didn't tell them to do so as well.

Once they had finished, she had everyone show each other what they'd drawn. The pictures all differed, but one thing remained the same, the picture that they had drawn on the bookcase was twice as good as the squiggly drawing that had been done on their legs. Sakura nodded, then showed them her three drawings. The first one was neat, no major squiggles to be seen. The second one was very squiggly, much like how her student's pictures had been. Her third one was wavy and not quite as good as her first one, but was much better than her second one.

Inuka's mouth opened, but before she could ask, Sakura answered, "The second one I drew the same way I drew the first. I used the same kind of pencil strokes, and I timed myself to make sure I even drew it in the same amount of time. The third one, that I didn't have you do, was the one that I took my time on. I used smaller, neater, strokes to keep the drawing looking more like it should, and I didn't let the curve of the paper on my leg determine where or how I drew the picture. That is why it is better."

Sakura studied her students, and was happy to see that Hanako had the light of understanding growing in her eyes. Inuka and Tobi, however, still didn't see what she was getting at, but that was ok. "Now, we've drawn on flat and not flat surfaces, but there is one other surface that we have yet to try…" Sakura stood up and motioned for the others to stand up as well. She caught Tobi's eye and motioned for him to hand her his paper as she said, "…and that is no surface at all."

Sakura looked at Noya and asked, "Would you help me hold the paper up, tight, so that Tobi can draw on it?" Noya nodded and strode forward to help. Tobi however, just stood there, holding his pencil uncertainly. Sakura smiled warmly, "Go ahead, Tobi. Draw your picture, just like you did before."

Tobi put the pencil to the paper and pressed down. He had barely begun when a ripping sound came from the paper. Tobi jumped back from the paper, hands held up (including the pencil), as he exclaimed, "Tobi didn't do it!"

Sakura laughed lightly as he lowered his arms and said, "It's fine…I figured that would happen."

Inuka was the one to ask, "Then why did you have him do it? Why did any of us do any of this?"

Sakura motioned for everyone to sit back down and began her explanation, "This was to provide a visual for you, so you would completely understand my example. The paper, in this case, was to represent your patient, the pencil represented your Chakra, and your drawing represented the healing that your patient received." Both Inuka and Tobi nodded their heads slowly, while both Noya and Hanako gave one, certain, nod.

"The first drawing was to show you what a perfect healing would look like. The second one, at least in this case, was to represent what happens when you heal flesh wounds with unsteady Chakra control. The third one that only I drew was to show you the difference that patience and control can make, even if the situation isn't favorable for healing. The final one was to show you what I meant when I said that bone will fight you until it breaks if you try too hard."

Sakura paused, then stood up again and asked, "Noya, Hanako, would you please hold my paper for me, like we held Tobi's?" Both nodded and stood up to do as she asked. Once they were ready, Sakura took a pencil and lightly drew on the paper, constantly careful of how much pressure she applied. When she was finished, she had a lightly drawn, somewhat-shaky-but-still-well-enough-done, drawing of a flower. She turned to the two left sitting and asked, "What do you see? What do you think it means?"

Inuka spoke first, taking her time (for once in her life) to find the right words, "You didn't break the paper…but the drawing's still…not as good…and…I can barely see it…it's so light…But I don't get what it's supposed to mean."

Sakura nodded, then turned to hear what Tobi had to say, "Tobi thinks…that Lady Sakura was trying to say that you have to be careful not to break the bones…that you may have to do only a light healing if you don't want to break the bone." He paused, then asked, "But what if that's not enough? What if Tobi needed to completely heal a bone? What then?" He paused, then added, "Lady Sakura healed her ribs in a day…but how?"

Sakura answered with a smile, trying not to giggle at the pout in his voice as he'd said that last line, "The same way you would make a light drawing darker: you'd go over it again. In precarious cases, sometimes all you can do is do a little bit of healing at a time, just enough to allow the person to survive. Then, when you have more time, or, if it was a matter of Chakra, have enough Chakra, then you can go back and heal it again…however many times it takes." Tobi's head nodded slowly as he took in what she'd said.

Sakura stood up and studied the bookshelves around her until she found what she was looking for. She pulled down a thick-bound book and handed it to Noya, who had stood up as well. "Since you've finished the other one, that's the second volume…now, I think I know what we need to have you guys do next, but first for a change of scenery-" Sakura turned around to the cart, and saw that Ayaka had silently reappeared…she seemed to be very good at doing that. "Oh, hello, Ayaka. Thank you for bringing these things, they were useful."

Ayaka gave a polite bow, then said, "You're welcome, Lady Haruno. I'm happy to have helped."

Sakura cringed at the use of 'Lady', and said after Ayaka finished speaking, "You really don't have to call me 'Lady Haruno', just Haruno or Sakura would be fine."

