Summary: Cursed with emphysema because his mother smoked while pregnant while carrying him, Naruto now has been told he will die before his eighteenth birthday. Depressed and alone, he runs into the forest to die only to be stopped...
Pairing: ItaNaru
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Naruto
Beta: Imperial Mint who offered to read and fix it while my beta updated her stories
Words: 2146
A/N: I read this story again and I decided that I could do better so I made up my mind to rewrite it hope you like it just as much!
Eighteen Springs
Chapter One
To Be With Him
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"Beep...beep...beep...beep..."
Naruto opened his ocean blue eyes to his hospital room, the plain, ordinary, white room that he had to come to every time he had trouble breathing. Gingerly, he forced himself up so he could look down at the foot of the bed. No one was here, no one cared anymore. With his free hand that wasn't hooked up to the IV, he pressed a button for his doctor to know he was up now. A small pang shot around his left lung suddenly, telling him he was going to have trouble in a moment. He closed his eyes, trying to breathe properly as it became harder to get the air inside of him. It was difficult for him to force the air out of his lungs and force more into them as his lungs seemed swollen as the air stopped coming up his throat.
His heart rate sped up as he stopped breathing. Practically gasping for air he kept pressing the button, the one that his life depended on. No one came, no one cared...
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He woke with a start, every inch of his tan skin covered in sheen of sweat, his eyes open in horror as the dream's meaning came to him. He raised a shaky hand and pushed his blond bangs back. 'Just a dream, it was just a dream,' he thought, tying to calm himself down, 'But it's true I AM going to die. My lungs will last a few more years at most…that gives him time to find me…right?' He looked out into the rain.
Naruto knew that the man would come to him soon. That man who promised to take him away and make him happy for the time he had left. 'Itachi…'
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"Drip…drip…drip…drip…"
Uchiha Itachi glanced at the window, noticing the rain falling down; causing the world outside to blur. Steadily, he stood up and went to look at a small piece of paper with a date on it.
'It's almost time to get him…to save him from mortality.' His pale fingers traced over the paper as if feeling some meaning that another person would miss. Absent mindedly he dropped the paper and looked at the open doors onto the balcony. Uncaring now as a stinging pain clawed at his throat, he walked to stand in the rain.
Stopping at the edge of the railing, he felt himself calm and the rain soaked through his long cloak, as though he was being cleaned of all sins. His raven hair was soaked as well, a few strands falling out of the pony tail at the nape of his neck. His ruby eyes grew darker as his stomach started to growl. Sighing in defeat, the pale vampire jumped off of the balcony and into the night. It was time to hunt…
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A light knock on the window pulled Naruto out of his daydream of going outside and not having to worry about his illness. Blinking a few times he looked over and saw his best friends, Sakura and Hinata, standing on the balcony. Jumping lightly to his feet, the blond crossed his small room, wrenched the doors open and was immediately embraced as they jumped in out of the rain. Hinata was the first one to let go after realizing she was probably getting him wet. Sakura, on the other hand, kept on holding him before whispering,
"How are you Naruto? It's been nearly a month since your attack and no one has said anything about you." Sakura finally let go and locked her dazzling emerald eyes on his azure ones.
"Sorry Sakura… it's been very boring here all alone with nothing to do so I couldn't send someone to tell you. Hey Hinata, how are your eyes?" he changed the subject. The topic about him was painful. The pinkette looked hard at him.
"F-fine N-Naruto, Father s-says I can t-take the blind f-fold off s-soon," his crush finally stuttered. He looked hard at her face, as if determining with a stare whether she really was ok. Hinata, being a lovable girl, had been mugged and as a feeble attempt to scare her, she had a chemical thrown in her eyes, temporarily blinding her. Although the culprits had been caught, Naruto still worried that Hinata was lying to them and wasn't going to be able to take it off.
In many ways Hinata was just like him; a liar. He himself had lied to the two about being fine and just resting while he had to stay at the hospital for awhile. It wasn't his favorite thing to do but he did it to protect them from worrying about him. There were other people who deserved that and he was not one of them.
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"Please stop," a small red headed boy asked weakly to his captor, who was sinking his teeth in his neck. "I don't want to die." Itachi looked annoyed and snapped the boy's neck with one fluid movement before looking at the priest who stood in front of the other delicious boys. The man was a joke really; holding a cross and praying to a God that didn't exist.
"Move away from them, slave of nothing, so I can quench this annoying thirst." His ruby eyes were growing lighter as the blood he had started to flow through his veins.
"O-oh Holy F-father protect th-the innocent from th-this spawn of evil." The priest faltered as Itachi stepped closer, his hands pointing at one of the ravens over his left shoulder, "You…snuffle the priest and come here." The raven shook a bit as his mind tried to resist the vampire's control, to not kill the father. It was useless in the end, "Forgive…me Father…" And his left hand clasped on the priest arm forcing him around where his other hand shot straight to his neck and stayed there.
Eyes bulged as the Father fought against the boy but slowly lost airflow to his brain. He crumbled and the boy sat on him, hands still applying pressure on his throat.
