Twin2: This is a little short, but…
Twin1: But I made her post this, like, now, because we're going overseas tomorrow and henceforth the next chapter may be… slightly delayed.
Twin2: And if you spot any errors in this chapter, please let me know; this was edited on about four hours' sleep over the space of three days. The sleep, not the editing.
Twin1: Seriously, calm down…
Twin2: I can sleep on the plane!
Fourteen: Memorandum
Beep. Beep. Beep.
I shifted uncomfortably on the hospital bed. Was Sasuke alright? Kakashi-sensei had somehow gotten us both in the same room, so I could hear his heart monitor beeping steadily whenever my own wasn't going off. Stupid thing was driving me crazy – mine, that is. Sasuke's was a reassurance he was alive. But aside from that, I had no idea how he was doing.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
That beeping was really getting to me. So annoying. In flawless time with my heartbeat, which I could hear perfectly fine, thankyou.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
I pricked my ears interestedly as someone started shouting from downstairs, trying to pick out a) who it was and b) what their problem was.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
But that stupid machine was driving me crazy!
I growled and shook my fist at it uselessly, temporarily ignoring the shouting as I glared at the continuous, obnoxious beeper. Then I sighed tiredly and leaned back against my pillows, shutting out my own heart monitor and listening to Sasuke's. Somehow, the beeps for that one were slightly different, a fraction of a higher pitch, and somehow, that made all the difference between 'annoying distraction' and 'reassurance'.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
I heard the shouting start up again, right outside the door, but a little quieter. It must have been quieter, because I still couldn't pick what was being said, but when Kakashi-sensei's voice came into my comprehension, saying, "Iruka, before you go in there you need to know –"
I put my fingers in my ears and braced.
Surprisingly, there was no instant headache for me, and I dropped my hands cautiously, ready to clap them over my ears if the shouting started. But there was a telltale thud, and the door just opened quietly, and I grinned at the two chakras that had just come in. "Hi, Kakashi-sensei. Hi, Iruka-sens–"
I was cut off by a heavy weight suddenly attaching itself to my chest, hugging me tightly, and I flinched back for a second until I identified the mass, and then relaxed into his grip, bringing my arms up to hug him back. He ran his fingers through my hair and I shivered at the contact; he was rocking back and forth slightly, shaking with silent sobs that I could hear faintly catching in his chest.
"Naruto, oh no, Naruto," he whispered frantically, and several sobs escaped, making me go still as the tears that accompanied them landed on my shoulder. This was by far the worst reaction yet. "Oh Naruto…" Iruka-sensei's sobs had intensified, and I hugged him awkwardly, flinching at the tears soaking into my clean shirt.
"I-it's okay, Iruka-sensei, don't… don't cry," I stammered out, patting him on the back and looking over at Kakashi helplessly. "Please don't cry, it's okay, don't cry."
He let out a strangled sob and ruffled my hair again, biting back his tears. "I g-guess I shouldn't c-cry," he choked out, pulling me closer – I hadn't thought it would be possible – and sobbing aloud again.
I looked at Kakashi again, desperately hoping for help – I had trouble dealing with my own random emotions, let alone other people's! Sasuke's were easier to predict than my own, but he could read me pretty well, so that wasn't so bad… wait. Off on a tangent. Kakashi, help meeeee…
I remembered another reason I had wanted someone else to be in the damn room. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei, is Sasuke okay?" I asked.
He seemed mildly surprised by the question. "Yes, Naruto, he's fine. You can hear the heart monitor."
I sighed, resisting the urge to roll my eyes, having learned it would hurt. "I know that, but is he okay? Is he sleeping peacefully or is he in pain? Does he look upset or like the curse mark is bothering him? Does he look like he's going into shock? Have any of his cuts reopened? Is he okay?"
I could feel Kakashi smiling slightly and shaking his head at me. "He's sleeping quietly. He's not in any pain. He's not upset. The curse mark isn't hurting him. He's not going into shock, and all of his cuts are fine. He is okay, Naruto; I promise."
I grinned weakly. "Thankyou. Oh! Hey, hey, Iruka-sensei!" I said, hoping to distract the man from his weeping. "My respect for you has gone up! You decked Kakashi-sensei! That was so cool!"
He sniffed and said, obviously confused, "What?"
