It was slow, annoying, and enough to keep bringing back up from the darkness of his slumber. It was the slow hum of machines and the sterile air of the room. It was the way his body felt as though it was made of lead and something entirely not his own. He felt chained down by by a bed he couldn't escape from, and a body that way swirling with medicine that put him under every time he tried to open eyes. He was trapped to a body, a bed, and a room that he didn't feel like belonged to him.
Above him he heard the whispers that came at all hours. He didn't know what time it was but it felt like every time he was brought up to the surface of his consciousness he felt someone there. Someone was always there, in the corner and he wasn't sure if it brought him comfort to know he wasn't alone or fear that he was being watched.
The first time he open his eyes his was blinded by the sudden onslaught of light that made it feel like his eyes were being burned inside his head. He could see through his blurry vision and he the back asleep before he ever realized he woke. There was a blonde women standing off to the side talking to someone the next time he woke and it was all he could see before he was dragged back under to his underworld, to the prison he couldn't escape away from the world he only caught glimpses off.
He would hear them sometimes. He wasn't sure who "they" were or what they said. It was always is soft murmurs and hushed tones. Sometimes he tried to listen and other times he just enjoyed the company. He didn't know the voice or why the concern in their voices bothered him, but it just did. Somewhere deep inside he was trying to figure out why but the drugs wouldn't let him do much thinking.
The second time he woke it was at night so his eyes didn't burn the same way they had the first time. His vision was still hazy but this time he was a little more alert his eyes clearing up and could focus on the room around him.
He was in a hospital. He didn't know why but as the drugs allowed his mind clarity the intense pain it had been masking began to envelope him. It was like he was broken, in every possible way it felt like his body was broken and was barely put back together. What was worse was the tube he didn't realize was down this throat was preventing him from speaking, from screaming, from doing anything other than letting out a light moan.
He could barely see straight as the pain increased and his vision grew dark as pain erupte behind his eyes.
"Shhh it's going to be okay" he heard from above him. He didn't know anyone was in the room, he hadn't felt their presence the same way he had the others.
More people came in soon after and from the movement of the trays he knew what was to come next and he begged for the sweet release back into the haze he had desperately tried to escape from. This was worse, worse than anything he had ever felt and he yearned for his sleep, for the numbness he grew to hate.
He called for it now like an old friend, begging to come take him away from this pain. And then he felt it, all at once the pain started to fade and his mind was starting to go dark. He wanted to thank however to was, however had gotten the pain to finally stop but he was already slipping away and this time he want to didn't fight it.
It was like this for a while, a vicious cycle of waking up in pain only to be numbed back to sleep. He lost track of the amount of times it had happened but at some point they had taken the tube out of this throat so when he woke up screaming from the agony it was loud. His voice was loud even to his own years and it held such a deep growl that he somehow didn't recognize. It was slow and agonizing but over time they pain began to subside and he got more than an hour of lucidity.
He could see the people that came and left his room more clearly, he could never talk. His body to drained from the pain and his voice to sore. So he watch them, watched as they came in and out. Most of the times they would sit near his bed and talk to him about things he didn't understand or sometimes that would speak with each other when he couldn't bother to listen to what they had to say.
There were a lot of people, a lot of people who smiled and said jokes about how they knew he was dying to get out of the hospital. He didn't think it was funny because during the times that the medicine weared off it felt like he was dying and he didn't know how they could make a joke about that, not after he had felt what he felt.
"Naruto" they would alway smile when they entered but he didn't know how to greet them. It was always the same, people never stopped coming and he never spoke. Maybe this was a game that they were playing, that maybe if he was quiet for long enough they would tell him what was going on. Why was he here, why did it still hurt when he breathed and his body to heavy for him to lift. But if it was a game, he would win, he would stay quiet. He was curious but he was also too weak to care. They seemed to be worried about him, the nurses always rushing in to change his bed and bring his food whenever he rang the bell. He rarely did. But if he did they were always quick to come.
He figured out after about two days of being awake for most of the day that he didn't know who anyone of these people were. He was waiting, waiting for someone he recognized to walk through the door and tell him that the game was over but no one ever came. He didn't know these people that called him Naruto, he didn't know he was Naruto until he heard the nurses discussing him. He didn't know anything and he wasn't sure he was ready to ask. There was this safety in not knowing, maybe he wouldn't like what he found out. But there were all these people that always came and smile at him. But what if one of them put him here, what if they were waiting to see if he remembered so that they could finish the job. There was safety in silence. So he remained quiet.
He would ask, but he was just waiting for the right time and the right person. Someone had put him here, someone had tried to end his life and that all he knew. But he also didn't want to give them a second chance.