Winters Fate

Chapter 1

"You always know where to get tickets to whatever's going on." He sighed and rolled his eyes, but then took a deep breath and nodded in agreement anyway. "Sounds awesome. I'll keep my schedule open." He loved hanging out with Ino and they had a lot in common. She was easy to get along with and seemed to always know what was going on with a spare ticket or invite ready and waiting for him.

Ino smiled as she patted him on the shoulder, "Great! We'll make plans! You are in serious need of a good break from work anyway."

"What's that supposed to me-"

"Well, better get going. Hope you have an uneventful night." With that, she skipped off, leaving Naruto with the feeling that he had somehow been insulted.

"Yeah, you too!" He called out a beat late but shrugged it off as he headed to the locker room to change into his teal scrubs and black converse before heading toward the fourth floor where the ICU was located. After changing he grabbed a large green tea and three dorayaki's from the cafeteria on his way to the elevator where he waited patiently for the doors to open. Naruto looked at the wall clock and realized rather belatedly that the few minutes he thought he had before his shift started was actually fifteen, so he decided he'd settle down in the break room and text his dads, Iruka and Kakashi, to let them know that he would be at the hospital all weekend.

The fourth floor had two break rooms and this one was specifically for doctors and nurses working in the ICU. There were several circular tables with matching gray fold-out chairs around them and six cots and a bathroom in the rooms off the back wall. The cots were mainly for the people working the night shift. Most night staff would either come in a few hours early to get some sleep before their shift started or they'd pass out after their shift was over. With how bad the snow storm was supposed to get, Naruto would be spending the night in one of those cots. Technically he planned to work more hours than the hospital allowed, not that the records would show that. He knew how to outsmart the system... Well, Ino had shown him how, and she'd shown him so that he could get out of working so many hours, but he'd reconfigured what she'd told him and made great use of a certain glitch in the system that allowed him to work more than most doctors did. It was his job, and he loved it.

Naruto sat at one of the tables and placed his food down before whipping out his iPhone. The news played softly on the flat screen next to the break room entrance over the refrigerator as he barely acknowledged that the two anchormen were talking about this storm being the worst to hit Japan in over a decade. He ignored them in favor of unlocking his phone and pulling up the messages between him and Iruka. Despite being twenty-five years old and living on his own, Naruto's dads still worried about him. With Iruka being the mother hen in their family of three, it was suicide not to keep in touch with them on a daily basis. Not that Naruto had a problem with that, he respected and cherished them. They were the closest thing to a "true family" that he'd ever known. After the death of his parents when he was just two years old, he'd spent a horrible year in foster care before his new dads came and adopted him at three. They gave everything they could to Naruto. Stability, family, love. All of the important things, and Naruto loved them all the more for it.

With a small smile, he started texting Iruka

Naruto: Hey Papa, just wanted to let you know that I got called into work cuz they're expecting the storm to get pretty bad, so I'll be here for the weekend. How are you and Dad?

Iruka: Hey, Honey! We're fine. Your father is working from home today and I'm making salmon sushi and rice balls.

Naruto: Awe! My favorite and I'm stuck here all weekend.

Iruka: Sorry Naru! Your father has been asking for them all week. Wish you could join us.

Naruto: Yeah, me too. Hey, this storm is supposed to get pretty bad, so get Dad to bring the generator in from the shed and make sure you have enough gas for it. I don't want you guys stranded without heat.

Iruka: How about I make them for you next week, okay? And your father did that first thing this morning. We'll be fine.

Naruto: Deal! Okay, I gotta go. Love you guys.

Iruka: We love you too. Hope you have a goodnight, and don't go eating too many dorayakis. I know you're munching on one right now, aren't you?

Naruto blinked several times, surprised that Iruka knew what he was doing, then put the dorayaki back on the table and slid it slowly away as if it were at fault for telling on him.

Naruto: Ah, I'll keep that in mind! TTYL

He turned off his phone and stuck it in his pants pocket before drinking the rest of his tea and putting the last half-eaten treat in the white refrigerator for later. With that, he stood and walked out, making his way over to the nurse's station to sign in and get started. The ICU was fairly quiet, with a little over half of the fifteen rooms it housed being empty.

Each room was spacious so that the long-term patients wouldn't feel claustrophobic and their families could visit, two at a time of course, as per hospital policy. They each had a private bathroom, a flat-screen television on the wall and a sink outside the bathroom wall adjacent to the door. A crash cart was stationed outside every room should anything go wrong.

Naruto was looking at the large white board hanging behind the nurse's station with the patient numbers written in blue marker on it when Kiba came up behind him and roughly shook his shoulders, scaring him into letting out a very unmanly squeak that he would never willingly admit to afterward.

The blonde gasped and spun around. "Kiba! Must you always do that?!"

"What? Why not? I get you every time, it's so much fun." Kiba laughed.

Kiba Inuzuka and Naruto were the same age and basically grew up together. They were always in trouble when they were young, unable to bridle their mischievous ways, driving Naruto's dad's and grandmother Tsunade crazy. Kiba was the resident physician in the hospital's ER. He'd gone to college in America but moved back to Japan for his residency two years ago when Naruto had informed him that the hospital was seeking doctors for the ER and Trauma Center. He'd told Naruto time and time again that the ER was just a stepping stone, and his ultimate goal was to eventually transfer to the Trauma Center. Kiba was an interesting guy with big dreams. He was a brunette with tan skin, sharp canines (that he always joked were because he was half dog), and a competitive personality. He was always an odd one, but because he was such a competent doctor with an energetic and optimistic bedside manner, most people overlooked his oddities.

"So you think we'll have much excitement this weekend?" Kiba asked as though excitement didn't mean injured people. Naruto loved being a nurse and taking care of people, it made him feel needed, but he hated knowing he couldn't save everybody. No matter how many times doctors and nurses told him not to, he always took his patients deaths personally. It was just one of the many reasons he did so well in school and why he was so dedicated, working so many hours and eventually landing his current position. His drive to save people overruled everything else, including his own sense of self-preservation. He'd starve if it meant someone else could live.

"Uh, well, I wouldn't say exciting, I just hope it goes by fast." Naruto clapped Kiba on the back and adjusted his stethoscope around his neck before leaving to check on his first patient.

Little did he know just what the night had in store for him...