Chapter 46: The Seventh Team Was Crippled!
Konoha Hospital's second-floor inpatient wing hummed with the sterile quiet of controlled suffering. In room 312, the afternoon light cut through the window blinds, casting striped shadows across Uchiha Sasuke's bed. The young Uchiha lay propped up against white pillows, a urinary catheter snaking discreetly from beneath the sheets, a chamber pot positioned under the bed frame. His right foot and left hand were suspended in slings—a pose of such profound indignity that even in his drugged haze, his jaw remained clenched tight enough to grind stone.
Beside him, Naruto Uzumaki sat on a visitor's chair, peeling an apple with an intensity usually reserved for sealing techniques. The peel came off in one long, ragged spiral.
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[VIP Highlight: Uchiha Fugaku (VIP1) - "My son... what have they done to him?"]
Neither boy spoke. The silence stretched, broken only by the distant sounds of hospital machinery and the soft snick of Naruto's pocket knife.
After what felt like an eternity, Naruto extended the poorly peeled apple toward Sasuke. "Want some?"
Sasuke's dark eyes flicked to the browning, unevenly skinned fruit. "No."
"Tch." Naruto shrugged and took a loud, crunching bite. "Still acting tough even when you're beat to crap."
"Did you come here to mock me?" Sasuke's voice was low, dangerous.
"Nah, too busy." Naruto spoke through a mouthful of apple. "Graduates got assigned to teams today. You, me, and Sakura-chan are Team 7. 'Cause you're stuck here, Iruka-sensei said we should meet up in your room."
Sasuke's eyes widened slightly. "Sakura is coming here?"
"Should be anytime now—"
Whoosh.
The window slid open, and Ren Arakawa dropped gracefully into the room, landing in a crouch before straightening. His Meditation technique had led him right to Sasuke's distinct, agitated chakra signature—a beacon of teenage fury and humiliation.
"Finally found you," Ren said cheerfully, brushing nonexistent dust from his sleeves.
Sasuke's entire body went rigid. "You—what are you doing here?!"
"Checking on you." Ren shrugged, his eyes already scanning the room. He spotted the fruit basket on the bedside table—a generic hospital gift with apples, oranges, and a single sad banana. "And grabbing a snack. Lunch was light."
He plucked an apple and bit into it with a crisp crunch that echoed Naruto's earlier one.
Uchiha Fugaku (VIP1): His spectral form shimmered with paternal distress. Look at my son! Catheterized! Suspended! What manner of barbaric combat was this?
Uchiha Mikoto (VIP2): Sasuke, my baby... you look so pale. And is that... a bedpan under there?
Uchiha Madara (VIP1): Snorted in disdain. A catheter? The boy survives a beating only to be humiliated by medical apparatus? Our clan's dignity...
Uchiha Izuna (Regular Viewer): Did he truly lose bladder control from the trauma? How... undignified.
Tobirama Senju (VIP5): Ren's application of force was... thorough. I must admire the technical precision, if not the restraint.
Kushina Uzumaki (VIP1): Poor child... lying there all broken.
Minato Namikaze (VIP1): His voice suddenly bright. Kushina! You're speaking to me again! My beautiful, radiant, kind-hearted wife who could never stay angry at her adoring husband—
Kushina Uzumaki: I haven't forgiven you! And I can't leave the stream anyway, so stop that simpering!
Tobirama Senju: Fourth Hokage, control yourself. You're embarrassing the position.
Uchiha Madara: This level of sycophancy is revolting. Have you no pride, Namikaze?
Outside the door, hurried footsteps approached. Voices filtered through.
"—empty beds in this one, let's transfer her here."
"Understood."
Naruto perked up. "Sounds like another patient. Hope it's a girl! Then you won't be so lonely, Sasuke."
Ren swallowed his apple bite. "Oh, you'll get your wish."
His sensory abilities had already identified the incoming chakra signature—flickering, pained, but distinctly familiar.
The door swung open. Two medical ninja wheeled in a gurney bearing Haruno Sakura, pale and unconscious, an IV drip attached to her arm, her torso wrapped in bandages that hinted at the broken ribs beneath.
"SAKURA-CHAAN!" Naruto leaped up, apple forgotten. "What happened to you?!"
Sasuke's eyes widened, his carefully maintained mask of indifference cracking for a split second. The girl who'd followed him around the academy for years—here, broken, in his hospital room.
Tobirama Senju (VIP5): You took out two-thirds of Team 7 before they even formally assembled. Do you have a personal vendetta against that particular team designation?
Hyuga Hizashi (VIP1): I cannot imagine what the jōnin sensei will think when he arrives. His entire team, incapacitated before the first meeting.
Hashirama Senju (Regular Viewer): Sighed deeply. Such tragedy... and they're just children.
Sakumo Hatake (Regular Viewer): I genuinely pity the jōnin assigned to lead them. What a first impression.
Yuhi Kurenai (Regular Viewer): In this condition, can they even accept missions? The Hokage might have to reassign...
