NARUTO © Kishimoto Masashi • Shueisha • Studio Pierrot • TV Tokyo. All rights reserved. Non-profit fun ahead!
--------------------------------------------------------------
Against the Tide
--------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter Five
"It seems strange," Iruka said aloud, to the empty room before him, "that you would want to get Sasuke a teammate; given his perfect track record of solo missions."
The silence did not reply him.
"Naruto isn't exactly the kind of Younin who can greatly /help/ someone like Sasuke during stealth missions, or missions that require tact and silence, as far as I'm concerned." He shuffled through a few piles of paper, distracted. "Is there something else to this decision of employing Naruto, Kakashi-san, that you are not telling me? If there is, I would appreciate it if you told me now, instead of letting me find out much later, when things have been damaged beyond repair."
"I think you misunderstand, Iruka-sensei," the empty room suddenly boomed with a loud, lazy voice. "I'm doing this purely for the sake of the department. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Oh?" Iruka raised an eyebrow at the rafter the only lamp in the room was attached to. "What happened to 'I want you to learn teamwork, Sasuke'?"
A lazy hand appeared from behind the wood. "That's just one of the fringe benefits." A pause. "Hopefully."
With a sigh, Iruka filed the last stack of paper to a side of the table and tapped on the wooden desk impatiently with his marking pen. "Kakashi-san," his tone was serious, "Sasuke does not need, nor does he want a partner. He has made that clear enough on his first trip down to the laboratory. Why are you forcing him to comply? In your opinion, is it really that good for the only other permanent member of your department to go around on an A-rank mission unwillingly? Just for teamwork?"
"Sasuke knows what he should and should not do on missions," Kakashi informed nonchalantly.
"But Naruto..." Iruka wanted to say something, but held his tongue. He shook his head. "Forget it. I think I'm just being too worried."
A whooshing sound was next heard, and Kakashi dropped down nimbly onto the ground from the rafter, porn still in hand. "I think you are, too," he agreed wholeheartedly, taking the pause to look at Iruka seriously in the eye. "I don't know what you're so suspicious about, Iruka, but leave it. Nobody's going to hurt Naruto. He can take care of himself."
Rubbing the spot between his eyes furiously, Iruka sighed. "It's not the physical pain he may suffer that I'm worried about, Kakashi-san..."
The silver-haired Jounin raised an eyebrow.
"... Sasuke..." Iruka finally mumbled, after having enough of rubbing his face. "... he's had the curse since he was very young. He was the last one Orochimaru touched before he was driven out of Konoha..." He glanced up at Kakashi uneasily. "I cannot begin to imagine the amount of pain and loneliness he must has gone through from since then... I cannot imagine how much he must hate the world for giving him this lot... and Naruto..." The Chuunin shook his head. "Naruto's lived all his life knowing nothing but hatred from the others around him. He may act like he doesn't care, but it really does bother him. He doesn't need one more person - someone his age, someone with whom he shares a common goal - to hate him, anymore. He doesn't need that..." Iruka frowned. "Do you understand, Kakashi-san?
"Do you understand how easy it is to completely break these two boys from the inside?"
A heavy, pensive silence descended upon the room.
Kakashi moved first, shuffling so that he looked away from the Chuunin caretaker. He kept his book and scratched the side of his messy silver head carefully. "It's a gamble," he slowly uttered, catching the attention of the still thinking Iruka.
"A gamble?" Iruka repeated, wondering if he had heard that right.
"If you just think about it, Iruka-sensei," the Jounin regarded his counterpart with a serious eye, "it is ultimately true that any one wrong move can send Naruto or Sasuke down the wrong path. But really, do you think that they'll be any better off if they continued alone at this rate?" Kakashi shook his head, as if in answer to his own proposed question. "I think you know better than anyone else how that may turn out, Iruka-sensei."
From where he sat, Iruka looked like he was poised to say something in answer. He caught his tongue at the last moment, however, and looked away with a frown. "I understand what you mean, Kakashi-sensei," he sighed.
"In any case," Kakashi continued, walking towards a window and looking out through it, "I'm not saying we leave them entirely to their own devices. We watch them, and when the situation arises, we'll react as required. Okay?"
Trying not curtail any disdain surfacing on his face, Iruka curtly replied, "Yes, sir."
