Dislaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. I belong to me. My multiple personalities are debatable.
To Be Young Again
Chapter One: Between a Kunai and Jutsu
"Alright," the jonin said with a concealed grin that was covered by the cloth mask over most of his face. He was tall, with spiky silver hair that jutted up and to the side, with his Konoha headband covering his left eye. With the combined effect of the mask and the headband, only his right eye was visible, and it was currently closed in an upside-down 'u' shape. He wore a green vest with several pockets over a long-sleeved navy shirt with a red swirl on the bicep of one sleeve. He also had dark blue pants with white wrappings and blue shinobi sandals. He had a weapons pouch strapped to one leg over more white wrappings. His name was Hatake Kakashi, also known as Sharingan Kakashi or the Copy Ninja.
"Today, we're all going to learn a new jutsu," he said to his students in a calm, laid-back voice, opening his eye to reveal a black iris that blended with the pupil. His students were three twelve-year-old genin, two boys and a girl. The first boy was dark haired and fair skinned, with an unusually elegant face for a twelve-year-old child. He had narrow black eyes and an effeminate face. He wore a blue, wide collared shirt with a stylized red and white hand-fan on the back. He wore long, off-white shorts with a weapons holster strapped to one leg. He also wore navy blue shinobi sandals and white arm warmers; a metal plate with a stylized leaf set on dark blue cloth rested on his pale forehead. His name was Uchiha Sasuke.
The girl was reasonably pretty with short pink hair and emerald green eyes. Her hitai-ate was worn as a hair-band, contrasting with her unusual hair. She wore a short-sleeved red dress with a white circle on the back, along with a pair of dark, form-fitting shorts underneath. She too, had blue shinobi sandals. Her name was as flowery as she looked; Haruno Sakura.
The third and last student was a boy with spiky blonde hair that seemed to scoff at gravity (well, all of their hair did). He had large, brilliant blue eyes and tanned skin, with six black lines on his face; there were three on either cheek, giving him the appearance of having whiskers. He had a round, innocent face with a short, thin body. He wore a zipped-up orange jacket with blue patches on the shoulders and a red swirl on the back; underneath the jacket he wore a dark tank top over a fishnet shirt, with a crystal necklace resting on his chest. He also wore orange pants with a weapon holster strapped to one leg, and blue shinobi sandals on his feet. His name was Uzumaki Naruto.
"Really Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said excitedly, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "You're really going to teach us a new jutsu?"
"Of course he is!" Sakura interjected, hitting Naruto on the head with such force that he was slammed into the ground face first. "He just said he would!" She sighed, putting her hands on her hips. "You're such an idiot sometimes, Naruto."
"Hn. Loser," Sasuke said with a smirk. He stood in a 'cool' pose; his hands were in his pockets and he was leaning back slightly.
"What did you say, bastard?!" Naruto bellowed, leaping to his feet. He staggered a bit, but regained his bearings quickly and proceeded to shoot the best 'death-glare' at Sasuke that he was able to muster. One hand was raised in a fist, his other fist clenched at his side. He had one leg forward and bent, the other leg straightened behind him in what looked something like a stretch.
"Calm down, calm down," Kakashi drawled in a strangely bored yet sickeningly cheerful voice. "Now, this jutsu is sort of like Naruto's Orioke no Jutsu, in that you actually change your body rather than use just an illusion. It is a jutsu that changes you into your younger self, chakra reserves and whatnot included; which means you can't put your opponent off-guard by looking like a toddler and then blasting them with an A-class jutsu," Kakashi explained, his arms crossed over his chest. "Sorry Sasuke," he added, with another 'eye-smile'.
"This jutsu is unusual in that it doesn't have a name, and it only requires handsigns and chakra. The handsigns are tiger, rat, boar, bird, monkey, bird, rat," Kakashi listed lazily, demonstrating the signs for his students. "Picture how you looked when you were five or so. This jutsu requires a fair amount of chakra, so be sure you don't…tire yourselves out. Start practicing!" he said cheerfully, taking out his infamous orange book and squatting at the base of a nearby tree as he began to read. All of his students shot him dirty looks and began to practice the jutsu.
