AN: Hurray! It's another chapter, although a short one. Hope it makes up for the last chapter if I disappointed you guys and if not then there' s always the next one! I would like to thank RadioPoisoning, lizy2000, and rachnis for reviewing on the last chapter. It gave me a boost in the right direction! Just thank you! Now on to the story!
POV: Mikoto
I was glad when I found out Iruna didn't make chuunin, but when we went to the hospital to see her. I felt terrible for even wishing she didn't pass this year's chuunin exam. How can I bring my baby back to her old self?
A week has already passed since the chuunin exams. Iruna had already been discharged from the hospital and from what she told me. She had two weeks off from training with Kushina to recuperate. She still continued with her morning routine, but once she was done and ate breakfast she would go to their room and sleep. For a week, I didn't see her making seals or even writing anything in her fuinjutsu notebook. Her scrolls, brush and table were left untouched during that time. She seldom spoke up during meals too. It was like she moved on automatic. When I would speak to her she would still answer, but her voice was lifeless and her eyes were glazed and empty.
"Iruna?" I spoke to her while we were eating breakfast.
"Yes, mother?" She answered lifelessly as she looked at me.
"You haven't been making any seals for a while."
She looked down at her bowl of rice. "I don't feel like making any."
"Iruna-neesama should come with us." Itachi spoke up.
Thank you, Itachi, always the one to look out for your sister.
"Oh, that's right, why don't you go out with your brother? He and Shisui are going to the park. It's been a while since you spent time with your twin and cousin."
"I guess I can go." She answered.
I smiled at Irunas' answer. I was glad enough that she decided to go out of the house. I didn't like the idea of her hiding inside her room because she failed the chuunin exams. The chuunin exam had really meant a lot to her. I just hope she can get over this. She had failed in making seals on her first try, but she didn't give up on making a simple storage scroll or an explosive seal and yet she improved and caused me problems. I somehow miss her constant shouts when she has an idea or when she finishes her seal.
POV: Obito
Me and Rin were able to pass the chuunin exams, but we haven't seen Iruna-chan since then. Even though we did visit her in the hospital, she would be asleep. Either we had bad timing or Iruna-chan was doing it on purpose. I would also feel sad for not passing the exams, but it seemed to weigh a lot on Iruna-chan that she failed. We were worried for her that we even went to their house to visit her, but she would asleep too.
"Hello! Obito-san, were you able to see Iruna-san today?" Guy asked me as I bumped into him in the business district.
"No. I didn't go to their house yet. We had a team meeting earlier. Have you gone to their house, Guy?"
"I am headed there right now."
"I'll come with you."
I walked with Guy towards the Uchiha compound. I was the one to knock on the door, and Mikoto-san opened the door after some seconds. She smiled as she saw me.
"Obito-kun and Guy-san, are you here to visit Iruna?"
"Yes, Uchiha-san." Guy answered.
"She's not here. She went with Itachi and Shisui to the park."
"The park? We must go right away, Obito-san." Guy said bowing his head "Thank you, Uchiha-san for telling us."
Guy took off right away without waiting for me. I stayed to ask Mikoto-san if Iruna-chan was okay.
"Is she..." I started, but Mikoto-san shook her head.
"Watch her for me, Obito-kun. I don't know how I'll help her. She doesn't talk and just sleeps. She hasn't even touched her seals nor made one since the chuunin exams." Mikoto-san said before she closed the door.
I followed after Guy to the park and I found him playing with Itachi and Shisui. How did he end up playing with them? I thought he was going to speak with Iruna-chan? I looked around the park in search of Iruna, it wasn't that difficult to find her. She was seated on one of the bench's.
I sat down next to Iruna-chan. She glanced at me before she returned her attention to her twin and cousin playing with Guy. I didn't know what to say to her, what do you even say to someone who was depressed? I just tried though.
"Been a while since I saw you Iruna-chan"
"It's only been days."
"A week actually" I answered. Silence fell and I continued to talk. "We never got to throw you a getting out of the hospital party." I said trying to lighten the mood.
"Shouldn't it have been a congratulatory party for you and Rin-san?" She answered blankly which only made me frown.
"Kushina-san, she just made dinner for me and Rin." When we got our vests
"Oh, I almost forgot congratulations for becoming chuunin." She turned to me smiling, but her eyes were sad as she said that. "Tell Rin-san congratulations too."
"Sure." I smiled back. I didn't want to bring up the exam to her. Bringing it up seems to just hurt her now.
She turned her attention back to the kids playing. I did the same, but I would glance at her to find her eyes were blank of anything. It was like she lost her purpose.
"There's always next year." I said to her.
She got to her feet then and walked away.
"Iruna-chan?" I said aloud. I know she could hear me, but she didn't turn around and just continued to walk.