--------------------------------------------------------------
After carefully disentangling Naruto from the wall - man, was Kakashi going to give him hell for breaking yet another hospital wall or what - Sasuke sat the blond on a chair and shook his head. "So," he said in an exasperated voice, "if we're all calm and settled down, may we talk things through like sensible adults now?"
"It's not my fault your friend over there is such a creepy lecher!" Sakura shrieked at Sasuke, then realised what she had done and mellowed down instantly with a blush. "S-...Sorry!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You have nothing to be sorry about." Then, looking at Naruto, he nudged him gently in the shins. "Hey, idiot, wake up. You alive, dead-last?"
The nickname worked like a charm, for Naruto instantly sprang to life. "Don't call me that, you bastard!" Quickly turning to Sakura, who shrank slightly backwards, Naruto grinned sheepishly and said, "Sorry for scaring you, Sakura-chan! But, but! You're so pretty! No man can /seriously/ resist you for long, Sakura-chan! I swear!"
"... thank you?" Sakura found her voice after briefly wondering why it was that Sasuke had yet to fall to her charms, if what Naruto said was true. Quickly donning a generic smile, she asked shyly, "Why are the both of you visiting me anyway? Do I know you? Were you my friends?"
Caught off-guard by the questions, Naruto and Sasuke turned to stare at each other in surprise.
"I mean..." as if she could sense their hesitation, Sakura quickly added, "... I... my memories aren't... well... I don't remember, frankly," a sigh escaped her lips. She twiddled with her thumbs nervously. "The doctor said I'm suffering from acute memory loss. I don't recognise anyone whom I am supposed to know anymore, so..." Looking up at the two boys, she smiled again. "... if I'm supposed to know who you are then, I'm sorry I forgot your names..."
While Sasuke frowned at this new knowledge, Naruto's eyes glinted at the opportunity. "Don't worry about it Sakura-chan! With us around, you'll get your memories back in no time at all! Isn't that right, Sasuke?" He elbowed the quieter teen and grinned. Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow. When he did not say anything to support or reject Naruto's claim, the blond quickly continued, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! This creepy, anti-social guy here is Uchiha Sasuke. We're here to help, Sakura-chan," Naruto's tone turned serious. "We're police. We're here to help find the demon who attacked you, and bring justice to this wrong!"
Although he had a bit of a difficulty believing that Naruto could utter those calming words of wisdom, Sasuke nevertheless continued, "Just as he said, we're police. We're from the Taiyoubu. Reports state that you've been attacked by a Water-Demon during a couple of days back. This same demon has already attacked many others, but so far you have been the only one to wake up from his attack. If we don't stop this demon soon, more people will fall prey to it. We hope that you will be cooperative and provide us with whatever information you have on hand to assist us with this case."
Sakura's taut smile dissolved into a grim line, and her eyes fluttered back to the sheets of her bed. "Oh." She muttered, sounding slightly disappointed. "Police, huh..."
"We can be friends!" Naruto quickly gushed, and Sakura threw him a sharp glare.
"Who wants to be friends with a loudmouth like you?!" She screeched, immediately making Sasuke's headache return. Naruto descended into a deep, comical gloom while Sasuke sighed.
"Sakura," the Uchiha sternly stated. Immediately, the girl on the bed snapped to attention. "I don't care if you want to be friends or not - we're here on serious, official business, and I think you have some information we're entitled to know about. Will you cooperate or not?" He ended, a tone of finality in his voice.
A look of hurt was evident in Sakura's features by the time Sasuke had finished, which both Naruto and Sasuke saw. Sasuke, as usual, chose to ignore the sting of guilt that arose immediately at his rather poor choice of words, but Naruto stamped his foot and turned to Sasuke, pointing an accusing finger. "You didn't have to be so mean about it, bastard!"
And Sasuke found himself agreeing with Naruto, although only inwardly.
"Apologise!"
Now that, however, Sasuke did not agree with.
"Come on!" Naruto demanded, anger rising at the fact that Sasuke's face remained impassive.
As the two boys engaged in a mild glaring competition, Sakura shifted uneasily and meekly said, "Guys... Naruto... Sasuke-kun... Stop please. Don't provoke Sasuke-kun, Naruto, it's not his fault... I was in the wrong," she smiled nervously, wiping at her eyes. "So... what was this whole visit about again?"
"We..." Sasuke had barely began to speak when Naruto interrupted with a distraught 'how come he gets a -kun when I don't' outcry. "... are here..." the Uchiha promptly stepped on Naruto's foot and grounded the heel, earning him an indignant squawk. He smirked, then proceeded, "... with just a few questions. We won't stay here for long. We understand you need your rest. Now then, if you think you're ready, we can begin anytime."
