"Hey onee-san…" Eriya said and sat down on the bed next to his sister. He smiled and gently touched his sister's face. It was warmer than usual as well as very clammy. All she did was groan and twitch every now and then which opted the brunet to think she was experiencing some kind of pain. He sighed and lay his head down on her stomach to hide the tears that started stream from his eyes. For some reason he couldn't blame no one else but himself for this happening. The ninja that did this didn't go without blame but he couldn't help but think what if. What if he was awake when she discovered the ninja? What if he was with her when she decided to go after the ninja? What would have happened if he protected her?
(Weakling…)
"I'm sorry onee-san…" He said through his tears.
Accompanied by him was the other two Genin of his team, Setsuko and Hanzi. The Uchiha girl placed a vase on the table beside her sensei's bed. In it was three beautiful white flowers fading into a midnight blue color at the tips of the petals. She had bought them from Ino's flower shop before visiting. She told her that it was a special flower that relieves people from stress and pain. She called it the Sourusūza.
Hanzi's eyes fell upon their sensei and he could do nothing but frown at the sight. Both her arms and legs were bandaged up and a thin tube running from a pouch with clear liquid in it was taped to the back of her hand. It had been a total of four day since the incident and their sensei was still lying here in this bed unconscious. Day in and day out he, Setsuko, and mostly Eriya hoped for better results each day but they received the same answer from the nurses as well as Sakura, there was no change in her state except that her fever kept increasing. Did this mean that their sensei would die? That couldn't happen because then who would teach him and the others what they needed to learn as Genin? What about their mission that was coming up in a few days?
Then the fact that she hasn't awaken yet had put a lot of stress on his father's shoulders. Without her he would never be able to find out who her attacker was and stop him from future problems. He even appointed Kakashi as their temporary team leader until she was to recover. Kakashi was great and they had learned a lot from him over the past four days but, he didn't want to get comfortable with a new sensei he liked his current one, Indo. "Wake up…" His voice started out small but eventually grew louder to the point that his teammates could her him. "Sensei!"
Eriya raised his head from the bed and wiped his eyes to see Hanzi climbing on top of his sister's body. and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and started shaking her. "You have to wake up you have to!" He said continuing to shake the unconscious woman. "You're the only one who can tell us what happened not only that we need you. Wake up!"
"Stop it Hanzi!" Eriya pushed the boy off his sister and he tumbled off the bed and onto the floor. He frowned and pushed himself up against the wall clenching his fists together. Eriya stared at the boy and blinked several times as he tried to figure out what emotion it was that Hanzi was going through. He knew it wasn't anger, there was a tad of frustration in the mix and something else but he couldn't blame him. Even Setsuko seemed to be flustered but her eyes showed it more than her expression. It was then that he realized that he wasn't the only one suffering here.
The door slid open and it was one of the nurses telling them that the visiting hours were over for the day and that they could come back and see her the next day. Eriya sighed, he really didn't want to leave her side for every time he left all he could ever do is think the worse. He wanted to stay with her until she woke up but knew the nurse wouldn't allow that. "If anything changes, you'll let us know right?" He looked over his shoulder at his still groaning sister and bit his lip before turning back to face the nurse.
"We will inform you right away." The nurse responded. With those final words the Genin left the hospital.
It was a couple of hours since they had left the hospital and the Genin had traveled off into the woods. Since Kakashi had nothing to teach them for the day, they decided to go off and practice what they've learned. "Alright, I think this area is big enough, let's train here." Hanzi suggested in a dead-panned voice. He wasn't at all in his normal lively mood since they'd left the hospital which didn't go unnoticed by his two teammates, especially Eriya. It was very strange seeing Hanzi in such a down mood and it made everything around him feel like it was slowly dying away.
Setsuko didn't even look or seem as determined as she usually would when it came to a day of training. Her expression was empty just like earlier but her eyes showed much emotion the way they were glistening in the light of the sun. If he didn't know any better he would have thought that she was about to shed tears.
"Alright guys.." Eriya said, his voice cracking as he spoke. He realized this but he ignored it for his teammate's sake. They all walked over to an individual tree and stood in front of it. "Remember what Kakashi-sensei said, an adequate amount of chakra to our feet will allow us to climb a tree, too much or too little will give us other results." He smiled and glanced at both his teammates. "First one to the top of their tree wins, losers have to," He thought for a second. "Ah! Losers have to buy everyone Ramen!" He thought that the mentioning of that would put some spark back into the blonde's personality but it didn't he still presented the same frown.
