Chapter 6: Wake-Up Call
When Kushina finally drifted back to the land of the living…she found herself in a hospital. She immediately missed the snowy forest that she'd collapsed in. It smelled a whole lot better out there. And there were fewer needles (pine needles didn't count).
Her eyes sluggishly roamed the little room that she'd been stashed in. It wasn't one of the semi-nice private rooms; she had to share the place with up to six other bodies with only lame shower curtains for privacy. Her curtain was mostly drawn, limiting what she could see.
The only thing of interest to look at was Namikaze, who sat slumped next to her bedside in one of those horrendously uncomfortable plastic chairs. He sat barely upright, parallel to her bed, staring blankly ahead at the empty bed across the room from her. There were shadows under his eyes, giving her the impression that he'd just gotten back from a nasty mission, and it looked like he was sleeping with his eyes half-open.
It was touching that he'd come to see her in the hospital when he was clearly so tired. It really was. She appreciated it entirely. But she just couldn't resist the temptation to jab him in the sensitive spot on his side (that she'd found quite by accident nearly a year before), which caused him to flop out of his seat like a fish out of water.
"Gah!" he choked from the floor.
She laughed, or at least tried to. It came out as more of a wheezy giggle than anything else. And what little energy she possessed quickly waned, leaving her panting quietly.
Ugh, it's worse than I thought… Damn my anemia!
"Kushina?" Namikaze peered over the bedrails blearily at her.
"What happened to my honorific?" she asked hoarsely with an arched eyebrow. "I'm not 'Kushina-san' anymore?"
Pink flooded his cheeks. "I-I-I—"
"Relax!" she snorted and feebly waved a hand at him. "I don't care."
He groaned and rested his forehead against the metal rail.
"Am I back in Konoha?" she asked once her amusement died down.
"Yes," he mumbled.
"Good." Her hand fought valiantly against the evil forces of gravity just long enough to pat his spiky yellow hair. "Now that you've visited me, you can go home and get some sleep 'cause you look like crap."
"How are you feeling?" he asked, ignoring her suggestion and settling himself back into the plastic chair.
"Tired…sore…but I promise I'll live."
"Please don't say things like that," Namikaze muttered stiffly. "I was the one who found you out there…" His knuckles blanched white as he squeezed the bedrail with a death grip. "You looked very dead, then."
"Oh," she blinked in surprise. "Well, thanks for the save. But you shouldn't have worried so much. Shinigami-sama himself will have to drag me kicking and screaming to the afterlife when the time comes, I promise."
"Don't joke about this!" he snapped, jumping abruptly to his feet, his blue eyes blazing.
Wow! Her eyes widened. I think I've actually made him angry. That hasn't happened since…since we were genin!
"Minato," she rested her hand on top of his hand which still grasped the bedrail with a death-grip. "Calm down. I'm fine. Now go home and get some sleep, you'll feel a lot better."
He actually fixed her with a glare—with killer intent and everything!—before storming off and leaving her alone.
Kushina blinked at the empty place that he'd just occupied. Huh. He turns into a giant crab when he doesn't get enough sleep. I must make note of this for the future.
Still, it was really nice of him to come see me. She smiled faintly and settled for what was going to be a long and painfully boring hospital stay. When I get out of here I have to find something nice to do for him for saving my butt and putting up with me when he's so tired…
He's such a sweetheart.
Minato bared his teeth in a silent snarl as he angrily paced the fenced-in rooftop of Konohagakure's main hospital.
How can she joke about that?! How?! She almost died and she thinks it's funny?!
Hissing curses under his breath—surprising himself with just how many he knew—he agitatedly weaved his way through the lines of drying bed-linens. Days of endless worry and poor sleep had him rattled and irritable. The last functioning fragment of his rational mind pointed out that he was overreacting, but the rest of his brain ignored it.
Damn that woman!
