Here comes chapter 2 of Trust By My Side. If you made it this far then thank you for that. I gotta say I was going to take a break from writing today after finishing the first chapter. I found myself refreshing the statistics on chapter 1 every 5 minutes to see how many people were checking it out. Its 5am here so probably a horrible time to have posted it but after about 45 minutes someone actually followed the story. It feels like such a rush to me, this being my first story, I just can't put it down.
I want to give a quick shoutout to the people who gave me good advice on last chapter. Hopefully it will make this alot easier to read and won't be quite as choppy. Not going to name names because I have no idea if that is rude or not.
Now so without further delay lets get into it.
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I do not own Naruto
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Naruto awoke in a strange place. It looked like a home. He pinched himself in the arm and winced. He looked at his arm and saw it was covered in bandages.
He could remember talking to the hokage about what happened at the playground. 'That's right I was hurt pretty bad.' He barely got the thought through his head and cried out "Tenten!"
He barely got the name out of his mouth before a female anbu wearing a neko mask rushed into the room. "Naruto-kun are you alright?" She asked with just the slightest hint of worry. Not that Naruto would notice.
"Yes, thank you very much. Err, where an I?" Naruto asked.
"You are currently at my home. Hokage-sama asked me to let you rest here a little and keep an eye on your injuries. Speaking of, let me give you a quick check up." Neko said in a soft, non-threatning voice. She knew he didn't like doctors and didn't want to scare him off. He still flinched but sat down and didn't run away.
Finishing up his checkup Neko asked him if he was hungry. Naruto's eyes lit up instantly. "Yes, I'm very hungry." Naruto blurted out.
Naruto thought about it for a second, remembering the hokage telling him to always thank anyone who showed him such kindness. He bowed slightly, "Thank you."
Neko almost flinched. His attitude did a complete 180. He showed manners but was really eager to eat. That sort of attitude was a sign of starvation.
She ignored it for now, Inoichi would check him out in a short while anyway.
Neko, after realizing she had paused for a second said, "No problem Naruto-kun I'll go fix something for lunch. Your clothes are on top of the dresser, get dressed, Hokage-sama was wanting to see you again when you were ready."
In the kitchen, Neko threw together a quick sandwich. She really didn't want to make the hokage wait and she really didn't know how to cook anything else. She trained to be a shinobi not a cook after all.
She was shaken out of her thoughts when Naruto into the room and watched her bring the food to the table. 'Is that drool' Neko thought watching him starte the sandwiches down.
"Thank you so much for lunch Neko-onee-chan." Naruto almost shouted before taking a bite of the sandwich in front of him.
Neko smiled behind her mask. She was still just 15 years old, and she had to admit, it had been a while since anyone had given her such an affectionate nickname.
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After a quick lunch Neko and Naruto made their way to the hokage tower. Upon reaching the tower and finally getting to see the hokage Neko and Naruto both stood before him.
Hiruzen could see at a glance Naruto was in much better health than last night. Before they started talking the hokage signaled to an anbu hidden in the wall.
He pulled out a small scroll and handed it to him before wispering something in his ear. Nodding the anbu vanished to carry out his orders. Neko had a hunch what he went to do but remained silent. Naruto however thought that was so cool how he just vanished like that.
After Naruto settled down a bit, they discussed yesterdays events a little more clearly. Naruto talked about 'Tenten-chan' quite affectionately. A detail that neither Hiruzen or Neko passed over.
After a little teasing by the hokage about Naruto's "Girlfriend", which Naruto denied, Hiruzen felt someone disturb the seal. He lowered it and heard a knock on the door.
As the door opened, Inoichi Yamanaka entered. "Good afternoon Hokage-sama." Inoichi said with a small bow. "Good afternoon Inoichi-san, thank you for getting here in such a timely manner. I trust you read my note." Hiruzen said with a smile.
