30 Chapter 29: Hospital Visitors

When I woke up again, I was in the hospital. I turned my head to the side and saw my whole team sleeping in chairs around me. I can see it's night time outside, and that we are back in Konoha again.

"Oh good, you're finally awake." I turn my head and see Shizune entering the room. "These guys all refused to leave until you woke up. You've been asleep for about five days now, three of them was traveling back home. The paralysis wore off completely after a few hours, and thankfully Sakura was on site and able to heal the wound mostly." She informs me.

"How bad was it?" I ask curiously, trying to sit up and still feeling a lot of pain.

"Pretty bad, but could have been worse. The blade pierce your solar plexus and did a lot of internal damage, but with time and proper recovery, you should be fine and moving around well enough." She consoles me with a smile.

"Ami!" I hear Neji gasp out as he must have woken up from our talking. "You're awake!" He jumps out of his chair, the noise waking the other two up who also jump up and join him.

"I'm fine, apparently." I console them as the hover around me fretting. "No long term damage. Maybe a scar, but that's it. Now someone tell me what else happened on the mission." I demand firmly to shut my team up.

"Team Kakashi recovered Sai. He was apparently going to betray the village due to his orders from Danzo, but he chose not to. He helped them try and bring..." Neji informs me, then glances quickly at me with an undiscernible look on his face before continuing. "Well, Sasuke was there, sis. Team Kakashi found him, and they tried to get him to come back with them, but he wouldn't leave. Sasuke attacked them all, but left when Kabuto appeared. According to Sakura, Orochimaru looked to be dead when they appeared. But Sasuke still left with them. She said he didn't seem to care that Orochimaru was dead, but that he still had something to do." Neji informs me seriously, though he gives me a subtle knowing look.

"I'll bet he still has to fight his brother." I say bitterly. I still have to act like I didn't see him. "But he was there? Did he look alright?" I ask curiously and see a hint of a smirk ghost over my brother's face. He probably saw me in the hideout with him.

"Naruto said he was strong and very powerful." Lee tells me. "He managed to quickly beat all four members of their team before he left."

"Those guys wouldn't have actually fought him. They are trying too hard to bring him home peacefully, they never would have actively hurt him." I defend the team. Even Sasuke would have struggled greatly if those four went full out, especially Yamato. That guy's a special ANBU Black Ops member and a wood style user.

"Oh, Ami, I almost forgot. As I was stuck in the paralysis, I looked around the lab and found this on Orochimaru's table. It was on a severed hand, but I still recognized it and grabbed it. You have the others, don't you?" Lee asks me holding out Orochimaru's Akatsuki ring.

My eyes widen in surprise, "Lee, that's awesome! I didn't even think he still had his." I say excitedly, taking it from him when offered. "Now we have three! We're getting a good sized collection at this point."

The team stays with me a while longer, talking about the mission before I start to get tired again. I make them all go home, even Neji. They need proper sleep and rest as well. I get woken up the next day to a steamed pork bun being wafted under my nose.

"Good morning, Kakashi." I say before opening my eyes. I hear him chuckle at me as I open my eyes and look skeptically at the pork bun. "Am I even allowed to eat solid food right now? I do have a hole in my stomach." I say bitterly.

"Maa, I didn't ask." He says sheepishly, looking at my chart for confirmation. "You can, just eat slowly." I don't wait for further confirmation and take a small slow bite of the delicious food. I smile happily as I slowly munch on the food. I look around and notice Tsunade walking into the room and sealing it for privacy.

"Should you even be out of bed yet? What are you doing here?" I ask him, he's still in the hospital himself from his chakra depletion last I checked, and that's why he wasn't on the last mission.

"I got cleared three days ago. Just don't tell Naruto, he wants me to train him and I've been hiding." He admits cheerily to me.

"Ah, probably time for his wind nature training to start." I observe out loud. "That means I only have a little bit of time to hurry up and get better before..." I trail off, a dark look forming on my face as I think about the next main event, the next life I need to save.

"You still have time." Tsunade says firmly. "I'm sending Team Kakashi off on another mission soon, and it will take Naruto time to learn how to use wind before he can even think to try and put it with the rasengan."

