Naruto x Digimon

Alive - Team Minato's Digidestined

Chapter 011

Inspiration Song: San Holo - show me

Originally Written: Monday, November 7, 2022 1058AM to 330PM

. . . . .

"Wanna hear a story, Kid?"

Obito glanced over to Naginata with his remaining eye. Naginata had taken a hospital chair and was sitting backwards in it. His arms were folded on top of the back of the chair. He rested his chin on his arms.

"I'm not a kid." Obito murmured. Konoha's hospital was suffocating, but the Uchiha were even moreso. Few Uchiha visited him, and no one who wasn't an Uchiha could see him unless they were in the medical profession and had at least some shinobi experience on the field. Fugaku had explained it to him, but it sounded stupid, and he was too tired to care for the reasoning of the Uchiha clan's choice.

Maybe it worked though. He wasn't sure if he wanted his teammates to see him like this.

"I mean 'Kid' as in a name. You don't like 'Obito' right now, and I don't have another name for you yet, so 'Kid'. So, story? Or are you super tired and rather sleep off the day?"

"...Story…," The sun felt warm in his one armed hug. He was broken, but not too lonely. Naginata took time to visit him every day. As did Fugaku. Fugaku didn't say much, but he never did, and Obito didn't expect him to.

"If desired, the clan will arrange a formal thank you for the one who gave you the toy…" Fugaku said when he finally noticed Sunmon.

Sunmon never spoke around Fugaku. It was very chatty when it was just them. Sunmon pushed him to answer Fugaku. So Obito answered, whispering a name that got caught in his throat. It could get him in trouble, and it didn't make much sense, but he was certain. He could taste the name on his tongue as sure as the blood he tasted in his throat back on his mission. He held his sun as tightly as he could when he finally pushed the name past his lips. "Kakashi Hatake…"

"Understood." Fugaku replied through his own visible confusion.

His grandmother told him a few weeks later that Kakashi and Rin were on call for missions again. Gai had replaced him. Obito wished them well. His cold, rotting remains would live through them.

"Sure thing." Naginata took a deep breath. He sat up and tapped his fingers against the back of the chair. "A young boy once realized he made a horrible shinobi. He was so bad, he was forced to drop out of the academy. He didn't understand why. He could use chakra, so why not? But he wasn't allowed back in the program, no matter how well he worked with others. He moped around, wondering what he was to do with himself and feeling quite useless as a person. He was supposed to impress those around him, get the girl, grab the prestige, go down in history books as someone amazing. Hokage style, right? That's how it goes. That's what all the boys are supposed to aspire to be."

Obito hugged his sun tighter. He nodded, "Yea."

"One day, a medic nin took the boy under his wing. Lady Tsunade was looking to revamp her system further. Civilians needed good medics and better medical care too. Anyone who could use chakra, and even those who couldn't fit the bill. They were all grabbed and tested, and trained. The boy was one of many picked. One of the many picked, who made a good medic." Naginata looked off to the side, silent. The beeping and hums of the machinery Obito was hooked up to filled the room.

"That's good, I guess." Obito shrugged, folding further into himself.

"Not for the boy. He didn't want to be a medic. Not if he couldn't be a medic nin. Medics are lame, they don't fight, and they're not useful. They could be replaced just as quickly and easily as the dime-a-dozen genin sent out on D-Ranks." Naginata frowned.

"That's stupid." Obito replied. Verbal defenses spewed from his lips. "Medics are very useful. They save many lives every day. My grandma sees a plain ol' medic. They give her the care she needs, and she doesn't feel bad because she's taking a medic nin away from caring for the shinobi protecting Konoha." The sun seemed to warm further in his grasp. "She knows how stressful being a civilian and a shinobi can be, and doesn't wanna burden either side just 'cause she's getting up in age."

Naginata folded his arms over the back of the chair again. "You're biased." He said with a smirk to his voice.

"No I'm not. Medic nins are needed for a certain job. Medic civilians are needed for other jobs. They work at the same place either way. Rin said no other medic besides Tsunade can actually fight on the field anyway according to the rules they're taught. They all just hang back in fights and try not to die, so they can heal their teammates. It's no different."

"How many male medics do you see though? Especially male medic nins?" Naginata pushed. "Is the boy a weakling, or a strong man? A hero?"

Obito rubbed his eye, feeling his frustration growing. "I don't know." He winced at the whine he heard in his voice.

"So imagine being the boy trying to figure that out when you're watching Tsunade Senju do her thing without breaking a sweat, even with the physical handicaps you'd think such a large bust would bring. And that's before you learn her workout regimen. The one you don't have to do, because you're not a ninja. You work for years busting your butt to become the best medic you can be. People teasing you left and right because you're in a 'coward's' field." Naginata paused just to give Obito a break.

Obito grit his teeth. He glared at the white rectangle sitting in his lap, partially hidden by the sun wrapped in his arm.

"All that work put in, right? And then Shizune, yes that Shizune," he replied to the look Obito gave him, "struts on through with poisons and antidotes flying, surpassing what took you a good decade to get good at, in months." He waved his arms dramatically, including mimicking the way Shizune launched her poisoned senbon from their holster on her arm. "Now the boy is a male who can't fight and sucks at healing, right?"

