Disclaimer has not changed. You want a refresher course, read the prologue and first chapter again.

Important Note: Dedicated to Chev, 'cuz she kept poking me into getting this finished. And to gear-chan, who's giving Kilerkki and me art.

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The Phantom of Konoha

Chapter Three: At the Hospital

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Uzumaki Naruto did not like hospitals. They were so blank and subdued and devoid of energy; he always felt painfully conspicuous. Hundreds of imaginary eyes always seemed to glare at his back, resentful of his presence. Naruto never stayed a second longer than they could hold him down.

"Stop pacing, Naruto." His head whipped around. At least one set of eyes was real. Sakura was glaring at him from her seat in the waiting room. "You're not helping."

"And neither are you."

The glare became murderous. Naruto froze, knowing from painful past experiences that when Sakura had that look on her face, he needed to back down or brace himself for a great deal of pain. Why was it that she could tap her foot all she wanted but he couldn't pace?

He was saved from a legitimate reason to stay in the hospital by the arrival of a tall, dark haired doctor. Naruto had a hard time taking most adults seriously, and in his opinion the medic-nin uniforms made it almost impossible. What sort of ninja would be all in white and have those stupid caps and collars?

"You're Hatake Kakashi-san's genin?" the doctor asked. "Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto?" Sakura nodded and stood up. "I'm the chief medic-nin, Yakushi Yasuo, and--"

"Are they all right?" Naruto blurted out. What was the point in manners when they took up too much time?

"Naruto!" Sakura hissed, but Yakushi smiled at Naruto, a genuine smile, not the fake calming ones medic-nin always seemed to have when they told you that no, popping your shoulder back into joint wouldn't hurt one single bit. Or the strained-patience smile that most adults seemed to give Naruto when they weren't scowling at him.

The smile was a brief one; Yakushi's solemn expression quickly returned. "Hatake-san shattered his collarbone, but we'll let him go tomorrow morning."

"And Gagami?"

Yakushi flipped through some of the pages on his clipboard. "He was severely injured, but his condition is stable. Tsuchiya-kun has burns over most of the left half of his body, and his left radius and ulna were broken. His hearing was damaged as well, but by tomorrow morning he should be hearing well enough to hold a conversation."

"He's going to be all right then?" Naruto didn't know or care what radius and ulna were, but he had to be absolutely certain that that jerk Gagami would be all right. Those black-cloaked freaks had been after Naruto, and once again Gagami ended up getting hurt instead. He hated owing anyone, and now it looked like he owed the boy twice over. Damn!

"He'll be able to do some light training in three or four weeks, I think," Yakushi said, making a few notes on the papers on his clipboard.

Naruto grinned, most of his pent-up anxiety draining out of him. He still wanted to make sure for himself though, because seeing with his own eyes was always better than relying on another source. Sakura smiled, too, and Naruto knew that she wouldn't hit him now. He noticed her fingers were playing with her kunai holster. Why's she nervous?

"Can we see them?" Sakura asked.

Yakushi frowned a little more, and shook his head slightly. "Hatake-san already has a visitor, and Tsuchiya-kun should be sleeping." A few more notes were scribbled on the documents.

Naruto scowled at the doctor. Who'd be visiting Kakashi-sensei already? "Doesn't matter," he informed the older man, bravado overtaking the concern in his voice. "We'd sneak in to see them anyway. I've done it before—"

"—and stole several dozen roles of bandages." Yakushi finished smoothly, looking up suddenly from his writing. Naruto stared at the doctor in surprise. Who knew a medic-nin could arch an eyebrow that well? "You then proceeded to decorate the hospital grounds with aforementioned bandages. It took two nurses and my son nearly four hours to clean up after you."

Sakura was glaring at him again. Naruto laughed uneasily, scratching the back of his neck. She wouldn't hit him in front of a stranger, right? "I haven't been pulling pranks for ages," he said, perhaps a tad too eagerly. It was the truth. Well, at least not on the hospital staff.

Yakushi looked Naruto and Sakura over. Naruto resisted the urge to shift his weight from foot to foot like a little kid. This was why he always felt that people watched him in the hospital—medic-nin always looked like they could see your insides just by staring at you. He always felt like they treated him like one of Shino's bugs, being categorized and catalogued and then shunted aside when they were done fixing whatever was wrong with him.

The medic-nin sighed. "Give me a moment to finish this paperwork, and then I'll let you two see your sensei."