While yet speaking, Sasuke made himself comfortable on one of the movable stools and folded his arms in anticipation. Naruto eventually recovered from his smarting foot and glared at Sasuke from the floor. But otherwise, he said nothing.
Sakura let her glance alternate between the two boys. "I'm ready of course, but are you sure you can get any useful information out from me at all?"
Both Naruto and Sasuke paused in whatever they were doing - Naruto glaring at Sasuke, Sasuke getting a pen and notepad out. They stared at the girl. "What do you mean?" Naruto blurted out first, blinking in innocent surprise.
"I did mention that I was suffering from acute memory loss, didn't I?" Sakura smiled with resignation. "I can't even remember who my friends and family are - what makes you think I remember what happened on that night of the attack?"
The air stilled, accompanied with a long bout of silence.
Sasuke breathed in - long and hard. "You don't remember anything at all?" He prompted. "Images, sounds, feelings, anything - even if it may just feel like a minor detail to you."
Sakura thought long and hard about the question. She then looked at Sasuke in the eye and shook her head despondantly. "I'm sorry..."
Sasuke chose not to respond vocally, merely leaning backwards in his chair and tapping his lips with the tip of his pen. "Sheesh," he muttered softly, "there goes our last clue..."
Appropriately guilty about her inability, Sakura looked away.
"You don't have to be such a jerk about it!" Naruto, on the other hand, rose to full height and scolded Sasuke loudly. "It's not as if Sakura-chan purposely wanted to keep the information away! Stop making it sound like it's her fault!"
In turn, Sasuke threw his partner an incredulous look. "Who the hell said anything about this being anybody's fault, moron? Are you semi-deaf or just completely out of your mind this time?!"
"Umm... guys?" Sakura quickly interrupted, before the quarreling escalated. "This is a hospital, so... let's keep our volume down?"
"But he--" Naruto protested, only to be cut short by the girl.
"Naruto... I'm thirsty. Can you get me a cold can of coffee from the vending machine outside?" She flashed the boy her sweetest smile, promptly melting him into a puddle of goo. The blond stammered a string of superfluously positive remarks and exited the room faster than the speed of light, his enmity with Sasuke all but forgotten.
Sasuke grumbled noisily, after Naruto was no longer in sight and sound. "Maybe we need a girl in our department to keep that damned moron in check."
Unsure of whether to think that as a compliment or complaint, Sakura kept her mouth wisely shut.
When neither Sasuke nor Sakura chose to speak for a long time, the silence slowly became unbearably uncomfortable.
"Am I..." Sakura began hesitantly, after thinking through what she would say, "... being a hindrance to your work?"
Sasuke shot her a what-do-you-think look, then closed his eyes and sighed into his cupped palms. "For once, the loudmouth is right. It isn't your fault... don't worry about it."
"I-... I promise I'll inform you immediately if I remember anything!" Sakura exclaimed in a sudden spurt of inspiration, hoping to gain Sasuke's approval.
A muffled, monotonous, "Yeah, thanks," however, was the only acknowledgement she managed to garner from Sasuke, who still had his face in his hands.
The awkward silence continued.
--------------------------------------------------------------
It was after a few wrong turns that Naruto managed to locate the drink vending machine Sakura had said was along the corridor. Gleefully pouncing onto it, he examined the drinks on sale and found the iced coffee he was to buy. Happily, he dug into his pockets. Anything for Sakura's attention!
Alas, however, things did not look too bright for the blond. He pulled out a measly grand total of 100 ryou from his pockets, and that was that. Iruka had not given him too much money when he went out that day, preferring to have him return to the office for meals. Naruto groaned unhappily, imagining the horror of now having to return to ask Sasuke for money. He would look like a total loser before Sakura that way!
"He... Hello?" A shy, soft voice called out to him from beside him while he was still debating whether to return to the room. Lifting his head up, Naruto saw a familiar-looking nurse looking at him carefully. "Is... Is there a problem... ?"
"Oh!" Naruto suddenly shouted, pointing at the terrified nurse. "You're that nurse from the reception! Hey there!" He grinned and waved. "Fancy seeing you here."
"Umm... ri... right..." Hinata blinked in confusion. Noticing the vending machine for the first time, she asked, "Are you trying... to buy something? Is there something wrong? Is the machine stuck? The coins often get stuck in the slots so if there's a problem you could..."
