First Breath After Coma
A shuddering breath, greedily taking in as much air as possible. He coughed, and everything hurt. He? Awareness and existence slowly began to manifest itself with a new breath, then another, then another. He was breathing. He was alive. And he was sadscaredmad, but those feelings floated in the background, an obvious second to this new thing that was being alive.
And then he opened his eyes. Light rushed in so violently that he shut them again very tightly, feeling his skin stretch as he wrinkled his nose. It felt good. He tried moving something else—his hand now—and that felt good too. The eyes could wait. That blinding white was terrible. His fingers twitched and then plucked lightly at fabric. He smoothed down the small folds he'd just created, then plucked more into being. He wiggled toes, tilted his head a bit left and then a bit right, and then tried to bend a knee, but apparently that was taking it too far because gravity won that battle. He tried again, bending his knee so that his heel dragged along smooth fabric toward him. The thin, soft fabric draped over him rustled with the motion as he let his leg fall flat again, satisfied with conquering his first opponent.
Someone gasped.
—
Shizune bolted down the hallway, her muscles aching and barely carrying her from the shock alone. When she skidded to a stop at the nurse's station, she barked a quick set of commands—one was "Get Tsunade-sama"—and was dashing back to the room. To Naruto.
She slowed to a walking pace as she reached his door, still ajar, and then stepped in with no small amount of trepidation. His head was turned toward the window, but he shifted slightly and trained his squinted eyes on her as she approached. She had hoped that his pale, sunken cheeks and the dark rings under his eyes would be less prominent once he awakened, but he still looked awful.
"How do you feel?" She asked, biting her lip. For a painfully long set of seconds, he showed no indication that he'd heard.
Then, with a raspy voice, he said "I dunno." She smiled reassuringly, seating herself at his bedside. His half—lidded eyes followed her the length of the room, and he blinked slowly as she sat.
"I'm going to check you over a little, okay? Just tell me if you can feel when I press." She pulled out a small tool from the lining of her sleeve—just a simple pen-shaped instrument—and took one of his fingers in hers. With a sudden but sloppy motion, Naruto pulled his hand free. He was eying the tool with a vaguely skeptical expression, and Shizune couldn't help but laugh. "Relax, it's not as sharp as it looks. I just want you to tell me when I tap your fingers and toes with it." He remained unconvinced.
"Where's the doctor?" He asked, voice still husky and slurred. After employing considerable effort to hold his hand away from her, he let it fall to his chest with a quiet thump.
"Tsunade-sama is on her way. Can you move your other hand as well?" She watched him flex the fingers of his right hand, drawing them along the sheet. "And your feet?" He wiggled the toes of both feet under the thin white blanket. With a relieved sigh, Shizune gave him her warmest smile. "I'm so glad you're in one piece. You know, we were all really worried about you. Especially a few very specific people," she added the last part in a lower tone, a hand over her mouth mischievously. At this, Naruto met her eyes again.
"Huh?" He asked softly. "Who are you?"
—
Tsunade had exited the Hokage tower with agitation etched onto her features and was walking at a fast clip to the hospital. There weren't many issues that made her rush, but that boy seemed to be involved in a lot of those that did. She slowed to a more calm pace as she entered the hospital.
The door to Naruto's room flew open just as Tsunade reached for the handle. Inside, Shizune greeted her with a look of dismay.
"Tsu..Tsunade-sama. Naruto... uh, we should maybe, um, talk out here for a moment?" Looking about ready to stroke out was a daily occurrence for Shizune, but Tsunade could feel anxiety prickling at her aggressively. She almost accepted, but then Naruto spoke.
He asked something about a doctor, but his weak voice was hard to hear over the sound of Tsunade running a hand over her hair. Then, more clearly and with distinct confusion he asked "what's going on?" The two kunoichi gazed at one another in deliberation, then Shizune seemed to relinquish her idea and turned back to face the boy.
Tsunade stepped past her and stopped in front of Naruto.
"We found you just outside the village and you've been in a coma for four days. You were gone for more than a week before that. What happened?" She spoke with a hard voice, but her eyes had a softness to them that Naruto didn't miss.
