Emotional Recovery


Miyo

The next few minutes were all a numb blur. I remember Naruto shouting something…something about how Koga was some kind of snake for letting his team get wiped out and not returning to his sister. I also remember Sai helping me over to a chair so that I could sit down.

After a minute, I was also aware that Sai was explaining something to Naruto. "It actually gets worse than what you think."

"Huh?"

"The note said that Koga had been serving Orochimaru for ten years."

"Yeah, so?"

"So Koga hadn't been 'missing, presumed dead' for that long."

Naruto was quiet for a second. Then he got it – for once, his wits were keeping up. "You mean – you mean he'd been working for Orochimaru before he disappeared?!"

Silence – I'd been looking down – but I suspect Sai had nodded as a response.

"Why, that jerk! He was probably planning on bailing the minute he thought Miyo was old enough to handle being left alone!"

"It also begs the question…" Sai went on, "how much intel had he leaked before then?"

I didn't know how I felt. On the one hand, Koga was alive, and that was incredible news. But then there was the other side of it…the part where he was working for Orochimaru, and no wonder the fiend knew about me – Koga must have told him all about me!

That side of it…there were a couple of emotions tied to that side.

Fear…sadness…anger…and probably the worst of all of them…betrayal.

Little Naruto and Little Gaara came over to me and bounced up onto my knees. Little Gaara used his sand to create a flying cloud and floated up to my face. After hovering there for a moment, he started using his soft little hands to blot away the tears that were starting to slide down my face.

Little Naruto's choice of action was much simpler. He wandered over past my hand where it was clenched into a fist and resting on my leg, stopped next to my elbow, and hugged my arm.

Finally the real Naruto noticed I was crying. "Hey, sis, I'm sorry about…"

"It's okay. …I need a hug, though."

Naruto helped me stand up again, Gaara floated over to the table on his sand-cloud and just landed there, and I got my hug.

When I opened my eyes and looked over Naruto's shoulder, I noticed that Sai was missing. "Where's Sai?"

"He left to tell Grandma Tsunade about what the note said."

"I hope she doesn't pop a vein."


Sai

"WHAT?!"

I twitched in response to Lady Hokage's volume. "That's what Sasuke's message to Miyo said. Her brother was a traitor, probably leaking secrets from the Leaf Village to Orochimaru."

She settled again, muttering into her hands. "Who'd have thought an innocent request for closure would lead to something like this?"

As it wasn't a question, I didn't answer it. "Miyo seemed distressed when I left."

"I hope she can get it back together before the next stage of the Chunin Exams." She waved a hand at me. "Thank you for relaying this information. You may go now."

I bowed my head. "Thank you, Lady Hokage."


I sought out Miyo again after that. No reason, particularly…just it seemed…if one were to watch a person go into a complete emotional breakdown, one ought to ask that person later how they are doing.

I found her sitting off by herself, an open blank scroll in front of her and a few dolls scattered about her, including one of herself. Her miniature of me was wandering around on the paper with a brush nearly the same height as itself. Its jacket was off, just sitting to one side. It didn't take a genius to figure out what Miyo was doing: practicing writing or drawing, possibly both, with her dolls.

Judging by the ink stains on various points of the doll, she was having a bit of trouble.

As I watched, "I" started attempting to draw a curved line, possibly to turn into a picture eventually.

Miyo started muttering under her breath. "Come on, come on, come on…"

The curve turned slowly…the brush neared the semicircle point…suddenly flipped up out of the doll's control and somehow smacked it along the face.

Miyo hissed as the paintbrush fell to the paper. "Drat!"

I tried briefly to imagine writing or drawing anything with a brush my height and as thick around as my leg. That would be unwieldy; no wonder my small copy is having trouble.

Then the small doll looked up at me. That ink splotch wasn't the first one to appear; there were at least two others, and one was even obscuring one eye.

Miyo spoke. "What do you want, Sai?"

"So you can look through your doll's eyes? Interesting." I approached as she turned to look at me through her own eyes. "I actually came to see how you were doing. You had a hard time earlier because of information I delivered. I understand that a show of sympathy is required under these circumstances?"

She cocked an eyebrow at me, and my little doll-copy walked over to a small bowl of water. Then it jumped into that bowl and started rubbing some water over the ink-obscured eye. "You're right that after a negative emotional outburst a person needs…observation, mostly to be sure they're not going to somehow end up worse. Sympathy is…dependent on the exact circumstances."

