Chiaki and I stood at Misaki's bedside. Chiaki's arm was in a sling. I had bandages wound around my head to cover my slowly healing new eye. Miaski's midsection was wound tight with medical wrappings. All three of us were looking at the Hokage across from us. His expression was somber. We'd already given our report, and we'd turned in the storage scrolls with the bodies and weapons when we'd first made it back to Konoha.

"You all performed exceptionally. My failure led to your team engaging an enemy that should have faced three ANBU teams on your own. The failure is mine. You have my most sincere condolences for the loss of your teammates. Konoha will honor her fallen.

"I am placing each of you on medical leave for the next four months. You are all welcome to make use of the ANBU facilities during that time, but obey the directives of the med-nin assigned to you."

Chiaki and I bowed and Misaki bowed her head. In unison, we said, "Hai, Hokage-sama."

"Due to the escalation of this mission, each of you will receive an S-Rank payout. The earnings of your fallen teammates will be given to their next of kin. Additionally, Misaki, Shinto, I am promoting both of you to jonin, effective immediately."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama." we all said.

Hiruzen focused on me. "I will make a formal announcement at the conclusion of your leave, Shinto. I would like for you to have that time to recover."

I was confused for a moment until I ran all of his words back through my head a second time. He'd just promoted me to jonin. When I made Telepathy, he said he would give me credit for it when I made jonin. That felt so inconsequential right now.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama." I said, lacking anything more insightful to say. Misaki and Chiaki looked confused, but neither of them spoke up.

"I will leave you to rest. Thank you for your service to Konoha." The Hokage turned and left the room.

Chiaki sighed as she pulled one of the chairs in the room up to Misaki's bedside and fell into it. "He's right. You both did exceptionally. You both faced one of the Mist's legendary swordsmen on your own and came out alive. Not only that, but you killed your opponent. I can count the number of Konoha shinobi that could have done what you did on two hands."

Chiaki's head hung shamefully. "I won't be your captain anymore. I…I made a promise to Ko a while back that… Well, I'll be leaving ANBU. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. There's nothing to apologize for." I said seriously. "I…I've got some thinking to do as well." Our last mission showed me just how quickly and easily things can go wrong. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to remain in ANBU anymore. The problem was, I didn't know what I'd do if I wasn't in ANBU. "Thank you for everything, Chiaki."

"I'm glad you were our captain." Misaki said, smiling softly at Chiaki.

Chiaki smirked. "You're welcome, brats." She stood, wincing as her arm shifted. "I asked the med-nin to let me know when they release you, Misaki. I'll track you both down and drag you out for the night. We need to send Ko, Sogo and Touji off properly. Rest well." She left the room, closing the door behind her.

It wasn't more than five seconds before the door exploded open, permitting Misaki's parents to rush over to her bedside. They probably arrived when they heard their daughter was injured, but weren't allowed inside until any potential ANBU talk was had.

"I'll give you some time alone." I said awkwardly as I shuffled away. I tensed as a pair of arms wrapped around me from behind.

"Thank you for bringing my daughter back to me." Mio said into my shoulder.

"You're welcome. I'll give you some space." I gently extricated myself from her grasp and left the room.

"How's the eye?"

I turned to my right and saw a man with bushy dark hair leaning against the wall.

"I'll let you know when I can actually use it. I'm not allowed to take the wrappings off until the med nin give me their explicit permission." I said.

"You should hear the stories people are spreading about you, troublesome." Shikaku said as he pushed off the wall and walked through the hall with me.

I raised an eyebrow at him as I cast Telepathy. 'I'm surprised people know enough about an ANBU op to spread rumors.'

'When that op involves taking down four of the Mist's swordsmen, the higher ups order people to talk so they spread around the victory. Last time the swordsmen took a hit this big was when Might Duy fought them.'

'Half of my team died. That's not much of a victory.'

Shikaku frowned. 'That wasn't what I meant.'

I sighed. 'I know. Sorry, it's just still fresh.'

"I get it." he said out loud. "Take as much time as you need."

"So are you here to check on me, or was something more official happening?"

"Bit of both. I got called in before the news broke to talk about my thoughts on spreading it around." He frowned. 'I'm sorry about your team, Shinto. I didn't know any of them all that well, but the few interactions we had led me to believe they were good men.'

'They were. I'm gonna miss them.'

"Do you have a plan for what to do now?"

I shook my head. "This…thing has shaken me a bit. I need to think. The Hokage gave me a few months off, so I've got plenty of time to do that thankfully. I'll probably just train in the interim, maybe experiment with some new tea leaves. It's been a while since I was able to play around in my garden."

"If you need anything from me, let me know. But since you're off anyway, I'll probably come find you at some point."

"Is something wrong?" I asked, concerned.

"No, I just need to talk to you about some stuff and show you some other stuff. It isn't urgent, and it can wait until you're in a better headspace."

