Itsuki slowly made his way back to the hospital, getting himself to be emotionally ready to say goodbye to a place that had been more home to him than the orphanage or Kurama clan ever was. Entering through the back door, he quietly made his way to Mogusa's office. Knocking the door, he opened the door after getting confirmation from inside only to find Tsunade being the sole occupant, Mogusa nowhere to be seen. Itsuki was so distracted that he did not even register not sensing Mogusa.
"Come sit Itsuki and close the door behind you." Tsunade pointed towards the empty chair in front of her. Activating privacy seals, she dropped her disguise. Pushing forward two scrolls towards Itsuki, she motioned him to read them.
'Superhuman strength technique and Creation Rebirth' Itsuki read the title of the scrolls, astonished. Those were Tsunade's most prized techniques. Opening the scrolls, Itsuki noted that ink was still fresh. Before he could question her, Tsunade raised her hand and stopped him.
"I read your technique but if you want to save the girl, your technique is not enough and still far from refined enough to be used. Although if you could modify Creation rebirth and use it with Yang chakra like you did with mystic palm, and use it to treat her, theoretically you could offset the effects of her disease as long as you periodically treat her." Tsunade spoke. Itsuki hung his head, he had a feeling his jutsu was not ready yet but Ichika had too little time left to live.
Standing up from her seat, Tsunade ruffled Itsuki's raven locks before continuing, "And you know better than me what your life will entail after you graduate. Consider this a goodbye gift from Medic Corps for all the work you did." Tsunade looked at the eleven-year-old in front of her and felt pride. His contribution to the Medicinal world was invaluable, breaking one of the core stone ideas in medicine of using only yin chakra. She had observed him since his induction onto the Medic program and watched him progress from a rookie underdog to the youngest senior medic in the history of Konoha. She wanted him to one day succeed her and lead Medic Corps but fate had other plans.
Walking up to the door, Tsunade changed into Asa Suzuki. Opening the door, she paused for a second.
"It was an honor to have you here, Senior Medic Itsuki. A truly tremendous honor." And walked off, ignoring the Medics who were now standing outside the door.
Itsuki numbly watched as everyone he knew in the Medic corps came to meet him. Kito came forward and,
"It was an honor to have you here." Kito shook his hand.
"It was a privilege."
"It was a great honor to work with you."
One by one, every medic came to Itsuki. One after another, they shook his hands and spoke to him the words of honor. More and more medics gathered behind, watching senior Medics accolade Itsuki.
In the end, Mogusa came carrying young Ichika and handed her to Itsuki. He nodded, carefully holding her.
Walking out of the Konoha General Hospital, Itsuki absentmindedly walked a few steps before stopping and turning to face his well wishers standing at the hospital door.
Trying to get rid of the lump in his throat and fighting his tears, Itsuki held sleeping Ichika close to his chest and gave a low bow to everyone.
"Thank you... for everything. It truly was a tremendous honor knowing you all."
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
About a year later, Namikaze Orphanage, Itsuki's room
A small figure opened the door to Itsuki's room and silently made its way in, and closing the door behind. Ignoring the baby sleeping on the bed, the figure made its way towards the person laying sleeping on the study table.
With an eager smile, the intruder made his way towards the sleeping person and pulled out a weapon from his pocket, and poised to throw it. Suddenly,
"BOOO"
"AHHhbb..." Intruder shrieked before his mouth was covered by hands. Itsuki's sleeping figure disappeared and real Itsuki materialized behind the intruder, covering his mouth.
Itsuki pointed towards the sleeping Ichika and let go of the intruder, who promptly showed his displeasure by throwing an orange ball at Itsuki.
"Now Naruto, it's bad manners to throw paint bombs at people." Itsuki scolded, deftly catching the orange ball and disarming it with a pulse of chakra.
Intruder, now identified as Naruto, scowled and said, "Damn it Itsuki-nii, today is your graduation. Think how awesome will it be if you attend covered in awesomest Orange and impress your sensei with your awesomeness."
Itsuki rolled his eyes, noting Naruto wearing his eye-watering Orange jumpsuit again. He got ready for the academy, ignoring Naruto's grumbling about people's lack of fashion sense.