Eriya shook his head and his eyes as did the other two and they began to concentrate their chakra flow to the soles of their feet. Setsuko was one of the first to budge from her position and run up the length of the tree but when she got half way to the top, the area of the tree where her left foot touched down cracked the tree bark. "Damn." She quickly pulled a kunai out and scratched it along the tree bark to mark the spot she reached before falling safely back to the ground.
She looked up and watched as the other two took off up the tree but they didn't get nearly as close as she did. Hanzi barely made it from the bottom and Eriya had used too much chakra to the point it snapped the tree in half and he came crashing back down to the ground. The Uchiha girl pointed her eyes in the direction of both her teammates. Hanzi was rubbing the top of his head and Eriya was rubbing his back. Her lips curved up into a small smile then eventually she started to giggle which turned into a burst of laughter at her two teammates. "I got the highest!" She said pointing to the near tippy top of the tree.
Hanzi and Eriya both grumbled and pointed a finger in her direction. "You didn't make it all the way to the top so stop boasting!" Eriya said feeling his competitive side rising up.
"Yea but I bet I'll make it to the top before you." She said then stuck her tongue out at him. "Better yet I bet I'll make it to the top before the both of you!" She then looked at Hanzi who blinked a few times. His mind was scattered everywhere right now which is why he didn't get nearly as high as the other two did. He had to focus. "You're on Setsuko." He said, standing from the ground and dusting off his pants. "There is no way I'm going to let myself be beat by a girl!" He said, and stuck his tongue out to anger the Uchiha. "What do you say Eriya?"
"Oh yea definitely with you on that Hanzi." He nudged the others arm then slapped him high five. "Let's show her what we're made of, remember losers buy the winner Ramen.
"I like vegetable and shrimp Ramen, just to let the two of you know." Setsuko stated.
"Yea well I like beef!" Eriya said.
"And I like 'em all!" Hanzi shouted and threw his arms up over his head.
:::
"Man this blows.." Eriya complained as he placed his share of ryo on the counter top at the ramen shop, he then folded his arms across his chest and huffed. He hated loosing.
"Who are you telling…" Setsuko said slapping the ryo from her pocket onto the counter. "We got beat by this goofball." She said motioning her eyes in Hanzi's direction.
"Haha! I did it believe it! Believe it!" The blonde boy said as he drank down his third bowl of delicious ramen. He grinned down at his two teammates and brushed his finger across his nose. "Aww, don't look so sad you two, we have other areas to cover in our training, so there are many more bets to come!"
They both rolled their eyes and turned away from their friend who continued to be a glutton over his food. Eriya looked out at the clouds, looking at how the sun reflected off of them giving them a pink-ish orange color with a bit of yellow mixed in with it. He didn't notice until now that the sun was setting. They were training all day. He even began to realize how fatigued and tired his body was. But he didn't want to go home.
"Figured I'd find you three here."
Setsuko and Eriya were the first two to turn around. Hanzi continued to stuff his face with food.
"Okka-san?" Setsuko spoke. Her eyes rolled to the corner to see Hanzi devouring his food like a child that has been in poverty. She chuckled, remembering when that used to be Naruto. Seems he passed his trait down to his son. She cleared his throat then looked back in the direction of the of the other two. "I have good news.."
Eriya looked up at the woman, his eyes grew slightly with eagerness at the pink haired woman. His heart was pounding and a lump formed in his throat that he couldn't swallow down.
Sakura looked down at the boy and nodded her head. "Your sister has awakened." She said. "But, she's still not that well."
His face dropped at the last bit of news but most of all he was thankful that his sister was going to be alright. "Thank you Sakura." He said with a small smile, then looked back at Setsuko who was also smiling. "So can we see her?"
The woman nodded and motioned for them to follow her. Eriya followed in suit while Setsuko went and grabbed Hanzi though he wasn't finished with his food, and followed right after.
The Genin entered their sensei's hospital room and as Sakura said before they arrived, she was indeed awake. "Onee-san!" Eriya shouted and hugged his sister tightly."
"Not so tightly, I'm still slightly sore." She said hoarsely.
"Sorry.." He released her and backed away with a smiled. "I was so worried about you…I thought.." He dropped his head to the floor. "I thought..I was going to lose you.."
She reached out and placed a hand on top of his head. She understood his reason for being so upset. They were all each other had. If something was to happen to him she wouldn't know what to do with herself and vice versa. "I'll never leave you otouto, that's one thing you'll never have to worry about." She said then grunted in pain.
