Kyuubi was sleeping. He had stayed alert long enough to heal Naruto, to lend a dash of his energy so the kid wouldn't be bedridden for a month, and then he had curled in his cell for a long nap. His host hadn't taken much physical damage, but the energy he kept expending was more than he liked. Teaching a kid to summon and do rasengen at his age was ridiculous. Using his energy to summon Gamabunta was bad enough. Having the toad transform into his shape was just plain insulting. He planned to give Naruto an earful the next time the brat had the nerve to ask for some of his chakra. Not that he even bothered to ask anymore. Naruto was starting to take it for granted. That was another thing Kyuubi planned to correct him on after he rested.
It was a vibration that woke him up. A stone dropping into a still pool and sending tiny ripples over the water. Just a quiet sensation that something had changed, something wasn't right. He had felt a similar ripple when Shukaku's host had entered Konoha. He hadn't paid any attention to that because as much as they disliked each other, he knew he woud always win if they were forced into a confrontation. It was common sense. He was the nine tailed. Shukaku was nothing more than an unsightly annoyance at best. This time the vibration was foreign, unsettling enough to make him raise his groggy head. He hadn't slept nearly long enough.
His host was sitting on a cool rocky surface and staring blindly at the huge faces carved in the mountain across the way. He had been sitting there for hours. Kyuubi was aware of this in a vague way, something he didn't bother to focus on because it had no effect on him. He was always aware, peripherally, of Naruto's actions, his status, his thoughts and emotions. They had a symbiotic relationship, after all. He kept the boy ravenous to feed his own energy reserves, the only thing that kept him sane in his prison, and he came to attention when the boy was in danger of breaking, mentally or physically. That was all.
Kyuubi looked through the bars, through the dark, and through Naruto's glazed unfocused eyes. He prodded him the only way he could, with a whisper soft burst of his energy, which he immediately resented having to use when he was supposed to be conserving and replenishing.
'Something's wrong,' Kyuubi broadcasted.
Wrong. That was the word. Not just different. Something was wrong. The world had changed once. Kyuubi had been young then, young and foolish and unaware of how final the change would be until it was too late to do anything but accept it. The changes had been wrong. Wrong like this, whatever he was feeling, was wrong.
Naruto blinked, startled, and looked around. He was still dazed from the thoughts he had been having about that girl and the boy he had become closest to. Kyuubi let him wake up slowly for now. He was busy letting his senses spread out around him, feeling the humans, chakra, landscape and wildlife. Searching. And as his senses spread out and his fur hunched around his shoulders, he felt another ripple, closer than the first. A bigger stone. Not just that, but a familiar one.
'One of your friends is gone,' he stated. 'Completely removed from this world.'
There was no emotion in his tone. There were only two, maybe three humans he would extend himself to protect on Naruto's behalf. The ones whose deaths might break his fragile host. The others, the 'friends,' the ones Naruto spent time with and cared about but didn't need, were all expendable as far as Kyuubi was concerned. This one had been cared for but not needed. Kyuubi was more interested in the sensation of that life disappearing than the thought that one of Naruto's friends was gone. His host had lived most of his short life without friends. One more or less wouldn't make a difference.
It was the feeling that mattered. He had felt that sensation before. He recognized it now. It was the same thing he had felt the moment all of his kind had been sealed away, leaving him alone in the world.
'It's happening again.'
.-.
Lee didn't like it when his friends and teammates came to visit him. He hated the way they winced and smiled, trying so hard to cheer him up, to offer sympathy and support. They came for him and he didn't want to be the one making them feel bad when they went away afterward. It wasn't their fault, he had known the risk of fighting all out, even if he hadn't realized exactly how dangerous and ruthless his opponent could be. He didn't like the way they refused to accept that he hadn't given up and never would. They should have been reassured by his determination, his confidence in himself. Instead, the more he tried to make them feel better the worse they looked, and the harder it was to smile when they inevitably came back again.
Neji was the worst. It wasn't because Neji cared more. Of all Lee's visitors, Naruto and Tenten had taken his injuries the hardest. And maybe Gai-sensei, but at least he had been encouraging when Lee proclaimed his goal of making a full recovery no matter the risks involved. Neji didn't say anything. He didn't even try to smile or cheer him up. Lee didn't know how to talk to him anymore. Weeks before he could have challenged him, boasted his plans to defeat his teammate and rival through hard work alone. And Neji would have sniffed and reminded him of his lack of genius, his place in life and the fact that destiny couldn't be changed through effort alone. Naruto had broken that part of Neji and Lee didn't know if it had left his teammate better or worse.
The visits made Lee uncomfortable. It was the way Neji looked at him now. He could see in his eyes that looking at him left Neji disturbed, determined like he had been before, but with a different sort of weight on his shoulders now. Lee wondered if Neji saw his defeat as confirmation of his old beliefs, or if he looked like that because he saw himself as responsible for taking up the slack left in the team with Lee out of commission.
Neither of his teammates would tell him what sort of training Gai-sensei was having them do without him. Tenten smiled when he asked and told him to concentrate on getting better, and then she left as quickly as she could. Neji didn't answer at all, merely asking if it hurt, if he was tired, if he wanted to be alone, as if a question about their training wasn't worth dignifying with an answer when Lee was confined to a hospital bed. It made him feel guilty and sad, and he didn't want to feel that way when it took all of his effort to remain determined and hopeful. He was torn between keeping Neji's visits short, so he wouldn't feel so upset afterward, and wanting to make them longer so he could get a hint of that old comradery they had shared just a short time ago.
