-1Chapter 12: The Hospital's Secret
"What was that?" Naruto leaned over as if it would help him see better. He then turned to the nurse, "Stop what exactly?"
The nurse fiddled with her fingers, her face looking nervous. "Well, one of our patients... ummm... we're setting his broken leg so, we can put a cast on it." She smiled weakly. Her eyes darting from the genins to the hallway. Sakura didn't like this one bit. She was definately lying, anyone could tell that.
"I think I better take a look," Sakura said. She gave an evil look to the nurse, "Don't try and stop me." She continued on her way down the corridor. Naruto came close behind. The nurse swung around from the desk. Her face filled with worry. She stepped in front of them with her arms outstretched.
"Oh no you don't. Only qualified personal go down there without a pass. I wouldn't let you down here anyway. Not after the way you acted. Now, turn back." Her eyes grew dark, and the tone of her voice was threatening. Sakura would have none of it.
She lunged forward, belted the nurse in the stomach. The nurse fell unconcious. Naruto caught her and set her down on against the wall. "Was that really necessary?"
"No, but I felt like punching someone," Sakura said calmly and began walking again. Naruto gulped.
"Better her than me," he followed Sakura. Knowing that would be the safest thing to do. "So what do you think is going on?"
"I don't know, but we have to find out what that scream was about. Watch for other nurses, they're dangerous." Just as she said this, five other nurses walked into the hallway. They saw the shinobi, then their knocked out comrade. Each one looked angerly at the two. Naruto moved besided Sakura. He was ready to defend her, and himself.
"What do you think you two are doing? No one can visit yet!" The nurse who spoke stepped forward. Her hand glowed with chakra. "Step back." Her eyes narrowed. It was obvious that they were medical shinobi. Sakura took a deep breath. She just wanted to visit Kakashi, she just wanted to get back to tracking Haku. Naruto felt the same way. He sighed.
Naruto did a hand seal and then said, "Kagen no bushin!" Four other Narutos popped up. "Let me have some fun Sakura-chan. We'll find out what's going on here," then all five Narutos charged the nurses, holding out kunai.
The nurses were surprisingly good. They dodged most of the attacks. Their chakra built up and when they would attack, the Naruto would go down. Unable to move something. A clone ran up and punched one of the nurses in the gut. She disappeared into a puddle of water. "Water clones!" As soon as he said that, the others threw their kunai. Two other water clones turned into puddles as the kunai hit their target.
Sakura had enough standing there. She would take out the last two. Sakura thrusted her fist in the ground. Causing it to rumble. Underneath, the two nurses, the ground rose up as the vibrations that Sakura's punch made, were released. The clones water made a small rain fall as they flew back. Sakura wiped her hands against each other.
"Wow, Sakura-chan is stronger than I thought." Naruto stared at the other puddles of water. "Alright let's find Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto opened a door that was next to him. The room behind it was bright white. It consisted of only a bed. Large lights lit up the room. On the bed were restraints. "Sakura-chan, come look at this."
"I know," she was standing with another door open. They looked at each other and then started running as fast as they could down the hall. Doors opened and shut. They hurried to find their sensei. The hospital just got more and more mysterious, and more eery.
Every room was the same. As bright as the sun reflecting off of freshly fallen snow. Looking at so many rooms that were this way started to hurt their eyes. They had to constantly squint or cover their eyes so they could see into the rooms.
They opened the doors in perfect rythm to each other. Sakura would open, as Naruto would shut; Naruto would open, as Sakura would shut her door. Then Sakura stopped for some reason. Naruto looked behind him to see her pausing at one of the doors. 'What's she doing? Did she find him?' At the thought of getting out of the hospital sooner, Naruto raced over to her.
"Sakura-chan! Did you find something?" Naruto jumped beside her. He had to force a smile down incase what she found was nothing. "Well, Sakura-chan?"
