Contrary to popular belief, Kakashi never see himself as someone on high-ground.
Flippant and almost arrogant he might be, he always think that he is a failure. A big failure. A loser. A disappointment. Whatever the synonyms. He lets his father die (he could've spend more time with him, could've assured him that he is not a disappointment and even if he is, not to Kakashi), he lets Obito die (he could've move faster, takes them from the danger to be safe), he killed Rin (he lets Obito down, oh, he lets his best friend down), he freezes as he watched his sensei impaled by the demon (there's a barrier, he cannot enter the barrier, he isn't fast enough to assist his sensei), and he run away from his legacy by abandoning his sensei's son (a blond child so alike his sensei, so bright like his mother; it's hurt to see).
A decade has passed since what he dubbed as his 'Dark Age' and he is proud to say that he could move on... if only for a little bit. It's slowly but surely he moved on, and being a Jounin Instructor proved to be a new challenge as it will help him to recover (according to Pakkun and his other nin-dogs) from whatever slump he's in for the last decade.
If only the burden the Council put on his shoulder is not that big; to look after the last Uchiha and his sensei's son. His sensei's ill son. Now, Kakashi never teach anyone before, so he has no idea on why teaching genins should be. Not to say he has to teach an ill genin, too.
Kakashi imagined, it won't be too hard to teach the genins. It will probably similiar to how he teach his pups to talk for the first time, or instructing his ANBU team with waaaay more lose consequences and punishments. Then he should pay more attention and care for the last Uchiha and his sensei's ill son just to be sure nothing goes awry. In theory, it shouldn't be that hard. And Kakashi is not a genius for nothing; he applied theories perfectly in one go. So, Kakashi believes that it really shouldn't be too hard.
Only the cruel reality is, it is that hard. More hard even. Because his sensei's son now, Naruto.
Naruto complains at the slightest change of temperature, he whine at foods and drinks, he yells and throws tantrums and having headache all in one go. Dealing with Naruto needs patience; for his whining and complains have high potential to screw team works, and fortunately Kakashi has just right patience to always separate his little genins from fighting. Add to the fact that at least after the first week, Sakura and Sasuke learned to ignore the blond, which is way better than lashing out at Naruto and ignite a fight.
But the most important point is, Naruto doesn't know when to stop. He doesn't know the limit of his ill body. Or he does know, but he refused to stop. For example, like that one particular time. Which then later Kakashi remembers for the rest of his life.
(That day, after the team captured Tora the demon cat, the team reported to the Hokage and they were going back together. It's probably Kakashi's fault, really. He should be able to tell that the day is far too hot than usual, that Sasuke who is usually calm snapped at Sakura and even Sakura herself started grumbling grumpily due to the heat, that he should stop Naruto from running around doing D-class mission who will get him bed-ridden later. He overlooked Naruto who has resorted to gritted his teeth and keep quiet as much as he can—which is not much, really, considering how much Naruto whine and complain everyday.
The thing is, the day is too hot for the team to handle, and Kakashi forgot how it will be for Naruto if the heat managed to affect his teammates. Kakashi simply forgot how Naruto whine about burning sun even though the temperature is still pretty much average—a bit up maybe but still average. And he overlooked Naruto's slightly quiet behavior and sluggish movements due to the heat, not his illness.
After they reported that day, on the way to their respective housings, Naruto suddenly fainted, completely fell unconscious—Kakashi doesn't know if it was because of fatigue, or very abnormal high temperature of his body, or the concussion he got from dropping head first on the road. The blood flowing down from the newly acquired head wound is not helping, either.
Kakashi ignored Sakura's shocked yet horrified cry and Sasuke's rare surprised expression as he took Naruto in his hands and runs to the hospital. He was panicked, cursing himself for forgetting the very important part that Naruto has chronic incurable illness, blaming himself, and the Sandaime's message keep replaying itself like broken tape in his mind; "He's a special kid, Hatake. Please take a really good care of him."
The silver-haired joinin wasn't sure if he threatened anyone in hospital to treat the blond ASAP that day, but maybe, maaybe he did, because on state of desperation he basically forces everyone to obey by sheer killing-intent he managed to show. Kakashi also doesn't really gets anything the medic-nin said that time beside 'heat-stroke,' 'chronic illness,' 'very sensitive nerves,' 'fatigue,' and 'will be fine in a week's rest.'
God knows the next two days Naruto treated in hospital was one of the most stressed days in Kakashi's life.
In the next morning, Naruto refused to open his eyes; he refused to wake up because his headache, and that leads to Naruto refused his meals and medicine. Kakashi has tried many (kind) ways, from staring at the blond until he feels uncomfortable in his 'sleep,' shaking his student's body, bribe him to wake up, tricked him even, but none works because, "Shut up, Kakashi-sensei, i want to sleep. I don't want to wake up with this headache, it's killing me alive and i don't want to die now. Leave me alone." The lack of hostile tone or curse words on Naruto's sentence really worries Kakashi. Because that means Naruto is controlling his emotions to not cause anymore headache.
Luckily, the headache seems to slowly disappear in the evening, and with Naruto finally woke up (admitting that he was hungry), Kakashi happily deliver his meal and medicine. And Naruto eat the meal peacefully before going back to sleep. Well, if only it's really that easy in reality. Because the fact is, nothing ever gets easy if it's concerning Naruto Uzumaki.
