Ringo squirmed, trying not to groan at the unrelenting feeling of chakra pushing through her insides.

Healing sessions did NOT feel good. She'd thought they would, with all that she'd heard about medical ninjutsu. She'd believed that they'd feel like...like healing, like strength being restored to her after it had been stripped away. That wasn't the case. It felt bizarre, uncomfortable, and, as she would swear to her deathbed, it hurt an incredible amount. Maybe it was just that that she was still in poor condition no matter the healing, but it reminded her of the invasive diagnostic jutsu. Energy being pushed into her body and swimming around and in her organs...it was exhausting and strange, more than anything else. Add on to that the fact that it still used her own body's resources as well as the chakra used to perform it, and it moved her from sore and tired to moody and in pain.

And, unfortunately, a moody Ringo was a snappy Ringo, and a snappy Ringo led to an angry Shizune.

"Just deal with it!", she shouted, hands pressed firm against Ringo's side, coated in soft, blue-green medical chakra.

"I am dealin' with it!" Ringo yelled back against the harsh strain of her throat, voice tremoring roughly, severely biting back the harshness of its delivery. "You deal with it!"

Shizune was clearly ready to smack her if she kept being so resistant, but dammit, she was trying! It wasn't a fun thing and it'd been going on for so damn long. Ringo had completely lost track of time, but she'd readily believe the sun could come up at any moment with how long this seemed to take.

"Ain't it done yet!? How long's it been, eight hours!?"

Shizune growled back at her out of clenched teeth, trying to remain focused on the healing jutsu. "It hasn't even been thirty minutes! Aren't you tougher than this!?"

"Aren't you gonna lay off!?"

The glow from Shizune's hands dissipated with a frustrated huff, and for a moment Ringo feared she annoyed her doctor into leaving her to die. Fortunately, Shizune spoke up as she snatched a towel from her table setup to dab at her forehead, stomping towards the door with heavy, angry steps.

"You're going to need a lot of sessions like these, so get used to them! Now go to sleep! You've got another coming up tomorrow morning, and I am not putting up with another like this!"

The door slammed shut behind her, and Ringo let out a breath she wasn't aware she'd been holding, coughing a few times from the feeling, then lightly rubbing a few fingers against her neck, trying to ease the pain. Yelling probably wasn't the best decision considering her throat still hurt like hell at the best of times, and everything she said was garbled anyways. Still...

'Thank Kami that's over...'

Suddenly she was just a bit thankful she'd been able to deal with injuries until now by just toughing them out, or regular bandaging and first aid. Healing ninjutsu always seemed so clean and cool, but it wasn't nice at all. Honestly, if it didn't save her so much time and if she didn't require it, she'd be refusing every session. But, it was required, and Shizune was right that she'd have to get used to them. She could complain about them after they were no longer absolutely necessary.

...That didn't mean she'd like it in the meantime, though.

Ringo nestled her head against the puffy hotel pillow, pulling the bed's soft linen blanket back over her.

'...aaaaah!' she groaned directly into the pillows fabric. That's so good! How could she possibly stay moody when she was in a place like this!? Why was everything in Fire Country just so damn comfy!?

Maybe that was how everyone in Leaf got so soft. They spoiled themselves rotten. Maybe that's how they all got so weird, too...? As much as the water still skeeved her out around here, it could be that when the people here didn't have anything at all to worry about, they just did...whatever. Explored places nobody would think to explore. Think thoughts that should never be thunk.

'An interesting line of thought', she mildly noted. It had already started. She was becoming one of them.

She didn't even try to stop the shiver down her back at that.

Though that didn't explain the normality of Shizune. Tsunade...wouldn't be counted as completely normal, due to her gambling obsession despite her utter hopelessness with it. And her seeming love of the dramatic. There was no way that over the shoulder glare wasn't perfected by practice. You had to try for that shit.

She forced herself to stop considering the Sannin's dramatic flair. For now she should probably just sleep. Doctor's orders after all, and rest was coming much easier than she expected, having just had her insides prowled through once again. It was either her exhaustion from the session, her lingering soreness and lack of energy from the surgery, or the bed she'd have literally killed to get if she was still in Kiri.

