(A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers, and I've finally updated! I now have
in mind somewhere that I want to go with this story, and I apologize for
the rather cruddy chapters.
For Naruto, things will probably get worse before they get better, so I'll get it out with now: "Sorry! I don't mean to be cruel to Naruto, but these things have to happen." Oh yeah, and they have tupperware [which doesn't belong to me] in this universe....so there)
Last time: The pen merely struck his shoulder, and did not pierce too far. The pain of the wound, however, was nothing compared to the pain in his heart. This act of sadness and anger, when piled on top of the previous day's actions and pain from the burns, served to overload the boy's mind, and he blacked out.
Chapter 3
The first thing he became aware of was the heavy scent of what he thought was ozone and antiseptic on the air. Taking a good whiff confirmed his suspicions, but something was nagging at his mind. The last he remembered was standing around waiting for Kakashi, and then a large blank. He could tell that something very important had occured, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what.
Cracking one eye open, he caught a glimpse of white bed sheets, before the morning light streaming through the window caused him to shut it again. Instead of risking further damage to his retinas, he felt his way along his surroundings. His small, tanned hands encountered a squishy material which he deduced to be the mattress he was resting on, but it was the metal bars surrounding the bed that had him confused.
Deciding that he would brave the glare, he opened both of his eyes, and was forced to squint. He was indeed resting on a bed with guard rails, and the constant dripping sound that was picked up by his sharp ears was confirmed to come from a small IV set up beside him.
It is not to say that Naruto is dumb, but what with the strain on his mind the day before, it was working a little slow. Finally it all clicked, and he figured that he was in a hospital. Surveying the room, a flash of pink and red caught his wandering gaze. Focusing on the colours, he saw a snoozing Sakura propped up against the opposite wall, a small trail of drool dribbling down her chin. His blue eyes softened at this sight. He reluctantly tore his eyes away from the slumbering girl, and glanced around at the rest of his small room. Nothing else was very noticable within the enclosure; there was a small painting of a flower on the wall, light green curtains which were failing at their job of blocking light, and one chair set beside a small drawer next to the bed.
Suddenly feeling very sleepy, Naruto allowed his eyelids to shut, and began the journey into dreamland. Just as the blond lost conciousness, a familiar silver haired jounin strolled into the room, being trailed by a harried looking nurse. Kakashi had searched the entire compound looking for a nurse to tend to his student, as the one that had taken care of the fox vessel earlier had gone home for the night. Moving so as to allow the red headed nurse room to go about her duties, the elite ninja leaned against the wall his female subordinate had chosen as a resting place. While he waited, a familiar orange book made its way into his hands, and he indulged himself in various tales not suited to those under the age of eighteen.
"Well he may be a little tender when he leaves, but other than that he should be fine," stated the nurse in a high voice while she checked off some information on her clip board. "He should avoid doing anything too strenuous with that one arm though. The pen may not have gone deep, but it hit a very sensitive nerve that should be allowed time to heal properly. Here, please give him this salve when he wakes up. It will help heal the burns much faster, and will dull any pain he might feel." with that, she handed him a medium sized jar of cream, and strode out of the room.
Sitting on the lone grey chair, Kakashi once again took out his favourite reading material, and proceeded to read.
The soft twittering of birds awoke Sasuke and he lazily sat up, pushing the purple sheets away from his legs. His not quite awake mind didn't register that it was dawn rather than dusk, so he meandered towards the larger dojo so as to train as he had promised himself before he went to sleep. He entered and quickly sunk into a fighting stance.
The light filtering in through the various small windows placed at shoulder height made the wooden floor gleam, causing it to look as gold. There were various weapons set up in racks on the walls, from kunai to katanas, and from shuriken to spears. While he had not been old enough to be taught the Uchiha fighting tecniques, he had made it a personal goal to master the art of each weapon stored in the household. So far, he had the kunai and shuriken down pat, but he was still working on almost everything else.
As he formed some basic katas, the large clock hung on the wooden post above the rice paper door caught his eye. When he first glanced at it, the numbers didn't quite translate in his mind. However, when he looked again, he noticed that it was indeed 8:45, but that didn't quite coincide with the lighting. Realising that he had slept through the night, he went off like a shot.