Naruto complains and whines a lot. Like really, really a lot. It's like all his whine and complain every day is nothing but prologue and this is the real thing. He whine about the cold wind from window, then the kinda-itchy hospital robe, then asking (and whining) about his gloves, then to the too-hot-soup and the too-cold-drink. Kakashi managed to respond as patient as he can, and finally managed to talk Naruto to eat his meal and drink his medicine.
Even when said meal only gets half-finished.
Kakashi despairs; or more likely he is worried. He is worried sick because his student, his sensei's son, his sensei's ill son, has ended in this predicament because of his fault, an amateur's fault, and the kid refused any more treatments. Or not fully receiving the treatments while complaining and whining like a five year old kid.
He really, really wants to strangle someone. Or kill people. Or just tearing his hair out of frustration. Kakashi feels like he just aged few more years just by staying on Naruto's side in twenty-four hours. He swore he's going to get wrinkles just by thinking about his blond student because he really doesn't know what he should do to make his student recovers quickly.
Kakashi can't leave his student alone, he got back to his apartment only for one hour before he stayed in the room to watch Naruto sleep the rest of the time. But he doesn't make appearance in front of the blond, because Kakashi isn't sure if he can handle the blond. His socializing quota for the day has ran out yesterday, and Kakashi is sure he could not be a good talking partner for Naruto. He's pretty much the mechanical killer 'Scarecrow' of ANBU, not flippant-pervert Jounin Kakashi Hatake right now, so Kakashi hides in one of the corner in Naruto's room, completely disguised.
Fortunately, the Sandaime come to check Naruto for the day, and from hidden spot in the corner Kakashi sighed in relief to see Naruto grinning and joking to the Hokage in his room. He has more or less recovered and that's good. But that doesn't last long though, as Naruto continue to complain and whine about his mission which lead him to this predicament, the weather, the hospital's food, the hospital's gown, and about his gloves. All the time Sandaime managed to listen and respond lightly while doing his paperworks on the table in front of the bed.
Kakashi dreaded the time when Sandaime will go back to his office because Kakashi is still not sure if he has the patience to deal with Naruto, even when he has pretty much regained his confidence as normal Jounin. Nobody said patience is a key in taking care of Naruto, so Kakashi still mostly trying to adapt before the real thing. Kakashi seriously respect all iryo-nin in the world who takes care of ill patients. Because if all ill patients are like Naruto then Kakashi is sure he'll mess things up in no time. He could finish dozens S-class missions in record time, assassinate people in blink of an eye, but taking care of ill kid, especially if the kid is named Uzumaki Naruto, that is out of the fucking question.
But the Hokage, bless his old, kind soul, stayed in Naruto's room until evening, convincing Naruto to finish his every meals and medicine and how the hell it worked splendidly; how it looked so easy still baffled Kakashi. Night comes shortly after and different from yesterday, Naruto doesn't sleep early; in fact, he seems to be having problem sleeping, as he's squirming more on his bed until he finally stopped and staring at the Sandaime still calmly sign his paperworks.
"...I'm sorry, Jiji."
Kakashi almost dropped his disguise because the sudden mellow tone and half-whispered apologize. From brief glance of Hokage to him, he seems to notice it too. Hiruzen gets up from his seat and sat on the side of Naruto's bed.
"I complained and whined too much today, aren't I?"
The Hokage smiled, while Naruto sighs.
"I really don't mean to overdo it but it's just—"
"I understand, Naruto."
"But Kakashi-sensei don't." Naruto replied, somehow he sounds so tired, "and he didn't visit me today," the genin frowned, then after a moment he whispered, "..i think he can't deal with me anymore."
Kakashi felt a pang of guilt in his chest, noticed Sandaime's glance at his side (again), but he remained silent.
"He's your jounin sensei. Of course he can deal with you, Naruto." Hiruzen slowly tells the blond, hint of humor present to lighten the topic, "but he's... a rather busy man."
The younger one frowned, clearly looks unconvinced, but finally nodded, albeit reluctantly. They stayed silent for a moment then, each in their own thoughts but comfortable with the silence anyway, before the blond breaks it once again, with a voice worthy of whispers, "do you think Kakashi-sensei will forgive me, jiji?"
"Of course he will. What kind of teacher to not forgive his student?" The Sandaime smiled bitterly, as if remembering something; probably his own genin team back then..? Did jiji has genin team too?
Naruto makes a face, "he hasn't teach us anything beside team work... and stopping us from beating each other off."
The Hokage chuckled again, his wrinkled hand moved to pat Naruto's hand gently, "sleep now, Naruto. I'm sure they will let you out tomorrow."
Then the Sandaime gets up, and Naruto turned his head to where Kakashi hides and he almost slipped his disguise again because it's just hit him now how Naruto looks. It's not his pale face—he already got better from yesterday—but how weary the blond looks. He looks so tired, but not physically tired; he almost looks like those ANBU members who are very close on edge, depression gnawed their mind they refused to die but reluctant to live either. Naruto shouldn't have that kind of expression on his face. He's summer personified; bright as the sun and sky, noisy as the cicadas. In fact, any twelve year old kid shouldn't have that kind of expression on their faces. For all his whining and complains, for all his spoiled five-year-old antics, Naruto is still a child too weary for his age. He's been dealing with his illness for all his life and will be dealing with it for the rest of his life; Kakashi doesn't know if he can do the same. Kakashi found a new respect to his sensei's son. Hi sensei's ill yet strong son.
