Chapter 12 - Aftermath

Chapter 12 - Aftermath

(Word Count: 2,194)

"How is he?" Dai asked. He, along with Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Hiruzen, and Tsunade were all in the Hokage's office, to report their mission. Tsunade had just entered, having finally finished Sakai's surgery. She had spent hours at the hospital.

She breathed out a heavy sigh. "The damage was really bad. His finger was easy to reattach thanks to the clean cut, and I did manage to save his hands, but it's going to be months of recovery at best. The good news though is that the boy can make a full recovery. He can still have a ninja career if he still wants one."

Everyone but Orochimaru breathes a sigh of relief. Orochimaru didn't really care one way or another.

"How soon until he wakes up?" Hiruzen asked.

"His body’s exhausted. Tomorrow at the earliest, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's not until the day after," Tsunade answered.

“I already heard from the others, but debrief me on your side,” Hiruzen said.

“Well, teacher, Orochimaru pointed us to two of Danzo’s bases that could have held Sakai captive. We didn't want to attack one to alert the other in case Sakai wasn't there. So we split up to attack both simultaneously. I, along with Dai and a team of ANBU, attacked the one farther south,” Tsunade began detailing their operation in rescuing Sakai and how she had found him. 

She had just finished when Danzo burst into the room, yelling angrily. “What is the meaning of this, Hiruzen!”

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. “Of what? You barging into the hokage's office uninvited?”

Danzo pointed accusingly at Tsunade and the others. “Your students just destroyed two ROOT bases, killing dozens of my men! They’ve committed treason! I want them executed for this!”

Hiruzen stood up, slamming his hands down on his desk with a loud bang. “They were acting under my orders!” He shouted, “I told you to leave the boy alone, Danzo! You ignored my direct order, even going so far as to have the boy tortured! If anyone here committed treason, it would be you!”

Danzo blanched, realizing his error and the situation he found himself in. “Hiruzen, everything I've done was for the sake of Konoha. I've already confirmed it with my Yamanaka members. The boy has far more memories inside him than a mere 5 years old should have. He has really seen the future. We can't leave such dangerous knowledge of the future in the hands of a child! What if he decides to withhold information from us? You said he already didn't tell you about the Uzumaki clan! What if another village gets their hands on him? Then we would be doomed!”

Hiruzen deflated a little. “I know, Danzo. But what you did is not the way to do it. Norihide Sakai is a member of the leaf, one of our own. He should have been protected, not tortured. Because of your actions, he may not trust us again! I'm sorry, Danzo, but I'm removing you from your position as ANBU Commander. I want the ROOT to be disbanded and its members integrated back into ANBU.”

Danzo gaped. “You can't do this to me! Do you know how much I’ve sacrificed!”

Meanwhile, Tsunade slammed her hand onto the desk in anger. “That's it? He should be imprisoned, if not executed!”

Hiruzen stood firm. “I am the hokage here, and I have the right to issue whatever verdict I wish. Danzo may have gone against my orders, but he has served this village more than anyone. Danzo, be grateful I didn't remove you from the council as well! Now, all of you, leave!”

Tsunade realized the extent of leniency her teacher had been giving Danzo, and that Sakai was right to distrust them. She stormed out.

~~ WRIN ~~

I blinked awake slowly, and took in the sterile hospital room, before panic seized me. I became instantly awake and I tried to move, but I couldn't. My hands and arms were bound tightly in casts. In fact, my entire body was wrapped tightly in bandages. Cords were coming out from underneath, winding their ways to the monitors.

I struggled in vain against the bindings for a moment before the situation caught up to me, I began taking deep breaths to try and calm myself. I wasn't in the ROOT base anymore. I was in a hospital. I was safe now.

Tsunade and two other nurses burst into the room. “Sakai! You're awake!” Tsunade said, relieved.

I couldn’t really answer, because my head was bandaged too, heavy gauze held tightly against the side of my face, where Yamanaka had cut down it. 

“I want you to know that I was able to save your hands. Despite all of the scarring across your body, you will be making a full recovery.” 

I was confused and looked at all of the casts and bandages, then looked back at her as if to ask, “then what's all this?”

“The Mystical Palm technique may be versatile, but it can't fix everything all at once. It forces your body to heal unnaturally fast, taxing the body. You've been through too much at once, so I had to focus on the more damaged parts first. I had to act quickly to save your finger and reattach it. Then there was the open stab wound on your side. Everything else needed to wait. We will be working together to get you completely healed up over the course of this week and then we'll move on to physical therapy to get you moving properly,” Tsunade explained.

The other two nurses approached, and they began removing the bindings and unwrapping me from all of the bandages. One of them unwrapped my face, revealing the healing cut. She spoke gently, “We’ll just be changing out these for some fresh bandages, and a new application of ointment.”

“You can leave the face unwrapped, Ms. Yashima, I’ll be healing that wound directly,” Tsunade said.

“Of course, Lady Tsunade,” the nurse, Yashima, responded.

After they left, Tsunade began another healing session, focusing first on my face, then various places on my body. Now that I was awake and my body had regained some energy, she could afford to heal more. I felt the cut on my face stitch itself back together, closing over. It was left as a long thin scar. I would be left with many more scars, as healing jutsus only stimulated the patients body’s natural healing processes, but at least they were healed. In a couple of days or so, I can start training my hands again.