"I heard you outside, whack, that was so awesome! You are so cool!"
"You do realise I let him hit me?" Kakashi said, sounding amused.
"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, sensei," I smirked, before twitching and focusing in on the chakra that was approaching. "Hey, the doc's coming back. I hate hospitals, that reminds me, when can I get out of here, sensei?"
Kakashi was saved from having to answer by the doctor arriving. "Hello, Hatake-san, Umino-san," he said politely. "Now, Uzumaki, how are you feeling?"
I shrugged uncomfortably, fidgeting. "Meh. Kinda bored. And I can't feel my feet, but I've been sitting on them for the last half hour so it's not unexpected… maybe I shouldn't sit on them…" I shifted, pulling my feet out, and winced as the pins-and-needles sensation started up, burning tingles running through my deadened muscles. Kami, I hated that feeling. Wait, I'd been talking to the doctor. "Um, really bored. I hate sitting around for so long, it was bad enough for the written exam thing. Oh, that reminds me, Kakashi-sensei, when's the third exam? I think it's in a month, but… I was kinda distracted at the time, so I didn't hear everything that was said." I grinned sheepishly as my jounin sensei sighed.
"There's a month in which the finalists recover from the previous exams and train, yes."
The doctor interrupted, apparently not happy with some aspect of the conversation. "Now then, I'm going to take off your bandages so we can clean that cut, okay? Just hold still. I promise it won't hurt."
"Says you," I grumbled, but I didn't try to fight him when cool hands brushed against my head and the gauze started to come loose. Dry, cool air brushed at my face, and I flinched at the doctor touching the skin near the butterfly clips holding the edges of the gash together. Even though the clips didn't hurt anymore where they had bitten into the skin, they had hurt enough originally to make me touchy about them.
I couldn't help the instinctive wince as the cold cloth came into contact with my skin, and as the doctor very gently began to dab at the slash, I went very still and stiff, waiting for the pain to kick in as the disinfectant started working and the cloth aggravated the diced-up nerves.
But, nothing.
The doctor must have noticed my surprise, as he began to explain while cleaning the cut so gently I could barely feel it. "For such a delicate area we prefer to use painless disinfectants. There's enough sensitive damage here already without adding something like hydrogen peroxide to the mix."
"What the heck is hydrogen peroxide?" I frowned mentally. Wasn't that… hair dye? Or something like that?
Before I really noticed, the doctor was done with my eyes, having wiped away all of the bloody residue, and firmly bandaging them once more with clean gauze. "Now Uzumaki, we'll have to change your bandages twice a day to make sure your injury doesn't get infected, okay? Even when I'm not here, there will be a nurse in the room all the time, even if you can't hear her," he said. "If you need something or want to ask a question, just ask her."
"Before anyone goes anywhere, can I just ask when the heck I can get out of here?" I interrupted. "I'm bored. Seriously. This is not the most interesting of places, and the disinfectant is killing my nose."
The doctor hesitated. "We'll just have to wait and see," he said evasively, and I glared at him. Not the answer I wanted to hear. "Now say goodbye; visiting hours are over and I think Hatake-san has something important he needs to do. I'd like to have a word with him myself."
Kakashi put one hand on my shoulder, saying lightly, "I'll come by tomorrow, Naruto; just get some sleep. Yes, Sasuke will be okay when you wake up in the morning. Don't worry, hey?"
Iruka hugged me again and gently ruffled my hair. "I'll drop by tomorrow, too, before school starts, okay, Naruto? Just get some rest."
"Why does everyone keep saying that to me?" I grumbled.
Attention: Hatake Kakashi
Memo:
Yo, Kakashi! That was wicked awesome, your genin totally kicked arse in the exam! And blind! What are you teaching those kids?
Signed,
Shiranui Genma
I listened to the music someone had put on in the corner of the room. The loss of the annoying beeping of my heart monitor (they had decided I wasn't going to collapse into shock again) was calming, and I had always liked music, so I was actually fairly content, just sitting here listening intermittently to Sasuke's heart beeper and the CD player.
I was starting to feel slightly tired, but not in the way that meant I should go to sleep. Just… tired. It was weird, being so tired, but not sleepy.
