บท 63: Swordsmen Of The Mist (I)
"I didn't take you for someone interested in learning medical Ninjutsu."
Itachi turned around, a notebook still open in his hands. "In our profession, you never know when you'll run into a situation where knowing how to heal your comrades could come in handy. You might want to give it a try too."
"Meh," Kakashi shrugged. "It's mandatory in the ANBU to get some healing classes before you're allowed into active duty, so I'm alright."
He gave the masked man a dry look, knowing full-well that Kakashi would visit one of these classes sooner rather than later. There were many shinobi who thought that the basics they knew were more than enough for small injuries and that the rest could be done by professional medic-nins, believing these new public courses to be entirely unnecessary and useless. However, there were also some like Itachi that saw the value in them, not only because being able to heal your comrades was a valuable skill to have but also because some of the techniques could also be used for other purposes.
No matter what Kakashi might say, he knew that the man was part of the latter group rather than the former.
"It would still be a more worthwhile use of your time than reading these books of yours," Itachi finally replied with a pointed look at the orange novel in Kakashi's hand.
"I'm afraid I must disagree with you on that," he said, sounding much more serious than before. "Mental welfare is essential to keep a shinobi going. That means you need enough downtime to relax and recuperate from your missions, and nothing helps to calm you down more than the Icha Icha series." He gave him a one-eyed smile. "You might want to give it a try too."
Itachi thought his mother would probably not be amused to find him reading what was essential porn. He didn't think she would try to forbid him from reading it, but it would surely create an awkward atmosphere at home.
Seeing his unimpressed look, Kakashi sighed. "Tsunade-sama is back for little more than a month and already people start losing sight of what's truly important. It's really disheartening."
"Our definitions of 'important' seem to be quite different, then."
Nonetheless, in a way, Kakashi was right that some things were already changing as a result of Tsunade's return. The aforementioned healing courses were a prime example of that.
The first thing the Sannin had done was surveying the hospital, finding it and its staff severely lacking, and then setting about to change that. While Itachi had little to do with that and didn't know anyone that did either, some of the stories he heard were rather… extreme. Tsunade certainly didn't mince her words or felt the need to hold back the volume of her voice, to say the very least. It made him wonder if she had been like that when she became Hokage in the other timeline as well and whether he might actually have dodged a bullet by being a nuke-nin at the time.
However, once she felt that she had set everything in motion that needed to be done in order to improve the conditions in the hospital, Tsunade also organized a refresh and training program for every interested shinobi in Konoha. The idea was that while professional medics would still be the ones who deal with serious injuries, every single shinobi would be able to at the very least provide effective first aid. That would then eventually result in much fewer casualties in the field.
This offer stood for barely two weeks now and yet was already a moderate success. For all that many shinobi mocked the program all the time, just as many were actually interested in it. Especially those who had lost a teammate they were close to in the past appreciated the chance to stop such a thing from happening in the future.
Another thing that was in the process of being implemented was an increased emphasis on healing at the academy. He had heard Sasuke and Naruto complain about it because they found it boring, but Itachi approved of the idea. After all, everything that improved the survival chances of the next generation was a good thing in his book. Not only would this step increase their overall skill in that art, but it might also motivate more students to become healers in the future. There had been fewer and fewer shinobi who wanted to become medic-nins ever since Tsunade left the village to the point where there was a slight lack of them already, so this step would hopefully change that.
Itachi knew that the Sandaime had even thought about letting her hold a lecture at the academy for that, though he hadn't dared to propose that to her face yet.
However, it was a side-effect of the aforementioned remodelling of the academy's curriculum that brought the greatest change, for it appeared that the program there hadn't been as challenging as it should have. In fact, the requirements for graduating were as low as they had ever been!
The reason for that, as it turned out, was quite simple: especially during the last days of the Third Shinobi World War, more and more children were sent to the battlefields. Many skills essential for a shinobi were taught less and less in the academy to focus more on direct combat abilities. Because of that, students graduated at an ever-decreasing age.
This trend continued for a while even after the war had officially ended as people were still waiting whether fighting would break out again or not, but then, when it appeared the peace would hold, things changed.
Just days before his death, the Yondaime approved of a modification of the curriculum that put less focus on combat activity and more on secondary and supportive skills to compensate for the previous favouritism. This measure was meant to be a temporary one, but unfortunately, the Yondaime died just shortly after during the Nine-Tails attack that then resulted in the Sandaime getting back into office.
There was a lot of chaos and uncertainty in the aftermath of the attack, so it was somewhat understandable that this unrelated decision fell under the table. The truly problematic thing was that the Sandaime too, unaware of the Yondaime's previous change, ordered the academy to decrease their combat training for the very same reason. While this change was indeed just temporarily, the status quo that was restored afterwards wasn't actually the originally intended curriculum but its lesser version that the Yondaime had approved of.
As a result, the training at the academy had been lacking for years now. Itachi could only hope that this had been discovered in the old timeline as well, but he was afraid the odds were that it hadn't.
It was a shame that so many senior instructers of the academy had died in the attack as well. Had that not been the case, one of them could have informed the Hokage of the situation and avoid the problem entirely.
"Anyway," Kakashi said, pulling Itachi from his thoughts. "We should really get going. Hokage-sama will be angry if we are too late for the meeting."
He blinked in surprise before the words registered in his mind, making him narrow his eyes accusingly. "What meeting?"
Kakashi gave him a look of pure innocence. "Oh, I didn't say? We are supposed to meet Hokage-sama for a mission debriefing."
"And when exactly was that meeting supposed to be?"
Itachi was proud to say that his voice sounded completely casual. Not an easy feat considering Kakashi's tendency to arrive late for every and all appointments, especially when Itachi himself followed the mentality to always arrive ten minutes prior to the agreed time.
"Half an hour ago, give or take a few minutes." Probably seeing something in Itachi's eyes, he then raised his arms in surrender. "But in my defence, I-"
Itachi didn't wait for Kakashi to finish his no doubt brilliant excuse before he vanished in a shunshin.
"So you're interested in these guys, huh? Thinking about making them join as well?"
"You still don't have a partner," Pain said. "With them, we can fill two teams in one sweep."
Kisame chuckled. "I don't think any of them will be too impressed by that idea. They're not exactly a hospitable bunch, ya know? I'm honestly surprised that they work together as it is." His former comrades were a funny group; they could work together without a hitch for a time, only to suddenly start trying to kill each other at a second's notice. Without the structure of a village to keep them in check, he thought it likely that this trait had grown only stronger over the years.
"They will not have a choice in that matter."
It was this attitude that made Kisame like the official leader of Akatsuki. For all that he knew that it was Madara who truly pulled the strings in the background, Pain was still someone he could respect. If not for his character and conviction, then at least for his strength.
"Well, I guess I will pay my old friends a little visit, then."
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