CHAPTER 10
"Orochimaru has returned, huh?" sighs the Third Hokage as he sloutches forward at his desk. Sakura nods as Sasuke stands by the door of the Hokage's office in a solemn silence.
"Yes, we saw him in the woods not too long ago. He plans to destroy the Leaf Village." she informs him as the Hokage stands from his chair and turns to face the large window behind his desk.
"Thank you. Now will you excuse me, I have to make a phone call..." the Hokage says as he turns back to his desk. Sakura bows and heads out of the office after Sasuke.
The Hokage picks up the phone on the far side of his desk and rapidly dials a number. He holds the phone up to his ear and listens to the dull dialtone until someone finally answers.
"Hello? I'm kinda busy at the moment, so can you make this quick?" answers the voice on the other line. The Hokage's forehead furrows impatiently.
"Listen, I need you to do me a favor and come out to Konohagkure for a few days. It's really important."
"Is that you, Sarutobi-sensei? I haven't heard from you in ages!" The voice on the other line laughs heartily. The Hokage could hear the sound of water running and various women giggling drunkenly. "Didn't you hear what I just said?!" The Hokage pinches the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"Yeah, yeah. How come you only call me when there's some sort of problem? Why can't we just hangout? I could definately use your help with my research, you know..."
"How soon can you come out here?" The Hokage's face darkens as a vein in his head begins to pulsate intensely. "Tomorrow morning, I guess..."
"Good. When you arrive, come straight to my office and I'll discuss the details with you then."
"Sure, sounds good, but are you positive you don't want to help me with my research? It'll be fun!" the voice persuades as the Hokage immediately slams the phone back on the receiver, instantly disconnecting the line. He sighs and buries his face in his hands.
"Sometimes I wonder about that boy..."
...
After Sasuke and Sakura's visit to the Hokage's office, the village leader sends a small group of Anbu Black Ops to inspect the woods. They discard the dead bodies of Muffin and Kabuto and make sure to remind the members of Squad 7 not to spread the news about Orochimaru's return. The cloaked ninja disappear sooner than they arrived.
That very same day, Kakashi finally seals Urumi's cursemark and admits her to the hospital. Almost immediately, Naruto arrives at the hospital to check up on the kunoichi. He sits in the waiting room for what seems like hours, but was really only about twenty minutes. A nurse approaches him and quietly calls him over. He practically jumps out of his skin from anxiety.
As the young woman leads him down the narrow halls of the hospital, the blonde ninja's heart begins to pound heavily in his throat, his lungs felt constrained to the rhythm of their footsteps, and he could hardly breath. The nurse stops in front of the last door at the end of the hallway.
"Try not to stay in there for too long. She needs all the rest she can get." The nurse says in a soft, dainty voice. Naruto nods and the nurse turns the corner and vanishes up the stairs.
The blonde ninja reaches out for the door handle to Urumi's room, but freezes up abruptly. His legs become lead and a lump forms in his throat. He quickly shakes it off and reaches out his hand again. He hesitates for a second time. Naruto scowls at his cowardice and manages to wrap his fingers around the handle.
Suddenly, all the memories from Kabuto's death flood into his mind at once. He gasps and stumbles backward against the wall opposite of the door. Naruto cups his hands over his ears to try and escape from the images of blood. He stays in this position for awhile until his knees finally give in on him, and he slumps onto the linoleum floor. His legs curve into his chest and he rests his forehead on top of them.
Tears form in his eyes when he realizes what had happened to him. In his mind, he denied it, but deep down he knew it was true. He was afraid of her- his best and only friend. His stomach tightens at the thought. His body couldn't take the tension anymore and he becomes queasy. Naruto runs to the bathroom, into the nearest stall he could find, and vomits.
When he finishes several moments later, he staggers out of the stall and slouches over the pedestal sink. He turns the handle of the faucet and cups his hands under the running water, splashing the cold liquid against his fiery cheeks. Naruto combs his wet hands through his spiky hair before inhaling deeply and looking up into the mirror. His reflection was worn and stared back at him with a sadness hidden in his eyes.
Soon, his reflection shatters along with the mirror on the wall as Naruto begins brutally punching at the glass. Blood drips into the sink and flows down the drain from the open wounds on the blonde ninja's knuckles. The wounds rapidly heal in an instant. It was almost like his body was screaming for him to forget the pain, but he couldn't. He decided to ignore this feeling because quite frankly, he didn't care. He was too disgusted with himself to care about anything anymore.
