Coming together for him
Chapter 2
Naruto slowly opened his eyes, blinking at the harsh light that filled the room. As his eyes slowly adjusted and he looked around, Naruto realized that he was in the hospital. Naruto blinked slowly, trying to remember what had happened for him to end up here. Did one of his many pranks fail? Swallowing, Naruto found it hard to do so because there was something in his mouth. Panic began to set in, and Naruto moaned as his ribs protested his movement.
"Shhh." A calming voice came from his beside him. "Don't move, you will only hurt yourself more." Naruto turned his head slowly and found his father sitting beside him with a worried expression on his face.
"Don't try to talk, you have a tube in your throat helping you breath." Minato explained his hand gently pushing Naruto's away from the tube. "A broken rib punctured your lung, causing it to collapse. We almost lost you." Minato explained after a moment of watching Naruto try to remove the tube from his throat.
Naruto could hear the tears in his father's voice, and he wondered how his prank had gone so wrong that he ended up in this condition. Using his uninjured hand, Naruto reached out and gently touched his father's hand. He wanted to reassure him that he wasn't going anywhere but he was still so weak that Naruto couldn't be sure of that himself.
As if sensing Naruto's fight to stay awake, Minato reached out and touched his son's cheek.
"Rest now, son" he said gently "rest so that your body can heal." Minato watched as his son's eyes slowly dropped closed and he was once more unconscious.
Minato remembering being at the office, working on a deal that would improve the town as a whole. He had been blindly concentrating when he heard his phone ringing.
"hello" Minato had muttered not wanting to stop writing until the email was complete.
"Mr. Mayor, this is Konoha High calling in regards to your son Naruto." Minato had groaned inwardly. What had Naruto done now, on the first day of school no less.
"Yes, what has he done?" Minato asked "and can I deal with it after school hours."
"You misunderstand me sir" the principle stated "Naruto has been rushed to the hospital." Minato paused in his typing, still thinking that it was some prank of Naruto's that had gone wrong. "I'm afraid its of great importance that you go and meet him at the hospital."
A few minutes later, Minato was off the phone. Irritated that Naruto had done something that had once again interrupted his work. When he was finished with Naruto, the kid would be lucky if he didn't spend the next year grounded. Minato would be really ticked if Naruto had ended up just breaking an arm or a leg.
Once at the hospital though, Minato got the shock of his life.
"Come with me sir." the chief of staff requested and Minato followed him into an office.
"What's going on, what did Naruto break?" Minato asked.
"I'm afraid he's broken several ribs and an arm." the man replied "at the moment your son is in critical condition, and I'm not a hundred percent certain that he's going to pull through." Minato's face paled at the information. Whatever he had thought Naruto had done this wasn't what he'd expected to hear.
"What happened?" Minato heard himself asking, he couldn't believe this. This had to be some kind of nightmare that he could wake up from at any moment.
"He was rushed to the hospital after being severely beaten." Jiraya explained "he has internal bleeding that will require surgery to fix and his broken ribs punctured a lung causing it to collapse. At the moment we are trying to re-inflate the lung and control the internal bleeding."
"What's the prognosis?" Minato asked.
"At the moment his condition is critical, and if things and if the lung can't be inflated once more I am afraid we will lose him." Jiraya answered as honestly as possible. "I know this isn't what you wanted to hear, but I promise we are trying everything we can to save him."
"When can I see my son?" Minato asked, struggling to control the rage he was starting to feel. How could the school allow something like this to happen?
"He's still in surgery and probably will for the next few hours, so it's going to be a little while." Jiraya answered.
"Long enough for me to find out some answers from the school?" Minato asked and the doctor nodded.
Thirty minutes later Minato found himself sitting in front of the Konoha high principle. A silver haired man was sitting next to Minato.
"I'm Kakashi" he introduced himself to Minato. "I'm the one that found the players beating your son up."
"Does anyone know why this happened?" Minato demanded, angrier than he had ever been. "There should be no reason that my son is fighting for his life at the moment."
"Naruto had an incident with another student in my class." Kakashi explained "The student called Naruto out for being gay. The kid's name is Sasuke Uchiha."
"Did this Uchiha have anything to do with Naruto being beaten?" Minato asked.
"The kid is angry but I am not sure that he would do something like this" Kakashi answered "I think he just spews words, I don't think he is capable of doing something so violent."
"I want to talk to him" Minato answered. And a few minutes later Sasuke found himself standing in front of Minato and Kakashi with Asuma sitting at his desk.
"Mr. Uchiha" Asuma said "we heard you had an incident with Naruto early this morning."
"I got the queer staring at me and I said something about it." Sasuke said.
"Did you have anything to do with him getting beaten up?" Asuma asked and Sasuke frowned. He had heard that Naruto had gotten rushed to the hospital but he hadn't really cared. He just wanted to get out of school.
