Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or anything other than my OCs.
"Give your report to Shizune!" Tsunade had snapped at the pair of shinobi as they entered with their shoulders hunched in shame. She stormed out angrily, leaving Shizune to apologize for the Hokage's rancid mood.
"Don't worry. She wasn't angry at the two of you. We had some very bad news come in… Jiraiya-sama is no longer with us." The medic smiled sympathetically, "But I'll accept your report and record it for Tsunade-sama. Where's Kirishima Touga?"
There was a hesitant pause where Toshizo glanced at Kai and Kai simply kept his eyes on the floor. The blonde was already shaken by previous occurrences but the news of Jiraiya's death was icing on the depressing cake they had baked for themselves.
Knowing his teammate could not answer in his mental state, Toshizo took the reins, "Touga-san will return in a little bit but let me explain what happened so you can better understand."
"Alright."
Toshizo had never really given the mission report before, he had always left it to the two jonins of his team. In all honesty, he was nervous and he didn't really know where to begin, "Our mission was completed very quickly. This whole mess happened when we were about to return home. The criminal is dead for certain but it seems that the criminal was being used to lure us to the Akatsuki members that left our team in this state."
"Akatsuki?" Shizune paused as she was writing up the report, "That changes things. I need a thorough report of your battle."
"Yes ma'am." The aspiring puppeteer barely managed to speak without a stutter, "We were simply attacked by a group of Akatsuki members. All of them were blind and all of them were highly skilled. The group's leader seemed to be a girl who named herself as Hyuga Chiharu."
"A Hyuga?"
"Yes and she was also blind. Her Byakugan was lost. She kept saying she wanted to lure Kori in for her eyes. She even seemed to know, when we called for reinforcements, Kori and her brother would be coming in." He continued, "During the battle, Yui was cut down and is in critical condition and Kori ended up in a similar state. Thankfully the Akatsuki fled when they sensed the approach of Kakashi-sensei's team."
"I see. So Kakashi's team hasn't returned yet because of that?"
"Yes ma'am. Sakura-san, thankfully, stayed behind to give Yui-san emergency treatment while Neji-san, Touga-san, and Shino-san stayed with the two in case the Akatsuki return." Toshizo sighed, "And we're sorry to say this but Kakashi-sensei's remained behind with Kori-san to protect the medics that came out to meet us and give her treatment."
"Understood. You've both done well to make it back. I'll hear the rest of it from Touga so you can both head to the hospital and receive basic treatment."
"Thank you very much."
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O
"Man. I can't tell if you're lucky or unlucky." Kiba huffed at his friend upon reaching the end of her mission recap, "By the way, I went by your house and asked your brother but he says you didn't receive any letters."
"Seriously?" The Hyuga sighed, "Not one?"
"Not a single one."
"You think he's busy?"
"He's the Kazekage, Kori." Kiba snorted, "Of course he's fucking busy."
"Right." She murmured in disappointment, "You know Yui's also in the hospital somewhere. I can't visit her obviously but you can so what are you doing here?"
"You're cold." The chunin rolled his eyes at her, "Yui doesn't even know I exist sometimes. What good would it do for me to go over there? She's probably waiting for your brother to go visit her or something."
"Yui has no interest in Neji."
"Yeah right… You just wish Yui would never look at your precious brother." He rolled his eyes, sarcasm dripping off each word he spoke, "Neji's so obviously protective of you but you're worse than he is sometimes."
"Tsk." She clicked her tongue at him in annoyance, "I am not. Neji can do whatever he wants with whoever he wants. I'm just telling you the truth. Yui has absolutely no interest in my brother."
"..."
"So you really think he's too busy to reply to my letter?"
"Kori, enough!" The dog-nin shouted in frustration, throwing his arms up dramatically, "Jeez. I know you're in love with him but who cares about his stupid reply? You're in the damn hospital! Just focus on getting better, would you?"
Her response was cut short by the nervous and soft knock at the door. She paused a moment before calling out, "You can come in!"
The door slid to the side to reveal a bouquet of colorful flowers and a tall and lean figure, "Umm… Am I disturbing?"
"No. Not at all. Come on in." Kori smiled at her longtime teammate, "You look like you've recovered nicely, Toshizo. I'm glad."
The aspiring puppeteer and all his flowers just barely fit through the doorway, "I'm just fine thanks to you and I'm sorry I couldn't visit sooner!"