"Really?" It was a concession, of sorts. And he and Sakura could always sneak to Gagami's room later. Like he was going to let Yakushi tell him he couldn't see his teammate.

"Yes." The smile was back, and Naruto had the feeling that he'd passed some sort of scrutiny. "My son owes your team a debt; it's the least I can do to let you see Hatake-san."

Naruto whooped with delight, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. "All right!" The nurse at the reception desk shot him a glare for his noise. Naruto grinned at her from across the room, knowing that it would irk the woman.

"Excuse me," Sakura said, wrenching Naruto's attention away from the nurse. "Are you Kabuto-san's father?"

Yakushi nodded. "He told me that your team helped him get to the tower during the second part of the Chuunin Exams."

Naruto squinted at the doctor, studying the medic-nin for once instead of the other way around. The doctor had black hair and dark eyes, and while he was tall, his build was not nearly as thin as Kabuto's was. His skin was darker too. "You don't look much like father and son," Naruto said bluntly. He might not have ever seen his own father, but he knew that family was supposed to look alike. Take Hinata and Neji, for instance. Same pale complexion and eyes and black hair; all of the Hyuuga were like that. Although why Fuzzy-eyebrows and his teacher were so similar, Naruto had no idea.

"You're right." A nurse walked by at that moment, and Yakushi flagged her down. "Take this to the front desk, please," he said, handing her the clipboard and pen. The nurse bowed slightly and took the items from him before leaving.

The medic-nin gestured for Naruto and Sakura to follow him. As they walked down the hospital corridors, he said, "My wife and I adopted Kabuto when he was little."

Naruto nodded wisely. "So that's why you don't look alike." Now, where would Gagami be in this place? Hmm. If he's hurt as badly as Yakushi says, he's probably on the next level up. Naruto knew that he wouldn't be in the same section of the hospital as their teacher because they had different types of injuries. There was a burn unit, wasn't there?

Naruto tuned out the sporadic small-talk between Sakura and Yakushi as they walked to Kakashi's room. He needed to formulate some sort of plan to get around Yakushi and see Gagami. Maybe Sakura-chan will help distract him?

-

"It was an understandable mistake."

"But still a mistake," Jiraiya countered. The revelation that Itachi was alive and had been the one to wipe out the Uchiha Clan was something Jiraiya had not foreseen. He had known that there was at least one member of the Akatsuki with a terrifying doujutsu but hadn't been able to make a positive identification.

Kakashi resisted the urge to shrug. Bandaged as he was, it would probably be impossible, and the trying would undoubtedly hurt. He was reclining against the wall behind his hospital bed, talking with the white-haired Sannin. "Doujutsu aren't all that uncommon. And since we thought Itachi was dead . . . At least now you've confirmed the identity of another of the Akatsuki."

"And confirmed that they're after Naruto." Jiraiya paused for a long moment, glancing out the window. Kakashi waited, also silent, because he respected his sensei's sensei and because he had a good idea of what the Sannin was going to say. "I have to get him out of Konoha," Jiraiya said, still looking out the window. "There are serious problems with my 'research,' and until I can fix them . . ."

"It can't be helped."

"He needs to be trained to defend himself against the Akatsuki."

You shouldn't be offended by that, Kakashi told himself firmly. Jiraiya is one of the Sannin; you're just a jounin, even if you're the genius Copy Ninja. Of course he can teach Naruto better than you can.

"And if we're looking for her, then we'll have some added security by being mobile," Jiraiya continued. "Konoha needs her." He turned away from the window, an amused expression on his face. "Because if I can't find her, Konoha will be stuck with me."

Kakashi laughed.

-

Naruto was unsure whether Sakura had caught his pointed looks while they chatted with their sensei and Ero-sennin or if she really had meant to speak to Yakushi before he hinted at anything. But in any case Sakura had kept Yakushi from escorting Naruto out of the hospital, which was perfectly fine with him.

Naruto was glad that hospitals were orderly places—it was so much easier to find things, especially if you couldn't ask someone yourself. The floor directory was at the base of the stairs and a quick scan revealed that Gagami would probably be on one of the two floors above. Naruto took the stairs two at a time, as quickly and quietly as he could.

He was in luck, for there was no one on the floor when he peeked cautiously out of the stairwell. So far, so good. Naruto couldn't help but smile; it had been a while since he had done any serious sneaking within Konoha.

