Into the Woods

“Oi! Naruto!”

They were final approach back into the village when they were quite suddenly joined by a group of 4 medical-nin. Actually, they weren’t quite “joined” as they were more surrounded by them. They were dressed in full surgical garb, and while the voice was terribly familiar, it was hard to tell which one she was. Suddenly the one in front dropped back, green eyes smiling above the surgical mask.

“Dobe! Where have you been! Me and Tsunade have been worried about you two.” She yelled.

Naruto laughed. It sounded like she was angry, but he could hear the relief in her voice. “I missed you too, Sakura-chan. What’s with that get-up?” She tossed him a set of surgical masks.

“You two have to put those on. We’re under orders from Hokage-sama to take you directly to the hospital for your debriefing. No stops, no talking to anyone. We’re going to go right through the gate and straight there, ok?” The pair nodded, though Sakura caught the worried look on Hinata’s face as she fit the mask over her mouth and nose. “It’s ok, Hinata. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s all precautionary. We’re really happy you guys made it back.” the last sentence coming out wrong...almost as if they didn’t expect them to. Before he could ask for further explanation she moved up the to front again and the group hurried past the gate in flash.

They made for the rooftops, flying across the village quickly as she led them to the back entrance of the hospital, one that neither of them ever really remembered seeing before. Heading through the door it led into a large clean room. Two of the escort hung back to guard the door, Sakura taking Hinata by the arm while the other grabbed Naruto.

“Ok you two, some quick things we gotta take care of before talking to Tsunade. I know this is gonna be awkward but, just try and go along with it.” she said just as she whisked her off through one door and he got sucked through the other.

Hinata was about 30 seconds from passing out. There was a small privacy screen, a shower, a chair, and a laundry hamper in this room. On the chair was a folded pair of hospital pajamas. Sakura’s eyes smiled gently above the mask at her as she suddenly started pulling the bag off her shoulders and reaching for her clothing.

“This...this is most unusual, Sakura-chan...please...what’s going on?” The bag was tossed unceremoniously into the hamper before she turned to grab the jacket.

“Hokage’s orders, you guys have to go through decon first. I’ll need you to give me your clothes and get into the shower.” Hinata froze, holding her jacket tightly around her, staring at her friend with a look of terror.

~*~

Naruto was going through the same thing in the other room. His marks were lighter, so he didn’t have to explain anything as he dutifully handed over his clothing, watching it be tossed into a similar laundry hamper, and then stepped into the shower. The warm water felt wonderful, as did every first shower back from a mission out in the field, but he couldn’t relax to enjoy this one. He was waiting for the scream to come when Sakura found the bruising and the bite. ‘So much for finding a tactful way to tell her’ he thought, figuring their secret was moments away from being reveled to everyone.

---------

‘What’s wrong with this girl?’ Sakura thought to herself as she helped her friend out of her jacket. ‘It’s not like I’ve never seen her naked.’ She had taken care of her on different occasions when the kunoichi had come back from a few missions in varying degrees of injury. As she started to tell her to take off her shirt she noticed it, a dark bruise along the clavicle. She instinctively reached for it to get a better look and then paused.

‘That’s not a normal bruise, that’s a....’ she looked up suddenly, realizing what was wrong with her bashful friend. Thinking quickly she shoved her behind the screen, turned on the water, and stepped around to the other side.

“Just hand me your clothes and then step into the shower.” she yelled over her shoulder. “There’s soap and shampoo in there, just make sure you scrub everything good.” Hinata was surprised, but didn’t waste anytime getting undressed and in the water. She was afraid if she took to long the pink haired girl would try and do it herself again. The bruises on her thighs were fading already, they hadn’t been to dark to begin with. But the boy was an exuberant lover, and had left quite a number of choice marks along her breasts and shoulders that would be hard to explain.

‘If I had known this was gonna happen...’ she thought as the warm water caressed her body. She sighed, hoping that she wasn’t going to have to explain herself. She had figured Naruto would tell her soon anyways, she just never thought she was going to have to show anyone else what he had done to her, let alone Sakura.

Sakura waited quietly, twisting the towel in her hands nervously and thinking. It was obvious what they had done based purely on Hinata’s reaction. What wasn’t so obvious was what this meant. She knew the girl had pined for him for years now, but she was so skiddish, so shy. And he being the dobe he was had always been completely clueless. Even if he had just come to the realization she liked him, would she let him do that to her? Or had something else happened? She thought of the way she had pulled her clothes around her, the trepidation in her eyes. She’d seen that behavior before in a few unlucky women who’ve come into the hospital, and she didn’t like to think on it.

‘He wouldn’t dare.....not Naruto’ she thought to herself. ‘There must be something more to this.. He’s an idiot, but he’d never do anything like that.’