"Shhhhh!- listen." She put her ear to the door. Naruto shruuged and did it as well. His heart raced. It was faint, but it was there. A slow, painful moaning. It sounded like a man. Then Naruto stepped back from the door. "I would open it, but the door's locked."
"Move," Sakura looked back at Naruto. He was several feet away from the door. When she had turned around, she was away from the door. At that Naruto ran towards the door. He did a small jump and dropkicked it. A shiver of pain was sent up Naruto's body as he fell to the ground. "Owwwww!" He held his leg in angush. "Why didn't you warn me!"
"I didn't know you were going to do that. And besides, I wanted to wait and find out if there more than one person in there. Baka, didn't even ask what I was doing. I could have easily done this," she put her hand on the door knob. With a quick turn it bursted out of the door. Sakura threw the knob at Naruto. "A little suvenior." She turned and pushed the door away.
Inside the room was as white as ever. Sakura didn't see the bed, at first. Large lights streamed across the ceiling. Sakura squinted and put a hand over her eyes. Then she saw a dark shape. It was against the wall. Like a wall hanging or something. Sakura need to get closer to see what it was. Something was coming towards her from the light. It was hard to make out what it was with the lights. It lurched forward all of a sudden and caught Sakura by surprise. Five dark fingers grabbed her hair and pulled.
Sakura screamed to Naruto, "Naruto! There's something here!" She pulled out her kunai and stabbed what ever it was in front of her. There was a coughing sound and then wheezing. Naruto came up beside her. He saw blood on her kunai and grew worried.
"Are you alright, Sakura-chan?" he put his hand on her shoulder. "You're trembling." She looked up at him.
"I'm alright, just a bit surprised, that's all."
"Well what happened?"
"Something, there," she pointed to the dark spot on the wall. "Something reached out to grab me." The coughing sound continued, so did the wheezing. Naruto looked towards the spot and saw the dark shape up against the wall.
Naruto looked up at the ceiling and pulled out one of his kunai. The ceiling was rather low, but that meant it could be dangerous with the sparks. "Sakura-chan, keep your head covered." She looked at Naruto just in time to see him draw out a kunai and toss it up at the ceiling. Sakura put her hands over her head just as sparks flew down and the room grew dimmer. "Now we can see what it is." Naruto looked down and Sakura pulled her head up.
A wave of horror and releif flowed through them both. What was in front of them was a young man with black hair. He was tied to the bed, which was propped up on the wall. All of his limbs were strapped down except one arm. A large metal restraint went across his chest. Half of his body was burnt. The wave of relief was that it wasn't their sensei.
A table sat next to him, covered with a tray that had needles on it. In the needles was a blue liquid. Sakura took a look at one, being very cautious not to get in arms reach of the disfigured man.
She carefully examined the liquid. "I don't know what it is. We'll take it back with us. Have Tsunade-sama examine it." Sakura took off the needle and handed the case to Naruto. He put it in one of his pockets.
The man on the bed moved. He groaned, only this time it was louder and more painful sounding. He wheezed, and in a hoarse voice began to speek with deep breaths between his words. "Get... out... while, you still.. can," he took a deep breath; it sounded like air escaping from a bottle. Sakura turned to the man. He was trying to help them.
"Who are you, and what's going on here?" Naruto asked. "What happened?"
"Those wenches... after I was caught.. in a fire... they did this to me!" he took a break to breath. "Get out, GET OUT!" He coughed up blood. It splattered on the floor. He lifted his head to look at them. Sakura felt pity for the man. Now that she saw what he was, he wasn't as threatening. She put her hands on the restraints and pulled them off. "What... what..."
"You're coming with us. We need evidence, and we need to know somethings. Is anyone else here?" Naruto caught the man as Sakura broke the last restraint.
The man opened his eyes. They were sad and weary. He looked at the genins with gratitude. "Yes, a... young girl... and a man... with silver hair..." He coughed again. Sakura and Naruto's faces brightened. Their sensei was here! "What... are your... names?"
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and that is Haruno Sakura." Naruto pointed to her. "Now what is yours?"