He was nearly to the end of the hall by the time he spotted the tiny name card with "Tsuchiya Gagami" written on it. Two quick looks to either end of the corridor to make sure no one was there, and then Naruto slid the door quietly open and slipped inside.

It was a normal hospital room, in almost every detail identical to the ones he always woke up in. Naruto had never been in this section of the hospital before, and he was glad that he hadn't. Yakushi had said that Gagami had been hurt pretty seriously, but that wasn't the same as seeing what had happened himself.

Naruto could tell that the person on the bed was Gagami because of the brownish-auburn hair creeping out from under the bandages around his head. He had never seen someone with so many bandages before, except for maybe Hinata's jounin leader, whatever-her-name-was. Loose bandages encircled Gagami's torso, left arm and shoulder, neck, and almost three-quarters of his face, and Naruto thought that if Gagami hadn't been covered by a blanket there would be more bandages. An IV of some sort dripped a clear liquid into a vein in Gagami's right arm.

"Hey, Gagami," Naruto said as he crossed to the bed, but the other boy didn't move. He was about to say it again, but then he remembered that the doctor had said that Gagami had gotten his hearing messed up. Naruto wanted to see if Gagami was awake, but the other boy couldn't hear him, and both eyes had been covered in bandages.

Carefully, Naruto edged over to the Gagami's right side, the side that wasn't swathed in bandages. He tapped his teammate on the shoulder to avoid messing with the IV. Gagami didn't move. Again, Naruto tapped Gagami's bare right shoulder, but there was no response.

"You're a jerk, Gagami, you know that?" Naruto said, glaring at the still body. The chest rose and fell slowly, but regularly. "Always stealing the spotlight from me." There was a strange, acrid sort of quality to the air, the kind of taste that would stick in the throat and linger for hours afterward.

"Shut up, Naruto!"

"You shut up! I can get us out of here without—"

"No, you can't! Kami tate no jutsu!"

Naruto sat down on the stool next to the bed. "And you can't even steal it right. You keep getting hurt doing it." He folded his arms across his chest, frowning at the boy who couldn't hear him.

"We have to break those mirrors."

"How're we supposed to break them when you've put up this wall around us?"

"Just listen to me!"

Hospitals were far too quiet; all he could hear was Gagami's breathing. Naruto shifted uneasily on the stool. The imaginary eyes were back, their accusatory stares heightened in intensity.

"Got it?"

"Yeah. Kage bushin no jutsu!"

"Kai!"

Naruto tensed slightly as the sound of footsteps approached. But who ever it was kept going, the sounds fading into the distance.

"Gagami!"

"He was talented; you would have gotten out with his help. But I can't let you interfere."

"You—"

"You just had to be the hero, didn't you?" Naruto asked after several long minutes of silence. Gagami continued breathing, an almost imperceptible sound. The sound of footsteps returned, but Naruto ignored them, focusing instead on his unconscious teammate. "Well, I won't let you anymore, you understand?" Anger and stubbornness crept into Naruto's voice. "You're not going to get between me and danger anymore. I won't let my teammates get hurt instead of me—and I never go back on my word. That's my ninja way!"

The door to Gagami's room slid open. Naruto jumped up off the stool and turned around to face the intruder.

"Jiraiya-sama is looking for you," Yakushi said quietly. Naruto winced, waiting for some sort of reprimand from the medic-nin. "He'll be waiting outside the front doors." Then he was gone, leaving the door open behind him.

When Naruto left a few seconds later, he remembered to shut the door.

-

Author's Notes—

Love, praise, and Cheez-its for my beta, Kilerkki. She's amazing, and so is her story, Wolf Mask. Credit to Lazarus (timelapse dot deviantart dot com) for translating "Paper Shield Technique"(kami tate no jutsu) for me.

The beginning of chapter one has been revised slightly. As for the readers' dominant question—Where's Sasuke?—well, he's not here yet. Tentative schedule for his reappearance: soon.

Finally, thank you to all who have reviewed so far: HowLong, Uchiha Kuraiko, AjinAvenger/endlessXdreamer, Rebel-blah-blah-blah, ArrowofHikaru, Lost ninja #1, cfox, Jubei Himura, and Chevira Lowe. Your comments and criticism have been very important to me—I take your question, comments, and criticism seriously even if I don't personally reply in my notes.

Constructive feedback will be greatly appreciated.

-Phoenix