I am so sorry I haven't updated in a while! My old computer died from a deadly virus and I had to get a new one, but, if you knew me, you'd know I like to procrastinate. It's kind of my hobby... So, on with the story! (There may be some repeats in character introduction because I wasn't able to upload the documents from my old computer, so please forgive me for that, too).
Disclaimer: See chapter 4
--
What
happened? I felt like a computer there were so many wires in
me. I could feel the needles injecting Kami knows what into my
body. And then I remembered. Those eyes... It's
like they saw right through me... Like they knew what I was
thinking.. What I was planning... I have to get out of
here. I sat up and looked around me. No one was in this
room and judging from the silence outside, no one was there either. I started ripping the wires out. It felt like some might have
torn a bit of muscle when I pulled them, but I heal quickly. I
could deal with a bit of pain.
I slowly opened the door and
glanced outside. I was right; the halls were deserted. But they wouldn't be for long. Voices could be heard from
around the corner and I felt that if I didn't run now, I'd never
be able to leave this place. I closed the door behind me and
ran to the one across from me. The voices grew louder and
paused outside my door.
"Shikamaru, you can't be telling me
everything!" The voice was definitely female and pretty
attractive sounding at that.
"I don't know what else there is
to tell, Sakura!" That was Shika, without a doubt. "We
were walking up the stairs and then he just passed out! Maybe
he was exhausted from his travels."
"He didn't pass out from
exhaustion! When he came in, he was whimpering and trembling! Something spooked him so bad that he went into a serious state of
shock and passed out. Not only that, but his condition was
life-threatening! I had to hook him up on every kind of
medicine known to man to stabilize him! Take a look for
yourself."
The door opened and I heard a gasp of shock. "How can he be gone? Shikamaru, do you realize what's
happened? He could be anywhere and-" For some reason
there was a pause, and then this Sakura started to whisper. "What if he sees something he shouldn't? Our highest
priority is getting him out of here with no knowledge of what's
going on here. Do you understand?"
"I know," Shikamaru sounded worried. "I'll tell the Hokage to put the
village on alert. No one is to act out of character until he's
found and gotten rid of. In the meantime, go search for him. He can't have gotten far."
I heard them run off in different
directions. Talk about messed up priorities. Neither one
seemed to care that I'm not on my medication and could die without
it (of course, that's not true, but they don't know). And
what am I not supposed to see? Why is everyone acting so
weird? I've got to know. I'll do whatever it takes to
find out! I waited to make sure the coast was clear. After minute or two of silence, I left my hideout and started to the
right.
I turned the corner... just as someone else did. I
took a step back and looked up. This guy was tall, but really
old. Why's he wearing a military uniform? I thought
they had a cut-off. They can't let a silver-haired man work
for the military, right?
His visible eye grew wide, but then he
smiled. Well, it felt like a smile; I couldn't see his
face.
"So you must be Uzumaki Naruto!" He held out a
hand for me to shake. "How nice to meet you! We don't
get outsiders very often."
I looked from his hand to his face. Why's he all nice? Everyone else seems to hate me! I
decided it was only right to shake the old guys' hand.
His
smile seemed to grow. He laughed a bit as he continued. "Oh, I haven't introduced myself, have I? My name's
Hatake Kakashi. It's a pleasure to meet you!" This
guy gets nicer by the minute! I smiled back.
"Nice to meet
you, too! You're the first nice person I've met here!"
"Oh,
come on! I'm sure you've met someone nice here other than
me. Have you gone to the Hyuga house yet?"
I twitched a
bit at the mention of those monks. "Well, yeah, that girl was
nice..."
"Oh, so you've met Hinata-sama already?"
"Yeah!" I was kinda shocked that he was actually taking time to talk to
me.
"Well, I happen to know someone very nice who would like to
meet you!" He started walking away (pretty quickly for an old
guy) and waited for me to catch up when he moved too fast. As
we roamed the halls, I was keeping a constant look-out for Shika or
Sakura. I don't know why, but as I wandered the halls, I felt
like it was the most important thing to meet whoever Kakashi-sama was
taking me to.
"So, Kakashi-ue-"
"Whoa, what's with the
formality? You might as well say Ojii-sama! Leave it at
Kakashi-sempai."
"Ok, Kakashi-sempai, who are you taking me to
see?"
"Well, he doesn't really sound like the nice-guy type,
but he is. His name's Iruka and he's at the military rank
Chunin." Wow, Chunin is a pretty good rank. But for him
to be here protecting the Hokage, you'd expect him to be a Jonin. "He actually commutes from here. He's our ears and eyes to
the rest of the country."
"Wait," I stopped walking,
wondering how I should word the question. "He commutes? Sorry, but, the way people are acting, it seems like no one ever
leaves."
"That's ridiculous! If no one left, how could
we get food or know what was going on in Konoha?"
"But
TenTen-" You would think in a hospital, people would no
better than to tackle someone.
"Oh, Uzumaki-kun! No...
NARUTO-KUN!! I can not tell you just how happy we are to see
you walking around!" Gai and Lee-kun were causing more damage
to me than falling down the stairs had. And tears? Really? We had just met! How attached could they
be?
"Gai-sensei! Look who is here with Naruto-kun!"
