Red Chakra
Chapter 1
Edit: 20.06.10
Uzumaki Naruto groaned tiredly as he woke up. Opening one eye he glanced at the clock, his face showing clear shock when he saw the time.
He was late.
Well, not just late. His team actually had established a habit of showing up two hours later than they were supposed to. After a year with their sensei they had finally decided that showing up on time, literally, was a waste of time.
Hatake Kakashi had a habit which made most people dislike him upon their first meeting.
He was late, always late, for every single meeting he was supposed to attend. And not only ten minutes late, oh no. He was always at least two hours late. Haruno Sakura, the smart part of team seven, had taken to writing down how late he was each time, and the current record of his was eight hours and sixteen minutes. No matter what they said to their sensei he refused to change his bad habit.
Not only was his lateness a bad thing (and incredibly irritating), but he usually had the most ridiculous excuses for being so. From having to help an old lady across the street to being lost on the road of life. No one ever believed him.
The rest of team seven had several times tried to discover the real reason for his tardiness, but he always seemed to sense their presence and then choosing to disappear into the thin air. Afterwards he would give out some ridiculous excuse, never once mentioning their habit of stalking him. Maybe he didn't care or maybe he just found it amusing.
After several failed attempts at discovering the truth, Naruto and Sakura concluded that it had to be that book of his that caused him to arrive late. Sasuke didn't say anything, though he didn't seem to disapprove of their theory. Even so they had some doubt left in them.
The book couldn't be that entertaining, could it?
The whole thing had ended up with them starting to show up two hours later than they were supposed to, but only for team meetings. They didn't think that the rest of their friends (or their paying clients) would find it funny that they had picked up their sensei's trait. Not at all.
But back to the present.
He really was late this time. Later than Kakashi-sensei. Naruto actually beat his record. He should have showed up nine hours ago. It was already nearing dinner time and Naruto couldn't figure out what had caused him to sleep that long. Normally his alarm clock would wake him or he would wake up before the alarm got a chance to ruin his morning. Usually, to his eternal displeasure, the former than the latter.
He looked up at the ceiling for a few moments while trying to think, but upon finding that he had no idea of why, he slid out of bed. And ended up falling to the floor, tangled in his bed sheets. Naruto groaned again before he pushed himself up and dazedly walked to the bathroom.
On his way he started to get dressed and he threw his nightcap back onto his unmade bed. Using his hands he tried to rub the sleep out of his eyes. He still felt as tired as he had been before he went to bed. That wasn't normal, right?
He stared at himself in the mirror for a few moments before tying his hitai-ate to his head. He blinked in surprise when he thought he saw a glimpse of red, but before he could confirm it, it was gone. Shrugging it off as himself still half dreaming, he started to cook some water for his ramen. Naruto yawned a couple of times while he waited and when he finally sat down with the ramen he noticed that his muscles were sore.
Normally a ninja in training wouldn't find that weird. Training tended to cause soreness and Naruto trained hard each and every single day, and as a consequence he should be sore at all the times. However, he had always been rid of the soreness after he slept. His, or rather the fox's, healing powers had always taken care of that. And especially now that he had slept so long it should have been gone. At least it wasn't really a big problem. He just had to try to take it a little easy today.
'As easy as I can, while still beating the teme.'
After gulping down the last of the broth and drinking a large glass of milk, Naruto leapt out of his window and landed on the roof underneath his apartment. He set of towards the training grounds, trying to beat his own record in getting there. His teammates wouldn't find this funny.
As he arrived he noticed that his team seemed to have started training without him. Not that it really bothered him. It was after all his own fault. Sakura was the first to notice him as Sasuke and Kakashi were sparring against each other.
"You're late!" Sakura said irritably. She gave Naruto a heated glare while she waited for his answer. Both Kakashi and Sasuke had stopped their sparring in favour of finding out why he was late.
"Sorry, Sakura-chan. I overslept." He rubbed his neck in embarrassment.
The other members of team seven stayed silent for a moment before blinking in disbelief at his answer. It wasn't the first time Naruto had overslept, but it was the first time he had done so for so long. Normally when he turned up late it was because he forgot about training. Naruto's mind functioned in a way that meant that if he saw something interesting he was likely to forget everything else, depending on how interesting it was of course. And when he remembered he always ran to do the thing he was supposed to be doing in the first place.
One time, when he was younger, he was supposed to have a Very Important Meeting, capital letters, with the Hokage, the old man. At least, it was important for him. It was regarding how he was supposed to live after he left the orphanage. The old man had finally realised that Naruto didn't like it there, and that the orphanage didn't really want him.
