ᗰOᑎᔕTEᖇ [🧡 ᑎᗩᖇᑌᕼIᑎᗩ 💜] [Ɱҽէąʍօɾքհօʂìʂ] Bσσƙ Oɳҽ

Hurt

He knew she wasn't at all well.

Traumatized...horrified...guiltridden...

"I understand," the sixth Hokage said, "you made the right decision. We'll send reinforcements immediately to help the wounded, reconstruct the village and recover what's left of the jubokko's remains."

"I'd like to request to be redeployed with that group, Hokage-sama."

The silver haired leader nodded.

"Dismissed."

Botan gave a respectful bow and vacated the room, closing the door behind him.

"It may be a side effect of Hamura's chakra." Shikamaru ruminated at his right.

"Possibly," he allowed, "but until we speak to Hinata and examine her, we won't know for sure."

Even though he said it, he couldn't come up with any other explanation that made sense other than Hamura's chakra. This wasn't some hidden clan jutsu, it was the Hakke Kūshō and he knew full well the scope and force behind it. Had seen it more than once on the battlefield. This was not that. This type of destructive power...

Where else could it have originated from if not from the moon based ancestor of the Hyuuga?

xxxxxx

Naruto glanced over his shoulder at the young boy trailing behind the group.

Something was up with Sanzo. He'd been unusually quiet during the day long mission. Not once had he argued with Tani nor had he even attempted to play a single prank during their long trek down the dirt road back to Konoha. This wasn't the first time he'd seen the teen so gloomy. It happened infrequently but it did happen.

Tani had tried teasing him from his funk, she'd tried goading him into their normal banter, she'd even gone out of her way to actually be nice to him right after.

Nothing.

Seinosuke had been more subtle, walking along his teammate, talking quietly to him. Naruto was sure he was gently probing for the source behind his mood but after a few minutes, concerned amber orbs had found the equally concerned blue of their sensei. After the failed attempts, the two teens had given him space, hoping this was one of the times the dark shadow in Sanzo's life would lift like they tended to. They'd walked for nearly an hour now, and there hadn't been any change in his demeanor.

Naruto slowed his stride.

His other students continued on, throwing worried glances at the half shaven genin but otherwise held their silence. He walked quietly beside his student for a few minutes before speaking.

"What's wrong, Sanzo?" he questioned.

He'd tried to beat around the bush, coax and persuade him about this before, in the beginning, but had always been rebuffed when he did. Sanzo was a lot like him, in many ways, he'd leaned. The best way to speak to him was to be direct.

No bullshit.

"Sensei...you grew up without any parents, didn't you?"

Naruto blinked, the question posed more like a statement taking him aback. His history was fairly common knowledge now, it didn't bother him that anyone knew, but he wasn't sure where this was headed. What that had to do with his current funk. While his mother had died long ago, long before he and his father immigrated to Konoha, Sanzo's father was still among the living. He was a fellow shinobi among their ranks. A chunin last Naruto had heard.

He didn't understand what it had to do with anything, but the worried jonin rolled with it, hoping it'd make sense eventually.

"Yeah," Naruto confirmed, "they died the day I was born."