With the drowsiness overtaking her and no point in worrying about tomorrow, Ringo wrapped herself neatly in the bed's blankets and quickly drifted into a deep sleep, able to mostly ignore the lingering burn in her sides, and the scratching in her chest that surfaced with every small breath.

(Shizune)

She couldn't resist stomping towards her own room in the hotel, no matter the complaints she might receive or the neighboring hotel clients she might anger. She was just...just so frustrated! Why did she have to deal with this for the next couple months!?

That girl was impossible. Never before has she seen someone so...so!...so resistant to basic medical practice! Nobody else squirmed like that when they were being healed! Nobody else got that moody when they were about to be healed! And though she'd gotten "that feels kinda funny" comments about diagnostic examinations, Ringo flailed about like it was killing her. Which, if it was, the diagnostic jutsu would show it, so that was not the case.

'Maybe it's a cultural thing...?'

Shizune sighed. Ringo had likely never been under medical ninjutsu before, but that had been the case many times for her patients, and it was never this bad. Though, to be fair, it was probably very much affected by the girl's condition. Something about it that made it feel weird, or pinch just a bit too much. Though the girl was still overly combative.

At least that meant it would ease as time went on.

...hopefully it would ease as time went on. Oh Kami, if THAT was the lasting effect of her illness, that it would make her a terrible patient, then-

...then at least she wouldn't need to deal with it after they left.

Sighing again, she resigned herself to the fact that Ringo was very likely just an astoundingly frustrating person. As for her condition, she'd see tomorrow. Another healing session, another diagnostic jutsu, and she should be able to gauge the path of Ringo's recovery properly. Until then, she should just work on getting sleep. She needed rest just as much as her patient did at this point.

Which is why, of course, upon entering her room, another headache greeted her.

"Mahhh Shizuneeee..."

Her ever astounding mentor laid flat on one of the beds, haori tossed over her face and sprawled out like a star. She was not in the mood to deal with this. Unfortunately, she didn't have it in her to leave it alone.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Shizune stepped sternly to the bedside, lifting her teacher's haori up. Tsunade scrunched up her face, whining out a small "whyyy" and drawing her arm over her eyes.

"Lady Tsunade. Have you been drinking?"

"Yes."

Yet again, she sighed. When her teacher seemed to swear off gambling in this area for now, she'd thought Tsunade would actually calm down entirely for a while. So far, however, it seemed that refusing to gamble only increased her other vice in its place. Placing Tsunade's haori at the foot of the bed, she started searching for the sake bottle she knew had to be in here somewhere. Taking it away wouldn't stop her, but it would at least set a precedent.

"You should really take it easy on the sake.", she scolded. "We're going to be here for a good amount of time. It would probably be best to find something else to occupy you."

"But Shizuneeee, there's nothing else to dooooo..."

"Then look for something!" she snapped, "You're not spending the next two months drunk inside!"

Tsunade groaned, rolling over onto her side as Shizune rummaged around, finally finding and confiscating the bottle underneath the bed's pillows, and tucking it under an arm.

"Get some rest, and go outside tomorrow! I'll get you out there myself if I have to."

Her mentor sulked like a five year old, lazily pulling one of the pillows over the side of her head and muttering, "This place really is bad luck..."

"You can deal with it. Now go to sleep, and find something better to do tomorrow."

Locking the bottle up on her side of the room, Shizune finally crawled into her own bed, drowning out the incessant mewling of her drunk teacher, rest only finding her thanks to the inexorable exhaustion brought from dealing with two whiny nuisances in need of her help.

When morning came, far too soon in Shizune's opinion, she hadn't rested nearly as much as she had been hoping to, but things had still started out marginally better than the day before. Without too much difficulty, she'd managed to kick Tsunade out of the hotel and wrangled a resigned agreement from her to find something to do that wasn't at a bar, to start.

And her other ward, as she was beginning to realize, was...actually behaving herself. When Shizune had walked in with another tray of food, she was welcomed with groggy elation from the girl. Despite her nerves about this particular patient, it was still amusing to see something like that on the face of a person she'd only ever seen in bingo books and warnings before.