But at the day of the meeting Naruto had suddenly found himself near the pier and he had spotted a boy about his age sitting there. He looked lonely, but Naruto didn't go down to him. Instead he hid and watched the other boy, wondering why he was there and where his family was. He didn't get his answers, but he watched over the boy until he got up and left. Afterwards he met with the old man and they had talked. It didn't really cause him any problems and a week later he moved into his small, but somehow cosy, apartment.
"Are you telling me, dobe, that you managed to oversleep for ten hours before you woke up?"
"Um, yes..." He glanced nervously at Sakura who still hadn't moved. She still seemed to be thinking things through.
"You... You what?" She looked at him with disapproval. "You could have come up with a better lie, you know?"
"I know you are a dobe, but that's just plain unlikely." Sasuke gave him an Uchiha patented glare saying that he didn't like the fact that Naruto had used up his precious training time, lying as an excuse and that he would pay for it later on. Naruto didn't really care. He would shut up the teme afterwards.
Kakashi looked up from his book for a moment before speaking. "I think he's serious."
Sakura and Sasuke turned to stare at the blond in silence. When they continued to stare at him, Sakura with her mouth a little open and Sasuke with a little twitch on his forehead, he started to back away slowly. Before they could do anything Kakashi interrupted again.
"Care to explain why you've been late the whole week, Naruto?"
"Um..." Naruto unsure of what to say. For one, he didn't even know himself. "I... Wait a minute! How did you know I was late? I was never later than you."
It was true. He had overslept the last couple of days, but he had always been at the meeting place before Kakashi. Seeing that Kakashi always came later, Sakura and Sasuke hadn't commented on it. Naruto had just assumed that he was a little tired from training and therefore had slept more than normal.
Of course, he hadn't really thought it through. It had just been a passing thought that had only interested him for a split second. His mind accepted the fact and then did nothing else to find out why.
"Are you feeling well?"
Naruto snapped out of his thoughts. Obviously he had been standing still for quite a while, judging by the looks he was getting from his team. He didn't really feel well. He had gained a headache, his muscles were still sore, he was tired and he was feeling somewhat uncomfortable warmth that only came when he used the fox's chakra, which he hadn't in a long time.
"Um... Yeah."
Sakura looked at him with a worried expression before she, with a little hesitation, placed her hand at his forehead only to jerk it away a moment later.
"Ouch! I think you have a fever. You're burning up..."
Kakashi put his book away and then looked Naruto over carefully. His one eye showed that he actually was concerned for Naruto. But Naruto didn't really like making others worried.
"Are you sure you're okay, Naruto?"
"Yes. Can we start training now?" His voice held so much insistence that Kakashi's one visible eyebrow went up into his hair before he sighed and gave a little nod.
"Sasuke, you and Naruto spar for a while. Sakura, study their movements and see if you can learn anything." And then he leant back towards a tree before he pulled out his book and started reading again.
For a fleeting second Naruto wondered how come his sensei never finished that book. He should have been done with it a long time ago. But his thoughts on that subject disappeared as he stepped into a fighting stance and faced Sasuke. He grinned at Sasuke and got the normal smirk in return. A second later they were fighting.
Kakashi studied his students' movements as they continued to spare. Something didn't seem quite right when it came to Naruto. He just couldn't figure out what made him feel that way. It wasn't the apparent fever, which he would look into. He noticed that Sasuke had slashed Naruto's leg with a kunai before easily avoiding Naruto's defensive throw.
Well, that was weird. Naruto usually managed to avoid injuries until he became quite tired and they hadn't fought for more than fifteen minutes yet. His stamina was infamous and now it seemed as if he had unbelievably little of it. But he supposed that with Naruto's extremely quick healing a wound like that didn't matter.
Or so he thought until he saw Naruto falling for the third time because of his wound. Sasuke had already told him to quit the fight, but Naruto had stubbornly said no. He still had too much of his pride when it came to the rivalry between him and Sasuke to give up that easily.
Not wise, though a good quality to have in a real fight.
Kakashi continued to watch Naruto closely, taking in all the other signs of something being wrong. His panting, his sweating and then there was his wound. It was still bleeding, while it normally would have been gone by now. Something was clearly wrong.
"Naruto! Sasuke! Stop sparring," he ordered after he got their attention.
Both Sasuke and Naruto glared at him. They had obviously been enjoying it.
"Why?" Sasuke asked coldly.
"Training is over. I've got something to talk about with Naruto." Kakashi glanced at Naruto when he saw that the blond was about to protest. Naruto wisely shut his mouth when he got the warning look from Kakashi.