"You promise…?" He pushed.
She nodded slowly and smiled for the little boy though it was unseen. "I promise."
"You better not." Setsuko stated. "Then who's gonna teach us what we need to learn..?"
Indo was shocked, after the Uchiha's unruly behavior. She began to think that she'd never come around. The girl's behavior never really bothered her because all members of the Uchiha acted that way. "Like I stated before I'm not going anywhere." She smiled again then turned her eyes towards the blonde boy of the group, Hanzi. She blinked three times though very slowly. The boy was staring at her but it also felt like he was staring through her. "Hanzi, what is it?"
His two team members quickly glanced in the boy's direction and quickly noticed something different about him. The vein's around his temples and eyes were more bulging and more defined and his pupils were much more visible than usual. His Dōjutsu was activated.
Hanzi was quiet while looking at his sensei, well looking at the flow of chakra through her body. What he seen was highly unusual. With the normal color of chakra being blue, the chakra running through his sensei's body was an emerald green color, symbolizing that she was suffering from poison. He deactivated his dōjutsu and quickly dashed out of the room to find Sakura. He remembered back at the academy, when they were learning about chakra, that there were many different shades of green chakra but emerald green was a dangerous color if flowing within the body. The one affected would never know it. No one would because the flow of chakra in the body cannot be seen unless they had special eyes, the Byakugan.
Hanzi came to a short stop after passing down a hall that he seen the pink haired girl walking down. Quickly he turned around and ran up behind the woman. "Sakura!" He shouted while pulling at the bottom edge of his shirt.
The woman turned around and looked down at the boy. He was huffing and puffing while halfway bent over trying to catch his breath. "Hanzi?" She knelt down to the boy's height and placed a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong? Did something happen to Indo?
He shook his head. "N-no but there is something wrong with her!" He said in a frantic tone and began explaining what he saw to the woman. As he continued telling the woman what he'd seen, Setsuko and Eriya turned down the corner and ran up to his side. "What's going on with you?"
"Setsuko," Sakura called to her daughter. "You and your friends are going to have to leave for now, you all can come back and see Indo tomorrow." She said with a look of concern on her face. He eyes switched back to Hanzi and nodded at him before swiftly rushing off.
"Wh-what was that about?" Setsuko asked looking over at Hanzi. Eriya was too busy looking in the direction in which Sakura had run off to. He was prompted to run after her, getting a feeling that something was wrong, but he wanted answers as well as Setsuko for Hanzi's odd behavior. "What's going on Hanzi!?" He pushed Setsuko to the side and walked directly into the boy's face. "I seen your eyes when we were in the hospital room what was that!? And why'd you run out so quickly afterwards!?"The boy was irritated and didn't even understand why that was.
Hanzi took a few steps back until his back was up against the wall. His eyes were full of worry while he contemplated over whether or not he wanted to tell his two team members about their sensei's condition. He wasn't worried at all about telling Setsuko, knowing that the news wouldn't affect her as much, but Eriya, knowing now that their sensei is his sister, his reaction was most likely going to be over the top. His eyes switched to stare down at the floor as he continued to think. He knew that the condition was curable but it all depended on how far on it was. Their sensei was in the hospital for four days now and the poison has been unnoticed for that long who knows what damage it's done to her already.
"Hanzi!" Setsuko and Eriya called in unison, puling the boy from his thoughts.
"Oh…" He said sadly while twiddling his thumbs back and forth. He knew they weren't going to be moving from this spot untl he gave them an answer. He tried to think up a quick lie but nothing was coming to mind. Even if he was to come up with one it probably come out wrong. He wasn't one to lie anyway he was truthful about everything. "Alright.." He sighed heavily. "the reason I ran out so quickly is because I seen the flow of chakra within sensei's body…"
"That's impossible..no one can do that!" Eriya retorted.
"No, no it's not Eriya." Setsuko said. "Only those with that special ability can do it. Remember Hanzi's eyes when we were in the room. His dōjutsu was active, the Byakugan."
Hanzi nodded. "The Byakugan is a dōjutsu available only to those in the Hyūga clan. I inherited my eyes from my mother which is how I got them. With it, it gives the me the ability to see the flow of chakra as well as the chakra points in another's body. There are many other abilities that come with having this dōjutsu but that is one. When I seen sensei's chakra flow, it wasn't the normal color blue, it was emerald green which symbolizes poison.."
