We immediately moved to a different part of the forest at Kakashi’s behest, in case, the ninja decided to come back. Hikaru cried the entire time, and I felt awful. Every time I thought back to the moment Ishidate had kidnapped the kid's father I felt guilty, I should have tried to shoot Ishidate in the back of the head. I had tried to help them fight the ninja but Michiru had still gotten abducted. I might have even made it worse because Ishidate looked pretty pissed off, he might end up killing Michiru as soon as they got to the castle, or even before.

Fuck.

Kakeru remained remarkably composed given what had just happened, but I could see the tightness in his jaw, Korega was visibly shaking with anger as the two of them talked the situation over. I had fallen back into a Status Removal – Meditate loop the second we stopped moving. Kakashi had left us hours ago, to go scout out the castle's defenses, and by the time he returned it was already morning.

Kakashi stepped into view behind the soldiers, appearing within my energy sense with a burst of speed. Everyone turned their attention to him.

“Sensei, how did it go?” Sakura said tiredly, still looking rather beat up.

Sakura had healed most of her wounds already, but her health was still only 750/900. I would offer to heal them all once I was done with Kakeru.

“Security was too tight, I couldn’t get close, one thing is for sure though,” Kakashi said seriously, “Time is running out.”

One of the soldiers said something that I missed and they started arguing amongst themselves. Hikaru started losing his shit as well, startling most of us with his volume.

“I want my father!” Hikaru cried loudly.

I felt another burst of guilt cut through me at the sound, the poor kid didn’t deserve this. If I got the chance I was going to put a Line Spear right through Shabadaba’s eyeball. Naruto stood up slowly with his head hanging down.

“Well, okay then,” Naruto said quietly, “Let’s go get him.”

I stared at the kid who couldn’t have been five-foot-tall but had a presence that eclipsed every single person in the clearing entirely, that was some charisma.

“It’s impossible,” One of the soldiers said quietly.

I understood how he felt, I had seen how many of the guards and soldiers that had joined with Shabadaba. The sheer number disparity between the ten of us, one of which was a small child, and the hundreds of men Shabadaba currently commanded.

Naruto didn’t seem to give a shit about that.

“We can’t just do nothing!” Naruto shot back immediately, “We have to try.”

This god damned kid was getting me fired up, I almost felt like storming the castle with them. Well, maybe a slow walk, but still. Hikaru managed to speak up through his despair.

“It’s too late.” Hikaru cried.

I forced myself to turn towards the kid, feeling immediately awful again.

“You heard them, it’s hopeless.” Hikaru sobbed, “My father will be killed, it’s too late to save him now.”

Naruto moved over to the boy, calling his name several times without response, so he bent down and pulled the kid to his feet.

“Hikaru, are you just going to throw everything away again? Is that it?” Naruto asked quietly, “You’re just going to abandon him? What happened, was I wrong?”

Hikaru just stared up at him, unable to say anything, I was missing some context here, they must have had some kind of bonding moment before this.

“I thought you were better than this.” Naruto said quietly, “You just let it all go? Your father? Even your courage? The promise we made each other, you’d throw it all away?”

Hikaru just stared at him with wide eyes.

“You still don’t know, what really matters,” Naruto said shakily.

Naruto was crying as well, I realized after a moment. Hikaru was clearly affected by the words judging by the expression on his face before he visibly steeled himself before speaking up.

“Alright,” Hikaru said firmly. “Let’s go save my father.”

The same soldier who had spoken before jumped to his feet in alarm, another protest on his lips.

“Be calm,” Kakeru said quietly, as I slowly helped him to his feet.

Cries of ‘Your majesty!’, ‘Grandfather!’, ‘Kakeru-sama!’ started up all around the clearing as they celebrated his return to full health. I was feeling a bit left out, so I joined in as well.

“Old man Kakeru!” I cried in surprise, “You’re healed! It’s a miracle!”

Kakeru turned to stare at me dryly, and Korega made a strangled noise in the back of his throat at the disrespect while Kakashi turned away for a moment to hide his amusement.

