Another chapter is here!

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Jiraiya found himself frowning as he read the scroll in his grasp, a messenger toad waiting patiently at the foot of the boulder that he was sitting atop of. He was frowning even before he got the scroll, having been told by the Old Man he would be leaving for the Hidden Sand soon enough as his representative. The matter of their reparations and returning their captured shinobi had yet to be settled after all, and the Old Man was trying to put him in more political situations than he was comfortable with for when he was given the hat.

However, this scroll was one of many sent from his various spies in the neighboring nations around the Land of Sound. After Orochimaru was finally slain and the majority of his forces utilized during the invasion executed, it had been something of a chaotic situation. The various clans and shinobi that had been under his thumb were no longer oppressed and that meant they'd started fighting.

The clans would wage wars, with losers being eliminated or assimilated beneath a single banner that consolidated power. The strays would turn to banditry to survive and eventually necessitate the use of shinobi to put them down. Tragedy would leave many miserable, something that he'd seen too many times to count.

The Leaf was largely staying out of the matter because the Land of Wind was on the verge of the same thing with their primary hidden village being significantly understaffed. The new Wind Daimyo had a vested interest in preventing that if he didn't want to end up like the old one. Yet, the scroll he had in his hands now outlined that the chaos in the Land of Sound was settling at an unnaturally fast pace.

Jiraiya had been involved in a wide variety of conflicts, from wars between major villages to genocides between clans. So he knew the fallout from the Invasion should have left them in disarray for a few more months as they vied to fill in the gap left by the disappearance of the hidden village. It was an ugly thing, but something that was repeated enough throughout history that it was nearly an absolute.

Yet someone was suppressing the fighting and Jiraiya had a sinking feeling that Orochimaru was involved. They had combed the base locations they got from Karin's mind and found them devoid of anything meaningful, hastily abandoned or destroyed to cover their tracks. He may have been dead, but Jiraiya couldn't shake the feeling that his right-hand man was still operating under his thumb and carrying out his plans.

He penned a response on a smaller scroll that he pulled out his pouch. Then he handed it back to the messenger toad, which took it and then departed. That done, his thoughts turned to the more pressing matter of Naruto. If he had to depart soon, it may be more prudent to arrange for him to take a mission to gain more experience in working outside of his immediate peers. He'd have to see the Old Man about a mission that wasn't too difficult, something else to get his feet wet as a Chuunin.

A few minutes later, Naruto showed up on time for his training and raised an interesting question. "Old Sage, show me how to complete the Rasengan!"

He arched his brows in slight confusion. "You've got the basics down when you use a clone."

Naruto clarified his request. "I mean adding an element into it, the Nature Transformation. Kakashi-sensei could do it but mention that he couldn't add in his own lightning element, but since I've got wind and can use yang chakra, maybe one of them will work?"

"Ah, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised he knows it." It made sense that Minato's surviving student knew it. "But you should probably focus on getting the technique down perfectly and your own element before trying that…."

Actually, now that he thought about it, maybe he should just tell Naruto about his father. He already knew about his mother, and he had come a long way from his early days. He could keep the secret and the boy did have a right to know. "Naruto, do you want to know about your father now while we've got the time?"

The boy's expression became conflicted, a contrast to what Jiraiya expected. He actually took a long moment to think about it before he spoke. "Can it wait until Karin is with us to listen? She was with me when I learned about my mother and we're… umm…."

He was struggling to find the right word. It made sense given that one minute she was a member of his clan, the next she confessed she was in love with him. Kid didn't know how lucky he was on that front.

"Fair enough," Jiraiya decided. "Though I don't think you'll have to wait long. According to the Old Man, that woman from the Sealing R & D building is trying to get you and her to come visit so she can get some answers about those other masks soon. We can talk about it then, but for now let's talk about what you can do with Yang chakra since you can mold it too and get some practice in."

[0-0-0]

Karin groaned softly as she sat down at the desk in her room. Her muscles were throbbing with agony, pulsing with pain. Anko's idea of a workout was exhausting, though it possibly explained her figure, and she wouldn't even let her use chakra because she wanted her to save it for when she had to do exercises related to that.

Regardless, Karin did her best to ignore the pain while going through the studying materials for the mandatory knowledge of the village. She had finished the section on the First Hokage and the founding of the village. There was a comprehensive look at the many clans involved in its formation, including the minor ones that had been assimilated or have gone extinct like the Uzumaki.

