Chapter 17

Tamayana Kara awoke once. Everything hurt. She tried to open her eyes, but she couldn't. She tried again…and this time whatever muck held them shut gave way.

She wasn't outside anymore. She didn't see that horrible rubber ninja.

Her teammates or her sensei must have come for her.

She tried to turn her head, but that hurt, too. What had happened to her that everything hurt?

Then she felt it. Her skin was on fire, her stomach felt like it was going to burst. Oh Kami. Number Two groaned in pain.

Then Taro…err, Number Four came into view. And Naruto, the blonde boy who was so handsome, so strong. Her sensei was here in person and was operating his puppet at the same time. She felt grateful…and nervous that so much help was necessary for her.

They were doing something to her. Number Three was at her feet. Number One was holding down her head. The pain, it hurt worse. Didn't any of them learn any medical jutsu? It felt like they were tearing her apart.

Her eyes fixed on Naruto. He was looking at her. He was terrified. She kept staring up at him…hoping…praying.

As the blackness swirled at the edge of her field of vision, she could only think of Naruto.

She had gone from being an idiot student to a powerful ninja because of him. She had left her home and her family behind without a thought because he asked it. She had walked and run and swam from one end of the Elemental Countries because he asked it.

If she survived this, if she lived, she would tell her sensei how she felt about him. She had counted on him to save her…and he did. He was always there, always strong, always a pillar in her heart.

She swore to herself. 'Let me live so that I can grow stronger for my sensei, so that I can be what he needs from me.'

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Naruto walked over to the bed where his student was recuperating. He had felt so guilty about her injuries that he set her up, after field triage, in the safehouse he currently inhabited.

It had been three days. She looked better and was drinking fluids. But she was still awfully pale.

This whole thing was a vivid reminder of one of the main benefits of serving a ninja village: proper medical services.

Everything had been cobbled together. She had nearly died twice because Naruto and his team didn't know what they were doing…and didn't have basic supplies. Her bandages were stolen from a clinic in the nearby village. The antibiotics were stolen from a veterinarian. The jutsu used to repair some of the damage had also been stolen, much earlier, from Hidden Leaf.

It was sheer audacity that Number Two was still alive. She was their primary healer. Naruto only had rudimentary healing skills…and Number Three was scarcely any better. Number One knew as much as any civilian hunter out in the woods.

Naruto sat on a stool and looked at the girl's easy breathing. She was finally sleeping well.

They'd kept infection out, even though her intestines had been cut. Number Two was very lucky, foolhardy but very lucky.

Naruto looked over the saline drip. It would need to be changed within the hour. He made to stand up when a hand snaked out and grasped his.

"You're awake," Naruto said.

"I was tired of sleeping," Number Two said.

"Your body needs the time and energy to heal."

"Stop lecturing. I know you've never taken to the healing arts."

Naruto smiled. "True enough. But I've had my fair share of injuries. Some heal slowly…some never heal at all." His students still didn't know about his main weakness, his missing leg. That Naruto would keep hidden for as long as possible.

"I'll be good as new, Nar…err, Number Four."

Naruto was confused for a moment. His student had known his true name for some time now, but she'd never used that name. If she addressed him by name, she said, 'Taro.'

"Is there anything I can get you? I have several jutsu scrolls you've never seen before. I won't allow you to practice them, but you can read them…."

Number Two smiled. "That sounds nice. My brain feels like it's rotting."

Naruto stood up and walked into his sleeping quarters. He kept a stash of scrolls there. It took just a few minutes to find a few interesting scrolls. Naruto walked back to the room where his student was staying.

"Here you are."

"Thank you. Would you do me another favor, Number Two?"

Naruto shrugged. "Sure. What can I do?"

"Call me Mokuren, sensei."

That took Naruto back. It wasn't her true name. The jounin council back in Grass had informed Naruto of the name of each of his students. But he had never used them…and he didn't know what this new name meant. She wasn't delicate like the flower name she had just adopted. She was stronger than the thickest tree in the forest.

"I will call you Number Two."

"Please sensei. Call me Mokuren."

Naruto leaned away from his student. Something was going on here. Something odd, something off….

He was caught off guard when Number Two's hand reached out and snagged Naruto's hand. She had his hand to her lips before he could react.

It felt strange. Warm, wet.

The lips on his hand were the first time he'd been touched by another human…in a long, long time. Doctors teaching him to use his prosthesis in Hidden Leaf? That Suna ninja who had kicked Naruto out of an early model Taro puppet?

Years.

Naruto blinked twice, three times. Then he remembered the lips, the aggressive lips, on his hand. He snatched his hand back.

"What are you doing?"

"Sensei. Sensei, we're alone."

"Number Two, I don't know what you want…."

"I want you, Naruto. I thought you were so cool and powerful when I just saw your Taro puppet, I'd have followed you anywhere. I owe you so much. I admired and respected you, but you're my age. You're beautiful. I don't just have to admire you, sensei. I want you, Naruto. I want to be yours…."

Naruto's brain almost shut down at that declaration.

No one had ever claimed to love him, to want him. Naruto didn't know what to do. He was so advanced as a ninja, but his mind had never turned to girls. He thought of himself as broken, as damaged.

This didn't make any sense.

"I don't…understand, Number Two."

She sat up in bed. Naruto wanted to push her back down so she wouldn't injure her stitches…and then he thought again. He wanted to get away from this…girl who was causing his head so much pain. He didn't understand. It didn't make sense.