"Probably a couple of months in total then. I should be healed before then but..." I trail off again, this time in concentration. "I need to learn genjutsu." I say randomly.

Kakashi sighs to me, "I tried teaching you, but I use it with my Sharingan, it's not the same as teaching you a different way, and you just weren't suited to the basics. An unfortunate weakness of the Byakugan, the All Seeing Eye, is that you are very susceptible to visual genjutsu. You can get out of it, and see through it quickly, but you still fall under it instantly. What brought this on, though?" He asks me curiously.

"Orochimaru used something called a Genjutsu Pill on us. It paralyzed us completely, and I just kept thinking that if any of us were better against genjutsu, maybe we could have broken out of the hold faster, even if it was consumed instead of cast." I say bitterly.

"Talk to Guy about it. He's not very good at genjutsu himself, but he knows well how to work around it. It's probably why he broke out of the paralysis the fastest, or at least fought through it the most." He suggests. "Now on to the mission you just did. Orochimaru, assuming he's dead, how will this affect our 'story'." He asks me seriously.

"It shouldn't have too much impact. Sasuke would have killed him himself in about three months or so. The timing is uncertain, but that's roughly when it would have happened. Kabuto got his body anyway, so he will still have the ability to combine it with his own. Also, Sasuke has changed the most." I tell him happily.

"Oh? How so?" Tsunade asks interested. I activate my eyes on the safe side, and relax not seeing anyone who can hear us.

"Sasuke, in the story, was consumed at this point with his vengeance. But now..." I smile up at them. "He's so much better, lighter. I can see it, in his eyes, he's not lost in darkness anymore. He even suggested he would contact me via hawks, and infiltrate the Akatsuki and send me news. Tsunade," I turn to stare hard directly at her. "Do not let Sasuke be treated like Itachi was. If he is sticking his neck out, don't make him into a rogue. Yes, react like he is one when he joins, but when this war is over, he should be welcomed home like a hero." I warn sternly.

"Ami, if Sasuke indeed communicates and sends you valuable, true information about the Akatsuki, then he will be granted a pardon. Hell, he'd be up for an instant promotion at that rate. But Ami..." Tsunade trails off uncomfortably for a moment. "On the off chance that Sasuke is merely preying on your emotions and lying, and is actually going to join the Akatsuki, then there will be no saving him from being branded a rogue." She says with finality.

I smirk up at her, "Then it's a good thing I trust him." I say boldly, and she returns my smirk. "You should go soon, my team and yours are on their way in." I warn them, seeing Neji and Naruto both heading this way. They nod and leave quickly. I only have to wait a short moment before Neji enters, shortly followed by Naruto.

"Hey Ami, glad you're up!" Naruto says cheerily to me, coming to sit next to me after Neji silently took his spot on the other side of my bed. "How are you?"

"I'm fine now, Naruto, thanks." I smile at him. It's a bit of a lie, the pain is still intense, but I know it will go away and I'll eventually be fine.

"Maybe this will make you think twice before throwing knives now, huh?" Naruto says carelessly with a blind smile. I keep my smile and hold my hand out subtly to my brother. He sighs and places a knife in my hand, and I throw it at Naruto. 

"What was that, Naruto?" I asks sweetly after he just barely dodges. It was totally worth the flash of pain it caused me.

"Nothing!" He replies hurriedly. "Hey, I'm about to go learn some awesome new jutsu that Kakashi is going to teach me, so I'm just... Gonna go now!" He exits pretty quickly as I chuckle at him.

"You really have built the strangest habit of throwing knives at people, you know." Neji half-heartedly scolds me as he tries not to smile.

I just smile at him as well, "I can't tell if you're proud or jealous I rarely throw any at you." I observe.

"Let's go with proud." He chuckles again at me. We sit and chat for a while, he eventually goes and brings us tea and we drink that together before I tell him to go do something more fun than sit in a hospital all day. He reluctantly leaves to go and train with Lord Hiashi. 

Similar greetings happen when Lee and Guy bring me lunch later in the day, checking in on me. When I was starting to get bored later in the day, a surprising visitor came to greet me.

