Chapter 21: Resolve
...
"Kiyo-chan, there you are," said Ameko. "I'm glad that you're already here. It saves me some trouble."
"Ah, I'm just here to see my brother," I said, aware that I probably shouldn't be in the hospital while I was on probation. But I had to talk to him, to make sure that he was alright.
After sending the last of the patients to the hospital, I'd caught up with Naruto and Haku. We'd traded stories of what had happened over the past few days. The events of the second exam went about the same as I'd expected, at least until they encountered the Sound ninjas.
"Nii-chan…killed them?" I'd asked.
That wasn't right.
It couldn't be.
But it would certainly explain why they weren't in the preliminaries. If Sakura wasn't there to calm Sasuke down, why would he stop? Haku certainly wouldn't ask Sasuke to show mercy, not after spending his life around someone like Zabuza.
"I'm afraid that your brother is not allowed visitors yet," said Ameko, gesturing for me to follow her.
That was not a good sign.
"What about Karin?" I asked.
Ameko's face settled into a mask of detached professionalism.
"I'm sorry to say that there's not much we can do for her," she said. "Once the exams are over, she will be removed from life support, at which point she will almost certainly pass away."
"But why remove her from life support if she'll die?" I asked.
"Konoha only provides free medical care for participants in the exams," said Ameko. "Hidden Grass is unwilling to cover her ongoing medical expenses. She has been disavowed by her village."
I blanched.
Disavowing a ninja meant denying responsibility for them and removing them from service. It was usually only done for missing ninja. To do it over medical bills was particularly cruel. While medical care in Konoha wasn't free for outsiders, it was hardly extortionate. Could they really be so callous toward one of their own genin?
But what if they didn't really consider her to be one of them?
"They took in an outsider like me, so I have to prove my loyalty."
That's what Karin had said.
She'd risked her life in the exams for them.
And they'd just thrown her away.
"I'll pay for her," I said. "Whatever it is, I'll pay it."
I had the money.
Ameko gave me a pitying glance.
"It's not just the money," she said. "She has less than a 1% chance of survival, and she is not a member of this village. At a certain point, resource management must be taken into account."
"Then I'll take care of her!" I said. "She won't be removed from life support until the exams are over because she's still technically a participant, right? My disciplinary probation will be done by then, so I'll take full responsibility."
Ameko frowned.
"Kiyo-chan…is there a reason why you feel so strongly for this girl?" she asked, her gaze searching.
Yeah, because I was the reason she was dying.
"She's an Uzumaki, like my mother," I said, looking down. "If things had been a little different, I might have been just like her. Being used by her village and then thrown away…it's just too sad…"
I trailed off. No, our situations really weren't very different. Karin just didn't have Itachi to protect her.
"Please, Ameko-san, I…I don't have many family members left," I said. "I couldn't save anyone else. Please let me try to save her!"
Ameko let out a quiet sigh.
"The longer she remains on life support, the lower her probability of survival," she said, making my heart sink. 1% was about as low as it could get already. "Let me make this clear: you are still on disciplinary probation. However, due to the dire nature of this patient's condition, I am giving you permission to perform medical care under compassionate use procedures."
My heart soared.
"Thank you!" I shouted, jumping up and hugging her middle. "Thank you, Ameko-san! Thank you!"
"Don't thank me yet," she said dryly. "You haven't seen her condition."
Maybe, but even if I couldn't save Karin, I wouldn't let her go without a fight.
"Is that where we're going now?" I asked, as I released Ameko and we continued into the long term care ward.
"No, I'm taking you to your other patient," said Ameko, stopping outside a closed door.
I recognized the chakra inside immediately.
Ameko pushed open the door and ushered me inside. Guy was leaning against the window and Lee was sitting up in bed, eating an apple from a basket of fruit on his bedside table.
"Alright, have a seat and we will discuss the treatment options," said Ameko, gesturing me to a chair.
Wait, treatment options?
For Lee?
But Tsunade hadn't returned yet.
And then Guy was suddenly in front of me. He grasped my hands in his and leaned forward, looking me dead in the eye.
"Ameko-san has told us about Tsunade-sama's procedure and that you are the only person who could hope to perform it!" he said much too loudly considering he was an inch in front of my face.
I stared at Guy like a deer in headlights.
Wait.
Wait.
Wait.
I replayed the conversation I'd had with Ameko after the preliminaries. She'd asked me to examine Lee. I'd given her my assessment and I'd said…
I'd said…
That there was only one person who could hope to perform the procedure, and that she was not currently available.