Kushina Uzumaki: At least Naruto is unharmed. Small mercies.
Minato Namikaze: Ethereal voice dripping with saccharine affection. All thanks to your maternal grace shining upon our son, my beloved, whose kindness is as boundless as her beauty—
Tobirama Senju: FOURTH! Enough! I'm muting you for thirty seconds on administrative principle!
[Minato Namikaze has been muted by System Administrator Tobirama Senju]
Uchiha Madara: Finally. I was considering self-dispersing to escape the nauseating display.
The medical ninja lifted Sakura gently onto the empty bed opposite Sasuke's, adjusting her IV and monitors. One of them glanced at the three conscious boys in the room. "Are you all... classmates?"
"Team members, actually," Ren supplied helpfully. "Team 7. Or what's left of it."
The medic-nin's eyebrows rose. "I see. Well... try to keep the noise down. Both patients need rest."
As they left, the room descended into an awkward silence. Naruto stared between Sakura and Sasuke, his usual boisterous energy dampened by the sheer medical reality before him. Sasuke had closed his eyes, retreating into that Uchiha stillness that could be mistaken for calm if one didn't notice the white-knuckle grip on his bedsheet.
Ren finished his apple and tossed the core neatly into the waste bin. "So. Team 7. Currently operational capacity: one-third, if you count Naruto. Congratulations."
The door opened again before anyone could respond.
Kakashi Hatake stood in the doorway, his one visible eye scanning the room—Sasuke suspended and catheterized, Sakura unconscious and bandaged, Naruto standing between them looking lost, and Ren leaning against the windowsill eating an orange he'd procured from the basket.
For a long moment, the jōnin said nothing. Then his eye curved into that familiar, infuriating smile.
"Well," Kakashi said, his voice light. "I see everyone's getting acquainted. How... enthusiastic."
Tobirama Senju: And there's the sensei. I almost feel sorry for him.
Hashirama Senju: Almost?
Uchiha Fugaku: At least Sasuke's sensei has arrived. Perhaps he can... assess the situation.
Uchiha Madara: Assess? The situation is that two-thirds of his team are bedridden because of one academy graduate. This is what passes for Konoha's next generation?
Ren peeled a segment of orange, meeting Kakashi's gaze evenly. "Hatake-san. They were like this when I arrived. Mostly."
"Mostly," Kakashi echoed, stepping fully into the room. He glanced at Sakura's chart at the foot of her bed, then at Sasuke's. "Broken ribs, mild concussion... multiple fractures, severe bruising, urinary trauma... My, my. And here I'd planned a simple survival exercise."
Naruto found his voice. "Kakashi-sensei! Sakura-chan and Sasuke are gonna be okay, right?"
"They'll live," Kakashi said, his tone not unkind. "Though Team 7's first official mission might be delayed. Perhaps we'll start with a 'get well soon' card delivery D-rank."
[Minato Namikaze is no longer muted]
Minato Namikaze: Immediately. —and furthermore, my dearest Kushina, your compassion knows no bounds, much like—
Tobirama Senju: Sigh. I give up.
Sasuke's eyes snapped open, glaring at Ren. "This changes nothing. When I'm healed, we finish our spar."
Ren nodded. "Looking forward to it."
Kakashi's eye lingered on Ren. "The Hokage mentioned your... special assignment. I assume that means you won't be joining Team 7's recovery period."
"Afraid not," Ren said. "I have my own duties. But do send my regards when they wake up."
He pushed off from the windowsill, brushing orange peel from his fingers. As he moved toward the door, he paused beside Sakura's bed, letting his Meditation technique confirm her stable condition one last time. Her chakra flowed weakly but evenly—no permanent damage.
Rin Nohara (Regular Viewer): Thank you for checking. She'll be alright.
Ren gave a slight nod—to the air, to the unseen audience, to his own conscience—and slipped out the door.
Behind him, he heard Kakashi's voice, mild and unreadable. "Well, Naruto. Since you're the only mobile member, how about you go get flowers? Team bonding starts with hospital visits, I'm told."
The door closed, cutting off Naruto's enthusiastic "Believe it!"
In the hallway, Ren exhaled slowly. The live stream chat continued to scroll in his mind, a mixture of outrage, pity, tactical analysis, and Minato's increasingly creative attempts to woo back his wife.
Ren Arakawa (subvocalizing): Team 7: crippled. Kakashi: unimpressed. Dead people: arguing. Just another day in the village hidden in the leaves.
He walked down the corridor, already calculating his next move. The Anbu internship, protecting Naruto, navigating Danzo's watchful gaze—and somehow managing the dozens of dead ninja who now had opinions on his every action.
Somewhere in the Pure Land, Tobirama Senju watched the hospital scene fade from the stream, his mind already analyzing the political ramifications of a team crippled before its first mission, and the singular academy graduate who seemed to leave chaos in his wake.
The Second Hokage allowed himself a grim smile. However this played out, it wouldn't be boring.