Another day, another miserable blind sleep paralysis. Won't be much longer before Coochie-Maru gonna come calling with his pet rage-ninja in tow to give me like 20 more scars. The dark, dirty blonde mat of hair hung down passed his face, reaching nearly his bellybutton. He wore no shirt, only a tattered, torn, and worn pair of pants. Scars littered his body, seemingly at random, as if he'd been toyed with. A dark purple aura surrounded his body, snakes wrapped around his arms and stomach. On a table on the other side of the room sat a sheathed wakizashi, the only thing he owned or was allowed to own. On the sheath was engraved the symbol of the Village Hidden in the Mist, a large X scratched over it. Orochimaru once said he did that to show that the former Mist genin was no longer a ninja. Just property. That was 5 years ago, as best as the dishevelled teen could tell. He heard steps approaching his room (which was more like a prison cell), and tensed, though the imprisonment jutsu didn't let him actually move at all. There was a brief jangle of a key before the restrained youth heard the clanking of a lock and the opening of a door. The imprisonment jutsu he was under between these visits eliminated his sight and taste, but he could still smell and hear.
The chilling laugh of Coochie-Maru rang dully through the room. "Look, Sasuke, he hasn't even tried, has he?"
The raven-haired teen behind Orochimaru just scoffed. "Whatever. Can I actually kill him this time?"
Orochimaru chuckled again. "Oh, but Sasuke, who else would keep you so entertained? After all, there are so few swordsmen your age as is." The snakes around the restrained teen released, his eyes opening blurrily under his hair as he fell to his knees with a groan. Orochimaru shuffled forward, a smaller snake wrapping around the teen's throat and biting its own tail. While this snake collar thing was on him, he couldn't use any chakra, not that he could without his wakizashi. Orochimaru laughed evilly and flipped the matted blonde hair out of the boy's eyes. "Oh, Lahiro. I do hope you entertain Sasuke here. You're beginning to lose your usefulness to me. I'd hate to lose my favorite test subject."
Hateful eyes glared up at Orochimaru. The eyes were… almost unnatural. His scleras were a dark grey, almost black. His actual eye color was mostly blue, with a golden curve on the outer edge. His pupil was a black circle with a strange bright red dot in the middle.. Dark red veins flew from the blue to the outside of his eyes, the veins straining and scrambling across the black scleras. Orochimaru would never know this for sure, but these were not Lahiro's normal eyes. Every time Orochimaru had brought him back out of the imprisonment jutsu, Lahiro had re-engaged his… whatever it was called. The village didn't really have a name for it. Not even his birth-clan. Lahiro snarled. "Funny, I thought you still wanted to tie my chakra lines into boat knots. You get seasick?"
Orochimaru just simply laughed. "Oh, it's just so amusing hearing you talk back. Someone with no strength at all, running his mouth? It's like a sad joke about a kicked puppy, isn't it?" He chuckled again.
Lahiro just snarled, his retort interrupted by the dickish kid behind Orochimaru. "Look, can we just go get this over with?"
Orochimaru nodded, which was apparently the signal for Lahiro's other tormentor, Kabuto, to step into the room. "I do so love healing your wounds. It's sort of poetic, isn't it? Your little, small offshoot village from the Hidden Mist Village, reduced to cinders and slaughtered, yet you will always live." He scoffed. "Get up, weakling!" He pulled Lahiro to his feet by the hair, bringing Lahiro to his 5'8" frame. "Time to go make yourself useful and give Sasuke some practice."
Lahiro grunted, biting back his curse. Screaming and yelling had never done him any good, so there was no true point in that. Just the snarky comments he made every time Coochie-Maru retrieved him have been enough to let Lahiro get the message across that he hadn't broken yet. Not now, not ever.
His wakizashi and scabbard were shoved into his hands and he was roughly shoved out the door of his "room". He hastily tied it around his hip. Sasuke had made it very clear 2 and a half years ago that Lahiro had to have his sheath held on him, or Sasuke would simply fireball him and call it a day.