Maybe I should go check Kyuubi… see what the furball's up to down there, and figure out what the hell happened…
I shifted slightly, pulling my legs under me so I was sitting cross-legged on the bed, resting my hands lightly on my knees. I let my breath out slowly, shutting myself down, reaching down deeper and deeper into my own mind, drawing away from the real world, the music that was fading fast, the beeps that died to my hearing, the soft sheets that fell away into nothingness.
I blinked painlessly; there was no pain in my mind, at least none that was affected by the outside world. If I tripped over I felt it, but… my eyes didn't hurt. I wasn't bruised and scratched and injured.
Water lapped around my ankles, but I wasn't concerned – that was normal. I started walking, not worried about walking into the wall – I put out my left hand, and the slimy stone materialised straightaway, exactly where I knew it would be. This was, after all, technically my world; as far as I could tell, it morphed and shifted around me as according to me. Or Kyuubi on occasion, when I pissed him off or…
I blinked as the pulsing heat of the fox's chakra flickered slightly from in front of me. Now that was odd. Normally it was like a river rushing past me, a rippling geyser that I couldn't see but could literally feel distorting the mind-space around me as it moved.
That tiny glimmer of power was not normal.
"Kyuubi?" I called. "You in there, you dumb fox?"
Nothing, not even a responding flare.
"Hey! Foxy! Anyone home?"
No response.
I scowled. "Yo! Fox! Rabbit-demon! Kyuu-chan! Small insignificant human wants to know what the fuck is going on!"
Still nothing, not even the growl of exasperation – and usually entertaining rage – a comment of that style would normally produce. I was starting to get nervous – this wasn't normal, and the seal not being normal was, simply put, a Very Bad Thing.
I moved forward, reaching out and touching one of the cold metal bars. This disconcerted me for two reasons: one, going too close to the cage occasionally means the fox takes a swipe at my head. Two, the bars were usually warm. He liked to stay close to the front of the cage, as far up in my awareness as he could go.
But the metal was stone cold, and the fox's hot breath was absent.
"Kyuubi?" I called again, more loudly this time.
The shard of the fox I could sense did flicker in response this time, but only faintly. I frowned. This was so not normal…
I walked beside the bars, letting my hands catch against them, and paused when I caught a warm chain in my hand instead of smooth metal. Chains… locks… that seal, had it been used to lock the Kyuubi out of my system?
Any normal person would have been skipping for joy, but unfortunately, the fox was kind of useful. The super-healing and limitless chakra being two things. I didn't miss the constant killer intent, though; that was kind of creepy.
Time passes differently when I'm in my own head, so I don't know how long I paced around the chamber that Kyuubi's cage was in, running my hands over the bars and trying – fruitlessly, I might add – to read whatever seal had been used. But seals, when active, are essentially solid chakra. Where was I? In a place basically composed of chakra. Yeah. Chakra on chakra equals no distinction equals can't read. What a pain.
Eventually, I gave up. The Kyuubi couldn't help, I couldn't see what was going on inside my own head, and there was really no point in hanging around any longer. I felt myself come awake in the real world, my senses fluttering back to life and Sasuke's heart monitor beeping steadily. The music was still playing, but it was a different song to before – something with violins, I thought sleepily.
So the Kyuubi was definitely trapped. I had no idea what was going on in there, but I think it's the first time I've been into my mindscape without being threatened with death since… since that day when I was seven and mildly drunk. Don't ask. The fox couldn't stop laughing.
I was really sleepy now… it would be so easy just to drop off, right here…
Beep. Beep. Beep.
I leaned back and shuffled blindly for the blanket for a few seconds, tugging it up to cover my shoulders and settling back. I let my mind drift, letting the world fall away like I did with meditation, but instead of pulling myself inwards, falling inside myself, I just slipped under the veil of sleep.
Attention: Hatake Kakashi
Memo:
Thanks, Kakashi. Thanks a lot. Kiba's been sulking all week 'cause a blind retard (his words, not mine) beat him, which of course means that I'm clearly not doing my job. I don't s'pose you could pop by during training and scare him up a tree for me, could you? Give him a taste of why he really would prefer me as a teacher than you? Say, training ground 82, around ten-ish? If you don't, I swear I'll tell Anko who it was who leaked those pictures of her to the general public.
