"Hey, Uchiha,"
"Hey, I'm talking to you, bastard!"
"What the hell have you been doing all this time?"
"What the hell have you been doing? Don't you know you're completely useless?"
"Idiot."
"Why don't you just cry and get it over with - we know you want to."
"Bet he wouldn't even fight you. Too easy for him. It would be over in one blow."
"Bet he laughed!"
"You're a waste of time, even with your fancy sharingan"
"We can still wipe your ass on the floor"
"So why don't you make yourself useful, bastard?"
"Tell us where your foxy partner is."
"Tell us or we'll keep doing this."
"We know it hurts."
"Tell us."
***************
The sunlight streamed in through the open window, warming the sleeping boys face with its gentle wand of light. The boy groaned, and rubbed his eyes. He slowly raised himself to a sitting position and stretched with relish - muscles popping as his bones slipped back to their correct positions. Then he took a long look at the gorgeous day outside and proclaimed loudly to no one in particular:
"Right! I'm outta here!"
Naruto rolled off the bed and trotted happily down the ward completely oblivious that he'd just roused most of the other boys as well. Although he remained one of natures' best alarm clocks, his work - like that of the humble cockerel - wasn't often appreciated.
"Aww, shutup Naruto!"
"Yeah man, can't you do your great escape silently?"
"It hurts! The liiiiiiight!"
"Urrrrgh!"
The Genin grinned wickedly and sprinted to the door.
Doo de, doo di doo doo, doo....Ba baa da ba dada ba da dum...(Humming The Great Escape theme)
He opened it to a crack and peeked outside.
All clear.
Quickly, he edged around the frame and cantered down the corridor - head down, trying not to look conspicuous.
It was early, but already the hospital activity was in full swing. Nurses and doctors were marching about in all directions, each with their own agenda; other patients ambled wearily along the handrails on the sides of the hall, dragging various apparatus with them. One had stopped just a few feet short of the bathroom door and was frantically trying to free a snagged bandage from the metal bar, crossing his legs in desperation.
With so many people about, deeply involved in doing their own thing, it was easy for the little blond boy to slip by unnoticed.
That is, of course until the person whose thing he was, happened to step in front of him.
"Going somewhere, Uzumaki?"
Naruto crashed into a roadblock of crisp, white apron. His eyes slowly rolled up, taking in the full view of his ward's Head Nurse.
The large, solid woman was built like something the Greeks used at Troy - possibly a variation to their first successful equine attempt. Her black hair was man-handled into a strict bun at the back of her head, her uniform was spotless and reeked of starch. It was so neat and clean it could've been a cardboard cut-out - he kept waiting for her to step out from behind it in a tutu and say "Ha-ha! I'm not really a nurse, I'm actually a ballet dancer!"
But that wasn't going to happen.
Instead, she gave him a stern look through the tiny round spectacles at the end of her nose and crossed her arms in a gruff, half-back manner.
"You know you're not allowed outside."
Naruto switched on his most innocent look and smiled pleadingly, batting his huge aquamarine eyes.
"But I'm fine! Look, I'm up aren't I? Can't I just go home now? I've got training to do!"
"Put the baby blues away, Uzumaki, those don't work on me. And you're not allowed outside. I told you that yesterday. And that day before that. And the day before that as well. Concussion patients must stay indoors until they're cleared."
Naruto made a face and stubbed his bare toe against the linoleum floor.
"Its not my fault you decided to jump off a cliff." She added.
"But I've been here for AGES!"
"Two days!" The Matron corrected him, loudly. "One of which you were unconscious! Look, I'll release you once your stitches are out, but for now, stay inside!"
"Anywhere inside?" Naruto's smile sprouted again.
"Yes, yes. Just don't run in the halls and don't go near the E.R or the Intensive care unit."
"Okay, okay, thanks Matron-san!" Naruto back-stepped a little then started heading west.
"OR THE GIRLS DORMITORY!"
Naruto turned and went back the other way, grumbling.
************************
Also currently involved in the art of hall-wandering, Kakashi navigated yet another pale blue corner and found himself nearly standing on his youngest student.
They stared at each other for a minute in complete astonishment.
"Kakashi-sensei?"
"Oh, it's you..."
"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked, at the same time Kakashi said:
"What did you do to yourself?"
Naruto grinned sheepishly.
"I fell off a cliff." He pointed to the bandage on his head. "Made a Rasengan that kinda got too big and I was blown away when it smashed."
"And you got brought all the way back here to get treated? Surely Jiraiya could have done that for you.."
"Not when he didn't have a house anymore."
