Chapter 19: Lay on Hands
"Accountability breeds responsibility."
-Stephen R. Covey
/FOB 4
/Capital City of Kanyan
/Wave Country
#
Sukumu Gato
The guttural roar of the combined efforts of chainsaws clearing forestry, the overwhelming wash of the ocean, and the mechanical tearing sounds of Hidden Sky's aerial vehicles doing scouting flybys made it difficult- if not impossible- for the chief executive officer of Gato Corporation to hear anything his lead engineer said. Their next six months was being laid out for him and it was, in a word- important. The last thing he needed was to miss a vital detail in a time like this due to something as stupid as a noisy environment. Once again, he lamented having to work like this- haphazard and in a backwater shithole. Where they were now, there was literally no escaping the deafening nonsense.
Damn the noise!
Wave Country's capital- if you could even call it that- of Kanyan, of which Gato rolled in and took as easy as that, was a shit hole even among other notable shitholes. A profitable shit-hole, he was starting to find out, but a shit-hole nonetheless. It had been a month, but he still wasn't used to the sheer squallor. Say what you will about Fire Countries uptight and strangely incorruptible public servants, their results made him almost feel bad that his business thrived better in total chaos. Almost.
"...since the various islands are close enough together, we're having close to zero issues with our engineers and the current designers crafting long-term bridges on top of the half-finished ones those others were building. It's really the second project, the more important one regarding our timeline of the first prototypes we need to be worrying about, boss. Those things are… well, they are resource-intensive. Most of the fabrication process needs Sky help to initialize."
Supply lines were easy to manage when you had the foremost manufacturer on the continent hitching their horse to yours so successfully. Personally, Sukumu considered that the greatest coup de' tete of his life. Shinno wasn't terribly difficult to manage when you had something he wanted very badly. Most shinobi fell into that same category; easily manipulated as they mistook physical or chakra-based power for real power. No, the real power was in the mind- and in the checkbook.
After all, a single Kage couldn't get them what they wanted- no, they turned to someone who could produce miracles. Sukumu Gato.
Gato, Grand Oyabun of the Fire Yakuza and full-time man of business, leaned his elbows on the table and stared at the, at best incomplete, maps of the area.
Smoothing his hand across the stubble on his ample chins, Gato considered his situation and tried to ignore the many engineers and workmen surrounding him- minus his bodyguards- that looked like they hadn't slept a wink in the last month.
They watched him.
He watched the map.
But it wasn't the map he was seeing. Everything had been going swimmingly this fiscal year- in business, but not in his personal life.
His wife- his wife of ten years- had slapped him. Slapped him! Over the terrible business with the Gutter and that street urchin. Her baby boy, she claimed, had been almost murdered on his watch.
The rest was a blur.
When Gato came to and found himself standing over a half-naked, purple-faced body, the whites of her eyes covered in bloody veins like the ivy-choked side of an overgrown house, Gato couldn't help but feel- put out.
Reiko shouldn't have said that.
She shouldn't have done that either. She knew how he was, she had been warned, many times.
As Gato had stared at her, she'd started to look like something pulled out of a river after a week and he realized that the true cause of this was that tiger-rat of a child who dared assault his baby boy, dared to put a hand on the flesh of the heir of Gato.
And what- over a fucking piece of childs' ass?
Who gave a shit about trash like that?
Something needed to be done… but he hadn't known what to do at the time. Paralyzed with indecision, his business moved forward, thriving and almost mocking his personal agony and turgidity.
Gato did not know what to do.
Until now.
Watching the workers at the edge of the newly-cleared landing strips wield chainsaws against hundred-year old dogwoods made him realize that sometimes you needed to clear a problem, smooth things over, and start again.
That was why he'd smothered his son, too, after the doctors spent weeks fixing him so he could be, of all things, a vegetable.
Killing him, for being so weak, was a mercy.
There was no room for that in the Gato Corporation.
Moral action needed to follow moral principles.
There was no room for his son, a catatonic potato, in the empire he was building.
No room for hesitation in business, either.
The Broker, as he was known around the world, was hired to provide logistical support for the war and orders dictated he find the appropriate place to ensure supply lines. Wave Country, the tick on the back of Fire, would be that place. No time for distractions now.
The wide-range two-way communication device placed on an edge of the maps to keep them down crackled to life and Shinno's voice, deep like that of an opera singer, Gato's favorite de-stressing activity came out.
I wonder if Shinno had ever considered an alternate profession?
He wasn't a good Kage after all...
Gato unfurled his arms and grabbed the Responder and put it to his ear.
"...I sent technicians and builders to negotiate landing strips in countries that want to take advantage of the new technology. Wave should be ready for you. Are you there?"
Gato smirked, glad Shinno couldn't see it.
"I'm already ahead of our building schedule."
"What?"
"In fact, my carpenters and technicians have finished the first working commercial model airship you asked for, designed specifically to address your concerns about hauling freight. Not only will this undercut the bridge efforts; but any counter-efforts to break your monopoly will be finished. You should start taking production orders."
There was, Gato liked to imagine, a shocked silence.
Impressed, perhaps?
"...I will admit, Sukumu, that I had my doubts. Consider them… erased."
"I appreciate that Shinno. This relationship will be good for both of us I think- assuming we both do our parts."
"Agreed. Despite our speed, Pein is pushing our time-table up and I think, with our continued cooperation, we will meet it."
"What is his will?"
Gato gestured impatiently to his lead engineer, Warza, to hand him a pencil. Scrambling, four different people all handed him a pencil. He selected one at random and paused to take notes.
"He'd like us to secure all major points of entrance, including the half-finished construction in Wave and their architects: Tazuna, to Konoha. Kanzen, to Noodles, and Tatsuya, to Water Country. The last remaining bridge-builders must be-"
Noticing already a note Warza had handed him, he spoke.
"Not to cut you off… but I already have both the architects and designers in custody."
Gato gave a thumbs up to Warza.
Now it was no wishful thinking- there really was shocked silence.
"How-"
"Orochimaru and Pein both lent me assets to get a few tasks done. You are familiar with Kakuzu, Hidan, and Guren, correct?"
This time it wasn't impressed silence- but if he had to guess, 'wary' would be the appropriate word. Gato imagined his erstwhile ally was reassessing where Sukumu stood within their larger organization. Those three names were high-ranking ninja- and powerful.
He was right to reassess.
Money always shows its true worth.
"Then I will bid you adieu. Excellent news Sukumu. I look forward to our continued work. We're right on schedule then, despite the new timetable. I'll update you in a few days."
They said their goodbyes, filled the niceties that Sukumu dreaded, and hung up.
His Yakuza lieutenant Zarni, a tall, heavily-scarred wall of a human being, set on a special task over the last few weeks, stepped up.
Gato waved him forward.
"Forget the bowing and scraping- just tell me. What of the hit I ordered?"
Zarni's voice sounded like gravel rolling over onto gravel.
"Orochimaru recently responded to our inquest and intelligence points to Konoha. We can't touch him there."
"The boy- you're telling me we can't get anyone into the city to do one simple task? No friends, no family to threaten? No pressure points?"
Zarni slowly shook his head.
"Kid is an orphan. Doesn't know anyone, as far as intelligence goes. If we weren't planning on killing him, it'd be kinda sad honestly."
"Shut up."
Zarni held his hands up.
"Fine, fine. Think up another plan; I want him to know we're coming for him. I want him to wake up in a cold sweat knowing at some point, somewhere, some time… I'm going to gut him like a fish and wear his skin as pants, you get me Zarni?"
"I get you boss. I'm on it."
"Good. Now, where is Burakkuōshan now?"
"They are accompanying Akatsuki to the city and then to the site."
"Excellent. Get me Guren, Hidan, and Kakuzu- they should be near the coast inspecting the ship. With five Akatsuki- who are the others?"
"Uh, I believe it's Juzo Biwa and Wicked Eye Fugaku."
"Great. I have a few tasks for them in the coming months and then they need to head to the Land of Rivers for some work for the Seifuku-sha and Lord Pein. Please, communicate their itinerary."
