(A/N) Sasuke does have the Mangekyou, to be clear, he will not be using it though.
Sasuke woke up for the final time in the hospital to Shisui quietly reading a book. He glanced up, grinning as he saw Sasuke was awake. "Good morning!"
Sasuke nodded, sitting up to try and see the book. Shisui flashed him the cover, and Sasuke realized it was a book on Konoha shinobi sign language.
"Assuming you have the Sharingan," Shisui said, plopping the book in his lap. "Which, really, if you didn't, I'd be really surprised and then assume you just don't have it at all, cause really, thinking you saw three of your new friends die, then being Tsukiyomi'd? Yeah, that'd awaken a Sharingan for sure."
Sasuke blinked at him.
Shisui sighed. "Basically, you should have the Sharingan, send chakra to your eyes then read the book. Read it quickly, you have full reserves right now, but the Sharingan saps chakra like you wouldn't believe."
Sasuke nodded, and turned his focus to the book, pushing chakra towards his eyes.
His friends found him ten minutes later, the book on his nightstand, and him rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands.
'Sasuke?' Naruto sighed, Shikamaru translating out loud.
Sasuke's hands dropped from his eyes, and he blinked blearily at them. 'What?' He asked, using the knowledge that had been implanted in his head because of the Sharingan.
"You know sign language," Shino stated.
Sasuke nodded, gesturing towards the book on the bedside table. Shino picked it up, scanning it.
Shikamaru yawned. "Sharingan, I'm assuming?"
Sasuke nodded sheepishly.
Shino stared at the book in his hands. "I will have to endeavor to learn quickly. Why? Because I do not wish to be the only one in the group who can not understand Naruto and Sasuke."
'Well, according to Semari-baa-chan, we'll be here for another five days at least, cause that's when they can spare Jounin to escort us. A large contingent of Jounin were sent with our class, and we have to wait for the to come back and recover so they can escort us!' Naruto signed excitedly, but slowly, letting Shino see.
Shino nodded, signaling he got it.
'They didn't make you go back to Konoha with the rest of the class,' Sasuke signed, mildly confused.
Shikamaru yawned. "I'm still healing, and so are you."
'I have nothing back in Konoha for me,' Naruto signed. 'No one to make me come back if I don't want to.'
"My father gave me permission to remain behind. Why? Because he believes you are good for me." He received deadpan stares all around, and clarified. "Aburame are not known for their social lives."
'Understatement of the day,' Sasuke replied sarcastically.
"My father believes you are good for me socially. Aburame are commonly treated as slightly less than human, due to the bugs inhabiting our bodies, penchant for logic-based decisions, and general lack of showing emotion."
Naruto nodded. 'Makes sense I suppose. So, what to do while you recover?"
'Read,' Sasuke told him. 'Which, I would like to be doing. If you could find the third book in that series I like, I'd be very happy.'
'I'll look for it,' Naruto promised.
Sasuke nodded.
In came the nurse, shooing his friends out for the time being. Telling them to put Shikamaru back in his room, and go and get some lunch.
Two days later, everyone was out of the hospital.
"Hey, Shino, I was wondering if you and your friend would like to see the other side of the island?" Choryu asked, bounding up to them. "There's an ant colony over there that has taken up the entire path by now, and I was wondering if you could maybe convince them to relocate or something."
"Ants?" Shino asked. "What species?"
"Uh, lion ants? I think that's what they're called anyway."
Shino nodded. "I will go with you. Why? Because my father has some in his colony but cannot spare any for me to start my own colony, and I have been cleared for a second colony of my choosing for some time."
"Relocation at it's finest," Choryu sighed happily. "Alright! What about you guys?"
Shikamaru was already shaking his head. "I have another fish attempt this afternoon."
Naruto shrugged. 'Sure!'
Sasuke thought about it, then shook his head. 'No thank you.'
"Alright! Let's go! I already asked Semari, so we're cleared to go. We'll be back in time for dinner! If we weren't, my wife would skin me alive, send me in for healing, then do it again!"
"That would be ill-advised," Shino agreed.
Shikamaru watched them walk away, waved goodbye to Sasuke, who seemed to be heading into the market district, and walked towards the hospital again. Honestly, he'd spent enough time in there already, but he had iryoninjutsu to learn. And he was pretty sure he'd lost any and all chakra control while he'd been in the hospital for almost a week.
He hadn't, luckily, and made more progress with the fish this time. He actually got its lungs working for a bit, then he started feeling woozy from chakra exhaustion, and his teacher tossed the fish into the nearby bucket, sitting him down.
"Alright, we're done for the day. You've made good progress. I'd advise working with the Konoha hospital staff."
