the Fox Bandit

Ch 3: Awakening

Naruto felt like he was floating. There was no pain; hardly no awareness of anykind. If this was dying, then it wasn't so bad. He thought it would hurt a little more, but he wasn't complaining.

"Tsunade, why are we helping him?"

Naruto was confused. That was the sweet sound of Sakura's voice. Had she died too? Had someone shot her as well? Did she join him in whatever void he was in? No, she couldn't have. Which meant only one thing.

He wasn't dead.

"I know him," said another voice. That must be this Tsunade woman. The big chested sheriff woman. It was all coming back to him now. The dehydration, the sickness, the near-starvation and the gunfight that almost ended him. By all accounts, he should be dead. But he wasn't. What really confused him though was Tsunade's reply. She knew him? Not possible. She must only know the stories that were told about him. But then, why would she save him? He continued to listen, keeping his eyes closed. The voices were distant, but he could hear them.

"What do you mean?" asked Sakura.

"I've know this boy since he was born," said Tsunade. Naruto had to fight to keep from jumping up. There was no way she could no him like that! Could she? "I was there. I was his mother's wetnurse." Naruto's eyes snapped open. Turning his head, he found that no one was in the room with him. He was lying on a small cot situated against the wall of a cozy looking kitchen. There were bloody bandages lying on a rectangular table. This confused him again. The he remembered that he'd been shot. Naruto sat straight up. This was a big mistake.

"GAHHHHHH!" he yelled, clutching his side. He yelped again and let go. His right hand bleeding freely. Looking down, he noticed that his side was bleeding as well, though it looked as if someone was in the midst of doing surgery on it. The two women came running into the room and ignoring his pain, Naruto pushed himself into the corner of the bed (which was quite difficult to do oweing to the large splint wrapped to his leg and the open wound on his side). He couldn't say if he was scared of them. But they could easily have someone hidden to kill him at a moments notice, which made him sightly afraid to say anything. He also wasn't too keen to get near them with those serated surgical tools they had. He mentally slapped himself. He was literaly cowering in the corner from two women. But in his present condition, who knew what could happen. He gritted his teeth against the pain to keep from crying out again, and pushed himself futher against the wall.

"Naruto, it's ok!" said the older blonde woman. "It's me, Grandma Tsunade! Don't you remember me?" Naruto glared at her. How could she stoop so low.

"I don't have a grandmother!" he growled, sweating from the intense pain. "I don't have anybody!" Tsunade's face fell. He didn't remember her. She looked him over. His face was pale and he was sweating. He was obviously in great pain, but withstood it. Just to get away from her, then she noticed she had a surgical knife in her hand. She looked at Sakura and saw that she too was carrying a lethal looking surgical tool. No wonder Naruto was afraid.

"Sakura, put your clamps away," said Tsunade, throwing her own knife into the other room while Sakura did the same. They could clean them again later. If Naruto ever fell asleep soon they would need them again. He still had bullet fragments in his wounds. Naruto visibly relaxed a little, but not much.

"Stay back," he hissed. "I know what you're doing! You're trying to keep me alive, but only to claim the bounty! I'm not stupid!" Naruto he breathing became raspy. He was pushing himself too hard. "Let me go! I promise I'll never come back! I'll never darken this town with my presence again. You will not give me to Akatsuki!"

Sakura began to pity the poor blonde. He was still obviously very ill and in no condition to go anywhere, whether they let him or not. Tsunade continued to try to get him to calm down.

"Naruto please," she said soothingly. "I'm not your real grandmother, but I'm as good as. Relax and lay back down. You need to sleep."

How Naruto manged to even stay awake at all was beyond Sakura. She had never seen someone fight so hard to live. If they could just knock him out for a couple of hours they could finish the surgery. He could rest for a few days and be on his way. They woudn't keep him here. They weren't heartless. And he was obviously not a cold-blooded killer like Sakura had assumed. She could the fear and sadness in his eyes as plain as day. No killer ever had fear, nor sadness. He was just a scared young man who had lost his way and always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"No!" cried Naruto. "I will not! You'll try to poison me! I won't have it!" Sakura shook her head. Why must he be so stubborn?

