Chapter 27: A gift of Memory

*Ding Dong*

A bell woke Shin up, he slowly opened his eyes. The chirping of birds and the hustling voices of people outside slowly filtered into his ears. It was barely after the sunrise and the lounge was still enshrouded in the dark. "Meow OwO" the furry cat stretched as she nuzzled against his face.

*Ding Dong*

Pineapple looked towards the door before she pawed his face, telling him to hurry up and open the door. "Alright." The boy slowly got up from the floor, taking off the blanket that had somehow appeared on him sometime during the time.

The boy walked towards the door and his hand rose to open it, hovering for a few seconds in hesitation as his heart and brain brought forth a conflict that had plagued him for months now..

*Ding Dong*

In the end he won out and his brain relented, his hand on the handle moved and the door squeaked open. A face that had become all too familiar to his begrudging self, greeted him. "3 bells this time, that's an improvement." What stood before him was a girl with spiky black hair and a black and red outfit. "Here, I brought cake!" she exclaimed while holding up the bag and without waiting for an invitation, she let herself inside the house, just as she did all those months ago, she didn't take his approval, she didn't want his approval, she just knocked on the door and waltzed right in. 

The girl put the bags in the kitchen and hugged Pineapple as she jumped into her arms. After giving Pineapple her breakfast, the girl took out the boxes that contained 2 pieces of cake and a bento with rice, egg and some roasted meat. She put the food into plates and set up the table in the lounge. "Hurry up, will you, it's gonna get cold! We're both going to be late so move already you slowpoke!." the girl scolded while she folded the blanket, "And how many times do I have to tell you to use a pillow? You're gonna get cramps in your neck!" she continued.

After Shin ate, she cleaned up the dishes and did some light cleaning before dragging the boy to the hospital, all the while gossiping about various things, like which kunoichi ended up pregnant or who is dating how and who broke up with whom, the newest restaurants and upcoming festivals and events.

This had become a routine for the pair, and had been for months now. A week after Ryouka's death, Yukia had started to stop by and a week after that, she had begun to drag Shin to work. On the days Yukia was busy or away on missions, Shin would spend the whole day inside the house.

She dropped off Shin inside the hospital lobby and left, "I'll see you later. Pineapple, you better take care of him ok?" she bopped the cat on the nose before departing. Shin started going through his routine, half day at the hospital and the remaining half at the sealing corps. At night, he was still reading through the scrolls when someone told him that had a visitor. Shin took the cue and finished up, meeting up with Yukia who was waiting outside.

Later on, she dragged Shin to one of the newly opened restaurants where the hub hub of the crowd made it impossible to have a conversation, especially since Pineapple attracted a small following of curious chattering children that asked Yukia all sorts of questions about the cat and about their relationship or whether they were married.

After "escaping" the children by quickly eating the food, the trio left the restaurant in a rush. Afterwards, it was a long walk home where Yukia tried to make conversation, "Those kids were so annoying right?"

"Yeah"

"I mean, what do they care about our relationship right?"

"Yeay"

"They are too young to be curious about such things anyways!"

"Yeah"

"I mean, what are they teaching kids these days right?"

"Yeah"

"But at least the food was good, not as good as I expected but it wasn't bad either right?"

"Yeah"

"..." The girl glanced at Shin before going silent, her face went down as the two walked in silence for a few seconds before a renewed resolve bloomed inhereyes and continued speaking, "Maybe tomorrow we can go to that seafood place!"

The journey ended and Shin entered his house along with a hesitant Pineapple that nuzzled Yukia before following him. As the girl walked home, her expression was downcast and her footsteps heavy. She let out a heavy sigh, 'This is not work… maybe I should try something else-! Or… someone else!' She halted her footsteps and changed her destination, her eyes held a renewed vigor and hope as she quickly ran through the dim-lit streets of Konoha.

...…

*Ding Dong*

"I brought cake!" Smiled Yukia as she held up the bags. After the breakfast, Shin leftwith Yukia as per usual and absentmindedly nodded and reapplied as she ranted about various things. It wasn't until more than 10 minutes had passed that Shin realized that they had somehow entered one of the many secluded training grounds that were placed all around the village. He looked at Yukia's innocently smiling face with a raised eyebrow and asked, "Where are we?" The girl on the other hand, simply smiled while slowly distancing herself from him, making him more confused. "What are you do-!" Shin's instincts flared as he sidestepped on reflex. *Swish swish swish* three shurikens embedded themselves on to the spot where he just stood.

