Since it seems like I'm incapable of actually updating on every second Friday, I'll from now on try to update on Friday, but if not, update on Saturday. I do remember to update on Fridays in the morning, but I forget until I get home from school.

I don't own Naruto or any of its characters. Both belongs to Kishimoto Masashi.

Chapter XX
– Before It's Too Late –

"What happened?" Tsunade shouted over the noise she was causing herself, frantically shuffling around shelves, grabbing sterile syringes and needles, ripping open drawers to fetch an infusion bag. Shizune, her assistant, was running around just as wildly.

"Um…" Quick, make something up! You can't possibly tell her what really happened! "I found Naruto passed out on my doorstep," Suigetsu replied. "My neighbour is a doctor and he took care of some injuries Naruto had. He was out for a while, but my neighbour looked him over again when he woke up and said he was fine after giving him some medicine, saying it was just a cold. Later we ran around a little, wrestled a bit, you know. Just for fun. He suddenly just… hyperventilated or something and passed out and wasn't breathing anymore. We were barely able to get him to breathe again."

A nasty scowl settled on the busty woman's face. "Whoever diagnosed a cold is a total moron!" Tsunade yelled furiously. "Naruto is suffering from a severe case of viral pneumonia. He seems to not have breathed for a while. The oxygen flow to his brain has been cut off for too long, meaning he could fall into a coma. He could die!"

The words were like a punch to the guts. Suigetsu's face contorted into an expression of shock, Sai next to him only slightly better composed. The severity of the situation finally hit the two. "I didn't think…"

Once Naruto had passed out on top of Pain, the man had notified Madara, who had assigned Suigetsu and Sai the job of taking care of the blond and bringing him to a hospital. Since nobody at the hospital was willing to even get close to Naruto and Tsunade worked there once school ended – she still had that pile of unpaid invoices at home – the busty woman was the one now trying to save the teen's life.

"Shit," the blond woman hissed as she pressed a oxygen mask over Naruto's face, while Shizune inserted a needle into the blond's arm and connected it to an infusion. "He doesn't only suffer from pneumonia, but also at least one or possibly several broken rib. He's also malnourished. Even if I can save him from dying of a pulmonary oedema or the infection, the broken rib could still puncture his lung. The following pneumothorax would kill him." The woman caught a small glance of the two teens standing in the door frame, shooting her quizzical looks, causing her gaze to immediately harden. "He could either die from fluid accumulating in his lung, from the infection or from air collecting between his lung and his chest wall!"

A worried frown formed on the purple-eyed teen's face as everything slowly began to sink in. "So it's this bad," he mumbled and glanced sideways to look at Sai. "Do you think he'll really…"

Sai usually kept to himself, not quite able to handle Suigetsu most of the time. But now the other wasn't his usual boisterous and obnoxious self. He smiled sadly, but genuinely when he replied. "Everything will be fine."

Doesn't help, dipshit. "I hope so," Suigetsu mumbled quietly, his head dropping and his eyes fixing on the floor. "Would suck if it didn't."

Two hours later, Tsunade finally decided to rest in a chair beside Naruto's bed Shizune already having left a few minutes earlier. She had stabilised Naruto to the best of her abilities. After pumping him up with several different medications, all she now could do was have him rest, sleep the infection off and let his broken bones and wounds heal up. She wasn't sure yet if the teen was in a coma or not. Fearing the worst, she didn't dare search for signs. Yet.

For a while the woman just sat beside Naruto, staring down at his unusually pale face. She desperately tried to ignore the bruises on his neck, tried to block out the fact that she was sure where bruises like that came from. And she was far from examining the teen's body in its entirety, afraid of what she would find.

A few minutes ticked by before Tsunade finally calmed her racing mind and decided to see what kind of state exactly the teen was in. She pulled a small flashlight from a drawer and approached the bed, when suddenly the door to the room flew open and slammed against a wall.

"Kiba's dying over there, you know!" Sakura yelled, waving a balled fist at the woman.

