A/N: Hi hi~~ I'm glad you all liked the last chapter. Thank u to everyone who read and reviewed.

Chapter 23

"You did well."

Charlie stared balefully at the man, silently chewing on the granola bar in her hand. Her face no longer hurt- apparently, someone had healed her while she was unconscious- but her headache was the same as ever, amplified by the fact that the Grinch himself was standing right in front of her.

Danzou shot off a fake, good natured smile. "I suspect you have questions."

"Nope." She tossed the wrapper in the trashcan and reached for the fruit cup on her tray. A kind nurse had brought it to her some hours ago, but she only saw fit to eat now- just a little added irritation for the old man.

"No?" The elder raised his eyebrows.

She shrugged. "You didn't trust me. If I was in your position, I would hesitate to trust an outsider too." That was close to a lie- she was a much nicer person than he was. But she wanted to get in his good graces, at least a little.

He smiled again, and this time, she couldn't read it. "A mental aptitude test is required for all ANBU prospectives, along with the physical aptitude test. You passed both; congratulations."

"Isn't there another test?" she asked aloud, harkening back to when Minato had briefed her only a few days prior. It felt like a lifetime ago.

Danzou inclined his head. "Yes. That will be further down the line, when you are put in the field. For now, I would prefer to work on getting around your... impediment."

The last word was spoken distastefully, and Charlie's gaze turned hard as ice. 'I'll show you an impediment, douchebag.'

As though he had not noticed the effect of his words, Danzou carried on. "This is... admittedly, a unique situation," he continued. "But so long as you improve quickly, I have no problem facilitating the process. Mole?" He voiced the last word just a smidge louder, and with a swooshing sound, a figure clad in black was suddenly at his elbow. He wore a mask, and had short, straight black hair that barely brushed his nape.

He couldn't have been much taller than she was.

"This will be your training partner, when I can spare him," Danzou informed.

Despite her surprise, the redhead nodded at the silent figure. "Nice to meet you," she said.

Mole didn't say anything, but he did nod back.

"I have already informed him of your... training schedule. If all goes well, we'll make a ninja out of you by the end of the month." The old man turned on his heels, continuing towards the door. "Mole, you have until sundown for the report."

"Understood, Danzou-sama," Mole replied, voice a monotone.

The girl said nothing as the elder vacated the room, and she was left with the silent boy standing at her bedside. He didn't seem to know much what to do besides hover awkwardly.

Grimacing, she sat up, blanket falling around her hips, and realized she was in a paper gown. "Where are my clothes?"

"I do not know."

Charlie made a face again. "Right... I don't even know why I asked you," she mumbled. Hadn't her clothes been destroyed during that little interrogation?

Mole pulled a sealing scroll out of his pocket and knelt to the floor, unrolling it. "I will lend you clothes." He unsealed a clean set of ANBU garb, and handed the bundle to her.

They were undoubtedly fit for him and probably much too large, but she smiled anyway. "Do you have an actual name I can call you?" she asked, somewhat jokingly.

He turned to her, staring at her through the eyeholes of his mask. "No," he said. "I don't."

So far, the mission had been a... mitigated disaster.

Naruto winced down at his bandaged hand, pain zinging up his arm. When he'd heard that they were going on an escort mission, he'd been more than happy to get the hell out of the village limits. But as it turned out, Tazuna hadn't told them all that he should've. He could still feel the waves of pissed rolling off of Kakashi with tidal force, even from his position all the way in the front of the group.

The blond was... eh, still pretty tickled pink about today, to be honest. The pain in his hand became his reminder that what he'd done in the face of the Demon Brothers would never happen again. And now, now he was ready to prove it.

He was a great ninja. He would be an even greater ninja, too. ...Just as soon as he got the chance for some action.

"Let's rest here for now," came Kakashi's voice from the back of the group. Night was beginning to fall over the forest, the trees casting eerie shadows on the ground. "Sasuke-kun, you're on firewood. Naruto-kun, there's a stream a little further ahead- go catch fish. Sakura-chan, you're helping me set up."