Lahiro's eyes bounced between the three shitheads escorting him to Sasuke's training grounds. He couldn't use a whole lot of chakra to begin with at his village, only his sword could channel any of it, but what he could do was use his eye. He had several jutsus copied, but he'd tried the handsigns for them, and they hadn't worked.
Subtle trial-and-error during bouts with Sasuke had enlightened him that his sword was necessary for those copied jutsus, the blade following the movements of the index and middle fingers of any given handsigns. Orochimaru's snake stopped those jutsus the moment he tried to actually use them, but he could still feel when it did so.
Lahiro stepped into the training grounds, dragging his tired and weary feet, before he wa shoved into place on one side of the field. About 10 minutes later, Lahiro was on his side, bleeding from several cuts and gashes in his sides and arms. Almost all of Sasuke's go-to jutsus, namely his fire jutsus, had been copied by Lahiro's eyes. But he couldn't actually use any of them. He was also severely malnourished. He had never beaten Sasuke. And his state of unhealth had become worse and worse over the years. Sasuke only had a slight nick on his arm, a negligible amount of damage. Kabuto scoffed, healed Lahiro's wounds, and aggressively escorted him to his room.
It was another day and a half or so before he heard movement outside his room again. Kabuto had, within the last year or two, taken to feeding Lahiro old, moldy bread, just enough to keep him alive, and because Sasuke wanted him a tad livelier. He'd gotten that bread shortly after that noise. It was another 5ish hours before there was movement again. Oddly though, this movement didn't sound slow and careless like he was used to. It sounded frantic, and fast. Not a moment later, his door busted open and he heard two gasps.
"What- what is this?" A girly voice spoke. "I thought you said there weren't anymore people, Captain Yamato!"
A male voice, likely from this Yamato person, began to speak. "I don't know, but considering he's been imprisoned by Orochimaru, and I feel no chakra from him, I don't think he's a threat to us. Let him go." Lahiro heard another gasp. "He's from the Hidden Mist Village?" Lahiro heard a hum of thought. "The x... he's a prisoner." A second later, the snakes wrapped around Lahiro were cut in half.
He winced, expecting the snake collar any moment. When it didn't come, he dropped his dojutsu and looked up, his true eyes coming back. They were blue, but a much colder blue than Naruto's. Where Naruto's blue eyes were lively and generally happy, Lahiro's were steely, and cold. He brought his hands in front of himself and flipped his hair back to clear his line of sight. Let's see, pretty little pink hair girl, and dude with weird-looking eyes and a full headgear thing that looks stupid. He grunted in effort as he rose to his feet. His hands clenched, feeling his chakra actually available to him. He eyed the two ninja again, now at eye level. "Leaf ninja, huh? Let me take a guess, after the cocky dickhead?" He stumbled slightly over to his table and picked up his wakizashi. "Take him. I don't care." His eyes narrowed. "But Orochimaru is mine." He drew his wakizashi and his chakra flared, covering his blade in wind-nature chakra, a saw-sort of aura covering it. His other hand rested its palm against the back of the blade. "Go get your guy. Leave me to my own devices for the moment."
Yamato gave a wary glance but he and the pink-haired girl left nonetheless.
Lahiro's left hand, on the back of the blade, surged orange, and his wind chakra took on an orange tint. "Ya gotta love chakra natures." The wind and fire chakras combined, increasing the speed at which the wind oscillated, and sharpened it to a point that not a single ordinary possession or weapon would withstand a strike from it; A normal kunai or shuriken would be swiftly cut cleanly in half. "Orochimaru, you're going to regret the 2 years you spent actually teaching me to do this shit. All because you wanted to know how my chakra worked." Lahiro scoffed. "Dumbass." Lahiro, newly invigorated by his chakra, sped out of his room, his sheath in one hand, and his blade in his other. He fed a neat stream of chakra into the blade, enough that his chakra began to channel out of the point of the sword, until his wakizashi was no longer a wakizashi, and instead was a full length of a katana.
He ran a bit blindly, until he heard rumbling and found a hall that led to light. He charged out of it, full speed. Sasuke, about ready to impale a yellow-haired kid, widened his eyes and flicked his wrist the other way, cloaked in his chidori now, and clashed with the wind/fire blade. Sasuke grunted. Lahiro had never been able to fight him with his chakra.