"Poison..?" Eriya mumbled. He shook his head. "No it's not! There's nothing wrong with green chakra, it's normal.." Eriya could hear his voice start to tremble his face was getting hot his body was tensing up from anger and frustration. He pressed his hands against the side of his head and took deep breaths to calm himself down. "So what if it's poison..she's going to be fine, right?"
Hanzi gulped. It tore him to pieces to see his friend this way. Telling him that he was unsure of what was going to happen to their sensei, would only wreck the boy even further. "Yea." He said firmly though he was feeling terrible now for lying. "She's going to be fine Eriya. Sakura and the other medical ninja of this hospital are going to make sure Indo-sensei walks out of her in top health." He smiled and raised one of his thumbs up. "Believe it!" He was suddenly starting to feel better about the lie. It wasn't a bad lie. There was nothing wrong with trying to reassure him that his sister was going to be alright.
"That's right." Setsuko spoke up. "My mom is the best at what she does, she'll make sure sensei walks out of here in top health. So stop being so emotional is crippling to yourself."
Eriya's eyes softened. The Uchiha girl did have a point. He'd been letting his emotions get to him a little too much lately. But it was just that he worried a lot about his sibling. He and her were the only ones left out of their clan and if one loose the other then what? They both had to look out for each other, protect one another so that they wouldn't just known as just another slain clan. He had to get stronger; he needed to in order to be of equal strength with his sister. and destroy….him. The boy nodded. "Fine starting today I will not allow my emotions cripple me no longer. I'll go about handling things in a different way from now on."He said with a small smile that Setsuko and Hanzi both returned.
:::
"I'm glad that I didn't have to result in using a jutsu that would involve tapping into your mind. I was really contemplating over if for the simple fact that it's very dangerous and could cause memory loss to the victim. But I'm glad you're awake and well now so I don't have to use the jutsu." Naruto explained to a now healthy Indo.
Indo nodded slowly while flipping through her bingo book of missing ninja. It had been several days that she was in the hospital. She was glad that she was finally out of there. Lying around in bed all day was really starting to bother her. She wondered how her Genin's training was going with Kakashi. She'd heard that Kakashi was a tough instructor which is why she chose him to substitute in her absence. "Thank-you, but I thank your son as well. Had he not used his dōjutsu a few days ago, I'd probably still be in the hospital." Her searching through the small black book came to a stop when she remembered that these were only the dangerous and missing ninja of the Land of Fire. She cursed lowly. This was a major setback now how would she or the other ANBU find him.
Naruto smiled merrily and turned to the window for a few seconds. "Yes I heard about that. I'm glad that Hanzi put his abilities to good use." He said then turned back to the girl in front of him. His expression was now a serious one. The blonde pulled his chair closer to his desk and folded his hands against it. "But on a more important note, I need to know who that ninja was that attacked you the other night. It's been on my mind ever since and knowing that there is a potential there wondering anywhere close to Kanoha fills me with great worry." He explained.
At first the girl didn't wish to release any information about the missing ninja because she wanted to find and handle him herself. He was her problem not anyone else's. And she wanted no one else to kill him but either her or Eriya. But knowing that he showed up in Konoha could be a big threat for everyone in the village. And holding important information like this from the Kage was a bad idea. Indo held up her small black book before lying it down on upon the Kage's desk. "Well for starter's he's not listed in this book because he's not a missing ninja of the fire country, He's a ninja from the country in which I come from, the Land of Deception and a ninja of Iryujongakure. That ninja is.." She clenched her fist in a tight fist against the desk unintentionally exposing her anger and hate for the male to the Hokage. "He's my brother…"
"Your…" Naruto pulled open a drawer on the side of his desk and picked up a large black book and placed it down on the desk in front of him. So this was like another Sasuke and Itachi situation. He remembered the struggle that everyone went through because of that issue and didn't wish to see something like that unfold again. "This is the Bingo Book+" He said and pushed the book towards the girl. "This book holds missing and dangerous ninja in every ninja country."
Indo nodded and turned through the pages for a few minutes until she came across the picture and information of him. "Here he is…" She pushed the book towards the Hokage so he could get a look
Naruto read over the male's history and information before closing the book and placing it back within the drawer. Just as Itachi did to his clan, this male did the exact same, only he kept two alive except for one. What could his purpose for that be? Would he do as Itachi did and reveal some appalling information to the two when he's just seconds away from his death bed? Or is there something more sinister behind his method for sparing the lives of two? "Did you two exchange words at any point during your encounter?"
Indo shook her head "I do remember that we talked, but as far as what we discussed, I don't remember."
