Leaving the Hokage building still feeling the slight cringe from his last conversation with Minato, Chiba walked to the hospital.
Unlike in the past when the villagers would look at Chiba with scorn, they now looked at him with gratitude.
This was partly because the image of the Uchiha had drastically changed for the better during his coma, but it was also because Chiba had once again become the Hero of the Leaf.
Word was spreading all around about Chiba's achievements, no doubt partly due to Minato and the Uchiha's efforts to raise his and his clans reputation higher.
People talked about how he not only defeated Pakura and forced the Sand Village to retreat, he also defeated the two rougue Ninja that wore black cloaks with red clouds, subdued the rampaging Nine-Tailed Fox, healed hundreds of Konoha villagers, healed the Fourth Hokage, and even defeated the traitor Danzo along with all of his subordinates!
Chiba not only did all of those things, he did them in just 2 days after waking up from a decade long Coma!
His feats were being compared to the Legends, civilians were even power ranking him against the Greats like Hashirama and Tobirama. They figured that while being weaker than them, Chiba couldn't have been that far behind.
They would've all lost their minds if they realized Chiba was without any Chakra at the moment, making him well beyond those Legends at full strength!
Those who're injured after the battle were already either dead or being taken care of, so Chiba had stopped creating detached arms. He planned on going around to the hospital to create limbs for the injured but it could wait, he had to tend to his sister first.
Walking into the packed hospital with doctors running around, the faces of nearly all of the patients and their families lit up seeing Chiba, dozens of them surrounded him.
"Thank you for saving my wife!"
"Please take this, my son drew it for you!"
"Thank you for saving my life!"
Nodding and accepting all of their gratitudes, Chiba wormed his way through the crowd and followed his nose like a dog. Chiba had long since familiarized himself with Koizumi's scent, his superhuman smell allowed him to follow that scent like a straight line into a specific hospital room.
Knocking on the door, Chiba opened it to see Koizumi laying in the hospital bed but surprisingly there was another in the room. Sitting on a chair next to the bed and peeling an apple, was the blue haired Anko chatting away with her!
Unlike in the original plot where she wore skin tight chain mail that showed off all of her assets, the Anko sitting before him was wearing a semi baggy Ninja hoodie.
As the door opened the conversation between the two stopped, Koizumi's melancholy smile bloomed into a genuine ear to ear grin.
"Big br-Chiba your back!" She tried sitting up but Anko gently stopped her.
"Did little Koizumi miss her big brother?" Chiba said teasingly as he pulled up a chair and sat next to them.
"It's been a while Anko, I see that you've grown greatly," Chiba said, staring at her hand cutting the apple.
Despite the task appearing mundane to others, Chiba could tell a lot by the way she grasped the blade and cut the peel off the apple. He could even tell that she seemed to prefer dual blades, most likely short blades like Tanto's or long knives.
"Thanks...I guess." Anko couldn't have known Chiba had grown so proficient in swordsmanship that he could assess her skill at a glance but she took the compliment nonetheless.
"You know, you still owe me a date..." a flash of memories passed through his head as he remembered she wanted to take Chiba out on a date to a music shop in exchange for using her to awaken Koizumi's 2nd and 3rd tomoe.
"...I suppose I do still owe you that date, but it'll have to be put off for a while. I have plans for the next few months. After everything is settled, I will give you that date, should you still want it." Chiba's words caused a frown to appear on Anko's face.
"After everything is settled?... I suppose I can wait a couple months for our first date... I have already waited over a decade." Anko mumbled that last part quietly.
After arranging the date there was an awkward silence that filled the room of the three, Chiba didn't feel it as he'd lost all social cues in his simulated world and was just happy to spend time with his sister but the other certainly felt it.
"Perhaps I'll step outside and allow you two some privacy, I'm sure you have a bunch to catch up on." Anko said, her face red in embarrassment, she placed the peeled apple by Koizumi's bed before promptly leaving the room.
The awkward silence did not fade away, it in fact grew stronger as Koizumi tried to figure out what to say.
"Chiba...i....im... a failure!" The powerful Jonin revered around the world as Koizumi of the invisible blade began to break down in tears.
The cold stoic persona she built up during his absence broke and revealed her bottle emotions.
"I couldn't avenge them! I couldn't kill Ao! I only made the Leaf's standing with the Mist worst! I'm the worst, I shouldn't be alive! I should've died trying to kill that bas- *Smack*
The sharp stinging pain on her cheek cut Koizumi off from continuing on, the pain from Chiba slap seemed to reset her.
"You talk about failure but you're still alive! Why are you sitting in this bed wallowing over weakness and not training to get your revenge!" Chiba's voice was raised as his anger couldn't help but be made evident.
"I am blind! I couldn't do it with the legendary Mangekyou Sharingan. How am I supposed to do it without eyesight!" By now Koizumi was shouting at the top of her lungs
"Are you joking? You're complaining to me about being blind!..You're right Koizumi, you are a failure. Not because you couldn't kill Ao, but because you gave up on it. You gave up on revenge but more importantly you gave up on yourself!"
Chiba words pierced deep, ever since the loss of her eyes she'd basically stopped striving to get stronger. She gave up her revenge on Ao, not because she matured as a person and forgave him but because she lost confidence in herself.
Lowering her head in shame, Koizumi had no retorts, she knew any excuse would be just that, an excuse.
"We're going to have to start at the basics... I'm going to have to train you like we did as kids." Hearing this, the despaor ridden Koizumi looked up in shock.
"We simply have to train that failure mentality out of you, once you get strong enough we'll head straight for the Mist for your rematch. Don't worry about their Mizukage, anyone that tries to interfere in your match will be dealt with." Saying this, Chiba stood up.
Walking over to the still shocked Koizumi, he picked her up by the back of her shirt.
"W-wait im still not fully recovere-" Chiba ignored all excuses as he jumped out of the hospital window with her on his shoulder.
"I can heal you in an instant. I previously went easy on your training because you were just a kid, but now you're an adult now Koizumi! This training is going to feel like hell in comparison!"