The startled expression vanished from Tsunade's face and was replaced by a stern scowl. She was about to speak up, when she was silenced by the horrified look on Sakura's now white face. Dropping her scowl, she twisted her body back around to look at Naruto. "He was brought here a while after Kiba," she answered the unasked question that hung in the tense air.

"I-I see." Sakura tore her eyes away from the sight of what could have been a corpse on the bed. "I guess… I'll tell the others then." Despite her words, she took a step forward instead of back as if wanting to get to Naruto's side as quickly as possible. Mid-step she changed her mind though and turned abruptly to leave with her head lowered.

Tsunade sighed as she watched the pink-haired girl leave with grief lining her features, having a hunch that things would never be the same now.

"He's here too?" Kiba shot up from his lying position, only to flinch, groan and fall back down whining. Even Akamaru whimpered next to him on the floor. The dog tried to soothe his injured master by resting his head on the teen's lap, calming down only when Kiba stroked his white fur with a small smile.

"He was unconscious when I got there," Sakura replied, seeming as though in a daze. "Tsunade also looked… disturbed."

The others in the room, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Chouji, Ino, Shino and Hinata, all shot expectant looks at the pink-haired girl. Some of them seemed scared, worried or down-right shocked at the news. Neither of them had known what to expect.

"Is it that bad?" Ino questioned with a fearful expression.

Shaking her head, Sakura kept her eyes on the white-tiled floor, unable to move her head much. "I don't know."

"Didn't you ask her?"

The pink-haired girl merely shrugged weakly and failed to notice the obvious accusation in that question. "I left once I saw… him."

"Wh-Why did you leave?" Kiba nearly yelled, almost sitting up again, but deciding otherwise.

"I just…" Sakura broke out into her habit of nervously rubbing her arm, feeling uncomfortable with everyone's eyes on her like that, "I just can't deal with him right now. When I see him, I feel like I'll cry any moment only because I can't stand his… his… those eyes of his. Looking at me as if he doesn't care. About anything. Not about us, not about me, not about himself! I just can't deal with it anymore."

When no one said anything and was silenced by the girl's words, Kiba was the one to break that silence. "Idiot. Aren't you his friend?"

"I am! That's why I can't deal with it!" Sakura suddenly screamed, tears in her eyes. "I've been friends with him since kindergarten! We built clay figures in elementary school together, he got into so many fights in middle school to protect me and himself and in high school… all of that was just… gone."

Not wanting to upset the nearly crying girl further, no one said anything, not even Kiba. Most just stared at the floor, at the walls, or out of the window.

"Wow, I really need to learn to read the atmosphere." An apologetic, but still shark-like grin appeared on Suigetsu's face as all eyes turned to him and Sai once they entered the room. He scratched the back of his head, trying to dissolve the heavy atmosphere he had stepped in on. "Uh… Well the blond chick kinda threw us out after a while and now we don't have anything to do and so… Yeah. I heard you guys mentioning Blondie and thought I'd join, cause we were the ones that brought him here."

"You were?" Ino turned around to face the white-haired teen properly. "Can you tell us what happened? All we know is that he was brought here and has been unconscious since then."

Suigetsu looked as if he was pondering what to say and what not to say before he answered. He decided to stick to his story rather quickly, seeing it was the safest way to go. "He came to my place and collapsed in front of my door. I brought him to a neighbour who's a doctor, he told us it was just a cold and sent him off. A while later we fooled around a little and Naruto just suddenly hyperventilated or something and stopped breathing."

For the first time, Shikamaru spoke up after having silently watched and listened the entire time. "Do you know what's wrong with him?"

"Uh…" Suigetsu blew a puff of breath through his lips as he rummaged through his memories and tried to remember what Tsunade had said. There had been so many complicated words involved and he barely remembered what exactly she had explained.

"Tsunade told us that his condition is critical," Sai responded cooly. "He seems to have broken ribs that could pierce his lung and kill him. What seems to be the most dangerous right now is his pneumonia, where not only the infection could kill him, but also the liquid collecting between his lung and chest wall could do it. The fact that he is malnourished doesn't make matters any better either. I also think that she is still hiding something about his condition."