Deciding that his clothes were clean enough for training, he bypassed his room altogether and headed straight for the kitchen. Once inside, he grabbed a small bowl of miso soup, and poured it into a tupperware container so he could eat it when he arrived at the bridge.
The stones were slick because of the morning dew, so he had to skip hopping on them. The trees on either side of the path served to block some of the light, though not much due to the loss of foliage. Sasuke almost slipped a few times throughout his journey, but managed to right himself before he tumbled down to the ground. When he made his way, tripping and stumbling, to the meeting place, he was greeted with and abandoned post. No one was there, not Sakura, waving and flirting with him; not Naruto, screaming and whining about Kakashi-sensei not being there...though that was happening less and less.
Though this blatant display of missing teammates was placed in front of him, nothing in his mind triggered the memory of the battle that had taken place. Pulling out his conatiner of miso soup, he sipped at it contentedly, waiting for the rest of his team. When no one came after thirty minues, Sasuke became quite irritated. Thinking that his comrades had gone to training without him, though this was highly unlikely as Kakashi wasn't due for another hour, Sasuke decided to walk about Konoha and ask around to find out if anyone had seen his teammates. Strolling along the dirt path leading to the main square, Sasuke remained oblivious to his injured teammate's plight.
Someone gently shaking her shoulder was what caused Sakura to wake up, and she lightly swatted the offending appendage away while climbing to her feet. A curious stiff sensation went through her jaw, and when she raised her hand to discover what was causing it, she encountered the remnants of her dried drool. Wiping it away in disgust, she turned to the one whom had awoken her.
"We should get Naruto up now, ne?" the man asked her. Recognizing him as her teacher, Sakura nodded and walked over to the side of the bed Naruto was sleeping on.
"Naruto...Naruto, wake up...." realising this was not working, Sakura raised her voice a few notches. "Naruto...! WAKE UP YOU BONE HEAD!" was the phrase that was heard by everyone in the building. Naruto, who had not been excluded from the blast, jerked up, and fell out of bed. Not moving from his awkward position, Naruto's muffled inquiry floated to Sakura's ears.
"What was that for Sakura-chan? It's not very nice to call people names, you know," he mumbled. With this admonishment, Naruto slowly picked himself up off the floor, and slouched onto the bed. Looking down at himself, the blond realised that he was wearing nothing but the traditional hospital gown, and blushed profusely. "Uhm...has anyone seen my clo-" the question was cut off abruptly by the pants, shirt, and boxers thrown at his face by Kakashi. Naruto mumbled his thanks, and pulled on the black boxers, as well as the orange leggings and blue shirt. Kakashi had taken the liberty to stop by Naruto's house and gather up some fresh clothes for his young student.
The small boy hopped off of the bed and winced slightly at the feeling of rough cloth on his sensitized skin, but shrugged it off. Stepping up to his sensei and 'crush', he plastered a grin on his face, and suggested they go back to training. The memory of what had happened still eluded him, but he was determined to not let it bother him. Sakura and Kakashi shared a look, but the silver haired man finally agreed, though he made Naruto promise to take it easy due to his wounds.
The trio stopped by the front desk where a different nurse than the one who had attacked Naruto -she had been fired- sat, filing some reports and playing solitaire. Once they had acquired permission for the young ninja to leave the hospital, they walked slowly, due to the badly concealed pain radiating from the blue eyed boy, out of the large building.
Though many on the street had a hard time moving from one store to the other, the Uchiha encountered no such problem. He was so well known that the people of Konoha gave him room, though not much, to travel through the city. Passing by various shops and boutiques, as well as drooling fangirls, a sprout of blond hair caught his attention. The silver haired man and pink head standing next to it was a dead give away that those were indeed the other members of team seven. Making his way through the crowd, he soon reached the less populated street where his teammates had wandered to.
As he came up to the group, Sakura launched herself at him, and clung to his arm. His teacher gave him a slight incline of his head to show that he was aware of Sasuke's arrival, but the blond was still chattering away at the taller ninja, and hadn't noticed the dark haired boy's arrival.
"Oi, dobe," Sasuke called out, "Where were you guys? There was no one at the bridge."
Naruto, hearing the familiar voice of the third member of their team, turned around to see the scowling, though slightly curious face of the Uchiha. As soon as his eyes locked on to that face the memories of the battle, as well as that of the nurse who had stabbed him with the pen, came rushing back to him. Clutching his wounded shoulder, Naruto attempted to smile at the taller boy.