The days after he'd found her sprawled in the snow had been a sort of waking nightmare. He couldn't quite get the image of her, so cold and still, out of his head, and his sleep was plagued by nightmares. Shortly after getting her to the medics at the border outpost, he'd had to return to Konoha as his shift at the front was over. She'd had to remain there for a few days as her condition was too fragile for her to be moved. The instant that she arrived back in the village he'd been drawn to her side like a magnet. And when she finally woke up, the first thing she did was make light of the whole mess and send him off to bed like a crabby toddler in need of a nap.
Why did I even bother worrying? he growled to himself, tugging at his hair in frustration. "Damn her!"
"Woman troubles?" a positively gleeful voice asked.
Minato flinched and glanced up at the chain-link fence to find his sensei perched on top of it, grinning madly. "Go away," he scowled.
"Oh don't say that!" Jiraiya pouted. "I can help you, you know. Women are my specialty!"
"Leave me alone," Minato groaned and scrubbed tiredly at his face.
"Who is she and what happened?" Jiraiya asked and hopped down from the fence to stand beside him. "Tell me everything and I will help you fix it!"
"It's nothing like that, sensei," Minato huffed and leaned against the fence. "It's not what you think at all."
"Well then what is it?"
Minato glared at the fluttering white sheets pinned to the clotheslines. "Kushina woke up."
"Oh." Jiraiya's interest immediately died down from intense to mild. "What did she do this time?"
"She acted like almost dying was no big deal and told me to go home and go to bed like she'd my mother or something."
"Well, you certainly look tired," Jiraiya pointed out neutrally.
"Because I've barely slept for three days!" Minato snapped in frustration. "I was so worried, and she just…just—"
"Calm down, Minato." Jiraiya patted his shoulder. "I think I'm starting to get the picture here. So she treated her near-death experience like it was nothing… That seems like a very Kushina thing to do."
"Yeah," Minato grumbled sourly, "I suppose…"
"And she tried sending you home because you're half-dead on your feet… Another Kushina-ish thing to do."
Minato shrugged. "Yeah…"
"It certainly sounds like she's on the mend to me," Jiraiya remarked after a moment's thought. "Considering how worried you were, shouldn't you be relieved instead of angry?"
"I—"
At first he'd been tired, and then Kushina's casual attitude had made him angry, but now that he'd cooled down he did feel relieved. She was going to be okay! The invisible knot that had formed in his chest when he'd found her half-dead uncoiled and he drowned in the sensation of relief as he slumped down on the roof.
"I'm tired…"
"I can see that," his old teacher chuckled. "Why don't you take Kushina's advice and go home and sleep? When you wake up, everything will be clearer. You might even see something you've been blind to until now!"
Minato squinted up at his teacher and wondered fuzzily at the man's odd grin. "Huh?"
Jiraiya dramatically wiped at a non-existent tear at the corner of his eye. "Oh, it seemed like only yesterday that you first became my student. You just grew up so fast!"
Scowling, Minato decided that he didn't care to know what his old sensei was babbling on about and flashed away with his Hiraishin to his apartment. While Jiraiya acted like an immature idiot who only cared about hot women, booze, and sex, Minato knew that his sensei was far smarter than he let on. The Sannin possessed incredible observational skills (mostly used for peeping, unfortunately) which made him a talented spy for the village and gave him the ability to read people and their intentions much better than most shinobi. Sometimes he even caught on to things about people that they themselves were unaware of…
What the hell was that? Minato wondered with a yawn as he stumbled towards his bedroom. Might even see something that I've been blind to? …Maybe he drank some funky sake or something.
Stripping down to his shorts, he climbed into bed and felt sleep surging up to take him. He gladly surrendered to it. There would be no more nightmares…not about Kushina anyway.
She's going to be okay…
Kushina woke from a light doze to find that she had two new visitors. Namikaze's darling students, Rin and Kakashi, stood by her bedside. Rin was cheerfully arranging a small bouquet of flowers on her little nightstand table and Kakashi just looked vaguely bored…though it was hard to tell with that damn mask that he always wore.
