Now then, after all of that depressiveness from last chapter, let's move on. I think next chapter will be the last in this part, unless this idea I have develops. Short? Too bad! :D

I awoke again to see my brother in his newly acquired school uniform. He was kneeling over and writing furiously on what I soon found was one of his many homework booklets. His look of concentration was almost amusing.

I got to my feet and quickly pulled my Akatsuki coat and hat on. I took out a pill that Kakuzu had given me and inspected it critically. As expected, it tasted horrible when I finally decided to take it. I tried not to imagine what it was made of.

"What are you working on?" I asked as I approached him.

"The human anatomy part. I did lots with Kakuzu sensei last night so it's easy."

"What'd you learn about?" I asked, looking over his shoulder.

"The names of different organs and muscles as well as where they are in the body. He said we'd do that for the rest of this week. Next week we're going to learn about the different shapes and functions. Then about the tissue and cells… I didn't really understand the rest…" he replied, frowning. But he shrugged it off and smiled at me.

Kakuzu certainly wasn't mucking around. Obviously knowing what the body should look like was the key to fixing something damaged.

"Have you eaten? We'd better go soon." I said once he'd finished labelling major muscles in the body.

"Yeah, let's go." He agreed, shoving what he'd done into his backpack. The teacher would probably want to take a look at it.

The consistent rains had returned for the morning, so we got the chance to see if our clothes were really as waterproof as they appeared. It turns out they were.

I noticed that Sasuke's demeanor changed slightly as we approached the school. Was it just nerves? Or was something else going on?

It was paranoia that convinced me to look into this. If Sasuke didn't want to talk about it then I would make Fumuku talk about it.

We arrived at the school at the normal time today, so there were already children in their classrooms waiting for the day to begin.

It was only because they were already inside that no attention was drawn to Sasuke and I as we walked through the corridor.

As we were about to turn the corner to enter Sasuke's classroom, he stopped suddenly and turned to me. I looked to him questioningly and stopped as well.

"U-uh, maybe you shouldn't come into the classroom with me…" he muttered, averting his gaze.

"Why not?" I asked, kneeling down in front of him.

"Well…" he mumbled as he shifted uncomfortably.

"What's going on?" I asked, letting my worry show. I tilted his jaw, forcing him to at least face me.

"I don't want to sound whiney, but…" he took a deep breath and looked up at me, "The other kids are scared of me. They treat me different and if they saw me with you then…"

"It would only be worse?" I finished for him, dropping my hands back to my sides. He nodded fervently.

To tell the truth I was utterly relieved. He didn't realise it, but having people scared of you was infinitely preferable to him being scared of them.

I patted him on the shoulder before standing, "If that's the only problem you have right now, then I'll see you at the end of the day, ok?" I turned and began to walk away.

Sasuke loitered by the corner for a bit longer before calling, "Try not to be late this time!"

I shook my head; "I'll try." I replied, waving over my shoulder.

I could feel that this would be the new routine until Leader returned. Wake up, take medication, send Sasuke off to school (whether or not I would actually take him would definitely be argued with Kakuzu later). Patrol for eight hours, pick Sasuke up (again, a debate), and help him with homework or work on his chakra control. Then he would spend the last hours of the day with Kakuzu, working on medical jutsu.

This was the perfect schedule.

I knew he would learn a lot in the little time he had to benefit from living like this.

Just a heads up, next chapter starts at a nine month time skip.
Also, I'm trying to be less and less cliche in this story, so things that you expect to happen may never actually do so.