"Oh, hey Sasuke...we, um, we were just looking around the market," he lied. he shot a warning look at Sakura and Kakashi that said 'Don't tell him anything'. He didn't want his rival knowing that he had been sent all the way to the hospital and been stabbed.
Sasuke seemed to accept this excuse, but kept a skeptical eye on the blond. Turning his back on the others, he called out to them that he was heading back to the bridge so that they could officially receive the mission for the day. Kakashi disappeared in a puff of chakra smoke, and Sakura and Naruto walked side by side towards the bridge.
Because the streets were less crowded, Naruto did not receive half as many glares as he usually would have, and was in a generally better mood because of it. They caught up with Sasuke about halfway to the meeting place, and continued the rest of the way in silence. Sakura and Sasuke both, though Sasuke was more covert, shot worried glances at their teammate. Naruto, as though sensing the stares, began to ramble on about nothing; from the weather to what he thought his sensei's book was about, and this settled their doubts.
Their teacher greeted them at the bridge with the usual "yo", and they stood in a semi circle around the silver haired jounin.
"Well," he began, "your mission for today....is nothing. You have no mission today. Go home, everyone! Oh yes, and before I forget, here Naruto. This is some salve for the burns, ok?" Everyone sweatdropped when he announced the lack of missions, but Sasuke shot a quzzical glance at Naruto when burns were mentioned. The mental block was still in place, so he had no idea what his rival had done to burn himself. Shrugging his shoulders, Sasuke walked down the now familiar path that led to his secluded mansion. Sakura quickly caught up with him, and began to chatter about different things with the occasional offer for a date between subjects.
Naruto bid his sensei goodbye, and pocketed the jar of salve. However, he did not immediately go home. Beginning the trek up to the top of the Hokage monument, he had one thought in mind; He was going to have a serious chat with the kyuubi.
(A/N: Well, it seems as though Sasuke's mental problem is still in effect, and I know that I didn't really put a lot of thoughts in on the part of Naruto. Don't worry! They will come. Patience, young grasshoppers. Anywho, I hope you liked this, and any spelling errors you find, please point them out to me! I might have missed some of them, and my beta reader is sick, so...yeah.)
For Naruto, things will probably get worse before they get better, so I'll get it out with now: "Sorry! I don't mean to be cruel to Naruto, but these things have to happen." Oh yeah, and they have tupperware [which doesn't belong to me] in this universe....so there)
Last time: The pen merely struck his shoulder, and did not pierce too far. The pain of the wound, however, was nothing compared to the pain in his heart. This act of sadness and anger, when piled on top of the previous day's actions and pain from the burns, served to overload the boy's mind, and he blacked out.
Chapter 3
The first thing he became aware of was the heavy scent of what he thought was ozone and antiseptic on the air. Taking a good whiff confirmed his suspicions, but something was nagging at his mind. The last he remembered was standing around waiting for Kakashi, and then a large blank. He could tell that something very important had occured, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what.
Cracking one eye open, he caught a glimpse of white bed sheets, before the morning light streaming through the window caused him to shut it again. Instead of risking further damage to his retinas, he felt his way along his surroundings. His small, tanned hands encountered a squishy material which he deduced to be the mattress he was resting on, but it was the metal bars surrounding the bed that had him confused.
Deciding that he would brave the glare, he opened both of his eyes, and was forced to squint. He was indeed resting on a bed with guard rails, and the constant dripping sound that was picked up by his sharp ears was confirmed to come from a small IV set up beside him.
It is not to say that Naruto is dumb, but what with the strain on his mind the day before, it was working a little slow. Finally it all clicked, and he figured that he was in a hospital. Surveying the room, a flash of pink and red caught his wandering gaze. Focusing on the colours, he saw a snoozing Sakura propped up against the opposite wall, a small trail of drool dribbling down her chin. His blue eyes softened at this sight. He reluctantly tore his eyes away from the slumbering girl, and glanced around at the rest of his small room. Nothing else was very noticable within the enclosure; there was a small painting of a flower on the wall, light green curtains which were failing at their job of blocking light, and one chair set beside a small drawer next to the bed.
