Naruto

Honor of a Kitsune

Chapter 18

Naruto woke up in her room and felt something holding her in place. Turning in the stranger's embrace Naruto saw Ino holding onto her sleeping peacefully. Naruto using a free hand lifted the blankets to see if she was clothed or not and sighed with relief seeing her pajamas on her body.

Naruto looked around the room and she saw that she was in her own room and looking out the window she saw she was still in the red light district meaning Ino slept over in her apartment, but why? Naruto tried to gently unwrap Ino's arms from her body so she could get up and go make some breakfast for herself and Ino but the action caused Ino to wake up.

"Morning Naru-chan." Ino said groggily.

"Morning Ino-chan." Naruto said.

Ino sat up in bed and stretched out the kinks in her body. Meanwhile Naruto got out of bed wearing nothing more than a tank top and her panties. Naruto headed for the kitchen and opened the door to her refrigerator taking a quick inventory for a good breakfast, had it just been Naruto she would have just made some instant breakfast ramen, she liked ramen ok leave her alone.

Naruto found some eggs, bacon, rice, and mushrooms. Grabbing the ingredients Naruto put some water on the stove to boil her rice as she grabbed a frying pan and began to dice the bacon to fry. Once the water was boiling she put the rice in the water and diced the mushrooms and put both the bacon and mushrooms in her skillet to fry together. When the bacon and mushrooms browned and crisped up she added the eggs and began to fry and scramble the eggs.

When everything was completed Naruto put the tice in the eggs and bacon and mixed them in together before putting the meal on two plates and walked into the dining room where Ino was waiting in her own pajamas.

"Smells good Naru-chan who knew you knew how to cook." Ino said.

"Contrary to popular belief I do eat more than just ramen." Naruto said putting a plate down before Ino then sitting down beside her. "So why did you sleep over last night?"

"Because I wanted to sleep with my girlfriend, and no not to have sex." Ino replied.

"I don't think I'm ready for sex yet but I am glad you want to sleep over." Naruto said with a smile.

"Naruto I would never force you to do something you're not ready for. I care about you too much to do something like that." Ino explained.

Before anything else could be said a knock came to Naruto's door. Getting up from her seat Naruto walked to the door and looked through the peephole to see who it was. Seeing that it was Shizune, Naruto opened the door.

"Hey Shizune, what can I do for you?" Naruto asked.

"Tsunade-sama asked me to bring you to the hospital. She wants to make sure Sasuke's chidori didn't cause any permanent damage to your body." Shizune replied.

"Alright I'll be there in about thirty minutes." Naruto said.

"Please don't delay." Shizune said as she took her leave.

Naruto went back to her dining room to finish her breakfast.

"Who was it, Naruto?" Ino asked.

"Shizune, she wanted to relay a message from baa-chan to go to the hospital. Baa-chan wants to make sure my fight with Sasuke hasn't left any permanent damage." Naruto replied.

"That's probably for the best." Ino said.

"Yeah, probably." Naruto agreed.

After breakfast Naruto went to her room and grabbed her uniform and put it on however instead of her orange jacket Naruto put on a green flak vest. She had been promoted to chunin for her accomplishments during the Oto-Suna invasion in stopping Gaara from destroying the village. So now Naruto's uniform was her signature black bodysuit, her hitai-ate worn on her left arm, white socks, black closed toe flats, her Suzumebachi on her right forearm, and her eyepatch over her left eye. Once dressed Naruto exited her room and kissed Ino before heading out the door on her way to the hospital to meet Tsunade.

XxXxXxX

Naruto arrived at the hospital and walked in approaching the receptionist's desk to check in. Once checked in, Naruto took a seat in the waiting area waiting for Tsunade to call her back. After a short while Tsunade called Naruto back into the exam room and had Naruto take off her clothes leaving her only in her undergarments.

Tsunade channeled medical chakra to her hands and slowly began to scan Naruto going over every inch of the younger blonde. The entire process took roughly half an hour and not once did either of them speak.

"Well the good news is you have no permanent damage from your fight with Sasuke." Tsunade said.

"And the bad news?" Naruto asked.