Even if the wounds were healed, my grip was weak.

I looked down at my hand, noticing for the first time that all my fingers were there. “Thank you,” I said softly. No tears came. I was all tapped out these last couple of days. But speaking, I could feel a slight tug from the scar. “My Grandma…. Has she been buried already?”

Tsunade blinked at the unexpected question. “Yes. She was buried a couple of days ago. I don't really know what happened to her things, but I assume it would be left to you.”

I nodded wearily. I could just exhume her body when I brought everyone back I supposed. The reason the rest of my family were cremated was because there were too many people to bury all at once. Aunty Aiko was cremated because it was her wish.

“What happened to Danzo? Did you manage to catch him or is he on the run? And what about the scroll I had written in? Was that retrieved?” I asked.

Tsunade grimaced, “You weren't kidding when you said that Hiruzen is very lenient with Danzo. Hiruzen ordered the ROOT disbanded, and Danzo was removed as an ANBU Commander, but he still remains free.”

I stared, dumbfounded, at Tsunade. “But… he killed my Grandma. He tortured me for 5 days.”

“I know, Sakai, I know,” Tsunade said wearily. “I don’t know what to tell you. I'm so sorry. I promised to protect you and now I can't do anything. The b****** is getting away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. The only good news is that we managed to burn all records of your scroll, including the notes they had taken about it.”

I was shaking with the amount of anger I was feeling. This could not stand. But what could I do? Then a thought came to me. Danzo loved using rumors to sway the people. Why couldn't I do the same thing? We’ll start with the nurses and how I got my scars in the first place. I'll just tell the truth. “Lady Tsunade, I have an idea…”

I explained my plan to her, to deliberately spread rumors of what Danzo had done. She smiled wickedly. “A smart plan, Sakai.”

~~ WRIN ~~

I gasped awake, in a cold sweat. I had dozed off after Tsunade's treatment earlier, but instead of rest, I had a nightmare of Yamanaka Fuuto cutting off all my fingers. Sakumo looked in from the doorway, before walking away saying “This is what you deserve.” I shook my head to rid myself of the image. To focus on literally anything else, I went back to my basic chakra control routine, I was banned from wandering around, I could still walk about the room, or, more precisely, the walls. I couldn't just sit around doing nothing. I had to get stronger, and I wouldn't waste a day.

Pushing chakra through my body made me feel an aching burn, especially in my hands, but it wasn’t overly painful, so I just pushed through it.

I was standing on the ceiling, chakra strings were strewn across the room like a spider web. I was trying to change some strings to earth nature and some to water at the same time. It should be possible, but I don’t think anyone’s managed it yet. But I felt like this was the first step to achieving a special kekkei genkai release without being born with it. That was when the doors flew open.

“Sakai!” Dai and Guy burst into the room, shouting at the same time. “You're okay!” Losing concentration, I stopped and dropped back to the ground.

“Dai! Guy!” I met them halfway in a hug. Dai wrapped his arms around both me and Guy in a group hug.

“Sakai, what are you doing training?” Dai demanded, “You’re supposed to be resting!”

“I just couldn’t sit still! I had to do something!” I answered, a little more angrily than I wanted. I took a deep breath, and apologized. “I’m sorry, Dai, I heard about what you did for me and Grandma. Thank you. If it weren't for you, who knows how long it would have been until they realized I had even gone missing! Thank you.”

“No thanks necessary, kiddo.” Dai said in an uncharacteristically small whisper. “I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you and your Grandmother. I hate to think I may have lost you too!”

My heart swelled hearing how much he cared about me. Honestly, Dai was like a second father to me, or at the very least, a close uncle. Guy was like a brother.

“Listen, Sakai, I want you to know that I will always be here for you and I've been thinking. I want to adopt you. I want you to come live with us!” Dai said.

I recoiled away from him. “W-what!” Images of my parents, my brother shoji, Aunty Aiko, Grandma, Sakumo’s eyes filled with hatred, all flashed through my mind together with that damnable smirk of the devil that reincarnated me. I couldn't put them in the same position. “N-no, I can't. I'm sorry.”

Both of their faces fell. “I see. Why not?” Dai asked.

I look down in shame, and mumble “I don't want you to die too.” ‘or come to hate me as well.’

Dai heard me anyway. He crouched down to eye level and answered very sternly. “Sakai, I won't die. I’m strong! And we’ll be stronger together! I know… that life has been bringing you down. Sometimes it is hard to find a reason to be happy. You’ve been hurt so much that it might be easier to push everyone away. To protect them, or to protect yourself from being hurt again. But you know what? It’s worth it, letting people in. Choosing to be happy. It’s the only way to heal in life.”

He spoke so earnestly, I looked in his eyes, and I saw my own pain reflected back. Somehow, he understood me. That’s right. He lost his wife. He had to work alone to support Guy. Not only that, but everyone ridiculed him as the “forever genin”. Even so, he had reached out to me, taught me, helped Grandma, and was overall a friendly person. He lifted up everyone around him. I remembered Naruto, in my past life, he had gone through so much crap but was still able to believe in the good in people. It's why he was my favorite character.

Choose to be happy.

“Can I?” I whispered.

“OF COURSE!” Might Dai answered.

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