My face scrunches up as each hesitant step sends pins and needles up my back. My legs shake, then give out. "Fuck!" I let out a screech as I end up on my ass for what has to be the tenth time this session.

Izumi-sensei sighs. "You're trying to go too fast. Despite our best efforts, the muscle in your legs atrophied while we waited for the all clear of the medics. Take it slow."

I growl. "This fucking sucks."

I heave myself up again, and my legs shake, but hold. "Good," Izumi Sensei says.

I take a step forward, carefully shifting my weight to that leg. It holds and I grin victoriously. I move my other leg up to match it. It's not much but at least I'm sort-of walking again.

"Congratulations," Izumi sensei drawls, "before you know it you'll be doing calf-raises."

I wince.

Kushina putters around the exam room, organizing ink and brushes as I sit in just a sports bra and running shorts on the cold metal of the examination table. "Ok, just so I know you aren't going to do anything stupid like jumping straight into Taijutsu training immediately after I put this seal on you, please repeat back the instructions I gave you."

I sigh. "This seal is not a replacement for physical therapy and my leg muscles are still messed up. I should continue to use crutches until Izumi says I can walk on my own. No trying to do anything acrobatic until the chakra storage seals are full. Store a little chakra every night." I repeat blandly.

Kushina beams. "Excellent!" She claps her hands together. "Now, lie down on your stomach."

I do as instructed and shiver as cold ink is brushed into my back.

"I still don't get why you picked now to move out," Shisui gripes as he carries a box of stuff up the stairs of my apartment. It's one of the ones in the Nara compound, for shinobi who want their own space but don't want the amount of room of a full house. My specific apartment is a cozy one bedroom on the second floor. The rent barely touches what I have saved up from years of getting mission pay and not having to pay for my own living expenses.

I lean against my crutch in the entryway of my new apartment. "I picked now, because I'm not allowed to carry my own stuff. Which means I get to make you, Itachi, and Hana do it all for me."

He huffs. "Sometimes I forget you're a Nara and then you say something like that and I remember you only pretend not to fall into the lazy Nara stereotype." He flashes me a quick grin and I feel my chest grow tight. Puberty is fucking bitch. "Still, even if you are very blatantly only using me for my muscles, I'm glad you're feeling better."

I shrug. "You missed the worst of it. I'm in a much better mood now that I can walk again. Also, I adore Shikamaru and Karasuko, but I'm tired of being Aunt Yoshino's go-to babysitter."

Aunt Yoshino chooses that moment to poke her head out of my new kitchen, where she's been organizing the kitchen stuff she bought me. "I heard that, Yoruka. Don't underestimate my ability to drop the kids off here, instead." As Shisui moves past me, Yoshino moves out of the kitchen to talk to me. "I know Shikaku and I have been kind of overprotective-" I snort- "oh stop that," she lightly whacks my shoulder, "but you didn't need to move out, if you wanted us to leave you alone."

Sighing, I run my hand through my ponytail. "It's not that. I've actually been thinking about it for a while, I just haven't really had the time to move out yet. I don't know, I guess I've always been a little too independent, so now I want my own space. Also, I figure it's about time Kurasuko gets her own room."

Aunt Yoshino winces, "we're still trying to find her birth family."

I give her a look. "Face it Auntie. Kurasuko is fully your kid now."

Hana's voice interrupts Yoshino and I's conversation. She's needling Itachi about something as they come up the stairs with a couch. I decide I should probably get out of the doorway.

Somehow, despite me not living in the same house anymore, Aunt Yoshino still manages to get me to pick the kids up from the academy. Which is how I find myself facing an entire herd of children. I turn to look at Shikamaru. "Uh, are you sure your mom is ok with all of these people coming over?"

Shikamaru sniffs. "Of course." Then he holds his arms up like he's expecting me to pick him up.

I hold my crutches up incredulously and he pouts.

I sigh and turn to face the crowd of kids. I spot the usual suspects, Ino, Chouji, and Sai, as well as Kiba, Sasuke, and some other kids I feel like I should recognize. "Alright, gremlins, follow me. Also, Shikamaru, if Aunt Yoshino doesn't know about this, I'm throwing you to her nonexistent mercy." He pales.

It takes exactly six months for me to be released for training, including the chakra storage seals being full. Ryu-sensei, Hana, and Itachi decide to celebrate my return by kicking the shit out of me in training.

I gasp as I duck around Itachi's shuriken. Gods, I'm out of shape. I retaliate with a kunai of my own, but he slips past them and kicks me in the stomach.

I collapse to the ground with a groan. Itachi looks a little startled. "Are you ok?" He asks hesitantly.

I hold a thumb up. "Peachy," I gasp out. "Just incredibly out of shape."

Ryu-sensei snorts from where he's been observing. "And dramatic."