"Wha-? Who-who are you?" The loud voice of the yellow-haired kid rang out.
Lahiro snarled as Sasuke. "Lahiro Ide. You wanna take this asshole on? I have a one-eyed snake to take on." None of the teens got what he meant, but Yamato did, suppressing what could have been a chuckle. Lahiro went tunnel vision from there, curving his blade around Sasuke's, swinging wide to throw him off-balance, and then kicked him away. He abruptly changed targets, springing away to find Orochimaru.
Sasuke didn't let him, though, and instead did some handsigns and yelled, "Fireball Jutsu!"
Lahiro grinned, and spun back around to face Sasuke. His chakra in the sword abruptly changed, the fire retreating to be replaced by water. His sword's hilt spun on his palm and around his body, according to his body movements, halting in specific positions in the dance: A downward swing, stopping parallel to the ground, a swing upwards, stopping at an angle, a swing out wide to the left, a spin, then a swing to the right. There were more spins, with slashes to all of the diagonal directions. He brought his sheath to his hip, sheathed his sword, and then held his off-hand up. "Torrential Dance Jutsu!" From the places he'd cut in the air, openings seemed to materialize, and an essential tsunami raged out of them, wind surging forward with the water. Sasuke gasped, as the water powered passed his fire, extinguished it, and surged on. Sasuke jumped out of the way, his feet using chakra to stick to the wall of the crater.
Lahiro grinned, and swung his sword again, this time in just a few directions, his visual jutsu triggering. He swung statically in as many directions as there are handsigns in Sasuke's Fireball jutsu. His swings followed the placements of Sasuke's index and middle fingers. Once he'd finished the swings, his sword was lined in fire. About a month or so ago, out of sheer boredom, he'd given his dojutsu a name. He'd forgotten it within the time, but here and now, the name dawned on him again. "Hyoshihagan Firewave Jutsu!" With a wide movement, he dragged his sword across the opening of his mouth, and with a steady stream of air from his mouth, he blew the fire off of his blade and in the general direction of Sasuke. His real goal, however, was to turn his water into steam. While the steam was up, he took a second to think.
Of course he wanted revenge on Orochimaru. But it extended to a broader picture than just revenge. He wasn't so blind that he would ignore the presence of leaf ninja who are here, too. He slunk away to the side of Yamato and set a hand on his shoulder. He jumped a bit, but settled. "You won't be able to take Sasuke. Your young ninjas here will be shredded to pieces, trust me." Yamato began to give a carefree smile of confidence, but Lahiro shook his head. "I'm literally his practice dummy. Just leave." Lahiro was careless, unfortunately. He heard snarling and turned, using a small burst of wind chakra to clear his vision. The yellow-haired kid was on his hands and knees, and his sparkly blue eyes were red and slitted. Just that one glance was enough to put together who the kid was. "So, that's Naruto, the Nine-Tail jinchurikki." He cocked his head. Potential, but he needs development. Not nearly developed enough to take Sasuke right now, without letting the Nine Tails free. He couldn't react in time before Sasuke was right on Naruto. It felt like he'd blinked then, and Sasuke was about to be trapped in a weird wooden prison thing, only for him to jump up and slash through it.
After Naruto yelled at Sasuke that Orochimaru wanted him dead, and a few other things, Sasuke simply accepted it. Lahiro Partially unsheathed his blade when Sasuke raised his hand, only for his eyes to go narrow when Orochimaru showed up. Orochimaru noticed his glare, and just laughed evilly. "Oh, Lahiro. You're of no more use to me. Or Sasuke, for that matter. Just go join the Leaf. It would benefit me to get rid of the Akatsuki, after all. There's some use for you."
