Disarm
Chapter Two

During bursts of consciousness Naruto would occasionally recognize the moan of an engine and the fighting of tires before relapsing into sleep.

In one short bout of awareness, Naruto's head bounced to the side and glimpsed a tall monument standing alone in the blizzard. A brilliant light flashed before dying, and his shoulder tingled. He slept again.

Hours or seconds later, Naruto's mind registered human voices.

"-know," a voice muttered. "He must have crazy strength to survive that long."

There was another voice. Darker, lower, and not amused. "So? Adrenaline can make the body do amazing things. He's probably just-"

He eagerly gave in to oblivion.

There was pressure on his shoulder, then a sting, and then mind shattering pain. The blinding white angry spikes dulled into a mute red almost instantly though, only tingling irritably. Naruto's back was stiff and every part of him seemed to smart, but his brain urged him to identify his surroundings before his hurts.

Keeping his eyes closed and his breathing regular, Naruto stretched his hearing to understand his situation. Sharp footsteps echoed away, paused, and the creak of a door was heard before the footsteps faded away and the door shut again with a click.

Nothing but the beeping of machines kept him company in this cold room, and the silence made him remember.

Naruto's eyes snapped open, much to his instant regret. Once the vivid colors in his vision faded away and his retinas seemed ready for round two, he opened them again, much slower. The bright lights above him lit up the whole white room, giving him the instant impression of being immersed in a glacier.

He looked around. It was some kind of medical examination room - with lots of junk scattered about. The room was decently small, only large enough to fit his impersonal bed and a long table against the wall. The surface of the table was overtaken with electron magnifiers, beakers, jars filled with unidentified liquids, Bunsen burners, scales, and many other scientific tools Naruto was very familiar with. Other items he did not know so well, but deduced that they were medical equipment. A rolling table beside his bed held other various instruments, and a heart monitor beeped serenely. Naruto ripped its cable off his chest.

Naruto checked his shoulder, pushing back a light cloth. It was freshly sewn into an angry red line overlapped with separate black wires tying his skin together. It looked disgusting in its deformed, molded state, and Naruto could clearly see how it dipped inwards. Obviously his lost flesh was irreplaceable. Though the muted jabs of pain were still there, he found he could ignore it if his attention was properly occupied. The rest of him thrummed unpleasantly, but was still triumphantly working. His wrist killed though, and Naruto realized it was in a brace. His thumb's movement range was also severely limited. Ah well. It would not take long.

Taking stock of the rest of his injuries, Naruto found he was alright to sit up.

I'm still alive, he thought, and let that sink in like the cold of the tile underneath his feet.

But - it's not over.

Deciding that it didn't make much sense to stay here – he'd be discovered awake one way or another – Naruto sat up gingerly and swung his legs over the side of the bed, his calves hitting the metal frame. They were sore from abuse but otherwise unhurt, and Naruto knew their protest wouldn't last long. They were bitterly cold though, like the rest of him. The flimsy hospital gown he was wearing didn't help much. Rubbing his freezing fingers Naruto set his first quest: to find his clothes, damn it.

He checked the cabinets and cupboards around the room but did not expect much. They were filled with various jars and materials and instruments. There were also no charts or notes lying about to help clue Naruto in. With a soft sigh Naruto padded towards the only door in the room, bare of any window. He tried the handle – it was unlocked. Hesitating, he thought things through.

Oh, what the hell. Things couldn't get much weirder.

He opened the door softly and squeezed out.

He was expecting a long white hall like in those movies he saw of mental hospitals, and he was not disappointed - save the colour of the walls was yellow. Naruto frowned. Does this mean I'm in a nut house? He cast the idea aside as fast as he could, and tried to focus.

Clothes could be kept in a storage room, a bedroom, or, if they were courteous enough, a laundry room. He had no idea of the locations of these places, obviously, nor did he have a clue as to the size of this establishment. On the lookout for any possibilities, Naruto checked each door he came across before sneaking by. None had windows but all had plaques beside them – they read E03, E05, E07, and so on. Naruto pressed his ear against one and took a chance to peek inside: they were all exactly the same, all with the same layout of his room, but bare of anything save the most necessary instruments. None had the scientist's mess his room did. And all of them were eerily empty.

Fueled by curiousity and discomfort, Naruto continued until he reached the end of the hall, which diverged into two opposite directions at perfect right angles.

He took a breath and took a step.

Okay, fuck this.

Naruto was pissed.

He must have been wandering for a good twenty minutes! And no one had even had the decency to pop up and detain him, or something. Assholes. Was the whole place deserted? He'd checked out every door he passed and made sure to miss nothing, yet he obviously missed his sense of direction somewhere because he could have sworn he had passed his hall already.

Naruto frowned and checked the plaque on the closest door.

