The door opened with a creak, as the little boy with drenched clothes entered his house.
Tears threatened to exit the boys eyes but forced himself to not let them. He had already cried enough for the day, maybe even for the entire week.
Sam watched his worried mother run toward him and felt a familiar warmth from her tight hug.
"Baby! You are soaking wet! What happened at school?" Sam's mother said, taking off his school bag and wet jacket.
The boy sniffled as the woman held her son's cold, wet face. She felt warm drops fall on her. He began crying again, hugging his mother, curling up in her lap.
"Again? Sweetie, look at me." She said softly, "Did those boy do it again?"
Sam didn't say anything but a sound managed came out of the boy who had buried his face in her warm shoulder, "...Mhm."
"Come on, I'll make the grilled chicken you like so much. Go wash up and come." She said, giving him a forehead kiss.
"W-with the chocolate? P-please?" Sam said, his mouth had begun watering while his eyes had stopped.
"I still don't understand why you like chocolate with chicken. Fine, but you will brush your teeth and do your homework."
Her words reached nobody as Sam had immediately ran to the bathroom the moment he heard 'fine'.
She sighed as she wore her apron quickly getting to work. She heard some shuffling, the bathroom door open and then close.
Few minutes later.
Sam ran into the room with a smile. He whiffed the smell of coal and saw the meat on the grill. He walked to his mother and hugged her, burying his face in her back.
"Hey! Go and sit down. I'll bring everything real quick!"
"Kay!" Sam sat down.
"Dinner is ready!" She said with a smile, bringing two plates—both varying in sizes and contents.
The larger plate contained the grilled chicken and the other contained melted chocolate with crushed almonds.
Sam took his fork and pierced the chicken, dipping it into the chocolate. He brought it close to his mouth, blowing on it to cool it.
He opened his mouth to take a bite.
---
"Haah!" Satoru screamed, snapping his eyes open. He wasn't back in Keiko's house. He slowly got up from the bed, his soaked clothes stuck to his sweaty body.
Satoru looked around and recognised it as Mitsuki's house. After leaving Keiko's home he had come here.
He looked back at the bed and saw wet bedsheet, soaked with sweat. He opened a cabinet within the room and took out a spare bedsheet, replacing the one already on the bed.
Mitsuki took a sip of her coffee before taking a drag from her cigarette, Reading the newspaper with mild disinterest. She heard the door open and Satoru approach her.
"I heard a scream from you. Anything I should be worried about?" Mitsuki asked, putting out the cigarette. She was tired of Satoru calling her a hypocrite for smoking despite being a doctor.
"Nothing much. Just a bad dream." Satoru said. He opened the fridge and took out a few things.
"What was it? You don't scream as you wake usually." Mitsuki asked, standing up and walking to the kitchen.
"Grilled chicken dipped in chocolate." Satoru answered. Mitsuki winced, "tried that when I was a kid. Burnt my mouth from the chocolate. Was that all it took to make you scream?"
"That and I was... Tortured?" Satoru couldn't remember clearly, already forgetting most of it. "I was pinned down and people beat me up. Calling me names and stuff."
"Sounds like a memory. Did this happen a while back?" Mitsuki looked at what Satoru was making with interest. He had become a better cook than she was.
"It felt real. But Im not sure if it was...but it felt very real." Satoru had prepared some eggs and drenched some bread in it, before placing them on a pan.
Mitsuki smelt bacon and saw the sizzling bacon next to the bread. "I cooked some for you as well. Take it when it's done." Satoru said, looking at the way Mitsuki was looking at bacon.
"No thanks. I have already eaten already. Once you're done with your brunch you can go to Shinichi's house and start your training. He won't wait any longer, ya know!"
Mitsuki left to get changed, before heading out for her shift at the hospital.
"Brunch? What time is it?" Satoru spoke to himself. He looked at the wall clock and his eyes widened.
It was almost noon.
He took all his food and sat down on the table, looking at the newspaper Mitsuki was reading.
The third Raikage has betrothed his daughters Shiroi, Akai and Kurai. Clans Hayashiro, Kurotsuki and Raikawa have bent the knee to the Third Raikage. Will this alliance pose a threat to Hidden leaf?
---
Satoru wore his shinobi uniform and strapped his two katanas on his waist. The hilt of Arashi-ken had a renewed glint. Satoru had a smile looking at his repaired sword.