I'd meant Tsunade. But had Ameko thought that I was referring to myself? That I could perform the procedure once I was off probation?
Oh no.
Nonononononono.
"Guy-sensei," I said, as gently as possible. "The procedure that Ameko-san is referring to…there are risks. At best, at the absolute best, there is only a 50% chance of success. And failure would result in death."
Guy squeezed my hands.
"Ameko-san has explained the risks," he said, eyes still determined. "Lee and I have talked it over. If the surgery is a failure, I too will end my life."
Nonononononono!
"Guy-sensei, this procedure, it's too dangerous," I said. This was Tsunade's job. She would succeed. Guy and Lee would both live. I could not do this. "I cannot in good conscience-"
Guy fell to his knees and bowed low.
"Please, perform the procedure!" he shouted.
I looked to Ameko for support, but she was regarding me with clear disappointment. They didn't know that Tsunade was coming. If I backed out now, she'd be mortified for jumping to the wrong conclusion and giving a patient false hope. I didn't want that, not after she'd given me special permission to heal Karin. But it was just a misunderstanding!
I couldn't…
Wait.
Calm down.
I didn't need to tell them no. I just needed to make them wait. Once Tsunade returned, she would be the obvious choice of surgeon. I would be off the hook.
I cleared my throat.
"Guy-sensei!" I said. "Please stand up and let me explain. I cannot perform Tsunade-sama's procedure because…because I would use an alternate method instead."
The sudden silence was deafening.
Ameko's eyebrows climbed nearly to her hairline.
"…An alternate method?" she asked slowly.
I nodded and sidestepped Guy to snag one of the apples from Lee's basket. I held it up and cleared my throat. Everyone stared at it, transfixed, as though the apple held some deep secret to the universe.
"Imagine that this apple is Lee and that the seeds are the bone fragments," I said. I ran my chakra through the apple, surrounding one of the seeds. "Tsunade-sama's procedure involves using chakra to isolate and extract the seeds like so." I pulled one of the seeds through the apple until it broke the skin. I then held it up. "The seed is extracted, but it leaves a significant amount of damage to the surrounding apple. That is why failure results in death. The body may experience too much trauma and go into shock if the medic cannot heal the injuries as quickly as they are created."
With thousands of bone fragments, that was no easy task.
"But you have another way?" Guy asked, cautiously hopeful.
"The Hiraishin," I said. I planted a Hiraishin formula on the bedside table. Then I surrounded a seed with my chakra. I'd never teleported part of an object before, but in theory, if I isolated the seed with a tiny barrier seal, it might work.
Please, oh please, let this work.
I performed the Hiraishin, and a seed appeared on the bedside table.
I breathed a mental sigh of relief as I set the apple down.
"By using the Hiraishin to teleport the bone fragments, there is no additional damage to the body," I explained. "In theory, it should pose minimal risk to the patient. However, this is untested and will need to go through the research team to ensure viability. Ameko-san, do you know how long it will take to approve this procedure?"
Ameko, whose eyebrows had not lowered in the slightest, gave me a considering look.
"The current wait time for consideration of a project is approximately four years," she said.
I gave myself a mental pat on the back.
Perfect.
I'd tossed out an untested medical technique that had no documentation whatsoever. As such, Ameko would never allow me to use it. And yet, the benefits of the procedure were too good to deny. No sane person would take a 50% chance of death when a supposedly zero risk alternative could be developed in a few years.
Then Tsunade would come back and…
…And…
I frowned.
And then what?
She wouldn't perform the procedure either.
Because…because no sane person would take a 50% chance of death when a supposedly zero risk alternative could be developed in a few years.
Which meant…
Oh no.
Four years might not seem like a long time, but for Lee, it would mean the end of his shinobi career. Everyone else in our generation would continue to grow strong while he languished, waiting for a recovery which may or may not come. His muscles would deteriorate. His skills would dull.
He could try again, of course, but those years, once lost, could never be regained. He would be hopelessly behind in every way that mattered and woefully unprepared for everything that would happen.
The Akatsuki.
Pein's attack.
The Fourth Shinobi War.
With four years of medical leave dragging him down, would Lee even survive?
My stomach dropped in horror.
No. No, this was so much worse.
Guy, who didn't even know the future, must have felt the same way because suddenly he was in front of Ameko, gripping her hands as he had mine.
