"Will this really work?"

"Yes I guarantee it. No one suspects a thing."

"This is risky you know. A lot is riding on this."

"I am aware of this, it's a small price to pay."

"Did you even think this through?"

"More than you have I assure you."

"Don't give me that. This was a spur of the moment decision and you know it."

"Yet you still agreed, and it worked. Why be skeptical now of all times?"

"We don't know if it worked yet."

"I say the odds are good since we are both alive."

"Barely alive."

"Alive nonetheless."

"Still, this was too impulsive for my liking."

"Please, you live on impulsivity."

"...point taken."

"Now enough. The signs are showing that it worked."

"You're too cocky for your own good you know that?"

"Sometimes you have to be."

"If this fails, it won't look good for you."

"I am willing to take the risk."

"Tch. You piss me off sometimes."

"Touche."

Naruto felt his eyes flutter open slowly. His eyelids felt incredibly heavy and the second he opened them, he just wanted to close them again. His vision was almost completely impaired, being incredibly blurry as he tried to get a read on his surroundings. He could barely make out a spotless white ceiling above his head through the haziness as he ran a hand upwards, blocking out the bright light shining above him. He tried to push himself upwards but the moment he did a huge amount of pain ricochet inside his body making him gasp loudly. His hoarse tone didn't go unnoticed by him as he smacked his head back against the soft bed he was laying in, his fingers brushing themselves against the soft sheet over his body and gripped tightly. He had to scowl to ignore the immense pain he felt echoing deep into his stomach, using what strength he had left he grabbed the bottom of the blue gown he was wearing and lifted it up to reveal his heavily bandaged stomach. His eye brow rose in confusion as he poked the side, ignoring the jolt of pain he felt from the contact and brought his finger closer to him.

"I'm bleeding?"

That was strange, from the looks of it he had been bleeding for quite some time. The bandages looked fresh enough like they were put in him today but they were already partially soaked with the sanguine liquid. Noticing the small improvement to his vision he took a long glance around the room he was in, he was no doubt in a hospital room but he didn't know exactly where he was. He didn't remember anything since his fight with Kisame back in Lighting Country, or even how long he had been out for.

Since he was conscious again he could feel the strength in his body returning with each passing minute. Bending his arms and swinging his legs to get the joints loosened up again as he carefully removed the bloodied bandages around his stomach. He ignored the pain he felt as his fingers grazed his injury. After the blood soaked appendages were removed he placed them on the small bedside table before looking at his stomach, his eyes going wide as he finally got a good look at his injury.

"Holy shit." Naruto muttered to himself. His voice trailing off his lips as he gazed at the new blemish that occupied a good portion of his midriff. It looked like something had taken a deep bite out of his skin from his side, sharp looking teeth marks embedded itself into his tan skin and went all the way to his belly button hiding it from view. It was a light brown in color, mixed with his normal tan complexion and the amount of blood he had lost giving off a rustic feel to the mark.

"That fucking shark bastard."

Naruto thought bitterly, his hand clenching into a fist as he started channeling his chakra into the wound to heal it as best he could. Almost immediately he could feel his blood jutsu getting to work on healing him, the small blood tendrils forming from the large gash and sewing him up. He let out a small sigh as he cleaned the excess amount of blood from his stomach. He twirled his free hand making the copper smelling liquid peel off his skin and dropping it into the pile of bandages he had removed earlier. After ending the technique he felt his insides burn, his face morphing into sudden pain as he gripped around his fabric around his heart.

"Damn, even just using my chakra hurts like a bitch."

He said internally, feeling his left eye pulse in pain matching exactly what he was feeling on the inside. Whatever Kisame had done to him must have thrown his chakra out of whack again, and depending on how long he had been out for would also hold a contributing factor into that as well. He was so caught up in the sudden pain he didn't even hear the doorknob strat to turn as it squeaked open.

"I'm sure it'll….be….fine."

Naruto felt his eyes go wide as he snapped his heads upwards and towards the door. He cursed himself for not paying enough attention to his surroundings. He couldn't even sense any chakra signatures thanks to his injuries and he could barely even hear when the door had been opened. After realizing he had been walked in on, Naruto quickly jumped out of bed, and across from the person that had entered and leaped to the opposite side of the room. The second he landed however a searing amount of pain shot throughout his body again going deep into his veins as he felt his legs give out from under him and fell to the floor with a loud wheeze.

