Forgiven?

When Shirohi woke up an indescribable soreness washed over him, as he went to sit up an older man lightly pushed him back down, Shirohi's voice was hoarse from his recovery "Hokage," the old man nodded as he returned to his cup of tea, "Where's Tsuande," setting his cup down the Hokage answered "Asleep, it's fairly late now."

Shirohi let out an "Oh" as he laid back down, while he stared at the ceiling he slowly began to circulate his Chakra. It felt stiff with a hint of confusion in his voice. Shirohi spoke "How long was I out?"

The Hokage hummed "Hmm 3 or 4 days I'm not too sure, I was unconscious myself until a few days ago," pulling a smoking pipe from under his beard he lit a small flame on his finger before proceeding to smoke, letting out a content sigh as he leaned back against the wall, "I knew it, the Land of Grass has much better quality…" looking up he thought for a moment before offering "You want to try kid?"

Shirohi shook his head "No," before returning his focus to his chakra circulating it fast enough for a dot of Raiton to follow its movements on the surface, hearing the slight buzzing Hizuren turned his curious eyes to Shirohi "What are you doing?"

"None if your business, now if you don't mind I'd like to catch up on the days I missed," the Hokage was slightly surprised, but soon a smile came to his face as he returned to his pipe and tea "Very well."

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A week passed and the Hokage and his party returned to Konoha, Tsunade and Shizune were waiting on Shirohi to fully recover. If they hadn't convinced him to wait to heal they would have already been on their way to the next Village so during his recovery period Shirohi began mapping out routes to different villages he had his eyes set on, he was actually entertaining the thought of returning to Kurokami Village something he would ask the girls about.

Tsunade had spent a lot of time cooking meals and cleaning around the room, Shizune hadn't been around as much telling the two of them that she wanted to stretch her legs and explore giving Tsunade and Shirohi a lot of time together, although Shirohi had been a stuck in his bed a lot the two talked nearly as much

"Soo, what's going on between Shizune and you?" Tsunade gave him a light nudge but he instantly answered "Huh? What are you talking about?" She looked at him gauging his reaction and she asked "What about that one girl? Yumi?" and she smiled, his expression crumpled for a mere moment as she nudged him a little harder. "Does Shirohi have a crush?" As she teased him a red hue began to develop across his cheeks, as he let out an unconvincing "No…"

"Mhmm let's see how long you believe that, If you did I would have been praising you for your good tastes but,

it seems I was mistaken…" sounding slightly downtrodden Tsunade stood up turning her head as she walked away "We ran out of rice so I'll cook the beef we have, will you grab the bread?" Shirohi nodded as he slowly got to his feet and limped his way over to their stack of scrolls.

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Shizune with Tonton in her arms ran through the Village, she seemed to already know her destination. Slidding to a stop on the dirt roads she ran into a bakery, a young boy with light brown hair and slightly dark skin was putting bread in the case until he saw her and his face lit up he hurriedly shoved the bread into the case and ran up to Shizune grabbing her into a hug only for Tonton to loudly protest, as the two separated Shizune was looking at the floor to hide the deep red blush rising to her ears, "Hello Askel."

Askel smiled wildly as he ran off, coming back with a slightly burnt piece of bread "Here you can have this, pops said it was too burnt to sell but I scraped it all off," reaching into his pocket he pulled out an apple and offered it to Tonton "Forgiven?"

Tonton nodded vigorously his eyes trained on the apple oinking in agreement, the moment the apple was close enough he gave it a chomp, rising a giggle out of Shizune as she set him down.

Askel called out "Pop, I'll be back!" Out of the back of the bakery a burly voice replied "You better keep 'er safe!" Askel awkwardly chuckled as he dragged Shizune out of the bakery.

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Shirohi stood up and made his way to the door "It's getting pretty late and Shizune hasn't arrived, I'm going to look for her." Tsunade replied as she flipped the meat "Alright, be careful it wouldn't be good if you reopened your wounds," Shirohi waved with some annoyance in his voice "I know, I know," Tsunade watched the door close with a smile, as she pulled up her sleeve to reveal a few lined scars on her arm, pulling out a kunai she added another line as she watched the blood pool she felt a wave of dizziness wash over her as her stomach tightened but she grabbed onto the table with enough strength to put indents into the wood as she let out a large exhale before righting herself and continuing to cook, looking at the blood occasionally.

As Shirohi limped through the Village, thoughts began to race through his mind, they were far from relevant but yet they still plagued his mind. After walking to the far side of the village he saw a small playground equipped with a single slide and a few swings, on one of those swings he found the onyx-eyed girl he was looking for but his eyes became tense as he saw a boy looking over her.

With speed unnatural for a civilian he appeared in between Shizune and the boy his hand tightly gripping the boy's wrist, he had nearly grabbed Shizune and it would be hard to tell what he'd do… Shizune lightly hit Shirohi "Let him go," Shirohi shot her a confused look ignoring the frightened boy, "Let him go he's my friend!"

Shirohi released the boy's arm, but his eyes stared down on the boy. The boy had a decent build for his age, his hands were calloused and tough but he could only shake under Shirohi threatening scrutiny, "Who are you?!"

The boy trembled "Askel sir," Shirohi turned his gaze towards Shizune "It's getting late we should return," she stared Shirohi in the eye her voice firm as she spoke "No, you'll apologize… Look, his wrist is nearly broken because of you," Shirohi gave an unconvincing "Sorry," before continuing "There, now come on dinner is nearly done."

Shizune shook her head, "Alright, but he's coming with" Shirohi looked at her as if she said something crazy "Your not serious," but the glare she sent him chased his wounds to ache as he let out a quiet voice "Your serious…" Shizune smiled brightly as she skipped away "Come on Askel let inform your father," Askel scampered behind Shizune trying his hardest not to look Shirohi in the eyes, he seemed like an overprotective older brother and he didn't want to get on his bad side.

Somehow Shizune had convinced Askel and his Father to accompany them for dinner, it took the longest to convince Shirohi but a slight pinch of his ribs stopped Shirohi's protests, slightly upset Shirohi spoke "I'll inform mother that we will have guests…'' before disappearing with a flurry of grass trimmings, Askel let out an amazed gasp "Woah, your brothers a Shinobi?!"

Shizune gave an awkward smile, "No, he isn't he taught himself to protect us while we travel from Village to Village." Askel 'moaned' "That's sooo cool!" Askel's father seemed slightly nervous but followed the two youths.