Zarni looked less than pleased by that, but he did what he was ordered.
Sukumu smiled, dismissing the rest of his workers back to their regular schedules and sat down heavily in a chair that Warza had brought for him earlier, but he hadn't noticed it. His left leg trembled and he lowered himself down roughly, sighing with the weight off.
Reiko would've loved this country.
She just shouldn't have opened her mouth and it all would've been fine…
It would've been fine.
#
/The Hokage Monument- Forest
/Konohagakure
/Land of Fire
#
Naruto Uzumaki
Hard to believe as it was, two months had passed as both him and Shizune settled into a routine. Her work at the hospital had ebbed and flowed in that time, leaving them with, sometimes at least, long stretches of time where all they did was train. There seemed to be an inverse relationship between his burgeoning medical abilities, growing by leaps and bounds, and the spreading effects of his ravaged chakra system. Headaches and lethargy followed, becoming worse as his control increased. The delicacy necessary to wield medical chakra in such fine quantities and in such needle-threading execution would wipe him out afterwards, leaving nothing left for physical enhancement. Naruto was working on a way to stream-line that process… but it was slow.
He was slowly becoming what he was when he started; crippled.
The Lightning Mark, as he suspected, was making everything worse the more he used it, a persistent body ache now was with him twenty-four seven. Naruto tried to ignore the looks Shizune gave him. She tried to do it surreptitiously, he could feel her eyes on them. She compared the state of his body to something resembling chemotherapy, minus the hair falling out. Aching constantly, persistent, devastating migraines, and constant agony.
Naruto kept himself upright and worked on sheer will and spite.
When he was by himself, and Shizune off doing whatever, Naruto liked to walk and explore the practically empty forests atop the Hokage Monument. The atmosphere was serene. Something about the bird song, rustle of animals moving through the underbrush, and the shadows playing hide-and-seek with the long, blazing shafts of sunlight has a lessening effect on his pain.
He knew how it felt, matching his mood, caught in between a world of shadow and one of light.
Inspired, or perhaps unconsciously sick of the pained looks Shizune was shooting him as his physical training ground to a halt in favor of more, and constant, studying of the medical texts in preparation for the first step of Creation Rebirth, Naruto spent almost a full week camping in a clearing. He found it on one of his sojourns into Hashirama's Woods.
In a way, his situation felt like an extension of the wider world.
Word on the street was that Hidden Mist blockaded ports in all the major coastal cities accessible by waterway. Food shortages bloomed like wildfire almost immediately. Fire Country declared states of emergency in numerous cities and refugees had started to flood inland. Konoha had swelled like a puss-filled cyst.
What would it take for it to pop?
Naruto was betting on war. Most were, really.
In fact, Shizune told him yesterday she would be on longer than normal shift rotation too. Worst of all, and this is how Naruto knew there would be war, there was talk of altering the graduation dates and Final Exams for the Academy. The whole thing cut short, accelerated because war is on the horizon. More bodies to throw to the slaughter, as Shizune called it. For a ninja, she was strangely not happy about fighting.
Everyone else seemed… excited.
Which was stupid. He knew that.
Naruto saw a brief glimpse of what some kind of war looked like and it made him sick, remembering the smell offal, burnt and sweet, metallic with blood so thick in the air you felt you could stick your tongue out and taste it. As the scale of things went, what happened to him was a 'border conflict,' at best.
The only people his age who hadn't been enthusiastically talking about how many enemies they'd 'kill' were the kids who weren't even remotely talking to him. Shikamaru and his crew. And Satsuki, for a wonder. Every time someone brought it up, Shikamaru snarled, and even Kiba seemed somber as if remembering something unpleasant. Satsuki surprised him the most, if he was being honest. Satsuki pretended like she couldn't hear any talk about war. That wasn't the strange part.
Naruto would swear, in front of a judge and jury, that that Uchiha girl was following him.
But that was impossible, right?
Stick a knife to his neck, that was most of the reason he'd started leaving the apartment to work up here; peace and quiet, solitude...and no Satsuki. She'd started appearing everywhere, asking him to fight. She didn't say spar, she specifically said, 'fight.' Naruto, already struggling with his Lightning Mark, and the burden of trying to learn enough to start learning the Yin Seal, had better, less painful, uses of his time. Nor did he feel like being under the constant microscope of her weirdly considering gaze.
Naruto hadn't spoken much with Satsuki, actively going out of his way to avoid her now. She'd been suspiciously present, and in random places, all the time.
And now here he was, in the forest.
Naruto whistled to himself, moderately content.
There was another, darker reason for his need for solitude.
Naruto focused on the air in front of him as he lay in his tent, two hands held contorted like claws as a dense forged bar of red chakra coalesced in front of him forming the vague shape of a weapon. He could feel the drain, intense, like fighting an entire day with the Lightning Mark active. This was something he'd need to continue practicing with, as he had for the last few months, to become efficient. Naruto suspected that actually, his work with the Tool Creation Jutsu was the reason for his rapid decline. The technique just… taxed him in a way he didn't understand. Not to mention he absolutely could not talk to Shizune about it.
Naruto let both the technique drop and his head drop onto his pillow, staring at his notebook with an almost-finished seal.
Once he cracked the last piece, the Yin Seal would leap into reach.
He hoped.
#
Something had to give.
Two weeks later, it did.
Mikoto was reluctant to throw the first punch and Earth Country obliged the hesitancy. The first skirmish happened when Earth Country, allegedly, hit Outpost 36, near Grass Country. Not that it was unexpected, according to Shizune. No one was killed, as it had been evacuated shortly before the Iwa-nin crossed, but the Outpost was gutted and burned, the land salted. What an unnecessary expense.
Naruto keenly felt his 'deadline' approaching, as it would all be for nothing if he couldn't succeed. He would have to watch from the sidelines as war engulfed the world.
Chakra-less.
Powerless.
Useless.
Iron flowed up from inside him at the thought.
I won't be left behind! I won't!
Redoubling his efforts, day-in and day-out, Naruto worked on a proper symbological array that would successfully allow him to convert, in precise amounts, his pure base chakra into growth-aspected medical chakra with none of the stress issues he was currently having.
Anticlimactically, the minute he tested the newest array and symbols, he almost didn't notice that it clicked and succeeded. For his brute force method of trial-and-error, there was a distinct feeling of rightness or wrongness about his arrays. He knew, instinctively, if they could be successfully applied or not. The whole Uzumaki sense was hard to describe to someone that didn't have it- closest way is to imagine you remembering the right way to go in an unfamiliar town, relying on half-forgotten memories to guide you subconsciously in the proper direction. As he went, it was like he started recognizing landmarks that would then further point him.
Now, Naruto knew he had arrived at his destination.
What lay, intricate and subtly drawn out in his father's notebook, was a controllable fuin-symbological matrix that allowed him to manipulate medical chakra, and really just his chakra, at the finest of levels.
So transfixed by his apparent success that he didn't hear Shizune until she was standing next to him. Though, to be fair, she was a Jonin, so he doubted he'd hear her coming if she didn't want him too. Naruto, at that point, could almost feel her annoyance more than he could hear her.
"Why am I having to come find you out here after a long shift? Do you know how far this is from the apartment?"
Naruto, spaced out and thinking of all the applications, didn't hear her.
"What, what is it?"
She looked concerned as he didn't even look up at her.
Shizune came around the lean-to, ducking under the rope where he'd strung the thing to the trees around him in a square pattern.
As she did, she saw his manic smile and relaxed, giving him a smile in return.
"You did it?"
His neck almost vibrated his head off his body with how vigorously he nodded.
"Hell yeah. Only one way to find out."
Then he winced, remembering his Lightning Mark and the sheer agony.
Hopefully this wouldn't be as bad… but there were two arrays to be drawn this time.
Sweat broke out on his forehead. He reminded himself this was the second, and potentially largest step, towards the future he wanted. He had to reach out and seize it- no matter how potentially painful it might be. Minato's note swam to his thoughts and the thought of this procedure seemed less scary.
