• Published 18th Feb 2012
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My Little Naruto: Friendship is--WHERE AM I!? - DragonLS



Naruto's life is given a second chance in the world of ponies... beyond his will.

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CH15: Hospital Visit Pt. 2 (Revised)

Special Thanks:

Editors: DaMobbs

*****

Thus Number Two, with More friends visiting

And yet there still seems to be something missing...

When the Blonde One Realizes Something is Gone...

His Sanity, temporarily, becomes less than none.

*****

Chapter 15: Hospital Visit Pt. 2

Once Gary had left, Naruto began to slip back into the boredom he staved off before. He attempted to alleviate said boredom by counting the individual specks of dust floating lazily in the air. He counted up to eight before throwing in the towel. As fun as it had sounded, he was bored to death. This drove him to find something else to occupy his time. He went over the recent conversation with Gary, talking to himself just to hear a voice and break the quiet.

“At least the tail arrived safely even with interference from Blackie…” Naruto still didn’t understand. Sure, Blackie was a bit of a jerk but that probably came with the job description of a blacksmith. But not honoring his side of the deal? What could the reason for that be?

“This is giving me a headache,” he said, rubbing his temple with an unbandaged hoof. As he shut his eyes, a sudden feeling of drowsiness swept throughout his body making it quite hard to move. A big yawn escaped his mouth slightly popping his ears in the process. With a tired sigh, he let his hoof fall back onto the bed before mumbling to himself.

“I guess I’m more tired than I thought.” With nothing better to do, he saw no reason to deprive his body of sleep any longer. It was better than sitting here bored, he thought. Each blink made it harder to keep his eyes open. Soon, he found himself falling into a deep, dreamless slumber…

*****

The moon slowly slid through the dotted night sky towards the horizon. Quickly nipping at its’ heels was the red morning sky followed shortly by the ever present sun as the moon slipped out of sight. Sunlight spread all over the quaint town of ponyville, drawing the ponies out of their slumber and into a bright new day. At Ponyville General, the sun’s early morning rays found its’ way into one blonde ninja’s room...

… and fell onto his face. He awoke slowly, the light blinding him even though he had his eyes shut tight. Stupidly, he opened his eyelids to find the bright sun staring right back making his eyes water in pain before shutting them quickly. He rubbed his eyes with his unbandaged hoof, wiping away any built up sleep from the corners of his eyes. This time, he opened his eyes very cautiously, allowing them to adjust to the light before opening them further and further. Naruto took a deep breath as he yawned, satisfied from his sleep. He stretched his hoof out into the air, his spine following with a quick couple of pops.

It didn’t take long for Nurse Redheart to come in after he woke up, a cart with what appeared to be his breakfast in tow. She placed it on his lap before going about her morning routine of checking his vitals as well as his bandages. The tray contained what looked like a small portion of carrots, white flowers, and a glass of water. The carrots and water he understood but the flowers puzzled him. They weren’t even in a vase of water or something... just laid out as if they were meant to be eaten. He looked at the nurse in confusion.

“What’s with the flowers, Nurse?” Naruto asked. Redheart looked back with a smile on her face.

“They’re white daisies, part of a balanced diet for our patients.”

Naruto blinked. “Wait… so I eat the flowers?”

“Well of course! That is if you want to grow up into a big stallion! Hee hee,” she said in a joking manner. Naruto, however, didn’t find it funny. Sure, he was a pony, or a stallion, or whatever… but eating flowers was new even for him. He sniffed at the flowers.

“Smells like grass…” He said.

“Well, yes. Daisies are from the ground after all. Everypony eats them… You’re not allergic to flowers now, are you?”

“Oh, no, it’s not that. It’s just…”

“It’s just…?”

“I’ve never eaten flowers before,” Naruto admitted. This earned a few blinks from Nurse Redheart.

“You’ve never eaten a flower?”

“No, I’m not exactly the flower type... or maybe it’s because I’ve never tried them… but then again…” Naruto picked up one of the flowers on his tray, staring at the white pedals and the yellow center. He plucked a white petal into his mouth, slowly crushing it to a plant-y pulp. He gagged before spitting out the soggy petal where it hit the opposite wall and slowly began its’ descent.

“Blegh!” He gasped, grabbing a carrot to rid his mouth of the taste. The carrot filled his mouth as he chewed on it rapidly, his cheeks bulging as he shoved more and more into his mouth. At the end, he looked like an overgrown chipmunk. The nurse was a bit dumbfounded at his actions, but still managed to smile… albeit a nervous one.