So she intends to help me with proper emotional responses. She's holding together in order to try to sound objective. I smiled at her. "So what should the proper response be to one who's just been told that their brother thought dead is actually alive and a traitor?"

She flinched at the word "traitor," but she responded quickly. "Normally, the 'thought dead actually alive' message is cause for celebration." Then she picked up the bowl of water and started properly washing the ink off of the doll. "But…here…the proper response…" She went silent again, and her hands slowed to a stop. After a second, she squeezed the little doll.

Suddenly a tiny bit of fabric touched my foot, on a bare patch of skin. I looked down.

A Naruto doll was looking up at me, its little hand on my foot. There was nothing connecting it to Miyo, no chakra threads or anything, so apparently that doll was another one that could move on its own. Once it saw it had my attention, it stepped back and started pointing: one hand at me, other hand touching next to one eye, then both hands on its chest. It just kept repeating those gestures.

It's saying… "You watch me." I nodded at Little Naruto, letting him know I'd gotten the message.

He stopped pointing, nodded back, and ran over to the little copy of Miyo. He pushed it to a sitting position and then, while still looking at me, hugged it around the shoulders. After staying in that position for about five seconds, he lifted one arm and started pointing back and forth between me and Miyo.

I'm not stupid; it didn't take me long to get the message.

Little Naruto was suggesting I hug her.

I stood there for a minute, trying to decide how I was going to react. Then I covered the distance remaining between myself and Miyo and knelt down behind her.

She flinched in response to my proximity. I don't…think she was frightened, exactly, just…aware that someone had entered her personal space.

She flinched again when I put my arms around her, but otherwise didn't react. At least, she didn't react right when I hugged her. But after a few seconds, I suddenly felt my arms change position a little and pull a little tighter about her shoulders…but not under my own power.

She's using her jutsu through her doll, making sure she's getting the hug she wants. "That must be a useful skill to have."

She laughed a little. "Well…when I'm dealing with somebody who doesn't know how to work with people outside of a mission, yes."

I smiled again. She sounded like she was recovering. Good.


A COUPLE WEEKS LATER

Naruto

Kakashi-sensei gave me a piece of special paper to help me find out what kind of chakra I had, and it turned out to be Wind.

"Hey, I just thought of something: what's Miyo's chakra? I've seen her use all sorts of jutsu!"

"Miyo's…a strange case. I admit, I'd wondered when I first noticed some of the jutsu she copied. I think…though I have yet to test her, she's actually…already mastered the ability to use multiple chakra natures."

"Wait a sec – you're saying she's got all five chakra natures already – Fire, Water, Wind, Earth and Lightning?"

"And likely can blend them in unusual forms, although I think at the heart of it all, her base chakra is Lightning; the fact that she sends her chakra along threads as impromptu 'wires' as easily as breathing supports that theory."

"Whoa."

"If I'm right, though, it leaves me a bit worried: Miyo's still young, and using her chakra in so many natures at that state…I'm just not sure she's ready, which is why I'm doing my best not to enlighten her."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Everything she's doing with her chakra, she's doing by instinct. If I were to actually draw her attention to what she's doing at this time, it's possible she'll get confused – and when she's confused, she's frightened. A frightened ninja is a ninja out of control."

"At this time?"

"She's got her Chunin Exams right now, and she's just now learned of her brother; I don't think it's a good idea to introduce the different types of chakra to her on top of that."

"Oh; that makes sense…I guess." I straightened my shoulders. "I promise I won't tell her about what she can do with her chakra until you say I can."

"That's the spirit, Naruto! You'll need to keep all your attention on your training, anyway."


I went to tell Miyo that I was leaving on a junk mission about grave robbers. "Will you be okay while I'm gone?"

Miyo studied my face for a second. "I…ought to be, yeah. Just don't push yourself too hard, okay? Training loses efficiency as the body wears down; recovery periods are important."

She's recovered from that information about her brother. And even with nightmares about Orochimaru lurking under the bed waiting for her tonight, she's still looking out for me. I grinned at her. "Don't worry about me! I'll be fine!"

As we left the village, I felt Miyo's eyes on me. "Turn around and wave, guys, Miyo's seeing us off!"

"Hm?" Sakura, Sai and Captain Yamato all looked back as I spun around.

There she was, standing on a rooftop, waving after us.

Miyo

As Team Yamato and Team Asuma all waved at me and left, I thought about what I'd picked up from Little Naruto. "Naruto…you're getting so strong, and your strength is developing in so many ways. I hope I can get just as strong."