Steeling himself, Naruto realized that he'd have to ask Shizune to draw it.
He couldn't risk blacking out while it was half-done. The Array was intricate, but not overly complicated in terms of small lines. She should be able to trace it fairly easily. The symbols should snap together if drawn properly, anyway. Chiyo had told him the script tattoo had slithered like it was alive when Kazan was done etching; chakra matching the array, aligning it perfectly.
"Uh, Shizune?"
Shizune had squatted down under the canvas of the tent, inspecting the open notebook in front of him. There was a flutter of wings, a brief snatch of bird song, and the forest felt alive around them both. Naruto knew he was projecting, but the anticipation he felt seemed to be mirrored in the way the world felt like it was holding its breath.
She looked up at him, holding the Etcher in one hand from where she'd fished it out of his open pack.
"I don't have to be at the hospital until six-thirty. So if we're going to do this… let's do it."
The short-haired woman frowned at the gun.
"This feels somehow like the opposite of healing. Good thing I like you…"
Swallowing, he gave her a sickly grin.
"Lucky me."
Before the steel ran out of his spine, he spoke.
"You know what to do? You have to carve those," he pointed at the notebook where two rings of script were dissected in a three-dimensional mock-up in pencil, "and do it as perfectly as you can right above the radius and the ulna on both wrists. They should wrap around and activate, I'll condense the medical chakra from there."
Shizune seemed… skeptical. "This seems an awful lot like skipping the 'control' step in favor of a script that automates things for you. That's cheating."
"Just… trust me, okay? It's really not. I'm just now able to adjust the flow of chakra with precision. Nothing to it."
She shrugged.
"I trust you. However, it is definitely skipping steps. But I know literally next to nothing about Scripting or fuinjutsu, so you may be on to something."
Smiling falling away, he noted, "You're ahead of most people in knowing that there is even a difference between Scripting and Fuinjutsu."
He let out a sigh as Shizune smiled drily.
"Enough stalling, Naruto."
"Fine."
Shizune looked solemn as she scooted around to the stump of a wide tree he'd been using as a table. Feeling around, he brushed some dirt off a thick stick.
Naruto knew the drill by now and put the stick into his mouth, testing it and making a face. All the dirt was not even close to being off it.
"Geh. Drub do it."
Shizune gave him a long look and pulled his notebook over, holding his arm down length-wise on the stump, and bracing. Activating the Etcher, it shrieked into life with a loud, 'tzzzt.'
Committing the lines she was about to draw to memory, Shizune drew on the same focus she used in surgery and began Etching, trying to ignore the way he stiffened and the terrible, muffled sounds coming from his mouth.
The birds flew away as Naruto lost the battle to the fire on his wrists and screamed.
#
"Well, really glad I kept my calm there."
Shizune just leveled a look at him and he coughed, wiping tears from his eyes and snot from his nose and mouth where it had dribbled down.
"Dignity is important for shinobi, too. So… I'm full of that. For sure."
Shizune rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Shinobi Counter-Interrogation tactics permit the use of screams in defusing pain in extreme situations. So don't worry about it so much. I think it's normal. How quickly you can master yourself afterwards is the real trick."
She eyed him.
"...there is where I think you're falling a bit short. But I suppose this would qualify as an extreme situation."
Naruto stood awkwardly, trying not to use his arms as they were throbbing, radiating a bone-deep ache that echoed up into his elbow.
"To be fair, I think most people go through the same pain when getting little butterfly tattoos. So maybe you're just a wimp?"
Her smile took away most of the sting, but he still grumbled.
"I don't think most people are getting molten chakra metal poured into their skin, though."
"See, now you're just whining."
The two of them stood there staring at each other. Ignoring her, Naruto straightened, trying to stretch without brushing himself with his wrists. He held his new seals up and inspected them. She did a surprisingly competent job in drawing. His Scripting senses were telling him it would work. So no glaring errors or missing lines.
Shizune was casual when she spoke.
"So, do you think you could execute the Mystic Palm properly after all the theory we've gone through? Walk me through the steps."
Giving her a strange look- why the hurry?- he complied.
"Regeneration through the Mystic Palm occurs at the cellular level; using medical chakra. An iryou-nin contracts the blood vessels at the wound, restricting blood flow, then one must stimulate blood platelets to gather at the site to clot. Once the clot is in place, you must reopen the blood vessels a bit to allow the necessary amount of oxygen back into the injury for healing."
Shizune nodded to keep going. Trying not to feel irritation, as they'd gone over this a thousand times, Naruto continued. He knew that repetition in the medical arts was their lifeblood. Training took over when panic clouded you. Same as with combat.
"Next, the iryou-nin must use chakra to clear the dead cells and pave the way for accelerating the growth of new ones. You feed oxygen-rich blood cells to the area and again, accelerate the collagen which will quickly scar the area and help ensure the prevention of infection, unlikely given the speed with which the Mystic Palm works, and oversee the repair process. Happy?"
Shizune smiled, clapping her hands together.
"Yes! Very thorough. Just remember, this is a general process, but it applies to most wounds, right?"
Naruto nodded.
Then she stabbed him.
He gaped at her.
He gaped at the wound.
Then the pain slammed into him as he stared at the kunai sticking out of the meat of his shoulder, rivulets of blood dripping down his shoulder and staining the sleeveless shirt he'd been wearing. The expletive that left his mouth echoed throughout the forest, louder than his initial scream.
"What the fresh fuck Shizune!?"
Frowning, she looked at him, unconcerned.
"I'm sorry, for the last three months you've been like a bear with a sore tooth over your chakra and here you are, on the brink of something amazing, and you're wailing because you were stabbed with a kunai?"
He continued to gape at her. Strangely, guiltily, he realized that he had been complaining about how unfair his circumstances were to her almost constantly. Life, he knew, was a series of unfortunate events and if you were lucky, a quiet death. But no, Shizune was showing him that life was what you wanted it to be. So he needed to get over it. Taking a deep breath through the sheer pain of being stabbed, he nodded tightly.
"Quit bitching and heal it. You told me how much you've practiced. You've explained, fairly adequately, the process to closing it with chakra."
She gestured as if to say, 'go on, do it.'
"Do it. Heal it. Make me believe you have a shot at this or I'm going to shut all this down."
But still… stabbing him?
No, she was right. This is what he got for being so hell bent. He had to do this to prove to her and to him that he had what it took to get his chakra back.
Fine. Instead of answering her, I'm just going to do it.
That'll show her.
Inside, he focused inward, spreading his awareness to his Control Seals. Naruto had settled on those names because he was terrible at naming things and was hardly the creative type- at least with titles.
Straightforward was best.
With an effort of will and the awareness his long-usage of the Lightning Mark gave him of the chakra moving in haphazard loops throughout his body, he took control of his chakra and activated the right Control Seal. Immediately, the feel of his chakra changed- no longer painful in that area, but soothing, like the cooling effect of aloe vera on a burn, and it was thin, gathering near his palm in a faint aura. On top of that, there was no agony like the stabbing-knife feeling of his Lightning Mark.
Moving his right hand, rippling with chakra aura like a thin green glove, he poised it over the knife in his shoulder, preparing to cover the wound. With his left, he braced his core, and gently pulled the knife slowly out, healing as he did so. Normally, that was not the right move. Keeping a weapon in gave you better longevity than creating a gush, but this was hardly normal. Blood gushed slightly over the right hand as it pressed into his shoulder, but faded subtly as he followed the exact procedure that he'd described to Shizune. The Mystic Palm followed basic medical principles- principles he'd been studying for almost four and a half months under Shizune.
This was basic first aid, really, and it took him a few moments to accelerate the blood platelets and create collagen to seal off the wound.
Shizune, watching critically, was silent.
"Too slow."
Another kunai flashed, but Naruto was ready, dodging by falling backwards and rolling up into a crouched ready-stance, still clutching his injured arm.
Glaring, he yelled at the closest person he had left to family.
"Okay- too far! What's the deal?"
The dark-haired iryou-nin was quiet, looking at him as if considering.