Gently picking up sleeping Ichika, he and Naruto made their way towards the matron of the orphanage. Approaching her room, Naruto fell a step behind and when I entered to hand Ichika to her, Naruto stood outside, out of matron's view. Itsuki did not say anything at that and handed Ichika to the matron.
On our way to the academy, Naruto is uncharacteristically quiet, not that he blamed him. Naruto carved a loving family above everything else and since I introduced Ichika to him, she has grown on Naruto. To him, Ichika is like a sister he never had. But he also doesn't want her to suffer the hate he endures simply for her close relationship with him. So he simply learned to hide it from everyone. It might not look like neon orange wearing Naruto even knows how to spell Stealth but he is surprisingly stealthy. Today, when Naruto came to the orphanage and even walked with me but no one other than me noticed him the entire time. He deliberately chooses odd hours to visit us, sneaking in and out without anyone ever getting the wind of his whereabouts. One of the reason he wears neon orange most of the time is because people will not recognise him when he does not wear it. If I did not possess the ability to passively sense chakra at all times, even I would have problems dealing with Naruto's pranks.
Rubbing his head, messing with his blond mop of hair, I smile and offer, "Why don't we go out for some ramen after graduation." The smile he gave me in return said all.
Since my first meeting with Jiraya, I have taught Naruto on seals. At first, he was very slow to pick up on them, requiring colossal effort to master just basic seals. But Naruto persevered and through sheer guts and determination, he learned all the basics. All that became a moot point when I realized he did not know how to read and write.
After I taught him reading and writing as well as calligraphy, Naruto took to sealing like fish does to water. Perhaps not the most naturally talented, he more than makes up for it with sheer hard work. In such a short time, he has reached the level where he will have to select his specialization.
Every sealing master there is specialized in one or more subjects of sealing. Like Kushina Uzumaki was a sealing master specializing in barrier seals which along with adamantium chains was strong enough to hold Nine-tails and Jiraya specializes in chakra seals, a common but diverse specialization although with very few high-end applications.
After Naruto selects his specialization, there is little I could do to guide him after that. In a way my he could graduation with ease, not having to worry about Naruto's training anymore.
Reaching the Academy gates, Naruto left for his class, and Itsuki his. Reaching his desk, Itsuki just laid down and went to sleep.
A few minutes later, a familiar chakra signature sat next to him, rousing him from his sleep.
"You must be some wayward Nara with all the time you spend sleeping." Hana Inazuka teased.
"There is a fundamental difference between me and any Nara. Genetics!" Itsuki retorted back and Hana laughed. She knows Itsuki spends whole awake, but it is too much fun to tease him.
"You actually don't look that different from a Nara. Grow your hair, braid it in a spiky ponytail and start muttering troublesome at every other minute, everyone will start calling you Itsuki Nara."
I rolled my eyes, ignoring indignant Nara at the back.
"Sit down children." Fusao sensei enters and immediately silencing the class. "No, now you are Genin so calling you children is a bit much." He chuckled, inciting a few laughs from the class.
"Congratulations, you all are now proud Ninjas of Village hidden in leaves."
Fusao immediately moved on to team assignments.
"Team 1 consists of Oshita Aki, Date Kin, and Oshito Hachiro. Your sensei is Yoshimoto Takahiro." But not all were assigned a team. "Inuzuka Hana, accepted in Medic Corps." Itsuki gave beaming Hana an envious glare.
"Team 7 will have.." Itsuki immediately focused on Fusao sensei. Team seven is something of a legend inside Konoha. Modeled after sannin, every time Team Seven was approved, at least one ninja among them went on to become a legend. The yellow flash Minato Namikaze, Kinslayer Itachi Uchiha, Copy ninja Kakashi Hatake and Obito Uchiha were the remnants of past Team sevens. But team seven is also the configuration with the least approval rate, with only being commissioned three times after the formation of Sannin.
"Muramoto Kuharu, Sakurai Orochi and Itsuki. Your sensei will be Kakashi Hatake." Fusao read, with a frown on his face.
Immediately, I sensed chakra hidden just outside approach the Fusao sensei and with a burst of smoke, Kakashi Hatake appeared.
"Team seven, training ground three in ten minutes." And promptly vanished in shunshin, leaving the class speachless.