Scarred and Impaired

After admitting Asami to the hospital, Sakumo had given the bodies and the blood he collected for autopsy and forensic analysis.

From then on he stayed guard infront of Asami's room at the hospital. The reason being that he felt something was off.

' Sozui and Kozue are not rookies to let their guard down, then why did they do that? It seems only Asami can answer all my questions. ' thought Sakumo.

As he guarded patiently by the doors, he was trying to think of possible scenarios of what could have happened to shield his mind from the pain caused by the devestation of his team.

...

Rayzen reached the hospital and after asking the front desk, rushed to Asami's room. Seeing that Sakumo was guarding the door he was relieved. He approached Sakumo who seemed to be in his own world.

Rayzen thought Sakumo wouldn't notice him, but when he was less than 3 meters from him, Sakumo stopped his thoughts and became vigilant.

Seeing Rayzen and Takeshi, Sakumo understood that they were from the Uchiha clan and possible relatives of Asami. Before Rayzen could introduce himself, Sakumo asked :

" Are you Rayzen? "

Rayzen was surprised that Sakumo knew him, but he chalked it upto Asami talking about him to Sakumo. He nodded in reply.

" She is safe now! But you can't enter now, she is being kept under observation. "

Rayzen was relieved to hear that but nonetheless felt a bit of fear in that she might be physically impaired or something, as she was still under observation.

Even though only the right eye part of Rayzen's face was exposed, Sakumo could still feel that the boy was worried. He patted Rayzen's head and he tried to cheer him up.

" Don't worry, kid! The doctors will be here soon. After that you could meet her and see for yourself that she will be okay! "

Rayzen replied with a weak smile under his mask : " I understand. "

He also stayed guard infront of the door by Sakumo's side, surprising Sakumo. And Sakumo let the kid do as he wanted, seeing that he was just trying to help.

Takeshi engaged with Sakumo in a conversation and tried to find out his account of what happened. Rayzen meanwhile, overheard their conversation and was confused himself of what happened.

He stopped thinking about the issue, as without an account of the events from the sole witness, Asami herself, everything he thought of would be pointless surmises.

...

In what seemed like the interior of a tower where light barely passed, a group of people, in dark robes wearing animal styled porcelain mask, were bowing down before a person with a bandaged eye.

One of the members of the group reported:

" Lord Danzo! The mission was a failure. Hatake Sakumo reached before us and our two sleeper agents were killed in action. He admitted the sole survivor and our target, Uchiha Asami to the hospital. He gave the bodies of our agents for autopsy and a trace of blood for forensic analysis, reporting to the village that it was a possible ambush. Sakumo is now guarding Asami. "

" Disperse! " whispered Danzo and the group disappeared like they were never there.

' It seems a third party is involved. Who could it be? I'll learn that from the girl. Maybe the kid will be there too! '

Danzo too vanished from there, leaving the place of darkness in an eerie silence.

...

The doctors came after a while, ran a diagnosis and then reported to Takeshi and left again.

Takeshi was unable withhold anything from Rayzen's cold gaze as he said :

" The injury to her face will only leave a scar and the rest of the injuries have been healed. But her right hand is impaired and it requires a major operation for it be of rudimentary use. Nevertheless, the chance that operation will be a success is less than 40%. Hence her right hand is good as gone. This will probably be the end of her ninja career. "

As Takeshi sighed in sadness, tears were slowly flowing from Rayzen's eyes, slowly soaking his face mask.

Sakumo too felt devestated. Even though Asami was alive, it seems that his team will be no more due to its sole member, Asami, being physically impaired.

The boy crying in silence entered Asami's room unhindered. Sakumo and Takeshi decided to give Rayzen some alone time with Asami, as each processed different levels of grief.

Once inside, Rayzen closed the doors slowly and rushed to Asami's side without making much noise. He first released his soul force and scanned the room. Sensing no one's presence in the room, he pulled back the head band over his left eye and activated his Byakugan to first-hand observe Asami's injuries.

Under the bandaged oblique left half of her face, he saw a nasty scar that extended diagonally from a bit above her left eyebrow to the left part of her jaw line. The scar went through the middle of her left cheek. Luckily, her eye and eyelid were not damaged.

When he saw the impaired right hand of Asami, he could barely control his emotions as rage welled up from deep inside him. His two tomoe Sharingan activated involuntarily and above all its previous dull red was now slowly gaining vitality as if crimson blood was bleeding into the eye.

Rayzen suppressed his emotions and focused on Asami's right hand. He prevented his emotions from getting in the way and started thinking logically.

' This wound seems too familiar! Wait! This is the same type that comes from doing Micro-Burst jutsu without proper training. How is this possible? Only I know the technique and no one else is dumb enough to practice it in the clan... Wait! Asami must have copied it from me using Sharingan! I warned her to never try this jutsu, even if the damage output is devestating... Why did you have to do that, Asami? '

As he caressed her long raven black hair, he noticed that there were some dark blue strands mixed in a well, something he never noticed before. He brushed back her wispy bangs that was usually well aligned obliquely on one side of her forehead.

For the first time ever, Rayzen felt that she was precious, not more beautiful than she already is, but more precious to him. So much so that, it breaks his heart to see her with an impaired right hand that will destroy her dreams of being a strong kunoichi.

He kissed her forehead and whispered:

" Why did you have to use that technique, Asami? It makes me feel like I am the only reason for your suffering! "

Rayzen calmed his turbulent emotions and prepared to perform the Basic Impurity Cleansing Technique. The technique although is not meant for healing. By removing impurities, it has a side-effect of healing. In Asami's case, Rayzen noted that there were internal blood clot and ruptured vessels, that could be taken care of using the technique. He felt that this might have some positive effect on the operation on her right hand.