She gestured at him with the tip of the second kunai she'd pulled out. "Tsunade told me that the Hokage has some tasks for her that will be taking her away in less than a month's time. If you can… somehow convince her to accept you as an apprentice, you could travel with her like I did."
Naruto straightened, relaxing.
"She's leaving?"
"If she leaves…"
He knew what she was saying.
Who knows when she'll be back or if I'll be allowed to leave to chase her down?
"You need to be faster, more practiced, with finer control than you've shown with this initial test. We don't have the time to do the fish thing."
"Fish thing?"
"Yes, normally we'd have trainees practicing oxygenation with fish. Contributes to the same process you went through, but without the risk. I've seen you come back from worse. So using your own body… well, it's twice the efficiency since it'll help you identify problem areas for the full Creation Rebirth."
Warmth swept over him as he realized that she said it like she really did believe he could do it. That glow bolstered him against the realization that she was likely right- he didn't have the time to slowly build up his skill and fine chakra control. The Control Seals converted and narrowed the flow of chakra, but after that it merely allowed him to flex his medical chakra.
What it didn't do was replace skill with the actual techniques- merely the amounts.
"So… as always, I have to do things the painful way."
She shrugged. "If you want to get skilled enough, quickly enough. Yes."
Sighing, Naruto pulled his bloody, ragged shirt off.
Shizune gave him the look of a nurse who saw something she didn't like.
"Still too scrawny, Naruto. After this, we have to get some food onto those bones."
He growled at her and picked up the kunai with his blood on it laying on the ground in front of him.
And lunged.
#
Despite being somewhat less horrified by Shizune's teaching methods than he felt he should be, Naruto was more shocked that it was her of all people that initially suggested it. Honestly, it was a plan that he probably would have proposed had she not done it first.
They'd settled into a rhythm over the next month. She'd stab him rusty kunai in order to fine-tune his control over the healing process; the rust just added a layer of infection-prevention, and then she'd critique.
Rinse, stab, repeat.
After a week, Naruto was fairly skilled now at healing most things quickly. As he grew more adept, Naruto was realizing there was just a qualitative difference between something like healing minor scrapes and bruises, cuts and stabs, and something like broken bones, of which he hadn't done yet, or even something hyper-advanced like actual true non-Mystic Palm based regeneration. It was the difference between accelerating existing healing and the wholesale creation of new cells. Stimulating cell-division was still wildly beyond him.
Naruto was doing the equivalent of basic first aid.
It wouldn't be enough, not nearly enough and he just didn't have time for more extensive training.
Shizune told him he had enough facility with the various medical techniques she'd taught him that he wouldn't embarrass her in front of Tsunade; things like the Chakra Scalpels, Mystic Palm, general anesthesia, and a basic understanding of herbs, medicines, and other such things that he had to know to work the ward alongside another iryou-nin, all things he was more than capable with.
Like pulling teeth, she admitted that he might, might, have more efficiency and control than she did, but not by much. Though she most definitely could do everything he did faster- she just wasted more energy than he did doing the same thing.
Lucky for him, the Mystic Palm, and the regular Healing Techniques Shizune had taught him, were so versatile it was practically all he needed to become a proficient iryou-nin, well that and the months of anatomical study and medical background. In terms of successful healing, he might be able to treat basic to medium-level injuries. Anything more dangerous or complicated and he wouldn't be able to cope, however. Though the higher-level healing and diagnosis needed more extensive medical knowledge.
You couldn't heal something you didn't understand after all.
Knowing his limitations was important.
Shizune stressed that more than anything else, that is, when to pass off the injury to a more skilled medic.
Though she did tell him that one thing stuck out that needed improvement: his bedside manner.
Naruto just gave her the finger.
#
Just like that and his deadline was up, three weeks of training and they came to their last brainstorming session.
The blonde finally gave up his forest home and exchanged it for his extremely comfortable, too comfortable really, bed at the apartment. If this all went as planned, then in six hours he'd be apprenticed to one of the Legendary Sannin and leaving for who-knows-where on a mission of who-knows-what importance.
Naruto attempted to suppress a thrill of excitement and failed, vibrating in his seat at the kitchen table across from Shizune who was frowning at him.
"Are you sure know how to form the beginnings of the Yin Seal?"
"I already told you. I've gotten quite a good look at it from where that bitches forehead vein was popping out. Why'd you think I deliberately made her so mad?"
Shizune looked so skeptical, Naruto coughed.
"Look, uh, it is more of an… endurance test than it is anything else. I have to spend an initial investment of chakra to create the Seal and after that, I just have to hold the medical chakra in place and build the reserve on my forehead. Blammo, all done."
"Without scrambling your brain."
"Yes… without that."
"All while maintaining perfect control."
"Yup."
"Without ending up a vegetable."
"I won't."
"You think you won't."
Naruto knew, part of the difficulty he'd been finding is that medical chakra, not properly directed through channels and into the right areas, caused damage. The chakra scalpels functioned on the basic principle that medical chakra could damage flesh as easily as heal. On top of that, they did it without leaving visible wounds. Uncontrolled medical chakra were knives lacerating the body from the inside. That was the majority of his future issue with the Creation Rebirth Seal; he would have to control all of his chakra, converted to medical usage, inside his body and undergo millions of simultaneous functions of mitotic regeneration all at the same time without any wasted power or slippage of control.
He knew, flat out, that he couldn't accomplish that at his level.
Tsunade was the only person in history who had accomplished such a working, though rumor had it that the Shodaime could do it without any hand seals. Honestly, it sounded like the over-hype and telephone game that history played with its heroes. Nobody could do what Tsunade did as effortlessly as all that.
Naruto was just hoping beyond hope that the corresponding way less difficult but still S-rank first part, the Yin Seal, would be enough of an accomplishment to overcome her reluctance and their wildly incompatible personalities.
"Have a little faith Shizune. I'm your student, I learned from the best!"
"Mph. That's who you're trying to learn from, Naruto. If you're going to attempt to flatter me, try to make it not blatantly stupid, hm?"
Naruto rolled his eyes. Tough crowd. He understood though as he was somehow less nervous than Shizune, but hovering around her level nonetheless.
Shizune's skin tightened around her eyes, showing the strain. For a Jonin, she was pretty open about her feelings. Someone who didn't know her as well as he did might not have picked up on it, but to him it was obvious.
He did his best to reassure her.
"Look, I'm going to maneuver her where I want her… then I'm going to strike a bargain she can't refuse."
"Yes, but how? You never filled me in on that part. Hence, that's the part that worries me."
Naruto rubbed the back of his head, his long hair getting in the way. That mangy mass of hair desperately needed a cut despite the fact he liked it like that. Shizune kept saying his hair looked like a grass skirt around his head.
He grinned.
"Leave it to me."
Turning to leave the apartment, he gave a backwards wave. As he closed the door, it also closed off the frustrated shout from Shizune that had his name in it.
Shading his eyes against the bright sunlight slanting through the large, wide pergola crossing overhead, Naruto oriented himself towards the hospital and took off.
#
As always, passing through the glass and steel breezeway that presaged the entrance of the hospital was an exercise in careful navigation. Most times, Naruto tried to make himself as small as possible, to better fit through openings in the school of humanity passing around him.
The building smelled like the inside of a medicine cabinet.
After the last five months, blindfolding him wouldn't have prevented him from finding his way around. He'd need more than his fingers and toes to count how many times he'd delivered food to Shizune when on a longer-than-normal shift. Not that the room he was headed straight for was one he'd visited often, but Naruto knew enough to deliberately avoid it.
Now, though, it was his target.
Standing in a hallway, three stories up, that was distinctly different in architecture than the rest of the hospital, rich wood paneling as opposed to the white that Naruto found more oppressive than comforting, he hesitated on the threshold of the double-doors.
There was a qualitative difference in his head between thinking about what he was about to do and stepping through the doorway and opening his mouth to really, well, do it. Shizune had a bet going with him that he was going to chicken out.