As he fell he felt someone sidle up next to him catching his fall before his knees made contact to the ground. Naruto cursed himself again as he tried to look up and see whoever had caught him, while his vision did get better he was still having a hard time focusing properly and since the sun had just began to set it was making it harder to see in the still darkening room as darkness flooded through the large window behind them.

"Woah careful now Naruto-nii. Your injuries still aren't healed."

Naruto felt his body freeze as the voice reached his ears. His heart felt like it had just dropped 100 stories in his chest and now resided in the deep contents of his stomach with the rest of his pain. His eyes went wide as he hesitantly turned his head to the person holding him up, the deep voice resonating within him as he made eye contact to the all too familiar purple eyes looking at him with nothing short of amusement and small hint of concern hidden deep within those amethyst orbs. Naruto's mouth fell agape, the name uttering off of his lips in pure disbelief.

"N-natsu?"

Natsu grinned as he nodded his head, finding joy in seeing his brother's apparent distress at seeing him as he helped Naruto get back onto his feet. Naruto was a little hesitant at first, not really wanting to see or be near his brother anymore than he already was. They hadn't gotten along when he still lived in Konoha and he usually was the victim of a verbal onslaught Natsu liked to indulge in. He blinked as that thought crossed his mind however. If he was in a hospital, and Natsu was here then there was a very high chance that he was back inside his home village.

"Kise must have brought us back, using me as a pretence to enter the village safely and without problems." he thought, hiding a grin as he looked away from his brother. Finally accepting the boy's help as he shaikly got to his feet. He would play along for now.

Naruto kept his arm wrapped around Natu's shoulders as the slightly taller boy helped Naruto stand fully. Naruto hesitantly muttered a small thanks as he propped himself against a wall removing himself from his brother as Natsu grinned back at him. Still finding the situation quite enjoyable.

"You seem better, "Natsu said, his eyes glancing at the bundle of bandages on the side table for a moment before crossing his arms. "You know it's against policy for patients to remove their own bandages." he finished with a raised eyebrow.

"The bleeding had already stopped." Naruto dryly replied. Finding it quite odd that Natsu was speaking so normal to him. This is the first real conversation they had had in probably over six years without Natsu constantly degrading Naruto every chance he got. Natsu felt his eyebrow raise eagain as he met Naruto's own blue eyes. He found that pretty hard to believe, he was told that his bleeding was almost constant and it was lucky he never died from blood loss and when he checked earlier he had just replaced the old soaked ones.

"Really? Lift your shirt for me."

Naruto looked at Natsu, slightly taken aback at his brother's request as the red-head took a step closer to him. Naruto took a step away but didn't get very far since he was already fully against the back wall. He was skeptical of his brother, for numerous reasons. The last time he had spoken to him had been years ago back at the ramen shop when he boasted about his sage training. It wasn't a fond memory to have and everything before that was much, much worse. Natsu noticed Naruto's look of confusion and hesitance and rolled his eyes a bit. While Naruto's reaction was very much justified and not surprising, it was a little annoying for the red-head.

"Relax Naruto-nii. Is it so strange for me to want to see your injury?"

"Yes."

Naruto replied dryly again, looking at Natsu with an 'are you serious' stare. Naruto almost let out a laugh at his brother's ridiculous question but he managed to hold back surprisingly. Natsu rolled his eyes again, scowling as he took another step towards Naruto. Crouching down and gripping the shirt and lifting it up over Naruto's injury. Naruto didn't try to fight back as Natsu did so, it would make this much easier for him to just accept the weird circumstance that he found himself in instead of fighting it. Who knows what would happen if Naruto was a step out of line here. His body was still severely weakened, he thought he was better but it was a false sense of security and he was sure that if he got into a fight now it would only be a disaster. And since he was technically still a missing-nin the village would have no problem throwing him in prison, or out right executing him outright. The Hokage only had so much power of the laws that the village had to uphold, and that's even if his father fought for him.

Naruto looked down to his brother and winced as the shirt grazed his scar again. He watched as his brother blinked in total surprise before lifting his hand upwards and towards Naruto's stomach. Naruto was about to open his mouth to ask what he was doing, but was quickly shut up as Nattu's hand started to glow a soft green as he gently placed his hand over his scar. Naruto was once again copelty thrown for a loop at his brother's actions. This time acting trying to dispel and see if he was trapped in a genjutsu because of the weirdness of it all.

"Medical ninjutsu?"