"Of course Hokage-sama." Inoichi replied. "Well I would say now is as good a time as any. Naruto-kun, this is Inoichi Yamanaka. He is the head of the Yamanaka clan. They specialize in the workings of the mind. I asked him if he could talk to you about yesterday." Hiruzen said with a smile.
Naruto cocked his head to the side with a confused look on his face. "I don't understand Jiji, why did you want us to talk." "Well Naruto, when you and Tenten-san were attacked by kids from the orphanage, I was worried you wouldn't be able to go back. I wanted Inoichi here to see be a second opinion if you would suffer from anything long term from your attack. It is common after all." Hiruzen said smoothly. He couldn't tell Naruto the whole truth even if he wanted to.
Naruto still looked confused but nodded anyway. Inoichi introduced himself and just chatted with Naruto for a short while before asking any questions about what happened.
Naruto averted his eyes to the hokage and Neko a few times when Inoichi hit a sore spot in his past. Seeing this Inoichi went over to the hokage's desk and dropped him a small note in front of him.
The note simply said, 'Possible distrust of strangers and reliance on familiar faces to be able to adapt to new social interactions. I would like to test this but it would require you and Neko-san to leave the room for a few minutes. Neko-san can stay in the wall and watch as well in case he panics. I believe this to be unhealthy but fixable while he is still this young.' Hiruzen nodded and stood up.
"Neko-chan, could you accompany me for a moment, I need go over a few things." Hiruzen said. "Of course Hokage-sama." Neko replied standing up as well. They both walked out the door and closed it behind them.
Inoichi took a sip of water and got back to talking with Naruto.
The change was almost night and day. The door closing caused Naruto to noticibly flinch, his eyes also seemed to widen a bit.
Inoichi cringed internal. 'The orphanage must be terrible if he responds this bad to a one on one confrontation with someone he has known for almost an hour now.'
Inoichi tried to continue with the conversation but Naruto was showing signs of fear and distrust. Without a constant in his life he may recede further into his shell. 'That Tenten girl must be important to him if he can handle an orphanage full of people without cracking.' Inoichi thought with a sense of dread.
This just turned into months of therapy instead of weeks. Not that he minded of course, he liked Naruto after all. He was a very honest kid with a good sense of right and wrong.
He just had to figure out how he could get him to at least get people to arms reach without knowing them for months.
It was a moment later when the Hokage and Neko returned. Naruto instantly settled down a little, revealing that he was stitting very rigidly while they were gone.
The hokage felt his heart break a little at that. He didn't want to cause Naruto any pain, and that is exactly what he had just done.
Neko had to resist the urge to run over to him and make sure he was alright. She wasn't going to let someone who saw her as an older sister suffer.
Inoichi turned and nodded grimly at the Hokage. Hiruzen knew exactly what it meant and nodded back before taking his seat back at his desk.
The sun was just starting to set and Naruto looked absolutely ragged. Hiruzen understood the seriousness of the situation, and Inoichi was the best person to solve it. He just couldn't stand it anymore today.
Hiruzen stood up and stretched a little bit. "It is getting a little late, Naruto-kun, would you like to go out and get something to eat." Hiruzen said with a smile.
Naruto felt all of the tiredness wash away and jumped up. "Yatta, you know it Jiji. Can we go to Ichiraku's?" Naruto asked with excitement in his voice.
"Of course Naruto-kun. Neko-chan, Inoichi-san, if you would like to join us, I will pick up the bill." Hiruzen said motioning toward the door.
"Thank you very much Hokage-sama. That sounds great." Neko and Inoichi both said with a small bow. Naruto practically yelled, "Then let's go!" before he starting skipping down the hall singing about ramen.
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Dinner at Ichiraku's was fairly quiet. Ayame was worried about Naruto and his bandages. He got her to calm down and managed to get down a few large bowls of ramen before Inoichi said he should really be getting back home.
"I will have a full report on your desk first thing tomorrow morning Hokage-sama." Inoichi said quiet enough that Naruto wouldn't hear him. Hiruzen nodded and sent him on his way.