E19.

What the hell!

Damn it all, this place was an ice cube and he couldn't feel his toes and he was back at the beginning! This place was just a mess of hallways, seemingly branching off to every possible direction and winding up in the same place just the same. He'd be as happy as a pig in shit if he could just prevent the cold from creeping up his bare butt.

Goddamn it, I should just set the place on fire, Naruto thought angrily, and set off to search again. He took the same hallway than before, having previously scoped out the opposite option. His eyes swept the walls for doors, approaching the end of the hallway, reading the plaques as he tore by -

Huh?

He backtracked, eyeballing the plaque again.

It was blank.

Come to think of it, the door at the end of the hall was obviously wider than the others and holy shit he just heard voices.

Rational thought went out the window. He practically unhinged the door while barging in, his voice at its best: angry and very, very loud.

"Alright you asshats, where the hell are my pants?"

He stood defiant, angry, and practically naked in front of the gaping, speechless crowd.

"Um," said someone.

Naruto happily wiggled his toes in the provided Magnum firefighting boots. They were pretty cushy and thick, though he hoped he wouldn't be expected to jump into a blazing house anytime soon.

The tall man didn't look over at him, just peered sleepily at the book open in front of him. He was slouched forward slightly, and one hand had disappeared in his pocket after handing over some garments.

Naruto had adorned black cargo pants and a long sleeved black shirt with a v-neck that showed off the fishnet shirt underneath. It was a little irritating when the net caught his stitches, but with the look finished off by the shiny boots, Naruto felt damn sexy.

He happily crowed to himself and rubbed his warming arms with glee. Now all he needed was a room full of hot chicks and –

"Are you quite done?"

Naruto glared at the man that had finally spoken. He had a low, commanding voice that his slouch features did not prepare him for. Or maybe that was just the black surgical mask covering his mouth. -Or, you know, the eyepatch.

Yeah.

The man had an eyepatch.

Combined with his sloping, oddly grey hair, of his face only the right eye was visible. That eye glanced up at him again.

"Well?"

Naruto scowled. "I'm done. It's your turn to explain what the hell I'm doing here, you weirdo." Hell, no one had said anything to him upon barging in the conference room. A few had whispered furiously among themselves ("Is he drunk?", "-Tell them-") and they had all looked at him strangely (it was the sexy legs, no doubt about it) – until this man here silently rose and motioned for Naruto to follow. No doubt Naruto was still a little pissed.

And this room was weird. It was filled with mirrors and clothing, all similar to his. This was an establishment with its own examination and dressing rooms. How strange.

The man seemed to be smiling, which was quite something. The motion of his lips curling was invisible but his cheeks rose and his eye was almost completely closed. "I'm Kakashi, nice to meet you!"

The way he said it made Naruto think of a heart placed at the end of a sentence. He put on his best 'I'm-not-impressed-with-you-child' face, and did not respond with his own name but instead waited for more.

More did indeed come when the door flew open, and a blonde woman strode through. She was followed by a young woman with pink hair. The blonde's attention immediately fell on Naruto, and he looked back at her squarely.

"Up so soon?" She said out loud, but it was pointless to answer. Naruto felt three pairs of eyes very much on him.

She glided over, shoulders squared and her back straight. Her authority practically oozed off of her and dripped on the floor. She had gigantic knockers which were only partially covered by her strange black and green fold-over shirt, and her long blonde hair was tied into two low pigtails. There was an odd blue diamond marking on her forehead and a necklace dangling from her slender neck, resting contently on her great chest.

Naruto said nothing, letting the situation wash over him. If he closed his eyes and breathed in deep, he could mistake the smell of sanitizer for the hint of chemical formula he had never been able to chase out of his room.

The woman forcibly turned him around and pushed down the cloth of his sleeve. She appraised his shoulder momentarily, and tugged the clothing over it again.

"How's your wrist?" She asked emotionlessly.

"Fine," Naruto said to the wall.

"Any other discomforts?"

His head throbbed unpleasantly and he was still cold. A sickness was only kept away by Naruto's firm dismissal of it.

"I'm fine," he said.

He heard the woman move away, and Naruto turned back to face his jailors. "What am I doing here?"

The pink haired woman shifted on her feet and glanced at the older woman. She replied promptly. "We took you in to care for your injuries." She paused. "Once we have assured your identity and your safe transport, you will be escorted back home."

"Trans-" Naruto froze, eyes wide. "Oh my god my car!"

The woman looked amused. "Ah, yes. Then we will see what we can do to have another one provided for you."

"You don't understand! I worked in fast food for three years to buy that Cherokee! Please tell me it's not just sitting around collecting snow back there…" his voice descended into a whisper.

The woman looked at him almost pityingly. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid Kakashi was too busy trying to rush you to safety to bother with relocating your car."

