Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Chapter 1 - Questions and Recovery
"Nurse, I need to know that medical jutsu right now!"
"The patient's going into hyperventilation!"
...Where am I
"We need Hokage-sama right away!"
"Call in Shizune-san too!"
…What's going on…
"Whatever you do, don't you let him die!"
"His uncle's gonna get pissed…"
…Uncle…? What's going on…?
"Hey, hey, he's starting to wake up!"
"Took him a while…how troublesome…."
Troublesome? That's…
"…ungh…"
"Hey, look who's awake."
"Shi…Shika…Shikamaru?"
"Yeah,
it's me. Looks like you're back to life, buddy."
"Wh-what are you doing here? Where am I?"
"Where do you think? You're in the hospital!"
"Oh…okay, then."
Hey, wait a sec…
"WAITAMINUTE! WHERE'SSASUKE? ISHEALLRIGHT? WHATABOUTSAKURA? KAKASHI-SENSEI? NEJI? GEJIMAYU? WHAT ABOUT SHIKA-OH WAIT, YOU'RE SHIKA- hey, why aren't you injured?"
Naruto let go of Shikamaru, who was now shaking so badly that he couldn't even yell at Naruto for nearly causing his heart to enter ventriculation.
"Da…da…damn…y-you, NARUTO!" Shikamaru finally regained his voice, which grew into an ear-shattering bellow.
"HEY, WHAT ARE YOU YELLING FOR, BAKA!" Naruto yelled.
"YOU SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME, YOU DUMBASS!" Shikamaru yelled back.
Just then a nurse came into the room, "Hey, both of you, knock it off! There are patients in here!"
Naruto and Shikamaru looked abashed. "Sorry," they replied in unison.
The nurse left and Naruto turned back to Shikamaru. "Hey, hey, so where's everyone else? Are they okay?"
Shikamaru sighed. "If by 'fine' you mean 'alive', then yeah, everyone's fine. Everyone took quite a beating though. Your sensei got his sharingan eye knocked out during his fight. It took a lot of medical jutsus to put the eye back in. Neji and Lee were in even more troublesome conditions. At this point, they're still trying to fix Neji's ability to use his Byakugan again. And Lee's been damaged a lot more than he was after his prelim fight in the chuunin exams, so it will take a troublesome while for him to recover."
"But what about Sakura-chan and Sasuke? Are they serious too?"
"With our protection, Sakura suffered no injuries, and she helped bring us all to a point where we could actually breathe. It was troublesome for her, but I'm grateful."
"YOU'RE grateful? You don't even have a scratch on you!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Ahem," Shikamaru motioned to Naruto to look at his shoulder. Naruto's eyes bulged out in surprise.
There was a scar wrapped around Shikamaru's right shoulder.
"If Sakura hadn't reattached my arm, my life would have been really troublesome." Shikamaru replied.
"Wow…tell me about it." Naruto had to admit, the injuries of all of his teammates were a little too much for his heart to handle. To discover that everyone was still alive made it all the more surprising.
"So, c'mon, c'mon, tell me what happened to Sasuke!" Naruto shouted.
"Calm down, baka. Well, as for Sasuke…he's back, but he's suffered the most troublesome injuries of all."
"What, what is it?" Naruto wanted to know.
"His mentality was seriously damaged. For the past couple of days that he's been in here, he hasn't been able to stand up, much less move. He can't talk either."
"But that means he's conscious, right?"
Shikamaru hesitated. "He is conscious, but…it's like his body is alive, only his mind…is like, dead. Dead to the world."
Naruto just sat there as if he, too, was dead to the world. He had never heard of anyone being alive while being dead at the same time. It just made no sense to him. He wondered if-
"Shikamaru, is there any way to help Sasuke?"
"The medical ninjas have already found a way," Shikamaru replied, and Naruto breathed a sigh of relief. "But they had just started healing him, so they still don't know what other harmful effects have happened to him."
Although this was bad news to Naruto, he couldn't help but feel a little relieved. As long as there is a way, thought Naruto, then I will believe in Sasuke.
He turned to Shikamaru and said, "Thanks for all that you told me, Shikamaru. I'm really glad that everything turned out alright."
"Not alright," countered Shikamaru, "But getting better."
Naruto smiled, "Yeah, that's right."
Shikamaru sighed once more, then got up and went to the door. "Well, if you need anything else, you can call me or any of the nurses here to help you. It seems like so far I'm the only one who can walk."
Naruto yawned, "Yeah, I'm getting sleepy anyways, I'll just get some more rest right now."
"Alright, then, see ya later, Naruto."
Naruto suddenly sat up. "Um…actually, there is one favor you can do for me right now," he replied with a foxy grin.
"What is it?"
"Could…could you get me some…ramen?" Naruto begged.
Shikamaru made a face. "Just go back to sleep, you dumbass."
With a grin, Shikamaru exited Naruto's room and tightly closed the door.