The only woman he had ever truly loved, he was afraid to even get close to her, but that was the one thing he desired most.
He storms out the bathroom and stops in the middle of the hallway. Naruto looks down the hall at Urumi's room before heading back down there himself. He didn't attempt to enter the room again. Instead, he peers inside through a small, uncovered window by the door that had a perfect view of the kunoichi's bed.
He could see a respirator sitting at her bedside, but she was breathing on her own. He figured it must've been a precaution. His eyes linger to her sheathed sword propped against her bedside table by the window opposite of him. Naruto quickly averts his eyes away from the blood-stained weapon and back to Urumi.
Although he couldn't see her face over the guardrails of her hospital bed, he could tell she wore the same pained expression he did. With that thought in mind, he pulls his face reluctantly from the window, leaving bloody hand prints against the glass and leaves the hospital.
By this time, it was already nightfall and the streetlights hadn't yet kicked on, so it was unusually dark.
On the way out of the building, Naruto bumps into someone. Not feeling particularly friendly at the moment, he pushes right past the small-framed figure and ignores it... Well, until it spoke.
"Have you seen my sister anywhere?" the figure asks timidly.
Naruto stops and the streetlamps flicker on. The yellowish, fluorescent light blinds him momentarily. He slowly turns to face the figure, squinting his eyes to try and see where this familiar voice was coming from. His vision quickly clears up and he realizes it was Kaori, Urumi's younger sister. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying and she looked tired and frightened.
"What are you doing out here so late, Kaori?" questions the blonde ninja as the young girl sniffles and rubs her eyes with her shirt sleeves. She opens her mouth to speak, but her words were muted by her constant sobbing. Naruto stares for a moment, completely unsure of what to do. He sighs, takes the girl's hand in his, and leads her back to the apartment complex.
During the walk home, the boy explains to the girl that Urumi was put into the hospital earlier that day and it'd be awhile before she would be released. He finishes by insisting Kaori stay with him until then.
When they arrive, Naruto unlocks his door and opens it. He makes a movement to head inside, but is stopped when Kaori pulls on his pant leg. "Can I go get my stuff from next door?" she asks quietly as the blonde kneels beside her. "Sure thing. I'll keep the door unlocked for you, 'kay?" he answers with a forced smile. Kaori nods and hurriedly races to the apartment next door.
Naruto takes this chance to change into his pajamas before she returns. The boy lies in his bed afterwards with his window wide open. He stares blankly up at the ceiling when the young girl bounds into his bed alongside him. He watches her from the corner of his eye as she buries herself into his body. His heart drops into his stomach when he realizes how much he longed for Urumi to be the one lying next to him.
The blonde ninja waits for the girl to nod off before scooting out of bed and crashing on the couch for the night. He grabs a blanket from the linen closet and settles in on the plush cushions of the couch. Naruto's eyes flutter shut and he tries to free his mind of all the day's past events, but as soon as he allows his mind to wander onto other things, it somehow reverts back to Urumi.
He groans and flips onto the knotted mess that was his stomach, burying his face in the darkness of the seat cushion. He lifts his head when he feels something drop onto his legs, pain jetting from the point of impact. He groans to try and mollify the numbness overcoming his lower body.
"Kaori, what are you doing? I thought you were supposed to be asleep..." he asks, slightly aggravated. Naruto pulls his legs out from under the girl and sits up right. Kaori twirls her hair between her fingertips and stares down at the floor while Naruto's eyes remain fixed on her.
"Urumi sings me a song to help me sleep at night..." she mutters under her breath. Her voice small and fragile against the flapping curtains in Naruto's window.
The boy inhales deeply and leans his head against the backrest of the couch. "How does this song go?" He releases his held breath as he spoke and turns his head towards the window. "I'm not really sure..." Kaori laments after a few moments of deep thought.
Naruto turns to face the girl beside him and perches his elbow on the backrest with his head in his hand. He flashes the girl a false, but comforting smile.
"How about I sing you a song of my own?" he offers, but Kaori's eyes were skeptical. She eventually gives in when Naruto leads her back to the bed and tucks her in. He sits on the edge of the bed and gazes out the window, sub-consciously searching through his repertoire for a song to sing to the young girl.
Finally, an idea comes to mind when the clouds slowly drift away from the window, revealing a familiar, full moon. The same moon he watched the night he heard that song awhile back...
