Disclaimer: I do not won Naruto

When Tsunade came back she first explained that whilst I was horribly malnourished I wasn't really injured in any way and the only lasting damage would be to my vocal chords which she explained were too delicate to heal. She expected I would only be in the hospital for another week or so now that I had woken up. A week seemed excessive but I wasn't going to argue with Tsunade. She seemed remarkably calm considering how angry she had looked the last time I had wound up in her care.

She also asked about how I was feeling myself. I knew it was no idle question from her intent eyes. She was concerned for my mental health. Were I only a child as I appeared to be I did not doubt I would have serious issues by now, from what I had seen though this world did not really have a mental healthcare system outside of some of the Yamanaka offering their services with veterans who sought out their help. I was not a child though and whilst my experience was far from a walk in the park I felt I could deal with the trauma myself through meditation. I explained in a whisper to Tsunade that I did not feel I needed counselling at this moment in time and she seemed surprised I had so easily seen through her, muttering "damn brat." to herself as she pulled something from a pocket and handed it to me.

To assist with my speaking for now she had handed me a slate and a piece of chalk, she explained for now it would be necessary but she had already made plans for me to be tutored in sign language when I was discharged. "The damage might not be permanent," she placated, "But most shinobi learn sign language by the time they move on to be Chunin anyway."

When Jiraiya arrived I saw why Tsunade seemed so calm despite my reappearance in her hospital, I doubt she actually blamed him but it seemed she had let some steam out on him anyway, luckily he only had a few bruises which didn't affect his grin at seeing me awake. Minato was close behind, they explained that Kushina had been visiting everyday whenever she could but she had been tasked recently with finding a way to nullify a particularly complicated seal that prevented subjects from discussing certain topics, apparently it was a direct assignment from the Hokage.

Speaking of the Hokage I asked if anybody has heard any news regarding the culprits behind my capture.

Jiraiya grinned viciously, "You won't need to worry about him kid, he's lost all the power he's ever had and more. I never did trust that old warhawk. Truth be told he should be facing execution but the council would rebel against a respected shinobi like him facing that harsh a repercussion, he was taught by Tobirama himself after all. He's never going to be a problem again though," his smile widened, "I even hear he's been put on a curfew."

I nodded appreciatively. I knew the Hokage was the leader of the village but there were always restrictions on absolute power, if Jiraiya was satisfied with his punishment so was I.

Our conversation continued into the evening with the speech from them punctuated by the quick scratching of chalk on slate from me. Eventually though Tsunade kicked everyone out and I tried to get some sleep for the night.

Sleep however was hard to attain and fleeting, filled with specters unfamiliar, they fell upon me as I tossed and turned through the night. When morning's first light struck the upper walls of my room I gave up. Meditation, I decided, was definitely needed. It had been a long time since I had to fight enemies from within. I spent the rest of the early morning laid down meditating in a faux sleep.

I came to awareness later to a fully realised morning sun shining through my window, I would still no doubt struggle with sleep for some time but I was happy with the progress I had made.

Waking up the next morning Tsunade pronounced me well enough to leave my bed but not to leave the hospital, she did however tell me that classes for sign language were currently being held in a spare ward in the hospital and that if I felt up to it I could avail myself of their tutoring later that morning. I gladly took up the offer not wanting to wander around the hospital aimlessly.

Not long after Tsunade left me Kushina came barreling into my room.

"Kei! Are you OK? I heard from Minato you woke up."

I smiled, tired as I might be seeing Kushina alone was enough to up my energy levels. I picked up my slate and told her that I was doing well and that I was happy to see her.

Kushina grimaced seeing the slate and chalk but apparently already knew about my condition, "I'm sorry I couldn't come yesterday the Hokage has me working on a top secret seal he wants to negate."

I nodded as she explained, I would have liked to know the details of the seal but with it being top secret it was understandable that she wouldn't be able to divulge many details. It's not like I would have been able to help anyway, I knew the basics of counteracting seals but it was something you learned better through experience than through scrolls, trying to find the weaknesses in a seal presented to you was quite different to creating one yourself.

Eventually Kushina had to leave again but it was well timed since the time at which the sign language lessons were being held was approaching.

Sign language… was not an easy thing for me to learn. Languages had been one of my few academic weak points in my old life and that seemed to be one of the traits I took to this new one. They began with the signs that would be most essential to a shinobi, hand signals to indicate danger, to indicate how many enemies there were or to communicate a hazard.

I left the first lesson with very little to show for it but resolved to make sure I at least learn the basics by week's end. I did not want to continue writing on a slate if I could help it. I went back to my hospital bed and spent the time meditating,

In my meditative state I encountered the same phantoms that assailed me in my sleep but here I could approach them rationally, find their origins and eventually come to understand them. Understanding a thing is the first step to control and it is a hard thing to fear that which you control.

