I wrote this shortly after having a panic attack. Trust me, it is not fun.
Sun's Shadow
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi were en route to one of the Land of Fire's small ports, where they were to dispatch some bandits in the area. A higher C-Rank mission, bordering on B-Rank, but it was nothing they cannot handle.
They were making camp with the help of Naruto's Shadow Clones. The campsite the picked was both beautiful in the crescent moon's light, and defensible in case of an enemy attack. They already had the tent set up and Kakashi was going to take first watch. They were gathering firewood when all of the clones froze as stiff as boards, then, they all dispelled at once.
The team was shocked and they couldn't find the blond anywhere with them. They instantly went into battle mode. Sasuke pulled out a kunai and Sakura prepared to throw some shuriken.
Kakashi reached out and sensed absolutely no chakra other than their own. He couldn't even feel Naruto's chakra at all.
"There are no hostiles, but I can't find Naruto," he announced to his remaining genin.
"Where could the idiot be then?" the brooding avenger asked. Sakura started looking around again and couldn't find anything in the moonlight. "Maybe you should summon your dogs, Kakashi-sensei," she suggested.
"Good idea, Sakura," Kakashi complimented the kunoichi of the team. He quickly went through the hand seals. "Summoning Jutsu!" In a plume of smoke, all of his ninja hounds were before them: Pakkun, Bull, Usushi, Shiba, Bisuke, Aknino, Uhei, and Guruko.
Pakkun noticed they weren't at Kakashi's place in the Leaf Village rolling on his carpet like they usually do when not at home. "Hey, what are we doing' here?" he asked in his deep, gruff voice.
"Naruto is missing, I need you to find him," he said urgently. The park immediately scattered, Kakashi having them memorize his team's respective scents. "You two, look visually in any place large enough for him to hide. Flare your chakra when you find him," he ordered. Sasuke and Sakura nodded.
They fanned out and searched for him. It was a full twenty minutes of essentially radio silence. They heard a dog whine and something land on the ground. They immediately ran toward the source of the sound and found Pakkun on the ground groaning and his paw definitely broken. Kakashi rushed over at a speed more than worthy of his rank. "Pakkun, what happened?!"
Pakkun groaned and looked up. "Found him, up there." He gestured to the top of a large tree where there was a large hole in the trunk. "Kid has a mean kick. Going to rest. See ya." With that, Pakkun and the rest of the pack disappeared in plumes of smoke.
The remainder of Team Seven looked to where the talking dog once had been, all with the same thing on their minds; why would Naruto purposely attack Pakkun?
"Tread carefully," was all Kakashi said as he began climbing the tree with his chakra. Sakura and Sasuke followed Kakashi to the base of the tree where they waited at the bottom.
"Naruto? You okay?" they heard Kakashi call to his student. They couldn't hear what Naruto was saying, but he sounded... different. "Naruto, calm down! I'm not going to hurt you!" they heard Kakashi exclaim. This confused the two students further. Why would Naruto think Kakashi was going to hurt him? "Naruto, stop hitting me!" They could see that Kakashi was somewhat struggling to keep his hold on the tree. "Naruto, stop!" They could see Naruto burst out of the tree, causing Kakashi to lose his grip on the tree and begin to fall.
From what they saw, Naruto hit the ground running and went off like that, running. Sasuke immediately gave pursuit, while Sakura acted as a landing pad for her cyclops sensei.
"Sorry, Sakura. Are you alright?" Kakashi asked, helping Sakura up. "I'm fine, sensei. Naruto's getting away!" Sakura said. She took off at a decent speed (at least to Kakashi) towards where she saw Naruto and Sasuke run off. Kakashi was not long behind her.
Sasuke was not going to continually play wild goose chase with the loser. He tied some wire to his shuriken in mid-run. He waited until Naruto got close to a tree.
Wait for it...
Twenty more meters...
Wait for it...
Ten meters...
Wait for it...
Two meters...
Now or never!
Sasuke threw the shuriken in a wide arch, that barely went around the tree, but it did capture his target. Sasuke roughly pulled on the strings and the recoiled, pinning Naruto to the tree. He was kicking and struggling against the binds.
"What's gotten in to you loser?" Sasuke asked as Kakashi and Sakura came running up.
"Go away! Leave me alone!" Naruto retorted back, sounding like he's seen a ghost, struggling against the ninja wire. Kakashi and Sakura came up and Naruto tried to scramble away from them fruitlessly. "No! Leave me alone! Please, go away!" Naruto began to hyperventilate. Kakashi slowly walked up toward the pinned blond, Naruto's eyes wide with terror. "NO! GO AWAY!GOAWAYGOAWAYGOAWAY!" By the time Kakashi reached him, he was scrambling his legs in a direction, trying desperately to escape.
Kakashi stopped directly in front of Naruto, the son of his sensei hyperventilating and scared. It pained Kakashi to see Naruto like this. Sakura was looking in fear of Naruto, wondering what is happening to her friend and teammate. Though Sasuke would never admit, and was cool as a cucumber on the surface. He was only slightly less spooked than Sakura. "I'm sorry, Naruto," Kakashi said gently. He jabbed a pressure point on the blond's neck. Naruto fell unconscious instantly, his struggle ended.
"Kakashi-sensei? What was wrong with Naruto?" Sakura asked after a long silence. Kakashi released a long, drawn out sigh. A tired sigh. "Naruto had a panic attack. He used to get them all the time. To think they returned during a mission..."
"So what do we do?" the Uchiha scion asked.
"We go back to the village, after I get one of my hounds to deliver a message to send out another team," Kakashi asked.
"We're abandoning the mission? Just like that?" Sasuke asked angrily.
"Naruto is in no mental state to be on a mission right now, let alone take down any bandits," Kakashi patiently explained. "If we were to continue the mission. Naruto will be in an even worse state he is in now."
With that, they left back to the village. The three of them deeply concerned for the ball of sunshine Kakashi is carrying.
This is a bit of a PSA, but if someone is having a panic attack, let them have some space, let them know you're there, but do not leave them. They are feeling an insurmountable amount of dread and sometimes worthlessness. When it's over, give them a hug. It helps. For my fellow Potterheads, treat this like a extreme Dementor attack. :P Review guys and girls. Good night.
