Disclaimer:I do not own Naruto or any of the characters – They all belong to Masashi Kishimoto as you know.
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Enjoy
Chapter 2
Sakura and Yamato were watching Naruto and Sai spar. Naruto had been careless the whole fight and had ended up bruised and beaten, Sai was barely touched the entire fight. 'He seems strangely off today, I wonder if something's up...' Yamato thought, letting it slide for the moment, but deciding to talk to someone about it later. He wasn't sure who, but he figured he should tell Tsunade. Had it only been this once the undercover ANBU wouldn't have cared so much, but Naruto had been this way for quite some time now.
"Naruto, Sakura, Sai – trainings over for today, you can go home. Naruto, get some rest, you seem exhausted." Blue eyes looked at Yamato, thanking him for not making a fuzz out of Naruto's state. Yamato nodded to acknowledge the boy's thank you, then 'poofed' away in a small cloud of smoke.
"Hey Naruto, wanna go get some ramen at Ichiraku's?" Sakura asked, Sai had long since left to go home.
'No, not really, I just want to go home and sleep, but considering how that's not possible...' "Only the two of us go for ramen? Like a DATE?" Naruto asked in his normal, hyper tone, though he was laughing on the inside at the irony of the situation. He didn't harbour any romantic feelings towards Sakura, looking upon her only as a not-so-good friend.
--
Yamato appeared outside the Hokage tower in a cloud of grey smoke. He slowly walked inside and knocked the door to the Hokage's room.
"Enter" He heard Tsunade's voice from the other side.
"Yamato," She said as he pushed the door open and entered, "Why are you here, aren't you supposed to be training with your team now?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama, I am, but I have something I wish to talk to you about. I'm concerned about Naruto's wellbeing. He's been acting strange lately – well, he seems like his happy self, but being around him a lot it's quite easy to see something's off about him – and he is exhausted all the time. His skin is pale and he has blue rings around his eyes too. I just thought the Hokage should know that something was wrong with her 'little brother', it might worry her." Yamato always referred to Naruto as Tsunade's little brother when he spoke to her, because that was how she saw the boy.
Tsunade looked quite disturbed at the news Yamato had brought her. "Thank you for telling me this, Yamato, I'll look into it..." At this Yamato jumped out the window in the back of Tsunade's office and took off.
--
Sakura, Naruto and Chouji were at Ichiraku's eating when Naruto felt a strong wave of nausea hit. He excused himself, saying he was tired, and went back to his apartment where he immediately found his way to the toilet and started vomiting. The nightmares did this to him too, not only did they make him mentally ill, but also physically. He was constantly exhausted and tired, and on top of that his body couldn't handle this for much longer.
After half an hour of crouching over the toilet the nausea left him for the most part, not that it really mattered considering that he had no more contents in his stomach to throw up. He flushed the toilet and stood, walking over to the sink where he washed his hands and face. That's when it caught his eye.
His razor was lying on the sink when he picked it up and looked at it. Tears welled up in his eyes as memories of that night 4 years ago flashed in his head, making him dizzy. This was supposed to make it better, right? Supposed to make the hurt in his mind go away. He decided to try, figuring it couldn't possibly make anything worse than it already was anyways. Putting the cold metal to his skin he slowly pressed it in; surely, blood started to trickle out of the cut and he noticed that as the pain in his arm got the upper hand, the pain is his mind subsided, if only a little. He tried again, this time deeper, and then repeated his actions over and over.
Naruto was sitting on his bathroom floor now, blood pooling around his legs, dripping from the 7 cuts on his arms, staining his clothes. He stood up quickly, which made everything go black and caused him to fall, hitting his head on the sink before landing on the white-tiled floor with a soft thump.
"Oh... OW!" he yelped, then got up again - slowly the second time around - after some minutes. "Now, where are those damned bandages?" He searched for a while, more blood dripping from his arms to the floor, before he eventually found them behind all the various crap in the cabinet under the sink. Quickly he cleaned of his wounds with a wet cloth, then he bandaged them tightly.