But ever since having Kurama ripped out of him like some vital organ before a frenzied blood cult, this had been the inevitable footpath he'd need to tread without knowing it. Without thinking about it too much, turning his focus away from the idea that this wasn't his last option- just the most palatable one- Naruto stepped up to the door.
Through his further research into his options, Orochimaru's name had come up along with a few others; Sasori of the Red Sand for instance, Chiyo's nephew. Shocking about their relationship, but also… not.
Then there was Kaguya.
Who knew what she could do- or couldn't do?
Yes, she'd 'gifted' him the Tool Creation Technique, which he could now use for maybe five minutes total at full power, his reserves growing with his extra (and very secret) training. Also, assuming he didn't pass out from the mental strain. But that didn't mean she was to be trusted.
So Tsunade it must be.
Before he lost his nerves, he steeled himself and pushed open the doors.
Today was about sending a message; Shizune had coached him up to this point, but it was up to him to carry them both over the finish line.
Naruto, arms wide, doors thrown up opened his mouth as the heavy wood smacked the walls on both sides, barely getting his breath together. His mouth hung open as Tsunade roared at him without looking at him.
"Get the fuck right back out brat! I don't got time for whatever the fresh hell this will be."
Stacks of paperwork were littered across the wide desk she sat behind and a tiny white porcelain cup balanced delicately on top of the smallest of the stacks, about eight inches high. Folders of various colors, Naruto knew, would be budgetary reports based on department. The other stack, red in color, were HR Employee files. Was she reviewing people for some reason?
Uh, this is not the reason I'm here. Focus!
"Hell no I'm not leaving granny!"
He winced as she shot a glare that could eat through steel.
Nice way to start, dipshit.
Pasting a wide, shit-eating grin on his face to cover his wince, he marched up to the desk and leaned against the side of it, peering down into a pissed-off Tsunade's face. The cup on the stack of papers was empty, with a few dregs of clear liquid. Water? Sake?
Hard to tell, but based on who he was talking to- a very easy guess.
This could make things better or way, way worse.
"I," Naruto said in a grandiose orator's voice, "have a stirring proposal for you!"
"Not remotely interested. Get out."
"I doubt that. You don't even know what it is yet!"
"From you? Something stupid I bet. Get out."
Impossible as it was, his grin widened. She looked back down to her work, scratching something with her pen, finishing with a flourish.
"Actually, it very much does," he turned, pushing off the desk and wandering through her office looking at various displays with awards and trinkets from her travels, "have something to do with a bet. I heard you enjoy them."
"Yeah no, not anymore I don't. I steer clear. Brought me nothing but trouble. Get out."
Eyes squinting, clearly she was suspicious.
"Shizune would've told you that, I've no doubt she spoke about how often she would scold me for betting-related offenses. So thanks- but no thanks."
Naruto stopped in the middle of the room, looking back at her.
"Funny- Shizune actually sanctioned this bet."
His imagination supplied him with the ridiculous image of a cat whose ears have caught some unheard sound and swiveled towards him. Not even close to reality, but previously she wasn't listening all that much and now? She definitely was.
"I know how much you despise my presence and honestly the feeling is quite mutual," she tipped an imaginary hat to him and he internally crowed, "...but, I'd be happy to disappear forever from your life and sight if you but take my bet and I somehow, miraculously, fuck up and fail."
The warmth was coming back into her cold face.
"I'm listening. I want to hear what the bet is first before I agree. Though I'm tempting just to agree to whatever it is to get you out of my life that much faster."
Naruto put a hand to his heart as though wounded. "Ouch granny."
"Watch it, squirt."
He flapped a hand.
"The bet is simple; if I can produce the first part of your grand, super-secret," here his voice turned taunting, "ultra-mega awesome healing thingy, the Yin Seal, right? Well if I can do that…"
His eyes flitted to her from the side to gauge her reaction.
So far- nothing.
"...then you'll teach me the rest. Oh, and generally be less of a bitch while also being my, uh, teacher. I'd say master, but we both know that wouldn't fly."
An eye twitched when he mentioned the, 'bitch' part. But he knew she'd desperately want him to fail now- and very inclined to see him fail- personally.
"Brat, you need perfect control to create the Yin Seal- and after that, you need to maintain perfect control to achieve mitotic cell division throughout your entire body without dire and fatal consequences. You are aware of this, yes?"
Naruto tried not to grin even wider. His face hurt.
"Well? If I can achieve success with the Yin Seal, then I've shown I have what it takes to do the rest. Right? Then you'll teach me."
There was almost a grinding sound as Naruto imagined her mulling it over. That was his imagination no doubt.
"Worse case scenario is I die and then you don't have to worry about me ever again, yeah?"
She rolled her eyes. Did he say enough to convince her?
Naruto searched her face, unlined despite her years, no doubt, of stress and combat and grief. Supposedly she anchored her illusion to the Yin Seal on her forehead and Naruto could imagine many, many things he could do with such power. He wanted it- badly.
Please work.
A long beat. A pause as she tried to work out, no doubt, if he was being sneaky. He was, but she didn't know that.
"...alright, fine. I'll take your bet."
The elation that bloomed in his chest felt like his heart was about to explode from the release of stress. His body, formerly feeling like it was made of high-tension wire, loosened and snapped, the anxiety releasing in a flood.
Now was his time to shine. Do or die, as he always knew it had to be.
Green symbological arrays like fine glass worked in fuinjutsu and script sprang to life around his wrists, rotating slowly. They moved with him, like rings of green light anchored to his body.
Forming a triangle with both hands; two index fingers and thumbs connecting to form a mental anchor for the guidance of his chakra, Naruto focused inward. Carefully, he threaded medical chakra up through his body and passed the most delicate part, his brain, as he etched a diamond into his network, attaching it like an addition to a house. The diamond, the eventual physical manifestation of the Yin Seal, would be a 'warehouse' of sorts where he'd 'store' the immense chakra requirements of the Creation Rebirth.
But this technique was much more than just a battery.
As he threaded with laser-precision, his control wobbled and he redoubled his control, locking it into place. Nothing could be off-kilter or he could wipe out his own brain. Naruto was fairly sure he wouldn't recover from a vegetable state.
Naruto was sure that Tsunade had done this technique over the course of six months, constant attention pressed to the Yin Seal as she fed it medical chakra. Once started, you had to feed it till it was full or there were dire consequences. Backlash that would flood his body with, ironically, harmful chakra that was out of control. It would look like shrapnel damage as it shredded his mind and brain, let alone the rest of his body.
Naruto knew he had enough chakra to finish what she'd done in six months, in one afternoon. Hopefully. That part was still hazy- but he was pretty sure.
Pretty sure.
The amount of chakra he was exerting started to grow as his newly-massive reserves, thanks to the Tool Creation training, slowly converted itself and drained into the bottomless pit that was the beginnings of a true Yin Seal.
Tsunade, he was sure, was seeing the faint outline on his forehead.
Eyes closed, Naruto grinned, sweating.
He'd win that bet or die trying.
#
/Konoha General Hospital
/Konohagakure
/Land of Fire
#
Tsunade
The Slug Princess wasted no time with regret as A) it was instant, and B) she was now certain that the brat, that Naruto, was going to kill himself to win this bet.
Shizune had sanctioned this, this lunacy?
Chakra had a feeling to it, sometimes. She was no Sensor, but she was attuned enough to medical chakra to identify it running through another. Especially when Naruto was suffused with enough power to fuel every joint, multi-person medical technique she knew of. What was with those strange jade-colored script-circles hovering around his wrists?
Tsunade's intuition told her she'd been had… but the bigger concern of hers was that despite his absolutely gargantuan amount of chakra, he wasn't going to have enough to finalize the Seal.
Not by a long shot.
Tsunade herself had spent almost three and a half years carefully threading chakra into her Yin Seal. The brat probably didn't know how to pause the threading process. She didn't have time to teach him nor could she risk disrupting his careful attention without potentially dire consequences. Yet, there's no possible way he understood the level of chakra needed to establish the Yin Seal properly. Was it possible Shizune didn't quite realize this was his plan? Or did she think he could handle it?