Blue eyes closed and the owner's breathing evened; evident of deep sleep, and Kakashi finally dropped his disguise. He walked closer to the blond, almost ignoring the Sandaime as his lone eye focused solely on his student; how serene he looked on hospital bed. Comparing Naruto's expressions from earlier and now, Kakashi almost afraid if Naruto is dead, not sleeping.
Then Kakashi hears the Sandaime sighs, "He never know when to stop."
The silver-haired jounin just nodded, putting both his hands in his pants pockets and continue watching his student, as if afraid he will die any minutes now.
"Shouldn't you rest now, Hokage-sama?" He politely asked, looking at the village's leader.
Hiruzen nodded, and began walking out of the room. Reluctantly, Kakashi follows him out; sending a last glance to Naruto before he closed the door and escort the Sandaime back to his house.)
From that (stressful) days in his life, Kakashi has learned the hard way to pay more and more attention to the blond. The last Uchiha be damned, because his sensei's son could get bed-ridden simply because of the damn heat and (god forbid) die because of heat-stroke combined by fatigue and extreme headache. Sure he checked the Uchiha every now and then but the rest of his attention mostly focused on the blond.
So now, when Naruto's movements are unusually sluggish on one of their training time, Kakashi instantly alarmed.
"Naruto, stop." Kakashi ordered, and the blond complied, stopping half-way of his thirty laps while frowning in confusion to his sensei. He dragged his feet to his silver-haired sensei, stopping in front of the said sensei and ignored Sasuke's and Sakura's curious gaze.
"What, sensei? I can still continue, y'know. Today's unusually warm."
Kakashi looks at the blond's posture and frowned faintly, "take off your clothes."
Naruto gawked, Sasuke who is coincidentally passed in front of them tripped, and Sakura has sprinted to approach Sasuke. Then the blond hugged himself, leaning away from his teacher with a disbelief yet disgusted look on his face, and Kakashi is very confused for a moment, then he noticed Sasuke's disgusted scowl and realized, "I still very much appreciated the beauty of woman's body, you see." He drawled. "But if you won't take it off then maybe i should take them off for you, hm, Naruto?"
An eye smile is enough to shut Naruto and makes his face pale, but then he quickly do as the silver-haired ninja said.
All his upper clothes get taken off, Kakashi widens his lone eyes, Sakura gasped, and Sasuke has gone pretty much still.
Behind the orange monstrosity and his shirt, there are numbers of gashes and cuts all over Naruto's body and his hands; most of them new, the rest are recovering but not looking better. Naruto frowned to look down, curious to what caused his friends's commotion, then sheepishly, nervously, rubbed his nape.
"Um," he said, the first to break the silence, "I'm sorry, sensei...?"
Kakashi has forced Naruto promised to take care of himself and to tell Kakashi if he obtained an injury or if he feels like he can't keep up the training. To see Naruto covered in wounds while training normally and doesn't inform Kakashi whatsover really makes Naruto feels guilty, Kakashi knows. It doesn't stop Kakashi from sighing in despair, "Sasuke, Sakura, training finished for today. Go home and rest. Naruto, stay here."
Albeit reluctantly, Sakura and Sasuke nodded, and they leave the training ground while glancing at Naruto in worry. While Naruto frowned, watches his friends go before looked down and grumbling.
"I'm sorry, okay? It's not like i can feel the pain whatsover.."
Kakashi is seriously ready to get grey hairs, "...what did you say, Naruto?"
Said genin looks up, raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I can't feel any pain at all. I didn't know if i have those injuries." A pause, Naruto adopted a thoughtful look, "...maybe i know because i can't move as freely as usual and my body's kinda sticky but..." he shrugged, "It's not like i know if it's because of those injuries. Didn't Jiji tell you, sensei?"
Kakashi kept quiet while trying to process Naruto's words, comparing it with Sandaime's briefing of Naruto's numb sensations and Naruto's tenant to cause special conditions, and trying not to tear his hair out of frustration. God, why is he so dumb? How did Naruto Uzumaki makes Hatake Kakashi, the genius proidy jounin, looks so dumb?
Naruto seems to take the silence and Kakashi's pale face as 'no' for he looked more confused, "He didn't?"
Sure Kakashi knows Naruto could hardly feel pain, he knows the reason, but to this extent? "You... can't feel any pain at all?" Kakashi asked in disbelief.
"Well.. yes?" Naruto frowned. Then he looked around before he leans closer to his sensei, one hand up to the side of his mouth, like telling a legit secret, "Jiji said it's something to do with the Kyuubi inside me and his demonic chakra, dulled my pain senses and make me numb as side effects... or something like that. I don't really understand, though." A pause, Naruto leaned back and looked at Kakashi strangely, "why do you think i use gloves, sensei?"
Because he can't feel his numb hands without help from the gloves.
Kakashi is ready to retire right here and now, really. Because he's sure he just lost a decade worth of age just by this.. horrifying truth. He really thought the numb and not-feeling-pain won't go to this extent, really. And Naruto always said the gloves are improtant because it's a gift from his Jiji; that he should always wear it as sign of respect, so Kakashi doesn't really connects them to the numb sensations.