Suddenly feeling very sleepy, Naruto allowed his eyelids to shut, and began the journey into dreamland. Just as the blond lost conciousness, a familiar silver haired jounin strolled into the room, being trailed by a harried looking nurse. Kakashi had searched the entire compound looking for a nurse to tend to his student, as the one that had taken care of the fox vessel earlier had gone home for the night. Moving so as to allow the red headed nurse room to go about her duties, the elite ninja leaned against the wall his female subordinate had chosen as a resting place. While he waited, a familiar orange book made its way into his hands, and he indulged himself in various tales not suited to those under the age of eighteen.
"Well he may be a little tender when he leaves, but other than that he should be fine," stated the nurse in a high voice while she checked off some information on her clip board. "He should avoid doing anything too strenuous with that one arm though. The pen may not have gone deep, but it hit a very sensitive nerve that should be allowed time to heal properly. Here, please give him this salve when he wakes up. It will help heal the burns much faster, and will dull any pain he might feel." with that, she handed him a medium sized jar of cream, and strode out of the room.
Sitting on the lone grey chair, Kakashi once again took out his favourite reading material, and proceeded to read.
The soft twittering of birds awoke Sasuke and he lazily sat up, pushing the purple sheets away from his legs. His not quite awake mind didn't register that it was dawn rather than dusk, so he meandered towards the larger dojo so as to train as he had promised himself before he went to sleep. He entered and quickly sunk into a fighting stance.
The light filtering in through the various small windows placed at shoulder height made the wooden floor gleam, causing it to look as gold. There were various weapons set up in racks on the walls, from kunai to katanas, and from shuriken to spears. While he had not been old enough to be taught the Uchiha fighting tecniques, he had made it a personal goal to master the art of each weapon stored in the household. So far, he had the kunai and shuriken down pat, but he was still working on almost everything else.
As he formed some basic katas, the large clock hung on the wooden post above the rice paper door caught his eye. When he first glanced at it, the numbers didn't quite translate in his mind. However, when he looked again, he noticed that it was indeed 8:45, but that didn't quite coincide with the lighting. Realising that he had slept through the night, he went off like a shot.
Deciding that his clothes were clean enough for training, he bypassed his room altogether and headed straight for the kitchen. Once inside, he grabbed a small bowl of miso soup, and poured it into a tupperware container so he could eat it when he arrived at the bridge.
The stones were slick because of the morning dew, so he had to skip hopping on them. The trees on either side of the path served to block some of the light, though not much due to the loss of foliage. Sasuke almost slipped a few times throughout his journey, but managed to right himself before he tumbled down to the ground. When he made his way, tripping and stumbling, to the meeting place, he was greeted with and abandoned post. No one was there, not Sakura, waving and flirting with him; not Naruto, screaming and whining about Kakashi-sensei not being there...though that was happening less and less.
Though this blatant display of missing teammates was placed in front of him, nothing in his mind triggered the memory of the battle that had taken place. Pulling out his conatiner of miso soup, he sipped at it contentedly, waiting for the rest of his team. When no one came after thirty minues, Sasuke became quite irritated. Thinking that his comrades had gone to training without him, though this was highly unlikely as Kakashi wasn't due for another hour, Sasuke decided to walk about Konoha and ask around to find out if anyone had seen his teammates. Strolling along the dirt path leading to the main square, Sasuke remained oblivious to his injured teammate's plight.
Someone gently shaking her shoulder was what caused Sakura to wake up, and she lightly swatted the offending appendage away while climbing to her feet. A curious stiff sensation went through her jaw, and when she raised her hand to discover what was causing it, she encountered the remnants of her dried drool. Wiping it away in disgust, she turned to the one whom had awoken her.
"We should get Naruto up now, ne?" the man asked her. Recognizing him as her teacher, Sakura nodded and walked over to the side of the bed Naruto was sleeping on.
"Naruto...Naruto, wake up...." realising this was not working, Sakura raised her voice a few notches. "Naruto...! WAKE UP YOU BONE HEAD!" was the phrase that was heard by everyone in the building. Naruto, who had not been excluded from the blast, jerked up, and fell out of bed. Not moving from his awkward position, Naruto's muffled inquiry floated to Sakura's ears.
