A Contract In Blood
Hello! This is the first fanfiction I've written on this account, so welcome to me! I wanted to just give a shout out to Windschild8178. It's not like they need any shout outs, especially from someone like me who no one knows. But every story writen is so well done and well thought out and so much effort is put into it. 'Accidental Companions' especially is a must read and is what inspired me to write this story! It still hasn't been finished and while I am one of the believers that it'll be revisit one day, why not kill the time by writing my own fanfic! So without further a dew (a dew? adue? Don't count on my grammar) let's get on with the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, yada yada.
Team 7 were on their way back from a 2 week long mission. They'd had to escort an up and coming young actor to her next show in Rice Country. For the most part it had been uneventful, and would've been quite a laid back mission if not for the fact that, like most, the young actor had developed a crush on the broody member of team 7, which of coarse made the other two members unsurprisingly jealous. For all Sakura's talk, she could be just as loud as Naruto when she wanted to. Needless to say havoc ensued. Yes, it had been a ... loud journey.
They'd only been a few miles from the village when they were ambushed by a couple of bandits. Normally, they would've been a piece of cake, but they were unusually sneaky. So, naturally, when Naruto found there was a kuni in his arm, it came as a shock. They jumped into action, Kakashi going after one and Sasuke and Naruto going after the other. Naruto pulled out the kuni in his arm, readying himself to use the weapon to attack when he fell to the floor with a cry, gripping the wound.
"Naruto!" He heard Kakashi yell, as he ran to his side. Sasuke had already taken out the opponent as Kakashi checked the flesh wound, which had already healed. Frowning he lifted his hitai-ate, revealing his sharingan.
"His chakra's going crazy," he mumbled. "But what-" His eye caught the light glinting off the kuni and noticed faint drops of liquid glimmering on it's surface. His frown deepend. "Poison."
"Poison?" Sakura asked worried for her team mate. She scurried over when she heard him bite back a cry. "Sensei what should we do?!"
"Let's hurry back to the village. Lady Hokage will know how to deal with this." Lifting Naruto onto his back, they continued to run back to the village.
"Well good news is you'll make a full recovery,"
"Aw thanks Baa-chan! Your the best!"
"But-" Tsunade continued, "You'll be off ninja duties for about 3 weeks a month tops."
"Wahhh!?"
It was about 7pm when they'd reached the village. They'd gone straight to the hospital, where they'd found Tsunade doing her regular check up as head medic. They'd quickly identified the poison as Lythro Himiya, an especially deadly poison for ninja, as it turns chakra against the victim, including their own and results in the chakra attacking the victims chakra coils. And unfortunately they'd managed to hit the boy with chakra levels bigger than a kage's. In the worst case scenario it could've irreparably damaged his chakra pathways to the point where his vitals wouldn't be receiving their expected amount of chakra, leading to his vitals collapsing. How those bandits got their hands on such a deadly poison was beyond her.
"You're lucky you only got a tiny bit of that poison in you! It could've been much worse trust me on that, you might've had to retire your ninja career early! To make sure that doesn't happen, your going to have to rest until the poison leaves your system since we can't remove it with chakra, and that will take about 2 weeks. To be safe I want you to be resting for an extra week. That means no missions and no training! You're birthday's coming up soon anyway, it'll be good to have a break from your duties."
"But Baa-chan! What am I supposed to do for a whole 3 weeks?! I need to go on missions or I'll die of bordem instead!"
"No Naruto! As your hokage and head medic I order you to take leave until I deem you healthy enough to return to your duties." Tsunade glared at Naruto with a sense of finality.
"But-!"
"Come on Naruto it's not that bad. Those 3 week will go by in no time. And I'm sure Sasuke and Sakura can managed missions on their own for that long." At Kakashi's statement, both Sakura and Sasuke seemed to realise something at the same time.
'A whole month on my own, with Sasuke-kun! This is my big chance!' Sakura thought, stars in her eyes as Sasuke gulped and seemed to edge toward the door.
"Yeah Naruto-baka! You go rest! Sasuke and I will do just fine on our own!" She squealed.
"Oh... OK." Naruto seemed to mumble before sighing exaggeratedly "But your buying me ramen!"
Tsunade's tone softned, "Alright Naruto, before you go I need to give you a shot. It will prevent you from using chakra other than for the natural flow . We don't want your unnatural healing ability to suddenly appear like it did when those bandits attacked and accidentally put back the actual healing process. You'll be a bit sore for the next few weeks until the poison fully leaves but there's not enough chakra to cause damage or unbearable pain."
