AN: I don't really have anything to say other than the next few chapters are pretty short and that they focus a lot on Take's internal struggle

Chapter Title: Lightning Leaf under the Sakura tree
Arc 6

You know… I don't think either of us expected each of us to be the person we saw.

Like I've been awake for about a week or two at most.

I was expecting Mum to come back with food and my Sister or anyone else from our family, but what I got was someone I hadn't really thought about since the 'party' we had when I had the final meeting with Sensei and the Hokage about my resignation.

By the look on her face she had expected to come in here, change the sheets and possibly replace flowers, at the most help whoever was in the room if they needed it. The genuine shock on her face was followed by her covering her mouth with her hands as she gasped dropping what she had been holding.

"Nice to see you again as well Sakura, though I'm sure we both expected me to have a shirt on the next time we talked." I said with a smile awkwardly, I had been in the middle of trying to change my shirt- and you might have guessed it was much harder when I only had one arm… I was struggling, I had nearly fallen over the side of my bed.

"I-I Ah-Uh!" she frantically looked away and grabbed the sheets off the ground and before I could ask for help with my shirt she'd disappear leaving stuck in an awkward position trying to put it on.

I sighed out loud dropping the shirt and letting fall onto my legs and just stared at the door waiting for someone to come in so that I could get some help, I wasn't petty, I wasn't going to make a fuss about- I didn't care that I was now a hazard and a problem for myself at this point.

"Guess I'll wait for Mum to come back..." turning my gaze down I looked at the images forever inked into my skin, I didn't even remember getting them… but for some reason looking at them made me smile slightly.

I waited for a while occasionally trying my hand at getting my shirt on again.

It didn't work.

Eventually someone knocked on the door again "Come in."

"Hello, it's nice to see you up Mr. Rakurai-" it was the Nurse who had been in charge of me over the last few days. "I've probably seen that- snake on your chest more times than anyone else in your life at this point." she joked.

"Could you help me with my shirt please?" I asked as she had stopped midway through stepping into the room, though she had come across this enough times to just take it at face value and came over to me and helped. I thanked her of course.

"Alright… now that I've done that-" Aoi stopped herself mid sentence again looking around the room confused. "Did your mother go home then?"

"Ah yeah she did, Mum left my sister with my aunt and uncle so she went to go check up on her then come back with some food." Pretty sure she was going home to have a nap too so that y'know she actually got some good sleep where she had been sleeping in a visitor chair so not exactly a good thing for her back.

"Okay, well tell her I said thanks anyway, I enjoyed talking to her." Aoi said as she began changing the sheets and pillowcase on the bed after moving me into one of the chairs.

"I'm sure she loved it too, I don't think she ever gets a chance to talk about Lightning." I replied as the woman smiled.

As anyone might have guessed based on what was just said, yes the lovely Nurse that I had looking after me was from the Land of Lightning and it didn't take long to figure out that I was a descendent- I mean my skin tone pretty much the same as the Nurses. Let alone the fact the Mum has been here the entire time to.

Anyway she and Mum spent a good amount of time talking to one another about their home, I don't think I had seen Kaede that joyful in a while. Plus I'm sure the distraction from all this crap going on was good for her, after all she had to help deal with Funeral arrangements- or well Dad's family was doing everything for it that they could so that Mum has less of a burden. It was cool though to hear about Lightning though, I really liked hearing where they grew up and what it was like for either of them.

"Here you go, fresh sheets and a fresh pair of clothes for you to change into later- don't forget that there is a help button on the wall next to your bed that will call someone to come."

"Oh yeah I did forget about that… also if you see Sakura Haruno- a girl with a pink hair and green eyes could you apologise to her for me, she came in earlier to bring in new sheets but caught me in the middle of trying to wriggle into my shirt- and it's not really like I can see out my left side." The Nurse laughed at hearing that.

"Quite the scenario you've found yourself in then? Don't worry about her though, she's the reason I'm here because she bumped into me on the way out so I helped her to find something else to do before coming here." she replied.

"Now though… I need to go, so don't you go scarring anymore teenage girls for life- after all you've got enough on you for two or three people." with that the Nurse known as Aoi Takahana went to leave-

"Wait! Since you're here could you help me out into the gardens? I want to get out of the room for a few hours." I called after her turning my head so that I could see her, I caught the tail end of a smirk as she walked back around to where I was now standing- she grabbed my hand and I was dragged along out of the room to presumably the garden.

[Snakes and Blossoms]

I found a tree to sit under once I had been left alone in one of the gardens at the Hospital, I'd probably been sitting under it for an hour at this point.

It was nice to relax outside like this.

So much was on my mind now that it was good to just let my mind rest from itself for once.

Still though… Dad… Nobuyuki… I really miss him, I- I just don't know how to react, I've never lived through this sort of thing before, how was I supposed to… y'know?

How was it that my life reached this point?

I've asked this before, but now it seems like that question means more.

I would've continued this little existential bout if my thoughts weren't interrupted by a voice.

"Takezou!" it sounded like Akatsuki's voice, she had become pretty amazing with her linguistic skills over this last while. Because of this I opted to open my eyes somewhat heavy as it was from the nap I had taken.

"Hell-o..." I yawned out bleary eyed seeing that it was indeed my sister who went from bright and happy to terrified and frightened for me at a moment's notice.

"Your arm is gone!" she yelled surprise flashing across her face as she ran up to me to see if it was an illusion or not, not far behind her was Mum, Aunty Ume, Uncle Matsuda and Irisu.

"Among other things I've noticed yes-omph!" she tackled me before I could finish my sentence.

"Kids these days… I can't believe what they're willing to do just to get out of working!" I heard my Aunt say jokingly coming over walking alongside Mum as my Uncle just stood off to the side and offered a nod and smile.