Moonlight floods into the room as the boy begins to hum the melody of the lullaby. It was a beautiful tune with an intoxicating beat and rhythm. It would've been even better if he could remember the words... Within minutes, Kaori falls into a deep slumber.
Naruto slowly lifts himself off the bed and tiptoes over to the couch. He pulls his blanket up to his chest and lets his head become engulfed into the plush of the seat cushion. His eyelids gradually become heavy as he stares up at the ceiling again. This becomes the last thing he sees before the darkness.
...
He awakens the next morning with a greeting by the sun peering in through his window. As the sleepiness wears off, he feels something tickle his nose. Naruto swats at his face until it finally comes off. It was a note Kaori had left him before she went off to school. He peels the tape off his forehead and begins to read it.
I just wanted to thank you for letting me stay the night. Maybe when I get out of school today I can treat you to ramen so I can properly show my appreciation. And if you're going to visit my sister today, tell her I said, 'happy birthday' for me, 'kay?
Naruto jumps to his feet in disbelief. He had no idea that today was Urumi's birthday, but what had really caught him off-guard was the fact she was a whole month older than he was! He bolts to his closet to change, then to the bathroom to quickly brush his teeth before dashing to the hospital in a full sprint.
He swims his way through the crowded streets and swings around the corner where he collides into an unfamiliar man. Naruto topples over backwards onto the pavement.
"Where are you headed in such a rush, Squirt?" the man asks in a deep, and hearty voice. The blonde frowns at the man's offensive remark. He stands and brushes himself off before replying.
"My name's not Squirt! It's-" The man cuts him off with a booming wave of laughter.
"Naruto Uzumaki... I've heard about you," the man chuckles. Naruto stares up at the man with the long, white mane for a moment. He was about to ask how this strange man knew him, but was interrupted again by his crazed dancing. "I am Jiraiya! The Legendary Toad Sage!"
The blonde continues to stare blankly at the dancing man. Jiraiya freezes in a pose and the young gennin lets a smile ascend upon his traitorous lips. "I'm sorry, but I've never heard of you before..." The man's jaw drops and he narrows his eyes; causing his forehead to furrow.
"You're just as thick-headed as he is..." the man scolds with a frown as Naruto plants his hands on his hips. "What do you mean by that?! Who's this he you're talking about?!" the blonde ninja questions aggressively as Jiraiya cracks a smug grin.
"Why the Fourth Hokage of course!"
"You're comparing me to the Fourth?!"
"Well, the two of you do look alike. All the way down to that goofy grin of yours"
"Thanks... I guess..." Naruto mutters coldly under his breath. Jiraiya quickly waves him off. "Anyway, I need to get back to my research, but you're welcome to tag along if you'd like. You might even learn a thing or two." he offers with a crooked smile as Naruto shakes his head.
"No, I have to go to the hospital and visit a friend of mine..." he declines quietly.
The word "friend" left a bitter taste in his mouth. "Friend" felt so trite and meaningless. That shell of a word that used to bring so much joy was now a succinct of cynical contempt. He couldn't believe he had used that word so casually- Like what he had done yesterday was anything along the lines of amiable.
Jiraiya pats the boy forcefully on the shoulder, breaking him from his trance.
"She'll be alright, trust me..." he comforts with a somewhat stolid expression before turning to leave. Naruto quickly grabs him by the wrist and pulls him back. "You know Urumi?!" he asks with a hint of anxiety hidden deep within his shaky voice. Jiraiya yanks his arm free from the boy's grasp. He draws his eyes away from the teary one's of the blonde's and sighs.
"Like I said before, I have some research I desperately need to attend to, so I'll see you around." he grunts firmly, turning away from Naruto. Jiraiya disappears through the wall of pedestrians behind him. The blonde watches him walk away until every hint of the man vanishes.
He wanted to follow Jiraiya to see what he was hiding from him, but he felt he didn't deserve to know anything more about Urumi's past. He was about to turn-tail and head back to his apartment, but he remembers Kaori's note.
"I have to try atleast once... For her..."
...
Naruto arrives at the reception desk of the hospital at exactly 12:30 p.m. Visiting hours began 45 minutes ago and his feet were as heavy as ever as he walks that same path up to Urumi's room. The nurse escorting him leaves the boy in front of the door and heads back to the front desk.