Now she was on the Second Hokage, who was responsible for creating many of the village's institutions and the support system that allowed it to function as well as it did. He was a creative and talented man for certain, being the creator of several techniques like the Shadow Clone (though there was no public mention of the variation Naruto knew), and possessed a unique sword of some kind that could forge a blade out of lightning that he combined with his water techniques to lay waste to his enemies. It was the attack on him by the Gold and Silver Brothers of the Hidden Cloud that was thought to be the catalyst for the First Great Shinobi War, which eventually killed him and left the current Hokage in charge for decades now.

Despite all of that, Karin didn't have too much interest in the past outside of her clan. Even then the information in the book she had here was less than that which she picked up from her independent research during the Chuunin Exams. If not for the need to do perfect on the test, she wouldn't bother going through with it.

Time ticked away with her studies until there was a knock on her door. She looked at the clock to see that it was Lunchtime. She closed the book and then left the bedroom for the dining room, where she found they were having takeout again. She ate it in silence and then thanked her for the meal.

Anko, sitting at the table with her food not even half-finished, arched an eyebrow. "If you don't like the food you can say something. I won't give you a mark just because you speak up about it."

"I never said I didn't like it," Karin said. It was true she didn't find it as appealing as her usual cuisine, but it was tolerable.

"I can tell by the way you eat." Anko leaned back in her chair. "Let me guess, the flavor doesn't suit your palate?"
Karin supposed that was why she was a specialist in tracking and interrogation and placed in charge of overseeing her. She took notice of these sorts of things. "I'm just not used to it. Grass was the last village I was in since I was…"

"A spy," Anko finished for her. "We've already accepted that. Go on."

A soft sigh preceded her continuing on. "Since I was a spy, I had to stay low and keep to myself. No telling them about my healing abilities, no telling them about my sensory abilities, just do what I'm told by superiors and don't cause problems. I had to cook for myself since I lived on my own and the selection of herbs and spices and meats they have for sell there are different than here. When I was visiting Naruto, I usually cooked in that style as well."

"Okay then, if you're good we'll go on a grocery shopping trip this weekend," she decided. "It'll be one of your privileges and it'd probably be interesting to experience home-cooking for once. All I know is survival cooking and that usually involves catching, killing, skewering, and frying over a fire."

Karin stared puzzled by the show of lenience before mentally shrugging it off and going to the bathroom to brush her teeth after the meal. There was still studying to do and then chakra training after that. Though she still didn't get why she had to practice making Chakra Threads of all things…

[0-0-0]

"You shouldn't have told him about the surgery," Tsunade told her apprentice in an exasperated tone as she finished reading the medical file on this 'Rock Lee' child. Shizune had returned from her trip to the hospital and they were in what served as the living room of their new abode within the village, with the Slug Sannin perched on the sofa and Shizune sitting upright in a reclining chair.

In truth, she hadn't been all that happy to begin with after that day's session. There were only so many times she could stand the memory of her lover's death being brought up to the surface as the root of her trauma before she lost her patience. More so considering that she wasn't allowed to drink right now, meaning that she couldn't numb herself to the pain. Then Jiraiya came in to check on her, and it took all her restraint not to throw him out of the window.

So no, she wasn't in a good mood when Shizune had come to her asking for her opinion on a medical procedure. Had it been anyone else, she wouldn't have bothered to even look at medical files or charts. But Shizune was the one person above all the rest in the village, next to the Old Man, who deserved her ear when she asked her for an assessment. She had been with Tsunade the entire time she was gone from the village and asked for little-to-nothing in exchange, so she got a pass.

"So, it's not possible to treat him after all?" Shizune asked as she continued to gently pet the sleeping ninja pig in her lap.

"It's not impossible, but there's a reason the doctors waved telling him about the procedure. No one wants to have blood on their hands or record from this type of thing. Even if I was far enough into my own therapy to not be bothered by the sight of blood, I can't say whether or not I'd be comfortable handling the procedure."

It'd be one thing if it was essential to save his life, but this was deemed an elective surgery—one with a morbidly high fatality rate, even in the hands of a skilled surgeon. The surgeon in question will be laying their reputation on the line for no reason, risking their records as well. That could hamper their ability to be allowed to perform surgeries that someone else might need it.

"I see…" Her dark eyes closed in defeat and she sighed softly, her breath tinged with regret. "Then I'll have to inform him that I was unable to find anyone capable. He and his friend will be crushed. It's a shame, but it can't be helped."