"Obito-san?" I heard from my right.
I turned my head to find Itachi there.
"What is it, Itachi?"
"It's difficult to speak to Iruna-neesama right now. She doesn't speak like she used to. She's often sleeping, and sometimes when it's night when she thinks I'm asleep she would go up to the roof and just hug her knees. She just keeps quiet. I miss Neesamas' smile, it's gloomy at our house."
"Have you tried to make her laugh?" I asked.
Itachi nodded. "We did, but her smiles never reach her eyes. Do you have any ideas how to make her be her old self again?"
"I don't know Itachi, but I do want the loud Iruna back." I answered.
That was the first I saw and spoke to her, she sounded downright gloomy and lifeless. It was unnerving to see her like that it was like all her strength had been sucked out of her.
We had another team meeting that week, and Kushina-san was present as well. That got me wondering why she was there.
"Alright" Kushina-san spoke up as I approached them "Now, we're all present, we're going to start with operation get Iruna-chan to smile again!"
"Erhm, shouldn't we just leave her alone for a while?" Rin said. "When I saw her the other day she really was out of it."
"NO!" Kushina-san shouted and pointed at Rin. "If you leave an Uchiha like that who knows what can happen, do you even know that the Uchihas', sorry Obito, are the most emotional of all people?!"
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Where did she come up with that conclusion?
"I'm leaving." Kakashi spoke up. "There's no way we can help her, it has to be her that gets up. We can try to comfort her all we can, make her smile, but it would be her that decides whether to just go about her days lifelessly or get back up."
"Kakashi! You're just going to leave Iruna-chan alone?"
"Yes." He answered with his back to me. "She has to resolve this on her own. There will come a time that no one will be there to comfort her." and Kakashi continued to walk away.
"Kakashi!" I shouted, but he had already left the training ground.
Minato-sensei by then had placed his hand on my shoulder. "Let him go, Obito. He also wants Iruna-chan back, but he thinks all he can do is wait, let's not force him."
"I don't understand him." I muttered.
Minato-sensei laughed as he ruffled my hair. "One day you will. For now let's just do what we believe that can help, Iruna-chan."
We listened to Kushina-san as she told us her ideas of getting Iruna-chan to be herself again, not the Iruna-chan that's been lifeless and lost. Listening to her ideas were a bit drastic, but if it's to have that brat smile again then I have no qualms in helping.
POV: Iruna
My two weeks off training were over and I was supposed to meet Kushina-sensei at the Hokage tower. I was feet away from the tower when I saw my red headed sensei waving at me. I didn't rush to her like I usually did.
"Good Morning, Iruna-chan!" She greeted me with a wide smile.
"Good Morning, Kushina-sensei." I bowed my head to her.
"Hey! It's early in the morning and you sound like you're already tired!" She slapped me on the back. "The day just started, you have to smile and show this world you're ready for anything! Dattebane!"
I smiled although somehow I think it just came out as a grimace.
"I guess that's good enough." Kushina-sensei shook her head. "Come on let's go get you a mission. You've been out for three weeks you need to exercise your mind and body."
Kushina-sensei, I think is devil incarnate. Of all the missions she had to choose it was the mangy cat retrieval mission and not only that she left me alone to find the cat. If I had the shadow clone jutsu I don't think I would have any troubles with finding the cat, but no I was stuck looking for it alone. Usually, Kushina-sensei helped me look for the cat. How I wish I had my own summon like Kakashi or Minato-san.
I know the business district was the less likely place the cat would be in. After, ten times of taking this mission you get used to the area where you would usually find her. Tora preferred to stay in the residential area, a lot of houses, alleys for her to hide in and sometimes in plain sight.
I was on one of the rooftops in the residential area trying to deduce where the cat is, when something hit me from behind. If I wasn't used to placing chakra on my feet, I would have fallen down the roof already. I turned around to find a toad on the roof. I picked up the toad with both of my hands; it looked like one of Minato-san's summons. I wasn't so sure though, so I activated my sharingan to find a trace of chakra on its belly alone. I smoothed out my hands on its stomach to find there were traces of a layer. It was a seal with a genjutsu placed on it so no one would notice the seal. I cancelled the illusion and then removed the seal on the toad or rather Tora. Why did Tora have a seal on it? I looked around the searching for anyone who would play a prank or sabotage my mission. Probably some academy students did this. With the unconscious Tora in my hands, I quickly made my way to the Hokage tower.
Kushina-sensei was still there and when she saw me holding Tora she was surprised. I ignored her surprised look and proceeded to report about my mission as well as hand over Tora. After that I was given another mission this time walking dogs. I was reading who the client was when sensei spoke up.
"That was fast, Iruna-chan, how did you find Tora?"