Signed,
Yuuhi Kurenai
"Naruto, just walk towards me. You won't fall, I promise, just try to keep a straight line –"
I walked calmly, in a perfectly straight line, towards the voice, a perfectly calm smile glued to my face. "Um… yes, Naruto, that's good. Can you point to where the bed is?"
I pointed to where I had just come from, keeping the forced smile exactly where it was.
"Can you point to where the bathroom is?"
I pointed to the left, where the bathroom was, where I could, right now, hear water running through the pipes.
"Very good, Naruto. Can you walk back to the bed for me, please, and sit down?"
I walked back, measuring my steps carefully, counting them out mentally in a furious (and feeble) attempt to distract my mind from how frickin' peeved I was. I sat on the bed, hearing the phone ring downstairs in reception, and unable to keep myself from turning my head to Sasuke's bed. The beeps had gone quiet; his breathing was gone. Kakashi had taken him off early, before I was awake, to train.
"Okay, Naruto, I think that's enough walking for now," the nurse told me, sitting down in the chair beside my bed. "Could you listen to these sounds and tell me what they are?"
I sighed. This was going to be a looooong month.
Attention: Hatake Kakashi
Memo:
MY ETERNAL RIVAL! YOUR GENIN'S YOUTHFUL PERFORMANCE IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY WAS TRULY BREATHTAKING! THE SPRINGTIME OF YOUTH FLOURISHES WITHIN HIM! PLEASE KNOW THAT MY HEART GREIVES FOR YOU AND HIM IN THIS HOUR OF LOSS, BUT WE SHALL PERSEVERE! YOSH!
Signed,
Maito Gai
"Can you listen to these sounds and tell me what they are?"
"Aaaargh!" I finally snapped, springing to my feet. "That is the tenth time today you've asked me that! Am I not getting them right or something? Please tell me if I am! PLEASE! This is insanely boring! Worse than the Academy lectures! I mean, for crying out loud! Guh, I'm gonna go take a shower."
Before the startled nurse could grab me I had darted into the bathroom, slammed the door shut and locked it. As the woman started to rattle the doorknob, ordering me to open it, I groped blindly for the chair I knew was in here somewhere and jammed it under the knob. Ha. Like to see them open it now.
I ignored the nurse entirely from there, yanking at my shirt and grimacing at the smell. I hadn't had a bath in, what, a week? Probably should have had one while we were in the tower, but hey, I wasn't conscious for most of that, so I have an excuse! Makes me wonder how I slept, mind you. Sheesh.
Twenty minutes later, I was poking at my clothes with my foot, determined not to put them back on, when Kakashi poofed in. "Hi, sensei," I said as his chakra materialised. "How's Sasuke doing? Why'd you take him so early, dammit? Hey, would you mind getting me a fresh set of clothes? These ones stink. How the heck did my team stand me for so long?"
I suspected Kakashi was rolling his eyes as he handed me a clean shirt and shorts, apparently having expected this. "Sasuke's fine – he's taking a break while I checked in. You realise half the hospital is in hysterics?"
"Huh?" My head popped through the hole in the shirt, messing up my still-filthy hair – I had wanted to wash it, but I was fairly sure I wasn't supposed to get the bandages wet. Which sucks, by the way. "Why's that? I just wanted to take a shower. And the nurse was driving me crazy! I mean seriously, playing the same stupid recordings over and over and asking me what they are – how many times does she want me to tell her 'crowd of forty people, twelve women, five children, birds in the background, slightly windy day, markets down the street, Inuzuka compound in the other direction, must be Lale Street about the 44th corner' or 'Academy staffroom, second floor with Iruka-sensei's room just above it and Saki-sensei shouting at her class next door, five teachers in staffroom, coffee pot is broken, geography test scheduled for two o'clock in 4-B, sounds like August two years ago'?"
I grumbled under my breath and pulled on the shorts, wiping at the water still running down my arms with the towel. Kakashi-sensei just coughed slightly, either with surprise or amusement; I wasn't quite sure. "What're you doing with Sasuke?" I asked, my curiosity – and anxiety for my friend – making me ignore the hospital's sudden lapse into insanity.
"I'm teaching him a new technique that he'll need if he's going to fight Gaara in the third exam," Kakashi explained, and I nodded my understanding, although I made a face.
