"Don't forget to—"
"Listen to Minato-sensei. I know." Obito huffed, securing his kunai pouch. "You don't have to tell me every time."
"It's good advice every time," Kyoko commented, securing her own gear in place. "Minato-san knows what he's doing."
"Well, yeah. Sensei's great! But what if I think of a great strategy and don't have enough time to share it with him? I could just—"
"Absolutely not," Kagami interrupted, holding out his goggles. "If you don't have time to share it with your mission lead, then you don't do it. Period."
Obito pouted, taking his goggles. "Yeah, alright. But what if—"
"Pretty sure the answer is still no," Shisui called around a mouthful of hotcakes. He pointed his chopsticks at Obito. "But do it anyway if it would look cool."
"Absolutely not," Kagami said again, stressing the second word. "And don't talk with your mouth full. Obito—"
"Yeah, I've got it. Listen to Sensei. Be careful. Stay aware."
"And?" Kagami prompted.
"And come home safe."
"Good. And Kyoko, give this to your sensei when you see her." He held out an envelope.
She took it, frowning. "Okay. What is it?"
"Just a request to start your training a little later on the eighteenth. When I spoke to Minato-san, he said that Obito should be back in time, too."
"Eighteenth?" she asked, still frowning. She glanced from Kagami to Obito and back, but neither of them seemed confused. "What's important about the eighteenth?"
Kagami winced, and Obito ducked his head. "We're going to visit your Kaasan's grave," the former said softly. "It's been a year."
A year? Kyoko looked down at the letter. At least that explained why the eighteenth was important. She'd really come back that close to when they'd lost Akiko? She tried to recall what that first year without a mother had originally been like and . . . came up with nothing. That had been so long ago. "Oh," she murmured. She cleared her throat and tucked the letter away in her kunai pouch. "I should go. I don't want to be late."
The first thing Kyoko did when Raidou answered the door was look his face over critically, ignoring the way he nervously shifted from one foot to the other. "It's going to scar badly," she finally concluded, chest constricting.
He shrugged. "Asuma said it'll look badass," he said half-heartedly. "And Tsunade-sama said it would've been a lot worse without your help."
It already looked worse than the burn scar she was more familiar with seeing on his face, and she wasn't sure she liked what that implied about her future success. She looked down at what she was holding, forcing herself to refocus. She cleared her throat. "I heard that Suzaku is back in the Village on medical leave. I made him some chakra balm, and I thought you might want to come with me to thank him."
Raidou blinked. "Yeah. I, uh. I don't have a . . . thank you gift for him, though."
"The balm can be from both of us."
"But you made it. He'll know I didn't help."
"I think that part doesn't matter as much as the intent."
He nodded, turning away and bending down to get his shoes. "Yeah, alright. Thanks for thinking of me."
"Of course."
It was a short walk to the Nara Lands, though it would have been shorter if Kyoko would match Raidou's stride. When they made it, Raidou hesitated at the border. "Do you . . . know which house is his?"
"No. But I know this is the main house," she said, starting forward for the first building. "It's the best place to start."
Raidou followed close behind, glancing nervously around as she led him up on the engawa. When she knocked, he shuffled back a bit. She glanced at him.
The door slid open, and Kyoko found herself staring up at a woman she'd met a handful of times before. Yoshino looked softer here. Well, except for the sling trapping her arm against her chest and the bandage peeking out from under her collar. She arched an eyebrow. "You lost or something?"
"A little," Kyoko admitted. "We're looking for Suzaku-san." She lifted the cloth-wrapped gift. "He saved us on a recent mission, and we wanted to thank him."
"Huh." Yoshino squinted at her and then extended her good hand. "He's with Shikaku in a meeting, but he'll be here later for dinner. I can give it to him then."
Kyoko handed the gift over and bowed her head. "Arigato, Yoshino-san."
The woman's eyes narrowed. "Huh. Right." She stepped back and slid the door closed.
"I'm home," Kyoko called as she slid the door open. She froze.
Kagami looked up. "Kyoko!" He smiled. "You're early! I wasn't expecting you until late again."
"I . . . did morning rounds with Shisho," she rasped. "And after my session with Jiraiya-sama, Raidou and I went to the Nara to— What happened?" she finally asked, voice hollow. "What—"
"Just a training accident," Kagami interrupted, his voice soothing. He returning to bandaging Shisui's hand. "He slipped with a shuriken."
She dropped her things and abandoned the open door, moving forward. "Let me," she murmured.
Shisui ducked his head, keeping his gaze down. "Tousan said he'll fix it up."
"I can do it faster," she promised. She glanced at Kagami and straightened at the assessing gaze he'd trained on her. "Can I?"
He nodded and moved back, lowering Shisui's hand to his knee. "Go ahead."
Kyoko took Shisui's hand in hers and started unwinding the bandage. "I'll be quick," she promised. "Want to tell me what happened?"
"Messed up with the shuriken," he mumbled.
"You were training?" she asked, setting the bandage aside and reaching for a clean cloth from the med kit. As she wiped the balm away that Kagami had applied, she glanced up and caught his gaze. "How long have you been training?"
"Three weeks with Tousan. A couple months with Oba."
How had she not noticed? She refocused on his hand and started stitching his palm back together with iryo-chakra. She'd had to fix Shisui up before after missions and the occasional spar with Itachi that got a little too rough, but the idea that he had cut himself with a shuriken all on his own? It was an odd thought. And unfamiliar one. She couldn't remember any other time that Shisui had ever gotten hurt in such a beginner way. She cleared her throat as she finished her work and then smooth her thumb across his unmarked palm. "I'll make you some chakra balm. If you get hurt again, it'll help if I'm there there to fix you up, okay?"
The handheld mirror gave her better privacy in her room than working in the bathroom had. Really, what that privacy translated to was more time spent staring at her mangekyo in frustration as she tried, and failed, to figure out what it was for. What it could do. What the point of it was beyond the black trying to swallow up the red in a reminder of how she'd felt with Itachi's blade against her throat.
Her sharingan didn't give her an answer.