Nothing is ever easy on taking care of one Naruto Uzumaki, alright.
.
.
Their first C-rank mission has surprisingly easy start, Naruto thinks.
The first quarter is easy, because even with the (un)glory of chronic illness, a few infamous missing-nins-turned-thugs cannot take down Naruto Uzumaki and his bastard friend Sasuke Uchiha dubbed duck-butt, with the support of beautiful Haruno Sakura. Naruto counts all is good, at least until Kakashi suspects their client, Tazuna, has lied about the mission's rank. Because really, that is like the start of every nopes and wrongs in their mission.
Maybe Naruto do expect some nopes and wrongs, as he's the quick one to pump up and yell 'YES! We SHOULD still continue the mission, sensei! I am NOT going back under this hot weather! Just carry on!' But never to this extent, really.
As soon as they reached the little village, suddenly, a thick mist appeared out of nowhere, the air turned cold so fast and Naruto is gritting his teeth; struggling to not swear and yell to the extreme change of temperature. It's proven to be a good thing as from somewhere in the mist, Kakashi-sensei shouted orders to protect Tazuna-san and be alert for enemies. True to his word, there're two enemy-nins appeared from inside the mist, and obviously they are not simply no-name thugs with the hitai-ates on their head. Doesn't mean Naruto wants to know their name, though.
They lunged forward with creepy paedophilian/psycho grins, and while Sasuke lunged head on, Naruto makes at least twenty Kage-bunshins to distract them for a moment. Then Naruto takes out a scroll from his sweater pocket while grumbling about the mist, and by the time Naruto has unsealed his beloved orange scarf and tied it around his neck, Sasuke already jumped back to look at Naruto like he just grew another head. And Sakura 's eyes widens so big they might as well jumped out.
"What?" Naruto asked defensively, but before Sasuke could retort with smart-ass mocking comment and be a bastard he is, sound of clanging metals makes them turned their heads to the two enemy ninjas, to see all of his clones already killed.
"Enough playing, brats!" Barked one of them; ugjerk, Naruto dubbed, "I'll kill y'all and feed yer bodies to the beasts!"
What beast, Naruto wanted to retort, but they lunged again, more quickly and ferocious than before, so the blond focused more attention on taking down ugjerk while Sasuke take down dumbtard. It worked well, surprisingly. Turns out both ugjerk and dumbtard are both dumb and arrogant, they are relatively easy to trick; with the help of Naruto's amazing acting skill, henged shadow clones, and Sasuke's fire jutsu show off, they both got knocked out. Naruto pulled his scarf up to cover lower of his face from cold damp mist, and scoffed in satisfaction as he poked ugjerk's body with his foot.
But then, the mist started to disappear, and at distances, with the glory of getting imprisoned by water (of all things), is their sensei, with a scary looking bandaged man with massive meat-knife.
Then the bandaged man looked at them, scoffed, and started talking, "Is that your kids, Hatake?" He said, somehow he looks disgusted but amused at once, "how feeble."
Naruto stiffens in defense because that man whoever it is has stroked his personal ego; the nurses always talk about how feeble his body is and how he should forget his dreams of being a ninja. But fuck them because he is Naruto Uzumaki and nobody could rule what his dreams are. And this enemy-nin is.. (un)surprisingly managed to annoy Naruto just by that simple word somehow, so he stepped forward while frowning furiously, pointed at the said enemy, and began shouting, "What did you say?! Who the fuck did you call feeble, you ugly bandaged bastard?!"
Sasuke looks mildly horrified, while Kakashi widens his eyes and looks more worried and alarmed, "Naruto!"
While the enemy-nin looks real amused now.
But Naruto is not finished, "I'll have you know i'm not feeble at all, ya' bastard! Taste my punch first and then you could talk! Also, disperse this mist, will you?! It's so damn cold! How the fuck did you survive in this cold with those ugly tank-top anyway?!"
Now Sasuke looks horrified, while Kakashi makes despaired noises and the enemy-nin looks torn between enraged or amused. Naruto is so ready to launch forward and give the bandaged man a taste of his full-powered punch; it might dislodged his shoulder or hand afterwards but this man here needs to get a lesson to not call Naruto Uzumaki 'feeble' ever again. Besides, Naruto has been itchy to punch whoever called him feeble since forever. Unfortunately those persons are usually nurses or civilians and Jiji is always there to stop Naruto from punching anyone. But now Jiji isn't here. And he's an enemy. So nobody will stop Naruto from doing just that.
Except there is someone who stopped Naruto, in the form of masked-ninja, throwing needles at the man's neck and lift the man's body on his shoulder. Then the masked ninja nodded at the now free Kakashi-sensei.
"I'll be taking this body. Thank you for your help."
"What?!"
Then Kakashi-sensei nodded back like this is a legit transaction business and the ninja disappeared with (dead?) ugly bandaged's body.
"The hell?!"
"Naruto, language."
Naruto makes unintelligent annoyed noises and the mist disappeared completely, allowing the team to continue their mission; to Tazuna's house they go.
.
.
The kid has started shouting out of no where and Naruto's head started to ache as fuck.
