Chapter 39 - Time is Ticking

The next days were pretty boring. Tsunade used every method to find a way to heal Lee's leg. Others used the time to relax or do D-ranks.

Ishizu was one of the few who trained.

Summoning himself to the Panda realm and training his new Taijutsu. He saw the destruction of his incomplete Sage mode.

It was even worse than Jiraiya's as he could only do one attack and was weakened after it.

During his visit to the panda realm, he met another panda.

A big fat panda. He was the nephew of Po. His name was Brother Long.

Most of the time he was eating and complaining about life.

Believe it or not, but this big guy was the teacher for Ishizu in the style of speed. How someone like him was a master in speed was a mystery to the Shinobi.

Ishizu, after a few months, was on getting the hang on with his defense style and only started in the speed style. After he finished, he went back to Konoha, and an Anbu informed him to come to the Hokage.

Hokage tower.

"You wanted me here, Hokage-sama?" asked Ishizu as he came in.

The new Hokage sat in the new seat as she smiled at Ishizu.

"Yes, I have a B-rank mission for you. I don't want you to sit all day here in Konoha or go to the panda realm. You are a Shinobi of Konoha and not of the pandas. You have a duty as a Jonin. You are going to the land of tea with two Genin."

Ishizu nodded and looked for Naruto and Sasuke.

He remembered that after this filler came the Sasuke retrieval arc. So he took them both to the land of tea to help Idate, or whatever his name was, win the race.

It was boring for Ishizu as it was a filler episode. Sometimes Ishizu wondered why Kishimoto used them.

Most of them were boring and usually, nothing impressive happened. There were only a few good ones.

During the filler, Ishizu observed Sasuke's reaction to Naruto, and even with a weaker curse seal, Sasuke's pride was still hurt as he saw Naruto's growth, thinking he was growing weaker.

Back in Konoha, Ishizu walked to the Uchiha district after the mission.

He knew that Sasuke wanted to fight Naruto. So why not fuel it for his goals?

Sasuke was already marked, so he had to go to Orochimaru. No, he could stay as Ishizu had the ability to take the seal away with his Fuinjutsu and Rinnegan, but would it help Sasuke?

Sasuke wanted to know the truth about Itachi and staying in Konoha would not help him in finding the truth.

As long as Sasuke was loyal to Konoha or trusted Ishizu, he could go to Orochimaru and spy for him.

The plan was to show Sasuke that Orochimaru could help the Uchiha get stronger, but Ishizu would be the one who would nurture him from the dark. He would be a wonderful little Uchiha spy, helping Ishizu in finding important things from the Sannin.

Knocking on the door Ishizu was greeted by Sasuke. Although Sasuke didn't like most of the people in Konoha, Ishizu was an exception. He trained him and helped him through his problems.

"What can I do for you Ishizu-sensei?"

Ishizu smiled: "Can I come in? I want to talk with you for a moment."

Sasuke invited Ishizu, and both sat across each other.

"What can I do for you?" asked Sasuke again.

"I am concerned about you, Sasuke. During the last mission, you showed many emotions toward Naruto.

I know that you feel that it lowers your pride because Naruto is getting stronger but do you think you aren't strong? You have pride and I know this feeling so I will help you.

If you want to see who the strongest of you two is, then I will arrange a fight between you and Naruto.

Come to the training ground 43 tomorrow and show me and Naruto just how strong you are," explained Ishizu.

It shocked Sasuke to see one of his Sensei helping him fight Naruto. He nodded and Ishizu left.

Ishizu POV

After the talk with Sasuke, it was time to convince Naruto to a 'friendly spar' with Sasuke. Naruto welcomed me in and I started to explain my reason for visiting him.

"Naruto, I see that you have grown stronger every time and I am proud but not everyone sees it like that. As an Uchiha, Sasuke is very prideful and seeing you becoming stronger makes him question his strength.

I want you to have a friendly spar with Sasuke to show him how to improve," I explained to the boy.

Naruto was sad that Sasuke only wanted to fight him for power, but he still accepted. Maybe he could punch this attitude out of the Uchiha.

"Then come tomorrow to the training ground 43. I will be the proctor." With that, I left.

Ishizu house

General POV

Ishizu lay in bed but couldn't fall asleep. He thought of the fight tomorrow and if it was necessary.

There were many reasons to make the fight. The first was to see how strong Naruto had become.

He trained him since he was young and Ishizu wanted to see his training paying off. Teacher's pride and whatnot.

The other reason was for Sasuke to go to Orochimaru. Ishizu weakened the seal so Sasuke's corruption would disappear, but in doing so, Sasuke wouldn't accept the power Orochimaru offered as he had Ishizu as a Sensei.

The fight between both of them would leave a scar in Sasuke's pride, and that would be the perfect time for Ishizu to 'suggest' Sasuke to go to Orochimaru and get the training of a Sannin.

In doing so would give Ishizu a spy who would monitor Orochimaru and as payment for leaving Konoha, Sasuke would gain power from the snake.

The problem was how to give Sasuke the Mangekyō Sharingan in the future to grow him stronger.

In canon, Sasuke gained it after Itachi died and hearing the truth of his clan from Obito.

