Mending The Past To A Better Future

Chp. 11 Return of the Toad Sage {Part-1}

After Naruto had gotten herself professionally checked over by the medic in Konoha, they had diagnosed her with a clean bill of health but had told her to take it easy - as her ribs were on the mend, and that her head was still healing. Naruto had decided not to tell them that the only reason she’d had a head injury in the first place was because she and Kakashi had bulldozed over a bed and she had ended up making contact with the dresser.

Shinobi injuries were supposed to be... cool. They made you look tough and kickass. Not... not like you were mud fighting.

At any rate, her biggest concern wasn’t her pride and dignity.

She kept thinking about her slip up about Sasuke. Sakura, and Sai. It could cost her a lot and while she could try and bring it up again, it would only look suspicious, and Kakashi was already paranoid.

She didn’t want to have to bring up her dead friends at any point, and any further bringing it up would only complicate matters. She had no doubt that Kakashi and Rin were baffled by the idea of a Sasuke Uchiha, though.

Clan members weren’t really unknown, so Body Flicker-Shisui having a cousin that no one had ever heard about that had died was probably confusing.

Naruto especially hoped that her teammates wouldn’t bring up the mysterious Uchiha to Obito, who would probably blow a fuse if he had a famous family member that he hadn’t heard of.

The blonde made a silent vow that she wasn’t allowed to pass out and need medical attention in front of her team anymore because they were too perceptive for their own good. Any other person would have passed her rambling for delirious dreaming, but unfortunately she’d had to go and get herself placed with this generation’s genius prodigy and an intelligent medic.

The only thing worse would be being placed with a Nara.

Still, life went on. The team still met up at their designated times to train, but upon their promotions saw them all a bit busier. Kakashi especially was expected to take border patrol more often. Her silver haired teammate often complained about the lack of missions coming his way but Naruto suspected that Minato was fielding the mission desk with the way his expression looked guilty every time Kakashi brought it up.

Rin took on more patients at the hospital as the war brought in wounded ninja. Naruto found herself meeting with Shisui in the dead of the night to figure out what moves they were going to make against Danzo.

Her free time was split between visiting Obito, working with Kakashi on the move he wanted to use with his seal, meeting with Shisui, and desperately trying to keep track of all the team dinners Kushina invited her to.

Suffice to say, Naruto was exhausted. She found herself barely getting any sleep and her body was always tired from the hours and hours of training she put in each day.

Today saw her training with Minato one on one, as they worked on wind based jutsus.

He had handed her a scroll and told her to learn it. It was a simple B-rank technique, but it was an interesting concept that was actually similar to the chakra punches Sakura used to throw. The idea behind it was that wind chakra would coat the user's fist so that when they punched, a strong vortex of wind pushed out with the throw, hitting your opponent with greater force.

She had learned it rather easily, and Minato had made her practice it multiple times afterwards.

Then he had asked her something that piqued her interest.

"Have you tried using another chakra affinity?" Minato asked her. "Your primary focus is wind chakra of course, but you should learn how to utilize a second chakra nature. It's always good to have an ace up your sleeve when the enemy least expects it."