I received disparate visits the rest of the week. Kushina was busy, Jiraiya was preparing for a mission he told me was related to kidnappings taking place within the village, I had heard some whisperings of it happening but it must be serious if Jiraiya was investigating, at my frown though he reassured me that the activity had died down of late. He also told me that the Hokage did hope to make a visit at some point but the council were keeping him extremely preoccupied, they were not happy with Danzo's forced retirement and curfew despite him actually getting off so lightly for what he did. Jiraiya's tone when he spoke of the council left no misunderstanding as to how he felt about that.

Minato arrived later in the week and we spoke mainly about training, apparently Kakashi had been focusing on enhancing his chakra reserves, it was the main area where he fell behind me so when I had recovered he was going to teach us both about some deeper elements of chakra theory as well as really up our training working together. When he spoke about the intensified training he seemed to have something in mind, some end goal but when asked he wouldn't elaborate.

It was on my last day hospitalised when the Hokage finally came for a visit with an entourage of only one anbu who stood guard outside, he looked more tired than I think I had seen him since the war.

"Keiko…" the Hokage sighed and took out his pipe, "I've read the reports of what you were subjected to. I won't insult you with an apology sincere as it might be." He finished filling his pipe and asked me with a gesture for permission to smoke, I nodded my head but scratched a message on my slate as he lit his pipe.

"You'd better not let Tsunade catch you." It read, I smiled teasingly as I turned it to him

The Hokage guffawed halfway into his first inhale and choked on the smoke, it took him a moment to recover but as he did he nodded, "Yes you're quite right. I think I might be safe for this short time though perhaps." Abruptly he sobered, "Coming back to your ordeal Keiko I imagine your friends have given you some news as to the fate of my ex-advisor Danzo?"

I nodded.

"I thought as much. You probably think he got off lightly?" He asked.

I didn't reply but he must have seen my disappointment.

"Do not misunderstand Keiko, for Danzo I have no doubt that, to some degree, he would prefer to be dead than have been rendered completely powerless in the village he worked so hard to protect. To have his movements restricted only exacerbates the blow. There is another element I would have you know however..." He nodded to the root outside who placed a seal on the doorway which I quickly discerned to be a simple privacy seal.

The Hokage came and sat down in the chair beside my bed and seemed for a moment to look into space, looking for a place to begin before finally he regained his focus, "What I say cannot leave this room Keiko." It wasn't a question and he didn't look to me for agreement, "I cannot describe to you the horrors of war, as a shinobi you will be no doubt be expected to experience them at some point. Even in war though there are things we do not do. Unspeakable things. In the last war there was a faction of Konoha that took missions to carry out these acts to help close the war more expediently, they were a special division placed under the command of Danzo. You could consider them a second more secretive Anbu." The Hokage shook his head, "If we were not at war I would have never approved that faction. After the war though Danzo never disbanded the group, instead he continued to take new recruits, creating his own training regimens with… questionable ethics. When I first received reports about these activities I should have shut down the division then and there, Danzo and my advisers convinced me otherwise - though of course that is no excuse." He shifted in his chair to turn to me, "This force is one of the things I stripped from Danzo, the operatives under his command are to be reintegrated into the standard shinobi roster. It was the thing Danzo valued most and without it he has little to no power in the village." At my frown he chuckled, "You must be wondering why I am telling you all of this. I wanted to explain thoroughly just how much Danzo has been punished for his actions - you of all people deserve to know."

I nodded but then something took my attention and I began to write on my slate. The Hokage took the moment to continue.

"Of course now that you know all of this you might be able to assist Kushina with the task I gave her, the seal she is trying to nullify has been placed on all of Danzo's shinobi, the seal -"

He cut off as I turned my slate to him, "Did you station other anbu outside the window? One just below window level?"

The Hokage frowned and shook his head, he placed his pipe upon my nightstand and walked over to the window. As he did spoke about other smaller things, I did not pay attention to what he was saying since he had a finger up indicating silence which in combination to his expression of concentration did not match up to the light hearted conversation he was keeping.

At once I realised, the silencing seal he placed at the doorway would not prevent people from overhearing outside, considering we were 4 floors up it would not normally have been a problem and if it wasn't an Anbu the hokage placed outside there really were very few reasons for someone to be hanging outside my window.

When the hokage reached the window he placed one of his hands on the wall below it and raised his eyebrows in askance to me, I shook my head and nodded towards where the chakra I sensed was coming from. The Hokage took a step across and placed his hand on the wall, this time I gave him a nod.

The Hokage withdrew his hand from the wall and then in a move that he made to look childishly easy thrust his open hand like a blade through the wall and before the debris from his thrust had landed his arm tensed and he withdrew his arm. When he did though the small hole he had made with his hand exploded as a leg and then an entire body followed his arm back through the wall.