Kakashi raised his eyebrow.
"Anyway," continued Naruto. "We ran out of ramen."
"You're alright though?" The Jounin looked him over, briskly.
"Yeh," The boy sniffed and smeared the back of his hand across his nose. "But they say I've got a cushion and can't go home yet."
Kakashi forced a smile.
"Cushion".
At least this one made it back ok. He'd been worried of course - Jiraiya was a bit over the top when it came to training, and pairing him with the equally excitable Naruto was just asking for explosive trouble.
But the blond had been one of the last things on his mind since his return to Konoha the previous afternoon. He'd done little else but sit in the cold, hospital waiting room, purposely hiding from the other Jounins in case they tried to steal him away and make him do his job.
- True, there would be uncountable amounts of mission reports to do and various people to inform of things.
- And yes, he should really be writing those reports and informing those people.
But right now, being a Jounin was not important. He was there for his student. And there he was going to stay until he felt it was allright to leave him.
Finally, after many, many hours - as the sun began breaking over the brows of the hills - the operations ceased and after a brief meeting with the head surgeon, Kakashi was escorted to the recovery unit where Sasuke rested in a drug-induced slumber.
That was at 5am.
Awhile later, Kakashi was jolted awake from his snooze in a bedside chair to the shuffling of the morning intern as she pottered about checking things.
She apologized and kindly let him know that breakfast was being cooked in the hospital café if he cared for any.
He was just on his way back with a takeaway coffee, when he bumped into Naruto.
"Umm, why are you here, Sensei? Did you come to check on me?"
Kakashi blinked. What to do now...?
"Hey, hey," The boy hopped excitedly from one leg to the other - forgetting he'd just asked a question. "Do you reckon Sasuke's back? I want to beat him with my Rasengan!" He stopped and thought for a second - generally around the point of why he was in the hospital in the first place.
"Or, maybe not. But I really want him to see it! He'll have to be impressed by the Rasengan, right? It's like, my thing. You know, my special attack...He's got Chidori and I've got Rasengan! Now Sakura just needs something..."
The Jounin let out a sigh, and put his hand on Naruto's shoulder. This could be difficult. There was no way of telling how Sasukes' rival would react to the news
"There's someone you ought to see."
***************
"I don't know how many times I can make myself clearer Hatake."
"But..."
"But nothing! Even the best healer couldn't fix injuries like these. He needs time to recuperate - and I don't just mean his physical wounds. Imagine what the poor child's been through."
"Wha...umm, what were the physical wounds?"
The Head Surgeon stared Kakashi full in the face before taking off his glasses to polish them.
It was twenty-past four in the morning and he'd just walked out of the ER, where the life-saving operation he'd been overseeing had finished after lasting nearly thirteen hours.
He wasn't in any kind of mood to argue.
"Apart from the large amount of infected minor cuts and abrasions and his obvious malnourishment - which will have to be treated very carefully - he has a very serious concussion, hypothermia and..."
"His left hand?" Kakashi interrupted
"He may get some use out of it later. Perhaps after some re-constructive surgery, but that's not guaranteed."
"Not at all?"
"No," The doctor put his glasses back on and steepled his fingers over the desk. "He won't be throwing any kunai from that side anytime soon. And speaking of kunai, it was one of those that we found embedded in his left kneecap. Caused a hell of a mess to the cartilage and even cracked the bone. It'll be awhile before its fully healed, let me tell you. At least they only went for one side..."
It was relieved logic, not humor in that last statement. Kakashi nodded, sagely.
"And what about..."
"Six stitches. And judging by the bruises on his hips, I don't think it was a one off."
Kakashi lowered his head. He'd little more to say. Fatigue and worry was winning over his struggle to stay awake. He barely heard the rest of the conversation as he slipped into a mental cruise-control and followed the man out the office door.
"I'm putting a visitors bar on his room. You're allowed in of course, but I don't want any other of you Jounin annoying him. I doubt anyone who's spent even one day in a dark dug-out prison with their jaw wired together with paperclips would want to talk about it much..."
"Let my other two in," Kakashi replied, tiredly. "He'll want to see them, at least."
*****************
"Sensei?"
They'd stopped just outside the room. Kakashi hadn't even noticed, he'd walked there by foot-memory alone. The Ward Guard, familiar with the glazed expression Kakashi had been wearing for the past eighteen hours had simply let them through, nodding grimly at Naruto.
The Jounin looked sadly into the curious blue eyes.
"I'm sorry, Naruto." He said, quietly.
Then he opened the door.
team seven
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