XXXX
I don't own Naruto in anyway
This was not beta'd (Not even a real word)
Blood Memories "Title"
I Watch As My World Burns "Chapter"
"Demonic talk"
"People talk"
"People thoughts"
A 'bleep' filled the eerily silent room as its two conscious inhabitants gazed at the hospital bed with blank emotionless faces as its unconscious inhabitant took a struggled breath of air, his respirator making a irritating noise as it helped him breath. The two men stayed quite, not knowing what to say at the time that wouldn't start an argument, between servant and master.
This continued until the one that was shaking in anger couldn't take it anymore, "This shouldn't have ever happened," Inu uncharacteristically snapped at his leader.
Hiruzen tiredly sighed, "I know, Inu-kun, I know I've failed him again, every time I've ever stared at his smiling face, I forget all my past failure because I always thought I at least never failed him. But now I won't ever be able to see that smile ever again, and it's my fault." His face showing far more angst than it has ever had before in his long life.
The two visitors stayed silent an uncomfortable silence between the two through out their visit until a nurse came in to tell them that visiting hours were coming to a close and they needed to leave. Both Hiruzen and Inu began to make their way to the door when a low groan of discomfort overcame the silence in the room, making them come to a halt and quickly turn around to see one visible eye begin to open.
XX One Week Earlier XX
"Are you sure he's here, Inu," Hiruzen Sarutobi demanded more than asked, as he glared at a worn down building that had stood against the trials of time until the Kyuubi attack made it begin to rot slowly when a chakra pulse from the Kyuubi engulfed it, making it erode rapidly.
"Yes, Hokage-sama, all of the intel we've been able to gather point to this area, I am certain he is here," the Inu masked Anbu stated.
"Very well then," Hiruzen said as he nodded his head toward the Anbu at the door, giving his approval to break it in.
Once they busted the door open they began searching through out the building's rooms. After almost and hour of searching and finding nothing that showed Naruto had ever even set foot in the abandoned structure, Sarutobi was getting both irritated and worried as he had yet to find his adoptive grandson since his disappearance. When it was all but certain that Naruto was never in the structure Sarutobi was about to give the order for his Anbu to fall back and go about their post until a door that seemed to stand out caught his attention.
"Inu, form up on that door, standard breaching procedure now," Hiruzen ordered, getting an odd feeling from said door.
"Hai, Hokage-sama," Inu said as he motioned for two other Anbu members to join him at the door and starting a silent countdown. At the end of the countdown, one of the other Anbu kicked in the door letting Inu rush into the room, eager as the Hokage to find Naruto.
As Inu searched the room Hiruzen waited outside in the hall, waiting for Inu to come out of the room and tell him that this room was also empty as were the others. He didn't have to wait long as almost as soon as Inu had been swallowed by the room's shadows; he came back out, his shoulder slightly slackened.
"Hokage-sama, I think you shouldn't see this." He had mumbled with a slight change in his usual stoic voice.
"What did you find, Inu, did you find Naruto," the Third asked worriedly not liking Inu's tone.
"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, we were too late, I'm so sorry," his voice barely carrying over a whisper but the regret and self resentment was still there eating at him for failing to protect an important person in his life again.
Hiruzen's eyes expanded, his pupils dilated out of shock. Inu couldn't mean that, no, sure the people of Konoha had a strong dislike of Naruto but to kill him? He needed to see Naruto himself. He stepped towards the door but Inu blocked his path denying him entry.
"Step down Inu," the Third ordered, his voice showing no exception for insubordination.
"Hokage-sama, please understand," he began, but was cut off by his irritated leader.
"Inu, are you disregarding an order from your Hokage," Sarutobi asked his patience wearying thin.
"No, Hokage-sama, please forgive my ignorance," the masked shinobi mumbled as he stepped out of Hiruzen's path.
Hiruzen gave him a nod before he continued into the room, Inu fallowing closely behind him.
Inside the dark depressing room the stench of dry, caked blood, filled the Thirds nostrils making his facial expression change from impassive leader worry as Naruto was confirmed to be in this room.
As he went further into the room the horrific smell of burnt flesh suddenly assaulted his senses causing him to gag on the foul smell. This was so repulsive that no sane man could describe its stench.
Getting his bearings together Hiruzen marched on determined to reach the young boy that needed his help. Coming to a halt when he finally saw the shape Naruto was in he couldn't help but stand their and be stunned at the horrible inhumane sight.
"Oh dear Kami, what have they done to you Naruto," he said in a shaky defeated voice that resembled more a broken man than a fearless shinobi. His head down, no longer able to take the sight until a small quivering voice begged for his attention.
