The steady beeps of the heart monitor ticked almost in sync with the clock on the wall above an occupied bed. The sun shimmered through the window and illuminated the bed sheets, but couldn't quite reach the hair of the person lying in the bed, leaving an unfamiliar pale hue for the guest to stare at like an foreign object.
The guest stroked the unconscious person's hair,
"What am I going to do with you.. Naruto?"
. . .
Suddenly out of nowhere blue eyes burst open accompanied by heavy breathing as if the blond had been holding his breath in his sleep.
"AH!Fuck… Naruto's body betrays him and fails trying to sit up while his lungs force a coughing fit.
"Easy, easy there Naruto. You're okay… shhh… it's me Sakura. Just lie back down and rest. You've been severely injured."
"No shit" he croaks…" you know that dream where it feels like you're falling and then you wake up right before you hit the pavement? Well i feel like i actually did hit the pavement."
"Glad to see you're feeling well enough for that attitude of yours" sakura chuckles
"It's a package deal here, sarcastically charming and devilishly handsome, you can't have one without the other" naruto shines a cheeky grin "So how long was I out?"
"Naruto…when we found you, you had extensive injuries. We had to airlift you here and get you into surgery just to have a fighting chance of saving you. What the hell happened out there?"
Naruto starts to look out the window almost as if staring off into the distance, " hmm… well… plain and simple:I fucked up. But, no surprise there… more specifically, I thought I had him fooled and then clearly he wasn't buying it once he found my badge. Next thing I know, I'm cuffed to the chair, he shoots me in the chest and then leaves."
The pink haired girl nodded along listening to his retell.
"Damn, talk about unforgiving… but naruto we found two bullets in you, and did you remember anything else than him just shooting you?"
"That's all I remember… well i think he punched me during the process of cuffing me to the chair… but yeah. Wait what do you mean just shooting me?!that's enough injury for one day if you ask me"
"Yeah, that's not what i meant. But,nevermind that… it's just…"
"You were unconscious for 10 days naruto." A tall blond women in a white coat entered the room and conversation in one swing. Her badge lay haphazardly on the right collar of the lab coat distinguishing her medical expertise. She folded her arms across her chest and gave the blond a very serious look. Silence engulfed the room as sakura avoided eye contact with naruto.
"Ten...ten days?..." Naruto softly said the words as if saying it aloud himself would somehow make it believable.
"Shit" Naruto breathed out.
"Shit, is right." Tsunade interluded. " Now let me do a quick exam here and make sure everything is in order now that you are awake. And then I am sure you will give a more detailed version of that story for the FBI to record and file." Tsunade moves over to his bedside and starts her physical examination.
"Sure, sure" Naruto dismisses the criticism as Sakura starts to make her way out of the room.
"Hey naruto can i get you anything? Ramen?" naruto's face lights up at the word 'ramen'."Sakura chan that would be the best!" Sakura exits and closes the door.
. . .
"He seems a little off" shikamaru, another LAPD colleague was waiting outside the room lazily leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest.
"Shikamaru, you were listening?"
"It's my job to now, apparently"
"So you're the one the FBI wants to interrogate Naruto"
"Hn, well now that he's out of the picture they needed someone else to take the botched case. And it's probably best that naruto is getting questioned by a friend."
"That's true, well go easy on him, ok? I'm worried about him. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help." sakura continues on her quest to get naruto ramen…
Shikamaru lets out a big sigh as he listens with his ear piece to tsunade's thorough exam.
. . .
"Naruto, listen to me very carefully." Tsunade began to lecture, but Naruto doesn't change any of his body language to indicate he is taking Tsunade's warning seriously.
" The injuries you've sustained include bilaterally dislocated shoulders, fractured skull and two gunshot wounds. One bullet was removed from your spleen and the other from your diaphragm."
Naruto's barely listening at this point… all the medical jargon makes his head spin… wait maybe it's not the medical jargon...
"Ba-chan… i don't feel so hot." naruto was experiencing a severe wave of dizziness.
"Naruto lie down here, and you need to listen to me. You are not going to like this, but you are injured and you are going to be injured for a while. It's going to take you at least 6 months before you can go back to work. And due to your head injury you may be dizzy periodically. It will go away but it will take time. And if you try and force it, you will just make things worse. Now I have physical therapy appointments scheduled for you and.."
Naruto had drifted off into a semiconscious rest while Tsunade lectured at him some more. He was sure someone would hold him accountable later for those things she was talking about that were so important…for now naruto was letting himself succumb to sleep. He would worry about the fact that he was shot one more time than he remembered and had a brain injury that was not what he had in mind when he told sasuke to make it look real back in that motel.