"What was that for Sakura-chan? It's not very nice to call people names, you know," he mumbled. With this admonishment, Naruto slowly picked himself up off the floor, and slouched onto the bed. Looking down at himself, the blond realised that he was wearing nothing but the traditional hospital gown, and blushed profusely. "Uhm...has anyone seen my clo-" the question was cut off abruptly by the pants, shirt, and boxers thrown at his face by Kakashi. Naruto mumbled his thanks, and pulled on the black boxers, as well as the orange leggings and blue shirt. Kakashi had taken the liberty to stop by Naruto's house and gather up some fresh clothes for his young student.
The small boy hopped off of the bed and winced slightly at the feeling of rough cloth on his sensitized skin, but shrugged it off. Stepping up to his sensei and 'crush', he plastered a grin on his face, and suggested they go back to training. The memory of what had happened still eluded him, but he was determined to not let it bother him. Sakura and Kakashi shared a look, but the silver haired man finally agreed, though he made Naruto promise to take it easy due to his wounds.
The trio stopped by the front desk where a different nurse than the one who had attacked Naruto -she had been fired- sat, filing some reports and playing solitaire. Once they had acquired permission for the young ninja to leave the hospital, they walked slowly, due to the badly concealed pain radiating from the blue eyed boy, out of the large building.
Though many on the street had a hard time moving from one store to the other, the Uchiha encountered no such problem. He was so well known that the people of Konoha gave him room, though not much, to travel through the city. Passing by various shops and boutiques, as well as drooling fangirls, a sprout of blond hair caught his attention. The silver haired man and pink head standing next to it was a dead give away that those were indeed the other members of team seven. Making his way through the crowd, he soon reached the less populated street where his teammates had wandered to.
As he came up to the group, Sakura launched herself at him, and clung to his arm. His teacher gave him a slight incline of his head to show that he was aware of Sasuke's arrival, but the blond was still chattering away at the taller ninja, and hadn't noticed the dark haired boy's arrival.
"Oi, dobe," Sasuke called out, "Where were you guys? There was no one at the bridge."
Naruto, hearing the familiar voice of the third member of their team, turned around to see the scowling, though slightly curious face of the Uchiha. As soon as his eyes locked on to that face the memories of the battle, as well as that of the nurse who had stabbed him with the pen, came rushing back to him. Clutching his wounded shoulder, Naruto attempted to smile at the taller boy.
"Oh, hey Sasuke...we, um, we were just looking around the market," he lied. he shot a warning look at Sakura and Kakashi that said 'Don't tell him anything'. He didn't want his rival knowing that he had been sent all the way to the hospital and been stabbed.
Sasuke seemed to accept this excuse, but kept a skeptical eye on the blond. Turning his back on the others, he called out to them that he was heading back to the bridge so that they could officially receive the mission for the day. Kakashi disappeared in a puff of chakra smoke, and Sakura and Naruto walked side by side towards the bridge.
Because the streets were less crowded, Naruto did not receive half as many glares as he usually would have, and was in a generally better mood because of it. They caught up with Sasuke about halfway to the meeting place, and continued the rest of the way in silence. Sakura and Sasuke both, though Sasuke was more covert, shot worried glances at their teammate. Naruto, as though sensing the stares, began to ramble on about nothing; from the weather to what he thought his sensei's book was about, and this settled their doubts.
Their teacher greeted them at the bridge with the usual "yo", and they stood in a semi circle around the silver haired jounin.
"Well," he began, "your mission for today....is nothing. You have no mission today. Go home, everyone! Oh yes, and before I forget, here Naruto. This is some salve for the burns, ok?" Everyone sweatdropped when he announced the lack of missions, but Sasuke shot a quzzical glance at Naruto when burns were mentioned. The mental block was still in place, so he had no idea what his rival had done to burn himself. Shrugging his shoulders, Sasuke walked down the now familiar path that led to his secluded mansion. Sakura quickly caught up with him, and began to chatter about different things with the occasional offer for a date between subjects.
Naruto bid his sensei goodbye, and pocketed the jar of salve. However, he did not immediately go home. Beginning the trek up to the top of the Hokage monument, he had one thought in mind; He was going to have a serious chat with the kyuubi.
(A/N: Well, it seems as though Sasuke's mental problem is still in effect, and I know that I didn't really put a lot of thoughts in on the part of Naruto. Don't worry! They will come. Patience, young grasshoppers. Anywho, I hope you liked this, and any spelling errors you find, please point them out to me! I might have missed some of them, and my beta reader is sick, so...yeah.)