A/N: I don't own Naruto, wish I did, but like my grandma used to say, wish in one hand, piss in the other; see which one fills up faster.
And now, on with the show….
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Chapter 5 – And Then We Breathe
A relieved Shizune exited the intensive care unit to find a hallway full of expectant ninja. The perverted member of Tsunade-sensei's legendary squad sat on the right hand side, chin tilted up to the ceiling as his head leant back to rest on the wall, a slight girl with dark tresses and purple facial tattoos lay propped against his left arm for support, her eyes were wide open in anticipation of Shizune's words, but the shadows beneath them and her slouched posture revealed her fatigue. The strain of the mission was taxing her. Jiraiya's former student, Minato, Konoha's own Yellow Flash, stood to the left clutching his wife, Kushina's hand in his own as she calmly rubbed his shoulder in an effort to soothe and comfort the distraught ninja. A young grey haired boy lounging in a dilapidated wheelchair opposite Jiraiya, looking up at her eagerly from his book, waiting for her to speak. Shizune was glad to see he had been reading to pass the time, unlike some other agitating ninja she knew who would have scoured the hospital in search of victims to prank and trouble to get into. Unbidden, a vision of Shiranui Genma and his frequent partner in crime, Morino Ibiki, careening wildly down the hall in wheelchairs as nurses and doctors alike frantically tried to escape being bulldozed by the whirling dervishes, almost causing her to chuckle. Not this boy though, his calm demeanor and maturity were shining examples of what a ninja should be. Instead of causing a nuisance he was reading a book, probably one of the classics, in fact she could just make out the title of it. Wait, what was that he was reading? It certainly didn't look like one of the classics.
"Jiraiya, didn't Tsunade-sensei tell you to stop hanging out your smutty novels to the students" Shizune howled; her opinion of the silver haired shinobi dropping right down to sit with Genma and Ibiki as his face blushed pink proving her assumption correct.
"Now, now Shizune-chan, Tsunade is certainly not my sensei. And that's not really important right now, is it?" Jiraiya soothed. "How's the boy? Is he going to make it?"
Five sets of eyes stared up at her hungrily for the information. "Yes, he's going to be fine. He's going to need a lot of intense physical therapy if he wants to continue being a ninja but the eye transplant was a success, and we expect he'll make a full recovery."
A veritable sigh could be heard through the corridor as the five shinobi exhaled in unison and the tension disappeared from their bodies.
"Arigato, Shizune-san. I can't tell you how glad I am that you and Tsunade-hime were here in the village. I don't even want to think about could have happened if you weren't," Minato smiled beautifully as he thanked her, his handsome face lighting up from the effort.
"Oh, ha-ha, ummm thank you, but it was m-mostly Tsunade-sensei who did all the work," Shizune answered, feeling a little flustered, she'd had a crush on the striking young shinobi since she first met him and often found it difficult to speak in his presence. "I-I'm just glad we were still around to help, umm… we're leaving at the end of the week."
"Why so soon?" Kushina questioned. "You just got here. I've barely gotten to see Tsunade and she's already going again?"
Shizune shrugged noncommittally, she'd forgotten how close the kunoichi was to her mentor. Kushina and Tsunade both shared a love of gambling and sake. Much to Shizune and Minato's chagrin, whenever Tsunade was in town the two of them could be frequently be found feeding money to the slot machines at Senju Palace, drunkenly leaning against one another in an effort to stand up. Shizune couldn't count the amount of money the two of them had lost in the time they'd known each other, and she was sure that Minato didn't want to.
"Tsunade-hime had important things to do dear," Minato scolded his wife. "She has people to heal and jutsu to perfect. A sannin's work is never done. You can't expect her to spend all her time getting sloshed and throwing away her money, sweetie."
It was obvious from Kushina's face that "sweetie" had done nothing to soften his reprimand. If looks could kill Konoha's Yellow Flash wouldn't have lived to fight another day. "I don't think it was you I asked. Was it Minato-teme?"
Shizune shuffled her feet uncomfortably and sheepishly gazed at the floor, trying desperately not to look up at the angry kunoichi. "I'm not really sure why we're leaving so soon."
Thankfully the small tattooed girl stood up and maneuvered her way to the center of the awkward triangle, composed of Shizune, Minato, and Kushina; breaking the tension and giving Shizune and opportunity to escape.
"Ohayou gozaimasu, Shizune-san," the girl spoke softly. "I'm Rin, Obito's teammate, and I wanted to thank you and Tsunade-hime for saving him. I am so grateful."
"It's nice to meet you Rin-san, and it was a pleasure to have been able to help someone from the village. We're here so infrequently that it's nice to do something for one of our own for a change. I have to be going now though; I'm trying to spend some quality time with my family before we leave again. Tsunade-sensei should be coming out soon and she can take a look at your injuries. I'm afraid I don't have enough chakra left for it."