"Please, Ameko-san!" shouted Guy. "Surely not four years!"
Ameko tried to shake Guy off, but he was having none of it.
"I…will confer with the other senior medics and the research team," she said, giving up and letting Guy hold her hands in supplication. "These are…unusual circumstances." She gave me a baleful look as though this was entirely my fault. Fair. "Kiyo-san is the only medic with working knowledge of this particular technique. If it were to go through the research team, she would be assigned as the primary researcher. And because this particular injury would be almost impossible to replicate on a non-human specimen, it would likely need to go straight to human testing."
"So…so what you're saying is…" said Lee, tears streaming down his cheeks.
"What I'm saying is that I will need to confer with my colleagues," she said sharply. "I should be able to let you know by the end of the week."
And then I was caught in a sudden bone-crushing hug by Guy, who was also crying.
"Thank you, Kiyo!" he shouted. "I have absolute faith in you!"
I couldn't breathe.
"G-Guy-sensei, there's something else," I wheezed.
"What is it?" he asked, loosening his hold.
I took a deep gasping breath before continuing.
"I've only been using the Hiraishin for less than a week," I said. "It takes about 30 seconds to infuse a target with chakra to teleport it without damage. With thousands of bone shards, it will take days to complete the procedure even under ideal conditions. Besides, with each bone fragment, there is a chance for error and damage. I'd like at least, uh, two months to practice and improve my abilities to ensure a successful operation."
Two months would be long enough for Tsunade to return. Even if she wasn't going to perform the actual procedure, she'd be there to supervise and handle any problems. That was about as much as I could hope for.
Guy folded his arms and frowned, considering.
Then he huffed and grinned.
"Nonsense!" he said, his grin sparkling. "I will take you on as my pupil, and we'll cut that two month timeline down to two weeks!"
"Oh, uh, w-what?" I asked. "Um, don't you have a student you need to train for the third exam?"
"Neji is doing solo training with his Byakugan," he said, still grinning. Actually, now that I thought about it, there probably wasn't much Guy could teach Neji when it came to his dojutsu. "And Tenten is taking missions for some extra money! That leaves me free to train you, and with the Power of Youth we'll have Lee back in action in no time at all!"
Somehow, I felt that Guy might have had a favorite student.
I cleared my throat.
"I…wasn't aware that you knew the Hiraishin," I said cautiously.
"I do not!" said Guy, undeterred. "But you said that you're having difficulty infusing your chakra into your target quickly, correct? Well, I have just the thing! Taijutsu specialists enhance muscles by infusing them with chakra. I'll give you speed training. The constant infusion and release of chakra into your muscles will cut down the activation time for your jutsu. I'm sure of it!"
I wasn't. Then again, Minato and Tobirama were the only people to fully master the Hiraishin. Was it a coincidence that they were both known as the fastest shinobi of their time? Or was it a side-effect of their Hiraishin mastery? Or maybe the speed came first and the Hiraishin was easier because of it.
Either way, it was worth a shot.
"I'm grateful for your offer," I said. "I have one other patient in dire need of medical care as well. I'll need to see to her first, but as soon as she's out of danger, I'd be honored to become your student. I'll need to let Kakashi-sensei know, too. I don't want him to think I'm abandoning him."
"I'll let him know," said Guy, giving me a thumbs-up.
Yeah, Kakashi wouldn't mind. He'd be busy with Sasuke anyway. And Naruto would be busy with Jiraiya. And Haku…
"Um, Guy-sensei, if it's alright, would you be willing to take on another student as well?" I asked.
Ebisu was probably a fine tutor, but the invasion was coming. If Haku wanted to survive, he really needed the guidance of a jounin.
"Of course!" said Guy. "I am always happy to teach the Power of Youth!"
Good.
"Thank you, Guy-sensei!" I said. Of course, that still left me with the problem of needing to stall until Tsunade returned. Although, I did have one ready-made excuse to delay the procedure a little bit. "But, um, there is still one problem with the two week timeframe. I'm on disciplinary probation. So I can't perform medical ninjutsu without Ameko-san's express permission, and I—"
"Ameko-san, please make an exception for Lee!" said Guy, appearing in front of Ameko and once again capturing her hands. He gave her his best grin.
"W-well, certain reckless actions must have consequences," said Ameko, flustered.
Guy grinned harder.
"Rules and codes of conduct must be upheld," she continued, weakening. "Medical ethics—"
Guy's grin sparkled.