"No!" Obito frowned. "Shizune's a medical ninja! The boy isn't! Y-you can't compare them!" His sun flew off to the edge of his medical bed as he raised his arm to point at Naginata. He nearly tumbled off to the side as his arm flailed. "They're good at different things!" He winced as his bandaged arm protested the action.

The medic sobered while he nodded, holding onto Obito's wrist to steady him. "We at the hospital call it Kunai Fodder syndrome."

Obito blinked. "What's that?"

"Kunai Fodder Syndrome is the feeling of just being there to make the ones at the top look better. Only there to hold off the enemy long enough for the strong one everyone else is looking at to finish him off. You aren't expected to survive. You're only there to heal or defend the stronger ones who protect you. They'll be written in the history books, you won't. They finished the mission. You just died in it. Your name gets carved into a memorial stone people will look at for five minutes in their lives before they move on with their days."

Tears started streaming down Obito's cheek again.

"You feel like you provide nothing for the village, or do anything important." Naginata suddenly grinned, and leaned his hands against the scrubs covering his legs. He genuinely looked excited. "But guess what Shizune can't do? Guess what Lady Tsunade could only do because she was related to a Hokage, and can break down a wall with a single finger?"

Obito shook his head. Not knowing the answer.

"Sakumo Hatake hated hospitals. He would not stay in one, even if he was bleeding out. His hatred of hospitals eventually influenced his wife, Yori, and the trait got passed on to their son, Kakashi." Naginata propped his head up on the chair. He ignored the snickering sun laying on the corner of the foot of Obito's hospital bed.

"Takashi Shirogane said 'This is ridiculous' and 'This idiot shinobi is gonna get himself killed in the dumbest of ways', and made him stay put. Takashi Shirogane is the boy in this story. He is currently the only medic in Konoha that the Hatake clan intrinsically trusts."

"He's gonna be mad you shared his story." The sun spoke.

Naginata quirked a smile. "Maybe. Maybe not."

"What about you?" Obito asked in a whisper. He stared at the sun, wondering why it chose to speak just now.

"My story's boring." Naginata huffed in amusement. "I was on a squad with Hanku Akimichi and Hato. We agreed we hate the violence."

"...You…quit?" Obito looked at him in confusion.

"No." Naginata shook his head. "We realized who we were, and that if we stayed on the field, the field would take that from us. We wouldn't do well if it did, so we stepped down before it did. Hanku stepped down first, part way through the chunin exams. And that dragged us with him. It's like, he knew, you know?" Naginata huffed, "No, you wouldn't. I know your kind. You want right back on the field. Jump right back into the fray."

Obito almost felt guilty for feeling that way after hearing and learning for himself how the battlefield could utterly devastate a person. "Is that bad?"

"No. The Uchiha are a different breed. Forged from battle, that's where they thrive. If you've got nothing else in common with the Uchiha, you got that and your Sharingan from them." He shook his head. "There's…no way to get you back there though."

"I know…" He stared at his hands.

"But you are here now. And there is more to 'Kid', than 'Obito Uchiha'. We just have to figure out what that is, right, fireball?" Naginata looked at the sun sitting on the bed. He then gave Obito a knowing look.

Obito looked at the sun. "...It's okay. I think. You already gave yourself away."

The sun slowly rose, and hovered in the air. "I'm Sunmon, not fireball!"

"Huh." Naginata folded his arms, and nodded like he was used to being in unusual situations like this. "Sunmon. I like it."

"I like you!" The sun smiled. A little flame rose from the top of its head.

"So, Kid. What do you say?"

Obito jerked. "About what?"

Naginata raised an eyebrow, as if to ask 'are you serious?'. "You've been sitting in this bed for months. Just going through the motions. Right now, you're the boy. Right now, you have the choice to sit and mope, or learn what else you're good at."

Obito shook his head. "All the things I'm good at require all four of my limbs."

Naginata chuckled, "I'll leave him to you, Mr. Sun." He stood. "I'm expecting a choice. I don't care how long it takes you to make it. I'll be here when you decide or to even help you decide."

Obito stared at him. "Why?"

"Because ninety percent of all the people qualified to deal with the mind in Konoha just happen to be shinobi or Yamanaka. I think we need people who can get you back on your feet when you're not quite feeling yourself, and the reason why is not a physical condition." He tapped his temple. "When it's up here messing with you. But when it's a Yamanaka or shinobi helping up there, it's just another interrogation session. It's all they know. And no. Interrogation does not go how you think it does."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I'm currently Konoha's only civilian mind healer. I get you back up on your feet when your mind is crippled. Tsunade Senju does not see the point in mind healers. She views them as an infiltration risk. I fought for the test run of the position, and I'm not watching a good kid like you go down this way. You're worth more than you think. I'll show you that." He clenched a fist. "No matter what path you take. I promise."

Obito stared at his good hand. It rested on the device that accompanied Sunmon's appearance. He picked up the item, and grasped it. A dim light shined from its screen.