"Damn.." This was bad. Without that all he had was a missing ninja that slaughtered his entire clan. That was not good enough. "Well I'm going to gather up all the other ANBU and have them search the entire country and see if they find him. If they come across him, you'll be the first I inform." He said. "But I need you to try and remember what it was the two of you discussed that night. It's extremely important that you do. Understand?"
Indo nodded and after being dismissed by the Hokage, she left into the village and headed for the third training ground to see what her Genin and Kakashi were up to. It was the middle of the day and the sun's stifling rays were shining brightly on the town. The people walked through the town rather sluggishly today, fanning themselves as well as carrying bottles of water that they poured over their faces and neck to cool down. Indo seemed to only ignore the heat and walked through the village as if the heat didn't faze her. She'd been on so many missions in the hot sun that days like this didn't bother her in the least. The girl reached into the pouch strapped to the back of her and pulled out a novel that she had started reading before being emitted to the hospital. She tried to concentrate on reading but her mind focused on everything but the book. She sighed and closed her eyes as the events of what occurred a few nights ago played back in her mind. It angered her that she allowed him to beat her that way. It just shows that all the training she'd done up to this point was useless. She had train harder. Maybe she needed to take advantage of that other ability she had. This wasn't the time for her to be locking away any potential strength she had. He made his first appearance after five years and she doubted that it would be his last..
Upon seeing the Training ground coming into view, Indo placed her book back into the pouch around her waist and stopped a good distance away from the location and watched the Genin's training with Kakashi. She had to admit that she was very impressed with their improvement over just a course of six days. Some of her doubts about them not being able to handle their assigned mission started to fade but not completely. They were still Genin meaning there was still a lot that she had to teach them. The session finally came to an end and he said what he had to say to the three before turning them back over to their original instructor who they were very much glad to see. Indo turned to Kakashi before he walked off and thanked him for taking over in her absence. Kakashi responded by saying "anytime." Before darting off towards the village.
The three Genin huddled around their sensei and hugged her glad for her return. All she could do was smile. "Well I hope you guys are ready."
All three Genin nodded in unison. Tomorrow was the day of their mission to Sunagakure. "We're more than ready!" Hanzi said speaking for all three of them. "We'll do our very best on this mission Indo-Sensei, you'll see."
"Glad to hear that, now give me a brief demonstration of what you've all learned." She said then sat back as the Genin showed her the many abilities and techniques taught to them by Kakashi. She was very impressed. "Very nice." She commented, leaving smiles on all of the Genin's faces. "Now, I have one more challenge for the three of you before we head out tomorrow." She seen that the three worked fine as individuals but how well did they co-operate as a team? Did those skills improves as well since their very first mission? There was only one way to find out. She pulled two bells from her pouch at the side of her leg. She remembered that Naruto gave her these the day she was assigned to instruct the three. He explained to her that Kakashi used the bell method to test out his team's ability to work together. But he told them not to tell the Genin that until the end of the challenge. "The first two to take these bells from me, will be accompanying me on the mission to Sunagakue tomorrow. The one left without a bell at the end of the challenge will be left here and will remain a Genin for the rest of their shinobi days." She explained. Indo slipped the bells through her belt loop and let it hang at her side. "You have three hours you can use whatever ability or technique you'd like as long as you get the bells from me." The girl pulled her book out from her pouch and began reading.
The Genin stood there in shock. She just said she was impressed with their abilities and now she was throwing another challenge at them that involved one of them not being able to participate in the mission tomorrow as well as not being able to excel in the shinobi ranking system if failed. "Sensei that's not fair! We all worked very hard for this you can't just illuminate one of us from the mission if one of us doesn't get a bell. That's unfair!" Hanzi complained. Indo looked from the pages of her book for a few seconds to glance at the boy then went back to reading. "You're wasting time standing around and complaining about how unfair the rules are. If the mission tomorrow means so much to you get the bells from me before your teammates do." She said dryly as she continued flipping through the pages of her book.
Hanzi's eyes danced to the bells at the girl's side. They were in perfect reaching distance so he did just that but his action was unsuccessful when the girl quickly grabbed his arm and swung him towards the water.
SPLASH!
Setsuko and Eriya both watched for they had the same idea in mind but seeing Hanzi do it and was very unsuccessful, they now realized that this was going to be a more complicated challenge then they thought. Knowing that one them were on the line of not participating in the mission tomorrow as well as being a Genin forever, made them want to take the seriously. They had to be strategic..