"Hello, may I come in?" A quiet voice asks hesitantly from the door.

"Sai?" I say in genuine surprise. I didn't expect to see him here, especially not alone. "Yes, please come in." I invite him inside.

"I read that it is nice to visit sick and injured friends at their death bed and to bring fruit." He says with a slightly less fake smile than his usual. He hands me a small basket of assorted fruits.

I giggle lightly at him, "I'm not quite on my death bed, Sai. I'll be just fine in a couple of weeks. But thank you for the fruit, would you like to join me in eating some of it now?" I offer to him.

"But I brought them for you..." He says hesitantly, then pulls out a book. "Hang on, there's nothing in here about this..." He says, flipping through pages in confusion.

I hold out my hand for his book, "Let me see that." I ask and he hands it over. 'How to make and keep friends' is the title, and I flip through it quickly. "Sai... I wish this book had the answers you sought, but unfortunately it doesn't." I say sincerely with a soft voice. "Can I tell you a tale?" I ask him, pointing towards the open chair.

"Yes, I'll listen." He says politely, sitting down. I offer up the basket of fruit he gave me, and he grabbed an apple out of it. I smile having just secretly learned his favorite fruit.

"I didn't know how to make friends for most my childhood either." I confess to him. "I'm guessing because you're reading this, you don't know how to make friends. You mentioned having a brother back on the mission, so I think you could relate to me. I never looked outside of my brother to have friends, I didn't see the point of them. They were just unnecessary wastes of time or demanding obligations to me in my mind, so I never tried." I say and he looks genuinely surprised at me old opinion. "That was until a little voice in the back of my head told me to branch out, and find the value in having friends. I did just that, and I found Sasuke. He was my very first friend I made. Neither of us knew what it meant to be someone's 'friend', so we made it up as we went along." I chuckle, remembering our first few encounters. "Later, we each found more friends of our own to have, but we still kept our traditions with each other. This book won't tell you how to have friends, because there's no 'one way' to have them." I take his book and toss it aside. "With Sasuke, we would quietly train and talk about weapons and goals, until eventually we would confide important things with one another. With Shikamaru, he and I would watch clouds and play shogi, discussing strategies and getting to know the inner workings of each other's minds that way. With Kiba, we would race and explore, and make fun of each other, and always push each other to be better and try harder. Shirotsu and I try to annoy each other the quickest as our form of greeting, but then bond and laugh together over food and tea. Do you see my point? You have to get to know the person you want to be friends with, and often that just takes asking to join them in their favorite hobby." I finish my speech to him with a smile.

"Favorite hobby..." Sai repeats, "Then for you, what is your favorite hobby?" He asks me.

I freeze for a moment, I've spent so much time just doing other people's hobbies, I'm not sure what would be classified as my hobby. "That's a good question. I enjoy doing many things, honestly. Each of my hobbies I got from a friend, it's how I built my own way to spend my free time. So I guess for me, hanging out with my friends is my hobby, it's the activity that brings me the most happiness." I realize with a cheesy grin. I never would have said that in my last life, not in a million years. "I love training and drinking tea with my brother, running with Lee or Kiba, learning new jutsu's with Kakashi or Asuma, going into town with Shirotsu or Sasuke. I like eating new foods with Choji or Shino, taking walks in parks with Ino or Hinata. Each of these things were activities I didn't used to..." I stop myself, almost mentioning my past life. "I never thought I would choose these growing up. I just absorbed my friend's hobbies. So Sai, what is your hobby?" I ask him.

"I like to paint." He says after a moment. "It is what I spend most of my time doing, so I guess it is my hobby."

"Does it bring you happiness?" I ask him kindly.

He waits for a moment, thinking hard on his answer. I see his lips turn up slightly into a small and genuine smile. "Yes, I think it does. Emotions are... hard for me, but I think it is happiness I feel when I paint."

"Then please allow me to join you some time for painting. I've never done it before, so please be patient with me." I smile at him genuinely.

"When we paint together, we will then be friends?" He asks me innocently.