"Ji…Jiji, it, it hurts."
Hiruzen's head snapped up, "Naruto," he asked hoping that his mind wasn't cruelly playing a devious trick on him while he was in such a poor state. When he saw the lone blue eye of the young boy looking back at him Hiruzen felt as if a life's time of regrets and failures had been lifted from his old worn out shoulder, relieved that Naruto was still alive.
Kakashi seeing Naruto begin to try and move on his own, rushed to the little child's side to keep him from causing any potential damage to himself.
"Lord Hokage, what should we do, he needs medical attention immediately," Kakashi exclaimed in a calm voice even though on the inside he was in a frantic panic.
Overcoming his shock of Naruto being amongst the living Hiruzen answered, "Take him to the hospital, hurry."
Kakashi picked up Naruto's body as fast as he possibly could without causing him anymore pain and speed off towards the hospital with his fellow Anbu slacking behind him leaving a lone Hiruzen to stand alone in a dark room contemplating what his failure had just cost the young boy.
"Damn it," he cursed.
XX End Flashback XX
"Naruto, you have to stay calm," the doctor told the frantic boy once more, as he continued to try and restrain him along with Inu and Hiruzen.
After his eye had opened Naruto went into a state of shock and tried to sit up in his bed, but when his body wouldn't respond he began to shake and take rapid heart quickening breaths that could further his already serious injuries. Getting the young boy to stop and remain still and go back to sleep the doctor began to explain Naruto's condition to his visitors.
"Ok," the doctor began, taking a pause to look back at his notes. "I don't know where to begin, so I will start with the worse, nearly all of his nerves were incinerated do to third degree burns all over his body. He also suffered from heavy bleeding even for a full grown man let alone a child, and lastly he had some heavy infections in all of his limbs. From a medical standpoint a healthy man twice his age would've died, a child who has not eaten in nearly two weeks such as Naruto has would fair far less."
Both Inu and Hiruzen understood what the doctor was getting at it had happened many times when Naruto was beaten the Kyuubi's chakra would heal the boy, but they had kept it a secret fearing that the villagers would become… more hostile towards him.
"His gift… is both his blessing and his burden," Inu said looking back at the small child who was still resting.
"You said his nerves were incinerated, does that mean," Hiruzen stopped wanting the doctor to fill in the blank.
The doctor gave a tired sigh. "You both know that I took a oath to see every patient as equal and show no prejudice, and I have done that, so don't think I tell you this out of spite for the boy. The probability of him being able to function as a shinobi like you originally planned is simply impossible, he would be lucky to get his normal body functions back even with physical therapy."
This left the two speechless, Naruto had always boasted that he would one day be able to be a 'super cool ninja' like his nii-san and jiji, but know he could be crippled for like. How were they going to tell him that his dreams were crushed before they could even begin to bloom?
"What about his eye, they fire got to it also," Inu asked, receiving a negative shake of the head from the doctor.
XX Three Days Later XX
Naruto grumbled as the sun pestered Naruto awake from his sleep that his sore body desperately needed as he began to open his eyes he remembered to keep the other one shut. When he had first woken up he tried to open his left eye only for a sharp pain to oppose the idea making him shut it close again. He had asked his Inu-nii why his eye was hurting, but he didn't expect him to tell him he was now blind in that eye. At first it scared him but when Inu told him that he also only had one eye open at all times it seemed to quiet his fear down, even if it was just a little.
The real thing that made him feel uneasy though was the fact that his body seemed to not respond to his demands. The second day he had been in the hospital he had dropped a glass of water he was holding when his hand just went numb all of a sudden. He had asked Inu why that had happened, but he didn't expect the question to cause the masked shinobi to become so depressed.
XX Flashback XX
Inu, by orders from the Hokage, was watching over Naruto ever since he had woken up from his drug induced sleep. As he watched Naruto try and lift up his arm for the fifth time today he began to feel bad about keeping the secret from Naruto that he wouldn't be able to become a shinobi like him anymore. He began to wonder what Naruto had done in his past life to deserve such a fate as to have his dream snatched away.
He was brought out of his thought when Naruto asked him a question.
"Inu-nii? Why does my hand not work?"
Inu didn't know what to tell him, should he lie and tell him that it was just temporary, or should he tell him the truth and get it over with destroying the boy's dream. He decided to lie.
"I don't know."
XX Flashback End XX
Naruto gave a frustrated groan as his arm fell back to the soft mattress with a 'thud' as it landed.
At first he glared at his arm for not being able to do what it was told, but as he continued to stare at it his eyes seemed to plead with his arm to work, practically begging it.