She reached out to grab his hand again.

"Please, sit back down. You're going to reinjure yourself, Number Two."

"No. Let me explain. My fondness for you, my admiration – it turned to love, Naruto. Now, you're nursing me back to health. I…I can't imagine anything more romantic."

Naruto stood up and headed for the door. "I'll be back in an hour. Read your scrolls, Number Two. We shall not speak of this…this again."

He was gone before Number Two could say anything.

She spent the next hour sobbing.

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Time passed slowly in Naruto's current stronghold. Numbers One and Three didn't stay long before fleeing back out into the field. They could feel the tension…even if they didn't understand it.

Naruto took to climbing inside his Taro puppet and leaving on missions with Numbers One and Three. He left a Shadow Clone behind to tend to Number Two.

No one said anything…but it all unraveled. Years of working together was gone. The comfort of being a team was disrupted. They were back to their raw genin days.

Attacks against Rice Country targets slowed to a halt. Naruto's plan to fully blood his students…and himself…slowed. Before he could truly become strong as he'd promised to do, he needed to perfect his present skills.

But if he couldn't keep his students safe…if he couldn't fulfill his obligations to them…if he couldn't even stand to be touched, then what value was power?

It was a most uncomfortable month.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Naruto managed to resume their raiding five weeks after Number Two had been injured.

His female student refused to look at Naruto or the Taro puppet. They began the raid, but no one was really into it. The magic was gone.

Indeed, in the thirteen hours they traveled between Wave and Lightning, the only highlight was running into some kind of caravan of Sound ninjas carting the last Uchiha, Sasuke, off to meet with Orochimaru.

Taro stayed his team while he deployed a special series of micropuppets, the ones that carried a special poison developed by Kabuto. Here, finally, was a worthy test subject. An Uchiha being willingly led away from Hidden Leaf.

Sasuke didn't seem to notice the pain of a few micropuppets injecting him with a small dose of an optic nerve poison.

Taro gestured for his team to attack, but he singled Sasuke out for safe passage. The poison took time to take hold. Naruto wanted to know the true effects. Sasuke would live today; who knew what tomorrow had in store for him?

Taro signaled. The brutal attack rained down on the Sound ninja.

Number Two held nothing back. She used every horrifying, lethal type of medical perversion she could think of. Arms exploded; hearts and lungs liquefied; gashes self-cauterized themselves across torsos.

Number Three showed just why he would eventually be classed an S-rank ninja…within a few years his repertoire would be well known and feared. Skin burned; ninjas were cut in half from a great distance; steam batted powerful ninjas around like they were toy ships in a storm.

Number One preferred to demonstrate his sword and dagger skills on a night like this one. He hadn't been on the field long enough to prepare any significant traps, but he had a few quick surprises ready. He was about to test out some new types of distraction traps when two wounded ninjas managed to grab Sasuke and flee the field.

Taro signaled that they wouldn't be pursuing. He had a test to run, after all. He wanted to see the effects of the new poison on the Sharingan.

Hours later the group arrived at the safe house in Lightning Country.

Naruto crawled out of Taro. He expected to have to explain about his order concerning the Uchiha.

Instead, Number Two dropped a bombshell. The Uchiha was the last of their concern. "This was my last mission, sensei. I believe I have learned everything you have to teach me."

Her voice was strained and brittle.

"No, Number Two. I am sure there is more that all of us can help you with…."

"No," Number Two said more firmly. "I have learned everything that I want to from you. I need to map my own course now."

Numbers One and Three were surprisingly quiet. They had both wondered what had happened between Numbers Two and Four…but whatever it was seemed to be playing itself out now.

The crumbling of their team was now complete.

"Is there anything I can do," Naruto asked, "to change your mind?"

Number Two bit her lip and shook her head. "I made myself clear to you. It's too hard to be here now…."

Naruto looked sad, but he nodded. As much as he wanted Number Two to remain, he couldn't countenance what she seemed to want from him. If this was what she needed, then Naruto had to let her go. "What are your plans, Number Two?"

"I will return and visit my parents for a time. Beyond that, I do not know. I have no interest in returning to serve Grass. They were wrong then to expel you; they remain wrong now."

Number One stepped over to whisper to Number Two. Number Three looked upset, but he let the others figure it out.

"Then go with my blessing, my dear student. This will likely be a complete severing of ties, then. With your departure, I will have to destroy the safehouses you know about for our continued security…."

"I know, sensei. I would never speak of you, but it is sensible in any case…."

"Thank you, Number Two. More than setting up new boltholes, other things will have to change soon. This life I live will soon be gone, Number Two. Once you leave, I don't know that we'll ever run into each other again."

"That's alright. It's too hard staying here, ignoring reality. You helped to make me strong…and for that I am thankful. But you broke my heart, sensei. I cannot just overlook that. I have to find my own path now."

Twenty minutes later, after saying goodbye to her teammates but not hugging or touching her former sensei, Number Two left the safehouse.

Naruto suspected and feared that he would never see his student again. The truth would be far worse.

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A/N: This is my long planned exploration of Number Two. Those who complained about not knowing the student's names now have one of them.

Most of the S-ranked ninja featured in Naruto seem to have psychiatric dysfunctions. Naruto, growing up the way he did and always hiding inside puppets, is just as broken as Haku or Sasori. His power, like all power, comes at a severe cost. He seems willing to pay it, even if all the people around him are not.

More crumbling to come. The golden age is over.