“Well, um… I guess everypony?” She said. Naruto kept chewing on the carrots in his mouth before taking a swig of water to wash it all down.

“I’m picky alright! Picky enough to not eat flowers! Bleh… it feels like someone shoved grass perfume into my mouth!”

“I’m sorry about that. If I had known about your food palate before hoof, I would have asked the ponies down in food services to prepare something different…”

“No! I mean… It’s alright, I just… kind of knew what my reaction was going to be. Besides, the carrots are good! It got the bad taste out of my mouth.”

“Well, glad to hear it,” the nurse said,” I think?”

*****

After Naruto finished his meal, Nurse Redheart had to gave Naruto a more comprehensive physical exam involving a round object with tubes going to her ears, a small rubber triangle hammer, and her clipboard.

From what the nurse could tell, Naruto was indeed healing quite quickly. She removed his bandages to check the scarring to find that the scars were practically gone. He experimented with his freed appendages by moving them all around. He still felt sore from the ordeal, but today his body wasn’t hurting as bad as yesterday.

When he turned to make a comment about his condition to the nurse, he found her furiously scratching in her clipboard under the section marked ‘Additional Comments’. A quick glance at what she was writing and he immediately started to sweat. The words ‘Experimentation’ and ‘Testing’ stood out on the paper and he audibly gulped before grabbing the attention of the nurse, intent on finding out what she was writing about in more detail.

The nurse giggled in response saying that she was only joking around. Naruto didn’t like the fact that she considered that as a joke. He took it quite literally in fact and for good reason as well.

Eventually, the Nurse concluded that he would be well enough to be discharged later in the afternoon as long as no other complications arose. This left Naruto with a big smile on his face, now looking forward to getting out of this white box they called a room. However, the fact that he still had to sit around waiting was ticking him off.

As the nurse exited the room, he heard a small commotion outside ending with an apology from the nurse before the door opened once more. He went wide-eyed when he saw who stood in the doorway: A familiar purple unicorn and a hyperactive pink pony.

“Twilight? Pinkie? Is that you?”, Naruto said with a bright smile. Twilight also went wide-eyed with surprise as she saw Naruto. Pinkie’s ever present smile seemed to double in intensity the moment she saw him laying in bed.

“Naruto… you’re… you’re awake! You’re looking a lot better than last I saw you!” Twilight couldn’t help but walk to Naruto’s bedside, mouth agape. She blinked a couple of times before she adopted an angry frown and slapped him with a hoof. Naruto recoiled in surprise, placing a hoof over his cheek which was now turning red. Twilight had just slapped him in the face! Pinkie Pie was also surprised apparently.

“Twilight, why did you slap him!?” Pinkie Pie yelled.

He jerked his head back towards Twilight, not sure of what had just happened before he saw it. Tears were in her eyes.

“Why… why did you…” Twilight began shakily, tears flowing down her face. “Why did you go and fight the Manticore… It could have killed you and nopony would have known until we saw you were gone… Were you that desperate for bits, hmm!? Answer me!”

Naruto just looked at her. He had no idea what to say next. Should he play it off as just another shenanigan or should he apologize for his actions? He just didn’t know.

He opened his mouth to say something only to grunt as Twilight flung herself onto his chest, now bawling into his fur. Naruto couldn’t help but rest his hoof on Twilight’s head, while shedding a tear of his own… not from the slap but from the fact that he had worried her to the point of crying.

“I’m sorry for worrying you Twilight... I really am. But if you knew why I was going out there, you would’ve gone after me. I didn’t want to put you in any danger—”

“Of course I would have followed you! That’s what friends are for... They help each other!” Twilight shouted, tears still running freely down her face. “I could’ve helped you… Instead, I…” Twilight sniffled. “…I only got in the way and did more harm than good… I wanted to help regardless, but I—“

“Twilight… stop. That’s enough, it’s alright now… We’re all alive and well. It’s over…” Naruto said as he stroked her mane with his hoof. Twilight looked up as she felt his hoof move over her mane, looking up at him with those big purple eyes. She sniffled once more and just wrapped her hooves around Naruto’s neck, pulling them into a hug. He went wide-eyed in shock, but eventually wrapped his hooves around her neck as well, returning the hug.