"Mister Fox Bandit," she muttered. Naruto look stunned. No one had ever addressed him that way. It was usually phrases like "You Bastard!" or "You Fox Demon!" and other choice names. "Naruto. Is that your name?" Slowly, he nodded. Still surprised that she had even uttered a word to him. She walked toward him slowly. "Naruto, I promise we won't hurt you. We need you to sleep so we can remove the rest of the bullet fragments." Naruto shook his head.

"I won't," he said. His voice was quieter, calmer. "Remove them while I'm awake. I won't sleep in a stranger's house willingly."

"Trust me, Mister Fox Bandit," purred Sakura sweetly. This seemed to calm Naruto down quite a bit. "You really want to be asleep during that particular procedure. The pain your in now is nothing compared to being awake during surgery." This was a lie. She knew her numbing solution would be sufficient enough for him to be awake, but she wasn't going to tell him that. She's rather him sleep through it. That way he wouldn't move quite so much. "I can make you a special tonic that will help you fall asleep faster if you like?"

"Remove them while I'm awake," he repeated slowly in a furious voice that would have scared most people. Sakura just shrugged.

"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you," she said in an icy tone. Naruto gulped. Just what had he'd gotten himself into. Sakura grabbed his unbroken leg and pulled him toward her, showing strength he didn't think possible in a woman, much less one so pretty. She layed him flat on the cot and proceeded to strap him down.

"What are you doing, you sadistic woman!" he growled struggling despite the pain. This earned him a slap to the head.

"Watch your tongue or I will give you poison!" she hissed. "You want to stay awake, then fine. But I don't need you moving while I'm trying to work." Tsunade looked on in shock. What the hell was Sakura playing at? She couldn't do surgery like that! But then it hit her. Sakura was just using one of the bandits own tactics against him. She was trying to scare the bullets out of him. Literally. She snickered a little.

" What the he..." but he couldn't finish as a short, thick pole-like wooden spool was stuck in his mouth between his teeth.

"That's so you don't bite you're tongue off because of the pain," said Sakura matter-of-factly. She went back to the other room and grabbed the long serated surgical knife Tsunade had just tossed. She didn't bother to clean it again. Yet. She noticed that Naruto's eyes had gotten as wide as dinner plates in fear and he was sweating profusely again. This woman was crazy as hell! She was going to torture him! He didn't think so!

Just before the point of the knife reached his bleeding skin, Naruto spat the long spool out. "Alright! Alright! Give me the tonic! Please! I'll sleep! Just don't touch me with that while I can see it!"

Sakura pulled the knife away and grinned prettily at him. "That's what I thought." and she walked over to the cabinet, grinning at the string of unpleasent curse words and names Naruto was muttering in her direction. She began mixing different herbs together in a fluid motion then blended them together with a nasty smelling liquid that made Naruto wrinkle his nose in disgust. She turned and smiled prettily, then walked over to him and undid the strap holding his arms so he could hold it. He eyed her suspiciously, then took a sip.

He instantly spat it right back out.

"What the hell is in this!" he cried holding it away from him. He looked as Sakura, who was still grinning.

"Horse urine," she stated venomously. It was actually just some stale lemonade (Another of her accidental concotions). She laughed when she saw the horrified and disgusted look on his face. "Im only joking," she giggled. Naruto smiled nervously and drank the rest of it, albeit reluctantly.

"It was goat urine," she said. Naruto clutched his throat with his good hand and coughed. Tsunade thought it was time she stepped in. Sakura was having way to much fun with this.

"Don't worry, Naruto," she said, patting him on the back gently. "It's only stale lemonade." Naruto nodded but was still wary. "Now you're going to start feeling really sleepy. Don't worry, that just means the tonic is working."

Naruto nodded and felt his eyes getting heavy. This stuff isn't so bad, he thought groggily. It's kind of blissful, in a way. Not five seconds later, and he was asleep.

"Sakura, that was a little evil, don't you think?" said Tsunade, washing her hands and surgical tools again. Sakura did the same.

"Now he knows how Konohamaru felt," said Sakura. "You know I would never do something like perform surgery on an awake patient, Tsunade. I'm not stupid."

"Did you have to scare him so bad, though?"

"No, no I didn't," she said smiling sadly. It was a little cruel. When Naruto woke up and was feeling better she would make it up to him, whether she like it or not.