"Lucky bastard – when can I get out of here? They've all gone nuts, I swear! And I'm bored out of my mind! And the doctor keeps taking away my scrolls! That is so unfair!"
Kakashi-sensei didn't say anything for a second; he was thinking over something, probably, I guessed as I rubbed at my hair with the towel, hoping to get it just a little cleaner than before. "Naruto, would you mind reading this out to me?"
I raised an eyebrow but took the book he handed me, skimming my fingers over the first few characters and saying aloud, "He took her lovingly by the hand – ew, Kakashi-sensei, is this your porn novel? Aaaahh!" I threw it at him, horrified, and shook my hand vigorously. "Ew! Gross! I have been tainted! Eeeewwww!" I broke into a fit of shudders.
Kakashi caught the book, completely unfazed by my explosion. "I just wanted you to read me something I knew you hadn't seen before."
"So you made me read your porn book? That is weird – and gross – and there is something wrong with you! They should keep you in here instead of me!" I shrieked, a little hysterically. Then I took a deep breath. "Okay. I am going to wash my hands."
"There was nothing, well, graphic on the page I wanted you to read," Kakashi informed me mildly, flipping the book open himself. "It was clean. There was nothing there to taint your fragile little genin mind."
"Yeah, but the fact is that it was in the book, and I was touching it!" I whined, as I scrubbed my hands vigorously in the sink. With hot water. And soap. Lots of soap. "Eeewww! I was touching a pornographic novel! You are so weird, sensei! How the hell did I end up with you as a sensei?"
"It could be worse," the pervert behind me said mildly. "You could have had Gai."
…
"…Point taken," I admitted. "Compared to Gai, you're normal. And that's so sad I think I might cry."
Kakashi chuckled lightly, but sobered rather quickly. "Naruto, I need you to be honest with me. You read from my book perfectly, despite your… recent injury. But you've never read the book before, never even seen the inside of it, let alone known which page I was holding out to you. How did you read it?"
I froze.
I'd forgotten about that. I hadn't even registered doing it. It was normal – natural – to be able to read – to brush my fingers over kanji and hiragana and register their shapes – to read things almost as fast as someone who could see. It hadn't been something I thought about since I first learned to read, how to overcome another one of my barriers.
I swallowed. Obviously I couldn't tell him that; it would only raise a lot more questions. Ones I didn't want to – ones I couldn't – answer.
But the ink sensing just happened. The inked parchment just had a different feel to unblemished paper. Hell, if I was really focusing, I could even tell the difference between the colours of inks, but that was very, very difficult, and, like, a complete waste of time to me – really, all I needed was the clear distinction of ink and paper. And I couldn't tell exactly what colour the ink was – just that it had changed. And dark colours were hard (read: impossible) to distinguish.
I bit my lip, knowing I couldn't stall for much longer, and said slowly, "I… don't really know. It just… sort of… happens. Like… I just… touch the paper… and I can read the characters… I don't get how it works…"
I shrugged helplessly, hoping that was enough.
"Naruto, is there anything you want to tell m-?"
His question never made it out, as a nurse, one I hadn't heard before, hammered on the door and bellowed, "HATAKE-SAN! You went in there to fetch him, not hide in there like a dog!"
My sensei sighed and stepped to the door, wrenching the chair free and unlocking it, dropping the topic much to my relief. I followed him without needing to be told, only to groan as I was grabbed from three sides and hauled back to my bed. "I can walk, you know," I grumbled, then laughed abruptly. Sensing Kakashi's eyes on me, his chakra shifting slightly with very strong confusion – it would have to be, to be transmitted like that – I explained, "Be very hard to pass the third exam if I can't even walk."
He sighed, and I was instantly on edge. "I didn't like the sound of that."
He snorted faintly. "Naruto, while we're talking about the third exam…"
Oooh, this wasn't going to be good. Suddenly I almost wanted for him to go back to talking about the fact that I was, in fact, literate.
"…I think it might be a good idea for you to forfeit," Kakashi said, and I instantly howled "WHAAAAAT?" at the top of my lungs.
"Just listen to me!" he snapped, raising his voice for one of the few times I could remember. "Naruto, you suffered a debilitating injury, and you did incredibly well to get this far. But you need to know when not to push the boundaries. There have been genin killed in the third exam, and they were in perfect condition, not already crippled by previous injuries!"