And when the healing started, though she was visibly uncomfortable with it still, Ringo seemed to be genuinely trying to keep from complaining. She let a few grumbles and an insult or two slip through, but Shizune paid it little mind, and fairly soon there weren't any vocal complaints at all. She was a bit more focused on the healing than she was on anything else at this point, but when she glanced up, she found her patient was watching her. Switching back and forth between the healing area and Shizune herself, in pain as she was.

If anything, it seemed like she was taking this seriously. Was she nervous? Shizune had told her that they'd talk more about her condition after a few more healing sessions and rest, and, well...that time was quickly approaching. It would probably make sense for her to be nervous if that was the case. She'd nearly forgotten her own nervousness at the prospect in the face of her frustration at dealing with her.

From what she could see so far...Ringo was healing well. At least, as well as could be hoped when everything in her chest and abdomen looked like they were clawed at by a wild animal. In terms of health, it was at least more or less a guarantee that she wouldn't die from her body's condition anymore. But Ringo seemed the type to want things to return to exactly as they had been as quickly as possible, strength included, and...honestly, that seemed impossible.

It wouldn't be certain until after the diagnostic session, but just from the healing it was easy to see potential long term effects. Besides that, a month or two of physical therapy, and if Ringo thought the disease was just gone from the surgery and healing then...well. That was yet another bit of news she wouldn't like.

That returning apprehension of telling her was what kept Shizune quiet through the healing and into the diagnostic jutsu, the soft glow around her hands passing across her patient's marred skin, still swollen and red from the surgery. Perhaps Ringo could tell that Shizune herself was nervous, and that was what was keeping her quiet as she tried not to squirm around under the jutsu.

...Shizune wondered how her mentor was faring.

(Tsunade)

"Now pinch here, and fold so the corners touch…"

Tsunade wordlessly made the fold in her little purple paper.

"And turn it overrrr!"

Turned it over…

"And open it!~"

Opened it.

"And there you go! You've made a butterfly!"

The kids around her gasped in oo's and ahh's as they flung their own little paper butterflies around the room.

A hand touched lightly against her shoulder; the origami teacher who had to be at least twenty years her junior was smiling happily at her.

"That looks great! I'm surprised this is the first time you've ever done paper folding!"

Tsunade stared blankly down at the little paper creation in her hand.

One thought occupied her mind entirely as the craft class' instructor walked off and prattled on to the kids around her.

'This is the most boring thing I've ever done.'

(Shizune)

'Her insides are a mess.'

Shizune couldn't help her grimace. Even with the advanced healing, it would still take weeks before Ringo's organs were back to any semblance of ok. They were...working, which was good, but...

She could probably try to get her sitting up by tomorrow, and maybe standing by the end of the week, thought walking unassisted wouldn't be good for her until another month or so of recovery.

And...lasting effects. From how things were looking, there would be quite a few. Thankfully nothing as serious as keeping her bedridden for the rest of her life, but definitely some things that would make any ninja more than a little upset. Some might even call for retirement.

...Shizune was going over the diagnosis just a bit slower than normal. She could call it being thorough, but dammit, she was scared of what she was going to have to say. No medic would ever want to tell their patient "this will never leave you".

And, though she was hesitant to admit it, she didn't dislike Ringo. She was annoying. She was a missing nin from a very scrutinized country. But Shizune had seen the girl try to flirt while on painkillers; it was hard to see her as just a fighting machine anymore. She served her meals and saw the sparkle in her eyes when she observed any of the comforts in the Land of Fire.

Shizune had seen the girl when she thought she was going to die.

In just a minute it would be time to break every bit of the news. Looking up at her once more, Shizune couldn't help but wonder what was going through the girl's mind right now keeping her quiet as she is.

(Ringo)

'Ow, ow, ow, ow, OW, f-dammit, kami- hhhhhh-'

At this point Ringo was almost ready to swear a vengeance against the medic who invented this jutsu. 'Diagnostic' her ass, this thing was torture in a pea green package. She could picture the inventor now, hunched over someone they despised, all "I swear it's for your health, seriously, very necessary", like a sadistic madman.

If Shizune didn't look so damn serious, Ringo would be cursing her head off right now. At least this was good practice for "getting used to it".

But...it definitely wasn't her imagination that this was taking a long time. It was like Shizune was being...meticulous. That was the word. Maybe they were finally going to have 'the talk' about her condition. Ringo didn't delude herself into thinking she'd be up and out in perfect working order in a week or two, but the grim look on her doctor's face made it seem like she was still on death's door.