Unsurprisingly, Sasuke learned the jutsu first, while Sakura finished not too long after; due to her low chakra reserves, she had to take a break every few tries. Sakura squealed when she saw Sasuke's younger self, while Naruto scoffed and went back to practicing. Kakashi looked up from his book and said, "Done already?" The two genin nodded. "Sakura, Sasuke, go spar while Naruto finishes," Kakashi directed bluntly. Sakura looked elated while Sasuke merely grunted. They leapt away into another area of the training ground not too far away, and Naruto kept practicing.
Sakura and Sasuke sparred for a while, Sasuke soon growing bored and Sakura somehow managing to accomplish an inexplicable mixture of trying her hardest to not be beaten while not actually trying to defeat or injure Sasuke in any way. Naruto, meanwhile, was forming the handsigns over and over without pause, his face screwed up in annoyed concentration.
Sasuke threw a volley of blunted practice shuriken at Sakura, who replied by throwing a batch of blunted kunai. Most of them collided with the shuriken in midair, knocking them off course, but one sloppily thrown one went to the far right of where Sasuke stood. Coincidentally, behind Sasuke on Sakura's far right, Naruto had just accomplished the jutsu and was boasting to Kakashi, who was ignoring him. Sakura's eyes widened as she saw where the kunai was headed, and Sasuke turned around, following her gaze. He was just in time to see the kunai hit the back of Naruto's head, blade side first, before it fell to the ground behind him. It had jerked his head forward, and his hair was now hanging around his face. His eyes were wide and his mouth was slightly open. Naruto stood frozen for a second before he swayed slightly to the side, then swayed the other way while falling forward onto the ground.
All in all, it had to be the worst possible timing that could ever have influenced any human in all history. Such a poor, luckless bastard.
Kakashi – who had looked up from his book when he heard Naruto's rant suddenly cut off – instantly leapt to his feet and raced to Naruto's side, his Icha Icha Paradise lying forgotten on the ground. Sakura and Sasuke, who had just come out of their shock, followed suit and ran to Naruto. Sasuke knelt beside Kakashi, and Sakura crouched across from them; they were all looking down at Naruto in concern. Blood had started to color his hair and his eyes were open, though drooping and unseeing. He was lying down with his chest pressed to the ground and his arms lying limply beside him, the right side of his face against the ground.
"Naruto!" Kakashi said in an authoritative voice. "Naruto, can you hear me?" He waited for a second. "Naruto!"
Sakura, meanwhile was wailing, "Oh my god! Naruto! Is he okay, Kakashi-sensei? I didn't hurt him too badly, did I? Oh…" she trailed off, moaning. Sasuke remained silent, watching Naruto with intense onyx eyes. Kakashi put his hand on the back of Naruto's head, feeling the injury, and a small laceration met his fingertips; though the kunai had been blunted, it had been thrown hard and had been enough to cause some damage. He checked Naruto's pulse, and found it strong and steady. He put his hands under Naruto's body and lifted him up, holding him bridal style and taking care to support his head.
"I'm going to transport us all to the Hokage Tower so Tsunade-sama can take a look at him. Sasuke, could – "
"What? Why don't we take him to the hospital?" Sakura asked, wringing her hands nervously.
"Tsunade is the best medic, plus we'd have to wait at the hospital," he said reasonably, though he did not say all of his reasons… Sakura nodded, though a bit hesitantly. "Sasuke, Sakura, I need you to hold Naruto for me." They complied, Sasuke supporting Naruto's head and torso while Sakura had one arm under Naruto's legs while the other helped hold Naruto's torso. Kakashi formed a few handsigns and reached across Naruto's body to put one hand on both of their shoulders, putting the other on Naruto's forehead. They all disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
They appeared just outside the Hokage building. The guards pointed kunai at them, then lowered their weapons when they saw Kakashi. He took Naruto from his two students, holding him carefully and briskly walking in as the doors were opened for them. He continued his quick pace up through the Hokage Tower, Sakura and Sasuke following right behind him.
They soon arrived at a clerk's desk. A petite brown haired woman sat behind it, who looked up from a paper she was writing on. "What business do you have?" she asked politely.
"We wish to see the Hokage. My student requires her healing abilities." Kakashi said succinctly, his face blank.
"And you are?"
"Hatake Kakashi." She nodded and spent a moment rifling through some papers, then told them that they could go. "Thank you," Kakashi said, inclining his head before hurrying on.
When they reached the doors of the Hokage's office, Kakashi didn't bother talking to the two guards stationed by the doors. Instead he called, "Hokage-sama! Naruto's hurt."
