The user charactersreadthestorysfan wanted to see reactions of the Valley of the End battle between Naruto and Sasuke. And my mind just kind of started up on something. So here. A drabble for you. What genre is this? Drama, angst, horror? I have no idea.
Tentative title: Aftershocks
"What happened in that valley?" they ask and Naruto shrugs every time, eyes dark in a way that stops them from pushing the matter. At least for the moment, because they never fail to ask again, days later. Naruto never answers, can't answer, not without feeling phantom electricity and pain.
Tsunade is the only one to know, learning the details from a piece of paper, a report written so dryly she almost doesn't know what she's reading until she forces herself to stop and reread. Then she's storming into the hospital where Naruto still is, despite his protests, and tries to block a heart attack by frantically looking him over. He's pale as can be, product of blood loss, and wrapped up with enough bandages to make her weep, but he's still alive. Fine enough to wave off her actions, as if it's nothing.
As if getting fistful of lightning shoved into his chest is nothing.
"I'm fine, Baa-chan. Kyūbi healed it before anything could happen," he told her. And that opens a whole other can of worms that Tsunade just can't fathom right now, so she reluctantly backs off. But she'll keep an eye on him, keep him within the village until he's truly and rightfully healed, no matter what he says.
Because, Kyūbi jinchūriki or no, a Chidori isn't something he can just walk away from unscathed.
Kakashi is, rightfully, the next to find out. It was his technique, after all, and even if none of his victims ever survived it, he likes to think he'd know the symptoms of the attack.
So, when he next sees Naruto and sees the boy rubbing at his chest when he thinks no one's looking, Kakashi starts to speculate. When Naruto trembles in his taijutsu kata, as if his nerves can't quite keep up, Kakashi feels something like unease settle in his gut.
When, during an early morning training session, Naruto flinches hearing the birds, Kakashi starts to hate himself.
Because he was the one who taught Sasuke Chidori. He was the one who failed to reach out to the Uchiha properly, the one who failed to keep the boy loyal. And now Naruto is suffering for it, lightning residue slowly destroying him.
Of course, Kakashi never quite knows just how bad it was. He wants to think, prays, that Sasuke only caught the blond in the side and that's why Naruto is still alive. The truth is... much more horrifying.
"It's fine," Naruto says with a shrug. "He missed my heart and I can heal from anything else."
He says it so nonchalantly, as if taking assassination jutsu to the heart – no matter how much it 'missed' – and surviving is normal.
And maybe it is, Kakashi recognizes in a moment of heartbreak. Naruto was always spurned by the civilians, sabotaged by the academy instructors, and targeted by enemies the moment they figured out what he was. So the fight with Sasuke probably just falls in with all the rest and Naruto just doesn't understand how horrible it is.
And Kakashi doesn't know how to make him realize it.
It's years, so many years later, when Naruto can handle mentioning the battle to his friends. The Konoha Eleven have always wondered, always worried though they tried not to show it, so when Naruto hesitantly brings it up one night, they quickly settle in to listen.
"We fought," Naruto says, "like we always did, only this time we just... went all out, I guess. No pulling punches. At the end, we both pulled out our special techniques – his Chidori and my Rasengan – and squared off."
"Please tell me he missed," Sakura pleads, eyes wide.
"Well..." Naruto hedges and it's in that moment of hesitation that the group realizes that Sasuke didn't miss. That the battle had concluded with Naruto taking an assassination technique head on.
"It wasn't so bad," he starts, frowning at his hands and not seeing the horror-struck looks leveled on him, "I can heal from just about anything because of the Kyūbi. He's... well, he's probably the reason I survived. Sasuke... came close, with that last attack. Nicked my heart, I think the healer said. Tore up my lungs a bit. But I've healed from worse since."
"He stuck a Chidori in your chest," Ino whispers from behind her hands, horrified.
And Naruto shrugs.
"It missed," he says lightly. "And I got him pretty good with my Rasengan," he adds, as if that makes it better.
"That's not the same," someone else insists.
"It doesn't matter," Naruto insists right back. "It happened, it's over, and I survived. So don't worry about it, yeah?" And then he grins, eyes closing and never has Sakura been so shaken.
How can he just shrug that off? How can–
And Naruto wants to bring Sasuke back? It's been years and her infatuation has faded, but even if it hadn't, this moment would crush it completely. This moment, when she finally sees just how far gone the boy had to be to nearly kill Naruto, and just how far gone Naruto has to be to look past that.
Sakura doesn't know if she could. If she should.
And she realizes right then just how terrifying Naruto can be.
The others have simpler reactions. Shock, horror, worry. They see a comrade who was in danger and who barely escaped. They see him, now, healthy and fine and let that override the horror at the thought of him on death's door.
Shikamaru never realized just how blase Naruto was about it until he checks through the hospital records. They're open to the public, mostly, but the ninja files are locked away from civilians. He's a shinobi and a Nara, so the nurses let him see, let him read through Naruto's file which is so much thicker than it has any right to be.
Naruto had said the jutsu missed. But Shikamaru also remembers him saying it caught his heart and his lungs and that isn't what Shikamaru considers a miss.
His file says that when he arrived at the hospital, his heart was already knitting itself back together. That his lungs were healing faster than anyone thought they would. That, by the time the medic-nins got to him, he only had tears and some internal bleeding.
The Valley is miles away. And Kakashi didn't reach Naruto until after the battle ended and Sasuke was out of reach.
Shikamaru doesn't think the Chidori missed.