The gate restricting Kurama was long gone but the tales beast and his siblings were nowhere to be found in the dark. A lone ray shined on a blonde haired boy lying on the surface of the waters.
"Wake up, Naruto," a certain feminine voice called out to the blonde Uzumaki, barely above a whisper.
Naruto laid down unmoving, his eyes devoid of emotions. He just stared on lifelessly with half-lided eyes.
"Naruto?" Naruto slowly blinked at the calll of his name. It seemed like the voice was coming from a great distance.
It kept on reverberating, rising in volume and intensity to the point where he felt bothered by the incessant calling of his name.
The water droplets started dripping faster, the ripples reaching the blondes position.
"Wake up!"
Naruto's eyes snapped wide open in his mindscape and a second later he regained consciousness in the physical world.
"I'm not dead?" Naruto tried to open his eyes but the fluorescent lights stung. The last thing he remembered was a Hiraishining out of that weird dimesion.
After his eyes adjusted to the lights Naruto noted that he wasn't in his tattered jumpsuit, his pouch nowhere to be found and his Hitai ate missing.
He was in a light-blue hospital gown with a white flower pattern scattered around it.
His sensitive ears pick up indistinct chatter, the smell of strong disinfectant hits his nose. He felt sore and hungry. He brought a hand to his temple to massage the throbbing headache he had wondering where the Hiraishin Kunai brought him.
"I see you're finally awake."
Naruto snapped his head to the source of the voice to see a black-haired man wearing spectacles dressed in a doctor's garb.
The blue-eyed youth tried to sit up but the pain wouldn't let him.
"Take it easy, you've been asleep for a week now. We thought you wouldn't wake up for a while because your wounds were very fatal," the doctor told the awakened blonde. "I thought you wouldn't survive but your body miraculously healed itself in front of my eyes Mr..." the doctor trailed off.
"Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto introduced himself.
"Damn! A whole week? That fight really took a lot out of me, huh," the shinobi pondered.
"Uzumaki-san, My name's Takasugi Azumi but you can call me Doctor Tak," the doctor introduced while helping Naruto to a sitting position and cushioning his back with a pillow.
"Where am I?" was all Naruto could manage to wheeze out before he started coughing due to his dry throat.
"You're in Takeshi teaching hospital in Shingahana District. I have a lot of questions for you, Uzumaki-san." The doc offered him a cup of water.
"Please call me Naruto. I was never one for honorifics."
"How did you receive such fatal injuries Naruto-san?"
"Had a big fight, doc."
"It must have been a very brutal one." Doctor Tak said with a hint of disbelief in his face.
"You have no idea." Naruto replied, rolling his eyes
"Your Japanese is great but you don't look like the average Japanese. I tried to find anything that would identify you, like a wallet, a passport, an ID card or a phone but all I could find was three tri-pronged knives and a headband," the doctor pointed at the objects beside the table.
"You're not from here are you?" The doctor's entire body language shifted to that of someone on edge and Naruto grew nervous because he wasn't sure if this guy was hostile or friendly.
"I came from a very far away place," Naruto replied to the doc.
"An illegal immigrant?" Takasugi quarried.
"Yes," the shinobi lied.
Dr. Takasugi's wary expression morphed into an emotionless as he asked the blonde, "What are you, Naruto-san?"
"What do you mean, doc?" Naruto raised an eyebrow at the question.
"I saw your wounds heal by themselves, Naruto-san."
"I heal faster than normal."
"Humans don't heal that fast."
"What do you know about the supernatural?"
Naruto withheld his tongue before he spit out another answer. What was this guy's angle? What's a supernatural? He's never heard of the term.
"Surely you must have some kind of Sacred Gear that grants you the ability to heal faster than normal. So, what faction would want you dead, Naruto-san?"
"I don't think I understand you, Doc." Naruto answered a bit confused. Factions? Sacred Gear?
"My Sacred Gear shows me the affinity of magic in a human and every human no matter how miniscule it was had an affinity for magic but you had zero magic affinity."
"Magic? Like parlour tricks?" Naruto frowned.
"Are you perhaps a youkai?"
"Look here, doc, I'm 100 percent human the last time I checked so stop questioning my humanity." Naruto was confused right now. All he wanted was some rest and maybe food, ramen would have been better.
"Wait... does this place have ramen?"
"I don't know what you're talking about so If you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way." Naruto tugged at the syringe in his vein and was about to get up before his negative emotion sensing started blaring.
"We're not done yet, Naruto-san, you see the people I work for need special people like you in their ranks whether you like it or not."
Naruto had a Hiraishin kunai, his own Hiraishin kunai, mind you, to his throat in an instant.
The disrespect was strong in this one.
"Calm down, doc, you don't wanna do this," Naruto replied coldly.
"Any why wouldn't I, pray tell?" He asked drawing a thing line of blood from his neck.
"Someone is about to enter the room."
True to Naruto's words, a nurse with a tray filled with drugs and water entered the ward.
"Ah, Doctor Takasugi, he's up I see." She beamed at the patient with a smile.
"Yes I was checking up on him to see how he was doing," the evil doctor replied casually like he hadn't just threatened the convalescent blonde. "You can leave the tray on the bench beside the bed."
"Thank you, Kagafu-san," Naruto smiled at the young nurse who returned his gratitude with a nod. Five seconds later she was out of the room.
"Now, we could do this with your memory intact, or do you prefer to be brainwashed?" The doctor had him in their previous position.