Lahiro snarled but looked passed Orochimaru to Sasuke. He noticed the look in his eyes and raised a small eyebrow. He disliked Sasuke, vehemently, but he recognized the desire to kill in his eyes. He caught Sasuke's eyes and then unsheathed his sword, spinning it in the air in front of him, and slapping the pommel to shove it into the ground, his other hand crossing with his fingers from the back of his hand. "Sword Sanctuary Jutsu." He softly said, establishing a sort of link with Sasuke. He was only able to do so because Sasuke was essentially a swordsman now, much like Lahiro was. Once it was established, Lahiro had one idea to pass to Sasuke: Do whatever you want to Orochimaru. But if I find out you permanently kill him before I do, then we'll have problems. If his scourge is rid of, it will be by my blade, not yours. Understood? Even if you absorb him or something, you will re-constitute him so I can end him myself. Understood?
He watched Sasuke carefully, but only caught a slight tilt of his head. No nod, or shake of the head. Just a vague shrug, implying he would think about it. That was the most Lahiro could hope for. He was surprised when a message came back through the same link. No promises. Don't tell any of the leaf ninja that you've communicated with me, and I'll thoroughly consider it.
Lahiro gave a nod and shot back a quick line. Deal. I only know these ninja are innocent. Beyond that, I don't care yet.
Lahiro severed the connection by pulling his sword out of the ground, before Sasuke and Orochimaru both left. He shook his head. If he wanted to actually take Orochimaru, successfully, he'd need to get better at this. At the same time, based on Orochimaru's ramblings about the Akatsuki, they weren't much better than him. That would be a good reason to get stronger prior to dealing with Orochimaru. And that would also give him something to go after once Orochimaru is dealt with.
His long, extended state of malnourishment caught up to him then. He sheathed his sword, attempted to stay standing, but his legs ultimately gave out. He fell over onto his side, mostly unconscious upon landing. His eyes returned to normal just before he fell.
POV change: Sakura
Yamato turned to Sakura, from the side of Lahiro. "Sakura, check him. Gotta be a reason why he fell."
She nodded and moved to Lahiro's side, checking him with her medical chakra sense. She could sense the damage to the chakra lines near the skin, which left a decent inference that the sword gave that damage a reprieve, and the ability to actually use his chakra. She could sense the massive amount of chakra, as well. But beyond any of that, she was more focused on how pitiful his actual health was at the moment. She was surprised he was even alive. "Captain Yamato, there's a lot to unpack here. I'm surprised he's alive. His health is, in so many words, at rock bottom. He is severely malnourished, as I would expect from a prisoner of Orochimaru. Even so, he has a massive supply of chakra. But damaged chakra lines, too damaged to actually heal. The only damage to those is at the surface of his skin, where chakra would actually leave the inner body to be used."
Yamato raised an eyebrow, and took on a concerned look. "Unfortunate about his health, but if his chakra lines are damaged so severely, how is he able to do what he did?"
Sakura shook her head. "Without him being conscious and using chakra, I can't tell."
Yamato sighed. "How old is he?"
Sakura sighed, tilting her head left and right in thought. "Maybe 17? 18? Somewhere there."
Yamato put a hand to his chin and sighed. "We'll take him with us to see Tsunade. Get him checked out, find out more about why he was here. And maybe contact a Hyuga to check his chakra. He used three chakra natures. That isn't normal."
Sakura, Naruto, and Sai nodded. Sakura, being the physically stronger of them, was selected to carry Lahiro. Yamato took Lahiro's blade.
POV change: Lahiro
Lahiro's consciousness slowly returned to him, and he brought a hand up to his head with a groan. He immediately began to panic, though. I can move? Where am I, what's happening? Once he'd kept his eyes open for a minute, it all came back to him. He sighed, looking around his room. He spotted his sword hung on a chair, in its scabbard with a new belt that strangely matched it.
He groaned and slowly sat up. He hadn't looked to his side though, so he was stopped by a gentle, yet firm hand on his chest pushing him back down. "Hey hey hey, not so fast. You need rest." He turned his head to see the pink haired girl sitting next to his bed. She handed him a bowl of soup.
His eyes went tunnel vision, and she gasped as the bowl disappeared from her grip and was instead in his hands. The speed at which he ate was a sad reminder of how long he'd been malnourished for. Shortly after he finished, there was a knock at the door. Lahiro looked towards the door. Trust issues about doors started to rise, but he pushed them down, reminding himself that he was in the Leaf Village, not Orochimaru's hideout. He let out a breath to calm himself. "Um, come in, I guess?" He was unfamiliar with the notion of privacy.
