Chapter 15

KONOHA'S HOSPITAL

A shinobi appeared out of nowhere in front of the entrance of the hospital with a bleeding boy on his hands. He rushed inside and tried to find a doctor. Everyone at the hospital were shocked with what they're just witnessed, they couldn't help themselves than wondering what happened and started whispering to each other while made wild guesses. Among the people, there's doctors and nurses who's rushing towards the shinobi with a stretcher.

One of the doctor told the shinobi to put down Yoshi on the stretcher which he did and they began to push the stretcher to the emergency room. The shinobi just followed them from the back as he saw the medical team trying to stopped the bleeding on Yoshi's stomach by putting pressure on it. After they reached the emergency room, the shinobi was being told to stay outside and so, he sat on a bench that was been provided and closed his eyes to calm his heart.

HOKAGE'S OFFICE

There was two figure in the room who were discussing about something. They are Sarutobi Hiruzen and Umino Iruka. Both of their faces were serious and at some point, they bickered with each other and voiced their opinion.

But after a while, they finally came to conclusion and their serious discussion was being turned into a friendly chat as both of them smiled while looked at each other. After a few exchanges of conversation, Iruka asked the Hokage for permission to leave which Hiruzen approved. Just when Iruka was about to leave, suddenly a shinobi came into his office with sweat all over his face. Both Iruka and Hiruzen showed a curious faces and Hiruzen asked the appeared out of nowhere shinobi.

"What happened? Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Hokage-sama, I- I have something to report. A boy was found unconscious in the kitchen of his house. There's also a knife being stabbed to his stomach, and he- he's currently at the hospital." report the shinobi while still gasping for air.

Hiruzen and Iruka were shocked at his report, and so together they went to the hospital to check the condition of the boy. Before they went out, Hiruzen ordered one of the anbu to inform Ibiki and Shikaku about this matter. The Anbu nodded and disappeared to do his assigned task.

**********

Back at Konoha's Hospital, in an emergency room, doctors and nurses were trying their best to save Yoshi. While outside of the room, there's a shinobi who was still waiting for the operation to finish.

After a few times of walking back and forth, suddenly he saw two figures walking towards him, they are the Hokage whom he respected the most and Iruka whom can be considered as his Senior. They reached the shinobi and immediately asked the condition of the boy which he replied that the boy still in the emergency room.

They waited for about an hour and half and then came a doctor from the emergency room. The doctor explained to them about the boy's condition and assured them that he's fine. After he excused himself, three of them let out a sigh of relief at the same time. The doctor said only two people could go in to visit the boy who was the patient. So Hiruzen decided to visit him for a moment, while Iruka just followed the Hokage inside. The shinobi earlier has already went back to his work after received the news.

Once they inside, both Hiruzen and Iruka were shocked to see the boy who's being stabbed was actually Yoshi. Iruka began to feel guilty as he left the task of bringing him to school to Naruto which was supposed to be his. At this time, Hiruzen was already at Yoshi's bed side and caressed his hair. He frustrated with himself because failed to protect a child who's just came into the village. He almost cried when he saw Yoshi but hold it in because he doesn't want Iruka to see him like that. After a while, Hiruzen ordered Iruka to go back to the academy while he went back to his office.

***********

*Ringgg~*

A blonde boy ran out of his class as he heard the bell rang signaling the end of school. His friends, Shikamaru and Chōji were surprised with his action but they didn't said anything and just went on their way.

Naruto ran straight to the hospital in full speed. He want to get there as fast as possible, nothing's mattered to him than Yoshi. Once he arrived at the hospital he immediately went to the counter and asked for Yoshi's ward number. He heard the lady said that Yoshi's ward was at the second floor. Naruto was glad that Yoshi's name was in the list, didn't waste any time he ran to the ward without caring for the nurses who told him to not running.

He arrived in front of Yoshi's ward and stood there while took a breath for a moment. He hold the door handle and slowly slide opened the door. As soon as he opened it, he walked to where Yoshi's bed was and sat on a chair beside the bed. He looked at Yoshi for a while and a minute later he started talking about his day at school and all.

