He ran, Shouldering through the mass of people on the Main Street not even bothering to apologize. He even sent some falling to the ground. The people's yells of obscurity and curses of ungrateful and pompous teenagers reached only deaf ears. He didn't care, or maybe was so focused on reaching the point he was aiming for that he simply didn't hear them. He also didn't see the car that was speeding in his direction. Didn't hear the screeching of the tires.
Before he knew what was happening he blackened out and indignant screams of grief polluted the air. There was mayhem, even the previously disturbed citizens gathered around the boy with newfound concern in their eyes. Some younger children screamed and their mothers ushered them away. The driver of the car stepped out and cursed himself for not being fast enough to stop himself of hitting the young adult.
Everybody was gravely silent not knowing how to react until two people pushed their way through the crowd. One cherry blossomed haired girl ran towards the man checking his pulse and screaming at people to call the ambulance. The other boy hit the man square in the face with a good aimed punch.
The ambulance sirens were heard in the background and even when the men clad in white took the bleeding boy into the van the furious male didn't stop his assaults and the girl kept crying.
The police arrived shortly after the ambulance left and investigated the scene. They were forced to sedate the punching boy in order to ask the man the questions. When they tried to ask the sobbing girl questions she only choked out one name repeatedly. The fat blobs of tears hit her bloodied hands and it was only then she realized he was gone. Naruto was gone.
His heavy body ached. The moment he opened his eyes he immediately had to close them when the bright light assaulted them. He tried moving his hand to rub his eyes but his body felt immobile.
After many tries and failures he finally managed to open his eyes. He took in the white ceiling and slowly moved his eyes to the right. A large window was halfway covered by white curtains. Outside the landscape was covered by glimmering snow from the city lights. The dark clouds covered the night sky. Winter. He concluded.
Turning his eyes to the left he saw more beds and right before his bed stood a small night table, with wilted gray roses in a glass vase and many colorful cards surrounding it. A device standing by was connected with his body and strong rhythmic beeps were heard from it.
Hospital. He racked his mind to remember what happened but the strong migraine prevented him from doing so. He wanted to call for a nurse but his mouth wouldn't open. He tried to flex his muscles, but his body almost seemed detached from his body.
He closed his eyes. He didn't know for how long he was just there lying. A door creaked open and tip tapping of heels could be heard walking around the room. Groggily he opened his eyes and looked at the woman dressed in a spotless white uniform. He kept trying to catch some eye contact. When she finally noticed that he's awake she jumped and dropped the pad she was carrying onto the ground. He had half the mind to roll his eyes but the migraine intensified.
''You're awake,'' she whispered. Duh.
''He's awake.'' It almost seemed like him waking up wasn't expected. Maybe it wasn't.
The woman blinked her brown eyes a couple of times. Picking up the pad she gave him a wry smile and hastily exited the room.
The moment the door was closed a loud shout resonated through the halls, ''He's awake. Uzumaki's awake!''
Uzumaki. The name was familiar. He was Uzumaki.
After a minute or so, a blonde woman with a large bust stormed into the room and stopped in her tracks when she saw the unwavering blue gaze looking at her. She quickly composed herself and strode until she was standing right in front of the patient.
''You're awake.'' Again, the disbelief was present in that one repeated statement. No way.
She started to check her papers and then started feel around his body for reactions. None. He only reacted to the blinding light she shone in his eyes.
''This is impossible,'' she said almost to herself. After scribbling something onto her pad she faced him.
''Do you feel alright? Do you know what happened? Can you move your limbs?''
He tried shaking his head but the slightest movement had his head pulsating with nausea. He felt the image blurring but tried to focus on the woman's golden eyes.
The woman seemingly knowing of how he feels opened his mouth and forced him to swallow pills down his dry throat.
''You had an accident. A car hit you at the interjection. You had a severe head concussion and have had broken nearly all bones from the impact of the speeding truck. You were in coma for… a while…''
We weren't expecting you to wake up. That statement hung in the air. She didn't have to say it. He felt it. He slowly let his eyes close and succumbed to sleep.
