Haha! Everyone must bow down to me, Gabriel the Magical Genie who has managed to find internet! *bows*

Well, I really did manage to find a laptop, but I'm not too sure I'll be able to use it much longer, which makes me really sad. It's kinda in the house of my parent's friends and well, we're not staying here much longer.

Anyways, for anyone who cares, I'm doing wonderfully right now and hoping the trip doesn't have to end. ^^

Which it won't, since it just started but hey, you never know. *knocks on wood*

Okay now, I'll stop blabbing and let you get on with the story. This one's not too much on the plot, but it's not filler either. As in, there's no physical action but... well you'll see.

Chapter 4

'Because finding something and making it yours is the difference between breathing through life, or dancing.'

Naruto woke up thanks to the light filtering right onto his face. His brain, unconsciously remembering its last moment of awareness, instantly snapped into panic mode, and he opened his eyes wide; then hurriedly closed them once again to shield from the light of the morning sun, which was shining way too bright. He groaned in pain as the back of his head started throbbing dully; it wasn't a sharp pain, or unbearable, but still felt strangely uncomfortable, as if something were wrapped around the back of his brain and was squeezing painfully. Next to him, he felt something shift and move for a few seconds and suddenly the painful light was cut off. Naruto opened his eyes once again, this time much warier. In front of him stood Kiba, who had just closed the window from which the sunlight had been streaming through and blinding Naruto. He turned and grinned at Naruto.

"Hey, how ya feeling?"

Naruto tried to sit up on the bed, but his head sent a sharp pain lacing through his back and he plopped down again, a pained groan escaping his lips.

"Oh, dandy. I feel like someone just drove an ax down my whole back."

Kiba winced sympathetically as he plopped down on the bed next to Naruto.

"When you fainted I called one of the healers; she looked over you and said that you had nothing physically, just were completely exhausted. She wasn't completely sure, but she said it probably was from magic use. Why didn't you tell me you could use magic?"

Naruto lay there fore a few seconds, panic gripping him for a moment before his schooled his features, turning his head to look at Kiba strangely.

"I can't."

"Why not? You know, it's not like I'll tell anyone if you don't want me to. Besides, no ones gonna hurt you or anything. Witch hunts are kinda not legal anymore."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "No, I mean, I can't use magic."

Kiba lifted an eyebrow at him. "The healer said you fainted from magic use. That kinda means you have to be able to use magic, ya know?."

Naruto grimaced as he tried to shake his head and another searing pain ran through his back. He glared at Kiba instead.

"I'm not lying. I can't use magic. I've never been able to use it in my life. Why now?"

"But the healer said-"

"I know what the healer said!" Naruto snapped. At Kiba's surprised expression, Naruto blushed and lowered his eyes. He mentally cursed himself at allowing the rage to overtake him. "I'm sorry. I'm not usually this bad tempered. I don't know what's wrong with me."

Kiba's expression softened. "Hey, its ok, man. No harm done."

Naruto looked up at him with a small smile, and decided that right now was not the time to test his overlly volatile temper.

"So…how long was I out?"

Kiba shrugged. "Not much. Just a few hours. You fainted around 11:30. Its 7:00."

Naruto's eyes widened. That has to be the longest I've been out because of his fault. "7:00? Wait, have you been taking care of me all night?"

Kiba laughed. "No way. Well, I first got really scared, ya know? You just suddenly collapsed out of nowhere, so I dragged you to the healer's room. Hers is much closer than mine is. She's really quick thought, the whole check-up just took about 20 minutes." Here he gave Naruto a quick grin. "I keep telling everyone she can use magic, and she's using it to help his healing thing, but does anyone believe me? No. Everyone's too scared that if Sasuke find out about another magician in his property he'll scare them away." His eyes narrowed. "Which might be a reason for you to hide whatever magic you have."

"I said-"

"I know what you said. But using magic -or knowing how to- and having magic are two completely different things. You may have a hidden magical power, which has just recently been triggered by something. It happens relatively often with magicians. Unless of course they have parents who are magicians; then children get tested early to see if they inherited the genes. Were you're parents magicians?"

"I don't know. They're dead."

Kiba's eyes widened.

"I'm sorry, man. I didn't mean to…er…"

"Don't worry, I never knew them anyways. I don't even know who they are."

Kiba looked at him with something that looked painfully like pity to Naruto, and he glared at Kiba.

"Don't give me that look, I'm not a helpless damsel in distress."

Kiba poked his head playfully. "I'm not too sure about the damsel part-"

"Hey!"

"-but you seem pretty helpless and distressed right now."

Naruto huffed indignantly. "Ya know, if I could move right now-"

"You can't move?" Kiba asked, his voice taking on a worried tone.

"Well, its not that I can't move. It just hurts like hell. As I said before, I feel as if someone drove an ax through my back. And every time I move that same bastard drives another ax a few times through the same wound."