Gai
looked up and practically roared when he saw Kakashi. "My
greatest rival! It is fate we meet today. Be forewarned,
whatever challenge arises today, I shall be... THE VICTOR!!" Kakashi-sempai sighed. I got the feeling this was a part of his
daily routine.
"Gai, you and Lee are still crushing
Naruto-kun..."
The two looked down at me (like they thought he
was lying!) and started crying and hugging me again!
"Oh,
Naruto-kun! How can we earn your forgiveness?"
"LEE! We must race around the village 500 times to achieve atonement!" The funniest part was they still didn't get off of me...
"Lee-kun! Gai-san! You have to get off of Naruto!" Kuso! Shika found me! I tried to push them off before Shika got over
to me, but Shika and Ino were faster than I was.
"You two should
know better than to tackle a patient!" Ino was helping me up
while yelling at them. Her long hair was getting in my face and
it was pretty annoying.
"Ino-chan, please go get Sakura-chan. Naruto needs to get back to his room for more treatment." Shika was becoming a pretty big kill-joy.
"Treatment?" Kakashi-sempai was pretty confused and it looked like Gai and Lee-kun
were just as baffled. After all, I looked like I was visiting
someone in the hospital rather than being a patient.
"Yes, we
had to put Naruto on all sorts of medication. His blood was
circulating too fast and wasn't carrying enough oxygen to his
body. We were able to slow it down for a while, but he was
still too weak to move around... Well, we thought so..."
Uh-oh! They know something's up! I need to start acting weaker! I started breathing more heavily and grabbed my heart like it was in
pain. My act was pretty convincing, too. Everyone got
into a panic, even Shika. I was rushed back to my room.
Maybe my act was too convincing, because the second they had me
lying down, I was given a sedative...
I had spent one concise
week in the hospital and had gotten used to the room and random
visits. Ino-chan, Gai-sensei, Lee-kun, Kakashi-sempai, even
Shika had come to make sure I was alright. Once, Kiba-kun and
Hinata-sama had come to see me. They had brought Hinata's
cousin, Neji, and I could see why I hadn't met him yet; he was
avoiding me and, with an attitude like his, I couldn't say I
minded. Kakashi-sempai had brought Iruka-sensei to visit me and
ever since, he would stop by every day for at least two hours. There was only one time Iruka-sensei hadn't come to visit me and
that was when Sakura-chan was checking up on me. Oh,
Sakura-chan! She was the hottest nurse I'd seen so far, but
she didn't appreciate it when I told her that. IN fact, the
next day, I woke up and saw this creepy guy sitting next to me. I tried to talk to him, but he just ignored me. Nearly an hour
later, he got up and just left. I asked Iruka-sensei about him
and he told me that the creepy guy was named Shino and he was
sometimes called in to help out at the hospital. Sakura-chan
had probably told him to keep an eye on me. I asked
Iruka-sensei if there was anyone else I should meet, but he said that
the only people I hadn't met were a few other officers and the
Hokage.
"Jiraya doesn't really stay here long and Tsunade and
Shizune also come and go as they please," Iruka-sensei explained. "Everyone else, except me and four other officers, live here and
stay here."
"What about that Uchiha guy? Sasuke,
right?" I wanted to know if he ever left his
house.
Iruka-sensei was silent for a second, but then mumbled,
"Sasuke never leaves his house. He stays there all day and
night. We're all worried for him. It's not healthy
for him to stay there, but he refuses to leave. Too many
memories for him to part with, he says..."
I grew quiet. This Sasuke character seemed interesting and, even though I had never
met him, I, too, was starting to worry for him.
"So,"
Iruka-sensei suddenly smiled. "I heard you're well enough
to leave the hospital. That means you'll be staying with the
Hyugas for a night or two, right?"
I groaned. I had been
pushing off leaving the hospital for that exact reason. Monks... They're the last people I should be around..
Iruka-sensei
seemed to get the message loud and clear. "You know, My house
is pretty big and I've got a spare room-"
"REALLY,
IRUKA-SENSEI?!" I sat up quickly and grinned at him. "That would rock! You'd let me stay at your place?"
"Well,
If you really don't want to stay with the monks-"
"THANK
YOU, SENSEI!! Thank you SOOOO much!!" I hugged him as
tight as I could. Things were looking up for me. I had a
home. I froze at that thought. A home. A home! I wonder if Iruka-sensei was thinking of it that way; probably not. And those monks... They were another problem. Not to
mention, even though I had a lot of visitors, I couldn't forget how
eager they had been to get me out. they probably still felt
that way.
And then, Iruka-sensei hugged me back. I couldn't
help it. I decided to get my hopes up and stay here for as long
as I could. The closest thing to a family I had ever known was
here. I wasn't going to leave no matter what. So I
embraced the thought. I had a
home.
--
"Haku,
are you ready?"
"Yes, shishou."
"Well, then, let's
see how much money we can make today. The man with the biggest
price on his head is Hatake Kakashi. That'll be our next
target, then."
"Very well, shishou."
"Then we're off
to Konoha." And with that, the two foreigners disappeared
into the night, head for Konoha with death in their
hearts.
--
Once again, I'm sorry for not updating in so long. It upsets me when people don't update their stories, so I'm really sorry and I'm going to try my hardest to never let it happen again. Thanks for still reading!