I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.


Recovery

Ryuu groaned, opening his eyes and looked around. He was in a cave and a man with a orange mask with a spiral design around the only opening, a black shirt, black pants, and metal splints hanging off the sides of his waist was sitting beside the bed, arms crossed and a Sharingan watching him from the eye hole.

"An Uchiha?" Ryuu groaned. "You're not Itachi. You've got the wrong bearing for that. So, who are you?"

"I am Madara Uchiha," the man stated, voice deep and empty of all emotion. "I saved your life. The wounds Deidara inflicted should have killed you. They would have, if I hadn't arrived when I did. I was unable to save your right arm or leg so I gave you a prosthetic, of sorts."

Ryuu looked and his mouth fell open. They were the color of snow and with a line where the color instantly switched back to normal on his shoulder a few inches into his torso and a second one on his right thigh about a forth of the way down, just below his boxers, which was all he had on. They were also shriveled and little more than skin and bone.

"Where are my clothes?" Ryuu croaked.

"Destroyed in the blast," Madara stated. "I'll get you some more once you've-"

"Don't bother," Ryuu interrupted spotting a black cloak with red clouds beside Madara. "You see, there are two things I hate in this world. First, is the group that your cloak shows your allegiance to, the same group that just tried to kill me, the same group that is planning to kill Fu, if they haven't already. The Second thing, is a man wearing an orange mask and a black cloak, which I now know is in the Akatsuki. That's you, Madara. I won't let you take my eyes."

"Take your eyes?" Madara scoffed. "Never. Your eyes are useless to me. I saved you not because I wish to steal from you, but because I want to work with you. You are an incredibly strong ninja. You would make an excellent member of my group."

"Fuck you," Ryuu growled, standing, noticing his right leg barely responding, same with his arm. "I would die before working with you fuckers. And I don't need your help with rehabilitation. I can do that myself."

"Can you?" Madara asked before tossing a kunai to Ryuu who caught it in his left hand. "Then kill me, if you can."

Ryuu hobbled forward, struggling to get his leg to move. As he reached Madara he swung at him and Madara easily swatted his arm aside then lightly pushed Ryuu, sending him crashing to the floor.

"It would seem you're having some trouble after all," Madara stated.

"I never said it'd be easy for me to rehab myself," Ryuu growled. "I just said I don't need your help."

"Need or want?" Madara asked.

"Both," Ryuu spat. "Now get the fuck out!"

Madara stared at him for a moment before picking up his cloak and walking away disappearing into the shadow. All fell silent as Ryuu lay on the floor, struggling to move his arm and leg. Just as he was getting the hang of moving his leg slowly, the same man that had warned him about Fu being attacked rose out of the ground.

"There you are," the man greeted. "So, as you may have guessed, I'm not human."

His body unraveled itself, revealing himself to be empty before reconstructing himself.

"I'm built out of the same thing as your arm and leg are," the thing stated. "Guess what having that as part of you means."

"I swear to God if you say I'm related to you..." Ryuu growled slowly pulling his foot closer to himself to try to stand.

"Stop!" the thing shrieked waving his arms in front of himself. "You have to give it a few days or the arm and leg will peel off and be useless to you! Then you'll die! And no, you're not related to me. It means that you don't need to eat or drink to survive, just like me! Also, you no longer pee or poo!"

"Excuse me," Ryuu blinked.

"You don't poo anymore!" the thing exclaimed again giving him a thumbs up. "To explain it, even if you do eat and drink, your body will just turn it into chakra and replenish any that you have lost or give you a boost. Same thing with anything currently inside your belly. Your body now survives so long as you have chakra."

"That's...gross," Ryuu stated. "Why are you here?"

"Madara ordered me to rehab you," the thing stated. "Don't worry, I'm not going to suffocate you in your sleep with your pillow or anything."

Ryuu looked at the pillow for a moment then picked it up and created a Flame Sword, instantly regretting it. He dropped the burning pillow, the effort of even using that small amount of chakra made his nose practically spray blood and nearly made him black out. He held a hand to his nose, managing to slow the bleeding then lay back on the bed. After the bleeding had stopped, he let his hand fall to the side and passed out.


Ryuu slowly made his way toward the wall, new leg shaking and only barely able to support his weight. He had been doing rehab for weeks already and his arm and leg were finally responding to commands, but only barely. The first day when he had woken up, it had been bright enough for Ryuu to inspect himself more closely. He was shocked at how little damage there had actually been. Aside from his arm and leg, which were finally starting to grow, being halfway to looking like they weren't freshly removed from a week old corpse, he had only two other scars from the explosion. One had been on the right side of his face, where his ear and cheek were badly burned, the ear seeming little more than a pile of melted flesh. He had healed that scar back to the way his face always had been, miraculously. His other scar took up the entire right half of his torso in the front, and likely the back as well. The was a large, vaguely flame-shaped patch of scarred flesh that was somewhere in the middle of Ryuu's new arm and leg and the rest of his healthier body.