So they arrived at Tazuna's house, listening to the story of this annoying corrupt man (their main enemy, apparently) named Gato, while Naruto's squirming on his seat to get a better position and try to concentrate on the story at the same time. The story has just finished with Naruto understand about ten percent of it, and he just picked up the drink on the table when the kid enter the room, accusing and yelling that they will die very soon, that they can't do anything to help anyone, and stormed out of the room.
Leaving Naruto to put back the glass slowly, gritted his teeth, then clenches his fists. Naruto overestimated his control over his emotions as he still somewhat lashed out in reflex, "What the hell's wrong with that kid, anyway?!"
The combination of his uncontrolled emotions and Sakura's warning whisper, "Naruto!" makes his head pulsed and Naruto leans back, closed his eyes, count to ten in his mind, and exhaled a long sigh.
"You can't really blame me, Sakura-chan. That kid's seriously got stick up his ass i almost sure he's infected by Sasuke-teme's brooding in five seconds."
"Care to repeat that, dead-last?"
"I said—"
"Maa, maa, it's not good to fight inside other's house. And language, Naruto."
Sasuke grunted in annoyance, while Naruto looks away and grumbling unintelligently.
"Please forgive him," Tsunami-san said apologetically, then she started telling them about the kid's—Inari's father who raised up against Gato and killed in the process.
Naruto isn't sure if he should be more angry or if he should slap the kid in the face and yell at his face to stop brooding and being pathetic in general. Both options left Naruto with headache for at least one hour but if anything, Naruto is very eager to yell at anyone who got stick up their asses. He just needs the right time, is all.
.
.
They helped Tazuna build the bridge, much to Naruto's complains.
It's not like Naruto doesn't want to help Tazuna, or that he's too tired to actually do anything, but he just achieved a comfortable position to sit in the house. Kakashi-sensei has outright forced Naruto to get up and begin helping building the bridge. Naruto made faces at the silver-haired jounin first, but then Kakashi-sensei moved to lift Naruto up in piggyback and the blond finally resigned and gets up himself while yelling in embarrassment mixed with extreme annoyance.
So now Naruto the original is nailing a wood; has been doing so for an hour now, while Naruto the clones are busy from lifting woods and water, to paint things and just mess things up while whining in general. Few clones even tried to suicide earlier, much to Kakashi-sensei's worry.
"Naruto, stop."
Said blond scowled, and he's about to yell at Kakashi-sensei why he has stopped, stop annoying him, and complains about the damp air but all of them disappeared when he sees Kakashi-sensei's solemn expression.
Naruto frowned, slowly dropped the hammer in his hand and the nail on the other hand, "..what's wrong, sensei?"
"Take off your gloves."
He blinked owlishly, confused, but reluctantly nodded and takes off his black gloves.
Behind his comfy black gloves, his ten fingers are covered in blood; his own blood, with his nails are mostly crushed and the top of his fingers looked so utterly destroyed it's gross. Naruto looks up to see a piece of wood in Kakashi-sensei's hands has blotches of dried blood on them, then he looked at the wood he currently worked on and there's a red pattern where his fingers are. Naruto doesn't know when his fingers got crushed accidentally by his hammer but he certainly doesn't realize that sooner so...
"..Oops?"
Kakashi-sensei sighs. "Sakura," he called.
Said pink-haired genin quickly trotted to them, "yes, sensei?"
"Please help Naruto with his hands," The silver haired jounin drawled, and gestured to Naruto's bloody hands, "I'll do your part of work."
Sakura looked ready to scowl at the dumbness of dead-last but gasped when she glances at Naruto's hands. "..okay, sensei." She warily said instead, her inner doctor screaming to quickly clean those injuries and bandage them properly.
Naruto gets half-dragged by Sakura, found himself unable to even whine as Sakura send furious mixed annoyed glances at him and her grip on his hand is so tight Naruto can't even budge. Sakura started to clean Naruto's injuries and her previous furious scowl has changed to a more concerned one, like a proper beautiful nurse she is, and Naruto is mostly pleased to see Sakura-chan complained while doing her job wonderfully.
"Why are you so dumb, anyway?! Why can't you be more like Sasuke?! How did you get accidentally destroy your nails like this?! Seriously, Naruto! Don't do this again, okay?! Try not to be dumb just. For. A moment. And be more careful! What are you gonna do without Kakashi-sensei noticed this or without me around?!"
Despite her spicy and painful words, her touch on Naruto's fingers are surprisingly careful and gentle, and her work is seriously neat. Naruto is grinning like a loon okay, because hearing Sakura complains like all those nurses, means Sakura-chan cares. And Naruto is seriously in joy to realize that.
"Stop grinning like that, baka! Do you remember anything i said?!"
Sakura-chan's 'love-tap' on his head makes Naruto grins more, and Sakura scowled to see that. But her pose has relaxed once more; she's relieved to see Naruto is not in pain at all, but still extremely annoyed because of Naruto's dumbness anyway.
Unfortunately, the fluffy atmosphere has to be broken by the form of a kid named Inari, stormed inside and scowling fiercely at the two genins.
"Why do you all try so hard anyway? It's useles. You can never defeat Gato. Go home or die."
Sakura frowned, while Naruto scowled and looked ready to lunge forward and shake the brooding off of the kid's body. His bandaged fingers twitched, itchy to punch something—preferably the kid's face—but Naruto remained in his place. "Why do you not try hard, kid? Do you think your father died protecting you just to have you mope around and do nothing?!"
Sakura looked alarmed, "Naruto!"