"My name... is.. Shinji Kawada." Sakura walked over to him and helped Naruto support Kawada. They couldn't carry him all the way. He knew this and suggested something. "There are... stretchers.. in the... lobby." Sakura nodded to Naruto and he took off out of the room. Sakura smiled at Kawada.
"Don't worry, we're going to take you back to our village. It will be only about two days. We have the famous medical ninja Tsunade there."
'A medical shinobi? She's famous too.' "I look... forward.. to meet... meeting her," Kawada returned Sakura's smile. In a flash Naruto was back with a stretcher. Sakura gently helped Kawada get on it. He laid his head down. It had been a while since he was able to lay down. Drouseyness swept over him. His eyes closed and he fell into a light sleep.
"Great, now he's asleep." Naruto complained pushing Kawada out of the room. Sakura hit him on the head.
"Baka! He's been strapped to that bed for who knows how long. Let him sleep." She whispered. Just then a loud noise came from down the hall. Naruto and Sakura pulled out their kunai at a heartbeat. At the end of the long hallway, a cloud of dust settled. When it did, Sakura and Naruto felt a heavy weight come off their shoulders.
Naruto ran towards the figure in the dust, "Kakashi-sensei! You're okay?" He stopped before his sensei. Kakashi put his hand behind his head as his eye crinkled the way it does when he smiles.
"So you two were making all the noise," Kakashi said in a rather cheery way. Naruto looked at what had made the cloud of dust. The door to Kakashi's room was kicked down. Naruto frowned. 'So he can kick it down?'
Sakura smiled at her sensei. "It's good that your okay. You are okay?" Sakura's question made Kakashi's eye look a little worried. "Kakashi-sensei?"
He looked up at her and smiled again, "Yes, I'm alright. Let's get out of here." Naruto and him walked back to Sakura and Kawada. Kakashi looked at the man and asked, "A new friend?"
"Yup, his name is Shinji Kawada." Naruto took a hold of the stretcher and started pushing it towards the lobby. Sakura looked up at Kakashi.
"Kawada said that there was a young girl here as well. We need to get her." Sakura said while turning around to go and check the other rooms. Kakashi stopped her. His eye looked said again. He turned to his student and said in a calm but sad way.
"There's no need to get her."
"What do you mean? Of course we have to get her!"
"No, we don't." Sakura was confused about what he was saying. He wouldn't just leave a child behind. Sakura thought about it. 'Unless they were dead.' Sakura looked at Kakashi. He seemed sad over the idea. "They buried her outside my window this moring. She didn't have any family I think." He continued walking. Sakura followed. The joy over seeing her sensei had disappeared. Now all she could think about was the little girl.
"How sad," she whispered to herself.
xxx
Naruto stuffed his clothes in his pack, wanting to get away from the town as soon as possible. "This place creeps me out," he mumbled to himself. Kakashi had all of his things. He would be waiting for them in the lobby. A knock came from Naruto's door. He went over and opened it. Sakura stood there with her pack.
"Are you ready?"
"Yeah, hold on I'll be right down."
"Okay," she walked down the hall and then disappeared down the steps. Naruto ran to his stuff and packed like crazy. When everything was in he ran out of the room.
Sakura and Kakashi were in the loby talking to Mizuki. Kakashi handed her the pay for the rooms. She smiled at him. "I hope your students enjoyed your stay. Come visit." She looked back at Sakura and now Naruto who had come thumping down the stairs. Yori was standing behind the desk. His eye hadn't fully healed, but his lip had shrunken down a little.
He kept his head down and walked over to Sakura. Naruto eyed him caustiously. He was holding something behind his back. "Umm, Sakura-chan?" She looked at him. Her face wasn't happy at all. But he still held a weak smile on his face. "Here, this is for you. I'm sorry. I still want to be friends with you, I meant all those things I said about." Sakura's face lightened up a little when she saw the red box that he held out to her. His head still down a little bit.