"I was kinda hoping you could tell me. I don't remember anything." He gave a sheepish smile, but it seemed ghostly on his pale, sickly face. Tsunade gave a sigh, running a hand through a lock of hair.
"I guess that can't be helped. Are you in any pain?" He shook his head.
"Am I gonna die?" He asked, eyes wide for the first time. Tsunade smiled with mild amusement.
"No, Naruto. You'll be fine. So what's the last thing you do remember?" She asked after glancing over his vitals a second time.
"This lady trying to stab my fingers," he answered flatly, tipping his chin in Shizune's direction. She managed to make a noise of indignance. Tsunade chose to ignore the attitude, as she did most of the time.
"I mean before all this." Tsunade gestured vaguely at the room. Then she watched curiously as Naruto's expression shifted a few times, finally settling on confusion. He blinked a few times, then rather slowly said:
"Nothing." He looked at her almost distrustfully.
"What do you mean nothing?" She asked.
"Tsunade-sama, that's what I was, I mean," Shizune sighed, collecting herself. "He's lost his memory."
The words struck Tsunade like a wave of ice water, chilling her to the bone. What?
For ten days, she had held onto the fear that Naruto might never come back. He finally had, leaving them half-relieved, half-worried for the following days he lay unconscious. But this... Why?
Shizune's touch drew her back to reality. She took a deep breath, then abruptly strode to the window. She knew Naruto's eyes were following her.
"Get me Inoichi and Ibiki... and Kakashi." She said in a deceptively calm voice. With a pop, an unseen ANBU shinshuned away. In nearly the same second, Kakashi shinshuned in.
"Woah," Naruto said, impressed. Tsunade raised an eyebrow at Kakashi. He must have already been listening. His novel was open and a half-lidded eye was trained onto its pages almost apathetically.
"You called?" He droned in a bored tone.
"Hovering doesn't suit you, Kakashi," Tsunade said humorlessly.
"So, I hear you don't remember me, Naruto. Not very nice." He raised an eyebrow to the boy, finally looking up from the book. "After all we've been through together."
"Oh. Um, sorry," he responded, looking as though he wanted to be sorry rather than actually being sorry. "Will I ever remember?" He was asking Tsunade.
"We'll do everything we can. If anyone can make a full recovery, it's you." She approached then, remembering the small scrape on Naruto's shoulder. "May I?" She asked, gently pulling his hospital smock down to expose his pale shoulder. The scrape was still healing, scabbed over and pink around the edges. She locked eyes with Kakashi, the two grave.
"What's that?" Naruto asked, looking a bit scared again. "Is that bad?"
"It's just a scrape, don't worry about it." She fixed the smock and patted him. "I need to see your stomach too, though." He wore a hesitant frown as he slowly pushed the blanket down and then pulled his shirt up, straining to lift his head enough to see as well. She was glad to see him recovering muscle usage at a fair clip, at least.
"Is it okay?" He asked, letting his head fall back after a few seconds.
"Well, mold some chakra for me and we'll find out." Tsunade placed a hand on his stomach, feeling for any sign of chakra flow.
"Huh?" He asked, and she blanched. She stepped back, recovering quickly, and her eyes found their way to Kakashi, who suddenly looked hesitant himself.
"Pretty sure that's Iruka's job," he muttered, but she simply gazed at him expectantly, crossing her arms. Before either could argue further, Shizune began to speak gently.
"Naruto-kun, close your eyes and feel the energy flowing throughout your body. Try to gather it into one spot. It can be any spot, so just choose one that feels natural." She had placed a hand on Naruto's reassuringly. He closed his eyes.
"Here, this might help," She added, bringing his hands together into a simple seal. "But straighten those fingers," she continued, and he corrected his hands awkwardly.
With a sudden pop, Inoichi was in the room, shortly followed by Ibiki himself. Naruto's concentration was rightfully broken then, but with a poutlike frown at the two, he was right back to chakra-molding. Quick to catch on, Ibiki and Inoichi stood in silence. The five adults watched in muted anticipation.
After several long seconds, there was a clear shift in Naruto's chakra, enough that there would be no claiming that he had not molded it. Enough that the Kyuubi's seal should have been sitting prominently black upon his stomach.
But it wasn't.