Ayaka, however, shook her head once and said calmly, "No, Lady Haruno, I may not. My master, Konan, calls you 'Miss Haruno', so I, her subordinate, must thus call you 'Lady Haruno'. To call you otherwise would state that I thought myself better than my master, or above my master's opinion of people's status."

Mentally Sakura sighed, yet another person who won't call her simply by her name. Ayaka must have noticed that Sakura hadn't been happy, because she said, "I'm sorry, Lady Haruno, but I follow my master's lead. Technically, considering how my master respects you, everyone, not just me, should be calling you Lady Haruno…well, other than master Konan, our Leader, and our Master." She paused, then added as if in afterthought, "I suppose, if what I've heard is true, that Itachi Uchiha could also call you otherwise."

Sakura blushed and nodded, then shook her head, then shrugged before she finally said, "I don't want to be called 'Lady' by anyone. 'Lady' is supposed to be for someone important, but I'm not important, not like that." Sakura shook her head as if to dislodge the thoughts about being called 'Lady'. "Anyways, thank you for the materials. I'd offer to take back the cart myself, but I don't know where you got it." mentally Sakura added, 'or how you got it down all those stairs'

"I was happy to help you, Lady Haruno. I will deal with the cart and then I will return, to be nearby should you need me for anything."

Sakura nodded, but before Ayaka turned to leave, she said, "We won't be in here. I'm going to move to the training room for the rest of today's lesson." Behind her, Sakura heard Inuka cheer...and then ask Noya what a training room was.

Ayaka nodded her head as she took a hold of the cart, and said, "I will find you, wherever you may be." She then gave another bow and left. The next thing Sakura knew, Inuka was tugging on her arm, trying to get her attention.

"Lady Sakura…what is a training room? Tobi said you were probably talking about a room that had open space and trees…and windows on the roof. But how can trees grow under a roof? Wouldn't they grow so tall they'd break through the glass? And why would you put glass on a ceiling? Wouldn't it break if it hailed, or an acorn fell on it, or…" Inuka kept asking questions without giving Sakura a chance to speak.

Finally Hanako covered Inuka's mouth with her hand, and Sakura said, "Thanks, Hanako. Let's head to the training room, and you'll find out what it's like when we get there."

They walked, Hanako still holding her hand over Inuka's mouth, with Tobi leading (though not by much) and Itachi behind them. They had almost reached the training room when Hanako must have decided that Inuka had calmed down enough, because she removed her hand. Bad move. The moment her mouth was free, Inuka started asking, "Why'd you do that! What's a training room? What are we going to do when we get-" Hanako covered her mouth again with a heavy sigh.

Bad news: apparently Inuka was contagious…because it wasn't long before Tobi started asking questions nonstop, just as Inuka had.

Good news: Hanako had two hands.

There, I thought that was a funny ending. Now, just a reminder: Tobi is not the Master or an Uchiha. I've said it before, yet I still have people asking me...oh well, that's life as an author for you.

I'm going to be putting up a link to a picture of the three Sakura's that Sakura saw in the third to last chapter of ACC.

Reviews and constructive criticisms (as well as people going to my forum, Circles, that there is a link to on my profile) shall be ushered in by me, with a warm and welcoming smile. Flames shall be ushered away by Wolf-Chan, who will also be smiling…just not so warmly, and definitely not so welcomingly. Now, on to the pretty list!

Thanks to: Selene98, akatsuki's hikari, Emo Vampire Princess Bella, sakura-angel113 (thanks, I fixed it), DragonMaster Reborn, Crazedchocolatefan, Lucy-san, Fallen to Earth, Megan Giles, .assassinator, LilBitzer, LadySakuraForest (Tee-hee, I'm verry proud of that fact, though it's all thanks to all of you lovely reviewers. All I did was type a story), LovelyLittleAngel144, Spirit Seer (remember that in my story, Tobi is not a Uchiha), rinnyzito, SasukeSakuraxXXxItachiSakura ( I don't know...but probably a lot), Gothic Saku-chan, chester-roxs, Sakimi1014, Quiet Moon, Hao'sAnjul, Snow Wing, K O N E K O - C H A N 2 4 (yes), SpeedDemon315, xokatherine229, aznkitty180, Alone in a Blizzard (your review was funny), InvisibleCrimsonTenshi, SnowSkadi, Jay95, XxPinkCherryBlossoms4, xMissxPepperx, Cster, CosenAngel, Pencil-chan-sama, dark Alley, cherryredblossom, tema-sama, Itachi4Eva (yes, actually, I do), Uzumaki Tsumana (sorry, but I don't write lemons, so that's not going to happen), SnowWolfSpirit (patience is a virtue, Sui-chan), MusicLuva, Crimson Violets, & Mitsuko Konno (your Einglish was very good, don't worry. There were only a few small errors, but I could understand everything. I'm glad you like my story, and I love getting reviews, especially long ones.) for reviewing!