Naturally, everyone in the room was shocked. The mere thought of Naruto dying seemed unreal, impossible even. Judging by his coughs earlier, no one would have thought it was this serious. If only they had paid more attention.

"Fuck," Kiba mumbled, covering his face with a bandaged arm.

"Who are you anyway?" Shikamaru suddenly asked, somewhat changing the topic in vain.

Another of his trademark shark-grins appeared on Suigetsu's face and effectively startled the occupants of the room. "We're friends of his. We know him outside of school. Our… extracurricular activities are similar; that's how we met. I'm Suigetsu and this pale-ass guy is Sai."

"What activity would that be?" the pony-tailed teen interrogated further, his eyebrows creasing together.

Suigetsu's face turned more serious now and he briefly looked at Sai before he spoke. "You should ask him that yourself."

"I can imagine what kind of activity that is," Sasuke suddenly spat from his spot in a corner of the room, calmly sitting in a grey chair. He met Suigetsu's flat expression with a glare, fixing him with a scowl that barely hid his anger. "How did Naruto end up with the same extracurricular activity as you, Suigetsu?"

"Sasuke," Suigetsu sighed as if this kind of argument happened often, "you make it sound like it's–"

"Disgusting? Low? Illegal?"

"You know pretty well that that isn't illegal. We're not…" Trailing off, Suigetsu rubbed his forehead. "Anyway, we've been kinda taking care of Naruto a few times, so I consider him a friend. Anything against that, Sasuke?"

A sarcastic grunt came from the brunet's direction. "Using loopholes in the law like that. Pathetic."

"Well at least I didn't turn into a fucking lunatic just cause some bad stuff happened to me, unlike you. A least I can see when someone's trying to manipulate me. Unlike that brother of yours." When Suigetsu saw the Uchiha's onyx eyes narrow, he sighed heavily, annoyance lacing his voice. "Sorry. That was low." A frown settled on the teen's face as his eyebrows knit together. "Great, I was trying to lighten the mood and it takes only a few seconds for your snarky ass to ruin everything."

The banter between the two teens seemed unbelievable to everyone else present. Sasuke apparently had something close to friends outside of school, a thing hard to believe for the high schoolers. Everyone knew that many members of the Uchiha family had been killed when they all had been in elementary school, only the exact way was a mystery yet to be resolved.

Suigetsu suddenly stepped forward and grabbed Sasuke's arm to pull him out of the chair and towards the door. "I'm gonna go see Blondie no matter what the old lady says."

"Do what you want, but don't drag me along with you," Sasuke hissed dangerously, from the corner of his eyes seeing the others contemplating if they should go as well or stay with Kiba.

Anyone else would have let go of the raven's arm immediately as if burned just hearing the venom in his voice. But not Suigetsu. "You're coming with me," he replied, ignoring the scowl drilling into the back of his head as he stepped out of the room with the teen, Sai silently following behind them. "I know you care about him more than you're letting on, so it's important that you see him at least once before he…"

"Before he what?"

Suigetsu turned his head to give the Uchiha a grin. "Before you won't have a chance to anymore."

The frowning Sasuke only now noticed that they were entering the emergency department of the hospital. When he was pulled into one certain room far away from the big emergency room by his white-haired companion, he almost walked into Suigetsu who suddenly stopped walking and was rooted in place in the doorframe. "What…" Sasuke trailed off as he noticed Tsunade sitting in her chair next to Naruto, her devastated expression causing different horrible scenarios to play out in the teen's mind.

Only one sentence was enough to make it clear how severe the situation was.

"Naruto has fallen into a coma."

"Idiot. It's unbelievable how idiotic only one person can be. It's a miracle this type of shit didn't happen sooner. Fucking dumbass."

"Are you done cursing at Naruto now?" Kiba inquired from his wheelchair as Shino pushed the teen inside. One would think that having several broken and sprained bones would bind someone to a bed for a long time, but knowing an influential doctor personally had its advantages.

Sasuke looked up from staring at the motionless face of his once obnoxious rival to send a scowl at the brunet teen across from him. "Hn."

