37. Aftermath (2)

Next day, The sun rose from the east as usual

Aiko woke up in a strange room and saw that he was covered in bandages with many medical apparatus attached to his body.

'A hospital room' he thought looking around the plain white walls and door which was partially open. He wanted to call somebody when the door opened and two familiar people walked inside one holding a few flowers in her hand.

" Mikoto san and Ichiro." called the red haired boy looking at the two uchihas who entered the room.

"You are awake, Aiko-kun" said Mikoto surprised as the nurse outside had informed them that it would take a few days for the boy to regain consciousness, given the severity of blood loss and his injuries.

Ichiro just stood beside her mother looking at the bandaged friend of hers. Mikoto said that she would inform the doctors and went out of the room leaving the two of them in the room.

"What happened yesterday, Aiko?" she asked looking at him with a calm gaze, but Aiko picked up that she was feeling angry making him puzzled.

"How did you vanish suddenly and why are you so injured?" she asked, her tone a bit agitated, looking straight into his eyes.

Aiko looked at her for a moment and decided to partly tell the truth as he did not want to completely deceive his friend and told the same reason he told Minato and about him vanishing, he simply said it was a jutsu taught by Minato which was the truth.

"You fought with the person who released that monster?" she asked, coming a bit closer, she felt he wasn't telling the whole truth, and figured he must have his reasons, but still felt a bit bitter in her heart.

She had seen the silhouette of the fox which destroyed the village wantonly while she took Sasuke to the shelter and had heard rumours spreading through the village and her clan that the monster was controlled by genjutsu.

"Yes, They were very strong, I couldn't stop them from hurting Minato and Kushina-san." said the red-haired boy, looking at her, his face still calm. But, Ichiro noticed that his eyes were dimmer than usual.

Ichiro didn't know why but she did not like that look in his eyes, she felt sad and her determination towards her goal increased as she looked at his state.

"Next time, we will fight together." she said looking right into his eyes,with a finality in her tone, after a few moments of silence.

Aiko looked at her, his eyebrows rising a little in surprise, as a small smile tugged at his lips and felt his mood improve a little and felt warmth in his heart even though his brain said that her presence would not have had much difference in the previous fight.

"Ok" said Aiko nodding his head as his smile grew more pronounced and looked towards the door, which opened and Mikoto walked in with a woman wearing white coat and a few women in white uniforms.

The doctors checked his condition and said that he would be discharged in two days and headed out of the room as the hospital was filled with injured people in the wake of the Kyubi's attack.

Once, the doctors left, Aiko again explained the situation to Mikoto and got scolded by her for being reckless. "How is Kushina san and Naruto?" asked Aiko, looking at her as he thought she would have gone first there before visiting him.

"Kushina is not in the hospital, I don't know her location, but she must be safe, Naruto-kun is also kept in a separate room with ANBU guards, you don't have to worry about their safety." answered Mikoto, making Aiko relax.

'I wonder if Minato san is alright?' thought the red haired boy lying on his bed. Mikoto and Ichiro already left saying goodbye and urging him to rest. He checked for Minato's mark but found that it was out of his detecting range and found Kushina's inside the village and Naruto's a few rooms away.

Aiko looked at the ceiling, his eyes unfocused, as he recalled yesterday's events slowly analysing them, It was also one of the perks of his calm mind skill, that he could remember all the information from his senses when the skill was 100% active.

'I wanted to protect them.' he thought as scenes of battle replayed in his mind. 'I am still very weak.' he concluded, planning to increase the intensity of his training and learn new skills.

Just as he was about to check his status as he clearly remembered hearing some notifications as he passed out, he felt another familiar chakra signature come towards his room opening the door.

.....................

Jiraiya sat near the well and took out a pill bottle from his robe and ate two pills from it. He then lay on the ground looking at the stars in the sky, today there was a full moon in the sky surrounded by brightly shining stars.

'It will take months before I am completely healed with this.' he thought looking at the pill bottle in his hands smiling bitterly. He had gone to Ame to check upon his disciples as he had heard news that the organisation they had founded was destroyed with most of its killed in the struggle.

After investigating in the Amegakure for a bit, he found out that none of his disciples were seen after the incident making him have a bad premonition in his heart. Not willing to lose hope he had infiltrated the government's quarters and Hanzo's house trying to find some information about their whereabouts, only to get surrounded by Hanzo and his subordinates as if they were expecting him.

The battle with them was frigid, but, not unlike the first time he had faced Hanzo with his teammates, this time he was able to hold his own and even push them back bit by bit, but still facing so many people proved to be a disadvantage and he was affected by Hanzo's poison forcing him to retreat from the place. He was also forced to accept that something terrible had befallen his disciples as he could not find any clue regarding them.

He was taking these pills to drive out the poison from his system, though slow they were doing their job. 'I hope Kushina and my God child are safe.' he thought, feeling a bit exhausted in both mind and body.

Just as he was beginning to doze off he felt his surroundings change as he found himself in front of Konoha gates with Shima beside him.

He quickly entered the village and went towards the Third's house while looking at the state of the village. The shinobis and civilians had already started the clean up and reconstruction process. The atmosphere was heavy with a lot of people having lost their loved ones and homes.

......................

Hiruzen was sitting in the main hall of his house looking through the reports he had in front of him regarding the state of the village, with a bandaged man of similar age sitting in front of him.

Danzo looked at Hiruzen with a expressionless face, but he wasn't as calm as he seemed, They had found a seal on the baby which seemed contain the Kyubi, but given Kushina's state it was clear that she still had Kyubi sealed in her, The idea of creating many Jinchūriki for a single tailed beast excited Danzo as he realised how much the military power of the village would increase if that was possible.

"Given Kushina Uzumaki's state, I think we should prepare a new vessel for Kyubi inside her." he said slowly looking at the man in front of him, Minato was nowhere to be found and they could only assume the worst about his condition.