The door opened and a tall woman with a bob of white hair, a man with a weird blob of white hair with weird red tear-drop facepaint, a man with a facemask and tilted headband with silver hair, and a young man with long black hair.
The blonde woman spoke first. "Good morning. Feeling better?"
Lahiro sighed. "Considering it's the only thing I've eaten in the last 5 years that hasn't been moldy-ass bread, yeah. I am." He shook his head. "I'm sorry, who are you all?"
The woman gave a small smile, though a small glint of pity flashed through her eyes, as it did in the eyes of all the others. "My name is Tsunade, I am the 5th Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village." Lahiro's ears perked up, and they were intensely listening when the white-haired man introduced himself as Jiraiya.
"Tsunade and Jiraiya, huh." He shook his head and sighed. "The last thing I remember is escaping Orochimaru, and now my newest memory is meeting the other two sannin. This is uh, a sudden change. Coochie-Maru ranted about you two a lot."
Jiraiya, Tsunade, and the masked man were the only ones in the room to catch the joke. Tsunade was mildly amused at the roast, but Jiraiya and the other guy were barely holding in their laughter. The masked man ultimately came to his senses first. "I am Kakashi."
The pink haired girl, rather confused at the suppressed giggles, shook her head, but introduced herself. "My name is Sakura." She gave a wide smile.
The boy in the back began to introduce himself, but stopped himself. "My name is Neji Hyu- hang on!" The others rose eyebrows. His strange pupil-less eyes gained pupils out of nowhere, and giant veins appeared around the eyes. "Byakugan!"
Lahiro just kinda sat there for a few minutes while this dude with weird eyes stared at him. "Um, can I help you, Mr. Neji Hyu?"
The man snapped back. "Neji Hyuga. How do you have three chakra natures? And, more importantly, how do you have three separate stores for each nature? You have three different chakra networks." The room collectively went slackjawed and gasped. "But, your chakra outlets, under your skin… they're too damaged. You can't freely emit your chakra."
The room gasped again and Lahiro rolled his eyes. After a few minutes of them just staring. "Kakashi, would you mind handing me my blade?" Kakashi hesitantly retrieved the wakizashi, and handed it to Lahiro. He didn't even draw it, he only grasped the hilt and lightly clenched. "Look again, Mr. Hyuga."
Neji's head tilted in thought. "When you wield your sword… your chakra surges passed the damage. In fact, it's almost like your damage disappears. Why is that?"
Lahiro sighed. "I suggest you all get comfortable. Though I would prefer if Ms. Sakura left the room. I'm reserving this for jonin and the Hokage, considering how sensitive this is."
Sakura started to protest, but ultimately respected his privacy, which he was surprised by. Once she was gone, the two sannin, Kakashi, and Neji got comfortable in chairs or leaning against the wall. Tsunade cleared her throat. "When you're ready."
Lahiro could only see darkness. He'd just been in the second half of the Hidden Mist chunin exam. His village had its own run of it, intent on fitting the Hidden Village of their land. He didn;t know where he was. He only knew he couldn't see.
When he could see again, he was strapped to a table, and looming above him was the leering form of Orochimaru.
The next two years were spent strapped to that table. Orochimaru's goal was to make Lahiro into the ultimate vessel. And he would've been successful, if he hadn't realized Lahiro's inability to do handsign-based jutsus. He cursed, and all but threw Lahiro away into a locked room. Orochimaru had wasted his time, too excited by the prospects of three chakra natures, and moved ahead with creating two extra chakra networks, transplanted from another body that fit the natures, and transplanted two extra chakra storages, intertwining them with Lahiro's own chakra, dividing his single chakra into three stores of it, all three the size of a jonin's chakra storage. Lahiro never saw daylight again, not until it had been 2 and a half years. He saw daylight once more when he was pitted against a young Sasuke Uchiha, the newly placed snake collar suppressing his chakra. Without being able to channel his chakra into his sword, he was helpless. He was unfamiliar with his body after all the experimentation.