He had enough control to form the Yin Seal boundary-formation, however that didn't mean he had enough efficient control to prevent himself from wasting precious chakra in the process. Without the necessary control, nearly perfect, he'd vent tons of chakra and possibly kill himself from sheer exhaustion, not having made it to the end.
Tsunade, frozen in place from indecision, watched a diamond formation flicker, sear, gleam; die again, then an outline seared itself faintly into his forehead, and flickered again, stronger this time.
As sweat fairly poured out of his pores on his head, Tsunade thought about what was about to happen; not in a minute, not in an hour, but she knew that his body, if it gets too low on chakra, would break into shock and from there a quick spiral to terminal chakra exhaustion.
Anxious, afraid- Tsunade sat frozen.
She felt like she was seeing Dan die all over again. Or hearing, again, how Nawaki had expired alone on a distant battlefield.
Unless she acted and did it now, bolstering him enough to keep him going, Naruto was going to die.
But if she did that… he'll technically have won the bet.
Meaning she'd have to train him.
Was this his plan all along?
Fury dyed her face red and it felt as though it did the same to her vision. But she couldn't help seeing, not a stupid brat who rubbed her the wrong way just by breathing, but Nawaki and his fiery determination to be Hokage. The do-or-die mentality was the same in all of them. Their will churned so hot it would burn the world before failure claimed them.
Naruto, if she didn't act, wouldn't last another ten minutes.
He was in over his head with classic symptoms; pupils fluttering under his eyelids, no doubt dilating, hands spasming, and body shaking. Those jade circles of script kept slowly, carefully turning. The chakra came from him, almost perfectly controlled, in a veritable flood now that he had the proper channeling down.
Tsunade had a choice to make.
Her hands lit with green fire, stepping forward and initiating the Chakra Transfer technique, a deceptively simple filtering and bolstering jutsu typically used for extreme cases of chakra exhaustion. Perfect for a situation like this one. Guilt wracked her as she did so.
None of this had been necessary.
She'd been sitting on ten or so years of chakra with which she could've used the Creation Rebirth, extending it to the boy, and fixed his problem without him going through this no-doubt traumatic experience. No doubt making Shizune happy as well. But she hadn't. And that weighed on her because acknowledging her responsibility to him… or to Shizune… meant acknowledging many comfortable lies she told herself about the last ten years.
Lies about her.
Lies about why she was a shinobi.
Lies about why she'd left and why she'd never taken the hat.
Lies about why she'd never said anything to Jiraiya about how she felt.
Lies about why she'd fought old man Sarutobi so hard and regretted not apologizing or thanking him before he'd died.
So many lies. So many regrets.
Tsunade thought deeply about why she didn't want another apprentice. Selfishly, she was enjoying her simple life healing; with no responsibility beyond running the hospital.
If she was being really honest, and she was trying, she left the Iryounin Program, her brain-child, to Shizune who, while good, wasn't passionate about it and had trouble juggling administration, direct care, all while also keeping Tsunade herself organized. The Yin Seal was one thing… but taking on another apprentice? Let alone one like Naruto?
Resigning herself to providing the boy with the chakra he needed to complete the Yin Seal, she watched him carefully. The diamond, a deep purple formed, gradually gained definition- yet his eyes shot open, and alarm spiked her in her as his eyes had become bloodshot, with blood now trickling down his nose.
That's not a good sign. Chakra thrombus?
Hands working, she put a hand on his head, tilting his eyes up to peer into them. Simply put; a thrombus, or blockage in a vein, was different when in a chakra system. Not quite the same as the equivalent in blood. She realized he's become overwhelmed; the strain of the process pushing against the boundaries of his control. Chakra was loose and possibly damaging his brain. She frantically realized the sudden surge of chakra was damaging him.
Simultaneously, in a display that would awe absolutely every medical ninja that witnessed the feat; she continued to feed him immense amounts of chakra and initiated both a diagnosis jutsu, and a highly-advanced Mystic Palm at the same time. Tsunade noticed the strain of multiple techniques not at all. Not anymore.
Luckily, it was over before she had enough time to finish the healing process; the diamond formed completely on his head.
Stupid brat.
He was… sort of fine and getting better by the second. At most, if she'd left it, he would've had a similar problem to a terrible concussion and would've needed monitoring.
But...
She realized he would've been able to complete the Yin Seal without her had his chakra system been perfectly fine. She Delved him using a more precise diagnostic jutsu, just in case. For her, it was hard to tell how she felt about this turn of events. This bet with Naruto merely highlighted her larger failures.
Her world felt rocked.
How the hell was she to proceed when she'd failed so badly all the people who cared about her? Thoughts racing, Tsunade realized that Shizune had sanctioned this attempt. Shizune knew she wouldn't have been able to help herself if he did it right in front of her and something went wrong. The whole situation felt almost like emotional blackmail. Tsunade could have felt mad, but instead… she just felt tired.
The Delving looped and whirled and she received information, specific feelings, back from it. The Delving brought a faint hint of alarm to her: she hadn't gone this far, even at his first physical, but had a complete picture now; an immense feeling of ozone, violence, and insanity that seemed to flee from her perception. Like it was veiled. A second chakra signature?
Yet it isn't the Nine-tailed Fox… that was gone from his Seal. She'd verified that to the Hokage herself, double-checking with Shizune. Only this specific, and deep diagnostic had picked up anything amiss.
Then Naruto passed out in front of her, slumping forward, bleeding into the hardwood floor from his nose and ears.
Already in the process of healing, her mind went in two different directions.
Mikoto needed to be informed. There was another influence in her long-shot hopeful prospect.
Perhaps there was a way to turn this situation around for her though?
Tsunade, shouting for a nurse, summoned Katsuya with a one-handed seal. A slug the size of a Great Dane popped into existence looking concerned, eye stalks the size of tennis balls wavering in the air.
"Bring Shizune, Katsuya. I have some… words for my former apprentice."
#
/Konoha General Hospital
/Konohagakure
/Land of Fire
#
Naruto
"Thanks Naima, you and Toro can go. Appreciate it. Tell Ryu you were covering for me. He'll buy it."
Sounds didn't make sense to Naruto at the moment.
Swimming through the black morass of his unconsciousness, he found himself weighed down by a strange and wildly unfamiliar lethargy. Attempting to sit up from wherever he was laying down was a clear mistake. His head spun and his vision blurred in response.
Back is tender, hands hurt, my forehead is killing me.
Migraine of all migraines.
Okay, I'm alive. If I am alive, that meant I'd… won the bet?
Gently probing with the tips of his fingers, tanned, rough skin met tough skin until they alit on a smoothness that felt unnatural. Like how a burn felt… shiny. Glossy.
The Yin Seal.
"She said she's on her way, Tsunade."
"Thanks Katsuya, you can go."
"You sure? I'd be happy to stay."
"No, no, it's fine."
The struggle to not release a cheer left a weird gurgling sound of a choked down cry emerging from Naruto's sore throat. None of the sounds around him were penetrating. Katsu...ya?
His brain fog cleared and Naruto felt himself lying on a short leather couch tucked into what looked like the corner of Tsunade's office. She, looking unusually serious, sat with her knees a foot from him on a nearby foot stool, hands clasped.
"How are you feeling?"
The steel drums banging in his head almost made him reconsider his coming snark. Almost.
"Peachy considering I won a bet- pretty fucking fine and dandy."
A scowl briefly started to form, like watching the beginnings of a thunderstorm on a clear day, on Tsunade's face, but it smoothed as soon as it appeared.
"Yes, it seems you had already progressed fairly significantly into the most difficult portions of the Yin Seal formation when you made it. Well done."
Trying not to look as smug as he felt, Naruto struggled not to beam.
Or goggle at her. This was crazy talk coming from her. She was… complimenting him?
"...but how much of a fucking idiot could you be not to realize the requirement in chakra was higher- higher than you had available? Or that this technique takes careful deposits of chakra over a long stretch of time to be safe?"
"How was I supposed to know-?"