Sasuke was watching this exchange with unconcealed curiosity. It wasn't often their sensei had private talks with his genin. The other two members of team seven looked at Kakashi, wanting to know what it was, but he gave them a look that told them to go home. Sasuke started to walk away with Sakura running after him. After a few moments he disappeared in a different direction leaving Sakura to walk home alone.
When the other members of team seven were gone, Naruto slumped down to the ground trying to catch his breath.
"Your wound isn't healing," Kakashi commented tonelessly.
Naruto quickly looked at the still bleeding wound and continued to just stare at it.
"Something wrong?"
Naruto looked up at him before looking down again.
"It... It should be healing. But his chakra..."
"What about it?" 'His as in...? What was the demon doing?'
"It isn't in my system anymore..."
Naruto just stared helplessly at him.
"And it should be?" Usually neither him nor Naruto brought up the subject of the Kyuubi. Kakashi because he was still kind of mourning his sensei, and Naruto because he knew that everyone else were uncomfortable about it.
"Yes. It's never been none of his chakra in my system before. That's just... not normal for me, I guess." Naruto looked away nervously.
"Hm, you should talk to Tsunade-sama about it. This could be important. And she could probably heal you too." 'And she can probably get a better idea of what's going on than me.'
"Yeah. I should." Naruto got up and looked at his wound again. Without a word he ripped up his shirt in strips before he bandaged the wound as best as he could.
"Well, then go."
Without another word Kakashi disappeared, leaving Naruto to himself and a painful walk to the Hokage tower. Tsunade-sama could probably solve this and he could get back to his book.
'Icha Icha Paradise, here I come!'
"Tsunade no baa-chan!"
Naruto barged in the door to the Hokage's office, yelled a greeting and then barely avoided a flying chair headed in his direction. He looked around, noticing the load of paperwork at the desk, the one thing he dreaded about becoming Hokage, and also the bottles of Sake that were mysteriously empty. He glanced at the Hokage and almost laughed at the sight of the Hokage holding her head while trying to sign the paperwork. Shizune had probably insisted or else she would be sleeping it off. She didn't look as the leader of one of the strongest ninja villages in the world at the moment. She looked like an old woman with a head splitting hangover that really should be in bed. In other words, she looked pretty much like her true self.
"What do you want, brat?" Her voice was groggy and irritated.
"Could you check out my leg? I got a slashed there in a spar."
"And why are you coming to me when we have medic-nin at the hospital with more than enough time to take care of you?" She glared at him, trying to convey the message that she wasn't up to playing around with him. Even if he was serious.
"Um, you're a better medic-nin...?"
"..."
He tried again. "You would be thankful for an interruption...?"
"As much as I am, spit it out, brat!"
"The furball's not healing me and I need you to find out why. And Kakashi-sensei told me to come here," he explained.
"Couldn't you have said that in the beginning?"
"Um..." Naruto hesitated while wondering about how much he could say before he was thrown out.
"Never mind." She sighed and then she went around her desk to get a better look at him. "Show me your wound."
He pulled up his pant leg and let her examine the wound. She studied it for a few minutes before healing it, green glowing hands making his skin shiver as the wound slowly healed.
She straightened up and looked down at him.
"Anything else I should know, brat?" There was a hint of a warning in her voice. As if she knew that he didn't really want to tell her.
"Um, I've been sleeping more than usual and Sakura-chan said that I had a fever. But I don't feel bad or anything."
She looked him over and mumbled a bit in between moving around him.
"Hm, maybe you're getting sick..."
"I don't get sick! I've never been sick. I'm not sick!" He glared at her, challenging her to continue with her claim.
"You are."
"Am not."
"You are!"
"Am not!"
A glaring contest ensued between the Hokage and the future Hokage.
"You are! How else do you explain your fever, sleeping and healing? You're off duty until I say otherwise."
"But, baa-chan..." His voice came out pleadingly.
"What did I tell you about that?" She said with anger in her eyes.
"I don't want to be off duty." He pouted and used his puppy eyes.
"Brat..."
"It's boring!" He whined at the Hokage. "I don't wanna!"
"You're acting like a spoiled child." She said with a hint of irritation.
He stopped and thought for a minute. "I am, aren't I?" He frowned.
"You're going to do it whether you like it or not. And no training. If I need to I'll knock you out and tie you to a bed. Now go."
"Fine! I'll be back tomorrow...," he huffed out.
He walked out the door and as it swung shut he finished his sentence.
"...baa-chan!"
A chair could be heard hitting the door.
