Hello and welcome! This is my first fanfiction and first time using this website to post a story, so please bear with any typos or formatting errors and point them out if you're feeling helpful!
I do not own Naruto. I only call dibs on the premise of this particular story and any OC's I make.
When she wakes up again–
… again?
When she wakes up again she is looking out of a window framing a tree. It looks like it's summer outside.
… wasn't it winter?
Her head hurts when she thinks that, so she discards the thought and looks around her. The room is white on white, white floors and walls, and there is a white chair in the corner behind the door to her left. She is sitting propped up in a bed with white sheets and white pillows. In her lap her hands–
She can't quite understand what is at the end of her arms. Her headache comes back tenfold at that moment and her mind goes blank and dark.
When she wakes up a second time, and this time she knows for sure it is again, and her head doesn't ache at the thought, the tree outside the window is bare and it looks like it is fall. Her head is a little hazy, the thoughts aren't quite coming in the order they should and everything feels off. She concentrates on slow breathing as she stares at the tree and the little bit of sky beyond it, trying to sort out her head. It doesn't really work, but she does get a little used to it. She remembers her "hands".
She decides to not deal with that right now.
A rustle of fabric brings her attention back inside the room, and she sees that this time there is a woman sitting in the white chair, with some kind of pointed-end pole-arm leaning against the wall next to her. The woman is watching her.
She clears her throat, wanting to ask the woman anything, something, where she is, what's happened, and why does her head hurt when she thinks about any of that, but she only makes a broken and grating mewling kind of sound.
The women's eyes widen a little bit, and she stands up, coming closer and saying something that she can't understand. It sounds like it might be Japanese. She winces at this thought, eyes squeezing shut momentarily before she opens them again, looking at the woman at the side of her bed questioningly.
"Muttsuri?" The woman repeated something from her string of words. "Muttsuri." She says it again. Maybe that's her name? But wasn't her name-
Ow ow ow, oh wow that hurts.
The woman calling her Muttsuri bends down so that they are eye level. She is quiet as she looks into Possibly Muttsuri's eyes, seeming to search for something. Whatever it is the woman seems to find it, for she nods and presses a button on the wall, then retreats back to her seat and weapon.
Who in the world brings a weapon into a hospital anyway? She's guessing that's where she is, anyways. Shouldn't there be regulations against that kind of thing?
They sit staring at each other for a couple minutes, and Possibly Muttsuri begins to feel very awkward, but can't think of anything to do so just pretends it's a staring contest. She starts making funny faces at the woman who just frowns at her.
A harried looking lady in a nurse outfit opens the door and gasps when she sees Possibly Muttsuri–you know what she's calling herself Muttsuri until told otherwise–looking back at her. The nurse looks wonderingly at the pole-arm lady, who gives a slight nod. The nurse claps her hands and smiles, looking back to Muttsuri, saying a string of more words Muttsuri can't understand peppered with multiple Muttsuri-chan's. The nurse raises the pitch of her voice, making it sound like she's talking to a child or something.
You know what, now that there's a nurse here Muttsuri would really like to know what's going on with her hands. What the heck.
She raises what's at the end of her arms at the nurse and puts her most what the heck look on her face.
The nurse pauses with a perplexed look, then looks at the pole-arm lady. The woman shrugs, fingering her weapon.
Muttsuri wiggles her appendages at the nurse. The nurse looks to the woman again, says something, then leaves the room. Muttsuri sighs. Hopefully the nurse is going to get a doctor or a translator or something helpful. The woman in the corner mutters something to herself. Muttsuri takes the pause in action to stare at her hands, looking now that her head isn't punishing her for it.
Her arms end in a joined mass of flesh, vaguely rectangular in form. What looks like finger bones stand out against the mass, and are positioned more or less how you would expect fingers to be arranged. There's space in-between where one "hand" lump section ends and the next starts, and in between is more stretched skin that's less lumpy than the rest. Some wires and things are attached to her elbow, but it's the standard hospital stuff. There's an extra wire connecting to her "hands".
It kind of looks like Muttsuri is gripping something that grew flesh over her hands. Or maybe her flesh grew over something she was holding? Either way, it looks ghastly, with veins pulsing wetly through slightly translucent skin and she wishes she could just fling it away from her. She's tempted to hyperventilate. She may be hyperventilating anyway. She focuses on breathing again, ignoring her hands.
In, and out. There is nothing wrong here, you are not dying. You are not in pain. You are not uncomfortable. Well, actually– her arms from the tips of her fingers to her collarbones are twanging and ache a little– but it's not too horrible. It's okay.
Breathe.
The door opens, and the nurse returns, accompanied by two men. One's blind– why would you bring a blind guy Miss Nurse Lady– and kind of gorgeous, and the other is clearly a doctor. The pretty man turns to the woman in the chair and they start talking quietly while the doctor approaches Muttsuri. He takes out a pen flashlight and proceeds to do the doctorly thing to do, flashing it in her eyes and moving it back and forth. Muttsuri follows the light with her eyes. He turns it off and calls the other man over.