Which she wasn't.

...was...was she?

No, no she wasn't.

Sure, she still had coughing fits and spat up blood every now and then, and she still felt like she was on fire half the time, and her stomach would still twist and pinch like it was tearing in half. And she couldn't stand on her own. And her voice still sounded like it'd been fucked by a rock. And...

Oh fuck was she still going to die?

Oh- NOOooo no no she'd been through that journey already-

Ringo was starting to sweat, and not from the stress the diagnostic jutsu was putting on her.

Ok, ok, thinking about this rationally- If she was going to die, would Shizune still be treating her? No! Right? That's not how it worked, people who will die didn't get treated. Right? Ok. Right. Maybe? So she's alive and it's going to stay that way. So what's her medic so damn worried about!?

Would she still be a ninja? This wasn't going to keep her down forever, was it?

Even if she's told it would she could tough it out, find a way to get herself up. Seven Swordsmen members don't drop that easy.

Right! Confidence was key, here. She wasn't nervous at all about whatever the god damn hell was worrying Shizune so much.

In the midst of her confidence building, it seemed Shizune had finally finished her investigation into Ringo's condition. She was still quiet, not saying a word as she stood and fiddled with some things on her medical desk, only giving small, passing smiles every time she glanced back and met Ringo's eyes, every clink of glass and shuffling of paper only adding to her building anxiety.

After what seemed like another eternity, Shizune returned with a paper in hand, dragging her chair to the bedside and taking a deep breath.

...and then proceeded to just look around nervously. Ringo tapped her fingers against the bedsheets, watching her.

She took another deep breath, and it looked like she was forcing herself to talk now.

"Ok, so...Your condition."

"Yes."

"...First of all, some good news!", she cheered after some deliberation. This girl, as skilled as she was, didn't seem to have much experience with talking to her patients. At least she hoped that's what it was, and not just that she wasn't good at giving bad news.

"You'll live, so that's nice."

Somehow, that actually managed to take a bit of the tension from Ringo's shoulders. That was one fear gone, at least.

"Besides that, when we started, I expected you to take at least three months to be able to resume relatively normal activity. You're healing well! You could probably be working alright in a little over two!"

She seemed genuinely happy for a moment, and Ringo took the info in. That was good. Out early was great, but there had to be bad news next, right...?

"Now..."

Dammit.

"Even with you healing well, you'll still need a good deal of therapy. We can try to get you moving within the week, but we're going to have to be very careful still. And...as well as that…"

Sighing in aggravation, Shizune wrung her hands together nervously before abruptly dropping them to her lap, steeling her look. "...The way that disease affected you, some of your organs won't ever heal entirely." Before Ringo could even fully process what she'd just been told, Shizune continued, the dam on information having been broken through. "I'll tell you right now; you'll be relatively fine overall, but this will always give you problems, even if sporadically."

"You mentioned, earlier, the pain in your abdomen returned sometimes, yes? Along with the continuous burning sensation. Likely that will never fade completely, though it may ease somewhat. At various times, you may experience bouts of more intense feeling from the area. Coughing...your coughing fits are probably going to stay with you for a long time. They may stop eventually, but it's by no means a guaranteed thing. Your lungs are damaged, to put it simply, and they're very resistant to healing attempts right now."

Shizune sighed again, head hanging slightly. "Honestly, that seems like your biggest problem in recovery thus far. Your lungs and stomach were the worst off compared to everything else. Because of it, you may find yourself getting exhausted easier. Difficulty breathing is almost definite. It's very likely that it will take less exertion to tire yourself. The scratching you mentioned in your throat may also be somewhat permanent."

Ringo's stare lowered to the sheets of her bed, each sentence smacking into her like a solid punch. That was...a lot of things. Things to keep track of if she wanted to maintain her place as a kunoichi. This was a setback, but-

"Also...", Shizune continued, taking Ringo off guard.

Fuck.

"Your original doctor, whoever they were, weren't too far off the mark when they called this disease incurable."

That caught her attention. Angrily, she lifted her head once more, voice quieter and more strained than she'd have liked.

"...what?"

Shizune looked pained in apprehension at this part. That made two of them.