"No, just because I don't like him doesn't mean I would want to see him hurt." Sasuke answered truthfully. Minato stared at the boy, his mind going in circles.
"How did you come up with the idea that my son is gay?" Minato asked.
"I heard someone in the office talking about how the mayors gay son would be starting school hear, and that he would have fun trying to fit in. Sense no one tolerates kids that are gay." Sasuke answered. "I didn't start the rumor some older kids did." Minato wondered if those older kids were responsible for getting Naruto beaten up.
"Thank you Sasuke, but until someone comes forth with information that proves your innocence, I am going to have no choice but to suspend you." Asuma said. Sasuke glared.
"I just started here you can't suspend me already." he muttered.
"The two football players were expelled on the first day." Asuma said firmly "I don't think you want to join their ranks do you?
"My brother would kill me" Sasuke muttered and turned and walked out the door. Minato who could tell who was lying from a mile away could tell that Sasuke was telling the truth.
"We have to find those boys and when we do" Minato stated "I am filing attempted murder charges!"
An hour later, Minato found himself once again sitting in Jiraya's office, waiting for news on Naruto.
"The good news is Naruto made it through the surgery." Jiraya said entering the room.
"Does that mean he's going to survive?" Minato asked almost fearing the answer.
"Naruto's condition is still critical so if he makes it, its going to be up to him to fight." Jiraya answered "and I know you want to see him, and normally I wouldn't allow you to this early. But I think it might do Naruto some good to have you sit with him for a little bit." that being said Minato followed Jiraya down the hall. When he entered Naruto's room. He couldn't believe what he saw. Naruto was unconscious, his chest wrapped in bandages, and his right arm in a cast. What bothered Minato the most was the tube going down Naruto's throat.
"He needs help breathing until his lung is strong enough to do it for him." Jiraya explained. "he won't have to remain on the respirator for too long if he starts to breath more easily." Minato nodded and walked over to Naruto's side.
"Keep fighting for me, Naruto, don't give up now."
Minato shook his head clearing the memories, it had been a week now, and Naruto was barely regaining consciousness. He knew it would take time for Naruto to heal but Minato thought that Naruto would have made more progress by now. Whatever had happened to Naruto at school, this beating really had nothing to do with whether he was gay or not. Minato believed that it had been an assassination attempt on Naruto's life disguised by the gay issue. Someone didn't like the way Minato was making changes in Konoha and they were trying to stop him. He hoped they found the people responsible for it soon, because he feared for Naruto's life. Maybe next time they would succeed in killing Naruto when no one was around. Minato didn't like thinking like that but he had to be practical. He was going to have to find some kind of body guard for Naruto.
"How's he doing this morning" Tsuande, Naruto's surgeon asks as she enters the room.
"He woke up for a few minutes." Minato answers as he watches Tsuande check Naruto's bandages.
"His incisions look good" Tsuande said and turned to look at the monitors "And it looks like his lung function is slowly improving. Which means he may come off the respirator soon. This kid was lucky to make it to the hospital alive."
"What would drive a teen to nearly beat another teen to death? What could Naruto have done to deserve this." Tsuande was a close friend of Minato's so she knew Naruto and his father well.
"That's what I would like to know" Minato replied "something isn't right about this situation, those boys claimed that someone paid them to do it, but they won't come out and tell them who did paid them. Why did this happen on the first day of school. The instructor that caught the boys beating him told me that Naruto had a run in with Sasuke Uchiha, who accused Naruto of being gay. I talked to Sasuke and he claims not to have had anything to do with Naruto getting beaten up. He claims that he heard someone in the office talking about it. That much he sounded truthful about but he is still suspended until the truth comes out."
"Sounds like a case of you shouldn't believe everything you hear." Tsuande commented "Can't fault the kid for being stupid and repeating it."
"Maybe not but he better hope someone comes forth with information leading to the arrest of the person responsible or he will be taking the blame for it." Minato said grimly. He wasn't going to take risks when it came to Naruto's safety. He might not get to spend a lot of time with his Naruto, but he loved his son more than life itself. Seeing the normally hyperactive teenager lying so still was killing Minato. It wasn't normal, Minato's heart ached just looking at the unconscious boy and he wondered if there had been anything that he could have done to prevent this. Minato couldn't imagine who would want to hurt Naruto, the kid could be a handful with all the pranks that he played, but it was never with any ill intent towards anyone. Naruto wouldn't hurt a fly, so who could be so cruel to try and snuff Naruto's life out before it even really got started. Minato wouldn't stop searching until he found out who was responsible, he would make sure they got the punishment they deserved.
"Keep fighting for me Naruto." Minato stood and bent down pressing a gentle kiss to Naruto's bruised forehead.
What did you think? And Naruto's hospitalization isn't even the beginning of his being sick. PLEASE review Thanks for reading and reviewing. Liz