He really really hurt and it felt like his body weighed a couple of tons. Despite that he opened his eyes.
A hospital. Contrary to his initial hope, there was no Sakura there at his bedside.
There wasn't even a cute girl.
There was, however, a toad.
"Yo," said Gamakichi.
"Wha?" asked Naruto.
"Eh, turned out you were left for dead," said Gamakichi. "You went after that boy Sasuke? Yeah, he put a hole in your chest. Missed the heart by a good inch though. Anyway, Jiraiya ran across you - got you back here. Did a couple of things but anyway here ya are. According to that Tsunade chick though - you damn near died anyway."
"Ung," said Naruto.
"About three weeks," said Gamakichi.
Naruto's eyes closed again, sinking back into the pillow. Gamakichi would swear later that he heard a literal snapping noise when Naruto's eyes popped open a minute later. "MFF?!"
"You got tubes in your mouth, but yeah - I can get the gist." Gamakichi shrugged. "And yeah. Three weeks. Maybe four. I got summoned just a couple days ago."
"Muf," managed Naruto.
"Everyone else is recovering too, but there were a couple of dicey ones. Fortunately those kids from Suna and a second team of Konoha nin was dispatched," said Gamakichi. "Hana Inuzuka, some retired ninja, one really old genin, a few others. So... I don't think you're ready to hear the rumor I heard."
"Muh?" asked Naruto.
"Yeah," said Gamakichi. "You're not ready for that."
"Mfff." Naruto started looking at all the tubes and wires.
"I mean really - you're thirteen," said Gamakichi. "They won't do anything about the marriage till you're sixteen at least."
BREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! went the heart monitor.
Gamakichi watched as the doctors swarmed in and guessed that Naruto hadn't been ready for that.
"Okay, since nobody seems to be able to understand this, I brought a whiteboard," said Jiraiya.
"Understand what you are saying - yeah," said the Nara clan head. "Believe - that's a bit different."
"Okay," said Jiraiya, scribbling things out. "Mito Uzumaki was a relative of Kushina. Great-Aunt if I've got it figured out. Both were of the main Uzumaki clan. Kushina was the last of that branch of the clan, so that makes her the heir and Naruto the surviving heir of the Uzumaki clan."
"Which, not to disparage the Uzumaki clan at all, is a DEAD clan," said Chouza. "Even if there are survivors - you're talking maybe a dozen scattered throughout the Elemental Countries at best. Probably a lot less. Maybe just one."
"Namikaze clan, same deal," said Jiraiya, making notes on the other side of the whiteboard. "Less powerful than the Uzumaki clan. Minato was the last. Which brings us to-"
"NARUTO IS THE FOURTH HOKAGE'S SON?!"
Tsunade clucked. "Sakura. I'm putting it down to all the shocks recently because you're usually a LOT more on the ball than this."
"Why is she here anyway? I thought all this was highly classified and clan heads only," said Shikaku Nara.
"For the same reason we're involving the Clan Heads and top level ANBU - damage control," said Jiraiya. "You have to know what to look for in order to find things. All of this was kept from Naruto, who still doesn't know, because he's a loudmouth kid. Can't go blabbing or bragging about something you don't know about. At least some of this will be told him now because someone else DOES know at least part of this."
"And they're going to try and kill Naruto Uzumaki as a result then," said Hiashi Hyuga.
"Actually no. Marriage is more the operative word," said Jiraiya. "Though I have heard some who feel the two are not exactly-"
A sandal was thrown with enough force that Jiraiya was knocked over from the impact of it with his face.
"SOMEONE WANTS TO MARRY NARUTO?!" exclaimed Sakura.
"He's thirteen, that's NOT going to happen," said Jiraiya as he got back up. "Even if he had made chunin - it wouldn't be possible. Land of Fire legal age for marriage is sixteen. Engaged though - whole different kettle of fish."
"Engagements have happened before the kids are even born, so yeah - there's a precedent," said Tsunade. "We checked and we have a copy of the same form. Signed by his father and apparently forgotten about in the meantime."
Sakura blinked. "Who?"
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(Posted Sat, 06 Dec 2014 16:36)
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