That was strange it was how not where. Still I told her how I was able to find Tora, and after telling her she seemed she irritated then when I left her to head to the client, one of the Inuzuka's.
I had two dogs walking ahead of me, one leash in each hand. I allowed the dogs to walk ahead of me as I planned to walk around Konoha and then the park. It was close to mid day when I saw someone in a green suit some feet away. I was sure it was Guy until I got a better view of the person it was Obito-nii wearing Guys' green suit. I had to stop then and there as I openly stared wide-eyed at him.
"Obito-nii, why are you wearing Guy-san's suit?"
Obito-nii was red from my question, and it seemed he wasn't the only one wearing Guys' suit, even Minato-san wore it and he was just behind Obito-nii. I would have laughed, but the weirdness of this overcame whatever humor this is supposed to be.
"This is... well just..." Obito-nii wasn't looking at me but at the ground.
"We thought we should try wearing Guys' suit for a day." Minato-san said. "It's part of training. In case we have to go undercover and didn't want to be too suspicious. How's it going so far?"
"Erhm, well, you guys aren't suspicious, but..." should I even say that they just look weird wearing the same clothing? Then again a lot of jonins wear the same type of clothes. A longsleeved blue turtle neck then their jonin vest matched with blue pants, should I even mention the blue slippers?
"But?" Minato-san urged me to continue.
"but you guys look better in your own erhm clothes, and green doesn't suit you two."
"Guy always wears this." Obito-nii said.
"Yes, but he can carry it well." I pursed my lips. "I should go. I have to get Shibo and Shiro back to the Inuzuka's."
I walked away from them pulling along the two dogs with me in the direction of the Inuzuka's vet clinic. After leaving the Inuzuka's and receiving a scroll. I was walking by the park when I saw a play of sorts, it wasn't surprising to see Rin-san there wearing a wolf suit and growling as best as she can. The kids were enthralled with the play, I merely thought she had a mission and it was to act as wolf in a play. I didn't stay too long and went back to the Hokage tower to report.
For the rest of the day I just did mission-chores, missions that were really just chores. Sometimes I would come across Obito-nii then Rin-san then Minato-san. It was strange having to see them for four times or was it five times in a day? Did all of them have a mission like me inside the village? I don't see why Minato-san would take a mission in the village when he was a jonin and most jonins take higher ranked missions than genins like me.
I met up with Kushina-sensei by Ichiraku's to tell her I was going home for the day. She tried to persuade me to eat with her together with her boyfriend and his students, but I didn't want to stay there. I just wanted to be alone and going up to the monument helped.
I sat down on the Shodaime's head as I looked onto the village painted with the color of red and orange. It was still breath taking as when I was last here. I don't even remember when that was. I was busy with training and making seals, and now that I... I don't know what am I doing really? I failed the chuunin exams because of what... because this body was young. It didn't have enough stamina to withstand using the sharingan for a long duration of time. It had a limit. Everything had a limit. It was just coincidence that my body was the limit for me. I lost my chance to save—
"When are you going to stop moping?" I heard from behind me.
I turned around to see Kakashi there.
"What?"
"When are you going to stop pitying yourself?"
"I'm not pitying myself." I retorted.
"You are." He insisted. "You have been for the past weeks. You didn't speak to us when we visit you in the hospital feigning to be asleep. You just sleep after your morning routines. When you do manage to go out of your home, you go off to find a secluded place to what? Whine?"
"I don't whine!" I got to my feet angry that he would say that I whine. "What's the use of whining or even complaining when I have no control of what happened!?"
"You're not voicing it but you're actions speak louder. You just failed once."
"What about you? You haven't failed so you don't know what I feel."
"You're right I don't know, but I wouldn't want to place myself in your shoes."
"You wouldn't want to be in my position even if you know." I stated. "You don't even know why I took the chuunin exams."
"Isn't it always the same reason?"
"Same reason?" I shook my head then. "I don't know what you're saying."
He scoffed "Huh, forget it then, there's no hope for you. Just hand over your hitaite to the Hokage, you're not fit to be a shinobi."
"What do you mean I'm not fit to be a shinobi?" I didn't waste my time getting pummelled by our father to just give up!
"A shinobi must never show any weakness." He answered.
"What are you saying?" I gritted out through my teeth.
"You're weakness are your emotions."
"It is not!"
"It is. You let your emotions get the better of you. There's one line you kept repeating in your mind, right? I failed to pass. I failed. You're weak. You don't even know how to get back up. Everyone is trying to help you, trying to cheer you up, but all of their efforts are in vain because you're too self-absorbed, caught in that one moment."
"Sure, you're right." I said bowing my head. "I can only think of that truth that I failed the chuunin exams. Everyone keeps saying there's always next year. I don't have next year!" I looked up at him. "I could care less about the exams! That exam was my—" my chance.