"It's quite alright, you've done more than enough to help us," Minato eased.
"Don't worry about it Shizune-chan!" Jiraiya exuberantly patted her on the shoulder, almost scaring her out of her yukata, when did he even stand up, she thought. "These kids are hearty; they'll be fine until she gets here."
"Arigato, Jiraiya-sama. Hopefully I'll see you around," Shizune smiled and left to visit with her family.
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Tsunade moved her right hand over Kakashi's left eye again, her green medical chakra lighting the boys face as she probed and scanned the optic nerve for a third time, disbelief painted her face. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, it should not even have been possible, but here was the proof staring her right in the face. Kakashi's new left eye, and Obito's old one, spun with three straight lines diverging from the center pupil, dividing the iris into three equal parts; a manifestation of the sharingan she had never seen before, one that was supposedly a myth; the mangekyo sharingan. And as startling as this was, it wasn't the mangekyo that had her transfixed, but the actual condition of the eye itself.
Kakashi's new eye had been implanted perfectly. Tsunade had never seen such exquisite work. The macula and fovea were attached to the optic nerve with a precision she had never seen, and in all honesty would not have thought possible. From what she'd heard, the surgery had taken place just earlier in the day and on the battle field no less. Yet all the nerve endings fit together perfectly and if she hadn't known it had happened she wouldn't have been able to tell the eye hadn't belonged to Kakashi from the get go. The surgery had been performed so well Tsunade would swear that the eye was not an implant but the eye he'd been born with. There was no scar tissue, scabbing, discoloration, or flaw of any kind to be found, which was just insane.
Obito's eye had been removed and inserted in Kakashi's socket in the field, without proper anesthetic or surgical instruments and it still managed to be perfect. If someone was to go in and study Obito's currently new eye, and then compare it to the work done on Kakashi's they would have thought a novice had worked on it. That was how good the surgeon had been.
"Minato, who did this?" Tsunade asked.
"Did what?"
"The surgery on Kakashi-kun's eye, teme," Kushina spat as she punched her husband, obviously still sore from their spat earlier.
"Oh," he said. "Rin did it. Don't be too hard on her though, she was in a rush and they didn't really have ideal circumstances for something like that."
Kakashi blinked, "Is something wrong? It doesn't feel like it, I think its working fine, and I can see better than ever."
"Rin? The girl who was just here? She did this? The one with the tattooed face?" Tsunade gaped.
"Yeah," Minato said excusing his student. "But like I said, conditions weren't optimal and…"
"Minato," Tsunade interrupted. "There is no need to defend her. The work she did here is amazing. I doubt if I could have done a job this well myself. Her chakra control is astonishing. Who has been training her?"
"I have," he replied.
"Not her daily training. Who is providing her medical supervision?"
"Oh, ummmm… nobody. She's been studying on her own, taking books out of the library, and practicing on herself and injured animals."
"Extraordinary," the Sannin remarked. "You should be extremely proud of her. She has the potential to be the best medic I've ever seen. If this is an example of her work she'll be without peers in a surgical profession. With more chakra manipulation and control her skill will surpass my own."
Minato stared at Tsunade, "Do you think she should be learning more chakra control?"
"Yes, of course. Her talent should not be wasted."
The Yellow Flash swallowed the lump in his throat. He knew he wasn't the one to teach Rin chakra control, it was probably the very ninja skill he had the least proficiency in; as a matter of fact one could definitely say it was his worst. In fact, his shunshin jutsu had been developed as an aftereffect of him not knowing what to do with all the unnecessary extra chakra he always molded when performing jutsu. He'd just taken it ad roughly shoved all the excess to his feet and the result was the stuff of legends. Unfortunately this made it impossible for him to be the one to supervise Rin's medic training. He knew what he had to ask, and how much it would break his heart.
"Nanitozo, please Tsunade-hime, please take her with you," Minato asked, though he would miss his most precious student, as unfair as it was Rin had always been his favorite, and he hated to think what the team would be like without her.
Tsunade looked up at him and nodded, tears had begun to pool in the corners of his eyes, and his whole demeanor had changed. The proud parent of five minutes ago now replaced with a despondent and forlorn man. Though his sadness was consuming him, he knew he was doing what was best for Rin. Tsunade would take and mold her into an outstanding medic nin and Rin would thank him for it, but it still hurt to lose her before he was ready.
"Arigato Tsunade-hime," Minato sniffled.
Crack! Kushina smacked the back of his head.
"Stop being a baby!" she admonished. "She's just going for training, it's not the last time you'll see her."