“Yay! Group hug time!” The party pony said, grasping them both in her deadly, pink vice grip of a hug. The touching moment they were having devolved into a fight to breathe as Pinkie squeezed the air out of their lungs. They flung their hooves about trying desperately to breath and eventually managed to extricate themselves from the ironhoof grip of Pinkie Pie.

“Pinkie! Don’t choke us like that!”

“Hee hee! Sorry about that! I’m just sooooo happy that you’re all better now Naruto! You looked like a mummy when we last saw you!”

“I looked like a what!?” Naruto asked.

“A mummy! Wrapped in all those white bandages. All that was missing was a mummy ‘grrr!’ or a mummy walk!” Pinkie said, trying to imitate how a mummy walks by dragging her back hooves around with the front two out at a ninety degree angle moaning. It earned a nice chuckle from Naruto and Twilight.

“Speaking of a mummy… I wonder if I’m even able to walk yet. My bandages are gone, so…”

“Should you even get up so quickly though Naruto?”, said Twilight, concern laden in her voice,” Nurse Redheart said you’d be here for another month minimum.”

“Really? She just told me I can leave this afternoon if I want.”

Twilight and Pinkie gasped. Pinkie started to bounce around the room with a renewed vigor.

“Really really Naruto!? That’s super duper awesome news! I should throw a party for all those boo-boos that left so fast!”

“Well what’s stopping you Naruto? You could just leave right now, seeing as your bandages are off and the nurse said you’d be fine.”

“Maybe… but…” He recalled his previous attempt at leaving the hospital and he started to sweat just thinking about it. Of course, no other pony saw it, but he knew… Oh the pain...

“I should just rest until the afternoon,” he said rather quickly,” I’d rather not push my body or anything but in the meantime, there’s a question I wanted to ask you two now that I’m awake.”

Twilight and Pinkie Pie looked straight at him giving him their full attention.

“What happened the other night? After I was unconscious, that is. ”

Twilight and Pinkie looked at each other and then back at Naruto with a frown.

“It wasn’t pleasant, Naruto… if I were to say ‘the blacksmith threw a fit’, it would be the understatement of the year... It all started when...”

*****

As soon as he collapsed, I ran over to his side. I saw Pinkie run up next to me as I checked to see if you were alright.

“Naruto? Naruto!? Wake up! Come on, this isn’t funny!” I yelled. I wanted a response, a twitch or something to make sure you were still alive. I noticed the cuts and bruises all over your side, some of which were still bleeding. I widened my eyes and almost turned away in fright not from the blood but fro something else. There was a reddish smoke oozing out of the majority of the wounds in front of me.

“What…” I gasped. The low lighting in the forest made it easy to see the smoke swirl out and fall to the ground where it fizzled into nothingness. Not only that but the wounds seemed to be slowly closing by themselves! It was very slow but noticeable as once bleeding cuts had stopped and were smaller than before. While a feeling of relief shot through me, I still had to get him to a hospital for proper treatment. I looked at Pinkie with a worried look on my face and she returned it with one of sheer horror. Her hair was no longer puffed up but instead draped down the side of her face like a curtain.

“Pinkie, we need to get Naruto to a hospital! We ha—“

“BUCK! MY MANTICORE!” A deep voice yelled throughout the forest. I turned towards where the shout had come from just as that perverted pony barreled through a bush and into the clearing. I cocked a brow, wondering just what the hay he thought he was doing yelling at the top of his lungs about the Manticore. Here was Naruto, all bruised and battered, and all that the blacksmith had on his mind was that stupid beast. He kept on running towards the cliff where the monster had fallen to its doom without slowing down. I actually thought he was going to jump off the cliff but he skidded to a halt at the very edge.

He looked over the edge and I could see his body start to shake from something. One thing tugged at my mind though... just how HAD Naruto been in two places at once? I mean, it couldn’t have been magic right? He’s an earth pony, not a unicorn. So how?

“DAMN IT!”

I was startled out of my thoughts by that sudden exclamation. Not only that but it was the fact that he swore that caught me off guard. Nopony swore nowadays and anypony who did was looked down upon in disgust. The fact that he had to the nerve to swear told me a lot about his character.

“My Manticore... my ingredients... my profits... GONE!” He shouted. “I had so much riding on that deal… The deal…. THE DEAL!!”, he said as he turned around to face me… no, at Naruto. He furrowed his brow and the rest of his face seemed to darken in anger. He slowly walked towards the group and began to speak in a very quiet and shaky voice.