Neji had visited a few minutes before his sensei's foremost rival appeared in his room. Lee was staring out the window, doing his best to talk himself out of that confused and dark place Neji's visit had left him in. He didn't hear or feel the usual wind that came with teleportation, but he had a sudden prickling on the back of his neck, as if someone had walked in his shadow. He glanced around and then started to look back out the window - the door to the room was still closed and he would have heard it open - and then he spotted something out of the corner of his eye, flinched painfully, and looked again. Sure enough, a familiar figure was standing near the foot of his bed.
"Yo," Kakashi greeted, one hand lifted and a faint smile curving his visible eye.
Lee straightened up as much as he could. "Kakashi-sensei! I didn't hear you come in!"
"You were distracted," said Kakashi. "And I was quiet."
"Very quiet," Lee said, in an impressed and happy tone. He would never have expected to get a visit from one of the other team leaders, especially Gai-sensei's most esteemed rival. It was an honor that made his eyes gleam in a way that was usually reserved for Sakura alone. "Are you here to visit Sasuke-kun?"
"Eventually," Kakashi nodded.
Lee's expression dropped some when Kakashi tilted his head and looked him over. He didn't want to hear any of the usual comments. He was pleased and excited and he wanted to keep that for as long as he could. He had gotten a visit from Kakashi! He couldn't wait to tell Gai-sensei about it.
"So you came to see me, while you were here?" asked Lee. "That's very considerate of you, Kakashi-sensei."
"Ah," Kakashi smiled, looking up to meet Lee's eyes. "I'm a much nicer guy than people give me credit for."
"Oh, no," Lee said quickly, "Gai-sensei says you're very nice. He has to work very hard to compete with you when it comes to being a nice guy - and you're just as modest as he said!"
Kakashi's face twitched a little, something in his bemused expression making Lee wonder if he had said something wrong. Gai-sensei went on about his rival all the time, and the things he said were always complimentary, even when he had been bested in one of their competitions. Lee idolized that sort of relationship. It was the exact type of rivalry he had always wanted for himself.
"There's a reason I stopped by," Kakashi said, after a moment. "I wanted to see your condition for myself. Your friend, Neji, said it was inoperable."
Lee's stomach twisted in a hot rise of determination and hurt, his eyes glowing fiercely. Kakashi cut him off before he could say a word.
"I don't think it is," Kakashi smiled. "I know someone who could fix you right up, good as new. Maybe better, if you don't mind being prodded a bit while he tries things out. It would be a waste to see you not fulfill your potential."
"Really?" gasped Lee, shock making that knot clench tighter and rise into his throat. "You mean it?"
"Absolutely," Kakashi said, his smile fading until it was soft and sympathetic. "I promise a complete recovery. Shake on it?"
"Of course!" Lee reached his uninjured hand out, his heart thumping wildly in his chest. Just the thought that all of his confidence had proven true made him want to laugh. Kakashi's hand closed around his and he beamed and gave a firm shake.
"You're very trusting," Kakashi murmured in fond approval. "My friend is really going to like you..."
.-.
Naruto was standing a few feet from Ino's parents' flowershop when Kyuubi stirred inside him again. He had rushed to check on Sakura first, because she was always on the move these days, either on her way to see Sasuke or on her way back, or visiting Ino, or buying flowers for Sasuke and Lee. He knew she wasn't at the hospital so he had hurried to catch her en route wherever she was. He didn't know what Kyuubi was talking about, but he believed something was happening. The fox demon had never made a habit of lying to him, or talking to him at all, for that matter.
'Another one is gone,' Kyuubi told him suddenly, in a tone that wasn't quite as cold and unconcerned as the last two times. He was sounding worried now, rumbling in a way that almost came off as more frightened than angry. 'Too close this time. He may be next.'
Naruto flinched away from the flowershop, panic edging over his face. He had spotted Sakura inside, talking angrily with Ino, so he knew it wasn't her. Kyuubi wouldn't tell him details. He wouldn't say which ones of his friends were disappearing. Dying? That was the only thing Naruto could think of. And Kyuubi's cryptic demon thoughts were just turning dead into 'removed from this world'. He couldn't concentrate enough to force a straight answer from the fox. He could barely hold still as it was. That made three of them. Three of his friends were gone and he didn't even know which ones? Who had done it? Who did he had left to try and protect? He didn't even know whether he would be able to protect them. The last two had come within minutes of each other.
'Who!' Naruto demanded, too frantic and upset to sound as angry as he felt. 'Who's gone? Who's next? Tell me where to go! What do I do? What's happening - is someone attacking Konoha? Just tell me!'
'Go to the hospital now,' Kyuubi growled, sharper than before, louder somehow. 'As fast as you can. Use this and let it show to anyone who can sense it. Hesitate and you'll be as alone as I was.'
Naruto shuddered at the sudden rush of chakra Kyuubi shot at him. He didn't stop to question the order. Sasuke was at the hospital. And Lee. If one of them was killed because he had been too slow and embarrassed to bolt through Konoha with Kyuubi's orange chakra blazing around him, he would never be able to live with himself. Any ninja strong enough to hurt one of his friends would definitely feel the chakra he was emitting. They would have to. They would feel him coming and either run away or come to fight him, right? He thought that was the point.
He suddenly wished he had done better in the exam, whatever 'better' would have been considering he had won all his matches. Better. Good enough to have learned to teleport so he could get there in an instant. Because someone was picking his friends off one by one, with no sign of it in the village, no one panicking, no warning at all. Someone was doing it so quickly, so easily, that the last two had disappeared one right after the other. They weren't fighting back, weren't having enough time to fight back. And Kyuubi might not care about the loss of one of Naruto's friends but each one, any one of them, hurt like nothing had in years. He ran along the rooftops, going as fast as he could. And every second that passed he waited for Kyuubi to tell him another of his precious few friends had disappeared from this world.
.-.
TBC