It had been four days since Naruto had been brought to the hospital. Four days earlier, the others had been in Kiba's room almost all day, processing what both Sai and later Tsunade had told them. Most of them hadn't been ready to actually see Naruto yet. Suigetsu and Sai had promptly left in a hurry once Suigetsu had received a phone call. From who, no one besides those two and perhaps Naruto knew.

"I mean, you've been sitting here at least six hours a day ever since Tsunade told us about this whole coma-thing like some… love-sick puppy." Kiba couldn't prevent himself from flinching when the Uchiha sent him that same glare he had shot Suigetsu. "B-Besides, Tsunade said his chances are good that he'll wake up, remember?"

"How is a seventy percent chance a good chance?" Sasuke spat with his scowl unwavering. "There's still a thirty percent chance of him not waking up at all."

A dramatic sigh left the Inuzuka's mouth as Shino wheeled him further into the room so he was next to Naruto's bed. "It's Naruto. He won't die; easy as that."

"Hn."

With Sasuke's not keen on talking, Kiba shifted around nervously for a moment. "Anyway," Kiba drawled loudly, "Ino brought something fun."

Only now Sasuke took a peek at what was in the other's lap as Kiba picked it up with his bandaged arms, his left wrist and his right lower arm sprained.

Ignoring the pain in his right shoulder, which Tsunade had had to pop back into its socket, Kiba showed the Uchiha what he was holding. "It's some book named Psychological Facts. Tsunade said there's a chance Naruto can hear us, but can't respond. We thought he'd be bored lying here all day without being able to do anything. Maybe this'll cheer him up."

"Do what you like," Sasuke responded dismissively.

A grin appeared on Kiba's bruised face and he flashed Shino a thumbs-up, before opening the black book he was holding. "Let's see…" He began looking through the pages, his eyes widening only seconds later. "Hey! I think this could be interesting for you, Sasuke: Psychological Fact number 28: All emotional pain lasts twelve minutes, anything longer is self-inflicted."

"Why should that interest me?"

Kiba shrunk back a little in his wheelchair, noticing the atmosphere suddenly shifting, the temperature seeming to drop. "Oh, ah… nothing. On to the next one!" The teen skipped back to the very front of the book with a childishly bright, though mostly nervous, smile. When he turned a few pages and began reading, a yawn escaped his mouth. "Wait!" he suddenly yelled, stopping mid-yawn. "Okay, this is fucking creepy: Psychological Fact number 59: Yawning is contagious. Even thinking about yawning is enough. After reading this, there's a fifty percent chance that you will yawn."

No one saw the way Shino's and Sasuke's jaw twitched slightly.

"Isn't that creepy?" Kiba yelled loudly, flinching a little when pain erupted from his chest, his bruised ribs aching and Akamaru whining quietly. "I really–"

"You can't just go in there like that!" someone suddenly yelled outside the room.

Looking at each other quizzically, Sasuke and Kiba could hear heavy steps approaching along with the shouts of both doctors, nurses, and Tsunade furiously yelling at someone.

All of a sudden, the door burst open to reveal a man with wild brown hair dressed in a long, dark-grey coat, his face partially hidden by sunglasses. He stalked towards Naruto's bed and ignored the yells and shouts, stopping only when he could look down at the comatose blond. "Fucking dumbass," was all he mumbled before he lowered his face to the blond's.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Kiba yelled, wincing a bit in pain as he angrily punched and clawed at the man's back from his wheelchair, trying to get the stranger away from Naruto, while Sasuke merely stared. The Inuzuka recognised the man as being the one that had kidnapped Naruto and even though the blond had told him that the man was an old friend, he just couldn't get himself to trust him.

Tsunade now came stalking into the room having bloody murder written all over her furious face. "If you don't step back from him this instance, I will punch you so hard even your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren will be born dizzy and with a concussion, black eyes, no teeth and several broken facial bones!"

"You're too fucking loud, old hag," the stranger mumbled as he straightened up again and turned around pressing a hand to one of his ears. "Get laid. You're obviously under-fucked." Ignoring the woman, he leaned back down to Naruto, suddenly pulled out a syringe-like thing from some part of his coat and jabbed it into the blond's arm.

