Chapter 13: The Fortune Of Misfortune

A few hours passed quickly and Keitaro hadn't heard any news of his brothers current state. He was currently seated quietly outside of the operating room that they had taken him to while anxiously fiddling with his fingers. 

He wondered to himself what would have happened had he not realized what had happened to his brother sooner, but quickly pushed that thought out if his mind. Kentaro had to be alright. Shinobi would often time get hit with much worse and they always managed to bounce back. It was only a matter of time before Kentaro would come rolling out of the operating room with a smile on his face as if nothing had happened.

At least that's what he told himself to keep calm. He really didn't want to lose his brother, and he especially didn't want to imagine what would happen to him if his dad found out that he had lost his son because of him, the same child that cost him the life of his wife. 

If that truly did happen then there was no way he wouldn't end up out on the streets, and that would be if he was lucky.

He glanced once more toward the closed doors of the operation room before getting lost in thought once more. While he was indeed worried about his brother, he couldn't help but be preoccupied by another discovery that had captivated the majority of his mind.

He had already been seen by the medical-nin when he had arrived at the hospital -as he'd forgotten that he still had a shuriken sticking out of his chest- and as a result of that encounter was still struggling with the realization that he had seemingly awakened his chakra at some point.

He'd only noticed the difference when he had been treated for the shuriken wound and had been captivated by his discovery ever since.

He had experienced what being healed by medical ninjutsu felt like before, and at that time the only thing he had felt was a warmth flowing through his veins, followed by the itchiness of his wounds rapidly closing due to the medic's healing technique.

Yet this time he had felt something… more.

It hadn't taken him long to come to the realization that the new sensations he was feeling where due to his chakra and had been pleasantly surprised at the discovery. 

While before he simply felt a warmth entering his body, now her could feel as the foreign chakra of the medical-nin had entered his body and influenced his own chakra and body to encourage it to heal. 

It was a novel and interesting experience and he had been tempted to try to fight against the foreign chakras influence, but had stopped himself just in time. He wasn't sure, but the fact that he had awakened his chakra so many years in advance might not be a good thing to put on display, especially in such a public place like the general hospital of the village.

That, along with the fact that he had absolutely no idea as to how exactly he was supposed control his own chakra in the slightest, were reasons enough for him to simply sit back and allow the medical-nin do their job.

Back in the hallway where he was waiting for news of the operation. He subtly looked around and after making sure that no one was nearby, he closed his eyes, calmed his breathing and began to concentrate on the flow of energy he could feel swimming around his body.

It took a while but as he kept focusing he could feel it with greater clarity. A flow of energy running throughout his body without rhyme or reason as far as he could tell. 

He reached out the flow, and while he wanted to try pushing it out of his body, he was also wise enough to realize that he might do more damage than good by rashly trying to play with his chakra. As a result, he simply tried to speed up or slow down which his chakra flowed through his body. He tried for quite some time, but matter how he tried to influence the chakra, nothing seemed to work. 

After a while he gave up and simply sat back in his seat with his eyes still closed in defeat. He had a slight headache and wasn't sure if it was due to the blood lose from his earlier wound or his failed attempt at chakra control, but regardless, as far as he concerned a short nap seemed in order. 

He awoke some time later only to find himself not seated in the chair in the in the corridor like he recalled but in what was most likely one of the many the rooms of the hospital. He looked around in confusion for a bit until his noticed that his older brother was currently laying in one of the beds in the corner of the room.

"Kentaro!" 

He scrambled to his feet and rushed to the side of his brother bed to examine him. He noticed that he seemed to be sleeping so he gently began poking at his side just to make sure than nothing was out of order. 

The fact that he was laying here could only mean that the operation had been a success. But Keitaro was still slightly shaken by the whole experience. Still, it seemed that Kentaro was simply unconscious and with his impromptu examination complete, Keitaro simply sat down at his brothers side.

"I was wondering whether you where going to at least cry a bit, but I guess it not that easy to get a reaction out of you."

Keitaro couldn't help but to jump in surprise when he head his brothers voice. He turned to the bed only to watch as his brother opened his eyes and sat up. 

"You where awake?" Keitaro asked tentatively 

"Of course, I just wanted to mess with you a bit. Its not hard for a shinobi to control his heart rate and breathing so pretending to be passed out wasn't exactly difficult." Keitaro smiled cheekily as he spoke, seemingly pleased with his little prank.

"I thought you were seriously injured!" Keitaro threw a punch at his brother smug face, but was it was easily batted away by Kentaro, who started laughing at his younger brothers experience.

"If your fine, then why did it take so long for you to get out of surgery?"

"Ah that." Kentaro sheepishly rubbed his nose while avoiding eye contact.

"Well the surgery wasn't too long, but I ended up having to explain why we ended up in such a poor state in the first place. Once the medical-nin who had been treated me found out about the 'training' that we were doing, she tore me a new one. I ended up spending a few hours being lectured to about the dangers of not having adult supervision when training."

