Well, it took somewhat longer to get this out than I expected, but with projects and tests, I managed to finish, so here it is.

Chapter 4 – One Headache After Another

"Masaru Kokaku?" The young man simply nodded. "Alright Masaru-san, I appreciate this. Well if you'll excuse me I'll b-" Sakura never got to finish her sentence, as she was interrupted by someone yelling.

"Sakura-chan! SAKURA-CHAN!" A certain loudmouthed blonde yelled as he was entering the room, only to be stopped in his tracks by a fist straight to the head.

"IDIOT! This is a HOSPITAL! You're supposed to be quiet and allow the patients to rest." Sakura scolded, having to lecture Naruto EACH time he came to the hospital like that.

"Sorry. Sorry, Sakura-chan. I wanted to see if he has come to his senses or not." Naruto apologized, hoping to quell his teammates wrath. He noticed the man in the bed was awake, and seemed to have a questioning look on his face.

Masaru, during this time, could feel a pretty bad headache coming to him. "Are those two always like this? They're only a couple of years younger than me, yet they act like they're little kids." He then took note of the clothes that the newcomer, namely the headband and the sweater. "This kid is a shinobi, and yet he is wearing an orange sweater. That suit is practically screaming 'Here I am! Come kill me! Well, I suppose it could've been worse. He could've been wearing a completely orange jumpsuit." Masaru was, at best, just trying not to scream out at this kid's stupidity.

Naruto ran over to the bed, despite Sakura's protests to let him rest, and immediately questioned him. "Are you doing alright, mister? You looked pretty banged up when I found you."

Masaru, on the other hand only felt his headache getting worse. "Is he always this loud? Why do I feel like I've died and gone to hell" He thought to himself before answering the boy's question. "Yes, I'm doing alright. And the name is Masaru, not mister." He said, feeling pretty annoyed by the boy in front of him.

The Kyuubi container was pretty annoyed with the way he just got shoved off like that. "Oh yeah Masaru-teme. My name's Naruto Uzumaki! I'm gonna be Hokage someday, just you wait." The previously mentioned boy announced, who felt the need to proclaim his goal for the millionth time… in Sakura's mind at least.

"Well, he's definitely got spirit and motivation. I'll give him that much. However, as he is right now, he just couldn't cut it as a Hokage." Masaru thought to himself, slightly happy this kid intended to go for something worthwhile. Then his mind remembered something that he must've missed earlier.

"Hang on. You said you were the one that brought me here earlier, right?" Naruto was slightly surprised by how he so quickly changed the subject. However, he was still compelled to answer his question. "Yeah. I found you by the village gates. You said to me that you needed help before you passed out. So I quickly went and brought you to the hospital, where Sakura-chan took care of you." He said as he turned to the girl, who was about to make her way out the door. "Where are you going, Sakura-chan?"

The pink-haired medic nin turned her head slightly to answer him. "I'm going to go report to Tsunade-sama. She wanted me to report to her when he had woken up, though I'm not entirely sure why. Now don't stay too long, Naruto. Masaru-san still needs to get some rest." She said leaving the room.

Masaru brought up a question to Naruto since it was currently on his mind. "Naruto, I'd like to know. How long have I been out for? When you're unconscious you kind of lose track of time." He said with a small chuckle.

Naruto thought it was funny, but didn't have it in him to laugh. "You've been out of it for about three days. I was kind of worried about you at some points because I thought you wouldn't make it."

"Three days? Well I guess it could've been worse." He said while his mind was thinking on a completely matter. "This kid definitely has a big heart, to feel concern for someone he's never met before. For all he knows I could've been an assassin sent to kill him. If he wants to be Hokage, he needs much more common sense than that."

The two remaining occupants in the room sat there in an awkward silence when Masaru broke the ice. "Well, since you were the one that brought me in here, I suppose I should thank you. Perhaps I should treat you to a meal sometime." Masaru felt that he should at least be nice to the boy in someway, since he was the one that inevitably saved his life, even though he was kind of a jerk to him in their first real encounter with each other. Though Masaru would later learn that this was one of the biggest mistakes he would ever make.

Masaru suddenly had a bad feeling in the pit of his wallet when he saw the gigantic grin cross Naruto's face. "All right! When you get out of here, I'll show you around the village and you can treat me at Ichiraku Ramen. It's the best food you'll ever have."

The bedridden teen then learned something new about the boy in that one moment. He was an addict for ramen. No serious connoisseur of any kind of food would proclaim anything was the best ever in that fashion. Only an addict to the food would do such a thing. Even though he himself enjoyed ramen, he only did so from time to time, since he was always on the move, so he had to travel lightly, and not every place in the world sold ramen.

Truth be told, he was kind of curious as to see how things worked inside the village. He knew all about the various hidden villages from his mother, as well as their history. It was among the lessons that she put him through everyday. However, that knowledge didn't help him understand the villages too much, since the knowledge didn't get applied in any real scenario for him. Taking a tour around the village might not be such a bad thing at all.

He was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of the doorknob turning. "Naruto. I'm sure Sakura has already told you this, but you need to keep it down in the hospital. There are patients trying to get their rest." Said the commanding voice from the door, with a very deep authoritative tone.

The door opened and before him was a tall blonde-haired woman. She wore pretty standard black pants that hugged her figure, along with a light gray tunic that acted much similarly to her pants. Over top her tunic was a dark green jacket, and using the mirror on the wall, he was able to make out the word 'Gamble' inscribed on the back of it. But the most prominent feature of the woman before him was that she was pretty… well endowed for lack of a better term.

There was no doubt in his mind who this was. He was before Tsunade, the Slug Sannin, the legendary medic nin, as well as the Fifth Hokage of the Leaf Village.

"Baa-chan, I know already. But I got excited since he offered to treat me to a meal when he got out of here." Naruto said, bearing his trademark foxy grin.

"I'm gonna guess you chose ramen for the meal. You're too easy to predict, Naruto." Tsunade said, before she turned her attention to the person who was in bed. "I take it that Sakura has already informed you of your condition. Well, judging from what I had been told already on your condition, you should be up and able to move around in about a week, but you'll need about another week after that before you can actually do much of anything."

"Well, I suppose a couple of weeks here won't do me any harm, Tsunade-chan." He said smoothly.

The Hokage had a large vein throbbing on her forehead when he finished that statement, but before she could scold him, he spoke. "I'm guessing that you don't remember me, do you Tsunade-chan? We met about six years ago, when I was much younger than I am right now."

Her face dawned in realization at what he said, suddenly remembering a young boy from her past. The only person that ever called her Tsunade-chan… and not get pummeled for it. "Masaru-kun. I'm sorry I didn't recognize you at first. You've grown so much."

"And you're still the same woman I met six years ago. It's good to see you again." Masaru said with a genuine smile on his face.

"You know baa-chan? How do you know baa-chan?" Naruto said, quite perplexed that these two were exchanging pleasantries like old friends.

"It's alright if I tell, right Tsunade-chan?" She simply nodded. "You might as well sit down, Naruto. It's quite an interesting story."

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