"No no, wait," Naruto shook his head and stopped the girl. "Nothing of that sort yet, lady. I'm just... err... out of money, you see... ehehe... so, yeah, like, you have some ryou to spare? I'll return it to you, I promise!"
Hinata looked at the loud, cheerful boy before her, wondering if he was serious. Eventually, she broke into a small smile. She reached into her pocket and took some coins out, quietly handing them over to Naruto. "Please don't mention it!" She quickly said, when Naruto became surprised. "It's... it's not that much of a deal... you don't have to return it, really!" She stammered, cursing her shyness.
In her pause, Naruto had already turned to the vending machine and punched out a few drinks. "You're a great person, nurse lady!" He took one can and handed it to her, which she accepted with surprise. "But don't worry, I'll definitely repay you the money. In any case, this is for you first!" Gathering the three other cans of drinks in his hands, he gave another toothy grin. "See you! Can't keep Sakura-chan waiting for too long!"
Her initial bout of surprise at being stuffed a can drink bought by someone else with her own money was soon over, and Hinata quickly called out before Naruto could get away, "W-Wait!"
The blond quickly stopped. He turned to look at Hinata. "Yeah?" He asked.
Unnerved by his stare for some reason, Hinata quickly stammered, "Are you... here to visit Haruno Sakura-san?"
Naruto blinked. "I guess you could say that!" He replied cheerily, after thinking for a while.
"I... I see..." The nurse quickly attempted to locate a folder. "There... there are some classified information that wasn't down on her official clipboard..." she drew a folder from the stack in her hands and handed it to Naruto, "... that I think the police may want to know. I... I don't know reliable this is, since the doctor never confirmed it, but..." She gulped, her eyes darting to and fro the empty corridor, as if afraid that something would rush out and swallow her whole if she made a wrong move.
"But... ?" Naruto repeated.
"Sakura-san..." Hinata bit her lips together and answered in a very soft voice, "... her memory loss is not exactly normal..."
Previously bustling with readiness to return to the room, Naruto was now a statue of still. "What do you mean?" He inquired quietly.
Taking a huge breath, Hinata willed herself to calm down. She had to do whatever she could to help her patients. "I saw it," she spoke, more solemnly than she thought she could ever be, "with my Byakugan, when they were operating on Sakura-san. There is a very strange presence of chakra near the lobe of her brain where her episodic memory is located," Hinata gestured at her head with her free hand. "In normal instances of memory loss, where the cause is usually a severe jolt or shock to the brain, there should be no instances of chakra interference. The fact that there is some abnormal chakra in Sakura-san's brain gives cause for worry. Going by what I have seen thus far... at best, Sakura-san will recover with a murky recollection of all the years of her life before this, but at worst..." Hinata's words lingered, and she bit her lips again. Breaking bad news was never her forte.
"At worst, her memories get eaten up by the abnormal chakra, and she will never remember her previous life again?"
"Ye-Yes!" Hinata quickly stammered, surprised that Naruto had finished her sentence. "But... how did you know?"
Naruto's face was dark, and his lips pressed together in a tight line. "I know enough demon tricks to be aware that this one's a tough nut to crack..." he trailed off. Lifting a face to Hinata, he smiled simply. "Thanks for the information, lady. I better go tell Sasuke what's going on. Do you mind if I kept this file?" He waved the yellow folder Hinata had passed to him around.
"No, I don't mind, please keep it if you need it," Hinata said, still a little shaken at Naruto's reaction.
"Thanks then!" The blond went back to his energetic grinning. "You know, it's not nice for me to keep calling you 'lady,'" he rubbed his nose sheepishly. "What's your name?"
A pause. Then, "Hyuuga Hinata..."
"Gotcha," Naruto winked at her. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto - the next Hokage! So you better remember me! And don't worry, I'll return you the money I borrowed for sure! I swear on the name of Hokage!" He took off down the corridor, still grinning. "Bye, Hinata! See you around!"
Hinata waved slightly in return. Only a while later did she realise that she had not stammered throughout her whole explanation, and was proud of herself. Still room for improvement, she decided, as she turned and walked the opposite direction to check on her patients.
She wondered what had given her the courage to talk to a total stranger about a patient's unconfirmed diagnosis in the first place.
