A/N: Alright, as of this authors note I have 16 views for Absent Serpent. And 1127 for Emerald Shades. I love the people who've been reading Absent Serpent (I'm mainly talking about my friend ZeroJackson since he's the only one nice enough to review. I don't know anyone else who is reading this so yeah.) Anyway, I'm having a good time writing this, and I hope you guys are having a good time reading it.
Aika was woken by a tapping on a downstairs window. She woke up quickly, and remembered she was on the couch. Getting up, she walked over to the window and opened it to let Botan in. She opened his pack and pulled a fresh piece of paper out. Unrolling it, she read the note with some relief.
Aika,
Lady Tsunade and I can detour to a town near you due to its gambling houses. While Lady Tsunade is busy, I can make my way to you and examine these children. If you want, I can also refresh any medical supplies you need.
Shizune
Aika tucked the paper away in a drawer by the couch as she wrote out a thank-you note to her friend. She put it in Botan's pack and told him
"Head to town and wait around the gambling house. When Shizune comes, give her the message." Botan chirped and flew off. Aika knew it was now a matter of waiting. However, she had some duties to take care of while she did.
"I really should have planned this out." Aika stared into a food chest with only instant food, and not a whole lot. Enough for breakfast, perhaps lunch.
It shouldn't matter, I can get food later. She pulled out a couple packs of instant ramen, a pot, and a pot stand. She set up the simple contraption and gathered some fire wood. Setting it under, she created a flurry of handsigns.
"Fire Style: Searing Embers." Putting a hand to her mouth, she let out a puff of air and a small puff of fire flew, igniting the wood. She then took the pot a distance away from the small blaze and stung together some more handsigns.
"Water Style: Fountain." Putting her hand to her mouth once more, she fired water from her mouth at a low speed and filled the pot quickly. She placed the pot on the stand above the fire to boil. This would take a bit. She stared at the pot for a while when a phrase came to mind from an old… friend.
A watched pot never boils. Closing her eyes and gritting her teeth, Aika tried to forget his constant little helpful tips and proverbs. It was annoying. Opening her eyes, Aika saw the water start to bubble a bit. She opened the ramen noodles and put them in, allowing them to soak while she woke the kids. She entered her cabin and walked upstairs to the door that led to their room. She opened it.
"Aye! Get up!" All three kids jerked up and looked around to find the source of the noise. They seemed to have slept soundly. Aika left them saying "Breakfast is being cooked. Hope you guys like instant."
"I gotta say, this is pretty good. Better than what they served in the prison." Denji commented whilst he slurped his ramen. They were situated outside and sat on logs while they ate. Arine sat there, eating hers at a normal pace while Yukio sat there, eating slowly as if he were nervous. Of course, Aika told them that her friend Shizune would come by to check up on them and see of Yukio's eyes were able to be saved. Of course he was nervous. He was about to find out if he could see ever again. Poor guy.
"Denji, they barely served us anything, and what they did was stale bread at best." Arine responded to Denji's statement. Denji chuckled.
"Exactly! So anything would be better than that, and that's what this is: anything." Aika's face gained a semi-threatening look.
"So you're saying my spare food is equal to, say, deer entrails?" Arine smiled. She got him.
"I wouldn't know, I don't remember eating anything before I wound up in Orochimaru's prison." Aika made a grunt noise.
"Well, savour it while you can. I'm running out so I'll need to head to town in a while. You kids can stay here while I do so, okay?" The kids nodded and accepted the circumstances. Aika started washing her bowl with a jug of water and a cloth as the rest finished up. Arine looked at Yukio was still only halfway through.
"Yukio." He turned his head to her. "Eat your breakfast, it's probably better to have a full stomach so it can calm your nerves." Biting his lip, Yukio nodded and resumed eating, albeit with a little more vigour. Arine grunted approval and scowled at Denji, who was literally licking the bowl clean. Noticing, he stopped and gave her a look that said "What did you expect?" Signing, Arine ate the last of the noodles before going over to Aika to wash it.
