The first chapter is dedicated to my dear xiao mei, Ximena-chan and Aki-chan!
…………………
Miracle
…………………
One more time…
His head was throbbing. It must be because of the hot afternoon sun. But his vision was blurring. Sweat was trickling down the small of his back and beaded on his forehead. Damn, why is it so hot?
Training usually was a breeze. He could stand the freezing cold, the searing heat, and everything in between. A mere change of temperature wasn't going to take him out.
But he couldn't give up. Not when he was so close to mustering up this new and powerful jutsu. He couldn't.
His body felt like it was thrown in an oven. Even his grip seemed to be slipping.
This wasn't fatigue or even the loss of chakra.
He had stores of it and could get up repeatedly even after using a powerful jutsu using huge amounts of chakra. Kyuubi provided that stores and he was always on perfect shape because of his chakra.
Then why was he feeling so tired?
Uzumaki Naruto blinked rapidly to keep his eyes open. And he was so tired too… He tried to keep up his fighting stance although he can feel the slumping of his shoulders.
He could only hope that the perverted sennin doesn't notice the changes in his position.
But by the way Jiraiya-sama was looking at him, he did.
"Not feeling tired, are we Naruto?" said the silver-haired frog hermit.
"Never!" the blond boy yelled and straightened.
The heat was getting into him. His vision was wavering and his knees felt like they couldn't support his weight anymore.
"Don't sleep on battle!" shouted Jiraiya-sama as he appeared on his student's side. Naruto opened his mouth to yell a retort when his knees buckled. He fell straight into the silver-haired sennin's arms like a limp rag doll.
The older man immediately forgot about teaching the secret jutsu to his student. He was more concerned for the blond boy's condition right now.
Slowly the man laid Naruto down on the ground and checked his temperature. He was burning up. His face was pallid and his brows were furrowed as if still fighting in his dreams. The man sighed as he took his hand off and looked down on his unconscious student.
The idiot… he wanted to learn so much he didn't even tell his teacher that he had a fever.
The Frog Hermit's sharp eyes were suddenly drawn to Naruto's clenched hands. He picked the blond's right hand up and examined the tiny red marks carefully. They looked almost as if they were burned into the skin.
Was Naruto being tortured?
He drew the boy's sleeve and his eyes widened. There were bruises, lots of them. Ugly purple bruises were present on the length of his arm. Being a ninja was a hard job, usually shinobis weren't far from acquiring a few minor bruises and wounds… but this?
It was unnatural.
"I thought Kyuubi could heal Naruto," said Jiraiya-sensei softly as he gently placed Naruto's right arm down. He opened the boy's jumpsuit top and what he saw confirmed his worst suspicions.
More bruises were present around Naruto's body.
To an uninitiated observer, Naruto might look like he had been into a lot of fights. To Jiraiya, it might be something worse. As far as the silver-haired man knew, there weren't any new missions and Naruto had only been training.
"Naruto's bruises heal faster than any ordinary person's because of Kyuubi," Jiraiya-sama said slowly, "Then if the fox demon can't heal this…"
Shit!
Naruto could be in trouble.
Cursing, the frog hermit picked his student up and did a Summoning. He had to get Naruto out of the forest and fast.
…………………
When Naruto came to, he found himself on a hospital room. The blinds were open and sunshine brought some color to the bare room. He couldn't remember how he got there.
He realized that he was dressed in a hospital gown and his forehead protector was on the bedside table. He frowned.
As far as he could remember, he'd been training in a remote forest with Jiraiya-sensei. They were trying on a secret technique and had been at it for some months now. So far he hadn't done it right and he'd been desperate to learn it. The last thing he could recall was that he fell into unconsciousness while sparring with the frog hermit.
"You're awake, Naruto." A voice from the doorway said. His bright blue eyes were immediately directed towards it. The Ero-Sennin was standing there, arms crossed on his chest.