“A miracle indeed,” Kakeru said amused, before turning back to his grandson.

I left them alone for a moment to go talk to Sakura, who had the lowest hp of the ninja. I checked Naruto already, but his health had already returned to 1600/2100. Something like 500+ hp in a couple of hours, his regeneration rate was insane. Sakura had easily noticed my approach, and I slowed down to make sure she didn’t think I was being aggressive or anything.

I noted that Kakashi had somehow moved much closer while I wasn’t looking almost between my first and second step, no doubt assuming I was about to suddenly reveal myself as the fourth enemy ninja and gank them.

“Sakura, you’re still at less than full health,” I said pleasantly, “Do I have your permission to heal you?”

Sakura glanced over at Kakashi or a moment before turning back and nodding.

“I already healed most of the cuts earlier, but there is some deeper tissue damage I can’t fix on my own yet,” Sakura said sheepishly.

I just nodded easily and held out my hand for her to take. Sakura looked at it strangely before placing her hand in my palm hesitantly. I silently used Heal, and my hand lit up with a bright green light.

“What on earth?” Sakura said quietly, abruptly staring down at her left hip.

I watched her hp rapidly fill back up and then dropped her hand once she was maxed out.

“There you go,” I said easily, “Where’s Naruto gone, he was the next most injured, I believe.”

Sakura turned to face away from Kakashi and me for a moment, doing something with her shirt. Naruto must have heard his name because he bounced over a moment later looking curious.

“I’m going to heal you, is that cool?” I asked simply.

I wasn’t going to force it on any of them, they might take a sudden attempt to heal them as an attack or something. Better to ask permission in this case, rather than forgiveness.

“Sure,” Naruto said happily and took my hand when I held it out to him.

I had to drop into Meditate halfway through healing him to regain enough Mana to keep the spell running, he had a lot of hp, and I was rather low now. It eventually filled up though and I let him go as well. I offered to heal Kakashi, but he was still sitting just below full health, he had barely been touched in his fight.

“No thank you, I managed to avoid any injuries during the battle,” Kakashi said easily.

Lee was still talking to one of the soldiers, but Naruto ran over to get him.

“What exactly are you doing?” Sakura said finally, having finished her inspection.

“What do you mean?” I said pleasantly, hoping this wasn’t going to turn into another interrogation about medical stuff that I had no idea about.

“Whatever you were doing, that’s not medical ninjutsu,” Sakura said firmly.

Goddammit.

“No refunds sorry,” I said cheekily.

Sakura huffed and tried again.

“You didn’t even use a diagnostic technique to check what type of damage it was, or where,” Sakura said confusedly.

I glanced over at Kakashi for help, but he just raised his one visible eyebrow at me.

“Diagnostic techniques are for amateurs?” I tried weakly.

Sakura scoffed.

“Tsunade of the Sannin, the best medical ninja in the entire world,” Sakura said offended, “uses diagnostic techniques.”

“I guess she’s the second-best then,” I said cheekily, unable to help myself.

Sakura looked shocked and appalled at my comment before we were interrupted by the return of Naruto with Lee.

“Sora-kun!” Lee said cheerfully, “Naruto-kun has informed me you wish to heal me!”

I nodded, I might have a crack at the left-over Shattered Bones Status Effect while I was at it. I’d give it a try, but I would have to use Status Removal.

“Yep, is that alright with you?” I asked easily.

“Of course!” Lee said cheerfully.

I smiled at his exuberance, and held out my hand, Lee took it without a moment’s hesitation.

“Hm.” I hummed and narrowed my eyes.

He was only down about 200 hp, so it didn’t take awfully long to get him back to full.

“I feel much better!” Lee said amazed, “Thank you, Sora-kun!”

I didn’t let go of his hand yet.

“Lee,” I said thoughtfully, “There’s something wrong with your left hand, and your left leg? Something’s up with your chakra as well.”

Lee’s eyes widened and glanced around at the others quickly before looking back to me.

“An old injury that has long since healed,” Lee said honestly but made no mention of the chakra thing. “There was some permanent damage left in those areas, at least that’s what I was told.