"I thought you were exaggerating."

"Not really."

Kiba let out a low whistle. "O-ok then. Do you want me to call the healer?"

"The same one who said I'd fainted from magic use?" Naruto needed to know if she could sense magic or if it was simply a prognostic.

"Not if you're gonna be a bitch about it to her. She's kinda short-tempered about anyone saying she's wrong in her prognostics. There's a reason she's the Head Healer of the castle."

Naruto grinned.

"She's as good as that?"

Kiba nodded.

"Ok, I won't be a bitch."

Kiba laughed at that. Then he stood and left through the door right beside the bed Naruto was laying on.

For a few seconds Naruto just lay there, thinking of nothing. Then, growing bored, his mind started venturing into any thoughts which flitted by. The first one to really be brought to the forefront was that of the upcoming wedding.

The only thing Naruto knew was that it was taking place two weeks from yesterday, so everything was going to start getting busy really soon. From his experience, weddings normally took months to prepare, but he supposed that the King already had the basic thing planned out. After all, the place was the same room and really, all the main preparations had to be done on the same day, or really close to it, like the food and the dresses. Ino was probably already fussing about her dress, trying to make it look as perfect as possible. His lips twitched as he visualized the blonde running around a white dress, pinning things here and there, adding and cutting at the material until she deemed it perfect. Not many people knew, but Ino actually loved anything that had to do with clothing and tailoring. She liked to knit too, but what she really liked was buying the fabric and shaping it into the actual clothes.

Naruto's thought wandered to the groom. What did he like? Did he enjoy clothing too? He nearly laughed at the picture that thought brought forth.

He wondered how the Prince and Ino were getting along. His mouth twitched amusedly. Maybe the King was worried that the Princess would be such a bitch -since Sasuke didn't really have that much time to choose- that the Prince would try to get rid of her, so that was why the wedding was so soon. Then the grin dropped right off his face as he imagined Sasuke trying to off Ino. He nearly growled, his protective instincts awakened.

He tried to once again move his head. A pain, duller than the first two times, nicked his lower back; Naruto ignored it as he managed to prop himself up on his elbows. His neck throbbed from the effort of holding his head up, and Naruto bit his tongue as he pushed up with his hands, trying to sit up.

Just as he managed to sit straight, he heard a strange crack in his back, and suddenly he fell forwards, his muscles and bones completely jelly.

It was as if a pressure valve had just been opened, and all the stress and stiffness from before just disappeared as strange warmth enveloped Naruto's body. He shook his head sharply, feeling strangely drowsy; his hand unconsciously rose up to start massaging his temples. Almost unwillingly, his legs stretched under the covers of the bed, then moved sideways to slide off the edge. He gripped the edge of the matt harshly, wondering if it was safe to try to stand. Then, deciding he lost nothing by just trying, he pushed forwards. His legs wobbled for a second, then normalized. Naruto took one step forwards, and his knees collapsed under him. He let out a startled yelp as he fell in one ungraceful heap. His breath came out labored, as if he'd just ran instead of just tried to walk. He mentally cursed at his weakness. At that moment, the door opened.

"Hey, Kyuubi, you okay in there? I heard a yelp."

"I'm okay, Kiba."

The other boy entered the room and, seeing Naruto on the floor rushed to help him stand and took him back to the bed.

"Hey, how did you get off the bed? I thought you said yo couldn't move."

"I don't know; I was just laying there, waiting for you to come back, when I decided to try and move again. The pain was less, so I managed to kind of sit up. Then my back cracked weirdly; it didn't hurt, I just kinda heard a crack; and I felt as if all the stiffness in my body just disappeared. It was so weird. It was like I was like a liquid, or something."

Kiba scratched the back of his head. "Well that's weird. Maybe you used magic to heal yourself. Not actually consciously, but when magicians are in trouble, they're magic just kind of acts on its own. Survival first, always."

Naruto nodded, trying not to roll his eyes. He quickly decided that if Kiba was going to be an ass about his magic, then he'd at least humor the teen, rather than face a full investigation. "You know, I was thinking a little, and saying that I have magic actually makes a lot of sense. I always thought that I healed strangely quickly in a lot of occasions. No healers could explain it, and eventually they just passed it off as a miracle." He looked around. "What about that healer you talked about?"

"Oh well, she's kind of busy right now. It seems that the King had another relapse."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Relapse?"

Kiba nodded gravely. "Yeah, he's recently been getting this disease which not many people have heard of. Healer says it's lethal. She's doing all she can to help him, but all she can do is prolong his life for a few more months. She says he won't see the New Year." Kiba's voice decreased in volume as he spoke, his eyes taking in a somber look. Naruto bit his lip, trying to hide his joviality at the news.

"I'm sorry."