Tsunade frowned slightly as she pointed out the obvious. "Or you could do it yourself. Next to me, you're the most capable person to handle it. The fact that you could calculate the odds of success means you understand the risks and steps necessary for the extraction. If it's you then the odds will be the best they could possibly be for the boy given the circumstances."

Shizune's reaction wasn't that of surprise at the suggestion, merely reluctance and hesitation. She must've considered the option but refused to speak of it before now. That hesitation was concerning, given that a medic had to be decisive in their actions.

Tsunade closed the file and set it down on the wooden table between them. "Shizune, do you want to help this boy?"

"Of course," she said almost immediately, in contrast to before. That was something she was firm on. She wanted to help him.

"And why is it that you want to help this boy, despite knowing of the nature of his injury and having no personal ties to him?"

"I listened to what they told me about him and his struggles and how desperate he was to regain the chance to pursue his dream to help his village," she explained. "Hearing that, and how he mentioned that he had hope for the first time in a long-time, how could I not want to help him?"

"Then why are you still hesitating?" That was the key question here. "You want to help him, so you have the motivation. And you have the knowledge needed to perform the procedure, so you're capable of doing so. Knowing that, what's stopping you from just doing it? Are you afraid that you'll end up like me if you fail?"

Shizune vehemently shook her head at that. "That's not it. There's no one as great as you are in the medical arts. Even after all these years, there's no doubt in my mind about that."

"Then is it that you won't be able to meet the standard that you feel I've set?" That garnered a reaction. It clicked. Shizune had placed Tsunade on a pedestal for what it meant to be a medic-nin, even after seeing her at her worst. That spoke greatly of her faith and devotion, but it also spoke of the problem of doing so.

When you look up at someone on a pedestal for too long, it looks too high to climb for you. "Shizune, he's willing to wager his life on this because you gave him hope. He's accepting responsibility for his own decision regardless of how things go. That's how precious his dream is and he's willing to die to achieve it. The rest is on your shoulders now. You have three options from my perspective, and each one of them has you being responsible in one way or another."

Shizune straightened her back to listen.

"The first is that you can tell him that you simply can't do it and bear the weight of responsibility for crushing his dreams after giving him hope, in exchange for him living as he is," Tsunade said. "Don't lie to him about not being able to find someone else, because that deflecting it and unbefitting for a medic-nin. Accept responsibility since you gave him that hope, learn from it, and move on. The second is that you can try to find another surgeon to handle it."

"But no one will likely do that," Shizune said.

"It'll be near-impossible, but there's still a chance and it may take time—months or even years—and you'll be relying on the surgeon's skill rather than your own. Whether it succeeds or fails, they did make the decision and bear the majority of the responsibility. Not that you won't be accountable to some extent since they acted on your advice or council. Don't tell yourself otherwise."

Shizune nodded in understanding before speaking the last option herself. "And the last is that I do it myself?"

"You take all the responsibility for what happens on the table as the surgeon. It's your skill, knowledge, and motivation that you're relying on. If you succeed, he'll be able to follow his dreams and it's because of you. If he dies, then you have to accept that it happened and know that you did your very best."

Of course, in a worst case scenario, she may end up like Tsunade herself. Haunted from her failure to save someone she desperately wanted to, despite everything. But Tsunade felt that Shizune, having seen her languish in that state for years, would be strong enough to come back from it.

That in mind, Tsunade continued on in a soft tone. "That is the burden of being a responsible medic-nin that I've taught you. Every decision you make for a life is weighed against your knowledge, skill, and circumstances. There will be instances where you'll try your hardest and fail, but you have to accept that you did your best. Knowing all of that, which option would you take?"

Shizune brought her slender hand to her chin in deep thought, as though contemplating it. After a moment, she lowered her hand and spoke. "Do you really think I can do it myself?"

"Of course I do. If I didn't think you were capable, I would say as much." That was a necessity for a medic. They had to be honest about their own ability and be willing to take the weight of a life into their hands. "Given enough time and practice, I'm sure you'll surpass me thoroughly."

That was the role of an apprentice after all. That was why the Old Man trusted her with that program. And the bulk of the reason Tsunade agreed to come back here and go through all of this.

Dan's niece, her apprentice, couldn't reach her full potential if Tsunade was weighing her down instead of propping her up. So she needed to pull herself together. That way she could guide Shizune even further.

At least until the apprentice finally surpassed the master in the end.