The Fox Sage

Ch. 24 : Recovery

    Whenshe opened her eyes, she was in the hospital and groaned, "Ray!" Naruto jumpedup from the side of her bed and hugged her. She winced, "Naruto, she stillneeds to recover!" Shikamaru groaned. "Oh, I'm sorry" he backed away and satback down at his chair. Ray looked to the them both caringly, "I'm glad you'reok" she smiled. "I guess we won?" she looked between the two of them. Narutonodded, "what happened?" Ray turned to Naruto "I'm curious to, I haven't beenfilled in on everything" Shikamaru turned to Naruto as well. "A lot" Narutosighed, "sum it up" Ray ordered. "fine" he took a deep breath, "not long afterhe forced you away from the battle he turned into this Kaguya woman" Ray cuthim off, "the Mother of Chakra?" her eyes widened. "How do you know that?"Shikamaru and Naruto turned to her in unison, "It's called studying history"she looked at them both as if they were stupid, they both scoffed. "Continue"Ray focused her attention on Naruto, "I won't interrupt anymore." Naruto tookanother deep breath, "ok, well yes, that woman, and she sent us on a wild ridethrough different universes. We finally defeated her and then Sauske gotstupid, talking about how he was going to kill all the Kage and he was going tostart the world anew. Me and him duked it out, resulting in both of us losingan arm, but Tsunade did something with Hashirama's cells and made me a new one,but Sauske didn't want it for some reason." Naruto paused, "that pretty muchsums it up" he nodded. "Well then" Ray looked away, the story itself exhaustingher, "so Sauske's done being a pain?" she turned back to Naruto. "Yea, hes backwith the leaf village, but hes not around, he went on some journey to findhimself" Naruto shrugged. 

"Ok, so only one question" Naruto and Shikamaru nodded. "How long have I been in the hospital?" she looked back and forth between the two of them once more. Naruto rubbed the back of his head, hesitant to tell her and Shikamaru rubbed his head. "What? Like a week?" she grew concerned, "It's been a little over a month" Shikamaru stated quietly, "A MONTH!" Ray yelled, then yelled in pain from her outburst. "Calm down" Shikamaru gestured her to do so, "I've been out a month and still haven't healed" she complained, "well you did break almost every bone in your body" Naruto chuckled uncomfortably. "You mean Madara did, and so what I usually heal faster" she groaned, "still that's a lot of bones to heal, Tsunade is worried ..." Naruto began but Shikamaru shot him a glare, "what is Tsunade worried about" Ray barked. "Well" Shikamaru leaned back in his seat crossing his arms, "this is such a drag" he rubbed his forehead, "I don't care if it's a 'drag' tell me" she continued her angry demeanor. "Tsunade is worried that your days as a shinobi are over" Shikamaru tensed waiting for Ray's response. She was frightfully quiet for a moment, "could you get Tsunade for me Naruto?" she spoke calmly, he nodded and ran out of the room.

"Are you ok?" Shikamaru focused his attention on Ray, "I can't say yet" she shook her head, "are you ok?" she looked up at him. "I'm fine" he smiled, leaning over kissing her on the forehead gently.

It wasn't long before Naruto returned with Tsunade. "I'm glad your awake" Tsunade stood at the food of the hospital bed Ray lay in. "I'll cut straight to the chase, with how badly your bones were broken it will be extremely difficult if at all possible to heal all of them, to the extent needed for you to return to the ninja life" Tsunade explained. "What can I do to further my recovery?" Ray asked, "all you can do is rest, we will bring medications and herbal treatments to try and assist your recovery" Tsunade crossed her arms. "Yes lady Hokage" Ray nodded, "I will be leaving now, a lot to do" she waved as she walked out of the room. Several months past and Ray made a full recovery, through medicine and persistence.