Hey!
It's been more than a month, huh? Damn I sure took my time lol. Nah, not really. At first I took two weeks off to take a rest from writing, but then I started to get really busy with other things and that's why I updated so late. And since I'm starting college in like two weeks, I'll have even less time to write. I'll try to update as soon as I can, but I really can't promise to keep doing it weekly, so I hope you keep supporting the story with follows or feedback!
Anyways, that said, here's chapter 32! Enjoy!
His eyes slowly opened in parallel to the sound of the door closing. The white walls on the opposite side of the room slowly became clearer while he regained consciousness. An elder man sat down in the chair next to his bed, staring at him. Nobuyuki was fully woken up by the man, whose presence astonished him.
Once he recovered from the scare, he identified the man. The bandages covering the upper right half of his face were already familiar to Nobuyuki, and they even became relatable as he'd been forced to wear bandages on his legs and arms since his fight against that redhead sand-nin. With the little strength he could gather, he waved at the elder while drawing a smile on his own face.
"I heard that you should be recovered in a couple of weeks," said Danzo, whose sight was now directed towards the bandaged legs of the young shinobi, "I hope it's true."
Nobuyuki smiled kindly as he tried to get up and sit on the bed, but the elder man beckoned him not to move. "Sir, about ANBU..." He purposefully ignored the previous comment. "Do you think I could join ANBU after I recover? Or is it already impossible?"
"If the recovery is optimal, of course." Danzo grinned, however it was not directed to the kid, as it was apparent, but it was a direct consequence of his own success. He got the perfect substitute for Itachi. And soon, he would become the Fifth Hokage.
Since the death of his father, Hyuga had been considering more seriously the proposal of the old man. Without his father, he would now have to live for himself, and what better way to start than joining the elite of the village. His only regret was the absence of his father, who he though would be proud of him becoming an elite shinobi. "Then I'll make my best effort to become an elite shinobi!"
"I'm sure you will..." For a moment, Nobuyuki noticed something weird on Danzo's facial expression. The elder finally stood up, smiling kindly at the boy. "I'll be following your progress closely."
Whatever it was, it had already faded. Nobuyuki waved him off, at least before being surprised by the elder opening the door exactly at the same moment when his doctor was about to enter. Perhaps he was too sleepy to notice the steps, or too distracted to care. Either way, the medical-nin that entered the room next seemed to be as surprised as he was himself.
The medical-nin was a young woman. Apart from her height, her blue eyes called Nobuyuki's attention; he wasn't sure, but something about those eyes felt familiar to him. Her brown hair wasn't long enough to reach her shoulder, although it still managed to go down past her sharp chin. She wore the same outfit Genma did, the only difference being that she didn't have the same hat his sensei had.
"Oh, so you're awake already." She said while taking a pen out of one of the many pockets the vest possessed. Before continuing with the interview, she opened the little notebook she had on her hand and sat down on the same chair Danzo had been sitting before. "Alright, have you been having headaches again?"
While the sun was setting in the horizon, the long blue scarf of a kid was being pushed back by the wind, although it remained on his neck thanks to the good knot he had learned from his grandfather. Next to him, an older, black-haired boy was also sitting down on the grass. A green vest was laying on the floor, next to the boy of the purple gi. Both observed in silence as the sky left its previous blue color and adopted a more orange one, which contrasted just as well with the green of the forest further from the walls.
Gohan, for a moment, wondered if being stranded there was really all that bad. After all, that place was also beautiful, that place also had good people. 16 would love that place, that forest that surrounded the village he was now a part of, the half-saiyan was sure of it. However, it became undeniable that there was also many horrible things filling that world, dwarfing any good thing Gohan could find, or at least in his own perspective.
Earlier that day, Naruto had to leave the two of them alone as Kakashi called him for a reunion of Team 7. It was unfortunate, but they knew that could happen at anytime.
"Um, Gohan," Konohamaru raised his voice while continued staring at the already darkening sky, "would you help me become stronger?"
The saiyan heard the question clearly, but still took his time to answer it. He had grown really close with the kid, he could say that he was like a little brother to him. However, it was for that same reason that he just couldn't train the kid. Contrary to what his father would do, he was unable to endanger the kid's life indirectly through training him.
"Well..."
That single word was enough for the Third's grandson to figure what the answer would be. It seemed that his road towards the same desk his grandfather once sat in was going to be rough, but he knew he had to be ready for such a thing. He hoped to have the possibility of catching up with Naruto, who was already being trained by one of the legendary Sannin.
A realization came to the saiyan's mind, though. While it was true that he would motivate the kid into endangering his life as a shinobi by training him, wouldn't he do it anyways? His dream was to be just like his grandfather, so isn't it inevitable for Konohamaru to become a shinobi?
"Don't-" Konohamaru was suddenly interrupted by the voice of his friend.
"I can help you with that, yep." Gohan said while smiling at the kid of the blue scarf.
While it was inevitable for Konohamaru to end up as a shinobi, what wasn't inevitable was his death at the hands of another shinobi. He would train his friend to both decrease the odds of him dying and to help him accomplish his dream. Fighting was starting to seem as something inevitable, and not only in that case, so what better way than to prepare for that in the best way?