“Hinata,” she called to her softly. “You’re ok right? Nothing....happened on the mission that I might need to know about, like any injuries or accidents?” ‘or perverted bastards taking advantage of a sweet, innocent girl?’ She was peeking around the screen now at the showering girl. There was no door or curtain on the stall, so she could see the marks on her pale skin. She had a few large bruises across her back that looked like she’d taken some kind of blow, but the rest were definitely from something more intimate. Nothing on her wrists or shoulders looked like she’d been forced down, but she could see discoloration on the inner thighs that looked like it’d already mostly healed. ‘Please tell me it’s not what I’m thinking...’

~*~


Naruto was getting nervous over this whole thing. After he got out of the shower, he was made to put on a pair of pajamas and slippers and that damn mask again, given another painful shot, and was now playing “20 questions” with that damn medic.

"No I didn’t eat or drink anything in the water country."

“Yes we wore our masks and gloves"

"No we didn’t make any physical contact with anyone"

What the hell was going on here? And he was worried about poor Hinata. About the only privacy he was getting over here was the fact that the girls had gone off into a separate room. They were probably doing the same thing to her, had probably found the marks all over her. She was probably in tears, pleading his case, begging them not to tell her family. He could picture the lynch mob waiting for him already. He wasn’t sure who to be more afraid of at this point: the entire Hyuga clan.....or Granny Tsunade and Sakura-chan.

________


Hinata was out of the shower and dressed now too. Sakura had given her a shot as well, and was now busy checking out the other’s head injury.

‘There had been a mudslide and I fell down the ravine...Naruto saved me but not until after I slammed against the wall a few times’ she was thinking back on that explanation as she worked. There was still had a large lump on the back of her skull, and our budding doctor was using her chakra to check the damage and heal what of it she could.

“Looks like you sustained a minor concussion, which would explain the headaches, blurred vision and fainting spells, but it’s not too bad. It’ll be completely healed in no time.” she said as she finished up, wrapping a bandage around it her head for good measure. The injuries seemed to back up the story, but she couldn’t help but keep looking at that mark on her collarbone. The shirt did nothing to cover it.

“Do you....want me to take a look at that bruise?” Sakura offered gently, hoping to get some kind of answer as to what happened.

Hinata’s hand shot up to cover it as she blushed furiously. “You...you can do something about it?” Those green eyes smiled gently again over the mask.

“Probably, how did you get it? Is it from the fall...or...something else?” The cheeks got redder, those pale eyes looked away, and then a hint of smile crept across those trembling lips. Sakura let out a sigh of relief and a slight giggle. ‘If she can smile about it, it must be fine. Although I’m still going to have to yell at the dobe later....scare some sense into that boy about being more careful’

“It’s ok...I won’t say anything. If anyone asks it’s from the fall.” She squeezed the others shoulder gently before grabbing some more gauze and covering the bruise. Hinata looked surprised, then a wave of relief flooded through her as she reached up and squeezed the hand back.

“Arigato, Sakura-chan,” she said with a smile and a sigh.

~*~


They were reunited in the hallway. Naruto looked like a caged animal. If they had taken any longer he probably would have been climbing the walls. His fear turned to concern when his angel appeared wrapped in bandages. Sakura, unable to resist herself, took this opportunity to ream him out about throwing girls off a cliff then dragging them through the woods with concussions. He was surprisingly relieved to be getting his head chewed off about it, but he still tried to look ashamed about it. She then gave him a shove towards the end of the hallway.

“Come on, Hokage-samma is waiting for us”

At the end of the hallway, Tsunade was pacing back and forth. She too was clad in full surgical attire, complete with the little paper slippers. When Naruto appeared she had to fight to keep from squeezing the hell out of him. She hated to admit it to anyone, but she was terribly fond of that brat.

“Oi! Granny-Tsunade! What’s up with all this? Is something wrong?” She twitched at his name for her.

‘If anyone else ever dreamed of calling me that.....’ she chuckled softly. God she really had been worried about him. She took the charts that were handed to her and looked them over. ‘Looks like everything had gone well. This should be pointless then, but we can’t take that risk.’ She looked back up at the confused pair and smiled.

“First off, I would just like to say thank you for completing this mission as quickly as you did. I know it didn’t seem like much, but believe me, what you’ve done is nothing to be laughed at. The people of the water nation, as well as your fellow Konoha ninja thank you deeply.” She watched as they looked at each other, even more confused now. She chuckled to herself, wishing they didn’t have the masks on so she could better see their response to what she was about to say next.

“And now, you two will get to take the next week off from missions to recover, spent relaxing here in our special... Quarantine unit”

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TBC : have more but don't feel like uploading it now...

you can wait...can't ya? '-)

~Teaser