"Flowers?" Kushina rasped with a little smile. "For me?"
"Of course, Kushina-san!" Rin smiled. "I'm surprised that sensei didn't bring you any. He was so worried about you."
"He was like a zombie," Kakashi commented.
"A zombie, you say?" Kushina raised a red eyebrow. "Did he ask to eat your super-smart brains, Kakashi?"
The boy scowled. "No, of course not."
"Kakashi," Kushina sighed wearily, "do me a big favor and grow a sense of humor, will you?"
"Please be serious," Kakashi countered. "You almost died, you know."
Kushina blinked in exaggerated astonishment and whispered: "What is this? Concern? For me? Kakashi, I'm touched!"
"Not it's not," Kakashi protested (unconvincingly). "If you die, then sensei will break."
"Don't be so dramatic," Kushina scoffed. "Sure if I died he'd be upset, but break him? Nope. Don't see that happening."
"Kushina-san!" Rin gasped. "You mean a lot to sensei! It would break his heart if you died!" The girl wrung her hands in distress.
Kushina shrugged stiffly. "Why don't we talk about something else, eh?"
"Something less morbid, please," Rin squeaked.
"Sure," Kushina agreed. "So how have you kiddies been?"
"I've been okay," Rin shrugged, scuffing her sandals against the tile floor.
"Decent," was Kakashi's terse answer.
There was a long pause.
"Well this is boring," Kushina grumbled. "Maybe we should talk about death again."
"No, no, no!" Rin waved her hands frantically. "Let's not! I don't want to think about you dying, Kushina-san."
"Aw, that's so sweet," Kushina smiled faintly. "Thanks."
"Please try to avoid coming so close to death again," Kakashi muttered stiffly.
"Yeah, I'll do my best not to defend against ambushes. Next time I'll just run away when the Iwa-nin pop up," Kushina snorted dryly. "That'll work out great."
Kakashi glared at her. "That's not what I meant."
"Loosen up kid," Kushina advised. "You're wound so tight that sometimes I worry that you might break." She eyed him speculatively, then burst out into wheezy giggles as a hilarious mental image hit her.
"What's so funny?" Rin asked curiously.
"I just thought of what Kakashi would be like if he was completely opposite of how he is now," Kushina snickered.
"Oh?" Kakashi frowned. "What would I be like, then?"
"You'd be laid-back, always late, full of excuses, and…" her eyes took on an evil glint. "And you'd read porn…all the time!"
"I'll never be like that!" Kakashi snapped with a shudder.
"Never say never, Kakashi!" Kushina teased. It could be true…in some twisted alternate universe, maybe.
"I'm leaving," Kakashi growled and stalked off.
"Bye," Kushina waved.
"I should go too," Rin muttered and started to leave.
"If you catch your sensei not sleeping again, slip some sedatives into his drink," Kushina commanded.
Rin looked appalled. "Kushina-san! I couldn't—"
"If he won't take care of himself, someone has to," Kushina winked. "And as a medic-in-training, your sensei's health is your job!"
"I-I guess," Rin hedged nervously. "Good-bye, Kushina-san!" The girl jogged off, presumably to catch up with Kakashi. "Kakashi-kun, wait up!"
"Borderline fan-girl," Kushina sighed, feeling ridiculously drained from doing nothing. She glanced over at the flowers that the kids had brought her and grinned faintly. "How nice…it doesn't smell like a nasty hospital anymore."
Minato woke up around noon the next day and felt a lot better. After a nice long shower, he felt even more clear-headed. And then he remembered what happened the day before.
"I…I freaked out on Kushina-san in the hospital yesterday…" He hung his head, quite ashamed of himself. "Oh no…"
Why did I do that? I should've given her a hug instead of biting her head off. …I hope she's not mad about that.