Mr. Fabulous and Maybe Not Blind comes over without any hesitation and doesn't bump into the bed or anything, so Muttsuri guesses maybe he's not so blind. His eyes just don't have pupils? Wonder if that hurts.
Mr. Sculpted Face does something funny with his hands and then abruptly staggers back, a hand going to his head."N-Nani?!" He says. Oh wow that's just like that one Internet meme– Muttsuri tucks her head into her arms when it punishes her for thinking about memes. She doesn't blame her head. Memes. At a time like this.
The doctor grabs the pretty one's shoulder and they have a hurried conversation. Mr. Beautiful Even with His Bleeding Nose–oh no is he okay?!–straightens up, does the thing with his hands again, grabs either side of Muttsuri's head, and stares into her eyes, even as his nose starts bleeding more furiously. Muttsuri begins to panic, making little croaking sounds because that's the maximum she can do right now and looking back and forth between the doctor and the other man, trying to get him to help.
Suddenly she feels a brush on her mind and she looks back to the man holding her head, feeling like there's a connection, like he can understand her or something, before it breaks and his eyes roll up into his head and he slumps onto her bed.
Muttsuri lets out a startled croak, her hand mass thing is pinned under his body and she can't do a thing to lift him off her and this is very uncomfortable. But then the woman is there and dragging the man off and the doctor is checking him. Muttsuri curls her legs up to her chest and squeezes them with her arms.
The woman is standing off to the side and watching her again.
Muttsuri feels very alone and confused.
The two men eventually leave under the watchful gaze of the pole-arm lady. Is that a glaive? Ow. Her head hurts again. She decides it is a glaive though.
The doctor comes back with another very pretty person, this time a lady that looks like she could be the first one's relative. She's got the same light blond hair and eyes without the pupils. She proceeds to do the same hand thing as the first, gets a bloody nose, and then leaves too. Thankfully she doesn't fall onto Muttsuri like Pretty Number One did.
Before she goes she and the doctor talk for a bit. She says something that sounds like "kekkei-genkai" with a shrug and the doctor hesitantly nods his head.
Hah, nerds. Who talks about anime–ow– on the job? Maybe they're die-hard fans?
Glaive lady watches them and Muttsuri the whole time. Her eyes are dark and she's frowning at everything.
Muttsuri very much wants to go home –ow.
Thoughts of home she is remembering are the only comfort she has right now, even though it hurts to think about, and she really wants comfort in this unfamiliar place and situation. She dwells on them despite the headache. She recalls being frequently called stubborn into death when she lived in the yellow house on the hill, and she smiles a little as she thinks about that sunshine place as the world goes dark around her again.
Muttsuri wakes up from a dream world of green grass and blue sky and comfort to find herself looking out at the tree again. It's weird to wake up with her eyes already open, but maybe that's related to why she's in the hospital.
It's a nice tree. Looks like it's beginning to bud in anticipation of spring. Huh. Missed winter then. Muttsuri waits for the pain at the thought, but surprisingly her head doesn't have a problem with it this time.
She tries again. Winter, winter, winter. Snow on the ground, ice in the trees, and melting water dripping off leaves...? Nope, nothing.
The woman is watching her still from her seat in the corner. She has a small desk now, and it has a bunch of papers scattered over it and a glass and pitcher of water next to them. She says something with a "Muttsuri-sama" thrown in. Uhm? Muttsuri is pretty sure she's no one's -sama. Is she? She tries to remember, but her headache comes back tells her no she may not remember, and she lets it go.
The woman gets up with a glass of water in her hand, leaving the papers and glaive behind. She brings the cup to Muttsuri's lips and says something more. Muttsuri takes a drink and gets a nod from the woman.
The woman retreats to her desk, exchanges the cup for a binder and the chair, and sits next to Muttsuri's bed with the binder in her hands. She reads from it a moment, then looks into Muttsuri's eyes. "Muttsuri," the woman says slowly, pointing at her. "Nagi," she continues, pointing to herself this time.
"Ah!" Muttsuri nods and tries to point to herself to do the same. She's reminded of her hands. So she nods again, taps herself on the shoulder with her chin, "Muttsuri," she says to the woman. "Nagi," she gestures with her chin at the woman. Nagi.
Nagi nods solemnly, and she continues with what is no doubt a language lesson.
A nurse comes in once they are done, and helps Muttsuri get up and stagger around a little, carefully keeping the wires and tubes out of her way. Muttsuri stubbornly ignores how weird she feels to be so much shorter than the nurse, and how small and skinny her legs look. Her whole body just feels closer and wrong than she's used to. She makes a rule to ignore her hands as much as possible.