"The answer to why my chakra only emits through my sword's hilt, and why I have the damage, is related to my inherent power. Before I'd started the chunin exam, it was suggested of mr that I form my own clan, considering my own jutsus were completely different from my clan's. Not to mention my visual jutsu that I don't think anybody in my village had." Lahiro took a breath, closed his eyes, and then shot them open. "Hyoshihagan!" His scleras turned black, the gold line appeared along the outer curve of his eye, and red veins began to strain from his blue eyes and through the sclera.
Kakashi's visible eye squinted. "What, exactly, does your dojutsu do?"
Lahiro turned to him, his eyes still active. "Almost the exact same as the sharingan. This is probably just an offshoot variant of that. Where Sharingan translates to "copy wheel eye", mine translates to "rhythm blade eye". I am able to copy jutsus just like the sharingan, but I am unable to use handsigns, so I replicate them using my sword swings and sword dances. I copied Sasuke's fireball jutsu, but I use it in a firewave. Whatever I copy, I have to adapt it to my sword."
Collectively, the others in the room began to think. Tsunade spoke first. "So, what exactly do you want to do?"
Lahiro shrugged. "I mean, I want Orochimaru dead, but the Akatsuki would be a good idea to deal with first, right?"
Tsunade nodded. "Good, at least someone in their teens in this village can think logically."
Lahiro chuckled. "I try. I take it Naruto doesn't generally think things through?"
Kakashi sighed. "That's an understatement."
Jiraiya crossed his arms. "He can't help it. He's hellbent on getting Sasuke back. They're like brothers."
Tsunade began to speak but Lahiro scoffed at Jiraiya's words, cutting her off before she could start. "Trust me, Sasuke doesn't want to come back. I give it maybe a month before he offs Orochimaru. I give it another yearish before he even thinks about coming back, given he still thirsts for Itachi's blood."
Tsunade sighed. "Yeah well, don't tell Naruto that. That'll immediately put you at odds with him."
Lahiro shrugged. "Not my problem. I'm happy to deal with the Akatsuki and Orochimaru if Sasuke doesn't kill him first. Beyond that, I'm not sure yet."
Tsunade nodded. "Very well. Though we have a small problem: You're still technically a genin, right?"
Lahiro nodded. "Yes. Though I have no wishes whatsoever of returning to the Village Hidden in the Mist. It's fucking horrible there."
Tsunade's eyes widened for a moment before she put a hand to her chin. "Well, you just barely missed the chunin exams, but there are a few others who missed it as well due to injury and unfair barring that has since been rescinded. I can assign a less-occupied jonin to run a smaller chunin exam for you and the other two genin who need the exam."
Lahiro nodded. "Thank you for that accomodation."
Tsunade smirked. "Don't thank me yet. Because it'll only be you and the other two genin on your team taking the exams, it won't be easy. And it'll be much harder than the normal chunin exam."
Lahiro shook his head. "I'll take what I can get. How long do I have to train? I haven't been able to actually test my abilities properly for 5 years, so I may need some time to get used to my body."
Tsunade nodded. "I'll give you a week. Your teammates will find you tomorrow morning so you can get acquainted."
Lahiro nodded. He noticed a pensive look on Neji's face, but he chose to let it go.
After a good night's rest and three full meals, he woke up the next morning to two faces entering his room.
The first one, an average-looking guy with short blue hair in a black jacket and white t-shirt, had bandages wrapped around his right hand, arm, and his chest. In the sash around his blue pants were several blank pieces of paper. His leaf headband, with a black cloth, was worn around his neck.