Kiba shook his head. "Its okay. I've known he was going to die some time ago. I still can't really get over it, though. Fugaku was like a father to me. He took me in when I was a small kid. Sasuke and I became close friends kinda fast, which is mostly why he asked me to become his personal servant when he could. We're still good friends, but we can't spend nearly as much time together. You know, since we're in such different social classes and all that."

Naruto grinned.

"Yeah, its exactly like that with me and Ino."

Kiba looked at him strangely. "Ino, as in Princess Ino who's about to become our queen? How come?"

Naruto swore under his breath. "Well, I'm kinda her personal servant. Since I couldn't really go with her to the party, I got Prince Sasuke to enter me as a waiter. That way I could still take care of her and not look weird following her around."

Kiba chuckled. "Wow. You're one lucky bastard. You're going to be a Royal Servant now."

Naruto laughed softly. "Yeah, I just hope that we can stay friends once she becomes the true Queen. Lately we've been drifting apart a lot. I mean, we're still in really good terms and all, but we don't joke like we used to. To me, she's like the sister I never had. To her I'm probably a friend who will do anything you want. It's a pretty unbalanced relationship between us. But I'm not complaining. I'm really glad to have met Ino at all, and I know that I'm really lucky to have gotten such a nice person to be my Master. I've heard of plenty of stories about servants who get abused regularly."

Kiba sighed.

"Yeah, I actually have a friend who used to be beaten up a lot, but then I got him hooked up with the prince. He's a really good magician now; In fact he's the royal magician of the court. He's pretty reserved, but overall a really good guy."

"What's his name? Maybe I know him."

"Hyuuga Neji."

Naruto's eyes widened as he hid his growing panic. He's here? Hyuuga's here?! Shit! "That guy? He was beaten up as a kid? Wow. I've heard a lot of stories about him in the court. They say that he's the fourth best magic-user in the whole of the Kingdom."

Kiba raised an eyebrow. "Don't you mean third?"

Naruto looked at him weirdly. "No, I mean fourth."

"Well, we have Fugaku and Sasuke, but who else is…oh."

"Yeah well. We can't really say his name anyways, but you know who I'm talking about."

Kiba snorted. "It's stupid thought. It's not as if Ita-"

Naruto hurriedly clamped a hand over Kiba's mouth.

"God, Kiba! Do you want to get us trouble?"

Kiba took Naruto's hand off his mouth.

"I don't believe that crap. I mean, its not as if he's gonna hunt down every single person who says his name. If that were true I'd be dead twenty times over."

"I don't believe that crap either. But I do believe the crap that says that if the King or Prince hear you say his name, they will hunt you down and kill you."

Kiba gulped, looking around the room nervously.

Naruto grinned, then decided to play his part up a bit. "Hey, so where is Hyuuga? Or is he so high and mighty that I may never get within ten feet of him?"

"Nah. After all, you aren't just anybody right now. You're the Queen's private servant. That counts for a lot, you know. There are hundreds of people out there who would kill to be in your place right now."

"I'd rather not have to fight."

Kiba snorted. "What, don't know how?"

"Hey, hey. Don't insult me, dog-breath. I survived in the streets for a while. I know how to fight pretty good."

Kiba whistled, then he grinned dangerously, showing off his sharp canines. "I'll have to take you on sometime. Show off for the ladies, you know?"

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Kiba stood hurriedly.

"That's probably the healer. She said she'd come over as soon as the King was taken care of."

He moved to the door and opened it, quickly stepping to the side so that the healer could enter the room.

As soon as they entered, Naruto's eyes widened in shock.

"Oh my god! What are you- I thought you were dead!"

Another chappy finished!!

Here's a large part of Naruto inner phsyche in what it refers to Ino. Sorry, no Ino-bashing. I'm not particularly her fan, but I think that her being a clingy bitch who hates Naruto and who Naruto hates back isn't too realistic. And besides, it's too cliche.

Also, for the next part of the story, I'm not sure what I want to do, so I'd like the reviewers to choose what they'd like to read.

A.) Naruto's relashionship with Kiba deepens and he learns about the castle life. (No yaoi yet here.)

B.) Sakura appears once again. (Not saying how, that would ruin it. But it'll be comical, I promise.)

C.) Naruto starts developing the plans for that 'mission thing' he has. (It involves action and a little blood, so its interesting. And its pretty big on the plot. It would come up eventually anyways. Here comes the drama.)

D.) Naruto bumps into Neji and their magic reacts. (No yaoi here, either. But an interesting explanation on magic reactions and magic lessons ensue.)

So there are the options. Please tell me what I you'd like to read, I have ideas for all of them, so I promise anyone which is chosen will be good. If you especially want one option, then give me details on ideas you'd like to see written. That would help kill any writer's block which might strike.

Well, with this I leave you. I'll try to post soon, but no promises. Maybe I'll find some other internet somewhere. ^^

- G