"Hey Yoshi. You know today at school, I didn't paid much attention to class. So every time teachers asked me questions, I got scolded. Hehehe. Well, I always got scolded by teachers from the first time I went to the academy. But you know, Hinata helped me in the history class so I thanked her afterwards, but I don't know why she bothered to do that and I don't care about it. Also, I want to apologise because I knew your name from someone else not you. Ah, ac- actually I forgot to ask your name yesterday and when I tried to catch up to you, you already gone. So I really want to be your friend and play together with you at the park." Naruto said while still looked at Yoshi with a sorrowful face.

A few minutes later, a nurse came in and told Naruto that the visit time has ended. Naruto just nodded and promised Yoshi to come again tomorrow even though Yoshi was still unconscious. The nurse who saw this almost cried but snapped herself back to reality. Naruto then went home since there's nothing else he could do to pass time. He was not in the mood to go to Ichiraku Ramen or play with Shikamaru and Chōji. He then arrived at his house and lay on the bed while closing his eyes, tried to sleep and forget everything that happened today.

At the meantime in the Hokage's office, Hiruzen sigh while smoking his smoke pipe and looked out the window. He just finished spying on Naruto using his peeping orb or whatever was that and realised that Yoshi and Naruto were friends. As he thought about what happened today, he suddenly remember the things that Shikaku said regarding the case.

~Flashback~

Hiruzen walked in to his office after his visit from the hospital and was greeted by Shikaku and Ibiki who were waiting for him. He took his sit on his chair while Shikaku and Ibiki stood side by side not far away from the Hokage. Then, Ibiki was the first person to start the discussion.

"Hokage-sama, we already went to the crime scene and investigated that place per your ordered. Unfortunately, we didn't found anything that can be considered as clue." Ibiki stated his report.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. There's no sign of someone broke into the house and the house was tidy and neat. The only thing we found was blood on the kitchen floor and a knife that was being sent to the hospital for DNA test." Shikaku added.

Hiruzen didn't looked at both of them and just sigh. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly spoked.

"What do you think about this? Maybe someone who did this was actually a skilled ninja."

"Even though he's a skilled ninja, there must be some struggle in the house. Instead, the house was still in a good condition." Ibiki said, voiced out his opinion.

The only one who didn't give their opinion yet was Shikaku. The intelligent shinobi in the room. Both Hiruzen and Ibiki looked at Shikaku while waiting for him to say something. Shikaku has been closing his eyes from the beginning while thinking about any possibilities in the case. He then opened one of his eyes and spoke.

"How about there was no one involved in this, instead the victim himself did this?"

It's more of a statement than a question. Hiruzen raised his right eyebrow to show his questioned face while Ibiki looked at Shikaku with a thought.

'It could be possible. But is it really?'

"You want to say that an eight -year -old kid STABBED himself in the stomach with a kitchen knife?" asked Hiruzen with a stern voice while emphasized the word 'stabbed'.

Shikaku was taken aback by the sudden changed of the Hokage and immediately said something to ease the tense situation.

"Ahem, Hokage-sama. I didn't mean to say it like that. I'm just saying that as one of the possibilities that may be happened during the incident. As I said earlier, we found a knife and it was already being sent to the hospital for DNA test. That's our only clue and solution. All we could do now is waiting for the result to come out and then we know who the culprit is, right?" Shikaku said while looked at Ibiki hoping for him to say something too.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. What Shikaku said earlier is true. We could just wait for the DNA test result to come out."

"Sigh, alright then. You two did well. Thank you for sacrificed your time for this. You two may go." said Hiruzen while calming down.

"No, Hokage-sama. This is merely our job. Then, please excuse us." Ibiki said while bowing in synced with Shikaku and went out.

~End Of Flashbacks

Hiruzen let out a big sigh and got back to his work while thought to himself.

'All this things really makes me feel old, sigh. I need to find her quick.'