“Mind if I take a crack at fixing it?” I asked curiously and Lee looked hesitant for a moment before nodding.

I used Status Removal and smiled at the result.

Health Points - 1314/1322(1500)

Chakra Points - 9/1070

His limited maximum health rose by eight points, from 1314 to 1322, while his chakra rose by the same amount, I guess I could fix things like this after all.

“How long have we got until we go to get Michiru?” I asked easily, already dropping into Meditate once more.

“Twenty minutes at the latest,” Kakashi said immediately. “Why?”

Lee was looking very curious.

“I can fix the old damage,” I said honestly, “but I need about fifteen minutes or so?”

“Truly?” Lee said astonished.

I nodded and spoke up before Sakura could interject.

“I’m pretty terrible at this technique, I have to stop after a second and restart it,” I explained. “It’s only doing like, a couple of percent of the job every time I use it?”

Sakura looked confused as all hell.

“What kind of technique works like that?” Sakura said strangely. “You aren’t even touching the affected areas!”

I just shrugged, unable to think of a good enough answer, It ended up taking me almost the entire twenty minutes, but by the end, I couldn’t help but grin once I was finished.

Health Points - 1500/1500

Chakra Points - 1070/1070

“All done,” I said cheerfully, “I fixed your energy network while I was at it.”

The look on all of their faces was priceless.

“What?!” Sakura demanded.

Sakura stepped forwards to get to Lee whose eyes were wide, and I stepped back to avoid getting pushed over. Her hand was already surrounded by the glow of her diagnostic technique, so I gave it up as a lost cause. I wandered off with a huff, how rude.

Kakashi made as if to stop me before aborting the motion, instead, he moved closer to Lee and Sakura while Naruto just looked confused. I made my way back over to where Kakeru, Korega, and Hikaru were talking quietly.

“Hey, Hikaru.” I said easily, before turning to Kakeru, “How long till we head out?”

Korega had given up on being suspicious of me by now, which was good because it was getting pretty old. I hadn’t interacted with Hikaru much though, and he kind of just stared up at me quietly.

“Momentarily,” Kakeru said seriously, “Korega was just trying to talk me out of coming along.”

Korega looked strained, no doubt stuck between wanting to go save the Prince but not wanting the King in harm’s way, I may as well help him make the decision.

“Don’t worry Korega,” I said easily, “I’ll stick with Kakeru and Hikaru when we get to the castle so you can go kick everyone’s ass.”

Korega sighed, he probably wanted me to talk the king out of coming at all. We wouldn’t be safe out here though as soon as the ninja noticed that we were split up they would send someone back here and the Konoha ninja would have to split up as well. It was better to stay as a single group, and under the protective banner of the Konoha ninja.

“Its time to go,” Kakashi said quietly.

I had felt him walking up, but he had stopped directly behind me which made me pretty uncomfortable, I’m not going to lie.

“Very well, Kakashi-kun.” Kakeru said calmly, “Lead the way.”

Kakashi did not attempt to dissuade the king and Korega sighed again.

“Sora-san,” Kakashi said firmly, “Walk with me.”

“Sure,” I said evenly.

Kakashi started moving through the trees and I fell in step beside him, I could feel the rest of the group spreading back out in a similar formation as before. Only this time Lee was at the back of the group, to protect the group from an attack from behind. We walked in silence for several minutes, and Kakashi didn’t say anything.

“Just ask,” I said dryly, after another two minutes of tense silence.

Kakashi hummed quietly.

“You used some kind of technique to injure the kunoichi that was fighting Sakura.” Kakashi said easily, “What was it?”

I thought about denying it for about half a second before deciding it was too much trouble.

“It’s called Line Spear,” I said simply, “It is the only offensive technique I know, and it took ages to get it to do more than just knock sand around.”

Kakashi waited a few moments before speaking again.

“You have indicated several times that you do not have memories of before you woke up in the Land of the Moon,” Kakashi said quietly, “How is it that you can perform these techniques?”

“I do remember a few techniques,” I said simply, “I cannot remember anyone’s names, my own name, or where I’m from.”