Our conversation died as we exited the hospital. We walked in silence back to the compound. The two gate guards were alert when we passed, nodding understandingly at me as we passed. Shikaku walked me home then headed off towards his own home.

I peeled my clothes off and fell into bed, passing out the moment I pulled the covers over myself.

X

"How do you feel?" I asked, watching Misaki close as we left the hospital. It had been just under two weeks since she was admitted, and the med-nin had finally cleared her. She still wasn't back to one-hundred percent, but she was projected to make a full recovery and be able to take missions again once she was fully healed. Considering she'd nearly been bisected, that was a miracle.

"Shinto, I am alright. They wouldn't have released me if I was liable to injure myself by walking." Misaki said, exasperated, but with a fond smile on her face.

"Just making sure. The last thing you need is to exert yourself too much and have to go back to bedrest."

She huffed. "I will be doing everything I can to avoid that, I assure you." She frowned as I turned down the street. "Are you not walking me home?"

I raised an eyebrow at her. "You just got out of the hospital. I was gonna take you to get some real food before walking you home. If you want to go straight there, we can go now."

Misaki shook her head. "No, eating something other than hospital rations sounds good. What did you have in mind?"

"There's a ramen stand a little ways from here. Does that sound good?"

"Ramen sounds good."

We walked in companionable silence until we arrived at the ramen stand. It was the same place Mita had taken me as a thank you for saving her life. We both sat down and placed our orders, settling in to wait while our food was prepared.

"How are you holding up?" I said.

Misaki let out an exasperated huff. "I told you, Shinto, I will take it easy."

I shook my head. "That's not what I'm asking." I turned to look her in the eyes. "How are you holding up?"

Misaki's lips pulled into a line; she turned away, staring down at the countertop. "I almost died." She took a shaky breath. "I know… It's wrong. The others did die, but I…" Her hand began trembling.

I scooted closer to her and slowly wrapped my arms around her. She reached up and latched onto me, her grip crushing.

"It's alright to be glad you're alive." I said quietly. "I am glad you're alive. The others wouldn't want you to wallow in survivor's guilt."

"If I'd been better…"

"You'll drive yourself crazy thinking like that." I said, gently rubbing her back. "Take as much time as you need, duty be damned. If you decide–"

"I need your help." She suddenly cut me off, a firm resolve in her voice.

I pulled back to look her in the eye. "If I can help, then all you need to do is ask."

"You've made jutsu. You know how to experiment. I… I was looking for ways to stand out even before we… I wanted to create something like your shadow armor that would let me control any fight in close quarters. I tried, but I couldn't make anything work."

"What were you trying to do?" I said carefully, thinking over various ways to increase Misaki's repertoire.

She shook her hand. "It doesn't matter. They were all failures. I want your help with something else. My defense has always been reliant on my speed, my byakugan and my proficiency with the Gentle Fist. The swordsman demonstrated that is not enough against an opponent who is able to keep up with me and is stronger than I am. I need a technique that will defend me. I know it's possible. It's just a matter of figuring it out."

"And what is 'it'?"

Misaki swallowed nervously. "I want you to help me recreate the Raikage's lightning cloak."

I was stunned into silence. I'd been expecting her to want help developing ranged attacks, not recreating a highly prized technique from another village.

Misaki kept talking, rushed and desperate as I mulled the idea over. "I know it's possible to do because someone else has already done it. And you can help me because your shadow armor lets you mold your chakra around your body. That has to be a component of the lightning cloak, right? Your control is better than mine, but we trained control together when we were younger. Next to you, I have the best control of anyone I know. I know we can do it. Kumo tried to steal the Hyuga's byakugan." A dangerous, determined glint passed over Misaki's eyes. "It's only right that the Hyuga steal something from them."

I leaned back in my seat, looking up at the sky as the mechanics of creating a lightning cloak swam through my head. "I'll help. It's going to be a beast. You're going to need to do most of the heavy lifting because I'm not good with nature transformations, but– Oof!" I instinctively wrapped my arms around Misaki as she jumped into another hug.

"Thank you." she said quietly.

"Don't mention it." I said. "We'll get started once you're recovered enough to train. In the meantime, we can spend some time in my garden." I wanted to get her in a better head space before she threw herself wholly into her work.

She nodded as she pulled back. "Okay. I won't be cleared to train for another couple of months. I've been meaning to show you how to make a new jacket, so we can do that too."

"Sounds good."

Our ramen arrived soon after, and our conversation died as we dug in. I kept an eye on Misaki throughout our meal as well as when I walked her home. She was still a little melancholy – I was too from losing our team – but she didn't seem to have collapsed in on herself like I was afraid of. I wasn't sure how her near-death experience would affect her, but she seemed to be working through it as healthily as a ninja could.

I said my goodbyes to Misaki and her parents then walked home. I spent some time petting and feeding the deer on my way through the Nara Compound, then went home and went to sleep.