"So what?" I shouted back furiously, absently noting that the nurses had all left, backing out of the room as fast as possible. "I can still fight! So fucking what if I can't see! Who says I need my eyes to win a goddamn fight against that goddamn Neji? I won't give up! I never give up! As long as I can still stand up, sensei, I will keep fighting! I'm not gonna give up and you can't make me!"
"Naruto, you could easily be killed in the next rounds," Kakashi snapped dangerously. "You're up against some of the top genin from across all five Great Nations! You have to learn when to back down and take your losses, or you could die!"
My voice dropped to a low growl as I stopped shouting. "I know the risks, sensei. I always do and I always did. And I'm not willing to just throw everything away because of one cut, one failed dodge, one enemy ninja!"
"Naruto, this isn't a game anymore," Kakashi growled.
"Kakashi-sensei, it was never a game," I snarled back. "It never was and never will be. And I. Will. Not. Give. Up."
For several seconds we stood there glaring at each other, before Kakashi sighed heavily and almost seemed to back down; certainly the killer intent died down. I let my own die away, having been barely aware I'd been giving it off. "I'll see you later, Naruto; I need to get back to training Sasuke," he said levelly, and I knew this wasn't the last I had heard of this.
"Yeah. See you later, sensei," I said in a firmly controlled voice.
I scowled as my sensei left, leaving me in my room with the CD player that was still going.
"And so begins another episode of Boring! Stay tuned for more action-packed boredom!"
Attention: Hatake Kakashi
Memo:
I have yet to receive notice that your student Uzumaki Naruto is withdrawing from the third trial in the Chuunin Selection exam. This concerns me. I let you enrol your rookie team, yes, but there are limits, Kakashi!
Send me his withdrawal. I mean it.
Signed,
Sandaime Hokage
Attention: Sandaime Hokage
Memo:
Maa, working on it.
Signed,
Hatake Kakashi
I lay flat on my back, listening sourly to the music playing again, unable to move for fear of disturbing the newly-installed drip in my left arm. I don't know why it was there – the Forest-of-Death infirmary only put me on it until they were sure I'd gotten some of my lost blood back. There was a rustle of paper as the nurse sitting in the corner of the room turned a page of her book, and I wished I could get out my sealing notes – but I didn't want to risk getting them confiscated. The boredom was suffocating, making me want to scream and run and do something, damn it!
"Hey," I said suddenly, before the boredom could drive me insane, "what's your name?"
The woman jumped, the book falling to the floor with a whap – paperback two hundred pages or so – as she stood up. "Uh – um, Natsu, Uzumaki-san."
I grinned and sat up a little, having something new to do. "None of that 'san' stuff, and don't call me Uzumaki – that's what Iruka-sensei calls me when I'm in reeeaally big trouble. Bigger than big trouble. Bigger than the usual big trouble. Just Naruto is fine. What were you reading?"
For a few seconds there was nothing, before her voice said, "It was a book on medicinal herbs – just something a friend gave me."
"Any good?" I asked curiously. I suspected Hinata dabbled in herbs – she often smelled of them back in our Academy days – but I had generally not had a lot of interest, except in some of the poisonous ones, and that was a recent thing.
"Well, it's interesting enough," Natsu told me as she sat back down on the chair. "Herbs are very useful but are often overlooked."
I raised an eyebrow at that description, my mind filing it away automatically. With nothing else to focus on, my mind was occupied with taking apart every sound I heard, translating it, deciding on every little factor, in a person's tone, in the heaviness of a thump or the thinness of scratches, deciphering what they meant. It was annoying. And distracting. And the person three doors down from me was dragging his cup over the surface of the table again… "Do you read a lot?"
Natsu laughed, a little self-consciously, I thought. "Yeah, as much as I can. Whenever I'm not on duty or doing something else I'm usually reading."
"Yeah, me too!" I cheered instantly. "Well, not really, not unless I'm researching for something, which does happen a lot of the time, like when I'm studying for my seals or looking for a new technique or whatsit, but I do read a lot 'cept when I'm drawing my seals and testing 'em 'cos that takes a while, but I spend most of my time training! Or bothering Sasuke-teme." I cackled maniacally, then added, "Hey, where are you going?" as the nurse stood up out of her chair and moved closer to the bed.