“That blonde filly… I had so much confidence in this idiot… Such an easy payday ahead of me… but no, he had to get himself nearly killed and deny me an opportunity of a lifetime!”, he said, his voice escalating to a shout by the end. It was clear now. This excuse for a stallion had no respect for Naruto nor did he care for the state he was in. He had only one pony at the top of his list and that was himself alone.

I stopped myself from spouting off the first derogatory statement I could think of. I was enraged at this pony’s actions and not only would it be a waste of breath, Naruto needed to see a doctor immediately.

“What in Equestria do you think you’re doing!? Worry about that later and help me get Naruto to the hospi!”

“He’s better off dead!”, he interrupted harshly, ”He’s a worthless excuse for a pony if I ever did see one! He couldn’t even kill that thing normally... Had to go and throw it off a cliff for good measure! All of that wasted... because of HIM!”

“What did you just say!?”, I shouted back, prepping a kinetic burst spell inconspicuously, ”He just saved our lives and you have the NERVE to call him worthless!? I can’t believe this... is that manticore THAT important that you would forsake the life of a fellow pony!?”

“Me and that filly had a deal, and he ruined it!”

Naruto’s body was enveloped in a black silvery glow as he shot up about five feet into the air. I flinched. That momentary lapse in concentration made me lose control of my spell and it went flying towards the black pony It hit him square in the chest and he went flying backwards into a nearby tree.

Naruto was still floating in mid-air but once the spell had hit the unicorn, the magic that had kept him aloft let gravity take over once more. That fall wasn’t a fatal one but if Naruto was more banged up inside than outside, anything that stressful and jolting could prove detrimental. I turned around, ready to cushion him with my magic when I saw Pinkie Pie already in mid-leap with her hooves under his body. I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding. Now I just had one more problem to deal with. However, I still needed to get him to a hospital quickly.

“Pinkie, take Naruto to the cart at the entrance of the forest now! I need to take care of this troublesome unicorn…” I said, anger dripping off of every word. No one messes with my friends and gets away with it... especially Naruto.

Pinkie nodded quickly before scooping up the limp body of Naruto onto her back before making her way to the forest’s exit. Before she left, she turned around and looked at twilight with an apprehensive face.

“Be careful Twilight!”, she said before running off. As she disappeared into the forest, I turned back towards the sorry excuse for a pony to find that he was already halfway to his hooves. He didn’t seem to be injured if only just banged up slightly from his quick flight. I didn’t wait for him to fully recover before I placed a hoof on his shoulder and pressed him up against the tree. I might have gone and used a little more force than necessary but I didn’t dwell on it too long. He gasped as he was pinned against the tree. I readied another spell and aimed my horn once more at his chest before I started to talk.

“Now listen here you perv! I don’t take kindly to ponies assaulting and insulting my friends like that. In fact…” I remembered my prior offering of dumping him in the pond and smiled deviously. I was thankfully starting to cool off already.”I could also teach you how to dive as well. Or I could see just how long I can levitate a full size pony using the cliff as a handy distance calculator. Then again...” I looked behind me. I could see the severed Manticore tail lying amongst some of the debris and fallen trees. Naruto needed that for the request he took up. She could have levitated it out, but that would be pain in the flank due to its size. So for now…

“If you could help us deliver the tail to its owner and get Naruto to a hospital as soon as we leave this forest, I could postpone your ‘trip’ indefinately. Do you understand?” I finished my question with a rather delightful smile that seemed to put him even more on edge. He nodded his head quickly in agreement

“Good, now come and help me with this thing!”

*****

Naruto couldn’t help but keep his mouth agape through the entire story. These mares hadn’t just brought him to the hospital to recover. They had protected him from the rage of an angry Blackie and seen that the tail was hand-delivered— or, hoof-delivered in this case, to Gary. He scratched his chin with a hoof, thinking out loud.

“Why would he get all mad like that? I mean sure the body went over the cliff but he didn’t have to get THAT mad over it… even to the point of trying to kill me…”

“Naruto, I’m not even sure if he was trying to kill you, but he definitely looked like he was going to. What kind of deal did you two have anyway!?”

“In return for the spoils, he’d knock off a nice chunk off the cost of the daggers and haul the tail to Gary. Why?”, he rattled off absentmindedly.

He blinked.

“Oh... that’s why...”

Twilight face-hoofed and sighed. “After that, the black unicorn—“

“Blackie.”