Itachi chuckled a bit as the heart stopped beating and looked at the three other boys including the murderer, "Scream if you wish." And he lunged forward.
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Sakura put her hand over Hinata's mouth suddenly as all three slowly stopped laughing. The voices of the blonde's mother and doctor, Kushina and Tsunade, traveled closer to the room. They sounded upset and tearful from what Naruto was able to tell before panic erupted inside him,
"Shit, sorry you guys but you have to leave now!" Hastily he pushed them outside, both whispering promises of coming back, but he knew they would ditch him for Kiba and Sai, and locked the door. Racing over to the bed, he grabbed the top blanket and threw it on. Just as he situated himself by the window, the door opened revealing a tired Tsunade; evidently she had been up with someone else.
The doctor swept the room as usual before spotting Naruto over by the window, "Ah Naruto I see you're better now." There was something hidden behind her, a red head whose green eyes were full of tears.
A pit grew in his stomach as Naruto saw his mother look at him, pain on her face. It was the pain of losing someone precious to you; so that meant he wasn't going to live much longer didn't it?
"Mom something's wrong isn't there," his happy mood that had grown while he had been with his friends died like a fire.
"Yes, my Naruto, something is very wrong." She looked at the blonde next to her, her eyes begging for the kind doctor to take over.
Sighing with a hint of tiredness from the long day, Tsunade pulled out a file from an armful of paperwork and handed it to Naruto, who took it with a heavy heart, "I did some more research on Emphysema Naruto and this is what I noticed about the symptoms you where experiencing. Before I brought this information here I ran to Suna to compare it with their doctors but we all see the same thing; it's spreading quickly. I don't think you'll be able to see your eighteenth birthday."
The blond male sat down on the corner of his bed, his blanket falling off his shoulders as he reached to open the unexpectedly large file. There was the usual info in the beginning that was always in his file, the facts of emphysema and what was known here in Konoha. Behind were his checkup lists, what seemed the weakest and how to make them stronger for a good several pages. Then his eyes strayed over new sheets about him and similar cases like his. Fear bubbled up as he began to read more and more, noticing himself the symptoms that he was experiencing now.
So the facts were right; he was going to die from his weak lungs. He was out of time to wait…
He was aware of voices talking as he finished reading, all the hope he had felt only a few hours ago gone in an instant. He looked up, azure eyes hoping for his mother to comfort him like she had for so many years. She had her back to him as she pulled Tsunade away, "I'm going to have so much trouble getting Minato from Wave Country and he'll have such a fit when he gets home. Oh I hope we can still have an heir now that he's going to die, well defiantly before he can at least produce an heir himself."
Naruto's jaw dropped and a small popping sound escaped as the air raced out of his mouth. It didn't even faze her did it? She was already planning for a new heir! Feeling abandoned, he grabbed his coat and ran out his door, right into his mother who he took out. Her face wasn't showing pain anymore, it was showing relief. She was going to be rid of him soon so she could get to her life again.
He continued to run until he was out the door and crossing the lawn, into the forest…
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'Interesting…to think a priest even considered himself strong enough to protect those pathetic humans.' Itachi pulled his clock up higher to cover up all the blood that those boys had left when they struggled.
As humans passed around him, his vampire ears caught into a conversation between two girls. The pink haired one was tapping her foot impatiently as the other one, with raven hair hurried to catch up, "Honestly Hinata we really should get you home now! As Tsunade-sama's apprentice I shouldn't have let you go see Naruto at all." Her eyes looked over the bandaged girl with disapproval. "I hope that your father didn't come in while we were gone though."
"But I needed to see Naruto-kun before Tsunade-sama." The pinkette looked at the upset raven, "I know Hinata but Naruto still won't be what he was again when we were there, and after all, he's going to die before his birthday. He won't be able to get married or have a child." Small tears formed under the bandaged eyes, damping the cloth.
Itachi smiled, "Soon Naruto I'll be there for you…"
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Bloody feet pounded against the earth as Naruto ran deeper into the forest, tears till streaming down his face he tripped over a root. He landed with a loud thump, not even bothering to catch himself. Lying on the ground, Naruto listened to the silence, enjoying it. There was quiet now and he wouldn't have to hear any of the false lies his mother told anymore. Never again would he have to burden anyone; he would just die here alone in the dark and quiet. But he wasn't all alone as he thought. As he tried to regulate his breathing, a cloaked man stood less than a yard away, looking at him with bright red eyes. "Oh my, how did such a pretty thing like you end up here…with me?"
Glazed blue eyes looked up, not really seeing the man. Itachi bent down and touched the blonde's soft cheek, "You're going to die soon?"
Naruto gaped a bit at the man's bluntness, "Yes –cough- no one will care though –cough cough- but I wish I could have been able to be alone in the end." Eyes drooped a bit, "No one." The pale hand that was caressing his face moved to his neck.
Taking a deep breath, Naruto closed his eyes and drifted off into his mind. Itachi meanwhile looked at the small male that he had wanted for so many years and was now dying too rapidly. 'Naruto-kun…my how you've grown.' He wrapped his arm around the blonde's shoulders and lifted him up effortlessly.
"We will have forever to be together soon."
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To Be Continued…