11 Chapter11

She was helping Kota prepare dinner when the front door opened. Kota looked back from where he was washing the rice and said, "Sis, is that you?"

"It's me," Yue's voice answered, but Naruto couldn't help but note that there were another pair of steps alongside hers. Male, most likely, as it sounded heavier. She wasn't sure who it was, so she shifted her posture into something more than ready for any attack. "I'm home. Hiroshi-san is here with me, too."

'Oh, so she knows him,' Naruto thought as she relaxed.

"Excuse me," rumbled a male voice as she heard them leaving their shoes in the entrance and coming inside. Once they were in sight, the so-called Hiroshi nodded first at Kota. "Hi, brat."

"Hey, I'm not a brat!"

Hiroshi ignored him to focus on her. "So, you're the healer ninja? Hello, as you must have heard already, I'm Hiroshi. Nice to meet you."

"Hi, Hiroshi-san! Name's Ashura." He then looked at his hands, zooming instantly on the right bandaged one, where he noted there were three missing fingers. Hiroshi didn't seem put off by her curious gaze. He lifted his hand instead for her to inspect it.

"As you can see, I've cut three fingers a month and a half back. The injury is still tender, even with the medicine Kenichi-sensei prescribed to me. It should be better in a couple of weeks, but I can't touch anything work-related as it could get infected." He scratched his beard with a finger. "I was hoping you could help accelerate the process so I can at least work some. I've been told ninjas know how to do so."

Naruto blinked twice in confusion, before looking at Yue, who was giving her a mischievous smile. "I mean, I could do that, but didn't Yue-chan told you I can regrow it, too?"

Now it was Hiroshi's turn to be confused. He murmured, "Is ninja healing that advanced?"

Naruto tilted her head with scrunched eyebrows as she thought of Danzo's arm. "Well, I know of others who have prosthetics done to replace a limb, but that's too complicated for me to do with medicine. I was talking of regrowing the finger."

At his raised brows, Naruto tried to search for the right words, but only finished lamely with, "Like, like a plant, you know?"

Hiroshi looked at Yue, who just shrugged with a smile, but nodded. "She says she has done it before with an eye."

The man looked at his hand before glancing back at her. His tone was dubious as he said, "I don't know any of this ninja magic, but it's not too late to regrow it? I mean, the injury has closed."

"Don't worry about it. I regrew my sensei's eye after someone plucked out his replacement, and he hadn't had that eye for years. He told it felt funny, though."

Hiroshi blinked in surprise. Which was pretty tame compared with Kota's and Yue's weirded out expressions. Kota even murmured, "Why would someone pluck an eye, though?"

She let them process her words by answering Kota. "He had a special eye that was given to him as a gift from his teammate. That person who took it afterwards did it to gain power, so I had to regrow it. Though instead of giving him the eye with the bloodline, I regrew the one he was born with. So yeah."

There were murmurs of 'eye gifts?' and 'Ninjas are so weird' going out, but she ignored it. After all, she sometimes thought civilians were weird, too. So maybe it was their lifestyles which were so different. Still, she wanted to understand everyone better, so she tried to listen and not judge.

"So, you want me to regrow it, Hiroshi-san?"

Hiroshi looked worried for a second, before he shrugged with a smile. "Oh, what the hell. I don't have fingers there anymore, so what's the worst that could happen?"

Kota knocked on the wood nearest to him. "Don't say such unlucky things, Hiroshi-ojisan!"

Laughing, Hiroshi patted Kota's head with his good hand, who just pouted and left to continue cooking. Naruto smiled, though she always thought it weird to knock on wood. After all, ninjas weren't really the superstitious sort. Though they do believe in luck.

"Anyway, let's try it, girl. If it works, I think you will have some work ahead of you as there are a couple cripples in the village. Mostly old men, but if your words are true, then they will be grateful enough to give you a good pay."

Naruto shook her head. "No need for payment, ojisan. I'm fine with just helping others."

"I don't think anyone would accept that, girl." Hiroshi said with a frown. "Though I can try to convince you later. Let's see first if it works."

"Yosh! Don't worry, ojisan. You will be able to high-five in a couple of minutes."

Hiroshi chuckled, but still nodded. "Let's hope so. Do I take my bandages off?"

"Yeah, that would be great. Now, I'm going to glow a bit as I can't still use this healing ability without transforming."

"Oh, so you can transform…? Do all ninjas do that?"

"Nope. Just me," she said while she looked at the bandaged-free hand, fire slowly licking at her form. Kota perked up from where he was standing, cutting some vegetable she couldn't see well. It caused Yue to chuckle as she went to help him, though she noted that both their attention was on her and Hiroshi.

"Woah. You look…" Hiroshi trailed off, not having words to describe how she looked. At least, she managed to make the Truth-seeking balls hide under her coat as to not injured anyone.

"Awesome, I know." She nodded with a cheeky smile before slowly moving her hand to his. "This will probably feel funny, so bear with me."

Hiroshi nodded, looking slightly nervous.

Naruto took a deep breath and tried to get into the same state she was when she healed Kakashi-sensei. She focused on restoring to how it was. It worked, though it looked creepy to see the bone grow first. Hiroshi hissed when the wound opened, but it was more of a surprise response than anything else. She tried to numb the pain first, after all.

Then he yelped when the skin started to grow until there were three fingers where there was an empty space before.

Naruto sighed in relief, smiling at Hiroshi's look of disbelief. He then slowly looked up at her with determined eyes. "If you don't accept any payment, I will feel bad."

Wait what?

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I updated p-treon so I thought it fair to update here, too. To keep it at eight chapters of difference and all.