“So you are most likely a ninja,” Kakashi said seriously.

“I’m honestly not sure.” I said easily, “I can sense your energy, but it feels completely different to mine.”

“In what way?” Kakashi wondered.

I noted that he didn’t even question that I could sense energy, had he already figured that out, or was it more like the old don’t interrupt your enemy while he’s explaining all of his weaknesses kind of thing.

“You have a network of energy that runs through the entirety of your body, through these large channels and it all comes from a central point in your torso, before running through a series of gates that are spread out over your body. Your energy is suffusing most of your body as well, leaking out past the channels through small holes all through your body.” I said slowly, feeling around with my energy sense. “I do have a core in my torso, but that’s it, I don’t have any of the channels, gates, or holes that you have, and the energy itself is different.”

Kakashi frowned behind his mask and fell silent for another minute.

“Lee’s network looked much the same as your own, but with much less energy,” I said quietly, “Except the vast majority of those holes were shut, or not formed properly, and his energy was kept tightly constrained within the channels.”

Kakashi listened intently, I could almost feel his attention like a physical force.

“I just exchanged my energy to bring his condition in line with what it should have been, and the holes that were malformed are open now,” I explained, that was the result of my efforts, but I had no idea that it was going to do exactly, I was just hoping that it would work out somehow. “Lee’s energy is now moving around in his entire body like the rest of you.”

Kakashi was now doing the stay quiet, so your enemy keeps on monologuing thing, at least I think he was, but two could play at that game. I stayed quiet this time and our group continued to move through the forestry for a long while before I finally cracked again.

Goddammit, Kakashi.

“Hey, Kakashi.” I said curiously, “I think I might need a bodyguard after all this nonsense is over, so when you kick these other ninja’s asses, can you leave one alive for me to hire?”

Kakashi blinked at the sudden request.

“I don’t think it will be that easy.” Kakashi said bemused. “and as a Jounin of Konohagakure I should refer you to my own village for any mission requests.”

Shilling for your village, huh? Nice try buddy.

“Yeah but you guys are already on a mission, and will be leaving afterward right?” I argued, “These dudes are just random mercenaries, they could probably use a job after we mess up their mission.”

“Kakeru mentioned they were likely a wandering ninja clan.” Kakashi said amused, “You’re fine with hiring a team of ninjas that are currently trying to kill all of us?”

“Sure,” I said easily, “If you were on the other side I would probably try and hire you as well, all this ninja nonsense just sounds like clashing missions to me, does that happen very often?”

Kakashi actually laughed at that.

“Yes, ninjas coming into conflict with each other over mission parameters is very common,” Kakashi explained amused.

“Are there usually hard feelings if both teams get out unscathed?” I asked curiously.

Kakashi titled one of his hands to the side several times.

“It depends on the mission if both teams survive unscathed, but the client is lost-” Kakashi said thoughtfully, “It can have negative effects if the team is close to the client in some way, and it looks bad for the team who was hired to protect the client in the first place if they fail.”

“I suppose taking a hit to your reputation would suck if that’s what you used to bring in more clients,” I said thoughtfully.

Kakashi just nodded in agreement.

We walked for several hours until Kakashi finally signaled us to slow down and he explained again where we should all be. Michiru did end up buying the circus again, but I hadn’t run into them yet. They were currently performing at the castle, for Shabadaba’s enjoyment but at Kakeru’s behest. They had sent one of the soldiers off to make another offer of payment to them.

How sneaky of the old man.

The Genin would be ferrying those who couldn’t climb over the fence inside, while Kakashi would be making a distraction at the front gate. Once we were all inside, the Genin would be taking us to find Michiru while Kakashi led the ninja away.

The plan seemed pretty shaky to me, but they were the ninja, I was just a dude.

There was supposedly most of the high-ranking members of the Land of the Moon’s government in attendance to this impromptu event, so hopefully, a few extra soldiers and people wouldn’t be too out of place. Kakeru had changed clothes and was wearing one of the soldier's undershirts as a hood, to try to disguise his distinctively long hair.

We were just waiting on Kakashi’s signal.