An angry flush quickly spread on Tsunade's face as she marched towards the man in rage. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

"I think I'm the guy that just woke up fucking Sleeping Beauty."

The room silenced, jaws dropping and eyes widening when cerulean eyes suddenly blearily opened. They focused on the partially obscured face above, blinking as they struggled to recognise it.

"Hey tosser, tell them why they shouldn't call the police." The brown-haired man cocked his head as dry lips parted a while later, but no words sounded. His eyebrows furrowed when he saw panic and fear in those sky-blue eyes. "I think… he turned mute."

More silence.

Someone broke it of course, as always in these kinds of situations.

"What the fuck?" Kiba yelled, breaking out into tiny yelps of pain immediately afterwards.

Hands gently scrutinised Naruto's throat and fingers gingerly ran over his neck. Tsunade's expression was stern and tense when she shook her head, unable to find an answer.

"Putting aside the question of how exactly you just randomly woke up from a coma like that, I can't find anything that could be wrong with your vocal cords," she told the blond. "Your throat is a bit inflamed from the infection, but you should be able to talk. Just try. It could be a side effect of your medication, or symptoms of your pneumonia, but you should be able to talk fine in a few hours again. I'll have to check your brain to see if something is damaged there. I probably should do a full body examination to see even small things, now that I think about it. You may have some internal injuries that have to be dealt with." She briefly caught the look of sudden panic and fear on Naruto's face and focused her gaze on him. "What's wrong?"

The blond only shook his head in silence, looking horrified.

"I think he doesn't want a full body check," the brown-haired stranger threw in cockily, making Tsunade scowl at him.

She wanted to kick the foul-mouthed man out, but Naruto refused to let go of his sleeve. Everyone but him had already been thrown out.

The woman turned back around and cocked an eyebrow with a questioning look directed at Naruto. "Is that true?" She inwardly groaned when the teen nodded in affirmative, a sigh passing her pink lips. Tsunade pressed a few fingers against the bridge of her nose. "I have to, brat. We won't know what's wrong with you unless I properly examine you. All I did until now was take care of things that needed to be done the most. There still could be things dangerous to you. If something inside you is bleeding without is knowing, you could die within the next hours. Or even within the next minutes." Sadness crossed the blond's face when Naruto backed away further on the bed as she approached. "Na–"

"I'll talk to him. Alone." He sent the woman a meaningful look, urging her to leave with his stare.

Not quite trusting the man, but forced to admit that he seemed to be able to handle Naruto, Tsunade nodded curtly and left the room. Once outside she was faced with the worried faces of Naruto's friends, minus Kiba, Hinata and Shino, who all were in the Inuzuka's room. "What is this?" she barked in an agitated manner. "Some kind of get-together? Don't you have homes to go back to or homework to do?"

"We're worried," was all Shikamaru said and it was enough to make Tsunade's mouth snap shut and the woman to stalk away in order to calm her nerves with a good old bottle of rum.

Meanwhile, inside Naruto's room the brown-haired man had sat down beside the blond and was now sitting on a chair with his arms resting on the bed.

"You have to do it, nancy-boy," he mumbled, knowing someone outside was trying to listen in on them. He could feel those curious eyes peeking inside through a small slit in the door. The door was in his exact line of view too. His crimson eyes narrowed when the blond shook his head again. "Why the fuck not?" the brunet spat.

Naruto opened his mouth to answer, but quickly remembered that he couldn't. His eyes shifted around the room, obviously trying to find a way to convey what he wanted to say.

A sigh left the man's mouth as he got up from his chair and walked around the room. He quickly found a pencil and even some worn paper in the drawer of a desk. Carelessly throwing the items into Naruto's lap, he dropped back down into his chair and watched the teen writing his message. Once the blond was done after a few moments, the blue-eyed teen handed him the piece of paper.

I don't want anyone to know, Kyuubi. It's already bad the way it is now and if anything gets out, I won't ever live any of this down. They'll only smother me with pity and always remind me of it.