"Really?!" Konohamaru became ecstatic almost immediately after receiving the answer. He started to jump and celebrate, even visualizing himself as the Hokage. "Thanks a lot, Gohan!"
For some reason, it felt weird to him that a kid would get this excited about fighting. He guessed that was the way his father behaved, but he was never able to witness it. Maybe it was also kind of egotistical for him to assume that every kid should normally react to fighting in the same manner he did. In any case, he wasn't sure how to feel about it, the only thing he knew was that kids shouldn't even have the option Konohamaru had.
Crowds of people filled the streets of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, entering and exiting buildings. It was a sunny day, so it was natural for people to go out and enjoy the sunlight. And as would be expected, every restaurant was full of people, most even had absurdly long queues. Well except for a certain humble ramen shop in the outskirts of the village, that is.
In said ramen shop, a group of ten kids was having lunch. Normally, the small restaurant wouldn't be able to handle that number of clients, but recently they'd got successful enough to invest in a couple of tables to put outside the shop. This success could be attributed to Naruto, who normally took every single one of his friends to eat there.
"How did you recover so fast?" A blonde girl asked to her teammate sitting next to her. Surprisingly, in a couple of days the saiyan's injuries were healed.
"Well, I'm not sure, that's just the way it has always been for me." He scratched his messy, black hair while talking.
Shikamaru sighed at the answer, reflecting disappointment through it, as if he already expected it. He took a sip of his glass of water before speaking. "Are you even human?"
"I think it's amazing that Gohan heals his wounds that fast and that he's so strong!" Naruto added after finishing his fourth bowl of ramen.
"That's because you're dumb." Shikamaru answered before laying back on his chair, placing his hands behind his head.
"Well, I do think it's impressive." The pink-haired girl sitting between the young avenger and Uzumaki added. "Maybe it's an ability from Gohan's clan or something."
"Do you think there would be a clan with an ability like that? 'Cause I've surely never heard of it." Kiba replied after finally finishing his own bowl of ramen. Akamaru followed by barking, probably showing support at his partner's statement.
"Impossible, no clan has any better abilities than those of the Uchiha clan." Sasuke explained, his eyes set on the people passing by. He was sitting in a wheelchair, consequence of him trying to fight against the tailed beast and being severely injured in the process. In the week since, his injured arm had gotten better, but his broken leg would need some more time. He could at least be thankful of not receiving worse injuries, like Lee's.
Kiba rolled his eye at Uchiha's comment, finding it annoying even when he expected him to say something similar. An uncomfortable silence then surrounded the genin, everyone being unable to think of something to say, even when being that many.
A presence suddenly got them by surprise. A really tall man was standing behind Naruto, who was too focused in eating his fifth bowl of ramen to notice. Everyone was either caught by surprise or even scared at such a thing, although Sakura managed to recognize the long and spiky white hair.
"Oh, good morning, Jiraiya-sama." Sakura respectfully said as she stood up, bowing at the man before sitting down again.
Everyone but a certain saiyan recognized the name, and proceeded to do the same as the pink-haired girl. Gohan raised his eyebrow in confusion as that name started to ring a bell, although he was still unable to say who he was exactly.
"Pervy sage?!" Naruto yelled enthusiastically. "Where were you? Did you escape because of the invasion? Coward!"
"Nah, kid, I was just busy doing some research, you know..." He started to blush as he remembered his most recent journeys. "My next novel will be my best one to date!"
Sakura only managed to cringe at this, while her blonde teammate fell back in disappointment. "You're such a pervert."
Meanwhile, the rest of the genin didn't understand what was happening. And while some could notice the blush of the sannin, they weren't really able to fully understand until Naruto accused him of being a pervert. Shikamaru, Kiba and Chouji were sure that they would witness one of the most legendary shinobi in history beat their blonde friend's ass. Sasuke, however, could do no more than sigh at his teammate's behavior.
"Oh, right, it's Jiraiya from the legendary sannin!" Gohan said out loud, catching everyone's attention. Once he noticed he'd said it, he blushed out of embarrassment.
"Huh?" The tall man of the red haori raised his eyebrow in confusion, but then decided to ignore the comment. "Anyways, Naruto, I have to go and search for the next Hokage, wanna come?"
"Yeah!" Naruto yelled as he raised his punch and smiled widely.
Everyone but Sakura, even the workers of Ichiraku, cringed at how casually the sannin told the kid about such an important mission.
"Hey, wanna come with us again?" Naruto turned to his pink-haired teammate.
She shook her head in response. "I have to take care of mom because of... you know."
"Oh, yeah, right..." He scratched the back of his head. After a couple of seconds of silence, he gave her a thumbs up. "Then I'll see you when I come back!"
So the Tsunade arc starts! What did you think of the chapter?
Some changes should start to happen soon, although it will mainly happen in the focus of the arc, as it won't follow the actual search for Tsunade. I don't know if I should keep saying stuff, so I'll leave it there.
Anyways, see you later with the next chapter!