He nodded as she got out the needle and injected his arm with the chakra limiter.
" Well, I'll see you soon for your weekly check up. You can go home now."
"Alright!" He yelled, and promptly left, followed by the rest of his team.
Once they'd got outside, they'd been about to part ways and walk to their respective homes when Naruto loudly suggested,
"Hey! Do you guys wanna go eat some place? We could go to-!"
"Naruto! I don't want any ramen! And I'm too tired to deal with you right now." Sakura replied irritably.
"Hnn. Go eat by yourself." And with that Sasuke was gone, soon followed by Sakura.
"Sorry Naruto, looks like your on your own."
"But what about-?" But Kakashi had already shunshined away, leaving Naruto on his own. His grin faltered as he looked up to the moon which hung low in the sky, only just beginning it's assent. It would be too dark to stay out soon.
Naruto's walk home was a long one, going the scenic way along the edge of the forest, away from prying eyes. It gave him the kind of peace his usual life seemed to lack. The lush trees soon turned into worn down buildings, with questionable people emerging from the shadows in the safety of night. They looked his way and nodded as he passed. He sighed in resignation before trudging down an alleyway to his apartment building.
It seemed to loom above him as he stood outside it's doors. 'Well, no point putting it off any further.' He took a deep breath and stole himself. Moving up the flight of stairs up to the 4th floor, he hadn't spotted anyone. When he finally reached his apartment door, he took one final look around before darting in and locking the door behind him. He took his time looking around the apartment. It was just as it had been before, not a thing out of place. He sighed and began to walk to his room. He was just as tired as the rest of the team, if not more so, but he could dwell on the day tomorrow. As he walked forward, he felt something crumple beneath his feet and bent over to pick the object up. It was a note addressed to him that read:
Naruto,
Don't forget, the contract's almost up. I'll be needing that money soon.
- The Landlord
Crumpling the note up and throwing it aside, he entered the bedroom, remembering to lock the door behind him. He was so tired he flopped onto his bed, not even bothering to remove his shoes, before he drifted off into oblivion.
One look at the clock told him he'd woken at 5:00. He forced himself out of bed and started preparing for the day, going to have his morning wake-up shower. It was when he went for his usual ninja-wear that it hit him. He wasn't allowed to go on any missions. No missions for a month. That meant no money for a month. "Fuck." He paced the room as he let the information sink in. "How am I gonna do this?" Today was the 13th September. So that was what? 27 days? "OK," He breathed as he stopped, "OK, I can make this work. First, work out what job spaces are open."
He'd gotten dressed into a simple short-sleeved black shirt and black cargo trousers and had began to form the seals for a henge when he remembered the his chakra restrictions. " Of all the things to be poisoned with." He muttered, taking a deep breath. In his room, he managed to find a woollen black hat that sagged at the back and was a little loose around his head. It was clearly made for winter, but at least no one would recognise his blinding blonde hair. He continued to riffle through his draws until he plucked out the item he was searching for. It was mask similar to Kakashi's that continued to cover his torso. That took care of his whiskers. It wasn't much but hopefully it was enough that they wouldn't recognises him. Luckily his normal henge was quite similar to this disguise, sans the mask. It was surprisingly hard to breath with it on. How Kakashi did it 24/7 he'd never know. His face must be all kinds of fucked up under there to put up with this. After locking his door, he flew down the flights of stairs and exited the building. It was only 6:20, he had plenty of time to look around. He decided to go check out Grale Street first. That was the most active place in Konoha's 'Red District' and was his best bet in finding a decent paying job that wasn't as... presumptuous.
As he entered his apartment, he held a small smile on his masked face. All in all, it had gone pretty well. He'd managed to secure 3 new jobs. It had been hard to find places with openings that had schedules that didn't clash with each other, but he'd somehow managed to do it. For the next few weeks, he'd be working from 6:00 to 14:00 at Kobb's, the main delivery service in the area. Then 16:00 to 20:30 at the local grocery store on Mondays, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. And 14:30 to 19:00 at butchers on the remaining days. As well as all this, he also had his regular job at the Downtown Pub, from 22:00 to 2:00. He'd been working there for a good few years now and was proud to admit that he'd managed to secure quite a well-paying position for all his dedication. It was dangerously close to the Main Street but it had definitely proved worth the risk. He glanced at the clock. It was 9pm so he still had 45 minutes before he had to leave, and so he settled into the sofa, head lent back so that he was staring at the ceiling. For all the set backs, maybe things wouldn't be so bad after all.