--------------------------------------------------------------
27/8/2004
Part 6 of 16
(email XD!) XD (at) tougenkyou (dot) net
--------------------------------------------------------------
Against the Tide
--------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter Five
"It seems strange," Iruka said aloud, to the empty room before him, "that you would want to get Sasuke a teammate; given his perfect track record of solo missions."
The silence did not reply him.
"Naruto isn't exactly the kind of Younin who can greatly /help/ someone like Sasuke during stealth missions, or missions that require tact and silence, as far as I'm concerned." He shuffled through a few piles of paper, distracted. "Is there something else to this decision of employing Naruto, Kakashi-san, that you are not telling me? If there is, I would appreciate it if you told me now, instead of letting me find out much later, when things have been damaged beyond repair."
"I think you misunderstand, Iruka-sensei," the empty room suddenly boomed with a loud, lazy voice. "I'm doing this purely for the sake of the department. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Oh?" Iruka raised an eyebrow at the rafter the only lamp in the room was attached to. "What happened to 'I want you to learn teamwork, Sasuke'?"
A lazy hand appeared from behind the wood. "That's just one of the fringe benefits." A pause. "Hopefully."
With a sigh, Iruka filed the last stack of paper to a side of the table and tapped on the wooden desk impatiently with his marking pen. "Kakashi-san," his tone was serious, "Sasuke does not need, nor does he want a partner. He has made that clear enough on his first trip down to the laboratory. Why are you forcing him to comply? In your opinion, is it really that good for the only other permanent member of your department to go around on an A-rank mission unwillingly? Just for teamwork?"
"Sasuke knows what he should and should not do on missions," Kakashi informed nonchalantly.
"But Naruto..." Iruka wanted to say something, but held his tongue. He shook his head. "Forget it. I think I'm just being too worried."
A whooshing sound was next heard, and Kakashi dropped down nimbly onto the ground from the rafter, porn still in hand. "I think you are, too," he agreed wholeheartedly, taking the pause to look at Iruka seriously in the eye. "I don't know what you're so suspicious about, Iruka, but leave it. Nobody's going to hurt Naruto. He can take care of himself."
Rubbing the spot between his eyes furiously, Iruka sighed. "It's not the physical pain he may suffer that I'm worried about, Kakashi-san..."
The silver-haired Jounin raised an eyebrow.
"... Sasuke..." Iruka finally mumbled, after having enough of rubbing his face. "... he's had the curse since he was very young. He was the last one Orochimaru touched before he was driven out of Konoha..." He glanced up at Kakashi uneasily. "I cannot begin to imagine the amount of pain and loneliness he must has gone through from since then... I cannot imagine how much he must hate the world for giving him this lot... and Naruto..." The Chuunin shook his head. "Naruto's lived all his life knowing nothing but hatred from the others around him. He may act like he doesn't care, but it really does bother him. He doesn't need one more person - someone his age, someone with whom he shares a common goal - to hate him, anymore. He doesn't need that..." Iruka frowned. "Do you understand, Kakashi-san?
"Do you understand how easy it is to completely break these two boys from the inside?"
A heavy, pensive silence descended upon the room.
Kakashi moved first, shuffling so that he looked away from the Chuunin caretaker. He kept his book and scratched the side of his messy silver head carefully. "It's a gamble," he slowly uttered, catching the attention of the still thinking Iruka.
"A gamble?" Iruka repeated, wondering if he had heard that right.
"If you just think about it, Iruka-sensei," the Jounin regarded his counterpart with a serious eye, "it is ultimately true that any one wrong move can send Naruto or Sasuke down the wrong path. But really, do you think that they'll be any better off if they continued alone at this rate?" Kakashi shook his head, as if in answer to his own proposed question. "I think you know better than anyone else how that may turn out, Iruka-sensei."
From where he sat, Iruka looked like he was poised to say something in answer. He caught his tongue at the last moment, however, and looked away with a frown. "I understand what you mean, Kakashi-sensei," he sighed.
"In any case," Kakashi continued, walking towards a window and looking out through it, "I'm not saying we leave them entirely to their own devices. We watch them, and when the situation arises, we'll react as required. Okay?"
Trying not curtail any disdain surfacing on his face, Iruka curtly replied, "Yes, sir."
--------------------------------------------------------------
After carefully disentangling Naruto from the wall - man, was Kakashi going to give him hell for breaking yet another hospital wall or what - Sasuke sat the blond on a chair and shook his head. "So," he said in an exasperated voice, "if we're all calm and settled down, may we talk things through like sensible adults now?"