"When we paint together, we will create a bond." I correct him slightly. "When you're painting by yourself, and you think of me fondly in a memory of us painting together, that is when you know we are friends. It's about creating bonds, and about creating memories together. Also, working together towards our goals is another way to make friends. What are your goals Sai?" I ask him.

"My goals..." Sai thinks for a moment, "I'm not sure I have many yet, but I think I have one. I want to see these bonds that you and Naruto speak of, I want to see them for myself. I think I had a bond with my brother, but I had forgotten about it. Now I want to see new ones, that is my goal. What is yours?"

"I want to create meaningful bonds as well. My goal is to create meaningful friendships and to find people who can accept me for who I am, without me having to put on a fake smile. They get exhausting, don't they?" I ask him with a knowing smirk and he smiles a little more.

"I suppose." He says innocently. I can tell it will be a work in progress for him. "I've been trying out nicknames lately, I think I have one for you now."

"Wait wait!" I call out, fearing his nicknames, remembering them from the show. "What's your thought process for a nickname, maybe I can help." I offer up nervously.

"I was going to call you Weakling. I learned from a book that you should call people the opposite of what you think. It worked on Ino earlier when I called her beautiful..." He trailed off at my deadpan expression.

"Weakling." I say darkly, then I sigh out to calm myself down. "So, you think I'm strong? Strong is a compliment, and a fine starting point for a nickname, but would you want to be called a weakling? What if I called you a tiny dicked, pale face, Sasuke knock off? Hmm?" I grin evilly at him as I think up a random insulting nickname for him, and he blanches with a sweat drop. "A nickname should be something that the other person would actually want to be called." I say plainly for him, so he can understand. "I don't normally give other people nicknames myself... Actually now I think about it, I probably shouldn't talk. I call Sasuke 'Brat' all the time... But he's the only person I gave a nickname too. But he actually is a brat, so it's fine." I defend myself while sheepishly rubbing the back of my neck.

"I... feel more confused now. How do I know when to use a nickname?" He asks in complete seriousness.

"Uh... Don't force it. One should come naturally. For me, my name is short and means 'friend', so just keep calling me Ami. Naruto acts like a dummy, so call him that." I say while laughing to myself.

"What about Sakura? I called her Ugly Dog but then she hit me." He is hanging on to my every word at this point.

"Think of her positive traits. She's smart, you could call her 'Genius' or 'Bright'. She's physically strong, you call her 'Fierce' or 'Warrior'. You could also do a play on her name, like 'Petal'. For a girl, try not to think of nicknames that have to do with their looks. Though I guess I have a set of my own that people use on me, but they don't mean as much to me. Then again, I do like one of my nicknames I earned..." I trail off thinking of my assassin name I grew fond of. "You know, I don't know why you're listening to me, I keep contradicting myself." I chuckle.

"What is the nickname you like about your appearance? Maybe that will help me create some new ones." He asks in curiosity.

"White Reaper." I say while looking at him with a wicked grin. His eyes enlarge for a moment before he does a double take.

"You're... You're the White Reaper?" He asks in shock. I just grin at him in confirmation. "I've seen you in an enemies Bingo Book. Your white eyes and reaper scythe are very famous, but no one, not even Konoha shinobi, knows who you are."

"Good to know." I tell him cheerfully, "Obviously, this information doesn't leave this room. I can trust you to keep a secret right? It's what friends do for each other." I inform him with an edge.

"So we are already friends then?" Sai asks me in confusion.

"Yeah." I tell him firmly, "Another way of making friends is telling them something personal. It's a sign of trust, and something that can't be forced. You learned today a bit about my past, and my secret identity. You've become my friend today, Sai, and I am yours. Congratulations." I smile at him again.

"Thank you, Ami. You are the first person to call me their friend." Sai says seriously to me.

"I beat Naruto? Even Sakura? I figured they would have beaten me to it. Looks like I'm getting better at this friend business!" I cheer myself on. He stays around for a little longer chatting before I let him go once I was getting tired again. I was very proud of myself for making a new friend, especially one who reminded me so much of my past self. I can already tell I'm taking the lessons I've learned so far in this world and utilizing them.