"…Alright," she said, giving me an unhappy look. Yeah, I probably deserved it after unleashing Guy on her. Though I considered it fair. She unleashed Guy on me first. "But I believe you're getting ahead of yourselves. First I will need to draft a proposal, and for that, I will require your assistance."
Oh, right.
I waved goodbye to Guy and Lee, and I followed Ameko back toward her office. She remained silent until she shut the door with a snap.
"I would have appreciated a bit of warning," she said dryly.
Yeah, me too.
I hung my head.
"Please forgive me," I said.
I'd really botched the entire encounter. Now that I had time to actually consider the situation, it was obvious that I should have just played dumb and clarified my previous statement during the preliminaries. Sure, they would have been disappointed, but it was an honest mistake. Instead I'd panicked, not wanting to embarrass Ameko after everything she'd done for me.
And now look at the mess I'd created. I was suddenly very glad that Ameko was not a Yamanaka. It would have been difficult to explain away my internal screaming.
…
"Karin?"
Karin blinked once, staring at me in confusion before looking around at the blank white expanse surrounding us.
"Where…are we?" she asked.
"In a genjutsu," I said. "You've been intubated, so this is the only way for us to speak at the moment. Here, let me make it a little more comfortable."
I shifted the genjutsu, and suddenly we were sitting at Ichiraku's.
"Is this part of the exam?" Karin asked, reaching out to touch the counter.
"No, the second exam is over," I said. "You were picked up by ANBU once the time limit ran out, and you've been taken to the hospital. I'm here to talk with you as your medic."
"Oh…" said Karin. She put a hand on her chest. "I was…hurt…"
I nodded.
"You suffered significant internal damage and very nearly bled out before ANBU arrived," I said. "It was a miracle that you lasted as long as you did."
"It's because I took them," she said. "All of them. One by one. I think…I remember the ANBU. When he arrived, I only had one left…"
"One of what?" I asked.
She held up her other hand. It was clenched tight, and I allowed her mind to imagine what she was holding. When she opened her fist, a small brown pill dropped onto the counter, bouncing and rolling until it came to rest in front of me.
A blood replenishing pill.
"From the pack you gave me," she said. "I took them all. One by one by one by one. Until there was just one left. I thought…I thought…"
She hissed in a sharp gasping breath and clenched her eyes shut.
She thought that she wasn't going to make it.
"You survived, and now I'm going to take care of you, okay?" I said. "We're going to make it through this together, and for that, I'm going to need your help."
Karin sniffed and nodded.
"Right now, you're on life support," I said. "Your injuries are relatively straightforward to heal. However, there is a complication, a side-effect of you taking so many blood replenishing pills in quick succession. You see, the pills work by creating chakra and converting that chakra to blood, like a soldier pill combined with a transformation technique. Normal shinobi can only take about three pills before their bodies begin to take damage. You took ninety nine."
"Then shouldn't I be dead?" Karin asked.
"You're an Uzumaki," I said. "Your chakra and life energy kept you alive when all others would have died. However, even having strong life energy can't save you from chakra poisoning. It's what happens when someone with strong chakra cycles too much chakra through their body at once. Normally this wouldn't be a problem for you because you have 100% pure medical chakra which would heal any damage as soon as it occurred, but with the blood replenishing pills converting all of your chakra to blood, you weren't able to heal the damage. The pills kept you alive, but they were also killing you."
"After a while, it hurt to take them," said Karin, almost to herself. "But I didn't want to die."
"You did the right thing," I said. "But right now you have stage 4 acute chakra poisoning. It's normally a career-ending prognosis since channeling more chakra will kill you. It also prevents normal chakra methods of healing because anything less than 100% pure medical chakra will only aggravate the chakra poisoning further and would likely kill you as well."
"So I'm going to die?" Karin asked.
Under normal circumstances, the answer would be 'yes'. Ameko had given her less than a 1% chance of survival, but that was before she'd considered me.
"No," I said. "Because you and I both have 100% pure medical chakra. And if we work together, we can heal you. I'll start by using my chakra to mend your injuries. From there, your natural medical chakra should heal the damage from the chakra poisoning over time, but it means you won't be able to channel chakra or perform jutsus for at least six months."
Karin's eyes widened in horror.
"Oh no, my village will be so angry," she said in dismay. "They'll never allow me to remain off duty for so long."
"Uh, well, that won't actually be a problem," I said. "You've been disavowed by your village. They, um, didn't want to pay for your medical expenses, but I've spoken with Ameko, and I will sponsor you until you've recovered."
