Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anyone of the characters or etc.
Note: This is an old chapter from Chokehold that I have polished up some. It is, however, still somewhat weird. It makes me laugh though. I thought that would be nice after all those sad chapters. Please enjoy! (and ignore most of the tempus errors…)
The lost chapter…
Usually the central hospital of Konoha is a place of peace and tranquility. In fact, when Konoha is not in war this place has a very anesthetic atmosphere. Many upset patients have been treated here and some even come back for more of it later. They could be victims of training accidents, were the pointy end of the kunai ended up in the wrong person or a mission where the pointy end DID end up in the right place…for the enemies that is. But no matter how much people are in pain or upset when they arrive, they always leave the hospital with a slightly drugged appearance. Thought the hospital has so far denied any involvement in most of these cases.
However, during this particular chill evening, during winter when it was cold enough to make your joints creak when you walked and windy enough to chill your bone marrow, but not a single snowflake to make up for the misery, one of the greatest shinobi this village had to offer was hospitalized due to damage to his ribcage. That is what happens if you use hirashin no jutsu when fighting on a frozen lake surrounded by old, and hard, oaks. You teleport, you slip (and at a high speed too) straight into said trees to the amusement of your enemies (who later met a swift death courtesy of a very embarrassed little Yellow Flash).
So there he was, hospitalized. Not that he was complaining. This was his first long vacation in awhile and it was a soft, warm bed that they had given him. Why complain? Besides that IV on his left was spiked with something not entirely unpleasant. Very soothing.
The soft, pastel green room which he was alone in (except for an old man in the corner that Minato suspected was dead) seemed to be sort of really soft and he could almost feel it embrace him.
He sank even further down into the pillow feeling nothing but bliss. Not even the loud disturbance created by the door hitting the wall beside it, as someone stormed in, startled him. Life was good. That's it.
This however, did nothing to sooth Kushina. In her eyes, what floors Minato, can floor whole squads of shinobi. There the object of her affection lay; skin unusually pale, blinking slowly almost owl-like, and attached to a billion or so wires and tubes (grated there were only five of them, but that is five too many!)
Hence she almost pushed Minato off the bed, as she took hold of him, in her enthusiastic search of mortal wounds. When said male's reaction to this was nothing more than a grunt, she began to tear at his clothes while climbing into the bed to get better access to the decidedly serious wounds of death. It seemed to be beyond her that the hospital was treating him and her interference only made him worse.
Kushina's rather violent sign of affection was stopped however, when Minato ever so slowly gazed up at her and after awhile, smiled drunkenly at her before waving stupidly at her two centimeters from her face. Thus she concluded that the king of all things that 99% of the time are totally uninteresting (like books, scrolls, reports etc.) was totally and utterly fine and in no need of her help.
With this she threw/laid him back down unto the bed and situated herself beside it on a very bright red plastic chair that had one leg too short, as most chairs in a hospital have. After a few, short seconds of collecting herself, the young red head's panicked facial expression melted into a gentle one. She was very relieved he was alive (despite his rather odd behavior) and happy as it seemed that it was nothing too serious either.
"Hi honey" the soft, silent greeting was filled with all love and relief she felt at having him back, finally. She had missed him.
"Helloooo." her honey replied with a goofy smile, baby-blue eyes twinkling innocently.
"You're going to be fine?" Kushina amused responds, as she leans over to brush his bangs out of his face.
"Mmmmmmmm." Minato murmurs as he closes his eyes happily, like a kitten about to take a nap.
"That's awesome." she finish softly as she closes her eyes, seemingly tired, and leans back into the plastic chair making it tip a bit to the left-backwards, as the short leg of the chair make itself known. And a lethargic silence reign the room as the couple just relaxes, both happy that he is home.
Suddenly Kushina bounces back, filled with energy.
"Minato, listen to this-" she begins energetically, almost bouncing up and down in the chair, eyes lit up like little 75 W lamps and smile wide enough to show all the sharp teeth she has.
"Whaaaat?" was the slightly giggled response to this.
"I have found proof! There is a God, or several or…or...you get it, genius." her voice shook with excitement as she began her tale:
"A few days ago I caught a grasshopper inside our apartment; you know the really disgusting ones that I can't stand? Anyway, I caught it in a bowl which I put on the windowsill, 'cos I was busy you know? Anyway, about 36 hours later I lift the bowl and the grasshopper is still alive and I'm like really shocked! But I'm still rather busy so I just leave it there on the windowsill. Then later that night I realized that it was a really shitty thing to do, almost animal cruelty, but with an insect – do you think insects can feel mad?"
As Minato slowly opens his mouth to respond to the question Kushina, undisturbed continues.
"Anyway, I looked for it, but couldn't find it. Then, when I got to bed, I feel a bit guilty because the insect didn't really deserve it and since it was close to midnight and I was rather tired I figured I'd get rid of the guilt by praying to God. So I promised him that I would never unnecessarily kill another insect again and if he forgave me for my previous mistakes I would be very grateful. And so I lay down in our bed, and I look up and there it was!"
"What was?" a now, quite sober, Minato asks as he sits up in the bed to look at her with a mild you-are-so-crazy-but-I-still-love-you-look.
"The grasshopper!" Kushina exclaim happily.
"…the grasshopper? How does that prove anything?" skepticism is not a strong enough word to describe the tone of Minato's voice at this moment.
"'Cos I told God I'd improve myself if he gave me the chance and he did!" Kushina explained slowly and very articulated to the (in her eyes) mentally challenged man.
"…so Moses…got a talking, burning bush…and you…got a revived grasshopper? Is that what you mean?" a slightly confused and amused Minato replies.
"Well…can't get everything in life. And besides, Moses isn't a ninja with knowledge of ninjutsu… Would you have believed in God if a burning bush started talking to you?" she teased.
"No. And I'm not buying the grasshopper story either." Minato replied resolutely as he stretches out towards the chord attached to the IV beside him to press the little plastic button attached to it.
"What are ya doin?" Kushina inquired quickly as this was done.
"Getting some more vacation from reality. You could say it's not really my cup of tea right now."
"Wha-?"
"Never mind, go home and get some rest Kushina. I'm fine and I'll come home tomorrow. We'll do something fun. Seeing as you seem to be in need of some company." the last part was muttered under Minato's breath as he made himself comfortable on the bed once again, while the substance inside the IV made him sweetly unaware of all the harsh edges of the world.
Kushina on the other hand shrugged and leaned forward to give him a kiss on his brow before getting up and opening the door again. There she paused, seemingly in thought then:
"Oh, I forgot to tell you! I'm pregnant! 8 weeks already. We'll celebrate when you show up at home, ok?" And then the door closed.
This left a very confused Minato behind who once again sat up, and pulled out the IV needle from his hand. That stuff's dangerous.
Hope you enjoyeeed it XD