"You weren't! Because it's an S-rank technique! I told you not to try!"
"You told me not to try because you thought I couldn't do it, not because you were afraid I'd get hurt! Don't be cute!"
Tsunade started massaging her temples with two fingers as Naruto loomed over her, standing two feet in a wide stance glaring down at her.
Agony throbbed in his amygdala as a migraine made itself very known. He almost fell, catching himself wobbling.
"I did this because it's literally my only shot at a normal life. You didn't give me any options other than to trick you!"
He could tell she knew, she knew that he was right. It was written all over her; slumped shoulders, the tilt of her head. The guilt in her expression. They stayed in stalemate for a long moment. When she spoke, it was quiet. Totally unlike her.
More of a whisper, a swish of wind.
"...this technique is more than just a quick fix. It's a dedication to a responsibility that I'm not sure you're capable of doing faithfully. You scare me kid- how angry you are, it's... it reminds me of him when we were younger."
She probably could tell he was confused, but his confusion cleared.
She was comparing him to Orochimaru?
Naruto was speechless with rage; spluttering, he couldn't force anything out. That, that, vile excuse for a human? That snake?
This excuse- again.
No, Tsunade just didn't like him- couldn't she admit that?
Even now? But isn't that what she did, comparing him to Orochimaru? So many thoughts whirled through his head and bottlenecked in his mouth, stopping each other from erupting. Tsunade spoke before he could get his anger out verbally.
"Healing isn't something I teach people so they can be better at killing, though it naturally does that as a by-product if used improperly. Iryojutsu is for fixing things; for saving. Sometimes we need to set a broken bone, or cure an acute case of chakra exhaustion to let our buddy save our other buddy, or sometimes what people need, more than anything- is for us to speak carefully to someone with the shakes after a battle. Ultimately you're there to make sure your comrades make it through; you're the first line of defense against yet another mark on the memorial stone. Orochimaru never understood that- he pursued the medical arts for self-gain and it hurt so many people."
She looked at him, more seriously than she ever had, and he could see himself as she saw him. Angry- so angry it scared him- just a little bit, though he shoved that down.
Each point was driven home with the weight of someone who'd buried people she cared about. Naruto could relate to a certain extent. Though his whole being was bent to the task of salting the earth that Madara stood on, to wiping his name from the annals of history and ensuring everyone forgot there had ever been a man by that name.
Naruto swore it on his heart.
Iryoujutsu would help him as sometimes to cure a cancer and save the healthy parts, you had to cut the cancer out.
Tsunade grabbed him by the shirt, pulling him in close, so close he could feel her warm breath on his cheek. Wide hazel eyes pinned him like a bug to a board.
"If I don't think you'll put my techniques, the ones I made, mind you-these don't belong to anyone but me-to the use I want them to be put to… you will not get them."
Naruto's eyes widened in anger, thinking she was reneging, then softened as he thought about it, listening.
"I don't give a shit if you beg. I don't give a shit if you cry. I want you to prove to me you deserve the rest of this kinjutsu. These are mine and you aren't entitled to them until you meet my standards."
"How the hell am I supposed to do that when you won't give me a chance?"
She nodded, releasing him backwards with a shove.
Naruto could feel her iron grip; a grip that could literally crush concrete and break steel- if she wanted. Turning around she went back to her desk. She speared him with a finger.
"Prove to me you want to be an iryounin to be an iryounin. Not just for your chakra and pure selfishness."
Outraged, Naruto couldn't help the way his face twisted.
"A deal's a fucking deal!"
It was her turn to grin like a maniac, a smile widening in a way that pissed him off because it was an exact copy of his from before.
"Hah, clearly Shizune never told you the reason we were run out of most towns!"
She looked down at some paperwork, making a mark, speaking as if she'd already dismissed him.
"I lose a lot- but it doesn't mean I ever pay up!"
Her words lit a fire in his soul. A part of him understood; he was out for revenge and probably wouldn't be a practicing medical ninja sitting like a good boy healing people in a hospital.
He wanted to be on the front lines.
So… she was right, in a way. But the Orochimaru comment burned him, pissing him off. Who was she to think she understood him enough to judge him? Selfishness? Wasn't she, according to everything Naruto heard from Shizune, the veritable Queen of Selfishness?
Now, she was telling him she refused to teach him the rest of the technique.
Nope, that was too far.
Ignoring good sense, Naruto ignited the Lightning Mark, yellow light flashing in the room behind him as he leapt at her with all the speed he could muster. Too late, he just noticed the absolute trash-state his body was currently in, the last dregs of his chakra blasting him with agony as the persistently over-loaded Lightning Mark became instantly too much for him.
And he blacked out. Again, a step from Tsunade, her mocking face staring down at him.
#
When Naruto woke this time, the headache, which had receded a tiny bit, was worse. And it was full body, a strange pulsing ache that made him imagine his chakra system was wrung out and stitched back together like some strange chimera project. Tsunade radiated amusement as she gently leaned over him, hands balancing on her knees.
"You are no shape, brat, to fight me without your fancy fuinjutsu."
Naruto hit her.
Not a glancing blow, and it wasn't a powerful one, not being backed up by chakra and all, but it was a straight, clean hit.
Her face turned with the punch gently, it having done no apparent damage.
At all.
He had the sense that his soul was screaming at him that he was in a lot of danger before the world shifted and spun as he became suddenly airborne. Tsunade had thrown him, with such force and power, that he didn't even have time to scream. Wind whipped passed him.
Naruto didn't even slow down as he hit the wood crossbar of the third story window, shattering everything on his way out- even ripping the framing apart. Glass splintered and went spinning in every direction as he attempted to figure out which way was up, sharp fragments of glass and wood splinters rehoming themselves in his skin.
Once he did figure out which way was up, ten feet from the ground and coming fast and ignoring the fiery torment rushing through his body as it was nothing new, he twisted at the last second to land feet first.
Instead of a graceful landing as he intended, he was driven down to one knee, sliding backwards from the sheer force of landing without slowing down in the least. Wobbling on one knee that screamed as he attempted to stand, Naruto ignored it and straightened as Tsunade lightly leaped from the broken window, significantly larger a hole now than when they started, and landed without much bending of her knees. The ground cratered around her landing and she walked out looking none the worse for wear.
But plenty pissed.
Fuck. I keep forgetting she's, like, actually a good shinobi.
The thought swam to the forefront of his mind that she was literally the team-mate of Orochimaru, supposedly on-par with the other S-class ninja he'd ran away from… but that hadn't crossed his mind until he saw her, now, as her enemies had.
Utterly and completely terrifying.
Naruto rushed in, closing the gap with non-chakra enhanced speed. Tsunade just waited for him. Each leaping step brought him closer and closer and his hands, spinning with, for him, tiny amounts of medical chakra that was attempting to accelerate the healing for his general aches and pains. However, that also brought his hands closer to his last resort.
She needed to take him seriously- and the only way to do that was to show his determination. He was not going to leave here empty-handed. She took the bet; she would honor it.
He would make her.
Step.
By.
Flashing.
Step.
All of a sudden, he was in her face and Naruto could see the hard look in her face, the aggression in her stance; his hands flashed backwards to the fuinjutsu array set into a leather belt, sitting lightly behind the small of his back.
With all his speed, chakra activated- a bare trickle- and he grabbed the hilts of the slender longswords that suddenly appeared behind him and was driving it up and into her neck with every scrap of the speed in his body bent to carving her head from her body.
There was a feeling of futility running through him, even as he struck, intensifying as he saw her disappear from in front of him as if she'd blown away like smoke.
Naruto didn't even see the hit coming.
But the whiplash almost broke his neck as his entire body crumpled around a kick that folded him entirely in half and blew a ring of air out around him as he was violently redirected a hundred feet into the side of a tree.
The forest echoed with the loud crack of a tree splintering as his back slammed into it and he felt multiple floating ribs break and a few muscles in his back give way under the strain.
