Redemption

3

Yo, looking through my bookmarks on Ao3 is W I L D

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He traversed the route to the Hokage Tower with an ease born of practice, a familiar path that he'd trodden at least a hundred times before.

None of the usual guards were on the alert for the troublemaker and didn't anticipate his appearance. After all, he'd done nothing wrong, and what excuse did they have to stop the boy from visiting the strongest shinobi in the village? It was almost laughable to think that the small boy could even land a hit on the Hokage, even with the tailed beast and favoritism to show.

So Naruto continued on his merry way, slipping past the too-lax guards and secretary that was just there for show.

Not bothering to knock, he walked through the creaky door and made his customary greeting.

"Hey, Gramps! How's the paperwork treatin' ya?" His glower was all the answer he needed

 Though his day had gone terribly so far, it still made him happy to see the old man, frown and all. And buried as he was in his dreadful paperwork, the Hokage very nearly didn't notice his condition. Notice: nearly.

"What happened to your eye, Naruto?" Hearing the command behind the question, Naruto had to look away as he grudgingly replied:

"Birthday didn't go so well yesterday; what's new." The sound of a tightened grip on his pen was the only sign of distress from the man, and he didn't say anything for a moment.

"The one responsible?"

"Taken care of, unwillingly." Mr. Shinohara would've gotten off with a warning had he not tried to finish what he'd started, though Naruto wasn't quite sure that the Hokage knew that. He'd seemed to have ignored what the boy'd tacked on, and was back to staring at the bandaged eye.

"I presume you have yet to get it treated properly at the hospital," he said, sighing heavily and rubbing at his eyes, already imagining the stack of papers that would later grace his workload.

"Actually, just outran Iruka-sensei wanting to take me himself!" And if he was a wee too proud of outrunning the uncannily intuitive chuunin, no one pointed it out.

"You speak as if you've escaped The Devil himself," the old man said, an amused twinkle in his eyes.

"You would too if you had to endure his idea of punishment!" Naruto shot back. Having gotten caught during many a prank lent to some hefty experience with the man's sense of justice and sadism. Relatively mild compared to what the guys at TI probably specialized in, but no less terrifying to the young boy.

The old man just chuckled at the younger's theatrics, fond of his unique perspective. After a moment though, he had to sober so he could deal with the issue at hand.

"Come now, let's get you to the hospital," he said, rising from his chair.

"But I don't wanna!" Naruto whined, but knew there was very little he could do to actually escape his fate. But then Hiruzen softened, and settled down again to discreetly have an ANBU send him a med-nin. 

"Alright then, you won't have to go to the hospital. But you are going to cooperate so the medic I called for can check you over. The wound does not often kill the shinobi; inactivity or infection does."

Naruto pouted but agreed. The eye in question was constantly throbbing, a pain that seemed to be worse than the pain of it being ripped from his skull in the first place. And if seeing this medic would get people off his back, then it was a small price to pay for being "healthy" and not going to the hospital.