Why Naruto Hates Hospitals

AN: This is an AU off shoot from my "Good 'ol School Days" fic. I want to give credit to Blank101 for the medical terms used to describe Naruto's brain injury, which come at a later chapter which, she so kindly allowed me to use. Thanks Blank!

He was fading in and out. All he could feel was pain. Blood was coming out from his nose and mouth. He heard voices all around him.

"He's bleeding out. He's going into cardiac arrest…we're losing him…need to act fast…"

He focused in on one voice in particular…

"Hold on, Naruto, hold on. Don't give up!"

Naruto's world went black.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Everything was black and silent, silent as a graveyard. It had been like that for three weeks now: no dreams, no noise, just darkness.

Today was different. Today, he started to hear things for the first time. Voices, talking, but it sounded like they were distant and underwater.

"He's waking up…"

He couldn't understand the words…he faded out again.

Later on that day, he heard more voices and tried to open his eyes, without success. Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi had come by to visit a couple of times, unbeknownst to Naruto. They were very concerned for him and Minato.

"He's turned a major corner now," one voice said. He regained consciousness well within the critical thirty-five day window. We'll have to run more tests, but I think he's out of the danger zone."

He couldn't make sense out any of that conversation. He tried to move his arms, legs, anything, but got the same result: nothing. He could also hear some beeping noises, very steadily. What the heck? Where am I? Why can't I open my eyes? It wasn't long before he faded again.

The next day, he heard the same voices again, along with the steady beeping. He focused very hard on opening his eyes. He was finally able to do so, but could only get them half open, as his pupils were dilated and made his eyes water, causing his vision to be very blurry and he couldn't make out much. One of his arms felt heavy as he tried to lift it, so he used the other one and was able to bring it to his face, and felt a…mask? He turned to the sound of the beeping and saw machines. He noticed the wires were hooked up to…himself! He panicked! He wanted to get out there, now! His frantic movements set off the heart monitor and soon doctors and nurses came swarming in.

"His heart rate is too fast…he's going into cardiac arrest…we need to sedate him…"

His world faded again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When he woke next, he felt very groggy and cranky. He felt someone moving things around him, and then heard voices again. Just then, he heard another voice, calling his name.

"Naruto? It's okay, son. I'm here…" he heard someone speaking to him. He recognized the voice. It was his father.

"To'san?" Naruto slurred. "Wat's…"

"Shhh, don't try to talk. Just relax," Minato told him, gently. "You will understand everything soon, I promise."

Naruto tried hard to keep his heavy eyelids from closing. He was losing the battle. He was out…again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

This time, when Naruto woke up, he was much more coherent. He opened his eyes and looked around. He noticed the mask was gone, but he was still hooked up to various machines. He saw that his left arm and leg were in a cast. He also realized with horror, that he had a needle in the back of his wrist; an IV. Upon further inspection, he saw that he was hooked up to a…catheter! That did it! He began to pull it out, with some difficulty (using only one arm) and pain, but managed to get it. He pulled off the heart and brain monitors and was going for the blasted IV, when alarms started blaring. Naruto covered his ears in annoyance.

In frenzy came doctors, nurses, and his father.

"Naruto! You have to stop!" Minato told him. "You still need the IV and…"

Naruto wasn't listening. He was still trying to get the IV out. "NO! I want it out! I want to get out of here!"

Minato turned and signaled to the doctors and nurses to fall back. Then he turned back to Naruto.

"Naruto, calm down. Everything's going to be okay, but you have to stop, or you'll have to be sedated again," Minato told him, gently.

Naruto struggled and kept trying to get the IV out. Minato proceeded to carefully pin his arms to his sides, near his shoulders to avoid the cast one, and stop his movements.

"NO! Let me go!" Naruto screamed.

"Naruto! Listen to me! You're okay, it's going to be alright!" Minato tried to tell him, in an effort to calm him down.

"I want to get out of here!" Naruto shouted again as he struggled against Minato.

Minato sighed. Naruto just wasn't able to comprehend. He signaled to a nurse, who came and sedated him, again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Minato was currently in the hall, leaning against the wall, with his arms folded across his chest, as he talked to the doctor. "Why is Naruto behaving this way? Is it a result of his head injury?" he asked with concern.

