A Shadow's Touch
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D/C: I own nothing.
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Team Six plus the master Bridge Builder walked along one of the roads towards their destination. Sasuke kept handing out his teammates bandages and healing ointments, they were dealing with the aftereffects of being attacked by Tora… the infamous demon cat. The one that seemed to suffer the most injuries is Naruto, but the more bandages he gets handed to, his wounds already began to heal.
A normal person will question this phenomenon but for them, they knew the reason and won't bother with questioning it. It will lead to unanswered questions and headaches that could be easily avoided.
"I'm regaining feeling in my face again…" Naruto muttered as he patted his face to see if he had any feeling in his face.
"Lucky you…I still can't feel my hands." Choji deadpanned, raising his heavily bandaged hands towards Naruto's direction. He was the unlucky one that had to grab the demon cat from attacking any unsuspecting civilians. Unlike Naruto, he didn't have an advanced healing abilities. Noooo…. He has to wait it out for his wounds to heal.
Naruto gave Choji a placid expression and that only seemed to enrage the Akimichi even more than the norm. So now he is channeling his Nara nature… "What a drag…"
"Don't you dare use that against me!"
"Meh." Naruto stuck out his tongue at Choji before he ran off before the Akimichi could kick him. The blonde pulled a face when he stepped on a puddle of water, he raised an eyebrow at the sight of said puddle. Far as he knew, it hadn't rain in months and the sun has been beaming down relentlessly. Plus… the water looked off as it moved around. Looking over at Shisui to see the Uchiha giving him a wink and motioned him to continue walking. "Hm…Oi! Sasuke! Do you have any more ointment?"
"…I'm not wasting my supplies on you of all people."
"Jezz… cold."
Shisui listened in as his genin started a new round of hostility that started because one not wanting to share medical supplies. It amused the Uchiha to no end, speaking of being amused…
Shisui walked closer to Tazuna and wrapped an arm around the man's shoulders to bring him closer to himself. In a lower whisper and his smile never leaving his lips. "Tell me again what and who we are going up against?"
"…Crap…"
-.-
"Once Shikamaru was put under my care, everyone went to me to complain about his supposed attitude." Asuma grunted out over a bottle of beer, he, Shikaku, Itachi, and Choza were at a local bar which was operated by retired shinobi. The place was created to allow individuals and small groups privacy. "Once I figured out what made him motivated, and do his work, things got better. Less people bother me about him."
"Typical. From what he told me, Shikamaru made more enemies than friends over there." Shikaku snorted, he looked down at his drink to look at his reflection. "I'm surprised he actually did it. He came a long way…I would have expected this from you, Itachi."
"I was offered to become a Twelve Guardian Ninja… but I refused for…obvious reasons." Itachi shrugged, he poured himself a cup of hot tea into his cup. He poured Choza a cup of tea as well when the man motioned for the kettle.
"Thank you." Choza thanked Itachi, he raised his cup of tea up towards his lips and drowned it down in one gulp. He slammed the cup down on the table and looked over at Asuma. "What's the reason you brought us here?"
Asuma placed the bottle of alcohol in front of himself and looked around the table before he spoke. "I am going to be working closely with Team Six. While Shisui will be their primary sensei, I will occasionally do his duties as sensei to the Team. As you know…"
"This is a trail for Shisui, isn't it." Shikaku stated, he already knew the reason behind Shisui's reason to be his son's sensei. Having first hand read the reports and knowing the reason for it to occur.
"I have wondered why Lord Hokage placed him in such position. I had assumed it was some cruel and unusual punishment towards Sasuke, Naruto and Choji. Even Shisui for the hell of it…"
Despite how odd that sounded, the men did agree that would have been a very plausible reason why Shisui was made a Jonin Instructor towards a new batch of genin. Especially considering who said genin are.
"…That maybe one of the reasons…" Asuma sweat dropped, he shook his head and his entire expression turned serious as he continued on. "Anyway… Shisui is on trial."
"Trail?" Choza and Shikaku asked, the latter actually did not know about this.
"Shisui still hasn't been able to fully recuperate from his time in Root, Anbu and the Massacre." Itachi said in a low tone, his cup close to his lips. "He has one year to prove whether or not he is mentally capable of proceeding as Shinobi of the Leaf. I will not have him go down a dark path before we can get him help."
Ah… that. Mental and emotional wounds. Wounds that are left unsaid and not heal as physical ones. A topic not many talk aloud but it is an epidemic, an extreme silent epidemic.
"If there is ever a time I deem Shisui incapable of being Team Six's Jonin Instructor, I am to step in and take over."
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Kabuto relentlessly looked through medical text after medical text. He kept comparing what he found to Itachi's medical files and nothing was adding up. When many of the symptoms were familiar to one thing, he would pull out another text and continue on from there.
'I know it's has to do with his lungs… Perhaps it could be TB… no, then there would have been on outbreak of that… Hm…' Kabuto thought as he turned page after page to hopefully find an answer to his questions. 'There is a history of bronchitis, and a case of…'
Kabuto slammed the book he was reading shut and ran over to an older text that contained a medical history of the Uchiha Clan. 'Just as a I thought… hemoptysis runs in the family. Severely so… perhaps… I'm looking at it from a wrong perspective.'
To be continued…
R/R.