Naruto: Tango with Death

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The hospital was awfully boring, the nurses kept harassing me for the rest of the day every time I got off my bed, I swear they must have sensors checking up on me as they would burst into my room in less than a minute every time I left my bed.

But I was really getting better faster, faster than normal. Much faster.

My training method wasn't just for training, it could also help me make a speedy recovery. After all, the way it worked was that it healed my muscle fibres torn from training, so the only difference with my usual training was that here the tears were larger, and on some of my bones. No need for so much drama.

This largely reduced the time I would have to spend at the hospital, going from six weeks to only one. Moreover, I wouldn't even have to go through rehabilitation. The wonders of chakra. Were I to suffer such injuries on Earth, I probably would be crippled for life. Yay for Chakra.

So I mostly spent the rest of the day using my technique to heal myself, it wasn't like I had much else to do anyway.

And my plan for the next day was to do exactly that, but man plans…

The next day, while I was in the middle of my meditation, I heard the door to my room slam open…

"SUKAINA!!"

Before I could even properly get out of my meditation state, I heard a loud shout, and looking at my left, I was shocked to see Naruto flying toward me! Did he really jump at me?

Fortunately before he could crash into me and aggravate my injuries, the back of his clothes were grabbed by a strong hand, which immediately stopped him in place.

"Naruto! I said calm down!"

Stopping Naruto was a beautiful red haired woman, who with a few words managed to completely calm down the usually unstoppable Naruto.

While she was berating Naruto, I looked at their sides, and saw my friends were all there. Sasuke, Shikamaru, Choji and Kiba approached my bed in a calmer manner, all looking at me curiously.

I didn't look like I was in a very good state, it wasn't just my hands, my whole burst was covered in bandages. The Iwa fucker had slammed my back into the ground after all.

Shikamaru was the one to break the silence as he said while ruffling his hair, "We heard about the fight…"

Sasuke continued, "Did you… really get attacked by a spy?"

I grinned, and gestured at my own body, "Do you think I did that myself?"

Sasuke blushed fiercely, making me laugh. On the other hand, Naruto was finally released by Kushina as he came over in a far calmer manner, so I asked him, "What are you all doing here?"

Naruto crossed his arms and replied, "Tch, you thought you could dodge my birthday because of a fight?"

I froze in shock.

"You want to celebrate your birthday… here?"

Naruto grinned, "Why not? Everyone's okay with it."

I looked at the boys, who smiled and nodded. I sent another look at Kushina, who was smiling warmly too, and seeing me glance over she introduced herself, "Hello, I'm Kushina, Naruto's mother. Nice to finally meet you, he talked about you."

"Mom!"

Kushina chuckled, and said, "Alright, I'll go fetch the cake, have fun."

She left the room, leaving behind an awkward silence.

"So, are you okay?"

I turned back to look at Kiba, who had Akamaru with him. As I spread my arms, the intelligent puppy jumped into my arms, and hugging it I replied, "If you think I look bad, you should see the other guy."

Choji said, "If you don't want to, we don't have to… speak about it, you know."

I smiled and said, "It's fine, I don't mind. Besides, I can see you are dying to ask me. Come on, you can ask anything."

Sasuke asked, "Did you… you know…"

"Kill him? Yes. Broke both my foot and my back doing so, but I did."

Shikamaru asked, looking a little worried, which was a big deal for him, "Will there be any lingering injuries?"

I replied, "Nah, I'm made of steel. I will only have a few scars on my fingers."

"Is it still painful?" this one came from Naruto.

I stroked Akamaru slowly as I replied, "Yes, but its nothing compared to that night. And I would rather feel the pain than not."

The room once again got awkwardly silent, before Shikamaru said to my surprise, "You shouldn't continue training alone in the woods. It's too dangerous."

I was about to refute, but Sasuke added, "He's right, what if another similar incident happens? You almost died, Sukaina."

"But I did not, I won. I lived, while he died. And that is precisely why I will continue."

Shikamaru scoffed, "We're not asking you to stop training."

Sasuke added, "I asked my father, you can come over to clan anytime you want, to train together."

"Same for me." "My mom said the same." "We'll show you what real cuisine is."

Ignoring Choji's last sentence, I smiled, genuinely happy, but still refused, "I'm touched, that's very kind of you guys. However, I'll stick to individual training. That was an unfortunate accident, but the chances of it happening again are abysmally small."

They looked a little bummed out, but I wasn't just going to accept because I pitied them. I like training on my own for now.

Anyway, we ended up spending most of the day in my hospital room as not long after Kushina came back with the cake. I was certainly quite restrained, although the sedatives had long worn off, my injuries were still there, healing, but still there.

Still, it wasn't enough to put down Naruto's 'joie de vivre', and he somehow managed to make the birthday interesting, despite the severe restrictions.

At the end of the day though, the doctors finally went over their fear to shoo off the Hokage's son from my room, I had seen them fidgeting around all day. Fortunately for them, Naruto didn't make a fuss, Kushina made sure of that.

Speaking of which, it was the first time I truly met her, and actually spoke to her, and while I expected great things from her, I was still well surprised.

She was a very kind person, and while she could have bursts of 'anger', it was more pretence than anything. It was just a parent raising her voice to show some authority.

So this was a much better day than anything I could possibly imagine, despite me having actually forgotten about it being Naruto's birthday with everything going on. I didn't forget to give them the keys to my apartment to pick up Naruto's gift, which Naruto refused. He wanted me to give it to him myself once I get out. Cute.

It should still be noted though that Kushina did take the keys to my apartment, to keep my place clean while I was away. Obviously, I had tried to refuse with a blush, something that doesn't happen to me often, but Kushina wouldn't have it, and so she left with my keys.

It was reminiscing about the day that I spent the evening, and decided to go to bed early. It wasn't like there was much to do anyway here, this is a hospital room, and there are no TV or phones in this world, or this era at least.

But as I was about to go to sleep, I saw something flash in the corner of my vision. I immediately looked over, my body tensing with Chakra immediately coursing through my meridians, prepared to jump at any moment. I feared retribution for that Iwa spy I killed.

However, as I finally turned to look at whatever had flashed next to me, I was shocked to see the leader of my village, the Fourth Hokage, who happened to be Naruto's father, Minato Namikaze.