Inari looked enraged, "You don't understand anything! What do an outsider like you know?!"
"I fucking know for sure that your brooding results in nothing, shrimp!" Naruto yelled, "You waste your father's sacrifice, y'know?! He doesn't want you to brood and mope around like this! He wants you to fight and try! But did yo do that?! Did you?! NO! You don't because all you do is forgetting his sacrifice and being a pathetic little wimp!"
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" Inari screamed, tears threatening to flow down from his eyes and stormed out of the room.
Leaving Naruto to sigh; and now his emotions has made his body rigid, the headache also comes with full force. The blond slowly, carefully, laid down on tatami in futile effor to ease his headache. Sakura who turned her head on Naruto, previously scowling and ready to scold him, looked concerned and frowned instead.
"Are.. are you okay, Naruto?"
"My head's hurt so much i think it's gonna explode, Sakura-chan."
Sakura looked annoyed to Naruto exaggerating things, but seeing Naruto closed his eyes and trying to even his breathing makes her thought that maybe it is that hurt.
The pink haired genin reluctantly nodded, murmured, "I'll tell Kakashi-sensei."
"Thanks, Sakura-chan."
.
.
Turns out thirty minutes of laying down on tatami and try to think nothing helps with his headache.
Naruto's back to help Tazuna and the others build the bridge for the afternoon, but Kakashi is very eager to not let him get near anything sharp. That's fine for him, really. Because even if the injury doesn't hurt, the blood will be difficult to wash and the sticky feeling is uncomfortable. It's not like he can do much with his bandaged hands; Sakura-chan would kill him if he ruined her handiwork by being the hyperactive ninja he is. Lifting woods is the only thing he could do smoothly so yeah, Naruto does that 'till evening comes.
Just before the sun sets, Sasuke wandered off to the woods with permission, and curious, Naruto tailed him. In the way, he passed a beautiful woman picking... grass? And she smiled at her, so Naruto smiled and waved back. He's actually curious and wants to talk to her but... he never fancy the feeling of grass itching his skin so nah.
Deep in the forest, the bastard actually training climbing tree and even though Naruto is a bit more skilled on chakra control thanks to his Jiji, but he's not going to get the duck-butt surpass him. So climb the trees they do until dinner comes.
Dinner surprisingly smooth with Inari avoids Naruto like a plague and Naruto ignores the kid's glare for the favor of enjoying his warm meal. Tsunami-san really knows how to cook, and Naruto is happy with that. Little did he know Kakashi also sighed in relief when his blond student doesn't complain at all about the meals served.
After that though, Naruto blearily takes a bath (still grumbling to the cold water) then just drop down on his futon, fast-asleep. Courtesy of his ill body.
The morning comes fast with Inari somewhat looked at him with less hostile and more annoyed. Why, Naruto doesn't understand. Breakfast come and Tsunami-san said Inari comes to his room at night, maybe trying to apologize, but Naruto has already asleep and Kakashi-sensei is against anyone, repeat anyone, to disturb the blond's sleep. Naruto glanced at his silver-haired sensei reading his cursed orange book; cautious if he told anyone about the illness. Said sensei eye-smiled him, clearly means 'no' and Naruto could only sheepishly grins while rubbing his nape when his two teammates stare at him curiously. Sasuke though, more like suspiciously.
They are about to help Tazuna build the bridge again when suddenly, a thick mist appeared and sound of clanging metals fills the clearing. Sasuke-teme is on guard beside him and Sakura-chan's standing in front of the old man, holding a kunai in a death-grip. Good thing Naruto already has his scarf on.
Both genins rushed forward to the sound of metals, but stopped when the air whistle and kunai passed in front of them. Looking to the side, it's that masked ninja again. Naruto pointed accusingly at him (her?), "You!"
"Me,"
"You lied!"
Sasuke almost rolls in eyes as if saying 'obvious, duh' but he lunged forward with his fancy Uchiha-style taijutsu, Naruto helps with his clones because it's so fucking cold and his bandaged hands feels so cold and damp he wanted to just yell and throws tantrums. But his life is more important than the cold intimidating air so Naruto waste most of the time to grit his teeth, flex his fingers, and tightens his scarf.
Naruto feels things prickling (tickling, more likely) his neck and his back, Sasuke meanwhile grunted in pain, trying hard not to fell down. Naruto stares dumbfounded at him, and Sasuke looks back with anger and confusion. Then Naruto looks at Sasuke's back and blinked.
If those needles also stabbed his back... "Oh," he weakly said, that must be the cause of prickling cold sensations. His hand moved to pluck out few of them which are on the back of his neck. But, he frowned, "that was supposed to hurt?"
But that's just.. needles! Weapons of.. he doesn't know, old grandmas who loves to make warm scarf of wool?
The confusion on Naruto's face makes Sasuke more confused then more angry somehow. Little did Naruto knows the masked enemy also looks at him with dumbfounded expression.
"Well," Naruto said, looked at few senbons stabbed his hand, "Ow."
...That sounds so fake and cringe-worthy he understands why Sasuke makes strangled noises at his poor claim of pain.
But then the mirror-ice dome appeared. With the masked-nin floating (floating!) inside the mirrors. While introducing himself, nonetheless!