"Your heart is still weak whatever Kabuto did to your heart is taking its toll. While you can remain a kunoichi you will need to come in for monthly treatments to strengthen your heart. Sasuke's chidori didn't help any. Had it not been for the Kyubi you would be dead." Tsunade explained.

"So basically it would be better if I retired?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. But I don't want you to do anything you will regret." Tsunade replied. "I can strengthen your heart but it will take time to get you back to where you were before your fight with Kabuto."

"Remind me to kill that bastard." Naruto said seriously.

"I won't stop you from killing him." Tsunade said with a slight laugh. "Now what do you want to do? If you wish to remain a kunoichi, I can do the first treatment now and set up monthly visits to continue the treatment or you can retire and live a happy life as a civilian."

"I want to remain a kunoichi." Naruto said her eyes were fixed on Tsunade with a fire in them.

"Then you shall remain a kunoichi. Lay back and I will get to work." Tsunade said with a smile on her face she knew Naruto wouldn't back down.

Tsunade gave Naruto a sedative to knock the young kunoichi out so she could work. Once Naruto was unconscious Tsuande opened Naruto's chest to get a clear look at her heart. Once Tsunade got a clear look at Naruto's heart she saw that treatments wouldn't work, Naruto needed a replacement.

Luckily for Naruto, Tsunade wouldn't have to wait for a donor as she could grow Naruto a new heart. Tsunade hooked Naruto up to an IV and kept the young blonde sedated while she got to work on growing Naruto a new heart. Tsunade knew it would take time to grow a new heart so she kept Naruto on a blood bag so she wouldn't bleed out.

It took almost an hour to cultivate the replacement heart and another hour to replace Naruto's current heart with her replacement. With the replacement in place Tsunade closed Naruto's chest and healed the wounds and let Naruto wake up. It had been almost three hours but the surgery had gone well and Naruto wouldn't need to give up her career or dreams.

When Naruto woke back up she saw Tsunade smiling down at her.

"Good news Naruto, your surgery went well. We completely replaced your heart with a new heart, a strong heart." Tsunade explained.

"So how long until I can go on missions?" Naruto asked.

"Well that's the thing your team is currently inactive until we find someone to replace Sasuke." Tsunade replied.

"So what will we do in the meantime for missions and pay?" Naruto asked.

"Well I suppose you could take on solo d ranks or team up with other teams for more difficult missions." Tsunade said. "But as it stands Team Seven is disbanded."

Naruto sighed and looked out the window. "So because Sasuke defected to an enemy village my team got shelved and now I'm stuck doing whatever until a new member is found for Team Seven."

"I'm sorry Naruto but an active team needs four members to be considered active duty. But you are a chunin now so you can join other teams and do more missions." Tsunade said. "However you also just went through major surgery so I will be putting you on med leave again just to make sure there are no hiccups in your surgery."

"How long?" Naruto asked.

"One month, though I am sure your tenant will have you fully healed in a week if not less. So I will be doing weekly checkups to determine how long you actually stay on med leave." Tsunade explained.

Naruto rose from the medical bed and got dressed in her usual attire not seeming to care Tsunade was still in the room. Tsunade turned to leave, giving Naruto some privacy.

XxXxXxX

The month went by quickly for Naruto who mostly just trained with Kakashi on how to master her sharingan eye. She didn't really see Jiraiya for the duration of the month. He always said he had something that required his attention. Come the end of the month Naruto had once again been called to Tsuande's office.

Walking into the office Naruto saw both Tsunade and Jiraiya, both had serious looks on their faces.

"What's going on Baa-chan?" Naruto asked.

"Jiraiya is taking you on a training trip for three years. Don't ask why, just know it's for benefit and protection." Tsunade replied.

Naruto was smart enough to not ask questions when told not to and she trusted Tsunade and Jiraiya, though she wasn't fond of Jiraiya's research he was still a great ninja and mentor.

"When do I leave?" Naruto asked seriously.

"You leave now that's why I had you bring your go bag. The fewer people who know about this the safer you will be." Tsunade said.

"Hai Baa-chan." Naruto said

"We're not using the main gate to leave so no one will actually see you leave." Jiraiya said.

"Hai." was all Naruto said.

Naruto wanted to tell Ino but she knew she couldn't. It was something that couldn't be helped.