"Yeah. I started learning it after I finished my sage training. On my days off I usually come here to help out since they are low in staff at the moment." Natsu replied, making Naruto shake him in shock.

"This is becoming a little too much for me…" Naruto whispered low enough so that Natsu wasn't able to hear what he said. And that was the truth, this was the last thing he expected to see and hear after he woke up from his comatose state not even an hour ago.

Natsu on the other hand ignored his brothers outward shock as he stared at the scar with a mixture of confusion and disbelief. Natsu was here earlier when his brother had been dropped unexpectedly from that black headed member on Narumi's team before quickly explaining the situation to the doctors. Most of them were hesitant to help out a missing-nin out, even if he was originally part of this village AND the Yondaim's child. Luckily Natsu had been working and specifically requested for Naruto to be put under his care until his father had returned. No one argued with Natsu and he was quickly debriefed about the boy's condition even if they were all uncertain on how he had received these injuries.

Natsu healed him as best as he could, but no matter how hard he tried to stop the bleeding on the wound, it never did stop. Natsu changed the bandages around his stomach three times already and they were always soaked completely in blood. But looking at the wound now it was, completely closed up. While the scar would no doubt live forever on Naruto's body, unless he covered it with a seal or genjutsu. The wound was more or less completely closed now, and around him all the blood had already been cleaned up and wiped clean. It was astounding to Natsu, he had never seen anything like it before except for Narumi and himself thanks to the Kyuubi. He snuck a glance at his brother from the floor, a mixture of emotions fighting in his own gut as the fox demon within him laughed loudly at Natsu's turmoil.

"It seemed the wound closed up completely."

Natsu said as he lowered the blondes shirt, letting it fall back back down as Naruto rose to his feet, walking to the door as he grabbed the clipboard that was hanging on the wall, using the attached pen to write down the miraculous recovery of his returned brother. As he did so his eyes stayed trained on his brother, still unsure of what to say, or what to even do. It was much easier when he had been unconscious since Naruto couldn't respond. Naruto was more or less in the same boat as he tried to look everywhere else except Natsu. Still swimming in disbelief as he stretched his sore muscles, finally feeling the pain start to subside as a strange sensation bubbled in his stomach.

"I can't say how it happened, but you are healed completely." Natsu said, grabbing Naruto's attention as their eyes finally met for only the second time today. "But there are a few things that I need to check."

Naruto felt his body tense slightly, thankfully Natsu didn't seem to notice as the taller male walked over to him again. Motioning for him to lay back down on the bed which Naruto did with a little hesitancy once again. Natsu placed his clipboard down onto the side table, making sure not to get any blood on it from the removed bandages as his hands started to glow green again checking over the rest of his brother's body.

"You've changed."

Natsu's eyes snapped over to meet his brothers again, the all to familiar grin returning to his face as he nodded slowly.

"So have you."

A tense and awkward silence washed over the two brothers as Natsu continued his work. Both not really knowing what to say to one another more than that. Naruto wasn't even sure of what he could say. He wasn't lying when he said he saw none of them as family. Natsu was like the school bully that followed him home and wouldn't leave him alone, he was never once a brother to him in his life. But he couldn't help but realize that change in his brother's attitude or demeanor. It was definitely a change for the better, but still very odd.

"I do have a few questions."

Naruto nodded his head at Natsu, his thoughts still traveling a mile a minute in the small room. Natsu moved his glowing hand upwards making Naruto's breath hitch as his hand flew up to his now closed left eye while his other stayed on his stomach. The tense silence continued for a few minutes as Naruto waited patiently for Natsu to speak.

"How did you get these injuries?"

"I was fighting a member of the Akatsuki back in Lightning Country. I don't remember much after that."

Naruto replied honestly, making Natsu blink once again in surprise as his eyes traveled down to the blonde stomach again. "That would make sense, that black haired kid said something similar I believe. He also said you had been in a coma for about five months."

"F-five months?" Naruto asked in shock, not believing it to be so long since he had awoken. He would have guessed it would have been close to one month, but five? That's ridiculous.

Nastu nodded, "That's what I was told."

"By who?"

"I don't remember his name. The black haired kid on nee-chan's team."

Naruto raised an eyebrow again, "Nee-chan? Narumi has a team?"

"But what i'm most curious about isn't how you got those injuries. It's this." Natsu looked back to meet Naruto's eyes, ending his medical jutsu as he gently placed his fingers over his left eyelid and put his closed palm on his chest, careful not to induce any pain in his brother. Naruto suddenly felt very tense around Natsu, his eyes had gone blank. Very reminiscent of their younger days together.

