NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS
Jiraiya, the Sannin, stands outside room 403 with a lump in his throat. Is the boy going to make it? Because from what he's heard, the fact that he's still alive is a miracle in itself. The image of a battered Naruto, wrapped in bandages and hanging by a thread, has been haunting him since he set foot in the hospital. And now that he's about to see him, this seasoned ninja, accustomed to blood and steel, feels genuinely nervous for the first time in a long while.
"Calm down, for crying out loud..." Fortunately, a couple of deep breaths help him regain his composure. "Alright, here we go. Whatever will be, will be." And with a sigh, the old ninja grabs the door handle and opens it at once.
How could he have expected what he sees inside?
Naruto is already awake. And not only that, but his wounds—the cuts on his arms, the bruises on his torso, the burns all over—have disappeared, except for the bandages around his waist, still damp with blood. It's as if someone has erased all those marks with a brush the color of his skin.
Beside him, Tayuya, the Sound kunoichi, sits with her legs crossed on her own bed, looking sick, sore, and above all, tense. But for some reason, the two young ones seem to have been talking to each other. Why?
But it's not this what surprises him. Naruto always had a ridiculous ability to connect with the weirdest people. And it's not about having recovered someone he thought was half-dead. Let's cut to the chase. What freezes him for a moment is the same thing that scared Tayuya before: seeing that his godson looks at him not with the eyes of his father, Minato, but with those of the Nine-Tailed Fox.
That gaze is like a spear piercing him through and through. It shakes him inside. And it's close, very close (call it instinct if you can't think of another word) to eliciting a violent reaction from Jiraiya. In fact, his chakra rises from one moment to the next, perhaps in response to Naruto's chilling and unsettling energy. There's a moment when they both look at each other, and Tayuya thinks, gritting her teeth, that this room is about to become a battlefield soon.
Tsunade's right hand appears on Jiraiya's shoulder and squeezes it, calming him down. "Everything's fine," is what she tells him without words, "I'm here." They exchange a look. She tries to put on a friendly face, with little success; he gently touches her waist.
The Sannin's chakra returns to normal levels as he approaches the bed, opening his arms in a welcoming gesture.
"Well, look at you, sprout! You're healthier than a lettuce. I was honestly expecting to see you wrapped up like a mummy, but hey, I guess sometimes things turn out better than you expect." A drop of sweat slowly runs down his neck and disappears down his back. "Act normal, goddamn it," he thinks. "You don't know what's going on." "Have you thought about how good our doctors are? In any other village, you'd be pushing up daisies, I assure you... Oh, hello to you too, girl. Glad to see you're not dead."
She doesn't respond, just looks at him distrustfully. Jiraiya. Of course, she knew who she was facing. "His way of speaking gets on my nerves," she thinks. "But this guy is, at the very least, as strong as my master. And that over there is Tsunade Senju... I'm a lucky woman."
"I'm glad to see you well, Naruto." There's another person behind Tsunade: a shinobi with spiky white hair, a black mask, and only one visible eye.
"Kakashi Hatake," Tayuya thinks. "Of course, why not. Things just keep getting better."
"We need to run some tests on you," says Tsunade, "especially now that I see you and... well, you've recovered much more than I expected." She doesn't add what she's thinking: "much more than would be possible."
"Sure you'll be back on your feet in no time," Jiraiya struggles to form a convincing smile. "You're tough as nails, sprout. So if it's okay with you, let's get those tests done right now, alright?"
"Best we get down to business." Naruto's voice sounds immediately different to those who know him: clear and confident, but above all, calm. "I don't know who you are, or where I am. And most importantly, I don't know anything about myself. I'm telling you this because I'm sure you do, unlike this one here." He nods toward Tayuya, then, shrugging off the sheets, effortlessly stands up. "I have a lot of questions for you, so the sooner we start, the better."
Jiraiya and Tsunade exchange looks once again, for once without words, and a little further back, Kakashi's visible eye narrows, cold, sharp, attentive.
Later, elsewhere in the hospital, Inoichi, the leader of the Yamanaka clan, wipes his forehead with the back of his hand and gives his diagnosis:
"It's him", he says. "He's lost his memories, but everything else is fine."