Tazuna sat down on a conveniently placed log and pulled a flask from his breast pocket. How useful.

Naruto made a face, but unsealed his fishing net from his scroll and wandered down the dirt path. He'd gotten quite good at catching fish, even better than Charlie. Maybe it was his sheer dumb luck, but fish just tended to gravitate towards him.

He peeled his ears for the sounds of moving water, and about ten minutes from their temporary campsite, he found the stream. It was only to about his knees, but clear enough that he could see the dark shapes moving around beneath its surface. This would be a good hunt. He rolled up his pant legs and grabbed his net, wading out to the opposite end to tie it around a particularly craggy rock and then reversing back to the other side to repeat the motion. Then, he grabbed a kunai from his pouch and waited.

It only took five minutes to snare his first catch, a redbreast sunfish that was a little bigger than his hand. He unceremoniously removed its head and set it on the shore. A small smile rose- perhaps the day was looking up.

"I really don't know what to tell you, Mole," Charlie groaned, flat on the ground with pain radiating from her body. They were outside this day, and the sun beat down over her sweaty forehead. A few paces away, the ANBU, dressed in regular shinobi attire so as to not arouse suspicion, stared uncomprehendingly at her.

"We have only been sparring for two hours," the black-haired boy protested. He neared her, sandals silent on the grass.

Charlie rolled her eyes. "Without a break. How many fights have you been in that lasted two whole hours, dude?"

He didn't answer, examining her with dark eyes. He'd taken off his mask, which was a surprise to her, and they'd been training outside ever since. Perhaps he appreciated the recent, nicer turn in the weather. Then again, Mole hardly seemed like the type to have emotions. "You are holding your shoulder. Does it hurt?" he asked blandly.

She pulled her hand from her stump, smiling ruefully. "It's just sensitive," she mumbled. Her thoughts took a downward tone. "We've been training for days now, and I still can't figure out how to use chakra properly without it." She'd known it would be difficult to do techniques with only one half of the hand seal, but she couldn't even begin to morph her chakra correctly anymore. It was kind of depressing.

"It is difficult to use ninjutsu with only one hand, but not impossible, Mouse," the boy said. "If you are truly the prodigy they say you are, then you will figure it out."

Charlie grimaced. "Don't call me that out here. It's bad enough that you don't have another name I can call you." She sat up, guiding her arm around her knees as she stared at him assessingly. "Is that supposed to be my cool code name? It's kind of insulting..."

He gave her a fake smile. "It is your code name, yes. Now, we will work on one-handed seals. Since you have a wind affinity, begin with bird."

She rolled her eyes, but did as he asked. "I already know what it's supposed to look like..."

"That is not the point of this exercise," Mole replied patiently. "The point is to allow your single hand to compensate for both hands. Do you know any ninjutsu already?"

"Just the standard Academy ones."

"The perhaps this will be easier. Wind release is focused on air circulation. Likewise, wind chakra has an airy, cutting energy to it. Hand seals are used to allocate and form chakra, so you will want to generate as much as possible with one hand to compensate for the loss of your left. For this exercise, please focus on your chakra."

Her lips flattened as her eyes closed. Mole was right; Minato's chakra, while it still had his calming edge, was almost hyperactive. She'd known that already. When she formed the bird seal, it jumped faster, spread wider. "Some shinobi use the dominant seal of their affinity to become more in touch with their chakra."

"I can get behind that," she said, opening her eyes.

Do you know any wind release techniques?" he asked as her hand fell into her lap.

"Nope."

If he were a normal person, he would've sighed. Instead, Mole chugged right along. "We will begin with the E-rank Wind Release: Breakthrough. In this technique, your chakra expels and circulates the air around your mouth, creating a gust of sorts. It is used to push back opponents, or to catch falling comrades. There are only three seals: dog, horse, and bird." He demonstrated. "As wind release is not one of my specialties, I can not do it myself. But I will be able to correct you if you fail."

"Okay," she mumbled, slightly nervous. Her first ever true ninjutsu technique. 'I got this, right...?' she thought doubtfully, climbing to her feet.