"No worries." Kiba snorted, "She's just busy talking about Gaara all over again anyways. Three days in the hospital equals three days worth of Gaara talk for this idiot."
"Oh shut up." She hissed at him in embarrassment, "They don't know as much as you do."
"Oh. Sorry." He blurted sarcastically, "I know you're just so good at keeping your feelings a secret and all."
"Anyways!" She grinned at him sheepishly, fighting down a blush, "Toshizo, thanks for coming to see me."
"I wanted to wish you a speedy recovery." Toshi said and hesitantly added, "And I was hoping to ask you for a small favor?"
She blinked at him in confusion, "From me? I'm afraid there's not much I can do for you at the moment but if it's something I can do, I'd be more than happy to help."
"Well… It's nothing important but I was hoping that you'd maybe talk to Tsunade-sama and Gaara-san for me and somehow get me permission to travel to Sunagakure for a little bit?"
Kiba and Kori exchanged a small glance before the dog loving shinobi blurted out, "That doesn't sound like 'it's nothing important', you moron! Travel between shinobi countries is hard to do."
"I know. But I have to go." Toshizo spoke with a voice full of resolve - a voice that was rare coming from this particular ninja, "There's something I can't achieve here and going to Suna is the only way I can get what I want."
"Even if you go to Sunagakure, there's no guarantee you can get what you want." The jonin warned him, "We may be allies but we are two separate ninja villages."
"Please allow me to go." He begged, setting the flowers aside finally, "I really want to go."
"I… I make no promises but I'll ask for you."
"Thank you."
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O
The sound of the breeze peeking through the slightly open windows was the only sound in the traditionally decorated Saizo Clan training dojo. The light was faint and dim, candles just barely lit up the corners of the room. Kai knelt against the dojo mats on one knee, his head down in shame.
Saizo Hajime stood with his back facing the jonin, his shoulders and back were perfectly straight befitting the proud leader of the Saizo Clan. His voice was calm and gentle as he spoke to his youngest son, "Kai, if you have a question you may speak now."
The smaller male took a nervous breath, "Father, I'm sure you've already heard of my failure from a few days ago."
"I heard of no such failure. Your mission was a success, was it not?" Hajime murmured, the candlelight flickered boldly as if to illuminate an expression Kai could not see.
"It was… But the battle that came afterwards was not so successful."
"And so you feel shame?" His father seemed to know exactly what it was that Kai was getting at. Hajime was simply waiting for Kai to form his own words, to express his own feelings as a respected shinobi, "Did you come to tell me something or ask for my advice, my son?"
"I came to ask you something from the position of a shinobi." Kai's voice shivered with fear, "Not as your son."
"Then ask without fear. I will give you the answer I would give a shinobi not the answer I would give my son."
"In my most recent battle, I… I made a bad decision that hurt someone I cared a lot about. She would have been fine if I hadn't made that one bad move!" Frustration put volume into Kai's previously withered and fearful voice, "But I don't understand where I went wrong. … It was my technique that nearly cost my teammate her life and it was my mistake that let our enemies get away. There wasn't anything I could do. If I could turn back time I wouldn't make that mistake a second time and I wouldn't have hurt her! So..."
"So what?" Hajime asked softly, "You did not ask a single question, Kai. Not one single question came from that. If you don't ask, I cannot answer."
"If it was you… What would you have done?" Kai finally murmured in shame, "How could I have known that my decision was the wrong one?"
"... I am not you and you are not me. If I was in your position, I would apologize and ask that question to the one I hurt. You already know your decision is wrong because of this mishap. During the battle, there was no way for you to know the outcome and therefore, you could not have known your decision was the wrong decision to make." The Clan leader was not given his position for no reason but clearly, this wisdom was not helping Kai one bit. Hajime could feel the confusion and shame weighing down his son's shoulders heavily, "The question in your heart is not the one you asked me, Kai. I will not ask again. This is your last chance. What is it you came to ask me?"
"... How can I earn forgiveness?"
Hajime finally turned to look down at his youngest son, "Don't you know the answer deep down in your heart, Kai? She was your comrade. You know her better than I do and you should know the answer to that question."
"She would forgive me!" The young jonin shouted in frustration, his eyes not once leaving the floor, "She would just… She would just tell me it wasn't my fault! That's why I can't just tell her! I can't just go and apologize when I don't deserve to be forgiven! Don't you see?!"