There wasn't really a 'nice' way of conveying the fact that she'd been cast out by her home. But I was hoping the fact that I was taking care of her would soften the blow a bit.
"Wait, if I've been disavowed, then why are you helping me?" she asked.
"Um, because we're family," I said. I'd thought it was obvious, but being a ninja tended to complicate things. "I know that I'm not the family that you lost. I've lost family too. I just don't want to lose anyone else. Even though I've only known you for a short time, I don't want you to die."
Karin only stared.
Then she looked down.
"Even if you heal me, what then?" she asked. "I have nowhere to go, no village to return to."
Her tone was sad, but there was also a deliberate inflection, and I didn't miss her sidelong look.
"If you'd like, I can ask Nii-chan to make you a vassal of the Uch-," I began.
"YES!" Karin shouted, leaping off of her chair and tackling me in an embrace. "Yes! Yes! Thank you, Kiyo! I mean thank you, Kiyo-sama! That means I can stay, right?"
"If the Hokage agrees," I said. "Haku had to enlist as a Konoha shinobi, but we might be able to place you outside of the village if you don't want to be a ninja anymore."
Danzo was still a risk, but I was fairly certain that he would have no interest in a genin who had nearly died during the exam. He was more interested in killers and prodigies than children and healers.
"If I enlist, will they want to—," she gestured at her arms.
"No," I said. "I won't let anyone use you like that."
I might have been promising too much, but Konoha was not Hidden Grass. We had plenty of capable healers. We didn't need to torture little girls to help others. Besides, Ameko was the Medical Director, and I was sure that she would forbid it even if someone was heartless enough to suggest it.
"Okay, then let's get started," said Karin. "What do I need to do?"
…
"Nii-chan?"
Sasuke looked very small in his hospital bed. The loose gown he wore left the curse mark on clear display as he sat up. His expression was blank, but his shadowed eyes softened when he saw me. That was all the invitation I needed before I leaped forward and wrapped my arms around him. He didn't react immediately, didn't move to return my embrace. I ran a diagnostic jutsu and cycled healing chakra through him, soothing away the remaining minor injuries. The knot of dark chakra from the curse mark felt like oil against my senses, but it was held in check by a seal infused with Kakashi's chakra. Sasuke didn't speak while I worked, seemingly content to watch me in silence.
"Kakashi-sensei told me what happened in the forest," I said at last. "Naruto and Haku too. Are you…"
I trailed off.
I couldn't ask if he was okay when he obviously wasn't.
"I'm sorry I wasn't there with you," I said instead.
I'd tried to avoid the entire thing, and that only resulted in him facing the danger alone.
"I'm not," said Sasuke. "It would have been worse if you were there too."
"W-why?" I asked.
Sure, I wasn't as strong as Haku, but surely I wouldn't make things worse.
"If you were with me, he would have marked you too," said Sasuke, reaching up to touch the curse mark on his neck. "He said that he would seek you out later. The curse mark kills 90% of those infected with it, and he wanted to ensure that you would survive and be useful to him. I didn't want to tell you. But if you see him, run."
Oh no.
But I should have expected it. Orochimaru was interested in the Sharingan. It was foolish to hope that he'd ignore mine simply because I had a weak body.
I swallowed.
"I-I know," I said. "I've been learning a jutsu called the Hiraishin. It's a space-time ninjutsu that allows me to teleport. This is my jutsu formula."
I took his hand and planted the Hiraishin formula on the back.
"The visible mark will fade away in a day or so," I said. "But from now on, I'll always be able to jump right to your side. Right now the activation time is 30 seconds, which isn't great, so I've started training with Guy-sensei after I stabilized Karin."
Healing Karin had gone even better than I'd hoped. Having a patient with 100% pure medical chakra made healing her downright trivial to the point where I wondered at the 1% survival rate. Even after I'd finished, Ameko decided to hold Karin for observation. According to her, it was to verify the short-term physical impacts of 100% pure medical chakra in relation to chakra poisoning, but I suspected that the real reason was far less academic. She was waiting for Sasuke to perform the sake ceremony so that Karin could stay in the village.
"Karin?" Sasuke asked, his brow furrowed. He frowned in thought. "That girl from Ichiraku's?"