"Technically speaking," she began, "it's impossible to cure. You'll always have it." Her head hung lower as she continued. "Nobody, not even Lady Tsunade could get rid of it entirely. As for it being treatable...It can be..." she ventured, rolling her hand forward as she thought of the right word, "...suppressed, let's call it."

Her hands wrung over themselves again, unable to keep still as she continued her assessment.

"From this point forward I'm going to give you medication to be ingested daily to keep it inert, and stop it from spreading once again. I can make you as much as you need so long as you're here, and I can provide a recipe for it for whatever doctor you find afterwards, but..." Shizune trailed off, looking up from her paper to watch Ringo, likely gauging her reaction and waiting for some kind of response.

And Ringo...Didn't know how to react.

Overall...was that, really so bad? All of the major things were there. She'd live. She'd be able to fight, move, all that. But the lasting effects weren't...they weren't major, but they weren't small things either. She breathed out, feeling the stressing scratch in her lungs (permanent scratching, apparently), trying to tie the list together in her head.

Lasting pain. Those bouts of a tearing feeling in her stomach. Coughing fits. Exhaustion. A pill a day for...for likely the rest of her life.

Overall, those weren't terrible. They weren't anything...overly debilitating, were they? But they still weren't...preferable. So should she be happy? Or...

What concerned her most as she thought through the situation was the pills. The idea alone that her illness would always be lurking within her, as if it was waiting, as if she were prey, to be finished off when the time was right was...unnerving. It was terrifying. But, it wasn't only that. There was medicine to go with it; to keep it that way. She couldn't simply travel on a whim. She needed to keep close to properly trained doctors, who could make this medicine, who could watch her health with an illness such as this, and ensure her safety.

Doctor's like that didn't exist just anywhere in the world. Just like that, just after grasping it, her freedom was once more being stripped away.

This illness would act as a tether, keeping her leashed like an animal tied to a post, always within range of its master.

Her teeth gnashed together, grinding like stones.

"...alright..."

The words left her quietly, much more subdued than she'd intended, and the rage that had filled her just moments before dissipated under the gloom of it.

Ringo couldn't deal with things like this. She'd realized, soon after her initial anger when she'd learned of this illness. Fighting, active battle, heated arguments; those were all things she could power through like the kunoichi she was. This, however, was new ground; new territory, unexplored both literally and figuratively. An illness couldn't be fought, not how she liked to do it. The effects couldn't be so simply reversed. There was nothing to do but glower and accept what it gave like a cowed mutt. The truth of it was like a heavy blanket, wrapping her in bitter resignation.

"...alright." she muttered once more, struggling to sound put together despite speaking through a broken voice leaked from strained lungs. "I...understand. Thanks."

Shizune watched her sadly, picking up on the melancholy Ringo was utterly unable to wholly suppress. The pity pissed her off.

After a few moments, Shizune forced a smile, lightly clapping her hands in front of her, trying to sound at least somewhat cheery as she rose from her chair. "Well! You powered through the healing session quite well. You must be feeling hungry, right? It's about time to eat. How does that sound?"

Much to her disappointment, Ringo didn't respond, nor did she make any acknowledgement that she'd even heard Shizune speak aside from a slight downturn in the corners of her mouth, staring down at her hands, idly gripping and releasing her sheets as she busied herself in thought.

Sighing, Shizune excused herself from the room to prepare another meal. These next few months seemed to be trying times, both for her patient and herself.

Her return to the room was no different, Ringo staring out of the bedroom window, unmoving even as the tray was placed next to her. The only thing she received from the girl was a mild hum after informing her that she'd have another healing session. Trying to pry anything else was a hopeless endeavor, that only seemed to tense her more. Eventually, Shizune gave in to the fact that it was likely best to leave her alone for now, lest she simply make her angry enough to stress her condition.

A few hours later, however, it was only under the unwavering demand that she eat before the night's healing that Ringo so much as touched the plate before her, not mentioning the silence or the glares she'd send at her now and then, stopping herself from chastising every pained squirm the girl gave, and carefully ignoring the tears that escaped her patient midway through the night's healing session.

By the time it was over, Shizune barely had it in her to stand, leaving Ringo to her thoughts as she paced slowly down the hall to her own hotel room, twisting the knob and nudging the door open with her shoulder.