When he woke up again, the weak sunrays of early morning filtered in through the open curtains. The headache wasn't as strong now. He tilted his head around the room he found clean roses in the vase. A sweet smell was radiating of them. He opened his mouth to speak but only a croak like noise escaped his mouth. Trying to move his body only achieved in him twitching his fingers and toes. He let out an exasperated sigh.
He didn't know what happened. Had a head concussion which probably only explained everything better. He guessed this is a symptom of amnesia. Surprisingly he couldn't bring himself to care.
Suddenly the door was thrown open and he inevitably winced. Three women ran towards him. One even jumped on him and pushed the air out of his lungs. They all had their eyes filled to the brim with unshed tears. He tried to smile to show that he was okay, but the face muscles didn't seems to cooperate.
''You... you… baka! You've no idea how much you scared me! How much I've missed you. No idea!''
It was the one on top of him, still preventing him from breathing unevenly. The woman with blonde dyed hair pulled the sobbing mess of him and gave him an apologetic look. She sat the woman on the bed beside his. The third woman had long beautiful black hair, then pale eyes caught his attention and he visibly paled. Oh god, her eyes.
The dark haired woman approached him. She kneeled down in front of his bed and leveled her gaze to look straight at him.
''You're still seventeen. You didn't change,'' she reached out her hand and gently stroked his cheek.
The women seemed familiar to him but by no means could he place who they were.
The blonde came forward and crouched beside the pale eyed woman. ''You missed so much, you know. Remember how much I hated that Shikamaru guy?''
He didn't.
''We got married after we graduated. We have three kids as well,'' she continued. The pink haired girl came forward; she grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers.
''I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It's my entire fault. I shouldn't have done that. I hope you can forgive me,'' she cried out.
Naruto furrowed his brows. He guessed he's been in a coma for longer than he expected, and it was this woman's fault to the boot.
He didn't respond. Couldn't respond, actually. The dark haired woman took a bottle of water out of her bag and uncapped it. It almost hurt him to see her gulping down the cold refreshment. He eyed the bottle hungrily. W
''Do you… want some?''
He couldn't be happier when she asked. His throat was so dry it almost burned. Seeing the look in his eyes she brought the bottle to his lips and let him drink it. He devoured the whole bottle of the liquid and let out a breathless sigh.
''Thanks...'' he managed to reply, his voice felt almost foreign to him. All the eyes zeroed on him.
After that they filled him with information with people he didn't know. How Chouji opened a restaurant. How Sai and Neji entered the modeling business. How Gaara ended up as the president of Suna. How Kankuro became the best puppeteer in the world. How Kiba married the black haired girl and so much more.
After they left, his mind was swirling with unknown names and information he gathered. It seemed that it wasn't just the amnesia he had to worry about. He had figured that he was in coma for about twenty years.
Twenty years.
He had spent twenty years in a hospital bed.
He slowly brought his hand upward and looked at it. Small, young, tanned. Didn't seem to belong to the nearly forty year old man he promptly was. He brought his shaky hand to the night stand and grabbed few of the cards that were standing on top of it.
He read them through; he recognized the names from the women's stories. It didn't seem they were aware of him lost memory. Shikamaru. Neji. The pinkette; Sakura. The blonde; Ino. Hinata.
He recognized all the names. Every single one of them except the one scribbled messily under Sakura's name. A child's handwriting.
Sasuke.
He read it again. And again. And once more. The name held no familiarity to it. Maybe it was Sakura's child, born AFTER the accident. But, she would surely speak of him, being the chatterbox he concluded she was during that short period of time.
He put the cards on the night table again.
His shaky hands were sore from using his weak muscles. He put them atop his abdomen which was covered with the thin hospital blanket.
He was about to resume going to sleep when yet another person pushed the door open and ran towards him. The person yanked him by his hospital gown and threw him to the floor. To say the blonde was surprised was an understatement.
A feral growl resonated through the room.
His head was turned away from the man and the pain from the impact made it almost impossible to move.
''You weren't supposed to be alive.''
His eyes widened a large fraction and he took a ragged breath. What's going on?
.