Almost instantly they heard a loud "What?!" and something large falling over before the clacking sound of hard shoes on a hard floor. The double doors burst open to reveal Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage. She was a busty, pretty woman with piercing amber eyes and full red lips. She had long blond hair in two low ponytails down her back, two blond locks left free to frame her elegant face. She had a small, lavender diamond-shaped mark on her forehead and painted red fingernails. She wore a grey kimono-like shirt with a black cloth belt holding it closed. She also had on an open green jacket with the word 'gamble' written on the back in kanji. She wore short black pants and black, high-healed sandals.
"What happened to him?" Tsunade asked in a concerned voice with a matching expression on her face as she saw Naruto's young, limp form in the masked ninja's arms. "Come in, tell me what happened." She stood aside to let them in, closing the doors as they complied. Kakashi set the blond boy down on the floor as gently as he could. Tsunade crouched down beside Naruto. "Where was he hurt?" she asked.
"A wayward practice kunai hit him in the back of the head." Tsunade put her hands on Naruto's forehead, and the light from the healing green chakra cast odd shadows on Naruto's face. She knelt, her face screwed up in concentration, for about a minute, no one speaking or moving. Surprisingly, it was Sasuke who broke the silence.
"Will he be okay?" he asked in a calm voice. Tsunade frowned.
"He's sustained a contra-cous brain injury," she said at last.
"A what?" Kakashi asked. Tsunade's frown deepened.
"Contra-cous. It's not a good thing to have. We'll use Naruto as an example. You see, when Naruto got hit with the kunai, it forced his head forward, very fast. The brain wants to stay in the same place, so basically his skull came up and smacked into his own brain." Sakura gasped. Tsunade's voice was shaking slightly as she continued. "That's the 'cous' part. The contra is where the brain finally comes forward and smacks into the other side of the skull." Sakura broke down crying, and Sasuke's eyes were wide. Kakashi's expression was unreadable, a testament to his many years as an elite ninja. Though the mask probably helped.
"But Tsunade-sama, shouldn't the…" Kakashi trailed off, eyeing Sasuke and Sakura. "Shouldn't that thing be helping him heal?" he asked.
"What thing?" Sasuke asked. The two adults ignored him.
"It is, but it's being slow. Apparently it isn't too experienced with the human brain," Tsunade said sourly. Then she bellowed, "SHIZUNE!!" Shizune burst through the doors not ten seconds later.
"Yes, Tsunade-sama?" she said, panting slightly. Tsunade didn't even look up from her healing.
"Get a room in the hospital ready for Naruto," she said grimly. Shizune looked alarmed.
"Naruto?!" She looked down at the small, blond child Tsunade was healing. "Is that Naruto?" Tsunade nodded and reminded her she had a job to do. Shizune took off at a run.
Finally, Tsunade removed her hands from Naruto's head. She looked down at Naruto's young face and sighed. She then picked him up and walked over to her chair and sat in it, holding Naruto in her lap with her arms gently wrapped around his thin form. "Now, can you tell me what happened to Naruto?" she said, her eyes running over the conscious members of Team Seven.
"It's my fault, Hokage-sama!" Sakura burst out. "It was my kunai that hit him!" Tsunade interrupted, preventing Sakura from going into an all-out rant.
"Hold on. Kakashi, could you tell me – from the beginning – what happened?"
"I was teaching my team a new jutsu – the one Naruto is currently in now." He motioned to the blond child in her arms. Tsunade nodded for him to continue. "Sakura and Sasuke finished the jutsu before Naruto, so I sent them to spar. As luck would have it, Naruto had just figured out the jutsu when a badly aimed kunai hit him in the back of the head. After that I transported him here to you," he said, finishing his abbreviated version of events.
"Well, all we can do now is wait until he wakes up, I guess…" Tsunade said. At that moment, Shizune opened the large double doors once more to tell them Naruto's room was ready. Tsunade stood up slowly, holding Naruto in her arms like he was a young child – which, in fact, he now was. She stopped at the door and turned to the silent Team Seven. "You can come visit him in the hospital tomorrow," she said before turning and walking out of sight down the hall.
Mid-morning the next day, Team Seven, Tsunade, Shizune, Team Eight, Team Ten, Team Gai, and Iruka (Tsunade had had the latter four notified) were all gathered at Naruto's bedside. They had been called into the room by the nurse who was attending Naruto; he was waking up.
End of Chapter One