Back in the resturant Naruto realized something was missing. It took him a moment but it finally hit him like a brick to the head.
"Jiji, can we go visit Tenten-chan." Naruto asked with worry all over his voice. Hiruzen thought it over. It wasn't too late yet but he needed to get back to his paper work.
"Neko-chan, would you mind taking Naruto-kun to see Tenten in the hospital?" Hiruzen asked politely.
"Of course Hokage-sama. We should hurry though Naruto-kun. We wouldn't want to keep her up all night after all." Neko said, getting up from her stool and heading toward the exit.
"See you all later, thanks for dinner Jiji." Naruto said with a wide smile. Hiruzen chuckled and waved goodbye as Naruto ran to catch up to Neko.
Hiruzen turned back to Teuchi and said, "Here is a little extra, next time you see Naruto walk by give him a free bowl of ramen for me. Just say it's on the house." Teuchi took the money and bowed to him.
"Thank you for the continued support. The gaki is a good kid and I gotta say, seeing him so skinny breaks my heart." Hiruzen nodded grimly. He knew it as well.
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Upon reaching the hospital, Neko approached the front desk with Naruto hiding behind her. He hated the hospitals, ever since they hurt him worse that he was when he entered. He gave a slight shutter at that thought.
"I am looking for a young girl named Tenten, could you point me toward her room?" Neko asked in a soft voice.
The nurse behind the front desk nodded before checking for the information. "Yes she is in room 210. She is awake and can accept visitors. However visiting hours are going to be up soon. Please make it a short visit Anbu-san."
"Of course, thank you. Come on Naruto-kun lets go." Neko said while walking toward the staircase heading to the second floor.
"Uhh Anbu-san. The gaki you got following you is not allowed in here." The receptionist said with venom dripping from her voice.
Turning to stare the woman down, Neko saw the pure hate in her eyes. "And why is that?" Neko asked, the threatening tone very noticeable to the poor woman.
The receptionist gulped. "He, he is a menace and his kind will not-" That is as far as she got before Neko slammed her fist on the desk.
"That is not your call to make. This hospital was founded by the Senju clan and in the absence of Lady Tsunade, Hokage-sama has been charged with its upkeep. You will be silent and get the notion that you can turn away anyone you want out of your head or I will see to it that you find an early and permanent retirement. Do you understand?" Neko said with promises of pain and suffering all over her voice.
The woman behind the desk's legs started to wobble and she then peed herself from the pure killing intend Neko was leaking.
Neko turned around and softly said to Naruto. "Well then, shall we go see your Tenten-chan?" She said in a slightly teasing tone. Naruto was to dumbstruck to say anything and just nodded.
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Entering the room and seeing Tenten looking tired nearly broke Naruto's heart. 'I should have protected her better.' Naruto thought with his head starting to stare at the floor.
Neko saw this and guessed what was going through his head. She gave him a slight nudge and coughed, getting Tenten's attention.
"How are you feeling Tenten-chan?" Naruto asked quietly. Tenten stared at him in shock for a moment.
"Naruto-kun, what, what happened to you?" Tenten asked with a lot of shock in her voice.
Naruto flinched. Tenten sounded angry at him and he didn't want to cause her to worry. "I, I got beat up. It's ok though, I'm fine, honest." Naruto said, although not very believably.
"Naruto-kun," Tenten started, finally noticing the anbu staring at her. "why are you being escorted by an anbu. Did you get in trouble?"
"Ah, nothing like that Tenten-san. I was just the first one to respond to you and Naruto-kun being attacked. Hokage-sama asked me to make sure he doesn't get in anymore trouble today." Neko said evenly.
Tenten wasn't sure. The leader of the village asked one of the highest ranked ninja to watch Naruto after a playground fight. Seemed fishy, but she was too grateful for her protecting Naruto to say anything.
