Dancing with faith
"That is a good question, Hinata," everyone turned around to see Naruto was sitting up in the bed as if nothing had happened. He looked to be in some pain, but overall, he seemed to be doing alright sitting there on his own. Shikamaru, Chouji, and Hinata came over to check on him as they were greatly surprised that he was even awake right now.
"Naruto? Are you okay, how are you awake right now?" Hinata asked worriedly.
Naruto let out a soft sigh, "well, I hurt everywhere, but overall, I'm fine...Or I will be." In truth, Naruto's whole body was screaming at him, he hurt all over, but he couldn't let them know that. He could see the concern on their faces, he didn't know how to feel about that. He never had anyone worry about him like that before. He felt as though he didn't deserve it for some reason. "But that's not important right now," he started.
"How could that not be important?" Chouji asked incredulously.
Naruto pouted, "because it's not, besides, I have something important that I need to talk to you guys about." He took in a deep breath and looked at each of them in turn, a serious look in his eyes. "You know the Kyuubi story that the grown-ups keep telling us?"
The trio looked at each other, "well, yeah," Shikamaru said as if he didn't get where this was going yet. "Who doesn't know?"
"Well, what if I told you that that story was all just a lie?" Naruto asked as he watched his friend's reactions carefully, he didn't think he would be having this conversation with anyone. He dind't thinks he would ever get to know the truth himself, but life seems to have a funny way of screwing him over a bit. Thankfully there wasn't anything too bad about this event right now, at least he got to know the truth about why everyone in the village, save a few, hated his guts for seemingly no reason. "what if I told you that the Kyuubi that the Forth Hokage supposedly sealed away, was actually sealed inside of me?..." He asked slowly, "what would you do then?"
The room became deathly silent.
There wasn't anything that they could say that seemed appropriate at that moment.
What could they say?
After a few minutes of silence between them, Shikamaru decided that he would be the one to break the ice. "So what?" He asked, "I don't really care about who did what with Kyuubi, what I really care about is that my friend nearly bite the dust in a trash fire right before my eyes!" He stepped forward to look a surprised Naruto in the eyes, "you almost died, and I'm pretty sure that the villagers have treated you like crap all your live, because I've seen and heard of how they thought of you. With my own ears, I heard what they thought about you when they thought no one was listening."
Hinata stepped forward next, "Naruto, I don't care about the Kyuubi, he might be sealed inside of you, but you are still you. You're my friend, and I wish we could have been closer before now, but now that you're in this state, I don't think I can bring myself to put any more distance between us again."
Chouji nodded, "they're right, Naru. I also don't care about the Kyuubi, because I know that you will not turn into a monster. You're way too kind and considerate to become something that I know you're not. And even if the Kyuubi is not sealed inside of you, you will still be my friend."
Naruto looked all three of his friends in the eyes. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, "but...didn't you guys hear me just now? I am the monster that killed all those people ten years ago."
"So what!" Hinata yelled out, she was getting frustrated with how undeserving Naruto was feeling. She couldn't imagine Naruto being a monster even if she tried, and that wasn't because she used to have a crush on him during their first year at the academy. In fact, it was because Naruto had been who he was that she was able to see him in a different light than what she thought she knew of him. He was so kind that it obvious people would take advantage of that. She could see that Naruto never wanted to hurt anyone, and she had never seen him hurt anyone either, however, that was not the sentiment that the villagers seem to have.
"Naruto, you are you, just like I am me," Chouji started. "Even though everyone else might be out to get you for being a container the Kyuubi, we would never."
Shikamaru nodded, "that's right, as much as it is a drag, the Kyuubi is sealed inside of you. That's a fact that we cannot change, but what we can do is live our lives to the best our ability. It would be troublesome to not make every moment count while you still can, you know?"
Naruto felt a tightness in his chest. He couldn't tell if the pain was coming from his injuries or something, but for now, he ignored it. He was used to pain, but that pain was a little new to him. He wanted to cry, but he was also happy. He shook his head to get rid of those feelings, but that was a bad idea as his neck got a shooting pain in it that sho up and down his spine and through his shoulders. "Uh, okay, but listen, since you guys made it clear that you're not going to leave me after hearing that, then there are some things that I feel you should know about me."
Shikamaru, Hinata, and Chouji all nodded, they were listening. "Lay it on us, Naru, we're here for you, day or night," Chouji said with a big smile on his face.
Naruto smiled a little before taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. "The's start it off at the beginning with the Fourth Hokage..." he told him everything that the Kyuubi told him. Everything from who his parents were to how he came to be, and how they died on the night he was born. He told them about the masked man who claimed to be Madura Uchiha, and how he tried to steal the Kyuubi for himself. And finally, he told them about how the Kyuubi got sealed inside of him on the day he was born by his very own parents. "I don't know how you feel after hearing all of this now, but since you guys have already expressed that you are not leaving me because of that fact, I can assume that that will stay the same now."
Hinata nodded, she had tears in her eyes after hearing everything that happened to Naruto's parents. "Now that we've found you again, what makes you think that we can just leave you alone after hearing that!" She said in a determined tone.
"Really, I thought that would be a reason to leave me alone," Naruto muttered to himself. Too bad his friends heard him.
"Ha, then you must not know us at all if you're thinking that!" Chouji spoke up.
Naruto's smile got a little bigger after hearing his friend's reassurance. "Yeah, I believe you..." he started to feel tired again, so he leaned back on the headboard. "I think I might have overdone it by getting up on my own just now, I'm exhausted."
"Then you should sleep now," Shikamaru said as he stepped forward to help Naruto lay back down gently on the bed, then covered him with the blanket and sheets. "Get some more rest, we'll be right here when you wake up," Naruto nodded slightly as his eyes closed and he fell asleep almost instantly.
When they saw that Naruto was sleeping peacefully, the trio left the room and closed the door halfway just in case. They turned to each other with smiles on their faces, "so, I guess Kyuubi is gonna heal the rest of his wounds, huh?" Hinata asked feeling relieved.
"Yeah, but there is only so much healing can do at once before it wears itself out." Shikamaru stated, "when he wakes up he's probably gonna be hungry, we should get him some food for him that happens." Hinata and Chouji agreed, "in the meantime, let's check out this place. It's gotta have some extra bandages hidding somewhere that we can use to redress his wounds later."
"That's if he still needs it," Chouji stated, "we don't know how much Kyuubi is gonna be able to heal him while he's like that. I know we've seen him fall off a bridge into shallow water in a way that looked like it hurt, and he was completely fine the next day."
Shikamaru nodded, "true, but this is more than just a simple broken ankle," he pointed out.
Hinata folded her arms as a thoughtful look came across her face, "then maybe I should get some more medical books in the morning. There has to be something in there about how to help someone healing from burns like that. The books I got today didn't tell me much, but maybe I could try a bookstore this time."
Shikamaru nodded, "sounds good, you do that. I'll go check out the rest of the house to see if I can find out anything about this place, and Chouji, you can probably find him something good to eat. for when he wakes up."
"Got it," Chouji gave him the thumbs up. The trip spit up after that, going their own separate ways to do what they needed to. Naruto didn't wake up for two days after that night, when he did, he only took a couple of bites of porage that Chouji got him before going back to sleep.
To be continued...