"So, how do you think Yukio is holding up?" Arine looked up at Aika. Odd, she should be able to tell that by body language since she is a shinobi. However, Arine humoured her.
"He seems nervous, and he doesn't get really nervous often. He's good at keeping himself composed, but this is deciding a big part of his life. So yeah, he's nervous. But he'll pull through despite the outcome." Aika was about to say something when Botan chirped and someone else spoke.
"So are these the children?" They all turned to the voice and saw a woman with short black hair and a kind face wearing a black kimono and sandals. Aika smiled lightly.
"Shizune, it's nice to see you. It's earlier than I expected." Shizune smiled sheepishly.
"Lady Tsunade had an early meet at a local gambling house so she'll be there for a good while. I decided to take my leave once she started playing." Aika chuckled a bit before remembering why she asked Shizune out here.
"Oh by the way, these are the children." She motioned to them. "Arine, Denji, and Yukio." Arine, still wearing Aika's cloak due to lack of viable clothing, gave Shizune a nod. Denji eyed her as if had ideas in his head. He smiled and nodded, but that dumb look in his eye was still there. Arine rolled her eyes. Yukio turned his head to Shizune, but merely kept his non-gaze on her. Shizune nodded and smiled before asking Aika about the schedule.
"So I assume you want Yukio to go first?" Aika nodded, but turned and asked the boy himself.
"Do you want to go first? Just get it over with?" Yukio lowered his head a minute and thought. Arine sometimes wondered what went on inside that head of his. However, his internal conflict seemed to be resolved as he took a deep breath and answered.
"Alright, let's do this." He stood and Arine took his bowl. Shizune smiled and walked with him to the cabin as Aika gathered the dishes.
"Shizune's not going to cut him open or anything, so if you want to be with him for his examination, you can." Arine and Denji stood and thanked Aika and followed Yukio into the cabin. Shizune set Yukio down on the couch and unwrapped his bandages, revealing his closed eyes. The red had all but disappeared and the swelling had gone down considerably, if not disappeared completely.
"Alright Yukio, this won't hurt. I'm going to examine you with my medical ninjutsu and see if you'll be able to see again, okay?" Yukio nodded, taking another deep breath. Shizune smiled and wove together a few hand-signs before putting her palms together and a light green chakra covered them. She lowered her hands over Yukio's eyes and closed her own to concentrate.
This makes no sense. Was her first thought. She pushed deeper with her chakra and examined more. This couldn't have made sense. Something was afoot here.
"Is something wrong Shizune?" the medical nin looked up at Aika.
"It's odd. You said Yukio's bandages were old and dirty, right?" Aika nodded.
"Well, that surprises me. Who ever worked on his eyes took tremendous care. In fact, with a little work, he could be able to see today." Yukio gasped audibly, surprising the rest. Shizune kept a calm face. "What's odd is that the bandages were even allowed to go into that condition. Why take this much care on his eyes and let him almost suffer infection later?"
"Well, we were kept in a more less than desirable part of the prison. Well, more less than desirable than usual." Denji offered. Shizune sighed.
"Never mind. It's probably only speculation at this point. Right now, however, I could work on his eyes and get them working right if you want." She glanced down at the blind boy. "Do you want me to do that now?" Yukio nodded, unable to speak due to either excitement or just astonishment. Licking her lips, Shizune removed her hands and wove more hand-signs, putting more chakra into her hands.
"Now Yukio, this will hurt a bit. Can you handle it?" He nodded. Shizune took the opportunity to put her hands over his eyes. Yukio sucked air into his teeth and gripped the couch as he felt the chakra start to work its way into his eyes. Shizune simply moved her hands back forth across his eyes and temples, making sure to heal everything she could.