"Perhaps," Minato teased. She gulped, both at the fact that he was watching her and that she would probably suck at this jutsu.

"First, don't focus on producing results. Just see how your chakra reacts when you do the seal progression," Mole suggested as she closed her eyes and centered herself.

Dog. Horse. Bird.

Chakra fizzed in her chest, the center of her system, and bubbled up her throat, just as she'd intended it to. But it was weak, and as she focused on molding the energy the way she wanted it to go, the moment broke. She opened her eyes again. Mole was staring at her expectantly.

Her lips quirked up. "Y'know, you don't really look like a 'Mole' to me."

The boy blinked at the abrupt change in subject. "I do not understand how that is pertinent to-"

"I think I'll call you Sai. Okay?"

The boy had an expressionless look on his face, but he nodded anyway.

Uchiha Sasuke was... excited. Anticipatory. Yes, that was it. There was no way to convince him that he was nervous, or fearful. He was excited, goddamn it.

He wanted to fight that Zabuza character again. He wanted to win.

But first, he had to get to the top of the damn tree.

It pissed him off. Sakura and Naruto were already miles ahead of him- Sakura had always had good chakra control, but Naruto?

"I trained with Kakashi-sensei before this," the dobe had explained, hours ago when he easily scaled the tree and hung lazily from one of the branches.

And now, Sasuke was on the ground, Sakura was inside spending her time on something else, and Naruto was trying to whistle with a blade of grass about twenty feet up.

The Uchiha dropped onto his back, breathing heavily and feeling frustrated. He had gotten ten feet up. Ten feet, and his focus slipped, or the tenuous hold he had on his chakra faded. It had been hours. He was exhausted, and hungry. And the stupid blond idiot was still there, being annoying and glancing down at him every-so-often. What was he trying to do, make fun of him?

"I'm waiting," Naruto sang, turning so he could dangle upside down. The bends of his knees gripped securely to the branch, and he smiled brightly.

"For what," Sasuke griped, glaring at him.

"For you to ask for help, of course." Naruto swung a little. "Kinda getting tired of sitting out here waiting on your ass."

The Uchiha deadpanned, but dutifully rose to his haunches. "Charlie would hit you for cursing," he replied instead.

With an effortlessness that Sasuke envied, the blond kicked out of the tree, flipping onto the ground and only stumbling slightly. He shot the dark-haired boy a glare. "Don't talk about Charlie. You haven't even been to see her since the hospital. And yet here I am, still talking to you." He rolled his eyes at the sky. "I should be inside, helping Tsunami-san peel potatoes. You really don't deserve it, -ttebayo."

Sasuke glanced away, properly chided. "Yeah, well," he muttered. "After- that day, I didn't think she'd want to see me." He was feeling... well, a bit guilty for his own motor mouth. Usually, he'd have it under control. But it had been such a shock, to see such a strong girl... reduced to that. He never realized that someone as sturdy as Charlie could look so small.

"You mean, after you ran your mouth?" Naruto laughed humorlessly. "Charlie ain't like that. But you're proving her wrong about you."

His head snapped up. "What?"

"She said you were nice, that you were a lonely person that just needed someone to lean on. That not many could truly understand or see your pain, but that you needed someone to give a shit. Not because you're an Uchiha, but because you're a person." His blue eyes looked darker now, the sky on a cloudy day. "She wanted us to be friends. All of us. That's why she always invited you over. She worried about what you ate, about how much sociali-socialzat- whatever, how much you interacted with other people. She worried about you. But you're being real nasty for avoiding her.

"To be honest with you, I haven't had a lot of time for her myself. But I see her as often as I can. I try to make up for the fact that you and even sensei don't bother talking to her anymore." Naruto scratched the back of his head in an agitated manner, and gave a frustrated huff. "Ack, whatever. You'll do whatever you want. But- she deserves better, -ttebayo."