I clamped my mouth shut. No one can find out. This is what's difficult in being this world. I have to keep secrets from them. I have to carry this by myself. I made my choice, and fate seems to bring me towards the difficult path. No one ever said changing things would be easy.
I've wasted enough time sulking. It's thanks to him that I finally came to my senses. Turns out the person I planned to saved, saved me from my own misery. Oh the irony, I couldn't help but smile at the idea. I looked back at Kakashi before turning back to the view of the village.
"You won't lose everyone." I muttered.
I went back to our house and straight to my table where I make seals. I pulled out my notebook from the and started to write. I would need to make some research concerning the seal that I would be making. I have to find out it's level of difficulty, not to mention all I've been making were based on simple seals. I suppose it's back to the basics, a strong foundation— I had yelped in surprise as our mother pulled me and hugged me tightly.
"Mother?" I spoke glancing at her to see her face which was difficult unless I can twist my neck fully.
She didn't say anything to my silent query of why she was hugging me.
It was after dinner, Mother and Father were in the dining room having tea while I was in the same room I was in before Mother had to forcefully pull me out of the room. Itachi was with me as well, he was reading a book with him leaning on my back which was a distracting since he was heavy.
"Itachi, you're heavy don't lean on me." I said.
Itachi though persisted and slouched further, Mother would scold him if she saw him in that position.
"'Tachi, did you miss me?" I asked.
"You were gone for too long." He answered.
"I'm sorry. I was lost myself."
"As long as Neesama is back."
I shook my head. I'm beginning to think that Itachi is becoming the Uchiha he is meant to be in the main timeline, but I hope not entirely. I wouldn't want to lose my twin because of one power hungry old coot.
Not to mention I shouldn't get caught in my emotions too much. Kakashi was right in a sense. My emotions got the better of me, but in one way it somehow made me relax. I didn't feel the presence of someone following me anymore, or that person got better in covering his chakra. I shouldn't be distracted by emotions. I have to reign on them.
POV: Kakashi
After speaking to Iruna, I went back to my apartment and made myself dinner. I'm sure my team mates and sensei would be at Ichiraku's as well as his girlfriend. He did like the shop as well as Kushina-san I do wonder how their plan went. I was too busy with my training the whole day to watch what silly plan they had in mind. I'll probably find out tomorrow when we meet for team training. We are still considered a unit under Minato-sensei's supervision.
I had just entered the training ground to find my two team mates were in an animal costume. Obito was a sheep and Rin was a goose. Minato-sensei was there and Kushina-san as well.
"Are you two impersonating as animals?" I asked.
Obito looked irritated by my question. "Sensei! Are we the only ones who have to wear these costumes?!"
"Of course, not, Kakashi has to wear one as well. How about it Kakashi? A cow or a pig?"
"None?"
"Sorry, Kakashi" Minato-sensei smiled at me "But you have to choose one"
I sighed maybe I should have come later and used one of Obito's excuses? It would have save me from wearing a ridiculous costume. I'm going to regret this.
"A cow" I answered. Obito was glad enough to have me wear one as well, why didn't he ask sensei to wear one as well?
We were told to make three rounds around Konoha wearing the costumes. It was still around seven and it was around this time Iruna was making her rounds. Obito and Rin seemed to be pumped up for the day since they were jogging ahead of me. I was lagging behind them when, I heard someone greet me.
"Good Morning, Kaka-nii" Iruna said grinning as she looked at me from head to toe "Nice cow costume, did my sensei put you up to this?"
"I have no idea." I answered her.
"It would seem like one of her ideas to make me smile." She stated.
Did she know from the start?
"Did you know that Obito-nii and Minato-san wore a green suit just like Guys yesterday? I'm going over to greet Obito-nii and Rin-san. Later, Kaka-nii." Iruna hastened her steps a bit and was now jogging in step with them. "Good Morning, Obito-nii and Rin-san!" she said cheerfully "Nice costumes! This one looks better on you Obito-nii than the green suit you wore yesterday. Did my sensei get a picture of you wearing it?"
Obito stared at Iruna and he had lost his balance causing him to trip onto the ground. That's for not looking in front of him.
"I'll see you guys later. I still have my rounds to finish." She said aloud as she continued ahead of us.
"Wha—"
"She seems to be fine now." Rin said as she pulled Obito up to his feet. Obito had trouble getting up due to the costume he wore.
"How?" Obito said
I just shrugged and continued with our runs. It would be better to finish, so I can remove this embarrassing costume. I wonder if Kushina-san had a picture of Obito wearing Guys suit, it would be a great laugh to see it.
AN: Thank you for taking the time to read! Thank you as well for the reviews! I owe you guys a great big Thank you! Until the next chapter and we're moving on to the Bridge mission!