Shinobi (Sequel to Otokage)

Um... Surprise?

"Over already?" Sasori mused, "How boring. I expected more blood or at least the Uchiha to lose a limb or two."

With the air clear, they could see Sakura and Sasuke slowly making their way out of the crater. Sasori and Kakuzu met them at the edge.

"Take him to the hospital, please." Sakura directed. Kakuzu nodded, slinging Sasuke's arm over his shoulders and disappearing in a small wisp of smoke. Kabuto came up to her with his book opened.

"You have a stack of documents that need to be signed within the hour." he informed, pushing up his glasses. She nodded as she took and slipped on the cloak he offered her.

"I'll be in the office in fifteen."

Sakura waved at the Konoha shinobi on the sidelines before disappearing herself. She reappeared at the door of her apartment-- a decent sized flat with three rooms, a fully-stocked kitchen, and a large living area the same length as the balcony. She insisted that she didn't need such a large home, being all on her own, but Kabuto wouldn't hear it.

She tossed her cloak across the back of her couch as she entered her room. Standing in front of her full body mirror, she stripped off her shirt and shorts. Her arms were lightly laced with thin white lines that presented the results of her years of training in Otogakure. The same thing proved true with her shins and calves. But if you looked at her thighs and torso, they told a much different story.

On her right thigh was a diagonal mark that ran from the side of her hip to the middle of her inner thigh. It was part of what she sustained during that long torture session years before. Her tormentor liked to use an incredibly blunt kunai to carve all the way through bone. One her left thigh was a set of seals designed to give the appearance of a paint brush stroke tattoo that wrapped around twice. Those were the only copies of files and documents of extremely classified caliber and could only be accessed by her.

Her stomach displayed a hard six pack with three ragged lines form the time she saved Sasori from the Jomae and the one clean cut from the time he impaled her with a poisoned sword. A deeper cut lay on the side of her stomach, also form her time in torture.

Beneath her breasts on her lower rib cage was a scar in the shape of an X, the result of a brutal spar between her and Kisame when she was nineteen. On her chest near her shoulders and neck were seven more crudely cut scars from the Jomae altercation and probably some more from torture. She couldn't recall which one was which.

Sakura turned around to see the markings on her back. There were a few scars here and there from various other fights including discoloration from acid burns, but there were two specific ones that stood out the most. The first and most obvious was the long, deep slash she received from Asuma's chakra blade The second was a brand at the base of her neck;  another one of those wonderful souvenirs from her torturers. Kabuto had one as well in the same place with the same kanji.

Shinobi

She hummed, tapping the inch and a half long scar on her right cheek.

"Hm... I wonder how much darker I've gotten from all that training outside..."

Sakura went into her bathroom to take a quick shower and heal the remainder of her injuries.

::

Deidara hopped down from his bird to meet with the other ex-Akatsuki members who gathered in the ruins of the training grounds. The Konoha nin had gone back within Oto's walls, leaving the rest of them to repair the grounds for another day. Zetsu had made a surprise arrival, saying that he came a couple hours before to see how things were and witnessed the fight himself. Though, Tobi looked a little nervous for some reason.

"So... there's something I think you guys should know."

Zetsu fell silent among everyone else. Was he going to--?

"My name's not really Tobi... It's Obito."

There were a few heartbeats before Kisame narrowed his eyes.

"What? So you dropped a letter and scrambled the rest? Why?" he questioned. While he was being bombarded with other incredulous statements, Itachi frowned as the realization trickled through his thoughts. He knew Tobi was somehow related to the Uchiha either full-blooded or not, but he had never imagined he'd be that one. In fact, everyone had some inkling about Tobi even when he hadn't breathed a word or made any mention with his sharingan. Mostly everyone.

"Obito." Itachi repeated, "As in the Uchiha who had been a student of the Yondaime Hokage?"

There was a thrum of quiet listening until all the attention slowly returned to Tobi. He chuckled sheepishly and allowed his eyes to swirl red.

"Um... surprise?"

...

...

...

"KATSU!"

And unfortunately, that mostly everyone did not include Deidara.

::

An eleven year old boy walked through the pediatric floor with some folders and papers in his arms. He smiled at the nurses and doctors that waved at him as he weaved through this large section of the hospital. He was a normal Academy boy that went to school and got good grades like anyone would expect, but he was one who'd dedicate a lot of his afternoons helping out the man he really looked up to.

Rinha Hidan.

Hidan was one of the best doctors in the whole community with quite an admiral reputation behind him, having studied merely one year and carrying out his title for the next five with definitely more to come. Not to mention all the lives he managed to save the short time he spent as a full-fledged surgeon. Matsumoto Hikaru might be the head of the department, but Hidan undoubtedly could take the position if he truly wanted to.

The boy turned the knob to Hidan's office and set down the load on the pig-sty of a desk. As neat as his handwriting may be, he might as well be one of the least organized people in the world. But that's how Hidan's was, he wasn't complaining. In two years once he had learned all basic medicinal knowledge, he would become Hidan's apprentice even master utilizing chakra for healing.

His chakra understanding and control was already better than most, seeing that it was his only way to sense people.

He was deaf, after all.

Someone strode into the room and the boy turned towards the doorway. It was Hidan himself with a wide grin on his face as he raised his hands to talk.

Yo, Kioshi! Hidan signed, How's my little assistant today?

::

Hachimitsu Kioshi

The boy in chapter July of Otokage-- Hidan's very first patient.