Naruto Shippuden: girl from whirlpools

Hospital Days

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Hospital Days

Waking up in the hospital was a long process. He'd been unconscious for several days as his body battled a deadly poison and medics carried out one surgery after another on his leg and arm. Consciousness returned to him in bits and pieces. His earliest recollection was of a couple of nurses, giggling by his bedside and arguing which one had the honour of giving a sponge bath. In all honesty he counted himself as pretty lucky he didn't recall much after that, until one afternoon he opened his eyes to take a look around him. He saw mounds of flowers piled up on the window ledge and overflowing from his bedside table, as well as an intriguing contraption holding his right knee together. Interesting, he thought, before he passed out again.

The next time he woke up was because an unimaginable pain gripped his body. He knew his leg was in pieces because it felt exactly like that, and a fire burned through his veins so ferociously he found it difficult to breathe. He probably cried out. Medical staff came hurrying into the room and began arguing over his shuddering body. One medic said to the other it was his fault for administering the wrong dosage of painkiller. The other medic protested he'd never seen a poison like this so it wasn't his fault. Eventually, a nurse quietly hooked something to the needle in Minato's arm, and he rapidly fell back into unconsciousness where pain couldn't reach him.

The first time he truly woke up was almost a week later. Though he had lost all sense of time, he had a rough idea of how many days had passed based on his itchy beard growth. The first thing he did was scratch his cheek, and his first coherent thought was that now was an opportune time to try out a goatee.

Kushina might not take kindly to bristly kisses, however.

Triggered memories poured back into his mind. His hand dropped slowly to his side as he suddenly remembered that kisses, bristly or otherwise, were the least of his worries right now.

"Hey."

The small voice startled Minato. He blinked and rolled his head on the pillow to look at the small boy sitting in the visitor's chair, feet kicking gently against its legs. Kakashi looked well, considering, but the last time Minato had seen him was at Sakumo's memorial service.

"Hey," Minato responded, voice rough and dry. "Alright there, Kakashi?"

Kakashi's legs stopped moving and he gave Minato a surprisingly stern look for an eight year old, one which questioned how appropriate it was for a man strung up in a hospital bed with steel pins sticking out of his leg to ask his visitor if he was alright. "I'm fine," he said flatly after a while. "Your leg is kind of shattered though."

"Oh." Minato looked down at the cage around his knee. It looked incredibly painful, which made Minato very appreciative of whatever drugs were plugged into him.

"And your arm is, like, black," Kakashi added, pointing to his right arm that had been so thoroughly bandaged from fingertip to shoulder that it was impossible to tell what colour it was. Minato couldn't move it either way.

"Makes a change," Minato said, a little relieved that he could still wiggle his fingers.

"And you were poisoned pretty bad," Kakashi went on. "The doctor says your heart stopped a couple of times."

His thoughts rattled around, trying to remember how he had come to be poisoned. "I like to keep people on their toes," he said.

"But you're ok now, right?" Kakashi asked, a faintly anxious note in his voice that Minato almost missed.

"Yeah, I'm ok," Minato said, smiling at him. "It's nice you came to visit."

"Jiraiya-sama said you should always have at least one person with you at all times," Kakashi said sagely. "He says the nurses can't be trusted with you. I don't know why. I've never seen them steal anything."