"Glad to see you have rusted too much." A voice sounded from the forest that surrounded them as a purple haired woman flickered in front of them with a wide smile on her face and a broad sword on her back and another black sheathed Chokuto in her hand. "Fujio sensei?" Shin asked in surprise, "Shouldn't you be resting?"

Fujio sensei had just given birth and was on leave from her duties. Last Shin had heard of her was that she had given birth to a healthy girl. "What I should be doing is spending time with my cute little baby but I can't just ignore my other kid now can I?" Fujio smiled at Shin and then nodded at Yukia who wished Shin luck before running off.

"Cute girl, so when's the wedding?" Fujio asked with a grin. "There is no wedding." replied an expressionless Shin, "Why are we here anyways?" he asked. Fujio threw the Chokuto in her hand to Shin as she replied, "Training." Shin caught the sword and observed it, it was a very high quality sword but he shook his head, "Sensei, you know I prefer the kunai and shurikens instead of swords."

Fujio anticipated his question and took her sword from her back and held it up, "But I'm not going to teach you some random kenjutsu, what I'm going to teach you is the famed Hatake kenjutsu, with a twist of my own." the woman grinned as lightning started to spark from the sword and it started to vibrate. Fujio then slashed her sword at a tree but didn't connect, instead lightning tore through the tree, burning the tree bark shattering it.

Shin watched in amazement as he had never seen this movie before. "This is a lightning style kenjutsu that I came up with. I never had the required chakra nor the control to become a ninjutsu expert or have any flashy moves like my cousin. What I did have was skill with the sword so I made this jutsu, the lightning does massive damage even if you miss. It also makes the strikes faster and far more deadly."

Shin nodded as he looked at the broken tree, "Such a high damage, this is at least an A rank jutsu, what do you call it?" Fujio scratched her head as she looked away, "ah well, I'm terrible with naming things so I just call it Lightning style kenjutsu. But maybe you can name it after you master it."

She smiled at Shin who looked taken aback as he looked at the sword he had just gotten, "My sword is made with lightning natural chakra metal but that also makes it more damaging on the sword itself. Yours is just simple chakra metal, with your high level of chakra and control, I have no doubt that you would be able to master this skill and bring it to greater heights, heights I can never reach."Fujio spoke with a smile but her words carried emotions of regret and resignation.

Hence started Shin's swordsmanship training all over again. Shin was instructed in kenjutsu by Fujio just like his genin days, but unlike in his genin days, these instructions were harder and the practice far more stringent. Shin practiced till the afternoon when they had a pair of unexpected visitors.

Haruki walked into the training ground carrying two baskets. He handed one over to Shin and set the one aside as Shin set up the picnic blanket, plates and the homemade sandwiches that Haruki had brought. As they sat down Shin took the other basket as well, expecting more sandwiches but was instead greeted with a bundle of blankets. Shin looked in the basket and saw a pair of big and clear purple eyes look back at him.

Shin looked at his senseis and they smiled at him, "Shiharu." Haruki smiled at him. Shin looked down at the girl and spoke lightly, "Shiharu.." the little girl's face bloomed at the mention of her name as she raised her arms towards Shin who picked her up with the same care he would give to his mother's fancy dinner set. Shin held her up and close to his face, wanting to squish her chubby cheeks and it seemed that she had a similar idea as she grabbed his nose and laughed when Shin tried to wiggled it out of her grip. Listening to her clear laughter made Shin match her smile unconsciously as he started to play with her.

After the lunch was over, Haruki and Shiharu stayed to watch and Pineapple decided to keep the baby entertained, even allowing Shiharu to use her as a pillow when she fell asleep. Haruki and Shiharu went back home after a while as Shin and Fujio continued to practice.

Learning the kenjutsu part was not difficult, nor was channeling lighting nature chakra difficult for Shin, the most difficult part was to control the weapon's speed and destructive power. Since the lightning empowered sword was so fast, it made Shin get imbalanced and lose his footing. Shin needed higher physical strength and agility to control his movements better so apart from the sword training, Shin was also given advanced physical and weight training.

Just like that, time passed and seasons changed. Time heals all, even incurable wounds of the heart would close up with time, yet the twists of fate and the cruelty of life is not one that can be so easily forgotten.