"I'm just going to turn down your dose of morphine," she said carefully.
"Oh no, it's fine, I'm not in any pain or anything," I said happily, waving my hand at her. "Wait, morphine is a painkiller right, 'cos if it's the stuff that's making me sleepy it had better not be 'cos that stuff is hard to throw off."
"Well, morphine is a painkiller, but it does have the side-effect of making the patient sleepy," Natsu said.
My hand instantly went to the needle in my wrist. "This thing comes out, right now."
"Ah! No! Don't do that!" she yelped, grabbing both my hands. "You'll hurt yourself!"
"Why's everyone worried about me hurting myself?" I asked sleepily, suddenly tired again. Must be that morphine stuff. I certainly didn't have the energy to fight Natsu as she pulled a blanket over me and pushed me back against the pillows. "I'm not a complete moron… still a coupla pieces missing…" I giggled slightly at my own joke, my mind scattered and wandering, slipping fast out of my control.
I didn't even remember falling asleep.
Attention: Hatake Kakashi
Memo:
And the prodigy does it again. Jeeze, Kakashi, is there anything you're not perfect at? I thought teaching would be it, but nooo, instead you spend freaking six months with a kid and then he can take on and win a fight to the death with a perfectly functioning genin directly after BEING BLINDED!
Gods, I hate you. Well, no I don't, but I'm reminded of why I did hate when we were kids. Fuck, I'm having flashbacks. "Kakashi's a chuunin, now, you know. If you put in a little effort, you could be a chuunin too." That's unreasonable pressure to put on a six year old, Dad.
Um. Off topic. Where was I? Oh, yeah, jealousy. Die, Hatake, die.
Signed,
Sarutobi Asuma
I woke up with a twitch and jerked upright, my heart thundering in my ears, adrenaline raging through my blood – but I was in the hospital. My head ached, I was rather stiff, and my left arm felt slightly weird – the drip. Stupid thing.
"Ah, you're awake," said an unfamiliar voice from the chair where Natsu had been sitting last night before I zonked out.
"What the – who are you? You're a new one." I frowned contemplatively.
"My name's Yori; Dr Hiroshi will be in later to check up on you and get started for today's exercises," the new nurse explained. I processed what she'd said for a few seconds, then groaned.
"Aw, man, am I going to be listening to those dumb tapes again? If I am they better have some new ones or I'm going to go out of my mind! And seriously, 'can you walk in a straight line'? 'Tell me what this is'? Honestly!"
And yet, half an hour later, I found myself saying in a dull, bored monotone, "Kunai. Shuriken. Explosive tags. Scroll," as I briefly ran my hands over each item. "Book. Pen. Uh, shoe. Riiiight. Chopsticks. Hey, my headband! Sensei nicked it, I wondered where it went!" I'd been very upset over not having it, actually, and immediately tied it around my neck to make sure it didn't mysteriously vanish again. "Um, hand fan. Toothpick…? Random small box. What the hell is this thing?"
I ran my fingers over the last item a little more closely, reading the embossed writing with a raised eyebrow. "Fairy floss nail polish? Ooookaaay, whatever floats your boat, dude." I checked the rest of the line, suddenly beaming as I came across three scrolls, one with messy writing spilling onto the outside. "My scrolls! Yeah! I wondered where they went! Mine!" I yelped as the doctor reached for them and snatched them up myself, scrambling backwards and grabbing my abandoned backpack from the floor, shoving all three into the side pocket and pulling the drawstring tight before sitting on it. "Mine mine mine!"
I half-expected the doctor insisting on me handing the scrolls back, but he seemed to pause and consider, then let it go. "Okay, Naruto, we're going to practise your balance a little more today, alright? So can you stand up for me, please, and walk towards me? Don't rush it – just take your time, one step at a time – I promise you won't fall –"
I walked over to him flatly, squashing the impulse to step on his feet out of spite.
"Are we going to do anything more interesting today?"
The doctor chuckled. "Now, now, Naruto, one step at a time."
I think I am going to scream.
Attention: Hatake Kakashi
Memo:
Kakashi! Did you see your boys fight? Talk about insane-but-wicked! (Well, the girl lost, but two outta three ain't bad.) I want some of whatever it is you have those brats of yours snorting. What is it and why aren't you sharing?
