13th regression

Hospital 3

It was chaotic when he woke up.

Literally.

He was going back to sleep but one of the nurses was already observing him and was already out of his hospital room to summon Tsunade-baa chan. Sigh, my poor life and incoming headache.

In no time at all, Tsunade was here, flanking her sides were Shizune-nee chan and Jiraya.

'Is it late to fake amnesia?'

"Naruto you're awake!" Came Jiraya's genuine and happy exclamation. His relief visible in both voice and expression, he was practically oozing it.

'Probably.'

He has the memories of his female counterpart who probably died, memories that are almost identical to his own. Of his first life.

One thing stood out however, Hiruzen made sure that his counterpart pretended to be a male till she's a chunin.

'He clearly manipulated her, only giving stupid and inconsistent reasons, that old damned Monkey.'

Kurama's previous vassals were both females, true no one but the higher ups knew, but still.

There's two other female Jinchurikis out there as well, like Fu and Yugito, and their status are public.

His counterpart is still a genin (should he still call her that when he's currently possessing her body and she's basically dead?), not much different than him at that point in time, no leadership ability, strategy and tactics knowledge and of course no sense of self preservation, not to mention their grneral knowledge was non existent at that point.

In short no one but probably the Inuzuka, Aburami and Hyuuga clans know. Kakashi, Jiraya and Tsunade as well as Shizune knew too.

"NARUTO!!" Came a screeching yell followed by a smack on the head, he wasn't responding and mainly spacing out, she really doesn't like to be ignored.

He remembers she hits harder. Either she's being considerate or he doesn't remember well.

It's been over 400 years since she last hit him.

Her subtly shaking hands and the despair in her eyes prevented him from answering in complete apathy or straight out ignoring her.

'Your vacant eyes probably freaked her out.'
'Probably'

She's still precious, he still loves her, even when she never told him anything about his parents. She gets a pass since she's one of the few blood related he has.

'Blood is thicker than water after all'  he thought.

He sent her gentle and soft smile hoping to calm her heart "Tsunade-baa chan you should know better than to hurt a patient who just woke up from a coma, especially in the head." Was his cheeky reply.

He didn't miss her sigh of relief. nor the tension released from the other two's body.

Tonton oinked happily.

Tsunade soon started examining his body with green glowing hands for any last injury, predictably finding none.

I started giving her my report to fill the silence and try to get my first objective in my mental list, not caring to omit anything, not even Sasuke's chidori almost destroying my counterpart's heart.
The horror in their eyes was especially beautiful.
More so that I could sense Sakura behind the door and Kakashi outside the window, feeling their terror radiating through their chakra.

Now she doesn't need to follow through the promise, and that's exactly what he's aiming for, the quick glance directed subtly towards the door and window are enough implication that both Jiraya and Tsunade has noticed their presence.

"Uchiha Sasuke is a traitor, if it was anyone other than me, they would've died" I could almost see her flinch and perfectly hear the gasp. I really shouldn't be enjoying this.

"I thought you consider Sasuke as your friend?" Jiraya said in a way that shows no understanding.

He seems to really believe that Sasuke and I are him and Orochimaru.

How annoying.

"I refuse to call that traitor my friend or a teammate, he tried to kill me!" I said with enough anger to be realistically traumatized.

"Should I cling and beg him to come back?? Chase after the person I saw as family who coincidentally tried to destroy my fucking heart with his damn chidori!!" Now comes the hysterical shouting.

"If Sakura wants him back she can do it herself and ask for Kakashi's help, as a matter of a fact I don't want to be a member of team 7 anymore." followed by resignation.

Hopefully this is enough acting for one day.

The horror, shock and disbelief I could feel from Sakura and Kakashi shouldn't have made me happy.

Of course I played my part flawlessly, I've long been a pro when it came to acting, The hurt, betrayal, the anger and then weary and tired resignation, My tone of voice and facial expressions were all perfectly in place, heck, I even gathered som tears but didn't manage to shade.

They paid my act nonetheless. So it doesn't matter.

Of course Jiraya had to talk about the training trip, happy like a puppy but not cute at all, and break the silence.

A shame since I was really enjoying everyone's discomfort.

If he go with Jiraya now, it'll go well with the act, just cut ties, an easy out. It'll be cowardly, running away and all, but it won't be awkward. He'll also be under Jiraya's scrutiny.

And probably stay genin for so freaking Humiliatingly long.

So absolutely not.

'I still have mixed feelings about Jiraya, too'.

If he doesn't go, He'll be Jonin by 15 if not 14 and maybe join the Anbu. It's the only fun department aside from T&I, of course.

By this point, his counterpart had fixed everything, from talking sense to and befriending Neji and Garaa, returning Tsunade and learning the Rasengan, so he doesn't have to go through it. Small mercies.

It'll always however, be heartbreaking not being able to save Haku, though. What with traveling with him and Zabuza and fighting a civil war together, that regression was one of his favorites. Haku was one of his favorites.

All that needs addressing is getting Kurama's other half, reveling himself as a girl, nullifying his toed contract and getting beck his demonic foxes one, saving Sai and exposing Danzo. Killing him is far too merciful . Ruining him though~~

Not to mention his own damn training.

Physical conditioning sucks.

But he needs to be stronger soon.

He needs to rescue his dear cousin Karin.

Overall, there's more to do and accomplish staying in Konoha than leaving it, since he decided to stay.

He needs to cut Jiraya's rambling at some point though.

Thus came his flat and dry "I'll stay here".

The silence only lasted for five heavenly seconds.