Neko idly glanced at Tenten's chart while her and Naruto chatted. 'She certainly got a nice bump on the head, but why wasn't she released this morning. Everything points to her having made a full recovery after treatment last night. I understand keeping her overnight, but two days for the possibility of a minor concussion. Something doesn't seem right here.'
After a few moments, Naruto and Tenten got quiet for a moment. Neko decided to just ask Tenten what the doctors told her about staying another night.
"Well, the nurse told me that I was ready to go home today. A bit later a doctor came in and said that they were waiting on one more test and it might take a while. After about an hour he came back and said that the results were bad and that I would have to stay again." Tenten said kind of worried.
'That just confuses me further. The nurse would have had to get the doctor to sign off on her release forms. No matter how I look at it, they are keeping her for no reasons. The tests they were waiting for was a blood test. It was completely irrelevant to her condition.' Neko thought.
She wanted to talk to the doctor about this obvious malpractice. She looked down and checked the name of the doctor before heading toward the door.
"I am going to go talk to the doctor. If the nurse said you were ready to be released, you shouldn't be stuck in here." Neko said as he left the room.
Naruto and Tenten just looked at each other as she left. Naruto explained that she was a doctor too and if she thought it was weird, it was weird.
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Marching through the hospital, back to the front desk, Neko was deep in thought. 'There is something going on or this hospital needs some new, competent, doctors.'
She made it to the desk to find a new receptionist sitting there. "What can I help you with Anbu-san?" The receptionist asked.
"I'm looking for Dr. Maro, have you seen him?" Neko asked, trying to sound as friendly as she could.
"Dr. Maro might still be in his office. Head down the hallway here, you will see his nameplate. Can you tell him to come up front after you talk to him?" The receptionist asked.
'At least this girl is professional.' Neko thought. "Sure thing."
As she walked toward Maro's office, she really didn't know exactly what she was going to say to him. She thought he was a quack at this point but really did not have any proof. Neko couldn't really figure out why this was getting her so worked up. Must have been the oath the took when she took some field medic training.
When she finally got to his office, she noticed the door was open, the light was on, and he was nowhere to be seen. Shrugging she turned back to the receptionist.
Upon her arrival the receptionist thanked her for telling Dr. Maro to come up front.
"I didn't see Dr. Maro. He wasn't in his office." Neko explained.
"That's odd, he said he saw you before he headed upstairs." The nurse explained, shrugging and looking back at her paperwork.
Neko decided to just head back to Tenten's room and keep an eye out for Maro. She got to the bottom of the stairs before she heard a scream.
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Back in the room. Tenten and Naruto talked a bit more about what they were going to do when she got out. Naruto said he would ask Jiji for some money to go get her some real food at Ichiraku's. This got Tenten to
smile and it made Naruto feel like the sun was upon him.
It was a few moments later that the door opened. "Welcome back Neko-ohh, sorry doctor, I thought you were Neko." Naruto said as he saw the doctor come in.
"Doctor, can I go back home. I feel fine." Tenten asked.
"Sorry dear, but you needed to stay put." The doctor replied with a lopsided grin.
"I don't understand, what do you mean?" Tenten asked with a bit of concern on her face.
The doctor began to chuckle darkly. Naruto took a step backwards. He felt like this doctor was glaring holes in him.
"You are close to this demon after all. It worked out well giving him a chance to visit." The doctor said, full on laughing at this point.
Naruto took a step toward Tenten and put himself in between her and the mad doctor. The doctor pulled out a knife and Tenten screamed as loud as she could.
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Neko heard the scream and sprinted up the stairs and kicked in the door. What she saw was Dr. Maro with a knife in Naruto's chest, pushing him against the wall. Tenten was trying to scratch his eyes out, but the mans left arm kept her at bay. Neko did not hesitate.
In one swift movement she unsheathed her sword and lopped the mans right arm off at the shoulder. She grabbed him by the head and threw him backwards into the opposite wall.