Signed,
Mitarashi Anko
I was lying flat on my back again, as close to glaring at the ceiling as I could get. I wasn't sure how long I'd been in hospital now – I kept falling asleep and waking up, and I was losing the ability I'd had of being able to tell what time it was. Whatever drugs they had me on were very disorientating, and I didn't know what time it was or what day and no one seemed to really care enough to tell me unless I asked them in between their stupid pointless little doctor exercises and for all their talk of one step at a time half of them seemed to want to get out of the room as fast as they could and –
I cut off the furious mental rant as footsteps and a vaguely familiar chakra source approached, sitting up to look at the door and hoping it was who I thought it was. I'd only really started identifying people by their chakra signatures after the Wave mission, or maybe a little before, so I couldn't be totally certain without hearing –
The footsteps, exactly the right beat, the slight 'chank' of the doorknob as he turned it a little too far – he always did that –
"Iruka-sensei?" I asked anxiously, tilting my head as the door swung open.
"Naruto!" I winced at the forced cheer.
"Jeeze, Sensei, I'm not terminal," I said. "You don't have to sound so tragically trying-to-smile-in-the-face-of-adversity for me. I'm okay, really."
Iruka-sensei hesitated a beat, before moving closer with the sound of sandals sliding on cheap hospital laminate flooring. My bed dipped as he sat down, and I grinned in his approximate direction, hugging a pillowcase holding my scrolls and notebook – I'd taken to sleeping on them after the doctors had tried to take them again, muttering stupid things about unhealthy attachments and delusional behaviour, all because they found me reading my scrolls in the middle of the night. One time! I could only conclude that Kakashi-sensei hadn't decided to share the tidbit that I could still read with the medics, the bastard. I knew there was a reason I liked him.
Iruka shifted, and my mind jerked back to the present and the sensei currently in the room. "It's super-cool you came to visit, though, Sensei!" I chirped. "Did you come straight from school? It is after-school time, right? Or are you skipping to see me? Ha, I knew I'd convert you one day, Sensei! Skive for your life!"
"It's five in the evening," Iruka-sensei broke in, amused. "School's been out for hours."
I slumped. "Damn." He chuckled, lifting the whatever-it-was he'd carried into the room in his hand when I'd heard it swiping his clothes in passing every now and then.
"Do you remember, before the exam, I told you that if you s-survived, I'd treat you to ramen?" I didn't call him on the way his voice broke at the word 'survived', hating how upset Iruka had been by this whole thing. I just nodded, smiling widely.
"Yuh-huh! I'm holding you to it, too, so no trying to weasel out of it! The moment those nurses look away, I'm outta here, and you're gonna buy me the biggest bowl of ramen that old man can make!"
Iruka chuckled, still fiddling with his package. "I can do you one better. You can't go to ramen, so I brought ramen to you. Smuggled it in."
I froze, an excited tremor running through me, before I kicked my legs and waved my arms, shrieking, "YOU ARE AWESOME! I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU!"
"Are you talking to me or the ramen?" Iruka-sensei teased as he carefully slid a warm bowl into my hands, supporting it for much longer than necessary. Had my eyes not been slit in two and then bound by bandaging, I'd have opened them wide at him. As it was, I did my best to broadcast innocent surprise.
"Huh? Sensei, you're still here?" I said.
"Cheeky brat," Iruka-sensei said fondly, now arranging my fingers around a set of chopsticks. "You got them?" he asked, and I nodded, fiddling the utensils around in my hand until I had a comfortable grip on them and digging into my food. I almost missed the adult's chuckle. "It figures that nothing could possibly dampen your ramen-eating skills. Don't spill it on yourself, okay?"
I pulled off offended even with my mouth full. "Sensei! I'm not a baby!"
He stayed with me, talking and keeping me company, long after the ramen was all gone. He was still there when I eventually slipped into sleep, and the last thing I knew was his fingers carding through my hair soothingly, and the slight hitching of his breathing, almost….
Almost as if he was…
…Crying…
Attention: All Jounin, Special Jounin of Konohagakure
Memo:
Stop sending me memos. I mean it.
Signed,
Hatake Kakashi
P.S. (Eat your hearts out. Nya, nya.)