"You don't know that," the man said in a low voice. "Besides, don't you want that fucking wanker Mizuki behind bars? It'll be a lot easier once you have actual proof, like a medical record that shows exactly what the hell he did to you. That Kiba dude's family is already suing him for assault anyway. With child abuse, rape and forced prostitution added to his charge, he won't get out of prison for a long time. I'll kill him myself if his soon-to-be cell mates don't get the chance to."

Usually people said something like that as a joke. Naruto dared to think Kyuubi was serious. Frowning, the blond began scribbling something onto his paper again.

Can't I go on without having to tell anyone about all this?

"Life's not that easy, you muppet. Either suck it up or stay with that wanker." Yet again Kyuubi sighed as he slumped into his chair and rested his chin on a propped up arm. "Listen, I'll offer you a deal."

Naruto's interest was peeked as was that of their audience, who could only follow the general flow of the conversation by the changing expressions on the blond's face, unable to catch the words spoken.

"Let Tsunade do that full body check. In exchange, I'll answer whatever questions you may have. About me and about your parents. About what happened three years ago."

Naruto was quick to reply. Something happened three years ago?, he questioned with a startled expression.

Kyuubi cocked his head and nodded. He waited for Naruto's answer and watched him lower his paper, then dropping his head, shoulders slumping, eyes lowering to his lap. The redhead cocked his head into the other direction as he waited for a response, even started to tap his fingers against his cheek. He perked up just a bit when Naruto turned his face to look at him.

With uncertainty still clearly plastered on the teen's face, Naruto nodded in agreement.

"He's asleep right now," Tsunade whispered, careful not to wake the teen behind the door she was standing in front of. "Somewhere throughout the check-up he was able to talk a bit again. He fell asleep after a while though, probably from the exhaustion, and wouldn't wake up. I had an x-ray, an MRI and a CT done during that time and apparently his left wrist is broken multiple times. And as I thought, he has two broken ribs, while three others are a little bruised."

The group of teens before the woman listened closely to every word spoken, nodding every now and then with their moods darkening by the minute.

"He's also a bit underweight. I took a blood sample and all I can say now is that the iron level in his blood is very low because of that, but other than that, he isn't overly malnutritioned. We'll have to wait for the results of the other tests. Right now he's still not completely out of danger. His lung could collapse at any time and if he starts coughing violently, he could die of his lung being punctured. The chance is slim though. It's a miracle nothing happened when he ran away." The blond released a sigh, her shoulders slumping. It had been a long day and she felt drained like she hadn't in a long time. "All we can do now is wait and hope the medication is effective and that he heals up properly."

Shikamaru eyed and watched Tsunade carefully. Something was off. Something was definitely off. In the beginning, when the blonde had begun to speak, he had expected very bad news, but what had been said until now hadn't been that bad. Depressing and worrying, yes, but not world-shattering. There was hope. Despite that, she seemed troubled, her eyes darting around the room, the woman unconsciously biting her thumbnail every now and then as she spoke. A habit of hers when she was nervous. "You found something else too," Shikamaru blurted out, stern eyes watching the woman's reaction. "Something worrying."

Startled, Tsunade eyes shifted to the brunet. "I have, but it's not my place to tell you."

"You already told us so much," Sakura cut in eagerly. "Why are you still hiding something?"

"It falls under medical confidentiality."

No one could actually argue with that, not even Shikamaru. There was only so much he could find out through mere questions. Tsunade had already disregarded that exact medical confidentiality she was speaking of, but she could still use it as an excuse. She had no obligation to endanger herself for them after all.

"How many times has Naruto visited Kurenai?" Tsunade suddenly wanted to know out of the blue.

"As far as I know, only once," Shikamaru replied, trying to figure out why exactly she wanted to know.

The woman nodded, seeming to think something over. "I think I'll have to get her here."

Immediately, many images raced through Ino's mind, most of them not very pleasant "What? Why?"

"He probably needs her more than you thought," Tsunade explained, her cryptic words hanging heavily in the silent air, making it thick with tension.

"Tsu-Tsunade," a timid voice penetrated he sudden silence.

Everyone turned to see Hinata poking her head out of Kiba's room a few doors down the corridor.

"Kiba-kun would like to… visit Naruto-kun."