Shikamaru nodded, wearily getting to his feet and wandering off in the direction of the hotel they had been staying at.
Finally, finally, they arrived back in Konoha, Sasuke was understandably rather upset and protested returning to the empty compound. Protested very silently and with lots of signed expletives. (Thanks Shisui) They let him stay with Naruto for the time being and tried not to think about where tiny Sasuke could have learned that many cuss words, let alone how to sign them.
They never did manage to make Sasuke move into his own house, and gave up trying after a few months. They made several more trips to Uzushiogakure, luckily, none of them were quite as exciting as the first one. Shikamaru finally got his chakra levels up to a good place for a standard genin, if a bit high, and basically stopped speaking entirely, except when someone needed a translation and Shino wasn't there to do it. Naruto and Shino continued studying sealing, and while Naruto was basically always going to be ahead of Shino due to genetics, and starting earlier, Shino was at a fairly comfortable level of the basic seal master by the time he was a genin. He even got a patch. Sasuke continued studying taijutsu styles, all of them Uzumaki styles, except for Shisui's.
The biggest interesting thing happened two years away from graduation, and not to any of them.
Ino walked into class, the edges of her trench coat flapping at her heels. She'd originally gotten it because she had thought it'd make her look cool, but that had both been from an earlier era of her life, and it had been quite a bit too big on her. It fit perfectly now, and she had it wrapped tightly around her. A clan jutsu had gone wrong when she tried it, and she was stuck with the consequences. It was the mind destruction jutsu. She'd tried it, despite the fact her father had advised against it, and it had blown up in her face. Or rather, in her mind.
According to her dad, she was lucky she wasn't a vegetable. As it was, her personality had been changed quite thoroughly, and her dad said there wasn't a way to reverse it without possibly making it worse. Her classmates would probably be very confused, but they would manage. Iruka had already been informed, as she had missed the day before so she could recover. None of her memories were changed or anything, it was just that her personality had shifted. A lot.
"Ino-pig!" Sakura greeted loudly as Ino walked in.
"Sakura," Ino greeted back, but much quieter.
"Eh? What's up with you Ino, you haven't called me Sakura since second year!"
Ino shrugged, moving around her former best friend. She spotted Sasuke and tried shouting his name to get his attention, but unfortunately, nothing came out of her mouth. She settled in behind him, content to watch his back.
After about a half-hour in class, Ino realized that Sasuke was not as cute as she remembered. Rather, Choji, of all people, was catching her eye now. Sure he was a bit chubby, but all the better to hide behind, her instincts figured. The part of her mind that was still the old Ino fought back, insisting Sasuke was better than the fatso, but it was quickly stamped down by the new section of Ino's mind, the current dominant one that insisted that Choji would care, Choji would protect her.
Her father had said it would be easier if she didn't pay much attention to the smaller part of her mind that was the original her. It would diminish, and eventually disappear. Holding onto it would just make it more difficult for her, and possibly result in two completely different personalities, leading to Multiple Personality Disorder, which could stop her from being a ninja.
As lunch break was called, Ami, a bully of the class, sauntered up to Ino. "Oh, Ino~" she sang. "I hear you've had a personality swap."
Ino discreetly edged closer to Choji, half hiding behind his bulk. "W-where'd you hear that?" She asked, cursing the stutter that made itself apparent.
Ami grinning evilly. "From your friend Sakura over there. No one to protect her anymore."
"She doesn't need it anymore," Ino whispered.
"Apparently, you do," Ami sniped back, Choji looking between the two girls in confusion. "Why are you hiding behind fatso there?"
Choji's face heated up dangerously, and Ino nudged farther behind him. "What did you call me?"
"Fat," Ami said, smirking at him. "A big fatso who doesn't stop eating."
Iruka quickly appeared next to Ami and grabbed her by her collar, lifting her into the air. "Outside you two." He quickly disappeared in a poof of smoke, and Choji got up from his seat, racing out the door in pursuit of his prey.
Ino followed timidly, standing in the doorway to the school to watch.
Ami had been set down in the sparring ring with Iruka standing by. Probably so Ami didn't end up dead.
In the end, Ami was quickly flattened by Choji's family jutsu. And, in the end, that just cemented Ino's newfound crush on him.
(A/N) Yeah, so you can blame DeadGirlRisen for this, but yeah, Hinata and Ino are now on the same level of shy. Also, Iruka knew what was going to happen, and didn't want the room destroyed. Who wants their room destroyed? Poor Tenzo would have to rebuild it. It's Sakura's birthday today, so keep an eye out for an extra update of WBBU!