“What?”

“His name is Blackie, the blacksmith.”

“Okay… well, ‘Blackie’ was fairly quiet during the time it took us to bring you to the hospital and figure out who the tail was for. I teleported ourselves and the tail to Canterlot and went to the address we got off that flier. Then Blackie went and—“

“—Took a swing at Gary.” Naruto finished.

Twilight’s eyes widened in surprise.

“How’d you know?”

“My tails told me.”

“How did your—wait, what!?”, said Twilight flummoxed.

“Gary stopped by and paid a visit yesterday. He told me all about it. Well, of the parts that he knew about at least. I still can’t believe that Blackie went ballistic on you girls. I thought he was a real stand up guy— I mean stallion or whatever. He’s a few noodles short of a ramen bowl!” Naruto then froze as he realized something of dire importance. Something he should have realized much sooner than now.

Ramen.

That’s right, ever since he woke up here, he hadn’t even had a single bowl. His stomach gurgled as soon as the thought of a hot bowl of ramen crossed his mind. Drool started to eek its way out of the corner of his mouth as he thought of its’ delectable flavor.

“Speaking of Ramen,” he said wiping the drool off his mouth with the back of his hoof,” I could go for a bowl right about now.”

Twilight raised a brow. “Rah…men? What’s that?” Naruto blinked a couple of times as those three words took root in his brain.

“You know… Tasty, handmade noodles boiled to perfection and served in an equally perfect and savory broth of beef, fish, pork, or miso that made life possible?” Naruto explained tentatively.

“You mean Spaghetti?,” she asked questioningly,” We have that here in Ponyville but i’ve never heard it called ‘Ramen’ before…”

“No no no! It’s not Spaghetti…in fact, I don’t even know what that is… but besides the point! Are you sure you’ve never heard of Ramen before? Slurpy noodles? The king of foods? The dangly things that taste like bits of heaven in your mouth?” Twilight shook her head at each example he gave and Naruto’s face grew grimmer with each shake. He turned towards Pinkie with a desperate look in his eye.

“Pinkie! You know how to cook, right? Surely you’ve heard of Ramen?”

“Nope! The only thing noodle related I know of are party streamers, spaghetti, string…” She went on and on, listing out anything string-related. Naruto placed a hoof on his temple, feeling a slight headache coming on.

“No ramen… here?” He mumbled to himself. “No…. Ramen!?”, he repeated as he placed another hoof on the side of his head. His mouth and brow twitched rapidly as if he was having a mini-seizure. He snapped his head up and looked at the ceiling, tears starting to form from in his eyes. He couldn’t believe it. He just couldn’t. He opened his mouth and and then...

*****

“Ah told ya Rainbow, if ya want to build up yer strength, ya need to buck apples just like ah do! Flying around and movin’ those puffy things ya call clouds isn’t going to build up yer leg strength!” Applejack said, bucking an apple tree for emphasis.

“But it’s so booooooring…”, Rainbow Dash said, a rather bored look on her face.

“Oh come on Rainbow. It’s not that bad! See?” Applejack went up to the next tree and placed a few baskets around the trunk before turning around. She brought up her rear hooves and kicked at the base of the trunk. As her hooves hit the wood, a shock wave sent the unsuspecting mares flying across the field and into a neighboring tree. Rainbow Dash was sent into the tree branches and Applejack had been flung back first into the trunk. The only thing they could hear was the sound of a high pitched scream for a few seconds until the wave of air and sound let up, letting them fall back onto the ground unceremoniously. Applejack was the first to recover and looked in the direction it had come from.

“Ow! What the hay was that!?”

*****

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! NO RAMEN!!”

Naruto lost it. He lept out of bed and ran around the room screaming at the top of his lungs. Pinkie Pie and Twilight were caught completely off-guard at the exclamation and had covered their ears to stop the painful ringing. When she looked up, she saw that the window had broke and that Naruto was acting like a mad-pony. Not only was he acting ridiculous, he was running on his back hooves only.

“NO RAMEN! WHY DEAR GOD IS THERE NO RAMEN IN THIS PLACE! WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS!?”, he shouted.

A few moments later, Twilight and Pinkie attempted to stop his needless rampage... Well, at least Twilight did. Pinkie Pie had opted to run along side, screaming at the same intensity while laughing at the same time. Twilight grunted in annoyance and levitated them both off the ground. She had some words to say to Naruto and they weren’t going to be pretty.