"Yes, she was injured during the exam and disavowed by her village," I said. "I healed her. But she has nowhere else to go, so I was wondering if you'd, um, exchange sake with her? I've already spoken with the Hokage, and he's agreed to allow Karin to stay if you accept her as your vassal."
The meeting with the Hokage was fairly painless and straightforward. As I suspected, there was no interruption from Danzo this time around. If Sasuke accepted her, Karin would be assigned to Ebisu for training and observation. At least as much training as could be done without chakra for six months. I'd even received a guarantee that no one would try to use or study Karin's…unique healing method. It helped that Konoha had laws allowing clans to brand certain physical characteristics of its members as clan secrets.
Sasuke stared at me. He opened his mouth to object, hesitated, and then closed it again with a sigh.
"Sure, whatever," he said. He had Orochimaru and Gaara to worry about, so I couldn't exactly fault him for being preoccupied. "You said you've been training with Guy?"
"Yes, since this morning," I said. Three a.m. to be specific. Guy's day began early, and as his student, so did mine. "It's mostly speed training. Haku is training with me too."
Haku had begun his training a few days earlier and already seemed unbothered by Guy's exuberance. We'd started with running.
For nine hours straight.
The only interruption came in the form of Kakashi ambling onto the training field and informing me that Sasuke was awake and would be allowed visitors.
"He's strong," said Sasuke, nodding thoughtfully. "Stay with him or Kakashi."
"What about you?" I asked.
Sasuke frowned again.
"I need to get stronger," he said.
"Well, I'm glad to see that you're motivated," said Kakashi, sliding open the door. He'd been waiting outside, giving us a moment to ourselves and quietly biding his time for a standard late arrival.
"And I suppose you're here for a reason, Kakashi?" Sasuke asked, unaffected by the sudden interruption.
Kakashi gave him an eye-smile.
"You have a lot of work ahead of you," he said. "If you go into your fight with Gaara as you are now, you'll wind up even worse off than Lee."
Sasuke scowled, but he didn't deny it.
"I have a technique that will be perfect against Gaara's sand defense," said Kakashi. "But you'll need to increase your speed to be faster than Lee."
As if that was just a small thing. Lee had trained for over a year, and Sasuke wasn't even as fast as Lee's encumbered speed.
"So I'll be training with Kiyo-chan, then?" Sasuke asked.
"No, the two of you together would be too much of a target," said Kakashi. "It would be better if you didn't see one another until the situation has been resolved."
Wait.
"Does that mean that you want me to stay away from the third exam?" I asked.
I wasn't exactly enthusiastic about being in the middle of a full-scale war, but I couldn't just sit on the sidelines while Sasuke and Naruto fought for their lives either.
"It would be safer for you," said Kakashi. "As a medic, you'll be able to help more people at the hospital."
Yeah, I would. But what about Sasuke and Naruto?
"Kakashi-sensei!" I shouted, surprised at the harshness in my tone. "You once told me that if I wanted to protect the people important to me, the best way to do that was by standing at their sides. My important people are going to be at the exam. And I want to be there too!"
Kakashi regarded me with a narrowed eye.
"You are a medic-nin of Konoha," he said softly. There was no threat or malice in his voice, but all his ease and good humor were gone. "If all you can do is scream 'I want!' then you're not ready to stand beside them. Medics don't lead the charge on the front lines. What would you do against someone like Orochimaru? If you can't answer that, you'll only be a burden for others to protect."
That wasn't fair. He wasn't asking Naruto or Sasuke what they would do. But then, why would he? They'd already faced Orochimaru and survived. As for me? I'd tried to run away by dropping out of the exam. As a result of my cowardice, Karin had nearly died. When it came to the invasion, could I say for certain that I wouldn't just Hiraishin my team to safety, leaving others to fight? To die?
What would happen then?
Kakashi might not have known the particulars of my situation, but he did know me. He knew that deep down I didn't really want to hurt anyone. That was a dangerous sentiment to have in battle.
And yet…
That was where I needed to be.
Because that was where Sasuke and Naruto were going.
"I will master the Hiraishin by the third exam," I said. "And if Orochimaru or anyone else tries to do anything, I will protect my precious people."
Kakashi nodded gravely.
"Well, if you've decided, then you'll need these," he said.
He unhooked a pack from his hip and handed it to me. Curious, I opened it to find a stash of three-pronged kunai. I held one up, planting my jutsu formula on the handle with a thought.
"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei," I said, because he was right.
I had to be ready.
War was coming.
…
AN: Guess who got a new laptop as an early Christmas present!