"Yes, you see my eyes are open, don't you?" snapped the fourteen-year-old boy.
The man crossed the space between the door and bed in a matter of seconds. "Why didn't you tell me you were sick?"
"Sick?" repeated Naruto. His hands clenched tightly.
"Yes! You collapsed on me yesterday!" said the white-haired sennin. His nostrils were flaring and his eyes were burning. "Why didn't you tell me you had a fever?"
"Fever… I didn't have one! And what do you mean yesterday?" Naruto asked with equal fire.
"You slept the whole day, dammit! I've been waiting for you to wake up so you can explain what the meaning of this is." Jiraiya-sensei said as he yanked Naruto's arm up to reveal the bruises and small red pinhead spots. His usual glowing skin was pale and he himself looked pallid.
"I-I don't know…" Naruto said slowly as his eyes lowered down to rest on the white blanket. Jiraiya let his arm fall and sighed audibly." I-It's been there for a while…" his voice quavered.
They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Both men looked up to see a likable young woman standing there wearing a doctor's coat.
"Hello, I'm Ayako-san." She smiled kindly at Naruto who can't help but smile back, "and I'm going to check on you."
She approached them with warm sincerity and talked to Naruto in soft, soothing tones. The brown-haired woman asked the sennin to leave to be able to talk to Naruto in private. She took his hand and patted it.
"Your fever has broken, Uzumaki-kun. Can I call you Naruto-san?" she asked smilingly. He nodded shyly as she made a note on her clipboard. "Now, I've noticed some bruises on your arms and…"
"What is causing them?" he interrupted "why am I so bruised up?"
"We're not sure about it Naruto-san. But we'll need your cooperation to be able to run some tests to determine what is causing this. It may turn out serious if we're not careful," Ayako-san said quietly. The blond boy on the other hand was thinking. Kyuubi was supposed to heal me. Why is this happening?
"Anyway, Jiraiya-sensei was kind enough to bring you here yesterday. He was concerned about your condition, as I am too. I have a haunch on what is this sickness." She said as she tucked a stray strand of brown hair behind her right ear. "I'm not sure but we're going to give you a bone marrow biopsy this afternoon. The results will be out in two days. I suggest you stay here in the hospital first so we can observe you."
Naruto nodded slowly as the doctor left. He stared at the bruises on his arms and wondered why Kyuubi couldn't heal them. Of course, he'd been aware of his tendency to bruise some weeks ago and was thankful that his jumpsuit concealed it. But he shrugged it off, thinking that it was just a passing thing.
But the bruises didn't go away and eventually got worse.
Now that he thought of it, he was easily tired more often and caught a fever although he'd never had a sick day in his life.
He lay back on the soft hospital bed and stared out into the sky the same color of his eyes. Slowly his eyelids began to droop and he drifted off to sleep.
…………………
When the bone marrow biopsy was over, Naruto felt like he'd rather face a thousand strong opponents than relive the experience.
Bone marrow biopsy and blood tests are the primary techniques used to diagnose leukemia. In a bone marrow biopsy, cells are collected through a hollow needle inserted into the outer edge of a hipbone, or a small cylinder of bone containing marrow is removed with a special needle. The marrow sample is examined with a microscope for the presence of leukemic cells.
They said he'd find out the day after next, at the latest.
He was going to stay here for a while with no one to watch over him except that perverted sennin who kept staring at the nurses. Naruto knew the man saw him like something like a son and cared for him very much. But if he was going to be sick, he'd rather have someone else act like a nurse.
Tsunade-baachan was busy. Haruno Sakura-chan was in engaged in an on-the-job training on another village. Sir Kakashi was trying to locate Uchiha Sasuke-baka.
There was no one else to take care of him.
And Naruto resented the fact that he was an orphan. He really needed someone beside him right now.
How he wished for a miracle to get him out of the hospital.
…………………
Tsuzuku
…………………
061905; 9.45am