Naruto shivered, because it's so damn cold and Sasuke's flashy Gokakyuu doesn't help at all. The blond will mocks the raven-haired if only the situation is not so dire. His movements are rather sluggish because of the cold; it's basically freezing for Naruto, causing his timing to be mostly off.
You can't exactly blame Naruto for not quickly dodge that senbons raining on him, really. He has fair share of senbons on his body already. More senbons and beatings on his body even, because Naruto Uzumaki is just reckless like that. But the senbons caused the feeling of cold steel prickling on his skin. They don't hurt, per say. Senbons are child's play to hurt Naruto. But they are annoying. And cold. It's very irritating.
Then suddenly Sasuke decided it's a good time being a less-teme and goes martyr himself; throws Naruto out of line of freezing senbon and takes the damage head on. He kneels in pain soon after, of course.
Naruto is furious.
"What the hell, teme?! What did you do?! Why did you do that?!"
Actually, he's more like panics because even if Sasuke is a bastard, he is a normal human. A normal, healthy human without demonic chakra flowing on his body to mess up his pain senses like a certain someone. He can very much feel the pain of senbons all over his body. Naruto rushed to Sasuke, holding him to sit down still.
"Wait! Why are your eyes red?! Did you get senbons on your eyes?! God damn tell me you didn't!"
You can blame his brains who caused his attention-span to be so short.
Sasuke looked to Naruto, and frowned in... confusion? Anger? Jealousy? Those emotions are no strangers to Naruto, he could recognize them in an instant as he often saw them stare back at him on hospital's mirror.
"Why—" Sasuke choked out, "—how.. are you... still... standing..?"
Naruto makes a face, "Really, teme? Really? That's what you're concerned about? Why am i still standing? Why, obviously because i don't go martyr myself on the line of fire! Or line of senbons, whatever." He begins to lift-drag said bastard's body up and put him on sidelines, how Haku got amused that he stopped the assault got ignored. "Why are you so stupid, anyway?! I thought you are smarter than this! You're causing me headache, dammit! And this cold, this fucking cold ice mirrors! After all of this done I'm going to throw a fit i'll make Kakashi-sensei's ears bleed!"
Sasuke seems to be losing consciousness fast, and with him on sidelines, Naruto pointed at the enemy with his now clawed-fingers. His head ache, the cold is killing him, and he is angry to Sasuke, to Kakashi-sensei, to the annoying senbons, to Haku, to the world in general. He's frustrated, too. And tired. He wants all of this done and fast.
Naruto feels himself sink a bit deeper in the red chakra inside him, feeling them rushing his senses, feeling his anger took over him a little bit more, to tune out the headache.
"Haku, right?"
His vision started to turn murky red and red chakra flare around him; he noted with glee that Haku has stopped floating and his body rigid with surprise. He pulled down the scarf covering half of his face with a clawed index finger; silently wonders how he look like now, all grinning with torn bandages on his hands and clawed red fingers.
"I'd ask you to turn off the mist, get back the temperature to normal, but you just wouldn't fucking listen. You don't understand the freezing cold air, the annoying senbons all over your body, and the rush of headache now, would you?! Damn normal bodies! Fine then, I'll play by your rules now!"
Naruto lunged forward to the mirror where Haku is floating, hands clenches to a fist and he punched the mirror with all his might; demonic chakra powered punch. He might hear something pop on his shoulder; probably his shoulder got dislodged, but the crunch of mirror shattered under his fist makes him forget about that. He continued his assault, and soon it looks more like cat and mouse with Haku avoids Naruto at all costs; said blonde pursues him with vigor, breaking mirrors and (his own) bones on the process.
Haku looks horrified with the grinning blond; blood-shot red slitted eyes, long fangs on his teeth, blood red clawed fingers, and those limbs, oh those limbs, they're not supposed to bent that way. The worst part is, not even his senbons could hurt or stop the blond anymore. Every time the blond will get closer and closer, and every time that happens he will launch attacks worthy to create cracks and crater on rock. Haku has learned it the first time he got that punch in his abdomen, but still, he can't help himself to not lose his focus in fear, and he split second in fear is enough for Naruto to reach him and, once again ignoring his broken limb by flung them up and punched Haku in the face.
The white mask broke at the same time Haku flung back and slammed to tree bark. Naruto lets out a victory cry, and dropped on the ground.
With his objective has fulfilled, the red chakra disappeared, and Naruto whimpers to feel fatigue and headache and cold air comes full force on his poor body. Naruto doesn't know what happened after that as he closed his eyes. He somewhat saw someone runs, sound of chirping bird, and more commotion—Naruto doesn't understand what happened and frankly? He doesn't care. If Sasuke-teme could got unconscious in the middle of mission and Naruto is sure as hell he can, too.
Naruto remembers Kakashi-sensei's surprised yet horrified face looked down on him at some time, though. He tired to move, but he hears that familiar creak of broken bones which he doesn't know from which part of his body did that come from.
Naruto frowned. "My bones..." he whispered, "they creaked, sensei." A pause, "I hate creaking bones." He whined.
The last thing he remembers is the amused yet exasperated glint in Kakashi-sensei's lone eye.
.
.
Naruto woke up to the familiar white ceiling of his VIP room in Konoha Hospital, and he can't feel his body.
He panics. Because some.. things, like bandages and woods holding his body but he can't feel if his hands and legs are there. He began to trash around but stopped; because his Jiji never likes it if Naruto thrash around things. Naruto exhaled a long breath to calm himself down and he glances around to see a... lump?
