Of Tales now and Long Ago

Of the Land of Tea and the Departure

Chapter SIXTEEN

The moment they had returned, they had been met by Itachi and his rare show of public affection as he brought them each into a brief hug before checking them over.

He seemed relieved when Sasuke told him that Tsunade had healed them. Apparently, Tsunade had sent news ahead of them to tell Minato the basic outline of what had happened. Then they had been sent to the Hokage's office, where Minato listened to Kakashi's report, with everyone present adding their own bits and pieces.

Kakashi reported that Sasuke awakened his Mangekyou. Minato congratulated Sasuke, who looked down, suddenly finding his shoes interesting.

"Teme's blushing." Naruto whispered.

The awakening of his Mangekyou had almost sent him into panic, Itachi would later admit. After all, a lot of emotional trauma was necessary in order to awaken the Mangekyou.

When the topic turned to Sakura's 'third voice', Sakura was just as unsure as everyone else. Inner had been unnervingly quiet, not a single comment from her.

Sakura then announced the awakening of her true Kekkei Genkai, but then told Minato about the drawbacks, since she wasn't supposed to be ready to awaken it yet. She had hoped to keep the Tenseigan a secret for a little longer, but it had been an emergency.

Tsunade had back this up after she had examined her chakra running to her eyes, and how the nerves had been burned.

Minato ordered her not to forcefully awaken her Tenseigan unless she absolutely had to. There was still plenty of time for her to gradually get used to it.

Here, Inner agreed.

"Inner wouldn't let me anyways." She told him.

Tsunade visited the hospital as soon as they were released. The news of her return, as well as her taking up the position as head medic had already spread, and all the medics in Konoha went to the Hospital, hoping to catch a glimpse of her working on some medical case. They did get to see her in action, though it was most likely an action they wished they hadn't seen.

Tsunade threw a fit about how 'the hospital was outdated' and 'the hygiene wasn't though through enough'. She tossed out a few of the oldest equipment, quite literally, out the windows, and wrote down a list of things they would need, as well as their numbers, and shoved it into the hands of a Chunin and ordered him to give it to Minato.

Still, countless numbers of shinobi who had still been in hospital were released as Tsunade swept through them.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Since Itachi was out on another mission, Naruto had taken it upon himself to take his friends out. "So, where do yo guys wanna eat? Ramen? How about ramen?"

"No."

"Nope."

Naruto sighed. "Fine. How about-"

Kakashi appeared in front of them, a suspicious smile on his face. "Hello, my little minions. We have a mission." He held up a familiar looking scroll.

"Actually, Dobe, that ramen sounds kind of nice." Sasuke said.

Naruto nodded, not even bothering to yell for the insult. Anything but that.

"Come on, Kashi-sensei. Why don't you come with us?" Sakura smiled.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

After buying as much as they could at the ramen stand, forcing Kakashi to pay for them, and eating as much as they could just because of that, they were forced to go on the Tora mission.