Ryuu stumbled as his leg gave out and caught himself on the wall using both hands. he grinned. His arm's reflexes were getting better. He got his foot under him again and pushed off the wall, steadying himself before turning around and walking back toward the bed. Just as he neared it, his leg gave out again. This time, the ting that had been watching over him caught him and carried him the rest of the way, setting him on the bed before walking to the wall opposite it and leaning against it.

"Have you seen your own reflection since the battle?" the thing asked.

"No why?" Ryuu grunted not looking at him.

"Here," the thing said tossing a small mirror to the bed beside Ryuu's right hand.

He picked it up carefully then raised it to look at himself. He first noticed his hair having grown below his ears already, where it had been above his ears before he had fought Sasori and Deidara. The next thing he saw was his Sharingan. He had been keeping them active as long as he could the last couple of days, being able to keep them almost all the time now. He was surprised at their appearance because they had three tomoe now. He remembered feeling his eyes itch and then burn during his fight and got an idea. He tried to activate his Sharingan again, despite them already being active, and they began to change. They first turned opposite colors, the red turning black and the black red, then the tomoe began to grow and open. When it was done, there were three shapes that looked like kunai crossing at his pupil. Ryuu stared in shock before looking at the thing watching over him.

"I have Mangekyo Sharingan?" Ryuu muttered.

"Yes," the thing nodded. "And I assume you know the dangers of using it?"

"No, what is it?" Ryuu asked.

"The Mangekyo Sharingan is the second strongest form of the Sharingan," the thing stated. "It grants the wielder abilities beyond any others granted by the Sharingan. However, using them will put an immense strain on the user's body, causing the Mangekyo Sharingan to go blind, the longer they are used. This problem has two solutions. One, is by transplanting another's Mangekyo Sharingan into the first's creating a Mangekyo Sharingan that will not fade and will not go blind. Madara calls it the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan. The other method is already in your possession. That arm and leg of yours are made from the cells of a clone of Hashirama Senju. Hashirama's cells stabilize the Mangekyo Sharingan, allowing it to be used without going blind. However, it is impossible to tell if this is a permanent solution, so you should go light on using it."

"Alright," Ryuu nodded deactivating his Mangekyo Sharingan. "Thank you for telling me. I'll go without it for a while, until I figure out what I can do with it."

He pushed himself up again, taking a breath before continuing.


"One...two...three," the thing counted as he slowly descended, then rose, then descended again.

"Fifteen," Ryuu replied. "How many cadence push-ups do I have to do?"

"How many could you do before?" the thing asked.

"Thirty," Ryuu replied.

"Wow you're strong!" the thing gasped. "Maybe I should be following you instead of Madara."

"Yeah right," Ryuu snorted just as his arm gave out spilling the thing, who had been sitting on Ryuu's back, to the ground. "Damn."

The thing jumped up onto the bed and Ryuu pushed himself up. It had been almost three months, by his count, since the battle. He could now keep his Sharingan active basically as long as he wanted. His new arm and leg were visually no different than his normal ones but were still only halfway to being the way they should be.

"Catch me," the thing ordered.

Ryuu looked at him just as he took off sprinting into the cave they were in. Ryuu chased him, keeping up for the large part, until they reached a large cavern with stone spires around the room. The thing leapt to the top of one then sideways to the top of another. When it landed, Ryuu landed behind him. It leapt across the room to another and Ryuu landed in front of him a moment later. He leapt sideways to a lower one and Ryuu followed. After several more, Ryuu landed on the ground behind the thing and his leg gave out, Ryuu managing to stay on his feet and set his leg down.

"You're progressing quickly," the thing stated.


Ryuu crouched, holding one hand to his left between himself and the thing watching over him and his new hand curled into a fist at his waist. the thing darted forward, throwing a punch at him and Ryuu knocked it aside with his left hand then spun the other way, smashing his right elbow into the thing's head making it stumble away before spinning and throwing a kick at Ryuu. Ryuu jumped and spun, blocking the kick with his right shin then continued to spin, kicking the thing away. It landed on his feet then darted forward with a haymaker. Ryuu caught it with his right hand then grabbed the thing by the head and smashed it into the ground, cracking the floor.

"Impressive," the thing stated standing and dusting himself off. "I would say you're finished recovering. Four months. Not bad. I've seen longer. Only seen one shorter, though, so I'd have to say you're one of the best two shinobi I've ever seen."

"Good," Ryuu grunted walking over to the pile of clothing the thing had gotten him the day before for when he finished rehab. "I'm going home. How long has it been?"

"About two years and a half years," the thing stated.

"Really?" Ryuu blinked. "It felt like longer."

He pulled his clothes on quickly then looked to the thing and smirked.

"You got a name?" Ryuu asked.

"Not really," the thing shrugged. "The Hidden Leaf Village is about four days west of here. It's to the right when you step outside."

Ryuu nodded and sprinted out of the cave then turned west and spread his arms, smiling up at the sky at the feeling of fresh air against his skin. He couldn't wait to get back. He was going to have to have someone tell him what had happened while he was gone. Probably the Hokage. He tried to imagine what Hiruzen would look like by now and had trouble imagining him looking much older.


Read and review. If the last part about Hiruzen confused you, try to remember that Ryuu was captured while Hiruzen and Orochimaru were fighting so he never learned about Hiruzen's death.