"I suppose I've been had." I responded lackadaisically, yawning again as I brushed my hair out of my face, it had gotten long enough that it was nearing the middle of my back.

I don't think I had cut my hair since around the Chuunin Exams, because they gave me a haircut once we were brought to the village after the explosion at my grandparents. I still remember the explosion… initially I actually didn't remember anything at all, but now I could recall watching Masamune hammer away at some steel lost in thoughts as the sparks flared around the work station.

It was still mesmerizing now to think about how it looked, but because of those sparks doing that to me I hadn't realized that a gas had leaked into the room and the sparks did what they do best and continued to stoke the flames.

A shiver ran down my spine waking me to the sound of someone's voice again as the visions of the explosion dissipated from my view- blinking a few times I returned to the real world to focus on the voices.

"Don't go falling asleep for too long now." Matsuda's light tone made me turn my head to see he was on the left of my against the tree with his daughter in lap, making me realize Akatsuki was using me as a mattress.

"Guess I'll stay awake for now then." I replied giving in to my sister's attempts and did what was effectively headpating.

The hot afternoon sun beat down on us under a cherry blossom tree.

I was pretty sure we were moving into Autumn already, which at this point wasn't surprising considering apparently I had been in hospital for another month and a half before I woke up to find myself like this.

This crap really was a recurring theme wasn't it?

"Have you thought about prosthetics?" my uncle spoke up again after ten or twenty minutes passed.

"Not really… Shit!" I cursed as something hit me. "I can't do Kyudo anymore- how could I not realize that?! Damn!"

"Keh- pftt HAHA-HAHA" My uncle began laughing so hard he had doubled over clutching his stomach. "I can't believe your life has changed terribly and one of your first thoughts is about not being able to continue using bows in your spare time!" he continued laughing while I had become quite red from embarrassment.

We stayed around the garden for another half hour until Mum came back with my Aunt and they said that I was going to be dismissed from the hospital as soon as possible after I had one last examination, and said exam would be tomorrow morning- I was looking forward to it.

[Asleep Under the Tree]

"So before you go have you looked at prosthetics?" Lady Tsunade asked me as the Nurse who had been in here for the exam left the room.

"Well my Uncle asked me if I had thought about it as well… I haven't and I'm not really sure about it either- is there like a catalogue?" the Hokage laughed at my question.

"Not exactly." she paused and seemed to think about it. "There are a few different models but nothing extremely advanced like those ones in Sunagakure."

"Damn so no poison dispensers then?" I joked getting a hollow laugh out of the woman before she turned back to a clipboard that she read for a few minutes.

"I'll be back in a few minutes with a couple options if you want to try them at the least." I nodded and she left the room.

Mum was in one of the chairs in the room waiting for me to be completely dismissed, so after the Hokage left she went back to fretting about the fact that she just met the Hokage for like the second time, I thought it was pretty funny but at the same time- it was a huge deal wasn't it? Like she is the leader of our village, it was something really cool and whatnot.

I suppose I had just been jaded to the idea of it because I didn't care about the Hokage or what it meant, I talked to Lord Third normally and I've yet to not do that with Tsunade.

They were people too after all, so I'd treat them with respect where I was supposed to, but in situations like this I was going to see Tsunade like a doctor. Which I'm glad to say that was how she wanted it when she first saw me in the hospital when Mum was with me initially a few weeks back.

After about half an hour later- I assumed she went and treated a few other people before coming back. She walked in with four different prosthetics.

"These are your options, first is a simple wooden one that has movable joints, the next is similar but plastic and has chakra wires in it to allow you as close to full control as we can get without getting our hands on Sasori of the red sands- apparently that kid has human puppets." she let me try on the two before showing me the next ones.

"This- chakra wire lined one is okay but it's a little, flimsy I guess? This wooden one is out of the question- I don't want to turn my life into a constant claw game." I handed them back to her.

"Alright here's the third then, well it's pretty different that's for sure- it's made from this strong plastic and then wrapped in a padded material that feels like an actual arm, only problem is that you can't move the wrist or fingers individually." I tried it on while she got out the last one.

"It feels nice that's for sure..." I twisted the arm around "Yeah not having the maneuverability is pretty shit though."

"Last and likely the best- a fully functional arm made with mostly lightweight metal and the smallest amount of something I'm told is called 'carbon fiber', its meant to be super strong and using chakra conductive wire and metal it the right spots its able to nearly perfectly replicate a real hand and to top it off there's little magnets in the palm and fingers to allow you to grip stuff." She explained it like this was a sales pitch.

"Uh..."

"Your grandparents made it for you. I was just seeing if you wanted to use the others before I gave it to you." she smirked to herself before leaving. "Damn thing is the most advanced prosthetic I've ever seen- though they said something about not using too much chakra with it since its a prototype." Tsunade walked out of the room with the rest of the arms leaving me to attach it with Mum's help.

It kinda reminded me of this blonde kid I remembered who did like alchemy or a Doll that wrote letters.

The arm piece came up to my shoulder and had these leather straps that wrapped across my chest, as it was, the straps were on over my t-shirt that I was wearing. It took me ten minutes before we thought it was on securely and then a few more minutes to get my chakra into it and play with the movement, flexing the fingers I just made them into a fist and make wavy motions until it felt right.

"So you knew about this didn't you?" I turned to Mum who was looking damn near gleeful with how bright her smile was.

"I did, yes." She gave me a hug. "It was going to be a present for your father, but because of what happened your grandparents changed it to fit you."

The door opened and the Hokage popped back in for a moment. "Oh and you're dismissed, so get out of my Hospital already Rakurai." with that she left, again.

AN: