Chapter 3: Trapped
"I'm General Hammond, welcome to the SGC." The group of ninja's gazed at everything around them, the concrete walls, the strangely uniformed men, the control room near the back of the room and the Stargate behind them.
"Wow." Naruto said in awe. The rest of the group nodded in agreement. "This place is cool!"
"Well it gets cooler." Everyone turned to Jack. "We're 28 levels underground." Everyone stared at him in surprise, even Shikamaru.
"W-we're underground?" Hinata nervously said.
"Yup."
"Colonel why don't you show our guests to the infirmary." Hammond said. "It's standard procedure." He added noticing the looks from everyone. "The debriefing will be at 1100 hours."
In the infirmary everyone was getting a check-up from Dr. Janet Frasier and everything was going well, until she had to draw blood.
"Okay I'm just going to take one more test." She said to Naruto. He just shrugged at first but when she got out the needle he was, figuratively and literally up the wall.
"Now this will be real qui- huh?"
"No way am I letting you stick a needle in me!" Naruto shouted from the corner of the ceiling. Everyone walked over to see what was going on and Sakura was the first to speak out.
"Naruto get down from there!"
"No!"
"It's alright it will be over really quick." Janet assured. "No way!" Naruto jumped from the corner of the wall he was on, baseball skidded under the Airmen and ran down the hall.
"Well don't just stand there, chase him!" Janet yelled. The Airmen ran in the direction Naruto ran.
"Come on we can watch from the security room." Sam said.
In the security room the groups' eyes darted from camera to camera as Naruto ran down the halls of the SGC. In an attempt to confuse them Naruto created 2 shadow clones and went in different directions. The Airmen, having no clue what just happened, went after them all.
"How'd he do that?" Sam asked.
"It's called the Shadow Clone Jutsu." Sakura answered.
"He can make clones of himself?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, solid ones not just illusions." Shikamaru lazily responded.
"I've gotta learn that." Jack said.
For about another half hour the Airmen chased Naruto and his clones all throughout the SGC, sometimes turning into the guards that were chasing him causing much confusion. Eventually Naruto slipped up and was caught by Dr. Frasier who basically dragged him back to the infirmary where, after a lot of struggling, finally drew blood.
SGC Briefing Room
1100 Hours
In the SGC's briefing room, Daniel, Sam, Jack, Janet, Teal'c and General Hammond were seated around a large table.
"Alright now does someone want to tell me how a child put our Airmen on a wild chase for 30 minutes?" Hammond asked rather irritated but amused.
"Well ninja were know for their speed and stealth in ancient Japan as well as being able to perform techniques called Jutsu, which literally translates into technique or 'Magic.'" Daniel responded.
"Magic?" Hammond questioned.
"Yes Sir."
"I don't believe in magic Doctor."
"Well maybe the people of these kids world unlocked some kind of way to manipulate their bodies' natural energies." Sam suggested.
"Well if they can do it maybe they can teach us too." Jack said.
"Dr. Frasier you haven't spoken at all is something bothering you?" General Hammond asked.
"Yes Sir it's about the blond boy." She replied.
"Naruto Uzumaki?" Teal'c asked.
"Yes I got some strange results for his blood work." She said.
"What is it?" Hammond asked.
"It's his white blood cells. I can't find any sort of antibody except for the ones that fight the common cold. No fever, flu, or any other illness."
"So he hasn't been vaccinated?" Daniel asked.
"No, but he said all he's ever caught was a cold and I found antibodies in the others for common illnesses. I ran some tests for any unusual substances but I turned up with nothing." Janet said very puzzled.
"So this boy is somehow able to fight off diseases, viruses and bacteria without forming anti-bodies or feeling any of the symptoms except for the common cold?" Hammond said.
"Yes Sir."
"Is he a potential threat Doctor?"
"No Sir. I tried mixing his blood with a sample of mine and all I got was the usual reaction to two different blood types interacting with one another. He's clean."
"Alright seeing as none of our guests are threats, we'll proceed with negotiations. SG-1 why don't you show them around the base? The negotiations will take place at 1800 hours." The sound of chairs scraping on the floor was heard as everyone got up to leave.
Infirmary
1120 Hours
At the infirmary the group of Ninja was sitting in the chairs chatting idly to pass the time… most of them. Naruto however was pacing around the room, impatiently waiting for SG-1's return from the debriefing while being kept a close eye on by the Airmen not wanting to be caught off guard again. Although it had been humiliating to be sent on a wild chase all around the SGC by a 13 year old boy they couldn't help but quietly admit to themselves that he was clever in quite a few ways. Footsteps were heard approaching the infirmary and SG-1 stepped into the room.
"Kid stop pacing, you'll wear a hole in the floor." Jack said. Everyone looked up and noticed SG-1 had returned and Naruto promptly began to complain. "It's about time you got back!" Naruto yelled. "Keep your orange pants on kid we were only gone 20 minutes." He responded. Naruto didn't respond, instead he crossed his arms and gave an "Hmpf." "When do the negotiations begin?" Sakura asked. "1800 Hours." Everyone stared at Jack in question. "That's 6:00 PM." Daniel said. Everyone gave an "Oooh" of understanding.
"Could we go up and see your planet?" Naruto asked eagerly.
Daniel replied, "Sorry Naruto not yet, but we can show you guys where you'll be staying. Then the rest of the base."
'Grrrrrrrrr' Naruto's stomach gave a rumble and he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
"I think I know where to start." Jack grinned. "Anyone else hungry?" Everyone else's stomachs gave a unanimous 'grrrrrrrr.' "I'll take that as a yes."
SG-1 showed Naruto and the others into the Mess Hall and Naruto promptly grabbed a trey, got what looked to be one of everything, much to the amazement of everyone in the Mess, and started eating vigorously. Even Teal'c showed visible signs of surprise.
"Naruto, you should slow down or you might throw up." Daniel said. Naruto simply glanced at him, gave a shrug and continued eating at the same pace.
"N-Naruto he's right, you could get s-sick." Hinata said. Naruto looked at her for a second and slowed himself down to a more normal pace.
"Why is it that when someone asks you to do something you never listen but when Hinata asks the same thing you do?" Sakura asked in a rather annoyed tone.
Naruto swallowed his food and shrugged. "She's nice to me." He responded. "Unlike some people." He added in a rather harsh tone. Sakura looked at him rather surprised.
"What was that about?" She asked.
Naruto was about to answer when he realized he didn't know the answer himself. So he just shrugged and said, "I don't know."
After Naruto finished his meal, no banquet was more accurate, they were shown the training room complete with weights, a boxing ring, and various exercise equipment. The team was offered to try some of it so Naruto went to the boxing ring, Sakura tried the weights, Hinata just watched Naruto challenge people to a match, and Shikamaru… took a nap. Within an hour Naruto had beaten just about everyone in a boxing match though all eyes were on Sakura because she was on the bench press and lifting at least a couple hundred pounds of weight. Everyone there was both amazed and horrified.
Once everyone was finished in the training room they moved on to the control room and Naruto was bombarding the people there with questions. "Why do you need all this?" Was just one of many.
A rather skinny man with glasses at one of the controls by the name of Walter answered it. "Well our gate was found without a DHD so we had to make our own."
"But that thing is so small! Can't you do the same thing?"
"No, you see the Stargates were built by a race far, far more advanced than we are. So we don't know how to make one."
"Oh." Naruto, satisfied with the answer moved on to the next question. "How many Gate Addresses are there?"
"We don't know though it's theorized to be in the billions and not just in our own galaxy." Walter answered.
Naruto just stared at him slack jawed in amazement. "Billions?" The word kept running through his head until Jack came over and snapped him out of it.
"Hey kid, you alright?" Jack said.
"Huh? Yeah, yeah I'm fine." Naruto said still a little dazed at the possibility of how many worlds there could be out there.
Conference Room
1800 Hours
SG-1 showed them the rest of the base and before they knew it 1800 Hours rolled around and it was time for the negotiations. Naruto finding diplomatic things boring decided to go to the Mess Hall again and grab dinner, if you could call it that. Hinata decided to follow him and grab a meal as well with nothing left to do. In the SGC's Conference Room Sakura and Shikamaru sat down and waited for Hammond to arrive. After about five minutes he walked into the conference room and sat down. "Alright, now that we're all here we can begin."
The two nodded and Shikamaru decided to ask the first question. "What is it you could offer us?"
"Well, we can provide you with a wide range of things, a list of gate addresses to explore for yourselves as well as military support if you need it to name a few, and also a metal we discovered not long ago that's not naturally found on our planet." They both became more attentive. "We call it Trinium, it's a hundred times lighter and stronger than steel." Shikamaru rubbed his chin in thought. "Now what could you offer in return?" Hammond asked.
"Well we can also provide you with military support, some scrolls on basic chakra control, ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu, medical ninjutsu and herbs." Sakura said.
"I'm sorry I don't entirely understand." Hammond said.
Shikamaru launched himself into explanation mode. "Chakra is basically our life energy, we can control it and mold it to do various things, like Naruto's Shadow Clone Jutsu, that was one ninjutsu, genjutsu is controlling the chakra in someone's brain to make the victim see false images, trick and/or torture them, and taijutsu is just straight martial arts."
"Well if you could teach us something like that boy's Shadow Clone Jutsu I'm sure we can learn a lot from each other. Why don't we continue tomorrow at 1400 Hours, which would be 2:00." Sakura and Shikamaru nodded and stood up.
"We should inform Lady Tsunade that we're going to be continuing negotiations." Sakura said.
"Of course, right this way." Hammond showed the two down to the control room.
"Dial P8S-487." He said to Walter. "Yes Sir. Beginning dialing sequence." The Gate hummed and the inner ring began to spin.
Sakura gave the General a questioning look. "What's P8S-487?"
Sam answered that. "It's the alpha-numeric designation the computer gave your world."
"Chevron 7, locked." Walter said and the Gate came to life. No sooner had it activated Naruto and Hinata came down after hearing the alarm.
"Hey, what's going on?" Naruto asked.
"We're going to inform Lady Tsunade that we'll be staying here another day to continue negotiations." Shikamaru answered.
"Really? Great!" Naruto shouted obviously elated to spend another day in this amazing place. Sam picked up a radio and handed it to Sakura. "We left the Hokage a radio before we left." Sakura pressed the button and talked into it.
Leaf Village
1900 Hours
Tsunade was at her desk signing document after document it what seemed to be a never-ending mountain of paperwork. Taking a moment to rest she sighed and rubbed her temples, questioning again why she took this job. Her thoughts were distracted however by the crackle of the radio SG-1 had left her.
"Umm... Lady Tsunade, are you there?" Sakura's voice came over the radio.
She quickly picks it up and responded, "Yes Sakura, I'm here."
"Well then you'll be happy to know that these people have a lot to offer us so we'll be continuing negotiations starting tomorrow." Tsunade smiled that her student had done well in her first negotiations, especially with people from another planet.
"That's great Sakura. Has Naruto been causing any trouble?" Tsunade chuckled when she heard Naruto say "Hey!" over the radio.
"Well he wouldn't let the doc-pshhhhhpshh-and then-pshpsh-hello hello? Can you hear me La-pshhhhhhhhhhhpshpsh…" Static crackled over the radio and Sakura's voice was gone. Thinking quickly Tsunade headed to the Stargate as it was the likely source of the problem.
When she got to the Gate she found it open but the event horizon was destabilizing making a crackling sound until it finally shut down. Tsunade watched with a mixture of worry and confusion with questions running through her mind. Deciding that she should just wait and see if the people on the other side could figure out what went wrong she decided to sit on the ground, and wait.
SGC Control Room
1905 Hours.
Everyone in the control room was frantically trying to figure out what had caused the wormhole to destabilize after the radio stopped transmitting. The ninja just watched everyone work, staying out of their way but had one single question running through their minds, 'What happened?'
After about half an hour of everyone scrambling around Sam thinks she came up with a plausible theory, though if her math was right, the kids weren't going to like it. She strode over to the group of Genin sitting in some chairs and cleared her throat.
They all looked up and Shikamaru asked, "Did you find out what went wrong?"
"Yes we did." They all looked at her expectantly.
When she didn't speak Naruto decided to. "Well?"
"Ahem. While the Stargate was activated a renegade black hole moved in the wormholes path and caused it to destabilize due to the enormous gravity. It's only temporary but…" Everyone looked at her with wide eyes wanting her to go on. "…You'll be stuck here for, 6 months."
Right as she finished all four of them yelled, "WHAT?" She winced at the volume of everyone's voice and for once whished that she'd be wrong about this.
"I'm sorry there's nothing we can do. But while we can't send people or objects through it, we can send a message to Tsunade from each of you." Sam said in an attempt to reassure them. "Think about what you want to tell her we only have one chance at this until even that's impossible." Sam walked away to leave everyone to their thoughts and to come to terms with the fact that they won't see their families for a long time.
A while later everyone had a message to send to their families and they each got up to tell Daniel one by one, Sakura said to tell her parents not to worry that she was alright and such, Shikamaru just said to tell them he's on a mission, Hinata the same, and lastly came Naruto. They knew he had no family so they just expected him to either give a very short message or none at all, but when he got up to give Tsunade his message he did something really strange. Naruto took a glace over his shoulder, talked into the radio with his back fully turned to them and spoke softly so no one could hear him. Then he whispered something to Daniel and walked away with an emotionless expression. Everyone was thinking the same thing about him but their thoughts were interrupted by Daniel saying, "Come on, I'll show you guys where you'll be staying."
Leaf Village
1935 Hours
Tsunade was busy informing the families of Shikamaru, Sakura and Hinata that they would be on a mission for quite some time and wouldn't be expected back for at least a month. Fortunately all the families bought it but Tsunade knew this was only a temporary excuse and that she would have to tell them eventually. She took a moment to rub her temples in frustration at what had just occurred.
Her Shinobi had just stepped through a strange alien device to another planet with no idea if it was friendly or hostile. When the Stargate did activate again Sam had explained about the black hole and how it was far too dangerous to send someone through and this was their only chance to put through a radio signal before they couldn't dial their planet for six months. While Tsunade had her suspicions about what she had been told, since she didn't know what a black hole was or had ever heard of one, she just had to accept that no one in this world knew much about space so she just took her word for it. Tsunade just wanted to head to the closest bar and drink till she passed out, but she had one final message to deliver. Landing on the ground in front of Tenten's house she knocked on the door and waited patiently while pondering Naruto's message.
Inside the house Tenten was busily preparing dinner when she heard a knock at the door. Sighing, she put down the rice & chicken she was making and walked to the door, wondering who could be here. When she opened the door she was surprised to say the least.
"Good evening Tenten." Tsunade said.
"Lady Tsunade, what are you doing here?" Said Tenten, ecstatic that her idol was at her house but also confused as to why.
"I have a message for you." She said and Tenten was instantly alert.
"What is it?" She asked.
"I was just told by Naruto to tell you to umm… Feed the cat and water the flowers… or something like that. Anyways, that's all so good bye." Tsunade walked off and Tenten shut her door to get her shoes. She knew what Naruto meant by that and since it was late she decided to check on him for the night.
She got to Naruto's apartment and began searching for the spare key he always keeps hidden somewhere.
"Where is that stupid key? Ugh why does Naruto have to change the hiding spot so often? Ah ha, found it!" Tenten inserted the key into the door and when it swung open she felt four pairs of small claws dig into her abdomen. Looking down she was met with the amber eyes of a small black kitten with big white paws. "Hello there little guy!" Tenten cooed. The kitten jumped down off of Tenten and dragged a small bowl towards her. "Aww, are you hungry? Well let's fix that." Tenten went into the bathroom and pulled a bag of cat food from the cupboard below the sink. She took a scoop of food with the cup in the bag, filled the cat's bowl and lay down to watch him eat.
"You're a hungry boy aren't you Kuro?" Kuro gave a "Mrrrrooowww" in response as if saying yes. "Well I'm going to take good care of you while Naruto's away."
SGC-Guest Quarters #6
2010 Hours
Sakura sat in the small room that she would be staying in for the next six months, it was sparsely furnished with a table, two chairs, a queen sized bed, a painting of Jupiter with Saturn in the background hung over the bed, a dresser with a mirror and a set of cloths that were already put in there. There was also a bathroom adjacent to the bedroom/living/dining room with basic toiletries, a shower, toilet, sink with a cupboard and a mirror. Sakura sat in one of the chairs in front of the table pondering why this happened to her.
'Why is this happening to me? I thought it would be great to see another planet but I didn't want to be trapped here for six months.' She heaved a heavy sigh. 'First Sasuke now this, what did I do to deserve this, I haven't done anything wrong. I wonder how everyone else is taking this. Shikamaru is probably just sleeping it off, Hinata's probably taking it worse than me and Naruto…' Her thoughts trailed off when she reached Naruto in her thoughts. 'Naruto, he was the one that couldn't bring Sasuke back and he found the Stargate and didn't report it. If it weren't for that yellow idiot we wouldn't be in this mess!' In her distress her mind had reached the worst possible conclusion to the blame game so Sakura got up and walked out of her room.
Meanwhile Naruto was sitting in his room trying his best to cheer himself up when Sakura opened his door.
"Huh? Hey Sakura!" Sakura just stared at him. "Hey Sakura is something wrong?" He asked. She just continued staring at him and Naruto was getting worried about her but that disappeared when she cracked her knuckles.
SGC Surveillance Room
2030 Hours
In the SGC's Surveillance Room the officers were sitting at their chairs with bored faces. Watching the security cameras was probably one of the most boring jobs in the entire base. All you did all day was watch the cameras for any strange or suspicious activity. Sometimes you'd hear a bit of gossip from two personnel but other than that it was a drag. Though they weren't as bored as usual today because they'd been given orders from Colonel O'Neill to periodically switch a camera to the bases off world guests to see how they were doing.
Frankly they were surprised when they saw Shikamaru sleeping regardless of the fact that he was stuck here for six months until the black hole moved. Little did they know things were about to get much more interesting. They heard footsteps come into the room as Colonel O'Neill, Major Carter, Dr. Jackson and Teal'c walk into the room. The two men immediately stood at attention.
"At ease men." O'Neill said. "How are the kids doing?"
One of the officers replied, "Well the one with the pony tail, I think his name was Shikamaru, is sleeping, surprisingly, one of the girls umm, I think her name was Hinata was just sitting in a chair staring at the wall, the one with the pink hair… Sakura that was it, she recently left, I think she went for a walk I followed her with the cameras for a bit, and last time we checked on Naruto he was…" The men chuckled a bit. "…making faces into the camera, haha!" Everyone shared a short chuckle for a bit, except for Teal'c.
"How long ago was that?" Sam asked after calming down.
"Umm, little over half an hour ago."
"Check on 'em again and start with Naruto, I'd like to see what kinda' faces he makes." Jack said. The man gladly switched to Naruto's cam hoping to see him still making faces but what they saw was something completely different.
"Ow! Sakura please stop- Ow!"
"Never! It's your fault Sasuke got away! It's your fault that we're stuck here! It's always your fault! You can never do anything right!" On the screen Sakura was beating Naruto mercilessly and Naruto was cowering in a corner, his clothes stained with blood and blood running down his face.
Everyone was in shock at first until Daniel broke from it to shout into the mike, "Security to Guest Quarters 2 now!" With that SG-1 and even the two men in the room rushed out.
Hinata had been trying to comfort herself by thinking about the positives of being stuck here for the last several minutes.
She didn't have the pressure of her clan, no missions and Naruto was here too. She blushed at the thought that Naruto might finally notice her and maybe even ask her out or something but those thoughts were put aside when she heard footsteps rushing down the hall. She looked up to see several armed men running past her door. Deciding to see what was going on; Hinata slipped on her sandals and followed them. Once she caught up with the marines she found them surrounding one of the guest quarters. She didn't know whose it was since she hadn't seen where the others were staying.
"Umm, excuse me, what's going on here?" She asked one of the marines close to her.
"Trust me kid you, don't want to know." The marine answered.
Hinata was about to ask again when a couple of men came out of the room dragging a cuffed Sakura screaming, "Let me go! He deserved it! It's his fault we're trapped here! This isn't over yet Na-" The rest of her words were lost when one of the men holding her put a hand over her mouth.
"Get her to a holding cell!" Hinata looked around and saw Sam giving the orders and decided she would be the best person to ask.
"Umm Major Carter, what's going on?" She looked at Hinata for a minute trying to decide whether to tell her or not. In the end the former won out since she would've find out later anyways.
"We were watching the security cameras to see how you were all doing and we just checked on Naruto and… found Sakura beating him."
Hinata gasped in shock. 'That's what Sakura was yelling about, but how could she do such a thing? Naruto did nothing wrong.' She was snapped from her thoughts when Sam began talking again.
"Umm there's one more thing. You see after we pulled Sakura out, Naruto disappeared and we could use some help finding him." Hinata vigorously nodded wanting to do anything to help.
Hinata, Sam and a few Airmen searched the room for any trace of Naruto, but so far were having no luck. The Airmen were just about ready to give up and wait and so was Sam, but Hinata wasn't about to. She kept looking all over the room after they'd walked out, checking each place twice and just when she was about to think he might've snuck out she had an idea.
'He couldn't be, under the bed… could he?' Deciding to check anyway she lifted up a piece of the comforter hanging over the side and found herself extremely close to Naruto's face.
Hinata blushed at the close proximity but that didn't last long because Naruto almost immediately retreated to the other side of the bed, eyes wide and shaking in fear. She was a little surprised at first, then she remembered that Sakura, quite literally, beat the shit outta him. She became worried at what it could've done to him mentally but right now she had to get him to the infirmary. She began to crawl towards him a little but Naruto just backed away further and just made her even more worried.
"Naruto, please come out." Hinata said in a soft comforting tone. Naruto shook his head and retreated further. Hinata crawled towards him a little more and he backed away more until he hit the wall. Hinata saw this as an opportunity and crawled closer to Naruto. He began shaking more and when she was one foot away from he shut his eyes tightly.
Naruto waited for the pain to come but it never did. He cracked his eyelids open a bit and saw Hinata holding his hand with a light blush on her cheeks. He gave her a questioning look as if asking "Aren't you going to hurt me too?"
Hinata seemed to understand this and said, "I won't hurt you Naruto, I promise. Now let's get you to the infirmary." Naruto silently complied and let Hinata lead him to the infirmary, still holding his hand. All the while his head kept dashing around looking for the first sign of danger and just when she thought he was calming down, they passed Sakura's holding cell.
Sakura was at the window of the door and when she saw Naruto she started screaming about killing him for trapping them here. Naruto cringed in fear and moved closer to Hinata squeezing her hand tighter. Once they were around the corner and out of Sakura's sight Naruto stopped and sat down against the wall panting and sweating.
Hinata sat down next to him and held him close to her whispering, "It's ok Naruto, it's ok. She won't hurt you anymore." Naruto rested his head on her shoulder and shed a few tears whimpering a little bit and Hinata stroked his back comfortingly. The two stayed like that for a while until Hinata said they should keep going to the infirmary. Naruto silently complied and once again was led through the base holding Hinata's hand, but amid Naruto's twisted and warped psyche, a new feeling towards the Hyuuga girl was staring to form.
SGC Infirmary
2145 Hours
In the infirmary of the SGC Naruto was sitting on one of the hospital beds with Hinata sitting next to him. Dr. Frasier walked out of the Infirmary with a clipboard in her hand to SG-1, General Hammond and Shikamaru waiting outside.
"How is he?" Hammond asked.
"Well, physically he's got a few fractured ribs, several cuts and bruises and a broken nose, the way I see it if you had gotten there a few minutes later it would've been more serious. But there's one more thing." The Doctor said.
"What is it?" Carter asked.
"It's his mental health; whatever Sakura did to him it completely messed up his psyche. I can't get him to talk; he didn't complain when I drew some blood and he won't eat any of the food I give him. He just sits there staring at his sheets."
"Is there anything we can do about it?" The General asked.
"Well you could try giving him ramen." Shikamaru spoke for the first time since he got there. "It's his favorite food."
Jack looked at the General and said, "It's worth a shot."
Hammond nodded. "I'll have the chefs cook some up. In the meantime let's leave those two be."
Hinata sat next to Naruto and was gradually getting more and more worried. He hadn't talked since she found him under the bed, he didn't complain when Dr. Frasier drew blood, something he'd normally do, and he didn't even eat the food Dr. Frasier brought him, granted he never liked hospital food before so that part worried her less than the others. She was beginning to think he might not come out of this. Hinata heard footsteps approaching them and saw Daniel carrying a bowl of ramen.
"Shikamaru told us that ramen was his favorite food, so we thought we'd try it."
Hinata nodded and took the bowl from Daniel. "Here Naruto, eat some." Hinata put the bowl in front of him and it took Naruto a moment to register what was in front of him. Naruto picked up the bowl, at a few bites of it, set in down on the table next to him and went back to staring at the sheets. Needless to say Hinata was incredibly surprised, Naruto always finished a bowl of ramen. She began thinking that he may never be the same again.
Outside the room Colonel O'Neill was watching them and was having similar thoughts. He tried thinking of some stuff he could do to help. After a while of deep thinking he had an idea, but he'd need the General's permission to do it. He walked at a fast pace hoping to catch Hammond before he left.
SGC Infirmary
0700 Hours the next day
Hinata awoke to her sight being covered by something white; she slowly sat up to take in her surroundings. At first she didn't recognize her surroundings then the events of yesterday started coming back to her, the gate travel, the news they couldn't go back for six months, and Naruto's beating by Sakura… wait what? She looked at the bed and found Naruto already up. She wondered how he'd woken up so early but remembered that he couldn't fall asleep because of nightmares. She also remembered that he didn't finish his ramen and it was still sitting on the nightstand.
"Alright kiddies wake up- oh you're already up." O'Neill came into the Infirmary yelling quite loudly and it caused Naruto to flinch a little.
"Umm, Colonel O'Neill what's going on?"
"What's going on is that I'm taking you two, and the other lazy kid, into town today!"
"Oh, that sounds fun."
"Yup, just us and no Sakura!" At the sound of her name Naruto's head whipped up and looked wildly around. Hinata put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down and at the touch Naruto visibly flinched but upon realizing it was Hinata he relaxed.
"Alright, get dressed and meet me in the Mess Hall for breakfast, and somebody get lazy boy up I've tried everything!"
Mess Hall
0800 Hours
The Mess Hall was filled with people that stayed in the base overnight and were just coming out for breakfast. At one of the tables sat, Jack, Hinata, Naruto and Shikamaru who after many tries finally got him out of bed. The three were wearing the cloths that were packed in their quarters drawers which consisted of, a black shirt and long camouflage style sweats. There were also some pairs of work boots too but they were too big for them and Jack said they could keep their sandals on since it was summer. Thankfully Naruto could still dress himself just fine so he handled that well but was wary about being away from Hinata since he'd grown to feel safe around her.
Anyways Jack told them he was going to take them into town but when they inquired for more details he simply said it was a surprise and gave only veeeerrrryy cryptic details so they just left it at that. While they were eating breakfast, or in Naruto's case just poking it and remaining silent, Hinata decided to try to strike up conversation.
"Umm Colonel O'Neill."
"Hinata for the last time just call me Jack." Jack insisted.
"Oh umm, ok, Jack… Do you know what they're going to do with…" She took a quick glance at Naruto. "…You-Know-Who."
"Huh? Oh you mean pinky?"
"Uhh yes."
"Well I heard the General's gonna bring in a psychiatrist to look at her. Then he'll decide what we should do with her." Hinata gave a small oh in response.
"Can't you tell us what we're doing today?" Shikamaru asked.
"No, if I told you then it wouldn't be a surprise anymore." Jack grinned.
"Huhhh… Troublesome."
After breakfast they took the elevator up to the surface level and for the first time since they got there they saw Earth. Everyone was amazed at how their two planets were so much alike. Even Naruto who'd been very quiet so far was showing a mild interest. Jack led them to the base's parking garage and they got in something called a car. They had a little trouble getting Naruto since he's still very cautions but a little encouragement got him to go in. As they drove through Colorado Springs everyone stared out the window with interest at the town that was so different from the villages back home. Naruto this time showed much more interest. On the way to their destination Jack said he had to stop at the bank for some cash; at least that was familiar. After their detour Jack parked in the parking lot in front of a building.
"Jack what are we doing here?" Shikamaru lazily asked.
"We are here to help Naruto get back to his old self and we're going to do that, by having fun. This place is called an Arcade. It's filled to the brim with video games."
"Video games?" Hinata asked.
The Colonel stared at them in shock. "Don't you guys have video games?"
"Umm I've heard of them before but there's not many around."
"Well here they're everywhere! So here's a hundred bucks in tens each, you can use the change machine for quarters and the slot on the game will tell you how many quarters you need to put in and there's a place where you can get food if you need to. I'll be around if you need me. Oh and someone stay with the kid here he still doesn't look so good."
After Hinata volunteered to stay with him they went inside. Needless to say they were all surprised, even Naruto was despite his twisted and warped psyche. In the building, was row upon row of game machines, flashing all sorts of different colors and kids of all ages running everywhere!
After getting about 20 bucks in quarters they set off in different directions. With Hinata and Naruto tagging along she decided to try out one of the racing games called Tokyo Drift, while they couldn't read the English the title was in Japanese below. She had a hard time trying to get the hang of it but eventually she was driving smoothly but not soon enough… she got 8th place. Hinata got up and let Naruto have a try and he did better since he was watching her the whole time and knew what pedals to press, but he only got 6th. They moved on to another game that had some dinosaurs on them that they heard a kid call Jurassic Park. Two people could play it so they sat down in front of the screen and noticed two plastic guns there. Neither knew what to do but while Hinata was fishing out 2 quarters a screen popped up with instructions on how to use everything. Unfortunately it was in English but the pictures helped a lot.
After several minutes they were on the part where they were being chased by two T-Rexes. It turned out they were very good at this. It was basically all aiming at the right place something ninja were proficient at. Naruto was a little scared of the T-Rex because of its roar but after he shot it down he was over it. After they finished the whole game the screen changed to something Hinata guessed was a score board while they didn't know any English they just entered 3 letters of the first two that were there. When they stepped out of the game the first thing they noticed was that there was the large number of kids around them.
"Wha-what's going on?" Hinata stuttered.
One boy about 11 spoke up. "What's going on? You guys just beat Jurassic Park with the high score and never dying! No one's ever done that before!"
"W-wow… I didn't know tha-"
"That's so awesome!" If the surprise of finding out they did something never done before it was an even bigger shock that for the first time for 24 hours… Naruto spoke. "Come on we gotta try some more!" Grabbing her hand, Naruto proceeded to drag her along to the next game. While she blushed that he was holding her hand she was just glad his enthusiasm was back.
Mess Hall
1800 Hours
Several hours (and about $300) later the group walked out of the arcade hot, sweaty, and excited, particularly Naruto who had become his old self again. Arriving back at the base the first place they went to was the Mess Hall for dinner as Jack wasn't willing to spend even more money. Everyone sat down to eat their dinner, or in Naruto's case his usual one of everything, and was alone for a while until, Sam, Daniel, Teal'c and even General Hammond joined them.
"Hello guys." Daniel said.
"Hey guys!" Everyone smiled at the sight of Naruto acting normal again.
"I trust it was a success Colonel?" Hammond said more as a statement than a question.
"It sure was, but I don't think I'll be doing that again soon."
"Why not, they seemed to love it?" Sam asked.
"It cost me 300 bucks too!" Jack exclaimed.
"You spent 300 dollars at an arcade?"
"Yeah, next time I'll just give 'em 50 each." "Everyone chuckled at this statement. "It is good to see you acting normal again Naruto Uzumaki." Teal'c said. "Thanks Teal'c! I feel great too…" Naruto trailed off and hurriedly finished his food, got up and hastily said, "I-I gotta g-go."
With that he set off down the hall running with everyone staring in surprise. "What was that all about?" Hammond questioned. As if on cue Sakura walked up to them.
"Have you guys seen Naruto?" She questioned.
"He just left sorry." Daniel answered.
"Oh, I'll keep looking then." Sakura walked off.
"She was let out?" Jack asked when she was out of earshot.
Hammond responded, "The Doctor spoke to her and convinced her that Naruto wasn't the reason for them being stranded. After he was sure she believed him she was released."
"Well I still don't trust her."
"Jack, don't you think you should cut her some slack? I mean she went through an emotional time knowing she wouldn't be able to see her friends and family again for a while. She obviously wanted to put the blame on someone." Daniel said.
"She beat the crap out of him, not just blame him! Why did she choose him anyways?"
This time Sam spoke up. "Apparently whenever something went wrong it was usually Naruto's fault."
"So he's a bit of a klutz, big deal! It's not something you beat him for!" Everyone silently nodded in agreement or in Teal'c case a very slight nod and continued eating their meal.
Throughout the rest of the night people reported seeing Naruto ducking into various rooms and any hidden space he could find where Sakura wouldn't see him. In one of his last hiding places of the night he ducked into Hinata's quarters.
"Huh huh…" Naruto panted as he shut the door and ducked below the window.
"Naruto? Naruto where are you?" He heard footsteps receding as she walked away and relaxed.
"Naruto?" Naruto looked up and saw Hinata coming out of the bathroom adjacent to the bedroom.
"Oh hey Hinata, sorry, I didn't know this was your room." Naruto said.
"It's alright. Why are you hiding from Sakura? She just wants to apologize." Naruto sighed and stood up.
"I know, I just can't help it…" He trailed off.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"…She just…terrifies me now." He looked away in embarrassment thinking she'd make fun of him.
Instead she said, "It's okay if you are Naruto. What she did to you was wrong and terrible. You didn't deserve it."
He looked up at her in surprise and smiled. "You know I never got the chance to thank you."
"For what?"
"What you did for me when she…" Hinata gave a small 'oh.' "Anyways," Naruto trailed off and to Hinata's surprise, he hugged her. "Thanks." Hinata blushed at the close contact but still huged him back.
"Y-you're w-w-welcome." Naruto released the hug and opened the door to leave.
"See you tomorrow then?" He asked with a smile.
Hinata smiled, blushing, and replied, "Yeah, see you tomorrow."