Her time awake ends quickly, as her body soon tires.
Weeks pass in the same order, Nagi continues to give language lessons and the nurse to come in and give Muttsuri physical therapy. And–ahem–help her use the facilities. Muttsuri is a little out of it the whole time, having slight blackouts and not being able to concentrate that well. Trying to form opinions on her surroundings or plans of any kind are beyond her.
By the time she and Nagi have progressed to simple conversations, "Are you thirsty," "No," "Are you tired," "Yes," the nurse has moved therapy to a gym-like area with weights and things to help Muttsuri gain some strength into her legs. When Muttsuri asks to go outside the nurse smiles apologetically and shakes her head no.
They improvise some exercises for Muttsuri's arms and she hates them, they make her dwell on her deformity and make her arms hurt, but she does them anyway. She doesn't want the nurse or Nagi to be disappointed in her. That much she does have an opinion on by now.
There is one conversation in her language lessons with Nagi that sticks out.
"When we go home?" Muttsuri asks. She is now able to understand a lot of the language, but forming strings of words herself is still pretty challenging.
"Home? I suppose eventually we will move out and find an apartment when you are well enough," Nagi shrugs.
"But what about home? Yellow house on hill, green fields all around?" She remembers something else, "And pine tree out front?"
Nagi pauses and turns to be fully facing her from her spot at the desk. "Muttsuri-sama, I am sorry, but there is no such place. You've only lived in this hospital and one other, never a house on a hill. This place is as much your home as any other."
"What? But," Muttsuri bites her lip, "but I remember…"
"Muttsuri-sama. Muttsuri-sama, I am sorry if you find my answer unpleasing, but you do not have any memories of any houses. You have only begun to wake up in the past year, and before that lay asleep for many years after you were born. You were not awake to ever see such a place."
"B-but!" Muttsuri feels close to tears. Not real? She can't lose that place to not being real. It's one of the only things familiar to her, and she doesn't want to lose it for being a fake.
Nagi regards her with her dark eyes a moment and then says, "If you would excuse me a moment, Muttsuri-sama."
When Muttsuri gives a distracted nod and rubs her face on her shoulder, trying to get ahold of herself, Nagi gets up and leaves the room. She returns not a long minute later, straps her glaive to her back, and scoops Muttsuri up, who gives a squawk of alarm. So far Nagi hasn't really touched her, never given her a hug or a pat on the shoulder, and it's sudden.
"I have been given permission to take you to the roof. You should have already been brought outside, but the doctors were unsure how your condition would allow you to take it and were hesitant. I have… assured them I will bring you inside as soon as you begin to feel uncomfortable, so please tell me if you do, Muttsuri-sama," Nagi says with a glance, opening the door and walking down the hallway. She continues up the stairs that Muttsuri is still having trouble with at the end of the hallway and out the door at the top.
Muttsuri giggles happily and would have clapped her hands if she had them. She can feel the sun for the first time in forever and there's laundry drying in the sun, making the rooftop seem like a white magical fairyland and making the air smell like clean, honest laundry. It reminds her of the house on the hill, where someone always left laundry on the lines to smell like the sun, and the house smelled like clean summer even into the heart of winter.
She's reminded that that all may not actually be real.
Nagi is watching her reaction, and when she doesn't start screaming, Nagi strides through the hanging linens and to the edge of the rooftop. Muttsuri gasps at the splay of what must be a city spread before her. The roofs of the buildings are clad in metal in the same handful of colors, and little people scurry about their business between them. Everything is so colorful and lively that it almost hurts after the somber white of the hospital and Muttsuri desperately drinks it all in.
Nagi looks down at her.
"Muttsuri-sama, this is the place where you have lived for the past five years. There are no houses on hills or fields on this side of the walls, and none for a long way outside of them. Please believe me when I tell you that there is no such place. We may one day find one if that is your wish and the Master's, but until then there is none."
Muttsrui feels crestfallen, and her eyes drift down to her lap, but not before something catches her eye.
Startled, she looks up and stares at the mountain with the heads on it in the distance. Oh, she thinks. Her head is tearing itself apart and images are flashing past her eyes and her ears are pounding with a pressure from without or within as the world gets dark around her again. I see. Funny, she thinks as she remembers all the other stories where people saw that mountain and realized.
I'll give you three guesses of what her "hands" are holding, and the first two don't count. ;D
Please tell me what you think! Is the tone of voice okay? Have I peppered this chapter with too many commas? (That's my writing kryptonite, I swear) Are you intrigued? Bored? Wanting to meet some actual Naruto characters?
If there is anyone willing to let me pester them with Naruto and Fanfiction posting questions, please PM me! Hopefully I can figure out how to PM. My knowledge of the story and the site is incomplete and I would dearly like to have someone I could pester with my ineptitude. Or someones!