Kiba stared as the doctor walked down the hallway, back to the emergency room.
"Abusive parents?" He thought. "There's no way. I know his parents, and no way would they do that! He has to be mistaken. Then again, Naruto never did tell me how he got those wounds."
Before he could finish his thought, an orderly opened the doors to the OR and pushed the bed that Naruto was on down the hall. Kiba quickly caught up to it, and matched its speed. He looked at the unconscious blond. Just like at the beach, he looked peaceful, despite the fact that he had just had major surgery. The orderly wheeled him into room 312. He hooked the IV, heart-rate monitor, and other medical equipment up, then left Kiba alone with Naruto. Kiba took a seat in the chair between the bed and the window looking out on the metropolis as the sun began to set and everyone rushed home from work. No one seemed to care that there was a 16 year old in the hospital due to internal bleeding which caused him to have a near-death experience. He frowned at the window before closing the blinds. He pulled the chair closer to Naruto's bedside. He just stared at the blond for hours and hours. At 7:00pm his phone began to vibrate. He pulled it out of his pocket to see who was calling. The screen read "Home". He flipped it open and answered.
"Hello?"
"Where are you?!" said the worried voice of his mother. He hadn't realized that it was 4 hours after he typically got home.
"I'm in the hospital."
The words that came out of his mother's mouth after that were incoherent, as Kiba had to hold the phone at arms length so that he wouldn't damage his ears from her loud screams. From the few words he could pick out, he figured she had said something along the lines of "Why in the Hell are you in the hospital? What did you do? Are you alright? You better hope you're not, because you're gonna be sorry if I get there and find out that you're fine...!"
"Mom! Mom! Shut up!" He screamed into the phone. When it was safe to bring the phone closer to his face he continued. "Mom, I'm fine. I'm here because one of my friends had an accident today. I'm staying here with him."
"Oh..." His mom replied sheepishly. "Which friend? What happened? Is he okay?" It appeared that she had a long list of generic questions which had blanks where you could fill in the proper pronouns.
"Yes, he's fine now. He's probably just going to have to stay in the hospital for a few days."
"Thank God. So, which friend is this?"
"Naruto Uzumaki."
"..."
"He lives a block from our house?"
"..."
"Blond hair, orange jacket?"
"..."
"Annoying..."
"Oh! That kid." Kiba let out a long sigh, why was that Naruto's defining attribute?
"Yes, mom, that kid."
"Oh, well come on home for dinner."
"No, mom, I told you that I'm staying here with him."
"He's got parents, doesn't he. It's not your job to stay there with him. Just come on home."
Kiba grated his teeth in anger. "I don't give a flying fuck if it's not my job, he's my friend and I'm not leaving this hospital until he can leave it with me. Got it?!" For the first time in his life, he had not only yelled at his mother, but also swore at her. The adrenaline that had caused that outburst was quickly turning into a cold chill running down his back. He prepared himself to move the phone away from his ear again.
"Okay, well just don't get in the way." Needless to say, Kiba was confused at the moment. Hadn't he just yelled at his mother?
Kiba hesitantly replied, "Ok, I won't."
"Be sure to come home and get a fresh change of clothes when you need it."
"I will."
"Ok, bye."
"Bye..."
-Later That Night-
Kiba was in his biology class, Iruka-sensei had hit his desk and woke him up.
"Kiba! Stop falling asleep!"
He just grunted and lazily lifted his head from his desk.
"Now, as I was saying, Naruto has a very irregular heart."
Kiba looked at the blackboard and saw a picture of the blond on it. "What the hell?"
"He doesn't like much of anyone except for a select few people. Our sleepy comrade being one of them." The class started to laugh and turned to face him. He started to blush, then he realized that the entire class was Naruto. Where Neji sat, there was Naruto, where Shino sat, there was another Naruto. When he looked back at the front of the room, even Iruka had turned into Naruto. They all laughed, and then they started chanting "Kiba! Kiba! Kiba!"
He opened his eyes and was blinded by a light. He was in the hospital last he remembered. He must have fallen asleep. He lifted his head to find Mrs. Uzumaki standing over him. He had fallen asleep with his head resting on Naruto's bed while the rest of his body was in the chair.
"Kiba?" Mrs. Uzumaki had shaken his shoulder until he had woken up. "Hey, Kiba." She said in a hushed voice.
"Oh, hi Mrs. Uzumaki."
"What are you doing here, honey? It's past 11."
"I was with Naruto when they took him to the hospital, and I decided to stay with him."
"That's very sweet of you, honey. But, I don't want your mother to get worried about you."
"Oh, it's alright Mrs. Uzumaki, I called her a while ago and let her know where I was."
"Oh, I see. Well we just got the phone call a few minutes to go. My husband was preaching, so neither of us were near a phone. We just stopped in to pay him a visit."
"Oh, ok." Kiba wasn't really sure why they were telling him this, but he didn't mind.
"We're going to go home for the night, would you like us to drop you off at your house?"
"No, but thanks. I don't want him to be alone when he wakes up."
"That's very nice, honey." Mrs. Uzumaki gave him a big smile and a pat on the head. He could just make out the sound of Mr. Uzumaki's voice outside of Naruto's room. Mrs. Uzumaki saw him staring at the door and answered the question that Kiba hadn't asked. "Mr. Uzumaki is just
talking to a doctor, dear." Kiba could see through a small crack in the door. He could barely make out a woman in a blue pantsuit stand outside the door. Since Mr. Uzumaki wasn't a woman, then she must be the 'Doctor' that he was talking to. But, last time Kiba checked, doctors didn't wear blue pantsuits.
"It must be the service worker." He concluded silently in his mind. The two had finished their conversation and Mr. Uzumaki walked in, in full pastor attire. "Oh, you're awake. Hello Kiba." The man said, in a slightly annoyed voice. Having someone accuse you of hitting your child could do that to a guy.
"Hello, Mr. Uzumaki."
"Do you need a ride back home, Kiba?"
"He said that he wanted to stay here, honey." Mrs. Uzumaki answered for him.
"Alright, well if he wakes up before we get back, tell him we said hi." With that, the two left the room.
"Your son is in the hospital, and your message to him is 'Hi'? That doesn't make any sense." Kiba thought. He heard sniffling, probably from another room. The couple had left the door open, so he got up and closed it.
A teary voice behind him asked "Are they gone yet?"...