"Arigato, Yori-san," she took the box and opened it. Inside was a lilypad that had a flower on it. She touched it. It was galzed over. In the center of the flower was a crystal ball. It was so beautiful. "Arigato!" This time she gave him a real smile. Yori lifted his head. His face was glowing and he was smiling.
Naruto glared at him. 'Where'd he get that? How dare he think he can flirt with Sakura-chan!' Naruto turned to his sensei, now he was even more motivated to get out of here. "Kakashi-sensei, can we get moving. We still have to pick up Kawada from the resturant." Naruto crossed his arms and looked at Yori and Sakura.
Kakashi smiled under his mask. "Yes we can go. Goodbye Mizuki, Yori." He turned around and started walking down the road. Sakura bowed a little to Mizuki and Yori than caught up to her sensei. Naruto waved bye to Mizuki and then glared at Yori. He took off after Sakura and Kakashi.
Yori walked over to his sister. His face still glowing over Sakura's satisfaction of the gift."Hey sis, do you think we'll ever see them again?"
"I hope so." She smiled and showed Yori the large tip that Kakashi had given her. "They are truly nice people, not just for the money." Mizuki winked at him and then headed back inside.
xxx
Kawada was waiting for them on a bench outside of the resturant. He was smiling at them. Now Kawada was covered in bandages on the side of his body that had gotten burnt in the fire. "I.. see that... we're... going now." He stood up with the help of a cane that Naruto bought him. "Here... from... the.. cook." He handed Sakura a bag. She opened it.
"Oh look! Rice balls!" Naruto snatched the bag from her hands. He pulled out one and gobbled it down. It was too late for him to realize that was a bad move. Sakura thudded him in the head. He fell to the ground with a large lump on his head. Sakura clenched her fist and grabbed the bag back. "We need to save these! Baka! Baka!" 'More like dumbass. But it felt good to hit something.' Sakura put the bag in her pack.
They started down the road again, this time with Kawada. The small group walked until the sunset and the stars and moon were the only thing left to light the road. Kakashi set up the tent. This time with three sleepingbags. "I'll be the ony one to keep watch tonight."
Sakura was relieved that she could once again get a full nights sleep. Naruto made the fire this time. Arranging them in the way that Kakashi had taught them. Once the fire was lit Sakura brought out the riceballs and distributed them evenly.
Kawada pulled out a white bottle and two cups. Naruto looked at him and asked, " What is that?"
"Something your too young for," he stands up and walks over to Kakashi who is standing by a tree. His lookout spot. Kawada pours some of the clear liquid into the cups. He offers a cup to Kakashi. "Here you go. A thank you drink to your students." Kawada chuckled a little, Kakashi smiled.
"I haven't had some of this for five years." Naruto heard his sensei say. He looks to the two adults. He sees Kakashi turn his back to Naruto and Sakura, then one of his hands go up towards his face. 'The mask!' Naruto leaps to his feet.
slow mo.
Naruto jumps over a log that he was sitting on. Kakashi pulls his hand up to his face. Naruto is running towards them. A finger prys under the mask, ready to pull it down. Naruto silently screams, "Nooooo! Not yet!" The mask is being pulled down. Naruto stretches out his hand. He get inbetween Kakashi and Kawada, ready to see his sensei's face. But he blinks and his hand knocks over the cup in Kakashi's hand. It shatters to the ground, distracting Naruto.
regular speed
Kakashi pulls up his mask. naruto stops and hangs his arms from the side. "Ahhhh! I missed it!" He juts out his jaw and walks back over to the campsite. Kawada is confused, Kakashi disappointed that the cup broke.
Kawada shrugs and slugs his sake down. He tips the bottle to pour another glass for Kakashi, but the bottle is empty. "Oh well, it's probably for the best." Kakashi rubs his head and smiles. Kawada sighs and leans up against another tree. The crickets chrip all through the night.
xXxxxXx
hope you like this chapter. R&R! Next chapter coming soon.
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