Grunting exasperatedly, Tsunade threw her head back dramatically. "He's already been up too much. Actually, he shouldn't have been up at all." Her head snapped back again to let the full force of her glare bore a hole into the teens' faces. "I also shouldn't have been telling you guys anything at all about Naruto's condition either, since you're not immediate family. I'm already stretching my boundaries with what I'm doing right now."

"I already told you!" Kiba's voice bellowed from afar, making Hinata pull her head back into the room in surprise. "I'm totally fine!"

"You can't even walk, dumbass!" Tsunade yelled back. "Just stay in bed until I say you can move again!"

"Tsunade!" Now that voice was unfamiliar. It sounded irritated, coming from behind a closed door somewhere in the corridor. "There are patients who need rest in this hospital, so stop yelling around like that!"

"But I want out of this fucking bed!" Being denied his wishes and feeling neglected as a patient, Kiba only got even more riled up.

"I don't care!" the unfamiliar voice piped up again. "There are other pa–"

"Stop yelling like that, Kotetsu!"

"I'm telling Tsunade-san and that punk to be quiet!"

"Then first stop yelling yourself!"

"You're yelling too, Izumo!"

The banter went on like that for a long while even when something repeatedly and quickly tapped over the tiled floor. Once Tsunade caught sight of it, it only intensified her growing ire.

"That damn dog of his could get me fired," she mumbled, disregarding the fact that she was the chief physician of the hospital as well as invaluable due to her unequaled skills. It was the reason no one could actually doubt any of her decisions.

Unperturbed by the commotion, Akamaru happily wagged his tail as he approached Naruto's room. He seemed elated to be of use to his master. The piece of paper clamped between his teeth was slightly moist with saliva when he easily pushed open the door to Naruto's room and entered. Finding the boy asleep, he jumped onto his bed with his forelegs, dropped the paper and began to lick Naruto's face. It took a while until the blond finally opened his eyes with confusion, only to find Akamaru in his face.

Naruto released a silent gasp, but calmed once he saw the piece of paper the dog had brought and sat up carefully. His curiosity kicked in, so he carefully unfolded the message and began to read.

Tsunade took my phone. Hope you can even read this. My hand's fucked up. How did you get away from your dad? And what's with you and those weird guys? Sai and shark boy? – Kiba

Kyuubi, who had left saying he needed to take care of some business, had left the pen from earlier on the small table next to Naruto's bed. Picking it, Naruto immediately scribbled an answer, but stopped mid-way, Akamaru cocking his head at the action. "Shit," the blond mumbled. "Akamaru," he cooed with his still hoarse voice nearly cracking. "Get me my phone, okay?" He snarled inwardly when the dog only cocked his head in question. "Phone," Naruto repeated, wildly gesturing towards the table on the other side of the room, the table on which his phone was placed. "That thing with the monitor and uh… the buttons. Phone." Coughing, he quickly realised that too much talking caused him pain.

Wagging his tail, Akamaru jumped away and off the bed, then ran towards the table Naruto had motioned to.

Naruto smiled, feeling victorious. But that only lasted until the dog came back with a vase. The slender cylindric glass pot fit snugly between Akamaru's teeth as the flowers along with the water slowly drizzled out and splashed onto the floor with wet noises. A single blond eyebrow twitched. "Phone."

Akamaru panted excitedly as he ran off again. Out of the room. The sound of his paws fading into nothingness. Leaving behind Naruto to glare after the white giant in an annoyed fashion. This time the dog came back with a slim black tire.

"Where the fuck did you get that?" Naruto hissed, knowing he couldn't be too loud. "Phone! Phone for fuck's sake! The buzzy thingy that vibrates and rings!" He nearly cried when he tried to hold in the coughs he knew would be violent, remembering how he could injure himself by doing that.

Akamaru just sat there, awaiting praise for fulfilling his orders as well as Naruto giving him the message he should bring back to his master.

"The buzzy thingy!"

Huffing, Akamaru casually trotted towards the table and finally closed his teeth around Naruto's phone, then strolled back to Naruto's side. Almost as if he had known all along what exactly the teen had wanted.