Naruto blinks to clear his vision. Wait no that's not a lump... that's a... kid? Sitting down beside his hospital bed and his head in his hands on the white bed, fast asleep. Then he glanced at a window; to almost got a heart attack to the sudden appearance of his silver-haired teacher.
"Yo," he said, eye-smiled him.
The blond opens his mouth to, 1) throws tantrums, 2) demand explanations of what the fuck happened, 3) where are his gloves and clothes, 4) close off the damn window it's so fucking cold!, 5) who the fuck is that shrimp. But his throat feels so dry all he could do is groan.
Kakashi-sensei realized what Naruto wants to say, and he looks more smug and pleased to know that Naruto can't make Kakashi's ears bleed with his whining. Not now, at least. Fortunately Kakashi still has the grace of being his sensei so he helped Naruto drinks a glass of water.
Naruto opens his mouth once again to do one of those five things mentioned earlier, but then the lump moved, and the kid looks up with a relieved expression.
"Inari?!" He choked out, clearly surprised, "Why are you here? What are you doing here? Wait, don't tell me my mission failed so you have to move to Konoha!"
Kakashi looks amused, while Naruto looks horrified to see Inari began crying.
"H-hey..." He started, "It's okay, y'know... I'm sorry for... failing the mission." Then swallowed because Inari hasn't stopped crying, the bitter taste of him and his team failing the mission and his head started to ache, oh God what even, "..are you okay, Inari? How about the old man and your mother?"
But then Inari shakes his head, "—Thank you."
One second, five seconds. "What." Naruto looks dumbfounded.
Inari wipes his tears away, "Everyone's 'kay," he said more calmly, "'m fine, bridge's finished. Everyone's fine."
Naruto blink, still dumbfounded. His mission's not failed, then..? That's a relief but... "...then why are you here?"
Inari looks down, "'m 'ied."
"What."
"I'm worried, damn it!" Inari yelled, "i'm worried if you died for me—like, like my f-father! If i was late! If you—"
Inari has started crying again and Naruto is very very confused, he glanced at Kakashi-sensei to ask for help but the damn sensei has disappeared to God knows where. He's never good to comfort children okay, Konohamaru is an anomaly since that kid only follows him everywhere because he dubbed Naruto as 'Jiji-stealer.'
So Naruto shrugged, and does the thing he's good at, that is to say, grins, laughs, and shrugs every worry off. "Come on, Inari! It's not that bad, y'know! Just few broken bones, no biggie for a great ninja like me! Besides, i can't die before i become Hokage, y'know!"
Inari looks relieved, and soon he grinned too. Now that Inari is not a mean and kinda jerk like before, he's actually a really good talking partner, they tease around while Naruto fills on what happened after he passed out. Kakashi-sensei helped Naruto on details after Inari got picked up by Tazuna.
"Thank you," Tazuna-san says, and Inari waved to Naruto with widest grins he ever saw, "come visit us if you have time, Naruto-nii!"
So the bandaged man—Zabuza, got very angry to see Haku got thrashed, resulting to him avoided Kakashi-sensei's chidori to cause heavy injury. Then Gato the pig come, with army of thugs aiming to kill everyone. That means also Zabuza and Haku. Zabuza feels extremely betrayed he forgot about revenging Haku and rushed to Gato instead. In the middle of killing spree, Haku woke up again and saved Zabuza from a sword stab... by taking it to his own heart... literally. In the end, Zabuza also died due to blood loss after killing Gato.
Then Kakashi-sensei in his panicked state has picked up Naruto and straight up run back to Konoha. More specifically, to the Hospital. He left a shadow clone for Sakura and Sasuke, and when they went back, Inari insist to tag along. Naruto has been unconscious for a day, now. Turns out both his shoulders got dislodged, his fingers's bones are mostly cracked, his hands and feet's are broken, and all his wounds by senbons are bleeding profusely. Not to mention the amount of poison in his already ill body. Naruto is not looking up to meet his Jiji who, will most likely disappointed by his reckless act. Kakashi-sensei's sigh and disappointed look as he remind Naruto of his 'promise' is enough, please.
Anyway Tazuna is scheduled to pick up Inari today and they went back with Kakashi-sensei's shadow clone as escort.
That is too much to process for Naruto's ill mind, but he counts everything is okay, and the fact that the bridge named 'The Great Naruto Bridge' on insistence of Inari makes him very pleased. That's enough for him now, and Naruto peacefully sinks back to sleep.
.
.
A/N: To straight things up, guys, i don't really follow Naruto manga/anime, so pardon me for many things off but i assure you, once this series hit shippuden i will at least try my best on the timeline.
I actually want to make this full Wave but Kakashi's brief POV is very tempting. And it's kinda a challenge to write Kakashi. But i do enjoy it though.
If you guys are curious, no, there will not be any pairings. Especially not with Naruto. Try to understand that this Naruto is far more bitter than the canon one. He's tired of being tired, prone to depression, and he's still a brat. He doesn't believe anyone could stand on his whining and complain except the Sandaime. It'll be a long way for him to find trust in his friends.
Yes, the Konoha 12 will know about Naruto's illness. But i imagine Naruto himself doesn't want everyone knows. Just wait for it alright!