But there was no time to waste as he felt her diving at him like an avenging Kami. Naruto had never moved faster in his life, diving, agony almost blacking him out, again, as he scrambled away now on all fours. Turning just in time, Naruto saw the tree- one of Hashirama's prized oaks, splinter and get blown sideways, the ground cratering in a fifteen foot hole as the whole thing uprooted itself and vaporized. The tree itself pulverized from the middle-section outwards, shredding leaves with shrapnel like a claymore mine exploding all in the same direction.
Eyes wide, Naruto realized she'd done that with pure brute strength.
Naruto had never wanted to do anything more in his whole life at that moment. Well, that and his chakra back. But chakra healed, for sure, so he could learn to do that.
He felt more than saw Tsunade as he spotted his twin swords lying on the ground. Naruto dove and barely saw the dark shadow that was the punch that he was now absolutely sure was going to kill him.
I'm really tired of falling unconscious…
Blackness.
#
/Konoha General Hospital
/Konohagakure
/Land of Fire
#
Shizune
Shizune knelt over Naruto where he lay sprawled out, beat up. Her sensei, her former sensei, had annihilated a good portion of the garden outside the hospital. The small grove of fifteen or so massive oaks had been reduced to looking like the aftermath of a localized hurricane.
Running a diagnostic jutsu through him, Shizune tried to ignore the excitement of seeing the purple diamond seal on his forehead. Time to use the script he'd told her to use.
"He did it! So he made the bet with you like I told him to?"
Tsunade was standing next to her, looking down at him, not moving an inch to help.
"He did."
Shizune felt more than saw her turn her head to regard the Mystic Palm moving through Naruto, setting his broken rib and kick-starting his prodigious healing processes.
"Speaking of- what the hell were you thinking, backing this idea? It was reckless, ill-considered and he almost died from underestimating the chakra cost! Didn't you tell him the Yin Seal is a gradual procedure?"
Shizune shrugged, letting her diatribe wash over her. Naruto hadn't explained everything, but she had extrapolated what he left out. That was the whole reason she pushed him as hard as she had.
This was nothing she hadn't expected to hear.
"He knew."
Tsunade stopped ranting mid-sentence.
"He knew?"
"Naruto isn't stupid- maybe a little reckless and angry, but he's not an idiot."
The blonde Senju just looked confused and helpless.
"So, what? He wanted to die?"
"No, he just figured that being right next to the most legendary medic in the world would be the best place to finalize the technique and get you to teach him- all at the same time. He really does need you."
"Pfft. He needs a therapist."
"So do you."
At that, Tsunade scoffed. Shizune stopped what she was doing, her job almost done. She'd slid Naruto into a deep sleep with a fond smile. She'd take them over the finish line like they planned. She pointed a finger at Tsunade, as accusingly as Naruto had done to her earlier, unknowingly paralleling him.
"He's a good kid; he deserves, out of anyone here, to be a shinobi. He's fought so long and so hard for it. Have you listened to what he's done? Who he's fought? The death and betrayal and sheer trauma of his situation? I told him I'd make you pay up- and I will."
Shizune drew herself up as Tsunade looked affronted. Like she couldn't believe someone would speak to her like this. She looked much like she had when Sarutobi had confronted her all those years ago.
So she wasn't done running, huh?
Typical.
Shizune opened her mouth to really give it to her, but Tsunade cut her off.
"All he wants is revenge!"
Shizune gasped, "Are you kidding me?"
"No, I told him he needed to prove himself to me- that I needed to know he wanted this for the right reasons-"
The black-haired Kato swiped her hand like a sword.
"You aren't any better. Revenge. Heh. Didn't you, after Dan died? You think I don't remember you sneaking off, leaving me in the hotel room alone at age nine? I followed you. You murdered that missing-nin. That was the whole reason we went to that town, out of the way of your 'saving people in the town' excuse."
Silence fell over the glade. It sounded like even the birds stopped chirping. At midday no less. Shizune was surprised they'd been left alone so long. She figured maybe Tsunade had told them to stay away.
Her one-time mentor and maybe, felt-like, an aunt, but-was-really-more-of-a-mother, resembled nothing so much as a crumpled tin-can. A wilting flower.
No more delusions to hide behind.
"You're telling me you're better than revenge? I don't believe it because I saw you; I saw the satisfaction you got from murdering Dan's killer. You tell yourself these pretty lies, but you are no better. And that's okay."
Tsunade looked up and Shizune could see tears in her eyes; along with a glimmer of hope.
"We're all just doing our best, trying to navigate life without losing ourselves. That's what makes us human… and so what if you discover you're more human than you thought?"
"What I do know beyond a shadow of a doubt is that you could heal him at any point; and chose not too-against everything I know and believe about you. You used to live for difficult medical problems and now? You give up?"
Brushing her cheeks with the palms of her hands, Tsunade looked aside.
Shizune grabbed her hands and brought them together, squeezing them.
"I haven't ever asked you for anything. I am now. Heal him. Please, or I won't ever speak to you again. I made a promise to Naruto and I won't back down. He's worked too hard, and for too long, to be stabbed in the back by people who are supposed to care about him- and that includes you. What would Jiraiya say?"
That got a reaction.
Shizune could see it, a spasming of her left eye and a tightening of her hands on Shizunes, a hitch in her breathing.
Tsunade stared at Shizune, then whispered so low she barely caught it.
"Yin Seal… Release."
Slowly, so slowly that at first she thought she was seeing things, a deep violet light started to emanate in a pulsing wave from the diamond on Tsunade's face. Shizune stared solemnly at the much older version of the Senju that now stood before her; one minute young and vibrant, the next older, more dignified.
"Ninja Art: Creation Rebirth."
Black markings, like scrawling ink-work tattoos, slithered over her skin, covering her face in symmetric lines that pulsed with an almost solid presence of sheer power.
"Creation Rebirth: Strength of a Hundred Seal."
The power was steady as the earth and anticlimactic in its understatement.
The lines moved in a way that uncomfortably reminded Shizune of a snake as they passed from the skin of her former Master, clothes fluttering around her, onto the still-sleeping body of the boy she'd come to love like a little brother. Shizune found herself crying.
She couldn't wait to see his expression when he woke up.
His body arched as the potent technique settled on to him. But he didn't wake up. Shizune supposed her imposed sleep still had him in its grip. As soon as it covered him entirely, the process was over.
Tsunade sagged and breathed out, the diamond gone from her forehead and a weary, defeated look on her face.
"You aren't doing the boy any favors by helping him; he'll just get himself killed, or worse, get his friends killed because he doesn't seem to care about anything but himself. I'm done with him. My debt is paid. I'm not teaching him shit, even if he asks. Goodbye Shizune. I hope it was worth it."
With each word, startled as she was, her disappointment and frustrated anger with her sensei grew. But Shizune said nothing.
Tsunade was gone.
A/N: I did an oopsie. The scene at the end was for a much later part of the story! (Two chapters, I think?)
At 16,184 words, this is the longest chapter I've ever posted. I think I ended in a good spot, but one always wonders...
Maybe not as action-packed as one might like, but the next few chapters will hopefully make up for all that. Let me know your thoughts. On another note, I want to say I deeply appreciate everyone who takes the time to leave a review, good and bad, as I read them all and enjoy them immensely. I've had a few reviews tell me the plot is confusing- so sound off about that if you will. I happen to really enjoy stories that feel like things are happening and if you could only put pieces together, you'd understand what the villains/good guys are doing before they do it. I feel as if I've left enough hints/breadcrumbs/trails of story beats to clue you in on what the ultimate plans are of a few players. I guess the question remains: are they all in this together? Or are there separate agendas? I feel as though I've done a fairly good job illustrating that there might be a few deviations... again, you be the judge!
Another question for readership: I've been toying with making a proper prologue. Do we think that this story could use more context? Let me know!
Some of the formatting is off in this conversion process. I use Google Docs and it looks really nice, but converting it is a nightmare. Any fellow authors/readers have suggestions, I'd love to read them. Anyway, enjoy and be safe and I'm already hard at work on the next one; Chapter 20: Lay on Hands. Be safe ya'll and wash your hands! :)
-J.B. Macleod