Tennis Maelstrom
This was an idea I had after I started watching Prince of Tennis again. This story is inspired by the story "Tennis No Jutsu" by ZMiDnIgHtSuNz. Give it a read. Its really good.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 1:
Naruto Uzumaki was confused. He didn't know what was going on. One moment he was using his new jutsu, the Rasengan on Orochimaru's lackey Kabuto and the next moment he felt his consciousness slipping. That bastard Kabuto was gloating on trying out Orochimaru's new space-time jutsu on him. Though he did remember snagging off that young looking old woman Tsunade's necklace but after that? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Logically he should've simply fallen unconscious from Kabuto's attack on his heart and should've woken up facing Tsunade. She was after all a medic.
Yet here he was lying on a bed in what appeared to be a hospital. The white sheets, white floor, white walls and -oh! What do you know?- white light right above his head were enough clues to him. Seriously why were the hospitals always white? Why not some other color? Like orange? Orange looks good on everything.
"Ohhh you're finally awake!" An unknown yet chirpy voice brought him out of his internal rant. He raised his head to see who it was that called out to him.
The man in front of him was pretty average looking. And if his white coat wasn't obvious enough, the stethoscope around his neck and the smell of different medicines coming from him clearly indicated that he was a doctor. Probably the one who had took care of him.
Naruto tried to sit up to thank him but that proved to be a mistake. Pain flared up in his body as soon as he moved. His whole body ached as if he had been crushed by a mountain and then the mountain had stomped over him again and again just for shits and giggles.
"H-hey don't do that! You're still hurt. Don't try to move too much. It will only worsen the pain." The doctor tried to soothe him.
"W-where am I? And w-who are you?" Naruto asked in a raspy voice. Damn his throat was dry as a desert.
Sensing this, the doctor gave him a glass of water. Which he greedily gulped down.
"I am Doctor Sora. Right now you are in the City Hospital. You were found in an ally, bloody and bruised. The person who found you quickly brought you here in his car. And good thing he did because if he were even an hour late, we might not have been able to save you." Dr Sora explained to Naruto.
Naruto for his part was shocked. What was going on? His battle with Kabuto wasn't that severe! He barely got injured at all in that fight! In fact the only major attack on him was that weird medical jutsu Kabuto used to harm his heart. But even that was an internal injury. So how could he have got so many external injuries?
No. Something was wrong. Very wrong. Things weren't adding up. And also the fact that he couldn't sense any chakra at all, was creeping him out. Even the civilians back in Konoha had some chakra, just dormant. But this guy had none. Even the air around lacked chakra. Something was definitely not right. He needs to be careful here.
Suddenly he had a realization. He was in a whole different world! That explains the lack of chakra here. And that Kabuto did say about trying a space-time jutsu on him. Now he was worried. He was a complete stranger here and had no idea on what to do.
But calmed himself. Oddly enough he felt much smarter than he did before. Like a haze had been lifted from his mind. But that was for later. First he would try to get some information.
And so Naruto acted like he had forgotten everything but his name, and asked the doctor all he knew about this world.
Echizen Nanjiroh, former pro tennis legend, was not having a good time. Earlier today he had come across a 12 year old kid in critical state in an ally. He quickly brought the kid to the hospital. And waited for the doctor to finish the treatment.
What the doctor revealed later, sickened him. The kid was in a much worse shape than he first thought. It took everything the doctors had just to barely keep him out of danger. Even then his condition only stabilized after two hours of tedious hard work.
Nanjiroh didn't know what caused the kid to be put in such a state and frankly he didn't want to know either. He didn't know if he could stomach it.
"Ahh! There you are Echizen-san! I've been looking all over for you." Came Dr Sora.
"Hm? Sora-sensei? What is it?" Nanjiroh asked curiously.
Sora smiled. "Its about that kid you brought before. He's awake! And except for some body pains, he looks to be perfectly fine! Never before have I seen such an astronomical rate of recovery! Physically he's perfectly okay. But..." Sora trailed of.
"But what?" For some reason Nanjiroh had a bad feeling about this.
"*sigh* It seems that the trauma resulted in his loss of memories. He only remembers his name - Uzumaki Naruto." The good doctor solemnly explained.
Nanjiroh sighed. He was afraid something like this might happen. Incidents like this either mentally scar the victims or cause memory loss to suppress the trauma. He really felt bad for the kid. First he was put in such a bad state and now he lost his memories.
"Damn. Poor kid... Isn't there anything we can do to help him?" Nanjiroh inquired.
At this the doctor gave a sly little smile. "Actually I think there is a way! Here" he handed some papers to him.
Nanjiroh read the papers and was astonished.
"C-c-custody papers?!"
"Yeah. I think that you and your family could provide a nice atmosphere to him. Right now he needs a family to support him. And I know you all will help him immensely. Also... Don't you have a son of Naruto's age? Ryoma was it? He'll have a friend too. So what do you say?" he asked Nanjiroh.
Nanjiroh thought it over. Personally he had no problems with this. He wouldn't mind taking care of the kid at all. Hehe maybe he'll teach him some tennis as well. Ryoma wouldn't have too much problem. That kid may act cold but he was a softy at heart. Now only Ringo, his wife and Nanako, her niece remained. He didn't know how they'll react if he just brought a kid home out of nowhere...
Oh who was he kidding? They would probably hug him to death the moment they laid their eyes on him.
"Hmm ok. I'll take care of him. But what about Naruto? Will he be okay with this?" He asked.
The doctor gave a hearty laugh at this. "Ohh he'll be fine trust me. I already talked to him about this. He said that as long as they aren't pompous douche bags, I'm okay with getting taken care of by a new family ... Hehe his words not mine."
Hearing this Nanjiroh sweat dropped.
"... For a kid, he certainly has a ... Colorful language if I do say so myself..." He deadpanned.
"Hehe yeah... Anyways you can go and meet and him while I prepare the release papers. But damn! I still can't believe he can heal that fast..." Sora continued his ramblings as he walked off.
Nanjiroh shrugged and went to Naruto's room. Since he is about to adopt him, he might as well introduce himself properly.
(At the Echizen residence that night)
"And that's how it is. Naruto will be a part of our family from now on." Nanjiroh just explained the situation to his family. And just as he expected, everyone was fine with it. They sympathized with Naruto and were willing to support him.
"Hehe I think its a great idea uncle!" Nanako agreed.
"Yes yes it is a marvellous idea! Ohhh I always wanted another son. Naru-chan come give mommy a hug!" She cooed and brought the embarrassed Naruto in a hug.
"Oh and Ryoma from next week on Naruto will go to Seigaku with you. I think I'll start teaching him tennis tomorrow while you go and play that under-16 tournament in Gakino Gizaka garden." Nanjiroh told his son.
"Heh... Fine with me" was Ryoma's cool answer.
Naruto, while embarrassed, was also very happy. All his life he had been alone but now he was in a world where he can start anew. Here in this place, he can finally have the one thing he yearned for the most.
Family.
Unknown to him a small smile appeared on his face.
Also this game named tennis sounded interesting.
Maybe arriving in this world wasn't all that bad after all.
