Chapter 26 — The Five Stages of Isolation

The moment Tsunade told Kyoko to go inside, she panicked. Every possibility of what could have gone wrong flooded into her mind: she'd accidentally showed too many tomoe, Tsunade really was angry that she'd disobeyed her orders, she was—

Mikoto cut in with obvious bribery, but it was enough to snap her into the realization that insisting on being part of the discussion would raise more questions than she liked. Besides, she really did miss Shisui and Itachi.

"Shisui?" she called, pacing barefoot down the hall.

A chair squeaked against the floor, and his footsteps were quick and loud. Shisui swung out of the doorway to the kitchen. "You're back! Do you want onigiri? Obasan helped me make some, and I'm really good at it. We made your favorite! Kombu!" He grabbed at her hand and turned to drag her into the kitchen.

Kyoko followed. Actually, mentaiko onigiri had become her favorite when she'd discovered it one year during Genma's birthday party, right before the restaurant kicked them out for Gai and Kakashi's rowdy game of janken. But she didn't mention that. Instead, she took the riceball that Shisui shoved at her. She took a bite and looked up to find him watching and waiting with wide eyes. She smiled. "It's good. Thank you."

His shoulders relaxed, and he grinned. "Obasan said you'd probably be hungry after your mission."

"Well, she was right, and I appreciate it."

The front door slid open, and Kyoko heard the sound of Mikoto clearing her throat. She turned towards the hallway as she finished off the onigiri.

"Kyoko-chan," Mikoto called gently. She stopped at the entry to the kitchen. "Come wake Itachi with me."

Kyoko nodded. "Yes, Obasan." She turned to Shisui and pulled him into a tight hug. When she stepped away, she smiled. "Later, I'll get you some dango, and you can tell me everything that happened while I was gone."

"And you'll tell me about your mission?" he asked curiously, examining the remaining riceballs and picking out the best one.

She tilted her head to the side. "I think you can convince me to." She took a breath and smelled burning flesh. Her smile dropped, and she turned away quickly before he could see it. She found herself facing Mikoto instead. She didn't try to smile again; there was no way Mikoto wouldn't see through it. Instead, she said, "Itachi?"

Mikoto nodded once and put a hand on Kyoko's shoulder, steering her ahead. "This way. I also want to hear about your mission." She slid open the door to her room. "Go ahead."

Kyoko stepped in and made her way to the crib. She rose on her tiptoes and gripped at the bars. She wasn't tall enough to look over the edge, but she could peer through to see him.

"Look here, Kyoko. Let me see your eyes."

She swallowed and turned to face Mikoto.

The woman smiled, lifting a hand to cup Kyoko's chin. "You know what I mean. Your sharingan."

Kyoko closed her hands into fists tightly enough that her nails were digging into her palms. One tomoe. She needed to focus on one tomoe. She summoned her sharingan.

Mikoto's own sharingan came alight. "Look at that," she murmured. "They're beautiful."

She looked away. "Thank you."

"What caused this?" She pressed a thumb under Kyoko's left eye. "Who died?"

"No one," she said immediately. "Raidou almost did. I needed to save him, and I did. He's okay."

"Ah. The emotional rush of needing to protect someone unlocked your sharingan." She smiled. "That says a lot about you. I got mine when my genin team died. Your way is much nicer." Mikoto smoothed a hand across Kyoko's hair. "Let's get you some tea, and then it's off to bed. You need some sleep."

Shizune answered the door, wrapped in a blanket, and squinted at her. "Kyoko-chan?" she rasped. "What are you doing here?"

"Shisho didn't show up at our training ground," Kyoko said, hands folded behind her back. "Is she here?"

Shizune blinked and turned slowly to look at the clock in the hallway. "Uh, she's working a shift at the hospital with Oji. They were short-staffed. She said you two weren't meeting today."

"Oh." Kyoko tilted her head to the side, considering that. It made sense, but Tsunade must have forgotten to mention it. "Are you sick?"

Shizune sniffled and rubbed her nose with the edge of her blanket. "Yeah." She turned and started shuffling back into the apartment. "One of my classmates came to Academy sick and passed it around to the rest of us."

"Ah." Without invitation, Kyoko stepped inside, closed the door, and toed off her shoes. "Throwing up?"

Shizune gave a dramatic groan, crawling into a nest of pillows and blankets on the couch. "Yeah, and a billion other things. I'm miserable," she whined.

Kyoko set her tanto and pack down before heading across the room. "Let me take a look." She pressed the back of her hand to Shizune's head and then two fingers to her throat. "What are your symptoms?"

"My body hurts," Shizune muttered into her pillow. "And my head. And there's . . . other stuff."

"Uh-huh. Well, if your uncle and Shisho weren't confirmed, sounds like it's just a stomach bug." She pressed her hand flat against Shizune's forehead and summoned up some iryo-chakra. "I'll get some ice for you in a minute. Then I'll see if there's something here light enough for you to eat."

Shizune closed her eyes. "Or you could just do this forever."

"It's helping?"

"More than the pain meds Oji gave me. What are you doing?"

"Soothing your headache. It's temporary, but I can do it again when it wears off in thirty minutes to an hour. Let me know when that happens." She pulled away and moved to the kitchen.

"I heard them talking about your mission," Shizune said, shifting onto her side so she could see into the kitchen. "Was it really that crazy?"

"It was a mission," Kyoko said, digging through the cabinets. She came up with a bowl and moved to the freezer to fill it with ice. "There's not much to say about it. Here." She moved back to the couch. "Suck on some ice. It'll help."

Shizune eyed the bowl. She shifted, sitting up and pulling her hands out of her pile of blankets. She took the bowl. "Okay. Are you going to tell me about your mission?"

Kyoko sat on the edge of the couch and tucked her hands under her legs. "No. I can tell you how to do the headache trick, though."