"Are you sure"
"I have quite a bit of confidence in my technique, thank you. I assure you, if there was anything unusual within Naruto, I would have noticed. I don't exactly know what's going on here, but, Jiraiya, you can breathe easy: we're dealing with a human being."
The other man, sitting in the waiting room, buries his face in his hands for a moment. Then he straightens up again, relieved, but not calm.
"If you have any idea why..."
"The boy's alive by a miracle, understand? Memory loss isn't out of the question, and if you ask me, given the circumstances, he's one lucky boy."
Jiraiya grunts, feeling frustrated. Then he reaches into his robes and pulls out his pipe, lighting it with his breath.
One of the nurses, looking displeased, points to the NO SMOKING sign hanging just above Jiraiya's head, but the Sannin looks at him in such a way that he loses the urge to protest, and simply leaves.
"I can either smoke or kill someone", he says. "And luckily, I still have tobacco."
Inoichi presses his temples with his fingertips and continues.
"Looking inside him was quite an experience, that's for sure. It's a wasteland. He's empty, Jiraiya. Like a glass without water, or a bowl without..."
"I get the picture. How can we fix him?"
"That's on the doctors. I just..."
"You just read minds, of course."
"It's not exactly reading, it's more like..."
"Don't get me wrong, I appreciate it, really. You've been a great help to us."
"In any way I can. You know that."
Jiraiya nods, and the white smoke from the pipe rises, curling up toward the ceiling of the waiting room.
THE PRICE OF A LIFE
"Do you recognize this face?"
Tsunade slides a photograph across the table: Naruto, still dressed in his hospital gown, gives it an indifferent glance.
"No", he says, "should I?"
"He was your teammate, Sasuke Uchiha. He's the one who gave you these wounds."
"Well, some teammate he was."
"He was a difficult case, to say the least. So, does this photograph evoke anything for you? Any memories, any images, any... feelings?"
"Not really. It's just a photo."
The woman presses her lips together and places another image on top of the first, then touches it lightly with the tip of her index finger. In the photo is a young girl, smiling, with pink hair.
"What about this one?"
"Nothing."
"She's Sakura Haruno, your other teammate, doesn't she ring a bell either?"
"Feel free to show me the whole album, I'll still be the same". Naruto leans back in his chair, making it wobble on two legs, "like I said, I don't remember anything."
The boy isn't lying. Photographs keep appearing on the table but none of them elicit a reaction from him; none of them spark any memories or shed any light. Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, Choji Akimichi. He doesn't remember any of them. He has nothing to say about Hinata or Neji Hyuga; not about the Academy teachers, not about the Third Hokage, and certainly not about Tsunade herself.
"We'll do our best to restore your memories". Se drums her nails on the table, lost in thought for a moment. "Given the circumstances, it's enough that you're still alive. With or without memories, you're lucky, Naruto."
"I'm not sure I can call any of this luck. All I know is that my head feels, I don't know how to explain it, empty?"
"In that, you haven't changed". Tsunade smiles. Her face changes a lot when she does. "So it seems we're on the right track."
Another handful of photographs appears on the table. Then a series of files, reports; the symbol of the Leaf Village. The Uchiha fan, the photograph of the Third Hokage. Exam papers, almost all of them failed; a drawing of a bridge shrouded in mist. Meanwhile, Tsunade tells him about the things she sees. This is so-and-so, here you went on a mission, does it ring a bell? No, I have no idea. And what about this? Well, neither do I, what do you expect? The conversation follows the same pattern for a while. Until Tsunade, who has just returned to the table with instant coffee, finds Naruto's finger firmly planted on a photograph.
"I've seen this person before", he says slowly, as if lost in thought. " I don't know where but I have." Then he smiles. And for a moment, it's like Naruto is back to normal. "So this works, I remember something! Why are you looking at me like that?"
She places the coffee next to the photograph and picks it up. It's a portrait of a young woman smiling at the camera, radiant, unaware of the future awaiting her. Later, when Jiraiya enters the room, he's the one who takes the photo in his hands, and, nostalgically, smiles at it. "Kushina," he thinks, "you look so happy. I like being able to remember you. What I don't understand," and here his smile fades, "is why he does."
