Rare Chance

Chapter 5

Sakura step out of her house into the night and closed the door. Turning around, she was startled by the sudden appearance of her mentor, who was standing in front of her with unreadable expression. Blinking her surprise away, she said, "Sir Kakashi, fancy meeting you here."

"Yeah. Under normal circumstances, it is." replied the white haired Elite, receiving a confuse look from his student.

"What're you talking about? It's something the matter, sir?" asked the pink haired teen, furrowing her brows.

"Yes apparently." said Kakashi. "It's about Naruto." he told her.

. . . .

By night time, Sasuke had reached the first town outside Konoha after hours of trailing his target, who was currently inside the pub that was opposite to where the teen was perched on a tree branch, hiding his presence subtlety.

So far, Sasuke had learned that the man he was investigating secretly was a businessman, which was a known fact throughout the Fire Country, making him frustrated of the early result of his pursuing. However, there was something that he could not place right. Whatever it was, he had to know as soon as possible.

There was laughter from below and Sasuke watched and listened intently to them as his target and his man servant came out of the pub.

"Futa." called the man in suit to his companion, who immediately turned his full attention to the former. "I want you to complete the preparations by tomorrow before noon. I want everything in check and flawless." he said the last word maliciously, making Sasuke frown suspiciously.

"The hell are they up to?" the raven haired teen muttered lowly to himself before flickering away and followed his target on their way to an inn.

. . . .

Sitting on a chair next to where little Naruto laid and sound asleep was Sakura, who was already informed by her mentor of what had happened to her teammate. Even though she was on duty in the hospital, she decided to visit her friend for a little while first before going and do her job just to show the boy was recuperating. Reaching her slim feminine right hand out, she gently pushed the golden stay locks off Naruto's face, mindful of the bandaged head injury.

Learning that her friend might be not able to walk again that would surely result of Naruto quitting his Nina career made Sakura to suppress the growl due to the rage she was feeling towards whomever had hurt her comrade. She did not want to disturb Naruto's sleep, so she opted to let out an audible sigh, withdraw her hand, and stand to leave.

The young lady made her way out, but not before wishing Naruto to get well soon, and closed the door behind her. And then, she walked away to fulfil her duty.

. . . .

There were instances where Kakashi's earlier report said that the nine-tailed beast had the ability to help its host to heal faster than an average human. The information helped alleviate Tsunade's worry, however there were times when Naruto fractured a bone that needed normal time span to heal. She wondered if the nine-tailed beast chose to let his host heal normally, or he could not simply heal it like any other wound.

The Hokage leaned back on her chair, taking a break of her paperwork when Shizune came in like she had run a marathon.

"Master Tsunade..." the Hokage's assistant slurred like a dunk and fell on the couch unceremoniously.

"Did you finish the task I ordered you?" inquired the slug princess.

"Yes..." came a muffled reply.

Shizune was apparently given a task by her superior to go to the library and read all early historical books and ninja techniques and its counter attack right after she barge in the office that afternoon.

"So, what did you find out?"

Sitting up straight, Shizune replied, "Nothing useful, Master Tsunade."

"I see." the Hokage pa paused. "Take a rest, Shizune. I'll handle everything here."

"Thank you."

"Hm."

. . . .

The next day, little Naruto stirred under his thin white blanket that the Konoha General Hospital issued as the light rays of the sun penetrated through the glass window, which curtains were drawn open to allow light and warm in. The boy, even though his eyelids felt heavy, opened his eyes slowly and blinked a couple of times to adjust. Once he got used, he just stared dazedly at the stark white ceiling of his room, feeling like he was floating. He then helped himself up, wincing as pain shot through his back, but he did not mind it much as he focused on sitting up. Suddenly, his world tilted and he swayed a little to the right. Luckily, he caught himself and leaned on the headboard.

A sigh escaped the blonde boy's lips.

I just woke up, but I'm tired… he groaned. He wanted to go back to sleep, but the call of nature beckoned him to get out of the bed.

With another sigh, Naruto pushed the blanket aside and moved his legs, however, his legs refused to do his command. Not thinking clearly, he thought that it was nothing and that his legs were probably just tired as him, so he just grabbed his legs one by one and placed it at the edge of the bed. He then pushed himself up and fell miserably on the cold floor with his face planted on it.

"Ow…" came a muffled voice out.

Naruto stayed on the floor face first for five seconds before deeming it enough and pushed his person off the floor and sat. Just then, when he thought that he had enough strength to stand, a dizzy spell came and he could not help but throw up right on where he was.

. . . .

There was crying and coughing that came out of the room where the blonde boy was in when Sakura reached the door of Naruto's room. With pure instinct, the teen hurried inside and the boy was not on the bed but on the floor, crying and coughing. She did not fail to notice the yellowish liquid on the floor.

"Naruto, what happened? Does your head hurt?" she asked gently as she crouched down beside the boy, who nodded at her a second later. Furrowing her brows despite her smile, she said, "Let's get you back to bed, okay?" and picked little Naruto up.

When Sakura was about to settle the boy down, the latter thrashed in her arms and the former almost drop him if it was not because of her fast reflex being a ninja.

"Na-Naruto! Calm down!" she exclaimed.

"No! No! Let me down!" cried Naruto.

"Tch. Idiot." Grumbled Sakura under her breath, making sure Naruto did not hear her. "I'm going to put you down now, so please calm down."

Naruto stopped thrashing and Sakura placed him down on the bed, however, the boy cried again and pulled the pink haired teen to him and attempted to climb up on her.

"Eh? N-Naruto. What's wrong?"

Still crying, the boy said, "…bathroom…"

"Oh."

Moments later, the room was cleaned off Naruto's puke and the boy was now napping while Sakura sat on a mono block chair beside the bed tiredly.