"Why won't you work," he mumbled.
The doctors told him he would be able to begin treatment for his legs to start moving, but that his arms would take longer than his legs and that he should not try to move them that much and to call someone to help him get up or if he needed anything instead of using his arms.
Again he had asked why, but they either didn't hear him or just chose to ignore his question. Naruto could've sworn that some even snickered when he had asked.
Naruto continued to ponder why everyone was acting so weird lately when his eye lids began to get heavy from him over exerting his body again.
XX Naruto's Mind XX
Naruto could feel the gold concrete under his bare skin as he began to wake up. A drop of water landed on his arm making his eyes open wide in surprise. He had moved his right arm over to his left to wipe of the droplet, and so easily too, before it would take him almost thirty minutes just to lift his arms up two inches from his bed and now he had full function of them.
Not wasting another second Naruto places his hands on the floor and lifted his body from the ground, something he hadn't been able to do without someone's aid in almost a whole week. Once his feet touched the ground he sprinted off having not been able to move at all these past couple of days and wanted to make up for it.
Naruto was so excited with his new found mobility that he never noticed the large cage that was in the same room as him, nor did he notice the small pair of eyes from the cage begin to grow as they watched him happily running from one side of the room to the other.
Getting tired of watching his guest running around like an idiot the figure addressed him.
"It feels good doesn't it?"
Naruto stopped his running when he heard a voice from out of no where ask.
"Who- who's there," he yelled turning around to find the source of the voice.
"Who I am doesn't matter, while the reason why you're here does."
"Why am I here, where is here, and what 'feels good'," Naruto asked, just now remembering the first thing the voice said.
"Why, the ability to use your limbs again, doesn't it feel refreshing to be able to walk around freely?"
"Ye-yes it does, but where am I, the last I can remember was that I was in my hospital bed and now I'm here. What is here, exactly?"
"Yes I guess I can answer your question. This is your subconscious, your mind is awake, but your body is tired, and this is where you end up when you are like that."
"Ok so if this is my sub- what ever you said, why are you here, and who are you?"
Naruto thought he had made the voice angry as it seemed to stop answering his questions. After a few minutes of silence the voice came back, making Naruto jump from the sudden surprise.
"Right now that's not important so why don't we go back to the topic at hand, hmm? The fact that it's been difficult for you to move around lately, have you guessed why?"
"Inu-nii says that he doesn't know and the doctors say they are working on it," Naruto answered.
The low voice seemed to be amused as it began to chuckle from Naruto's naive answer.
"No child, they are all lying to you, they now why you can't move they just don't want to tell you."
"Well if you're so smart then why don't you tell me," Naruto yelled not liking the idea of his jiji and nii-san lying to him.
"Very well then, have you noticed that at the beginning you had no control over your arms," the voice asked, getting a small nod from Naruto.
"Well you see, you're a cripple now, when you were asleep they were talking about how you won't ever be able to have full function of your limbs again and that the possibility of you being able to be a shinobi is. None. What. So. Ever," the voice cruelly answered, taking pleasure in Naruto's shocked face.
"You-you're lying, they would ne- why would they," Naruto began to jabber nonsense.
"They merely wanted you to have hope even though they knew that one day it would just come falling down on top your head."
Naruto was speechless, the people he had always trusted lied to him, gave him false hope he didn't know what to say anymore.
"Why am I here," Naruto asked, his head down, defeat clearly in his voice.
"Ah, now that is the question I've been waiting for you see I can give you back your mobility…" was as far as the voice could get before an excited Naruto interrupted it.
"Real-really, why didn't you say so in the first place, thank you…"
"Who said I was doing this for free," the voice asked now annoyed.
"What do you want," Naruto asked.
Naruto's body shook all over when a dark sinister chuckle filled the dead space around him.
"Kit, I have a proposition for you." The voice continued to tell Naruto of his… proposition.
XX Outside Naruto's mind XX
Hitachi Miashi a medical intern was making his nightly rounds when a sudden eerily red glow came from patient one zero nines room. Now Hitachi is a smart young promising boy, but his curiosity got the better of his common sense as he made his way toward the door, and opened it. Once he fully opened the door an intense pain he had never felt before suddenly swept over him, and then nothing, everything just went black.
To Be Continued…
Whew, that was a good amount of work actually. Hello there this is my remake of Hatake Naruto I'm not going to lie though a lot has change from the original but Naruto will still be raised by Kakashi, he might just not get the sharigan anymore but a totally different ability, let me know which story you like more in your reviews. If more people like the idea of Naruto inheriting the Sharigan from Kakashi I will make another story for just that, but for know review and tell me what you think of this little project.