He left the house after closing the door behind him, he headed to Shinichi's house to start his training. The next two months would be cruel on him, afterall. He needed to recover the strength he lost and then grow some more!
'Kaito is living the life...' Satoru thought, taking a turn to see Shinichi's house in the distance, 'He has been getting epic missions and training from those mind readers.'
Shinichi was cutting the leaves of the plants that decorated his backyard. He had spent hours in a week to work on them, making them look exceptionally well.
Suspension from duty for months will do that to a person.
"Yo!"
Shinichi looked at the source of the sound, noticing it was Satoru. He put down the scissors and brushed of the leaves and twigs from his clothes before walking up to him.
"Ready to begin your training?" He asked, looking at the boy, who nodded and followed him as he picked up a duffle bag.
"How is the training going to be structured? What are we doing?" Satoru said, trailing behind Shinichi like a baby duck following the mama duck.
"I won't be your jonin instructor after my suspension is cleared. You will join other teams as required. You will need training for it." The taller man replied.
"I will train you to evaluate, track and hunt down your targets." Shinichi said turning back to look Satoru in the eyes. He had a serious look in his eyes. One that made Satoru stand up straighter.
"We can talk about that later. Have you read the news?" Shinichi asked. They had reached the training ground available for public use.
"Yeah. There were some concerning things in there." Satoru said as he began stretching to warm up.
"News says a lot of things, but there is a lot that is hidden behind the words. Tell me some things you've read and then what's hidden." Shinichi said.
"Lottery winner found dead and looted hours after winning. He shouldn't have bragged about to everyone."
"What makes you think he bragged about it?"
"His photo in the newspaper has a smug expression and the quotes taken from after winning were very arrogant."
"Decent. Have you read anything about other countries?" Shinichi said, taking out a protein shake and shaking it.
"Brothels of land of water have been gaining popularity recently. People are worried about growing immorality among the population." Satoru said as he did pushups.
"It's my fault for having expectation." Shinichi facepalmed, "Fine, tell me what you inferred from it."
"The growing instability and violence in the land of water has led to many women and girls without families and livelihood turn to selling themselves. Yeah, that and soldiers who are stationed away from their home have the highest infidelity rates among every profession."
Shinichi blinked, Not bad.
"I think you're reaching a little. Anyways, we begin now.
---
Satoru was tired.
There he was, laid down on the floor trying to breathe in as much air as possible. Shinichi made him perform Transformation, substitution and clone jutsu nonstop for hours.
"Get up. We are doing one more round." Shinichi said, wiping off the sweat from his forehead. He didn't slack off on his training, either. He had made a shadow clone and fought it with his katana whole observing Satoru at the same time.
"Why are we doing this? The academy jutsu, I mean?" Satoru asked, slowly getting up, he felt growingly annoyed the more he did it.
"Those are the jutsus that are primarily used by genins. I made you practise them so you would get an idea to perform the next stage of jutsus. The ones used by chunins." Shinichi said, talking out a chakra pill out of a box and tossed it to Satoru.
Satoru took the pill and ate it. It was one of the mild ones that helped in recovery over a span of few hours and barely had any side-effects.
Shinichi took a taijutsu stance and motioned for Satoru to come at him. He would train taijutsu till his reserves recovered to a better level.
For the next few hours they kept at it with their physical training. Shinichi had had added weights to his hands, legs and his torso to make it a challenge for himself.
'He has more ten times his body weight strapped to him... And he doesn't even look that tired! The weights must increased his momentum so much, yet his attacks don't hurt much. Just how much is he holding back?' Satoru thought as he weaved through Shinichi's punches, only to be tripped by a sweep.
He fell to the floor and had the wind knocked out of him. Shinichi stopped and pulled him up.
"You have already learnt shadow clone jutsu—one of the jutsu I wanted to teach you. You shouldn't diversify too much so I'll refrain from teaching you genjutsu for now. You will learn body flicker." Shinichi said, with a smile.
Satoru thought about it and then shrugged. He himself had chosen not to take genjutsu classes during academy due to the same reason.
"It may be a jutsu for chunins but, when used correctly it can make you a force to be feared off in the battlefield—whether you are fighting, rescuing... Or assassinating."
"Like Kagami Uchiha?" Satoru asked.
"Like Kagami-Senpai, yes." Shinichi replied.