"Yes, yes! That thing!"

Then Akamaru dropped the phone on the floor, sat down and again awaited his longed for praise.

Naruto suppressed a sneer and his urge to punch the dog. "Good boy."

Wagging his tail again, the white dog picked the phone back up and gave it to the teen, who immediately punched in a series of numbers, mumbling another "Good boy".

"What?" came Kyuubi's fierce voice.

"I need Suigetsu's number."

"Who the fuck's–"

"Kyuubi, please, you know every number on this fucking planet. Hurry, I don't have much time."

"Fine, fine."

Moments later, Naruto was dialling another number, anxiety slowing building up.

"Who the hell is this? How did you get this number?" Trust Suigetsu to be one of the only people in the world to not greet someone on the phone like they were out to get him.

"It's Naruto," the blond replied curtly, his throat aching again. "What did you tell the others? Kiba's asking me who you are and our stories need to align."

"Uh… I just told them you came to my place, that Kakashi took care of you and told us you had a cold and that you suddenly collapsed not breathing when we messed around a little."

"'Kay, thanks." Naruto ended the call just like that and quickly finished his message.

Took me a while to actually get away. Had to hide all the time and keep making the distance to him a bit larger, but after a while I just ran. Suigetsu's a friend of mine and I went to his place cause his was the only one I knew the address of that was close enough. Sai is another friend. What happened to you? Are you in hospital too?

– Naruto

He gave the paper to Akamaru, who happily skipped away. It only took a few minutes until the dog returned.

Yeah, I am. Pretty annoying. I feel a little bad saying this, but your dad's a total ass. Looks like he just marched right through Sasuke and the others and they couldn't even stop him. He kept beating me and trying to throw me off. I couldn't hold him down for long and by the time Sasuke and some teachers came, I was knocked out and your dad was gone. Asuma-sensei called the police and now they're searching for him. Even though he hurt me, I feel kinda bad that my mom's suing your dad now.

Naruto sighed heavily as he wrote his reply. So Mizuki would get sued and with the evidence, enough witnesses and Kiba's testimony, he would be put behind bars for at least a few months. In that time, Naruto would be able to begin his life the way he wanted it. His reply was written with a sad smile curling his lips.

Agreed, my dad's an asshole.

He didn't know what else to say. Had he been talking with Kiba face to face, he didn't think he could have so openly spoken with him. The last time they had talked properly had not ended well and he knew Kiba had been holding something of a grudge against him. But the Inuzuka coming to his rescue had changed a lot.

"I've had enough!" Tsunade's enraged voice suddenly roared. "Kiba! Keep your damn pet in your room or I'll castrate both of you with a rusty spoon!"

"But Akamaru's already castrated!"

"I don't care!"

A loud yelp sounded down the corridor and Naruto could easily guess who it had come from. He chuckled when the door to his room opened and he almost hoped that it was Akamaru, but quickly realised that that was impossible with Tsunade's rage directed at both the dog and his master. Instead, Kyuubi was entering the room now.

"Smother me with your questions, you twit!"

Be honest: Who of you actually yawned?

Since the innuendo in what Suigetsu was saying is probably unclear (intentionally, cause we don't want the others to know, right?), I'll explain: I'm going by Japanese law here, even if it's not taking place in Japan, and there, prostitution is prohibited, though the law allows many loopholes. Suigetsu is referring to one of those, since male on male prostitution is not forbidden, per say. Well, at least the way males prostitutes would have sex isn't, if you get my drift.

Originally, Naruto was supposed to go completely mute for a while, but then I wrote the part with him conversing with Akamaru and only later realised that he wasn't supposed to talk. But I liked that part so much, so I didn't delete it and instead altered the entire chapter a bit. I also would have liked to stretch out the first part so much that Tsunade revealing the coma-thing would come at the very end of the chapter and create a Dun Dun Duuuun-moment, but that was impossible with how short the first few paragraphs were and how much stuff was supposed to happen afterwards while Naruto was awake. And him waking up from his coma was pretty easy to predict, so I think it's fine this way too.

Next chapter: Those Three Words