The process took a decent amount of time, enough that Aika took the time to have a short nap. Arine and Denji stood by the couch, hoping that they could see their friends eyes. Arine remembered meeting Yukio before either of them met Denji, and his eyes were bad. They might have been blue, but they were almost completely white, he could barely see blurs. But now…
"Finished." Aika opened her eyes and stepped over to Yukio. Shizune lifted her hands and spoke to Yukio. "Alright, sit up and open your eyes slowly, we want them to adjust to being able to see." Yukio shifted position and took a deep breath before he slowly slid his eyelids open. When they opened barely, he shrunk away as the light temporarily blinded him before his eyes adjusted. He opened them fully and everyone gasped.
"Kami….." Yukio could barely speak as he was able to see his friends faces. He looked over and saw Shizune's pretty face. He turned and saw Aika's rough, but angular face with her purple hair. But they looked at him weird. "What?" he asked. Aika walked away and got a small mirror and held it in front of Yukio's face. He saw why they were staring at him weird.
"What in the hell?" His eyes weren't blue. They were yellow and had slit pupils. Like a reptile. Like a snake. What happened to him?
"I don't know everything that's been changed about your eyes, Yukio. But if I'm correct, you should have better sight than most, especially better night vision. Just look on the bright side, okay?" Yukio let Shizune's words sink in. Better vision than most people, eh? He smiled.
"That's actually pretty interesting. Question is, how human are my eyes?" Yukio looked at Shizune, noticing the small things, such as the subtle movements in her face. These eyes really were better.
"Well, I'm not exactly sure. However, I wouldn't put it past Orochimaru to have snake DNA spliced into your eyes. Can you see us normally?" Yukio nodded, thinking about what snakes could see. The fact slipped his mind.
"Well snakes see in infrared, which allows them to see heat. Perhaps you don't have that or maybe it has to be activated some other way." Now Yukio was curious. However, the notion for some testing had to be shelved. He turned to Shizune, an appreciated look in his eye.
"Thanks for healing my eyes. I have no way of repaying you." Shizune smiled and replied
"Just stay alive so that my work doesn't go to waste." She turned to Arine and Denji. "I want to give you two check-ups as well." They shrugged and Arine was lead to another room. Aika leaned over the back of the couch.
"So kid, what do you really think?" Yukio frowned.
"I think I need to test my eyes and see if there're any side effects. But we'll do that later."
"Okay, Yukio you need to listen to me." Both turned to Denji. "Just enjoy your eyes, don't go dissecting the, just yet. Worry about this stuff later. As in way later. You're able to see again, just enjoy it to the fullest." Yukio raised an eyebrow.
"That's probably one of the most serious things you've ever said to me." Denji smiled.
"See? I can be smart too." Just then, Shizune walked out with Arine and motioned Denji to go with her. He gave Yukio a look that said She wants me, and topped it off with an odd eyebrow wiggle before heading with the medical nin. Yukio chuckled and Arine scoffed.
"You see that look on his face?" Aika asked the two kids. "That's the look of a man who's about to plunder him some ass." Right on time, they heard a loud slap echo from the room. The kids looked at Aika. "I never said he'd succeed." Denji walked out with a red mark on his face that looked suspiciously like a hand and Shizune with an irritated look on her face.
"Well, that should about do it." She composed herself and gave the group a brighter look. "Well, I'll be off now. Aika, take care of yourself and the kids."
"Actually, Shizune, I need to head into town and I need to bring the kids with me. Mind if we tag alone for a bit?" The kids looked at Aika.
"I thought you said we could stay here." Arine was the one who spoke. Aika gave her a lazy look.
"Well, if I'm going to get you kids clothes, I need you there with me." Aika straightened herself and stretched as the kids thought. Yukio proposed the question.
"What about Arine? How will we work that?" Aika popped her neck before she responded.
"We take her down in the cloak, she tries on some stuff, and she wears it out of the store. Simple." The kids shrugged, seemed like a solid plan.
"Alright" Yukio sighed. "Let's go."
A/N: You'd think that, with the time I spend between chapters, they'd be longer. Well, I'm a bit OCD in that I have to have 6 pages in length. But I'll try to make an effort to put out longer chapters so that these waits are more rewarding. Speaking of which, this has 20 views now, as of this Author's Note. So yeah, let's keep those views a-comin'.