"I'm not completely sure, though I can hazard a guess based off of what I know so far. Since he sustained a fairly severe concussion as a result of his head injury, and he's been in a coma for three weeks, it is normal to see problems like this. Unfortunately, the results of the initial MRI were inconclusive. There was some bleeding in the brain, but we'll have to run more tests to make sure there isn't any permanent damage," the doctor answered.

Minato frowned. He knew that Naruto's head injury had been bad, but Naruto seemed to recognize Minato, and yet, Naruto was so panicky every time he woke up; it was like he didn't know where he was, or what was going on around him. It certainly seemed like Naruto didn't remember what had happened to him at all.

"Could he have some kind of…amnesia?" Minato asked worriedly.

"It's a good possibility, even though he seems to know you, he doesn't seem to recognize his surroundings or remember anything that happened to him. But head injuries can cause those kinds of problems. It's like a selective amnesia. I'm sorry, but I really won't know more until we run more tests," he told Minato.

Minato sighed in frustration, as he ran a hand through his hair. It was so hard to feel so helpless like this, and not knowing how to help his son.

"The best thing you can do is just be there for your son," the doctor said, putting his hand on Minato's shoulder briefly.

"Yeah," Minato answered seriously. I just hope that he cooperate with more tests, he thought worriedly. He started to think back about how this whole incident happened. It was three weeks ago, yesterday…

FLASHBACK

Naruto had recently turned nine, it was summer break from the academy, and he was out training with Sasuke, his best friend. They had just finished shuriken practice, and they had gotten a little competition going with who could throw their kunai the highest up a very tall tree. They ended up being dead even, and Naruto wanted to collect the kunai that were embedded in the tree. Some of them were pretty high up, and Sasuke was a bit concerned.

"Are you sure it's all right to climb that high?" he asked Naruto, who had begun climbing.

"Of course," Naruto boasted. Truthfully, he wasn't too sure, but he didn't want to appear weak to Sasuke.

He had retrieved all but one of them, throwing each one down near Sasuke, who was picking them up. The last one was actually embedded in a tree branch, so Naruto proceeded to climb out on the branch to get it.

Sasuke watched nervously, as his friend went for the last one. "Naruto! That looks really unstable…maybe you should…"

Naruto was about to reach the kunai, when he heard a frightening sound: the tree branch was breaking. Grabbing the kunai, he tried to get off the branch to safety, but it was too late. The branch broke, and Naruto felt himself falling, fast. The next thing he knew, he felt pain all over and his head hurt real badly. He was fading in and out of consciousness. He heard Sasuke scream his name, but he couldn't answer.

Sasuke went for help and came back with Minato and some medical nin. Naruto had fallen about fifteen feet, landing on his head, breaking his left arm, and leg, along with cracking his ribs, which had punctured a lung and was causing internal bleeding. Naruto soon passed out.

Minato was frantic. The med nin had stabilized Naruto enough to take him back to Konoha hospital, but told Minato that Naruto was in critical condition.

When they arrived at the hospital, they had to perform surgery to stop the internal bleeding, and had given him some blood to counter the severe blood loss. Then they had run a MRI on his brain, and found that Naruto had suffered a severe concussion, along with some bleeding in his brain. They weren't sure of the extent of damage to the brain yet. Naruto would need to be conscious for them to run some more tests. Minato was worried sick, and hadn't left Naruto's side, except when absolutely necessary.

Naruto had been awakened periodically at the beginning, so he wouldn't go into a coma, but he never fully regained consciousness for three weeks.

END OF FLASHBACK

Minato wondered too, though unbeknownst to Naruto, or anyone else, why Kyuubi hadn't healed Naruto's injuries. Naruto had been in a semi-comatose state for three weeks. His injuries certainly seemed to have healed some, but not like Minato would have expected with Naruto being the container for the nine-tailed fox. But there was no way for Minato to know what was going on inside of his son. All he could do now was wait.

TBC

AN: This is a multi-chaptered fic. Please review!