Keitaro was unamused at the explanation even though he could understand why the medical-nin would have behaved in such a way. Good only knows how may people ended up int hospital thanks to training mishaps, much less a bunch of kids without any adult supervision just throwing around dangerous weapons and such.

Still, he wondered why no one had told him what was happening given that he had been sitting outside worried sick.

"When we eventually left the operation room, we found you sleeping on the chairs outside of the operation room and then they brought us here. I figured I might as well get a little fun in while I waited for the doctors to release me." 

Finished with his recount of things, Kentaro simply got comfortable on the bed and locked eyes with Keitaro. 

The two brother just stared at each other as a slightly awkward air hung between them until Keitaro finally couldn't take it anymore. He lowered his eyes and clenched the edge of his shirt before managing to work up his courage to voice his thoughts.

"I'm sorry. If hadn't insisted on coming today then you wouldn't have gotten hurt I'm sorry-" Keitaro was cut off when he felt brothers hand gently placed on his head. He looked up only to see the same clear eyes that he had to come to recognize and rely on. 

"It wasn't you fault." Keitaro felt a weight leave his chest as he kept listeing. 

"I don't blame you for anything that happened today. If anything I blame myself for not thinking about the fact that the idiot might have been using you as a way to put me off my game. Dad always warned me to be conscious of my surrounds at all times, and had I been paying attention to my surroundings back then, then I would have noticed that you behind me and taken the appropriate steps needed to deal with the situation. I guess I still have a lot of training and learning left to do." Kentaro's smiled at Keitaro and he knew that his brothers words where true. It was a relief to know that he and his brother weren't on thether hooks anymore, but he still had some lingering doubts that he made sure to voice.

"You say that, but if so then why did you just get up and walk away from me back in the clearing. When I saw you ignoring me I thought that you were annoyed at me."

Kentaro couldn't help but cough as he heard Keitaro's words, an embarrassed blushed tainting his face. 

"I just wanted to get away from there as fast as possible. I didn't want the others to keep seeing me looking so weak and defeated. I honestly hadn't realized just how hard of a hit I had taken so I just pushed through the pain and did my best to get out of there as fast as possible. I didn't mean to ignore to you or make you feel like I was blaming you for the outcome of the fight. I just didn't want the other kids to see me relying on you to get up so I just ignored you and left as quickly as I could. No matter what, I could never be mad at you for something like that."

With tears in his eyes Keitaro rushed forward and threw his hands around his brother and hugged his tightly. Of course he made sure to hide the fact that his eyes had become teary, he wasn't willing to give his brother easy ammunition to tease him with.

The two brother laughed together for a while, before settling into a comfortable conversation about the fights that happened throughout the training session. 

Keitaro exclaiming and shouting about how cool the fights were and Kentaro embarrassingly mentioning things that he should have done better now that he had an outside perspective of the fights. The two kept chatting until a medical-nin came in to check up on the two of them. The medic was concerned at first to see the two of them horsing around but was pleasantly surprised at how quickly it seemed the both of them had recovered from the medical treatment. Especially Kentaro who should have been passed out for the rest of the day according to their estimates. 

Thankfully nothing seemed out of order so the two boys where quickly discharged. The two of them continued to mess around as they went on home and finally decided it was time to have a early dinner. It didn't take long for the two of them to make a decision and shortly after, the two could be seen running along the back streets of Konoha making their way to their favorite establishment. Ichiraku Ramen.

The two boys quickly plopped down into chairs once they noticed that they had managed to miss the last of the mid day lunch time rush and wasted no time in placing an order. 

Soon enough the two boys where diving into their bowls of ramen enjoying the rich creamy broth and tender silky smooth noodles. In no time at all the boys had finished there second set of ramen and were moving unto there third. Normally around this time Keitaro would have to tap out, his young body seemingly unable to handle so much food. Yet today he seemed to have opened a second stomach that didn't seem to want to become full. 

Ichiraku watched on in fascination and horror as the youngest of the boys managed to stuff five bowl of ramen into his mouth, unsure as to where exactly they had all gone. He glanced at the older brother to see if he noticed anything amiss only to see him putting away his seventh bowl. 

Ichiraku stared for a few seconds more before deciding that it didn't matter to him. More business was always welcomed afterall.

The two boys after eating their full sat comfortably with bulging stomachs enjoying the afterglow. Finally upon noticing the sun was beginning to set Kentaro practically dragged the slightly catatonic Keitaro out of the ramen shop. Yet not before both boys managed to notice two people make their way into the shop. 

Normally this wouldn't have drawn much of their attention, afterall it was a public ramen place. Yet the vibrant yellow and bold red of the two customers hair was quite eye catching. It had only been a moment and yet Keitaro could feel all the fatigue leave his body as he finally manage to figure out the exact time period he had reborn into. 

Afterall he'd just ran into the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze and his very much pregnant wife, the current Jinchūriki of the nine tailed beast Kushina Uzumaki.