Startled, Naruto turned to the still silent man. His one eye rose to meet Naruto's. Naruto had not recognized the man.

Naruto hesitated and softly said, "Thank you."

Kakashi closed his eye in what Naruto somehow understood to be acceptance. "You didn't need much saving. You did just fine."

Turning away, Naruto sighed sadly and thought of his possessions still in there, probably lost in the freak storm. His cellphone, his equipment… his purpose – his encounter –

He intercepted the thought. "So where is this place?" he directed the question at the smaller woman.

She shrugged. "Not far from where we found you."

Naruto frowned, and saw Kakashi and the other woman exchange looks.

"…Okay. Well, I still need to get my stuff from my car. I want to leave as soon as the storm dies down."

The blonde woman grinned, amused at a situation Naruto did not understand. "Of course. Just give us some information and you'll be on your way. We will escort you to your car to scavenge what you can, but don't hope for much. The devil does his work well."

Naruto turned his head and closed his eyes.

The pink haired girl walked up with a clipboard. "Name?"

Naruto looked at her again and paused, considering. This seemed to be some military group, or at least some organization with authority, if they could just hand another car over to him.

"Naruto Uzumaki," he said strongly.

The pink haired woman jotted it down, asking for him to spell it, but the blonde looked up quickly.

"Uzumaki?"

Naruto glanced up.

"As in, the charge of Orochimaru?"

All eyes were on Naruto. He was intrigued. "He's my godfather, what of it?"

The woman considered him. "I know Orochimaru well." She said slowly. "Do you happen to know a Jiraiya?"

Naruto scratched his head. "Oh yeah, that old perv. I know him well. Comes over all the time to leer at the girls down the street and pokes his nose into all my stuff. Great guy, slightly touched though."

The woman smiled. "Yes, that's him. I am Tsunade, have you heard of me?"

He racked his brain, focusing on the name. "No, I don't think so. How do you know-"

She smiled again and interrupted him. "Well, that was a nice coincidence. Please help Sakura with the rest of the information while I arrange your affairs."

She turned and left, with Kakashi following suit a few moments later. Naruto made a note to ask of her to Orochimaru when he got home. Then he winced. Ah, that's right. Orochimaru would be disappointed when he heard that his objective had failed right in the first stage… he'd have to start all over… his equipment and research was probably lost as well.

He put his failed mission to the back of his mind, intending to complete it at soon as possible.

The girl – Sakura? How fitting – went back to her instructions. "Occupation?"

"College student."

She smiled at him. "Then what are you doing here? Semesters aren't over yet."

"Doing research for my final project." Naruto said easily.

"Hmm," she said, and jotted it down. "Address?"

"Jiraiya?" Tsunade clutched the receiver.

"Uuugh, hello?" the man on the other line grumbled. The hour was early.

"Listen carefully, this is important." Tsunade glanced at Kakashi, his book still in front of him but his attention clearly on the present situation.

The man seemed to be waking up. "What," he said, a little more clearly.

Tsunade clicked her fingernails against her desk. "We found a certain someone here. Someone you know."

"…And?"

"His name is Naruto Uzumaki?"

She heard the man breathe in. "Naruto, yeah! He left a few days ago, some research trip for college. He and Orochi have been talking about it for weeks. How is he? How'd he end up in your jurisdiction?"

"He's doing well – surprisingly enough. He fought with a Guard and nearly killed it – all by himself. Now he's walking around like nothing happened -"

"What! Well - he always was resilient –"

"No, listen. It's a miracle we were able to spot him at all - the storm was ten times worse than ever before. They don't want him here." She paused. "So I want to keep him."

She heard a yelp. "What? Listen, Orochimaru will have my head if he finds out Naruto had anything to do with – them. Or you. He was never supposed to even know about you. Just send him home."

Tsunady grimaced. "Dammit you crunchy old bastard, you know what's at stake here! He's got something we need, and they are afraid of him. Even more than they are of Gaara. …We can train him. He has potential, it's obvious. And… we could do with having you around again too."

Jiraiya moaned. "Oh shit, this is so not going my way. …Look, if Orochimaru knew that Naruto was going to be waltzing near your Olympus, he would have never allowed it. Naruto's- well… Orochimaru willl be furious, and I'm not going to be the one to tell him. He'll pull every trick he knows to have Naruto back."

"Worried about his safety, I'm sure," Tsunade laughed scornfully. "Your foolish trust aside - I know, but this cannot be avoided. He stays here, and I am sure I'll have Sarutobi's permission." She took a breath. "And I demand your presence here in a week's time. We'll be watching for you."

His curses were cut off abruptly as she hung up. Tsunade glanced up at Kakashi, who eyed her steadily.

"Things are about to change."

To Be Continued