"After looking you over I noticed several...odd discoveries. Two in particular. One one here." He said tapping his eyelid gently, making Naruto stare back at Natsu with an equally blank expression. "While there was nothing out of the ordinary, there was a small seal placed just above your eyelid. It's pretty advanced, I would have missed it completely if I wasn't proficient with fuinjutsu. It's blocking access to your eyes and your nervous system, I find it quite odd." he said, his eyes flashing with questions. He continued, moving his eyes to the blonde's horribly scarred stomach.

"And most of all, right here. Again I would have missed this completely If I hadn't been looking after I found the seal on your eye. But this seal is even more advanced than the other one. I can't even decipher all the kanji and sealing arrays on it. It reminds me of my seal, the one holding the Kyuubi at bay."

Natsu said, his voice lowering as his amethyst eyes looked over to Naruto's sapphire. Both wearing matching challenging expressions on their faces. But unlike the past, Naruto wasn't afraid to fight back now. Before he would have most likely bitten back in anger at anything Natsu would have said, but this time he was headstrong. He actually had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from grinning several times.

"That is quite interesting." Naruto responded, fighting back the urge to smirk as Natsu faltered at his response. Natsu seemed to have been caught up in his monologue and found himself stuck in the past for a moment, half expecting Naruto to cave in like he had done when he was younger. Naruto's response was almost playful making Natsu a little more peeved off then he already was. He did a good job at hiding it, but just like Naruto, he was also having a hard time dealing with this situation.

"It is. Care to elaborate further Naruto-nii?"

Naruto this time did grin, catching Natsu by surprise a little as he looked up to the roof he sighed heavily.

"Not really. I think you can deduce what this all means. You have always been the smarter one out of us right?"

That seemed to get the desired reaction out of Natsu as he glared at his brother, knowing just how irritated he would get at the challenge. Natsu scoffed, he hated to admit it, but he truly didn't know what it could mean. The seal was similar to his and Narumi's, but with added sealing arrays that he didn't recognize. Minato couldn't leave the village because of a distress call from Narumi, so he couldn't ask him to look at it which was even more infuriating. He had his suspicions that Naruto was possible harboring a Bijuu within him, but he couldn't sense a thing within the seal. Even the Kyuubi couldn't sense anything, and his sage mode was more or less useless as well and couldn't break through the seal no matter how hard he tried.

It was like a puzzle, a puzzle that Natsu had been ignoring for over ten years and he only just started to piece together. And Naruto wasn't the one who seemed like talking, after all even if he did used to live here he wasn't obligated to spill his secrets when he was gone. And it was only a matter of time until the world traveled across the village and the council got involved with his return, even if he was even planning on returning. Each and every time he thought about it a new question would be brought up about his enigmatic brother. And he wasn't like Narumi who officially gave up on Naruto, he wanted to know who he was, and what he'd done.

"And meeting the Akatsuki. Interesting."

He thought as he glanced between Naruto's stomach and eyes. Naruto still refused to look at him but that was expected. "I have a few theories, yes. But they are just that, and it would do me no good to tell you since you wouldn't even tell me if I was right."

Natsu removed his hands from Naruto's body and stalked his way over to the door again, placing the clipboard back to its original place before meeting his brother's eyes again. Blue met purple once again as they stared silently at each other. The atmosphere grew more and more tense and both remained silent, not wanting to break the heavy tension. Both unwavering in their resolve as their eyes remained unblinking for an absurd amount of time. It was almost like they were looking into a mirror of the past, Natsu could only see the old Naruto. The one that backed away from anything and everything and was easy to walk all over. While Naruto could only see the young Natsu. The boy who's piercing purple eyes would promise pain and torture as he ridicualed him, showed him what it was like to live wuth such a toxic family. But now they were both different, in many ways and it only intrigued them further. Naruto was a broken puzzle that was left untouched for years, while Natsu was the perfect vase that was cracking over time from pressure. Natsu grinned before tearing his eyes away from Naruto, opening the door with a soft click as he stepped outside, leaving Narut to his own devices and once again fully alone. But he couldn't leave without muttering a single sentence. His words were condescending, oozing with arrogance and fanciful in nature. Letting Naruto wonder if Natsu had actually changed at all.

"Welcome back, Naruto-nii."