My Techniques are a bit off

[Main World – Konohagakure – The Hokage's Home]

A cool morning breeze drifted in through the half-open window, and slender beams of sunlight found their way into the room through gaps in the curtain.

Link flipped over, riding atop his blanket. His tiger-shaped pajama top was all crumpled under him, and the gap between his pajama shirt and pants exposed a bit of pale skin. The cool wind brushed against him, making his cheeks scrunch up slightly.

"Ahh—yaaawn…"

Sitting up bleary-eyed, he stretched and yawned, still not fully awake. One of his shadow clones, as usual, stood up to tidy his messy pajamas and help him brush his teeth and wash his face.

"Ptooey—"

Clink!

Link suddenly felt something else leave his mouth as he spat into the washbasin. He heard a hard little object clatter, and immediately jolted awake. He used his tongue to feel around inside his mouth.

Where his front teeth should've been was…nothing. His tongue could press right up against the back of his lips.

Time seemed to freeze.

The shadow clones, with their limited intelligence, weren't sure if they should keep going with the washing routine or not.

Panicking, Link jumped out of bed without even putting on the slippers his clone had laid out and dashed straight to the mirror near his bedroom door.

"It's over…"

His heart sank.

No, no, no—why are my teeth falling out now?

Link leaned in close to the mirror, mouth open. He could see a tiny new tooth growing from the pink gum in place of the old one. It was as if a thousand alpacas were stampeding through his mind.

The key point was, he was about to turn thirteen; why on earth would he be growing a new tooth now?

And swapping teeth doesn't happen overnight or even in a week or two. Next month, he's supposed to head off to the Fourth Great Ninja War.

A kid in the middle of losing his baby teeth, going off to fight in the Fourth War, as the final boss?

What's he supposed to do, speak in some grandiose, intimidating way while whistling through the gap in his teeth?

The tragedy was real.

With his face pulled long in dismay, Link—who rarely took care of his own morning routine these days—brushed his teeth on his own, worried his clones would knock out even more if they used their usual force.

Besides the two missing front teeth, he also noticed a small amount of hair shedding, although overall his hair looked thicker. Oh, and he was way hungrier, too.

Despite the gap in his front teeth, he tearfully ate three times his usual breakfast and still felt his stomach rumbling afterwards.

In a somber mood, Link rushed over to the Medical Corps building right after breakfast, clutching the teeth that had fallen out. Every shinobi he passed on the way could feel his low-pressure aura, each secretly wondering what might have happened.

A new Shinobi World War? The end of the world? An alien invasion?

"S-Sixth Hokage-sama…" A rookie kunoichi at the medical unit's front desk forced a stiff smile as Link stared her down. "I-Is there something you need?"

Link lowered his head, not letting his lips part too much as he mumbled, "Where's Shizune?"

"The Section Chief is in the top-floor lab, she was doing an experiment last ni—"

Before she could finish, he was already gone, moving so fast that the documents on the desk blew everywhere in his wake.

Knock-knock-knock!

The sound of urgent knocking pounded through the iron door of the lab. Shizune glanced over and saw a very grim face peering through the glass window—set at about chest height—outside. Frowning, she guessed something must have happened, so she quickly gave instructions to her assistants and colleagues, disinfected herself, took off her protective gear, and stepped out of the lab.

"What's going on?" she asked, serious.

Still hanging his head, Link said, "I need a full medical exam—right now."

"Huh?" Shizune was momentarily perplexed and didn't even notice how odd his voice sounded at first. "But didn't you have a checkup not too long ago?"

She paused as realization hit. "Wait—you're having health issues?"

That was no trivial matter. If the most crucial figure for the village and the Allied Shinobi Forces had a health problem, every medical ninja would drop everything.

In a flash, she had the entire corps in action to perform a full medical evaluation of the Sixth Hokage, not noticing his unwilling expression.

Height, weight, blood pressure, heart rate, blood tests, cell analysis…

Apart from collecting his saliva, which Link insisted on handling personally, everything else was carried out by Shizune—Head of the Medical Corps—and a bunch of top-level medical ninjas who'd earned big names in the field.

They even ended up calling every skilled medical ninja available in the Allied Shinobi Forces (except Tsunade, who was in the Second World and apparently still drunk from the previous night). Since Tsunade was being urgently contacted, they had to get started on the checkup first.

When the results were finally in, they were abnormally normal. Why "abnormally"? Because he was too healthy.

It had only been a few days since his last check, but his vitality was already off the charts. When they separated some of his cells from his body—no blood supply, no proper temperature regulation—the cells remained remarkably alive, showing no sign of death anytime soon.

It was practically on par with Hashirama's cells.

"So what exactly is the problem?" Tsunade asked after rushing in, hungover but reading the report with a puzzled look. "What are you feeling?"

"I want to talk to you alone," Link muttered, head still bowed.

Tsunade lifted her gaze. Everyone else left the office, until it was just the two of them.

Link hesitated, then slowly raised his head and parted his lips.

"… …"

"Pff—" Tsunade started, only to choke in surprise. She prided herself on her mental fortitude as a ninja, but seeing the Sixth Hokage standing before her with gaps where his front teeth used to be—and remembering the faint lisp she'd just heard—made her burst out laughing. A moment later, an enraged Link pounced, grabbing her by the collar and shaking her back and forth. She ended up coughing violently, tears in her eyes.

"Quit laughing!"

Once he let go, Link glared at her, voice sharp with irritation.

Unfortunately, he still sounded a little funny.

Struggling to keep a straight face, Tsunade said, "Um…in a bit, Lord Tobirama and the others will be here. They heard you asked for a checkup and might have a serious problem, so even the 'me' from the future timeline is showing up…plus the 'me' from the Second World, so you—"

"Stop, just stop," Link said, cheeks growing red. "Hurry up and think of a solution. Maybe you can do some surgery and implant me two new teeth?"

He never imagined that just because he was acting slightly off, it would shake up the entire Allied Shinobi Forces.

At first, there were so many medical ninjas around that he was too embarrassed to tell Shizune what had really happened. After a half-hour of examinations, it felt like the whole world had found out he might be sick.

If he'd just quietly told Shizune earlier, none of this fuss would've happened.

He was too numb to care anymore.

"Where are the teeth you lost?" Tsunade asked with a playful shake of her head, holding out her hand.

Link handed over the carefully wrapped old teeth, muttering, "Just help me let everyone know it was a fluke—nothing's wrong, and I don't need visitors."

He gritted his new gap in frustration. "If you won't help, I'll have my shadow clone follow you everywhere. Then you can kiss your booze goodbye…"

~~~

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