The second person who walked in was a girl, about 5'6", two inches shorter than Lahiro. She could've been a clone of Neji, if not for wearing black instead of his beige getup, and also her clearly… ah… developed shape. Her hair only went to her shoulders, but considering how touseled and generally messy it was, it could potentially be longer if it was straightened. The messy look worked though. She wore something akin to a thin black cardigan, buttoned halfway, with sleeves up to her mid-forearm. Mesh sleeves peeked out under those sleeves to end at her wrists. Under the cardigan, a low-cut red top was visible with a thin black mesh long-sleeve over that. Her headband, with a white cloth, was worn like a belt with baggy blue pants. The waist of her pants were slightly crooked, and the piece of hip that was exposed hinted at a possible tattoo. Her nails weren't long, but they were painted a deep green. Her eyes were the same as Neji's, but while they were the same color, hers seemed… out of focus. Oh shit, she's blind. This thought was reinforced by the black cane she held in her right hand.
The guy introduced himself first, with a slight bow. "Mornin, buddy. My name's Sahide Isota."
The girl gave a small wave. "I'm Ehara Hyuga." She crossed her arms and cocked her hips to her left.
Lahiro nodded to them both. "Pleasure to meet you. My name is Lahiro Ide." He glanced at Ehara and took in the body language. Ah, the rebellious type. Neat. He grunted and rolled out of his hospital bed. "Sorry if I'm not very hospitable or anything. I don't actually own anything except for my wakizashi." He shuffled passed Sahide to his blade, the generic white clothing a bit big on him. "Once I have actual clothes and somewhere to stay, we can maybe figure out teamwork or whatever the hell we need in order to beat the exams." He set the sheath on his hip, the black belt wrapped around his waist. He noticed that it was a different sheath now. Same color and design and everything, but it was a Leaf symbol instead of Mist. He nodded in appreciation of it.
Sahide smiled good-naturedly. "Sounds good to me! I'll be hanging out on the northeastern side of the village making new paper bombs." A gleam showed in the bluenette's eyes as he left the room.
Ehara tilted her head. "I need time out of the house, so let me try to guide you as best I can, since he decided to be a jerk and leave that up to me."
Lahiro chuckled. "Yeah, well, thank you for that. I'm going to assume that, despite the state of your eyes, you have a different method of seeing, so lead on."
Ehara tilted her head with a slight furrow of her brows. "Huh. Interesting. You're the first person to not automatically assume I'm helpless." She shrugged. "Thank you for that. Now let's go." She moved to the door, opening it with her cane, and guided him out of the hospital. "We need to get you your forehead protector first. You can put it wherever you want though."
Lahiro nodded. "Great. I'll figure out where to put it once I've seen the clothes around here."
Ehara laughed. "Good luck. There's not all that much here. I'll show you some of the better-known places though." Lahiro nodded and walked in comfortable silence with her. He got his Leaf symbol from Tsunade and then left for the clothes. Ehara guided him around the stores, and then chose to let him go about his way. "I don't mind guiding you, but I'm not here for a shopping trip, so I guess I'll see you later, Lahiro."
Lahiro nodded and laughed. "Understandable. I'll see you later, Ehara." He gave a nod and then disappeared into a shop.
A couple hours later, he found himself on the northeastern side of the village. His long dirty blonde hair was in a long braid, draped over his shoulder. He wore a collared black jacket, the collars high enough to hit chin level. His sleeves started as black, but the sleeves at the elbow went white. He wore black bracers around the ends of the sleeves. A blue and white double-belt kept his jacket tucked in, his black sword sheath attached to it on his left hip. His jacket was open, a white button up visible in its place. The inside of the jacket was pinstriped. Wrapped around the collar was a light blue scarf, the forehead protector sewn into the part of the scarf that bridged the collar. The end of the scarf had diamond-shaped tassel-like things. Small light blue accents adorned the black and the white through the clothes. He'd done the most to make it all match. A dark purple sash rested crookedly over his belt, small talismans attached to it. The bottom of the sash moved diagonally down his legs, to the opposite side of his sheath. His pants were black, slightly darker diamonds ran around the pant leg under the sash. A small bag on his left hip held shurikens, paper bombs, and some kunai just in case. He finished the last bite of a rice ball, and then walked through the streets, not really knowing where the hell Sahide or Ehara were. "Well, they've gotta be somewhe-" He was interrupted by a serious explosion. He ran in the direction of it, his scarf's ends flailing in the wind.
Credit for Ehara's concept goes to my friend Ssj5Goku2025