Recovery and Visitors

' She is lying! But why? '

Rayzen didn't force her to tell the truth. He just related Sakumo's account of what happened to her, particularly emphasizing the appearance of those Root nin.

He changed the topic as he consoled her : " Don't worry about your hand for now. Lady Tsunade is performing the operation! "

Nothing much needed to be said about her talents as the denizens of Leaf village consider her the best there is.

Rayzen turned to leave after he said : " Take some rest for now! "

Just as he reached the door, he looked back at her and said with a smile : " The higher ups are going to want some answers. I hope you could come up with some better lies. "

Asami stared at the closed door with a sorrow that none except herself could comprehend. Her sorrow didn't linger for long, as she seemed to be mentally preparing herself. If it was for the operation or something else, no one knew except herself!

...

Rayzen went to meet Chizuru and Tsunade for using the opportunity to observe the operation. Not only for improving his knowledge of healing, but also to distract himself from the fact that Asami, someone whom he considered to be his anchor that tied him to this world, lied to him. Even worse was that he could not see through the purpose of this lie.

The unknown party had enough strength and time to kill Asami and she herself was spent at the time, based on her and Sakumo's account of the events. Their target was obviously her and not killing her meant they might have atleast had a conversation. Even if not, their actions made Asami a suspect .

But the thing that made Rayzen feel that she was lying was her initial request to him and the fact that she later said to him that before losing consciousness the unknown party didn't say anything.

Why else would Asami pester him to promise to never go out of the village, when she knew that Rayzen was stronger than her? Trauma? Unlikely!

' It's obvious that the unknown assailants, who killed those two scums of her team, are after me! Who are they? What do they want with me? How come the existence of a kid like me is known to outsiders? '

At the same time he was done with dressing up for the operation, he seemed to have arrived at a clue!

' Their target is the one and only, me! And what makes me special to outsiders, is my lineage... my eyes! '

He covered his left eye with his hand as he reached this thought.

' It seems unlikely that this is the reason. Since no outsiders are aware of me awakening both Sharingan and Byakugan... Well whatever be the reason, since you guys hurt Asami, I hope you would cross my path... Afterall where else would I vent all this rage that is building up inside me! '

Shaking his head, he entered the operation room, as he felt that thinking about this anymore won't give him a peace of mind.

...

The operation was a success as expected and Asami had to excuse herself from ninja duties as expected for atleast an year. The reason why she was not forced to retire was that it was possible for her hand to recuperate with time.

Nonetheless any extreme use like fighting or weapon handling will make her permanently impaired. And during the initial resting period, she was advised not to strain her hand to the point of being barred from making hand-signs for chakra manipulation.

Rayzen himself personally took care of her and only if he was not able to do so for any urgent reasons did he use a shadow clone as substitute.

Asami had learnt of Rayzen's actions at the hospital and when asked he vaguely told her about the presence of an organisation that her two teammates were part of. She didn't ask anymore as she felt guilty since she herself was holding back some information while Rayzen was ready to share his thoughts whenever she asked him.

Furthermore, she came to know of Rayzen 'awakening' a two tomoe Sharingan, from Sakumo and others. This made her feel overwhelmed. Since being an Uchiha who awakened her Sharingan, she knew the reason why one would awaken it and what Rayzen awakening one at the hospital meant for her.

Hence the first few days of her recovery period was an awkward and emotional phase for her. But this just made her feel motivated to work for her 'goals' that were know only to her.

Over the days, Rayzen tried his hands in the field of cooking for the first time in this life. With his previous life experiences and Asami's guidance, he soon picked up the craft and steadily improved over the days. It was an enjoyable, wholesome and memorable time for the both of them and it helped remove all the awkwardness between them, after Rayzen called out her lie.

Rayzen didn't stop with his training regiment, all this while, as he even increased the intensity of training, leaving barely no time to enjoy himself. He still didn't ignore his friends or sisters, and had time for them due to shadow clones.

During the first few days, his close friends particularly Derei, Tasu, Haru, Yumi, Minori, Shiroka and Mikoto came to see him and Asami. Even Tasu's mother , Sayaka came by. Rayzen felt chills on seeing her as she had a vengeful look on her face when he saw her staring at him.

' How the hell did I offend her? ' he gulped in fear thinking of the damage she could do to him. Sayaka seemed to have said something to Asami that day that made her look at him a bit suspiciously.

Besides other close ones like his homeroom teacher and the Uchiha Patriarch, even complete strangers like a bunch of Uchiha people paid a visit and he soon realised their intention. The election of the next patriarch!

They promised him their support and gave him a lot of political and battle advices, particularly on how to look out for assassination. Rayzen felt his situation was getting tense due to the nature of advices poured on to him and how they wanted to groom him this rapidly.

After the initial heated period of her recovery, only Takeshi, Arisu and his sisters visited them most of the time. Especially the sisters, they visited almost everyday. And Mikoto too somehow ended up visiting him with them.

It was refreshing for Rayzen to spent his time getting to know her and he was even surprised by Mikoto's dual attitude. Hers was a fiesty, arrogant and aggressive spirit and she always ended up fighting with him for even trivial reasons. Perhaps it might be the Uchiha bloodline or her superior sense in being a senior to him at the academy, that made her want to always make him lose in fights or quarrels. This was very very different from the kind and pure Mikoto in the anime that he expected her to grow up to be.

But ever since Asami's accident whenever Mikoto came to visit her, she was like a holy maiden infront of her, even talking to him in a kind and respectful tone that shocked him. It was just like that only when Asami was present. But when she was not, the devil took the wheels again!