He stares through the uncovered window at the girl lying motionless in the hospital bed. His palms were sweating and kept sticking to the glass and his throat slowly began to tighten. It was becoming rather harder for him to breathe. His mind kept screaming at him.
He wasn't brave enough and his love wasn't strong enough to go anywhere near Urumi.
"Naruto, what are you doing out here? You know the door's unlocked, right?" Kakashi asks as he wipes his damp hands on his vest.
Naruto continues to stare through the window with deadpan eyes. Kakashi sighs and walks to the door of the kunoichi's room. The boy watches his sensei's reflection as he passes by him in the window. They lock eyes for a second in the reflective glass.
"How long have you been here?" Naruto blurts without removing his gaze from the girl. Kakashi was slow to response to the demanding question at first.
"...I've been here for the past hour. Why?"
"Did a man named Jiraiya come to see her today by any chance?" The blonde ninja finally turns to face his sensei, who was frozen at the door with his hand on the handle.
"How much did he tell you?" Kakashi murmurs in an unusually low voice.
"All he said was that she'd be okay but-"
Kakashi lifts his head from the door handle and quickly glances at the genin before returning it to the door. "Good. You should take that to heart, Naruto." the sensei interrupts sharply. "Uhn... I'm not worried about that..." Naruto clutches the sides of his pants and Kakashi twists the door handle, being none the wiser.
"Are you coming in or not?" he asks while standing in the doorway. Naruto flexes his fingers from the pain erupting in his hands. He hesitates to move towards the door. Kakashi watches the boy struggle for a moment. He didn't think what happened yesterday would've effected Naruto so much.
The blonde's eyes dart from the window then to his sensei. He tries to force his legs to move, but found them too heavy to lift.
"Dammit," drops from his quivering lips in despair.
"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!!"
Kakashi's gaze shifts from the cursing boy to Urumi and eventually sits in one of the chairs by her bedside. He buries his nose deep within the pages of his hentai book and lets Naruto make this choice on his own. He couldn't force the genin to do something his hesitant heart wouldn't allow.
"If he finally does come in, I'll tell him everything I know about her past..."
--
-"I don't want you to feel alone anymore! I know I didn't show it when I ran off, but I'll always be by your side no matter what..."-
--
Naruto was having a flashback to the day Urumi found out about the demon living inside him. Her words seemed to really hit home... Especially after he ran off yesterday. She was able to forgive him so easily after that incident, but he couldn't do the same for her...
He didn't think it was possible for him to feel any lower than he already did...
--
-"Will you forgive me? Please..." -
--
He listens to the sweet, melodic pleads of the voice in his head until his body becomes numb. He just couldn't bare it anymore. He was mentally and physically falling apart...
Naruto finally manages to shuffle his way slowly and silently to the doorway before his feet melt into the linoleum flooring. Kakashi's eyes peek over the pages of his book and cling to the boy in the doorway. The blonde's head was held low, with eyes that weren't really focused on anything.
"I don't deserve to be here... I've failed you..."
The silence between the two men had added tension into the thick air. The pressure began to bear down upon the blonde's shoulders, adding weight onto his already heavy heart. Kakashi sighs and his eyes lower to his book again. Neither were willing to make eye contact with the other. The sensei did it through a sense of politeness, but Naruto just didn't want Kakashi to see the fear in his eyes... Even though it was clearly shown through his actions.
He raises his head and his eyes travel to Urumi. He notices the restraints on her wrists and ankles.
-Did she wake up earlier that day?-
-Did she try to escape?-
-But to where-- Orochimaru??-
Naruto shakes these thoughts from his head and lets a long, shaky sigh pass through his dry, scratchy throat. He combs his fingers through his hair in a way to relieve his stress, but when he lifts his hands he feels something warm and wet drip into his upturned palms.
-Tears? Was he crying?-
His eyes dart over to Kakashi, who didn't seem to be paying attention to him at all. Naruto rubs the tears trailing down his face with his shirt sleeve. He lifts his head towards the ceiling to keep the tears forming in his eyes from falling. He shuts his eyes tightly and takes a deep breath. It was painful at first, like his chest was collapsing against itself.
The feeling slowly dissipates when he finally takes those first few steps into the hospital room.
"...Naruto,"
Kakashi's voice was soft and low. It was soothing to the boy's ears to hear something other than the continuous animosity he held towards himself mercilessly attacking his sub-conscious.
"Do you want to hear the truth about Urumi?"