"Ite... Ite, ite, ite!" the cuts on his arms hurt, and so did his head after he hit it on the sink. He took a couple of painkillers and dry-swallowed them, then he went to his bedroom, passing out like a light immediately after laying down.
--
"Kakashi," the jounin turned as a familiar voice called his name, finding himself face to face with Kotetsu, "The Hokage wants to see you. Now." The other male put extra pressure on the last word, making it clear – after all Kakashi had a habit of being late.
"Sure," Kakashi said, putting his Icha Icha book in his pocket, "I'll go then. Ja, Kotetsu" The shinobi in front of him gave a light nod and was gone.
--
"What was so important I had to stop reading my book and come here, Tsunade?" The godaime hokage simply shrug, used to Kakashi's crude remarks and strange humour.
"I need your help with something," Kakashi raised an eyebrow, not used to being asked for help by anyone if it wasn't mission related, least of all the hokage. "It's concerning Naruto."
"What's happened now, then? Is it Kyuubi related?" The Sannin before him shook her head, downing a glass of sake at the same time."
"No, or at least I don't think the Kyuubi's got anything to do with it," Kakashi looked strangely at her. "You see, Yamato came to me earlier today and..."
"So you want me to find out what's up with the kid?" Kakashi asked. Tsunade merely nodded.
"Yeah, that's what I had in mind. I figured you might be at an advantage in finding out since you were the one who brought him back." Kakashi gestured something meaning yes, at the same time trying to block the pictures of the beaten and bloody thirteen year old Naruto that he had found in the Valley of the End 4 years ago. "Oh, and please pass word to Iruka to be aware of Naruto too, he might know something, after all he's like a father to Naruto."
"Will do," Tsunade smiled, then Kakashi, true to the tradition of the Konoha shinobi, jumped out the window in the back of her office and left.
--
It was already dark outside when Kakashi stood in front of Yamato's door. After he'd knocked a couple of times the door swung open, revealing a slightly messy but not so bad apartment and a Yamato seemingly getting ready to sleep.
"Yo" Kakashi said as Yamato opened the door further and the silver haired jounin stepped inside. Kakashi looked around; Yamatos place was bigger than his, and so much tidier.
"What is it? Any special reason you run around knocking people's doors late at night?" Yamato was teasing Kakashi, who was known for getting around – sleeping around – and was often seen late at night outside the doors of his many lovers.
"Maa, Yamato, there could be a reason, but sadly I'm not into guys." Kakashi smirked and poked Yamato in the shoulder. "But no, this is about Naruto."
"Ah, so Tsunade talked to you, did she? Figures..." Kakashi nodded.
"Yeah, she did... So, Yamato, how 'bout a day off tomorrow? I'll need to see what Naruto's like for myself, so I figured I could be there with them tomorrow for training. You could take the day off, you probably need it." Yamato thought about the proposition for about half a second before replying.
"Sure, fine with me. We usually meet up at training ground seven 9am sharp, you better not be there late, or Sakura'll seriously hurt you. I was 10 minutes late once – she nearly punched my head off. She has that insane Tsunade strength too..." Kakashi and Yamato fell silent, both had felt the fists of both Tsunade and Sakura, and neither had liked it.
"Thanks for the advice, have a good day... Night, whatever..." and with that Kakashi disappeared, only to reappear in his apartment so he could get some hours of sleep before meeting up with team 7 – no, they weren't team 7 anymore – with his – they weren't that either – with Yamato's team. Not being able to call them his any longer somehow left a sting in his heart. They had been his first and only team of genins, and he missed the days when they'd been small and innocent children – that sure hadn't lasted long enough.
The silver haired male pulled of his shirt and pants, leaving only his boxers on, then walked over to his bed and lay down. He stayed awake for at least an hour just thinking about the old days, the happy days, before his exhaustion got the best of him; his eyes closing as he slipped into dreamland.
That night Kakashi dreamed sweet dreams of Rin, Obito and the Yondaime standing beside him, never having died. He dreamt of what his world could have been like had he not let them down, had he been able to save them. He also dreamt of the early stages of his genin team, tem 7. He saw their happy, smiling faces and their carefree way of being, and he smiled. Kakashi smiled in his sleep that night, his first real smile for quite some time.