Sasuke clenched his fists. Fine. Naruto was right, at least this time. He felt a bit shameful. Despite how poorly he treated her sometimes, the redhead had always welcomed him with open arms, had sparred with him like an equal. Now, he didn't even know if her injury was healing, or what she was going to do now, or if she was eating right, or anything.

"You're right," the Uchiha finally said, and rolled his eyes at the blond's exaggerated gasp.

"What?" Naruto said.

"I'm not repeating myself," Sasuke snapped. "I'll go see her when we get back. Now, tell me how to do this stupid thing."

The blond smiled.

Charlie fell into her bed with a pained groan.

Her entire body ached, as Sai had repeatedly beat her into the ground. She was chakra exhausted, as she had worked with Wind Release: Breakthrough until the sun tucked behind the horizon. And she was mentally drained, as they had trained ceaselessly for the entire day. Sai hadn't even looked tired by the time they parted ways.

'I wish Naru-chan was home to cheer me up,' she thought sadly, glancing towards their shared wall. She was pretty sure he was in the Land of Waves right now, fighting a Big Bad while she was stuck at home with Sai and his fake smiles.

"Hey! I'm here too, you know," Minato protested.

Yes, truly, she was all alone. Why didn't Sasuke come and visit with her anymore? Had she scared him off with the whole one-arm thing? Kakashi she could understand, but the little emo had wormed his way into her heart and-

"Charlie, why are you ignoring me?" Minato whined.

She just felt so... withdrawn. The Hokage wouldn't want to see her, either. He probably thought Danzou was programming her brain or something, which made her sick. She sort of knew what she was doing, damn it! And she was protecting Konoha, which was the plan from the very start.

"I'll tell you how to do one-handed seals."

Red curls bounced as her head snapped up. 'Oh, Minato, there you are, was wondering where you went.' She chuckled nervously.

"I didn't go anywhere," he replied flatly. "Are you going to stop avoiding me, now?"

Heat bloomed on her cheeks. 'I wasn't avoiding you...' she thought sheepishly.

"You were too," Minato complained. "For days."

'You know I can't avoid you, you're in my head!' Charlie protested weakly.

"Is this because I kissed you? If you didn't like it, you could've just said so..."

But that wouldn't make sense, because she did like it, and he knew it. 'We're not gonna talk about it,' she thought firmly, and dug her head into her pillow. Her face was on fire; she'd always been a bit of a blusher, but it was never this bad, damn it.

She could all but feel him rolling his eyes. "It's not really one of those things you don't talk about, Charlie," he sighed out.

She felt a little bad. He'd been patient with her, and the truth was that she had sort of been avoiding him since that day in the hospital. Not that one can really avoid a person in one's head but, y'know, as much as she could.

But the truth was that she was never really good with feelings. She'd never really liked anyone, not in that way at least. She'd certainly never kissed anyone before. It wasn't something she was used to, and- well, would a relationship really work out with a person who doesn't have a physical body?

She liked him though, liked as in like-liked, and was probably a bit too cowardly to admit it. Shouldn't that be a given, though? He was the hero of the Third War, a Hokage, and a damn good ninja. 'And all I have is my cutting wit,' she thought, pouting just a smidge. 'And my charming amputee status.'

"Are you going to come and speak to me like an adult, or will I have to drag you in here?" Minato threatened, cutting through her thoughts.

'You'll never take me alive-' she started, then thought better of it. What objective good would it do her to simply avoid the man? She could see how that would play out; lonelier than she was used to, especially now. Naruto had his team now, Kakashi was pissed at her, Sasuke... was probably pissed too. Who else could she talk to?

That was the thing about this world. She'd thought she was fine with her loneliness in her own world, up there on her pedestal. But it was... unthinkable, now. As much as she'd worked to shove others away in the past, she... maybe she'd really hated being alone. And maybe it only took starting from scratch again to realize it.

Charlie gave him a flat look. "Cut it out, you look dopey." She flipped her long braid over her shoulder, leaning her weight on one hip as though frustrated when in actuality she was so nervous she could spit.

Minato paused with his wide, close-eyed smile on his face. He popped one eye open. "Wh- dopey?" He leaned up onto his elbows from where he was reclined on the ground, and frowned at her.