As a father, Hajime knew the feelings of the shinobi before him. The comrade his son was speaking of was clearly a female and it was so clear to Hajime that his youngest son was in love with this girl he had hurt so badly.
"How can I show her I'm sorry?!" Kai's voice was loud and clear, the question holding passion and regret a shinobi should not be feeling in the first place.
"Let me take back my words." Hajime murmured, kneeling down before the boy who could not express his feelings very well, "I will give you the answer that I would give my son, not the answer I would give to a fellow ninja. Kai, do you know why the Saizo Clan has no kunoichi amongst our ranks?"
The smaller jonin looked up in confusion, tears starting to blur his eyes as he shook his head no.
"It is not because they are incapable or weak, Kai." His father seemed so familiar with these words, "It is because the Saizo Clan's creed is to protect women, children, and the elderly. Women who give birth, children who are the future, and the elderly who have protected us thus far. You are no longer a child and it seems to me you know our ulterior motive for preventing females from being in the same field of work as men. The secret of our clan is we teach no women the art of shinobi not truly because they give birth but because they are holding our hearts. We are not protecting them so much as we are protecting our own emotions. By falling for a woman not chosen for you by our clan, you have decided to give your heart to a woman who cannot protect it above all else."
Hajime's words rang deep in Kai's heart. A dull pounding at the back of his chest kept him in place even as his father blew out the candles and left him in the dark and empty dojo to ponder the words he had just spoken. Judging by Kai's expression, Hajime had not given his son the answer he had been looking for and it had not done his son any good but he knew not everyone could learn to love an arranged partner. Kai was just one of those many unfortunate men.
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O
"This is truly unfortunate." Sai grumbled, "Are you certain you want to pass this mission on?"
"Yes." Yui murmured, "Do not let any of the letters pass."
"Well, I'm sorry to say but it looks like your friend has petitioned for a pass to travel to Sunagakure."
"What?" Yui growled, aggravation building under her skin, "Kori is going to Suna? That defeats the purpose of stopping the letters!"
"Danzo-sama told me that Tsukara Toshizo is going to Sunagakure. Kori's not going anywhere in her condition." Sai smiled that faux smile of his, "But Danzo-sama is sending you to secretly watch over Tsukara in Sunagakure."
"I have not been given permission to leave yet."
"Danzo-sama will take care of that for you in time for his departure."
"I see. Then I will entrust you with the mission to stop the letters until I return."
"Understood."
O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O
A soft waking light, the smell of rice - no - porridge? Consciousness slowly returning. Screaming? No. That was a memory. Who? What? Aya's consciousness returned to her all at once and she sat up, startled, "Did I fail?!"
Ibiki and his companion turned to give her a deadpan stare, "Why is that the first thing you think of?"
"Ibiki~" She whined, leaping out of her bed to cling to his coat, "Did I pass? Am I going to see more blood or do I have to go back to training? Please don't make me talk to Shadow Clones again! I hate it!"
"Well, I didn-!"
"Ibiki! Nooooo!" She wailed dramatically, "I promise I tried my best! I swear I'll try harder next time so don't demote me! Just give me one more chance!"
"Aya!" Ibiki snapped at her, finally calming her down from her tantrum, "Let me talk! You did not fail and you are not being demoted but if you don't calm yourself down I might have to rethink that!"
"..." The pale kunoichi stared blankly at her master as if she hadn't understood his words, "Wait…"
"For what?"
"... I got the info?"
"Yes."
"... And I didn't kill him?"
"Yes."
The reality sank in ever so slowly and finally, Aya threw her arms around her master and screamed, "I did it! I did it! Does this mean I can keep working with real people?! Am I amazing?!"
"Yes. Yes. Yes." Ibiki grumbled, shoving the girl away as his companion chuckled at their antics from beside the stove, "Now get off and eat something before I change my mind."
"Yes-! …"
"What is it now?" Ibiki grumbled at the unusual pause in the girl's speech.
"I want to see my friends." She pouted, "I miss them."
"What friends?" Ibiki snorted cruelly, "But it's not like I'm keeping you here. You can go wherever you want. It's you that's been nagging at me all this time to hurry up and teach you all this business so you can work with real people. Go see them if you want but eat before you go."
"Yes sir!"