"It's not my fault your friend over there is such a creepy lecher!" Sakura shrieked at Sasuke, then realised what she had done and mellowed down instantly with a blush. "S-...Sorry!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "You have nothing to be sorry about." Then, looking at Naruto, he nudged him gently in the shins. "Hey, idiot, wake up. You alive, dead-last?"
The nickname worked like a charm, for Naruto instantly sprang to life. "Don't call me that, you bastard!" Quickly turning to Sakura, who shrank slightly backwards, Naruto grinned sheepishly and said, "Sorry for scaring you, Sakura-chan! But, but! You're so pretty! No man can /seriously/ resist you for long, Sakura-chan! I swear!"
"... thank you?" Sakura found her voice after briefly wondering why it was that Sasuke had yet to fall to her charms, if what Naruto said was true. Quickly donning a generic smile, she asked shyly, "Why are the both of you visiting me anyway? Do I know you? Were you my friends?"
Caught off-guard by the questions, Naruto and Sasuke turned to stare at each other in surprise.
"I mean..." as if she could sense their hesitation, Sakura quickly added, "... I... my memories aren't... well... I don't remember, frankly," a sigh escaped her lips. She twiddled with her thumbs nervously. "The doctor said I'm suffering from acute memory loss. I don't recognise anyone whom I am supposed to know anymore, so..." Looking up at the two boys, she smiled again. "... if I'm supposed to know who you are then, I'm sorry I forgot your names..."
While Sasuke frowned at this new knowledge, Naruto's eyes glinted at the opportunity. "Don't worry about it Sakura-chan! With us around, you'll get your memories back in no time at all! Isn't that right, Sasuke?" He elbowed the quieter teen and grinned. Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow. When he did not say anything to support or reject Naruto's claim, the blond quickly continued, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! This creepy, anti-social guy here is Uchiha Sasuke. We're here to help, Sakura-chan," Naruto's tone turned serious. "We're police. We're here to help find the demon who attacked you, and bring justice to this wrong!"
Although he had a bit of a difficulty believing that Naruto could utter those calming words of wisdom, Sasuke nevertheless continued, "Just as he said, we're police. We're from the Taiyoubu. Reports state that you've been attacked by a Water-Demon during a couple of days back. This same demon has already attacked many others, but so far you have been the only one to wake up from his attack. If we don't stop this demon soon, more people will fall prey to it. We hope that you will be cooperative and provide us with whatever information you have on hand to assist us with this case."
Sakura's taut smile dissolved into a grim line, and her eyes fluttered back to the sheets of her bed. "Oh." She muttered, sounding slightly disappointed. "Police, huh..."
"We can be friends!" Naruto quickly gushed, and Sakura threw him a sharp glare.
"Who wants to be friends with a loudmouth like you?!" She screeched, immediately making Sasuke's headache return. Naruto descended into a deep, comical gloom while Sasuke sighed.
"Sakura," the Uchiha sternly stated. Immediately, the girl on the bed snapped to attention. "I don't care if you want to be friends or not - we're here on serious, official business, and I think you have some information we're entitled to know about. Will you cooperate or not?" He ended, a tone of finality in his voice.
A look of hurt was evident in Sakura's features by the time Sasuke had finished, which both Naruto and Sasuke saw. Sasuke, as usual, chose to ignore the sting of guilt that arose immediately at his rather poor choice of words, but Naruto stamped his foot and turned to Sasuke, pointing an accusing finger. "You didn't have to be so mean about it, bastard!"
And Sasuke found himself agreeing with Naruto, although only inwardly.
"Apologise!"
Now that, however, Sasuke did not agree with.
"Come on!" Naruto demanded, anger rising at the fact that Sasuke's face remained impassive.
As the two boys engaged in a mild glaring competition, Sakura shifted uneasily and meekly said, "Guys... Naruto... Sasuke-kun... Stop please. Don't provoke Sasuke-kun, Naruto, it's not his fault... I was in the wrong," she smiled nervously, wiping at her eyes. "So... what was this whole visit about again?"
"We..." Sasuke had barely began to speak when Naruto interrupted with a distraught 'how come he gets a -kun when I don't' outcry. "... are here..." the Uchiha promptly stepped on Naruto's foot and grounded the heel, earning him an indignant squawk. He smirked, then proceeded, "... with just a few questions. We won't stay here for long. We understand you need your rest. Now then, if you think you're ready, we can begin anytime."