"Yeah. Dopey." She jutted her chin out petulantly. Awkwardness squirmed in her chest as she shifted on her feet.

The blond shrugged. "I'm just glad you're not ignoring me anymore," he replied, smirking at the grimace that flashed across her face. "Are you going to come sit, or are you going to hover over there?"

She compromised by sitting where she was, a few good yards away. The man sighed. "If it really makes you feel that weird, we don't have to-"

"We do too," she countered instantly, as much as she regretted it. It was never supposed to be awkward between the two of them. This was just... plain weird. "You... have to admit that you kind of upset the balance, y'know," she added hesitantly.

"I suppose I did," he acquiesced, tilting his head back to stare upwards. "Perhaps I was so focused on trying to get you out of your own head that it was the only thing that came to mind. I don't regret it, though." He sent her one of those easy, reassuring smiles- the kind he was good at. "Do you?"

She picked at the rubber on her Converse. "I dunno. I-I don't think so? I'm not- not very good at recognizing my own emotions, so..." she trailed off, face flushing.

"That would be because you have so many of them at once," he offered, still smiling. "If you slowed down a little, it would be easier to process."

Charlie scowled at him. "I can't help how I feel!" 'Jerk.'

"I'm not being a jerk, I'm being truthful," Minato returned easily. He stood, marched over, and sat just in front of her. "And you haven't been meditating lately either, which isn't helping." His knee brushed hers, which also wasn't helping.

"I should start paying you for all the unsolicited medical advice," she griped, staring at the space beyond his shoulder.

"No, but you could start using it," he mumbled. "Look, I wanted to do an experiment," he added, voice slightly louder.

Her ears pricked at the word 'experiment', and she hesitantly glanced at his face. "Experiment?" she parroted.

Minato quirked his lips. "How did I know the word 'experiment' would catch your attention...?" he wondered teasingly, and out of habit, she reached out to pinch his cheek.

Quick as a flash (ha, ha), his hand caught her own, flattening it against the warm skin of his cheek. She blinked in surprise. "Does this... feel real to you?"

The redhead frowned. "Um... yes?" She could feel the heat of his palm, the protrusion of his cheekbone. Muscle rippled beneath her palm as he smiled.

Long fingers moved down to hold her wrist. He navigated her hand to her own cheek. "And this?"

Her cheek puffed under her hand as she gave him an exasperated look. "...Yes?"

"And this?" His hand replaced her own, and she let hers fall useless in her lap. His hand was big, solid against her skin. How could someone feel warm and... alive, when they, y'know, weren't?

A blush crossed the bridge of her nose. "Yes," she mumbled.

"I don't have an answer for why I feel real to you, or why you feel real to me," he said quietly, giving a rueful smile. "I don't know why I feel warm, or why I can even feel at all. But what I do know, is that when I do this-" He bent forward, lips falling against hers effortlessly.

Blood rushed to the surface of her face as her heart thumped in her chest. Minato pulled back just enough, eyes half-lidded as he gave her a small smile. "You do that. And I also know that even though none of this should be possible, it's healing both of us."

He leaned back into her again, and she forgot what there was to feel awkward about.

Loneliness. An uncomfortable feeling of vulnerability mixing with embarassment and mediocrity. Standing on a pillar of sand, wondering just how strongly it will stand against a storm. The world's eyes on your back even as they turn theirs.

But this- this was a feeling of support, warmth blooming in her chest. Solidarity, maybe? Is that what it's called? An extended hand in the dark, maybe, or a kind smile amongst a crowd of blank faces. Perhaps it was just the way he supported her head in his palm, like she was something precious, like he saw her weakness and was by her side anyway.

Charlie would make a list of these emotions, every single one. She would remember these things, the way he made her feel, the way his absence made her feel. She wanted to know herself just as much as she wanted to know him.

"Ever the scientist," Minato said against the skin of her cheek. Though he didn't sound put out.

She grinned, turning just in time to swipe another kiss from him. "You know me so well."