I leapt up in case the Hokage needed any help but with him crouched over the insurgent I was sure he would be able to subdue the eavesdropper. What followed was a flurry of movement as the one I could now seen was a young adult male realised with horror his position, he moved to begin a string of jutsu hand signs, the hokage though was too quick positioning his spare hand between his two hands before he could even initiate the first hand sign and by the time the man had reacted by trying to move his hand away the Hokage had twisted the fingers of one of his hands together with his, I saw his face for the first moment shift from being strangely blank to a look of utter dismay as the Hokage maneuvered his hand locked with his to place him on his front with his hand locked behind him.

"Keiko," The Hokage said, remarkably calm for the situation, "Could you alert the anbu outside to this assassin."

I nodded though he wouldn't be able to see from his position and moved to the door, deactivating the seal before tapping the anbu at the door on the shoulder, he looked at me in a manner that implied a raised eyebrow though I couldn't know with his mask. I pointed inside the room and the anbu leaped into action as soon as he saw the debris.

"Take him to the same place we are holding the rest." The hokage instructed as the Anbu placed a seal on the man on the floor, I didn't see the seal but his body stiffened and then stayed still even as his chakra calmed and became subdued so I surmised it was a restraining seal.

"I'm sorry about this Keiko, remarkable chakra sense by the way, I can barely feel his signature with him in the room." The Hokage said to me as the Anbu walked to the door, "We are still having incidents with these agents from Danzo's units that have not quite gotten the message as of yet. I better go, I did not mean to put you in danger." At the door he paused, looking down at some of the debris at his feet and then at the hole in the wall. He paled a little. "When Tsunade comes by I don't suppose you could keep my involvement in this incident between me and you?"

I grimaced in commiseration.

The Hokage sighed, "Well I don't suppose I can't blame you."

Tsunade came a few hours later, the Hokage had visited fairly early in the morning so when she arrived it was still only around 10 o'clock.

She bustled into my room looking at a clipboard she was holding in front of her "Alright young troublemaker, it looks like..." She trailed off as she became aware of the small stones grating beneath her feet. She too a look around the room, her facing staying remarkably calm considering there was now a substantial hole in one of the walls and there were stones of various sizes distributed across the floor. Finally she looked back to me and fixed me with a glare which disabused me of any notion that she was taking this well in any way.

"Kei, I don't suppose you could tell me why there is a hole in my hospital?" Her voice was sweet enough to sound like it had been dipped in honey but they promised no less pain for their sweetness.

I turned my slate around, one word adorning the surface that I had written on it much earlier anticipating this conversation. I did not want to get on Tsunade's bad side. Sorry Hokage.

"The Hokage, eh? Well I can speak to him later, for now I came to tell you that I've decided you are well enough to leave, you can go back to training immediately, my only stipulation is that you should try not to speak, your throat cords are damaged but they might still be recoverable if a new treatment is devised. No promises though."

I nodded and signed a thank you to her, it was one of the simpler elements of conversation that I had managed to learn in my time learning sign language at the hospital.

Tsunade smiled and nodded dismissing me, I walked to the door to leave but was stopped at the door by a question by Tsunade, "Hey brat. Would the same person responsible for the wall be responsible for the lingering smell of tobacco?" She asked far too sweetly.

I fled, I felt bad enough for the Hokage as it was.

I stopped by Minato's house to let him know I had finally been discharged and would be able to come to practice the next day, he thanked me for the news before letting me know he'd tell Kakashi and disappearing in a flash of yellow light. I shook my head, seemed kind of wasteful to use a technique like that to cut out a small walk but I suppose it was efficient.

When I arrived home I found Kushina in my living room under a mountain of paper and scrolls.

"Ah! Sorry Kei, I didn't know you'd be coming back, I've been using your living room to try and work out this seal the Hokage gave me, I'll have this cleaned up in a few minutes." She exclaimed

I shook my head and wrote on my slate that it was not a problem - I seemed to barely use my living room anyway.

"Still..." She bit her lip, "Are you sure."

I nodded smiling but added on my slate "I would appreciate it if I could make it to my bedroom this evening though."

She grew a shade of red darker in embarrassment and promised me it would be clear by this evening.

I made my way from there to the small training area behind the house and spent the rest of the day getting back into shape and practicing the katas and techniques I hadn't been able to for the last few weeks.

By the time I returned, tired to my bones, the sky had turned shades of dark vermillion with the setting sun and Kushina had already gone. I cleaned myself up and then crawled into bed to sleep. The meditation I had done over the last week in combination with my overall exhaustion allowed me my first night of disturbance free sleep since I woke up in the hospital.

AN: Been a while and it's pretty short but I have a literal trifecta of excuses. Work picked up in a big way, then I went on holiday and then when I was back for barely even a day I fell down a flight of stone stairs breaking my leg. Probably what I get for trying to take a holiday. Chapters will be a little slower than the previous rate for a while whilst I get back on my feet (literally haha) and get caught up with work. I'd like to thank people for reviewing again, I don't have time to respond to all of them at the moment but if you have any questions about the story you could always PM me. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you in the next one.