While yet speaking, Sasuke made himself comfortable on one of the movable stools and folded his arms in anticipation. Naruto eventually recovered from his smarting foot and glared at Sasuke from the floor. But otherwise, he said nothing.
Sakura let her glance alternate between the two boys. "I'm ready of course, but are you sure you can get any useful information out from me at all?"
Both Naruto and Sasuke paused in whatever they were doing - Naruto glaring at Sasuke, Sasuke getting a pen and notepad out. They stared at the girl. "What do you mean?" Naruto blurted out first, blinking in innocent surprise.
"I did mention that I was suffering from acute memory loss, didn't I?" Sakura smiled with resignation. "I can't even remember who my friends and family are - what makes you think I remember what happened on that night of the attack?"
The air stilled, accompanied with a long bout of silence.
Sasuke breathed in - long and hard. "You don't remember anything at all?" He prompted. "Images, sounds, feelings, anything - even if it may just feel like a minor detail to you."
Sakura thought long and hard about the question. She then looked at Sasuke in the eye and shook her head despondantly. "I'm sorry..."
Sasuke chose not to respond vocally, merely leaning backwards in his chair and tapping his lips with the tip of his pen. "Sheesh," he muttered softly, "there goes our last clue..."
Appropriately guilty about her inability, Sakura looked away.
"You don't have to be such a jerk about it!" Naruto, on the other hand, rose to full height and scolded Sasuke loudly. "It's not as if Sakura-chan purposely wanted to keep the information away! Stop making it sound like it's her fault!"
In turn, Sasuke threw his partner an incredulous look. "Who the hell said anything about this being anybody's fault, moron? Are you semi-deaf or just completely out of your mind this time?!"
"Umm... guys?" Sakura quickly interrupted, before the quarreling escalated. "This is a hospital, so... let's keep our volume down?"
"But he--" Naruto protested, only to be cut short by the girl.
"Naruto... I'm thirsty. Can you get me a cold can of coffee from the vending machine outside?" She flashed the boy her sweetest smile, promptly melting him into a puddle of goo. The blond stammered a string of superfluously positive remarks and exited the room faster than the speed of light, his enmity with Sasuke all but forgotten.
Sasuke grumbled noisily, after Naruto was no longer in sight and sound. "Maybe we need a girl in our department to keep that damned moron in check."
Unsure of whether to think that as a compliment or complaint, Sakura kept her mouth wisely shut.
When neither Sasuke nor Sakura chose to speak for a long time, the silence slowly became unbearably uncomfortable.
"Am I..." Sakura began hesitantly, after thinking through what she would say, "... being a hindrance to your work?"
Sasuke shot her a what-do-you-think look, then closed his eyes and sighed into his cupped palms. "For once, the loudmouth is right. It isn't your fault... don't worry about it."
"I-... I promise I'll inform you immediately if I remember anything!" Sakura exclaimed in a sudden spurt of inspiration, hoping to gain Sasuke's approval.
A muffled, monotonous, "Yeah, thanks," however, was the only acknowledgement she managed to garner from Sasuke, who still had his face in his hands.
The awkward silence continued.
--------------------------------------------------------------
It was after a few wrong turns that Naruto managed to locate the drink vending machine Sakura had said was along the corridor. Gleefully pouncing onto it, he examined the drinks on sale and found the iced coffee he was to buy. Happily, he dug into his pockets. Anything for Sakura's attention!
Alas, however, things did not look too bright for the blond. He pulled out a measly grand total of 100 ryou from his pockets, and that was that. Iruka had not given him too much money when he went out that day, preferring to have him return to the office for meals. Naruto groaned unhappily, imagining the horror of now having to return to ask Sasuke for money. He would look like a total loser before Sakura that way!
"He... Hello?" A shy, soft voice called out to him from beside him while he was still debating whether to return to the room. Lifting his head up, Naruto saw a familiar-looking nurse looking at him carefully. "Is... Is there a problem... ?"
"Oh!" Naruto suddenly shouted, pointing at the terrified nurse. "You're that nurse from the reception! Hey there!" He grinned and waved. "Fancy seeing you here."
"Umm... ri... right..." Hinata blinked in confusion. Noticing the vending machine for the first time, she asked, "Are you trying... to buy something? Is there something wrong? Is the machine stuck? The coins often get stuck in the slots so if there's a problem you could..."