The annoying thing lies in how to activate it in Sasuke another way.

He first needed a m.a.t.u.r.e Sharingan which he already had because of his training.

Then he either had to kill someone he loved or seen someone he loved die.

Stupid way to gain stronger but even though, who did Sasuke love?

Sasuke didn't get it in the fight with Naruto at the Valley of End but when Itachi died.

Killing his brother only to hear that Itachi loved his brother dearly activated the Mangekyō.

So the plan was for Ishizu to give Sasuke the Mangekyō before the fight with Itachi.

Then convince Sasuke to let Itachi alive.

After that, swap the eyes of Itachi and Sasuke.

Ishizu shook his head knowing he was overthinking things. He had a lot of time to think about it during the time skip.

Itachi's illness could be either healed by Tsunade after Itachi is redeemed or by using the King of Hell.

Now, Ishizu could do the first part of healing Itachi if one person died.

The warmonger, Danzo.

Ishizu hated this man so much. If he thought back, then Danzo indirectly helped create the mess with Akatsuki.

If Danzo died, Ishizu could give Tsunade the papers regarding the truth behind the Massacre which Ishizu knew where they were, and with that, he could find Itachi and drag him to Tsunade to heal him.

But Ishizu couldn't just walk into Danzo's ROOT hideout steal the doc.u.ments and kill Danzo.

He was the problem of the Uchiha's and he wouldn't kill steal from them.

Ishizu needed a strategy to get Danzo to focus on other things and find a way to get rid of his arm.

So what to do? Ishizu shook his head. It was still early to make his move.

Nothing would be safe from him after his training before Shippuden.

Everything needed to be done step by step.

A few hours later

Ishizu was walking down the street while thinking about what to do. It would take some time before Sasuke would defect from the village.

Ishizu could train in the Panda realm but he was also a human and doing the same things every day was going to be boring and brother Tau told him to come back when he loses his boredom. Ishizu didn't look ahead when he bumped into a person.

"Au watch it!" a female voice was heard.

Ishizu looked up and saw it was his student Ino.

"Sorry Ino, but I was thinking deeply and didn't look ahead," apologized Ishizu. Ino stood up and forgave her Sensei. Then Ishizu got an idea. He told Ino before that she should learn more medical Ninjutsu but only after becoming Chunin.

Unfortunately, the invasion happened and nobody got promoted to Chunin. Now would be a perfect time.

"Hey, Ino remember that I told you that you will get a chance to learn the mystic palm technique? You didn't get Chunin but only because the invasion happened. I happened to have free time so why not come with me and learn?"

Ino's eyes lit up: "Oh thank you Sensei. I thought you forgot about it!" Ishizu smiled and both went to the hospital.

Hospital

Ishizu talked with Ino about the anatomy of the body and how the mystic palm technique worked.

Ishizu was no Tsunade but from a scale of 1 to 10 he was a 7, while Tsunade was a 10. Ishizu remembered how Tsunade taught Sakura and applied the same strategy.

Unfortunately, Ishziu couldn't help Ino by talking with Tsunade so she could take Ino as her student because she was working on fixing Lee.

The next week Ishizu helped train Ino in becoming a medic. If Ino wanted to study alone Ishziu looked for Hinata.

Hinata's life changed a lot after the Chunin exam.

Neji was talking with her again and her younger sister loved her more than ever. Her father finally acknowledged her and loved her as a real father should do. As Ishizu entered the Hyūga compound, the guards escorted him to Hinata.

"Why are you here Ishizu-sensei?" asked Hinata, seeing her sensei.

Ishizu smiled as he patted her head: "I could tell you some lie but honestly I have nothing to do so I came by to see if you wanted to train.

Ino is working in the hospital and Naruto is training. So do you have free time?"

Hinata agreed and both of them fought in the compound. During the fight, Ishziu thought if giving Hinata the Tenseigan in the distant future would be a good idea.

In the movie, an Otsutsuki of Hamura's lineage could take Byakugan eyes to awaken the Tenseigan. Hinata had his charka so if Ishizu could get to the moon, take some blood from someone there then he could inject it into Hinata and she could awaken it.

It worked for Ishizu so why wouldn't it work for Hinata?

There was also that big energy vessel from Hamura that could help Ishizu in getting more power.

Still, Ishizu didn't know who lived right now on the moon and if they were hostile so before he could master panda Senjutsu he had to wait.

After training with Hinata, Ishizu went to look for Karin.

Ishizu POV

The Uzumaki was living a wonderful life in Konoha. I thought she would start going all fangirl on either Sasuke or Naruto but something was different. I wanted to pry into it so I knocked on her door and asked her the reason for it.

"Uhh, I don't feel any perverted emotions to boys," said Karin with a blush on her face.

I rose an eyebrow. This was awkward to ask.

"So is there someone you like?"

She blushed and whispered: "I like girls."

There was silence between the two of us.

"So... you like girls. Well, I hope you find the right one."

She smiled: "Thank you." I quickly left.

This was something new.

Well, she was hurt by boys during her stay in Kuso so maybe she has a liking to girls?

Let us hope she will find a girl who will love her.