She dropped her sword and rushed to Naruto's aide. He had a 6 inch knife buried up to the handle in his chest. She knew at a glance it missed his heart. She threw a large smoke bomb out the window and detonated it
in hopes it would draw some more anbu and hopefully another anbu medic.
Tenten was a wreck. She realized that she was used as bait to get to Naruto. She cried and screamed for Naruto. She saw him slowly falling asleep. Her young mind couldn't take the stress of what was happening and she fainted.
Neko was relieved when she fainted. It would make it alot easier to focus. She had to keep Naruto awake at all costs. With this severe of an injury, if he passed out the fox might try to take over.
"Naruto-kun stay awake, you have to stay awake." She said frantically. She had removed the knife and began repairing what she could. It was going to be close but he would survive. He would be sore in the morning though.
Just when she had gotten him stabilized to the point his life was no longer in immediate danger, he blacked out.
Moments later Itachi Uchiha came through the window. With a small bow he asked, "Neko-san, is there any way I can be of assistance."
Neko turned and looked at Itachi. The hokage had already told her that he would be assisting watching Naruto so she trusted him. "Just get that trash over there to Ibiki-san as fast as you can. He will most likely bleed out soon. Just burn the stump closed. Ibiki-san can handle it from there."
Nodding Itachi made two shadow clones and held the man still. He channeled fire chakra into his hand and closed it around the stump. After completely burning the stump closed the clones picked him up and carried him out the window toward T&I.
"Is anyone else coming Itachi-san?" Neko asked. "Yes, I sent a clone to Hokage-sama's home and to the anbu headquarters. A squad of anbu left 2 minutes ago and should be here in just a second. Hokage-sama just walked out his front door." Itachi said with a nod.
"Thank you for that. I'm glad someone saw the smoke at least." Neko said. "Also fortunate we are in the hospital." She said as she finished stitching the hole in Naruto's chest closed.
Neko took a few deep breaths and walked over to Tenten. Giving her a quick once over, she confirmed she just fainted and was fine.
She sat down and waited for the anbu and the Hokage to arrive.
After the Hokage arrived, he ordered the anbu to search Maro's office for anything relating to the assassination attempt.
Coming up empty they were called off. After a few moments of silence Neko spoke up.
"Hokage-sama, I feel the hospitals security has been completely compromised. Naruto-kun is no longer safe here. With your permission, I would have him stay at my home until he is physically fit." Neko said with a little worry in her tone.
"Yes, that would probably be for the best. While the shinobi medic-nin have enough common sense to not try and kill the boy, we have to investigate everyone now. Itachi-kun, please go with her and keep an eye out tonight. Report back to me in the morning with an update on Naruto-kun's health." Hiruzen said after a moment.
Itachi nodded and agreed. "Should we also watch over this girl, Hokage-sama?" Itachi asked.
Hiruzen looked to Neko with a questioning look. Neko sighed, "It will not be a problem Hokage-sama." "Thank you Neko-chan." Hiruzen said as he stood up to head back home. "Keep all of this under wraps for now. I will see Ibiki in the morning and we will go from there." Hiruzen finished and walked out the door.
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Well I did not get anywhere near as far in this chapter as I thought I would. I hit a bit of a snag with how I wanted to progress at the upcoming part and need to fix it. I decided instead of just sitting on what I have so far I would just post it as a slightly shorter chapter. If I had gone through with everything I wanted in this chapter it would have been at least twice as long as the first chapter. Instead I'm going to break it up a bit while I brainstorm.
I got these first two chapters out within three days of actually starting to type them out. A few weeks of planning before that of course but still feels like I am blazing through this first part. It also seems like I am not going anywhere. I am rather meticulous about getting as much as I can into the pre-story before I get to the actual ninja business. I'm pumping these chapters out so I'm not going to worry about it too much. Let me know what you all think though. I will reply to everything I can. Hopefully I can get the next chapter out within two days now. I will not be able to keep that up when I get further into the story but until a few chapters after the end of the academy I should be able to do at least 2 chapters a week. Till then, thanks for reading.