"No no, wait," Naruto shook his head and stopped the girl. "Nothing of that sort yet, lady. I'm just... err... out of money, you see... ehehe... so, yeah, like, you have some ryou to spare? I'll return it to you, I promise!"
Hinata looked at the loud, cheerful boy before her, wondering if he was serious. Eventually, she broke into a small smile. She reached into her pocket and took some coins out, quietly handing them over to Naruto. "Please don't mention it!" She quickly said, when Naruto became surprised. "It's... it's not that much of a deal... you don't have to return it, really!" She stammered, cursing her shyness.
In her pause, Naruto had already turned to the vending machine and punched out a few drinks. "You're a great person, nurse lady!" He took one can and handed it to her, which she accepted with surprise. "But don't worry, I'll definitely repay you the money. In any case, this is for you first!" Gathering the three other cans of drinks in his hands, he gave another toothy grin. "See you! Can't keep Sakura-chan waiting for too long!"
Her initial bout of surprise at being stuffed a can drink bought by someone else with her own money was soon over, and Hinata quickly called out before Naruto could get away, "W-Wait!"
The blond quickly stopped. He turned to look at Hinata. "Yeah?" He asked.
Unnerved by his stare for some reason, Hinata quickly stammered, "Are you... here to visit Haruno Sakura-san?"
Naruto blinked. "I guess you could say that!" He replied cheerily, after thinking for a while.
"I... I see..." The nurse quickly attempted to locate a folder. "There... there are some classified information that wasn't down on her official clipboard..." she drew a folder from the stack in her hands and handed it to Naruto, "... that I think the police may want to know. I... I don't know reliable this is, since the doctor never confirmed it, but..." She gulped, her eyes darting to and fro the empty corridor, as if afraid that something would rush out and swallow her whole if she made a wrong move.
"But... ?" Naruto repeated.
"Sakura-san..." Hinata bit her lips together and answered in a very soft voice, "... her memory loss is not exactly normal..."
Previously bustling with readiness to return to the room, Naruto was now a statue of still. "What do you mean?" He inquired quietly.
Taking a huge breath, Hinata willed herself to calm down. She had to do whatever she could to help her patients. "I saw it," she spoke, more solemnly than she thought she could ever be, "with my Byakugan, when they were operating on Sakura-san. There is a very strange presence of chakra near the lobe of her brain where her episodic memory is located," Hinata gestured at her head with her free hand. "In normal instances of memory loss, where the cause is usually a severe jolt or shock to the brain, there should be no instances of chakra interference. The fact that there is some abnormal chakra in Sakura-san's brain gives cause for worry. Going by what I have seen thus far... at best, Sakura-san will recover with a murky recollection of all the years of her life before this, but at worst..." Hinata's words lingered, and she bit her lips again. Breaking bad news was never her forte.
"At worst, her memories get eaten up by the abnormal chakra, and she will never remember her previous life again?"
"Ye-Yes!" Hinata quickly stammered, surprised that Naruto had finished her sentence. "But... how did you know?"
Naruto's face was dark, and his lips pressed together in a tight line. "I know enough demon tricks to be aware that this one's a tough nut to crack..." he trailed off. Lifting a face to Hinata, he smiled simply. "Thanks for the information, lady. I better go tell Sasuke what's going on. Do you mind if I kept this file?" He waved the yellow folder Hinata had passed to him around.
"No, I don't mind, please keep it if you need it," Hinata said, still a little shaken at Naruto's reaction.
"Thanks then!" The blond went back to his energetic grinning. "You know, it's not nice for me to keep calling you 'lady,'" he rubbed his nose sheepishly. "What's your name?"
A pause. Then, "Hyuuga Hinata..."
"Gotcha," Naruto winked at her. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto - the next Hokage! So you better remember me! And don't worry, I'll return you the money I borrowed for sure! I swear on the name of Hokage!" He took off down the corridor, still grinning. "Bye, Hinata! See you around!"
Hinata waved slightly in return. Only a while later did she realise that she had not stammered throughout her whole explanation, and was proud of herself. Still room for improvement, she decided, as she turned and walked the opposite direction to check on her patients.
She wondered what had given her the courage to talk to a total stranger about a patient's unconfirmed diagnosis in the first place.
--------------------------------------------------------------
27/8/2004
Part 6 of 16
(email XD!) XD (at) tougenkyou (dot) net