A quick shuffling from the rooms desk caught her eye, and she met the nervous glare of Tsunade, still awake, sat stiff in a mess of papers strewn about the area, many of which were crumpled into balls, and hiding something behind her back.

"...what are you doing...?" Shizune tiredly inquired.

"...nothing." Tsunade warily replied, shifting to keep whatever she was holding carefully hidden behind her.

Another bout of silence took over, and Shizune groaned, loud and long, burying her face in her hands as she threw herself face first onto the bed, screaming into her pillow until Tonton hopped onto the bed, lightly nudging at her side and oinking timidly.

Dealing with this was going to be far more draining than she'd initially thought.

She wasn't equipped to be a therapist. She was only barely convinced she was skilled enough to perform as a medic in this situation. Therapy regimens, keeping Ringo under control, emotional support that she simply wasn't familiar with. This was too much. She'd taken on far too much here.

Sleep only found her after severals hours had passed in the quiet darkness of night, thoughts lingering on a patient that would need far more help than she'd been prepared to give.

AN: Aw damn. Ringo's got some Ringo emotions about this one.

Hey y'all. Sorry this took so long, lots of stuff has been going on, haven't had as much chances to write. Rest assured though, cause I'll tell you right now, this fic will not stop until i'm satisfied with how it's ending. And that ending is still a very long ways away, even if it's going to take more time to get to than I'd have liked.

University started back up, and it's been occupying a lot of my time. Besides that, a lot of more personal stuff has happened, and I've had to take quite a bit of time recently for grieving purposes, so sorry if I'm a bit more...subdued, than I usually am.

I'm just trying to get back into the swing of things now. :) Things are getting better, so don't worry too much. Just keep havin' as good times as you can.

Thanks so much for reading everyone; next update should be at the end of february, then monthly, but I'll keep all the info on what's happening on my profile in case that doesn't quite work out like I'm expecting.

Snowboarding on the weekend, by the way! Finally getting some physical activity again! S'gonna feel good after not being able to make it to the gym for a while.

Reminds me, actually, any of you wonderful people watchin' the winter olympics? Chloe Kim, Mirai Nagasu, Liu Jiayu, goddamn I've been straight up amazed so far! Big big fan of those 3, and holy moly they've delivered some powerful stuff.

Again, thanks so much for reading. This story means a lot to me, and it feels good to just be writing it again, even if I'm not the best at it lmao. I'm a history major, then an illustrator before I'm a writer. Just gotta keep goin, yknow? Do what feels good

See y'all the next update :D Take care!

xxx

Gtopia - Ayyy thanks for reading! Yeah, making her new to the world outside of Mist was a rough decision, but in the end I decided it would just make for a better story if it was the case. It's a story of growth after all, and I didn't want to spend 30 chapters on the base of that growth. I guess I'm incorporating some things I just assume about her, such as her anger problems, her quick frustration, and other small bits like that. She's still young, still growing, strong as she is, and I really wanted to show that. Fairly easy to do since we know so little about her, but I can 100% get the frustration with it tho, no worries. Glad to see you're liking it so far :) As for crippling...well, she won't be in bed forever, but she's not escaping this unscathed. Growth is primarily made through adversity after all! And we do need some drama in this story. Don't worry tho, she'll still be fightin' through everything. Ringo ain't one to lay down and die. It's just a case of there's problems, and fighting against those problems.

Burkinator - Yo! Thanks again for waiting through the pushbacks in updates, I know it was probably a lil' annoying. And, oh, my god, high ringo was a god damn joy to write. Not very often you can get such a serious character like that with it still making sense, but I had a blast with that lmao. I researched SO MUCH on medical highs for that/ Also you can't tell her about her condition while she's high, she ain't gonna remember nothin'! That'd just be bad medical practice :P Imagine Shizune shirking on responsibility by just getting people high and telling them then lol. I think that might be means to revoke a medical license. And yes, the Extra's are just things that happen, but I can't fit into base chapter. It's all canon, just consider it an added viewpoint of something that happened in the story. Still recommending Pyre btw ;P

Luizals - Thank you! Appreciated, hope you can stick around!

125B - I have no idea what this means, but thank you for reading! Slightly ominous reviews, lmao.