He gulped anxiously and started digging through his cabinets for some breakfast…er, lunch. Just as he fished out a cereal box, he was stuck with a flash of inspiration. Grinning, he shoved the box back into his cabinet and sprinted out of his apartment.
I know how to apologize!
When he reached the little noodle stand, he ordered a few take-out cartons of beef ramen. As soon as his order was filled, he made his way to the hospital roof. If he went through the front doors with his soup, the nurses would either confiscate it or send him away. There was far less chance of getting caught if he slipped into the building by the roof.
It was a strange experience, he reflected as he smuggled in the ramen. Normally he felt guilty when he willfully did something that he knew was against the rules, or at least questionable. But right at this moment he didn't care at all.
After a few close calls, he reached the room where Kushina rested. There was only one other shinobi kept in that room, but he was stashed in the bed in the far corner and quite asleep, so Minato promptly ignored him. Kushina was propped up in bed and eying her hospital lunch distastefully.
Perfect!
"Hello, Kushina-san!" he smiled nervously and settled himself in the plastic chair from the day before.
She eyed him warily for a moment. "Did you get some sleep, like I told you to?"
"Yes," he nodded and dropped his gaze to the floor. "I…I'm sorry about yesterday. I—"
"Don't worry about it," she waved weakly. "It was actually kind of funny—reminded me of the good-old genin days."
Minato frowned a little. "What, back when we hated each other?"
"Hate is such a strong word." She fiddled with her bed-sheet. "You just…annoyed me. And I did quite enjoy picking fights with you."
He didn't know what to say to that, so he offered her most of the take-out containers of ramen. "Uh…here!"
She stared at the cardboard containers with the stand's name emblazoned on them with wide eyes. Then she slowly turned her gaze over to him and regarded him gravely. "Namikaze Minato, you are my hero."
Minato beamed so broadly at her that his eyes were squeezed shut and he felt himself flush with pleasure. "You're very welcome, Kushina-san!" he laughed a little and scratched at the back of his head.
"Enough with the '-san,' Namikaze," she snorted as she cracked open the first container. "You did just fine without it yesterday."
"K-Kushina," he swallowed hard and his face felt warmer. "Why do you always use my family name? You can use my first name if-if you want."
"Duly noted Namikaze," she grinned and stuffed some noodles into her mouth.
He chuckled weakly and also started to eat. While she her best to inhale the soup in spite of her lingering weakness, he took his time. As he watched her eat, he noticed a bunch of flowers by her bed and frowned slightly.
"Who brought you the flowers?"
Kushina paused and then swallowed her current mouthful before answering. "Your darling students brought them. They help hide the nasty hospital smell."
"Oh?" He felt oddly relieved. "Rin and Kakashi came by?"
"Yeah, an hour or so after you left yesterday…I think." She shrugged and took a few more bites. "Kakashi said you were like a zombie, and I asked him if you tried to eat his awesome brains…" She sighed. "That kid has no sense of humor!"
Minato winced. "Yeah, I was pretty out of it."
"Why?"
He looked up at her, startled. "Huh?"
"Why were you out of it?" She frowned a little, brows furrowed in confusion. "You're not the kind of guy who gets rattled easily. What happened?"
"It was…I just couldn't get that image of you laying in the bloody snow out of my head," he shrugged. "I called your name, but you didn't even twitch, and you were so cold… It was like you were dead." He shook his head. "I just couldn't shake it, no matter how hard I tried." Minato smiled weakly at her. "I'm glad that you're feeling better, Kushina."
To his surprise, she actually blushed a little and looked away briefly. "Geeze, I'm really sorry for freaking you out like that…"
"It's alright." He slipped his hand through the bed-rail and gently grasped her hand.
She looked up at him with a faint, gentle smile. "You're such a sweetheart, Minato."
His breath caught in his throat and his heart seemed determined to leap out of his chest. I—She—! I…I…I—
…Wow.
