I've had some comments that Naruto is OOC here... All I can say is... OOPS. I didn't mean for him to seem like that. But in my mind he's IC until he's hit but Sakura in the Hokage's office and THAT is what changes him... So... Yeah, maybe he is a bit OOC. *Shrugs*
And now . . . the real plot starts! BUWAHAHAHAHAH!
*Ahem*
I mean. . .um . . . Here is the next chapter, I hope you like it!
Chapter 4: Think First
Poison and forbidden jutsu was an interesting combination. Shizune, trying to keep a calm professional eye on the tiny body on the desk before her, found her curiosity peeked. With an enormous book open in her lap and a pile of notes sprawled all around her, her scientific side was itching to exercise. It had been a long time scene she'd been able to tackle a good medical mystery, and even longer scene it involved one with such strange symptoms.
She had been doing her every day, boring as hell, paper work when a Naruto clone had burst in to the small room where she was demanding to know if she was there or not. On discovering her he yelled at her to get to Tsunade's office and disappeared. Panic flooded her, panic left over from the shadow clone, and she had run. Any thing could have happened, an assassination attempt even. It was almost to her relief when she found that it was just an ill child before her.
That was until she learned who the child was and why he was so sick.
Another clone, dragging Sakura behind him self, had shown up moments latter. Sakuura had said nothing to any one but instead rushed to draw out a sizable amount of poison.
Now as both Tsunade and Sakura were working to keep Kakashi alive. Shizune and Naruto were racing through the books to find any mention of forbidden youth jitsus. There were traces of information here and there, a text of theory here, a paragraph of observation there, but nothing solid. Many books were strewn about the floor, most of them crisp new updated versions of older volumes where any thing other than stranded practices had been edited out or abridged. It was obvious none of them held any answers.
"I can't find any thing." She sighed and lowered the red glossy edition of 'Chakra, Age, and You'.
Tsunade's hands were cupping Kakashi's head gently as Sakura let her fingertips hover only an inch above his chest. Small drops of rank smelling green-brown liquid were oozing out from his skin. Both had hard and focused looks on their faces.
Naruto glanced up from his book, 'Keeping Young While Aging'. "There has to be SOMETHING! If that old geezer found a way to make him a little kid then there HAS to be a way to UNMAKE it!"
Tsunade looked up through limp blond hair. "Not all Jistus can be countered, Naruto."
Naruto's face fell in to a million shades of despair. "What about the poison?"
Sakura, not looking up from her task, shook her head slowly. "I've never seen any thing like this. It just keeps regenerating."
"You can beat it Sakura!" Naruto forced a grin. "I believe in you!"
"Belief can't stop the poison alone." Her fingers dipped as she spoke and Kakashi sucked in a breath. All eyes focused on him, all conversation halted. The small chest stopped it's rhythmic rise and fall. No one took a breath as Kakashi lay deathly still. Then, as he gasped again every one let out their own breath.
Sakura resumed her task with double the determination written on her face.
"We'll keep looking." Shizune offered. "I think we need the older books though."
Naruto rushed to his feet, the book in his lap falling harshly to the floor. "I'll get them, where are they?"
"My office." She replied as he was making clones rapid fire. As soon as three formed they were off, crashing in to each other as they piled out the door.
Tsunade glared at the commotion. "Be careful." She growled. "You're too reckless."
Naruto opened his mouth to fire off a retort about how they were running out of time, but a smarting pop in his jaw halted him. He HAD been reckless, that's how Kakashi was now in the state he was in. He snapped it shut and sank back down in to the chair. Quietly he picked p the book that had fallen. "Sorry, Grandma Tsunade."
Her scowl softened and she looked back down to her small charge. "We are all tense." She waved her hand dismissively. "Just try to temper your self in the future."
"I will."
Silence filled the room again hollow and thick. Pages scraping and flipping were like claws on a chalk board to Naruto's ears, as every page turned meant the answer was still undiscovered. Kakashi rasped and heaved for air unsteadily, another grating unbearable sound. Naruto shifted, turning his back to the room and buried his nose in the book.
He was trying hard to untangle a wretchedly complicated set of medical terms when he felt the rush of a clone returning. He grunted as the clone's memories flooded him for a moment before looking up. They had found several books, but could not figure out what ones to bring.
"Shizune sama."
She looked up from her studies, eyes only half focused. "Hmm?"
"What books do you want, you have a lot of them in your library."
"Oh. . . Uh. . . I'm not sure."
He sighed and closed the book before standing. Think before you speak, think before you speak... "Is there any way to narrow the search down?"
She frowned as both Sakura and Tsunade looked up at her. "I know we'll need to check a number of authors, and several compilation books. . ."
"That will take DAYS!" Naruto growled. "There has GOT to be a faster way!" Think, think, think...
"This can't be rushed, Naruto." Shizune said wearily. "If we do the wrong thing at the wrong time we'll make it worse, not better."
He growled, again, frustrated. To search that many books fast enough they would need a whole army of people. All they had at the moment were Tsunade, Sakura, Shizune, him self and his clones. His mind hitched on the last thought. His clones.
He WAS an army!
"That's IT!" He slammed his fist in to his palm and grinned.
"What?" Sakura asked.
"I'll search them my self with my clones." He brought his hands up to form the first sign.
"No don't!" Tsunade snapped. "If that much information hits you to fast your brain could overload causing irreparable damage."
"But I've done training like this before with Jiraya Sensei. . ."
"But with only one repetitive motion or skill practiced over and over again. Only one thing to learn. Trust me on this."
Naruto glowered. "But Kakashi. . ."
"What if he only makes a few clones?" Sakura asked. "Or instruct the clones that find some thing to come to us rather than release right away. They can release one at a time slowly after that."
Tsunade nodded slowly. "All right. Twenty clones, and they will release one at a time over twenty four hour intervals."
"YES!" Naruto brought ten clones in to the room and sent them on their way, then ten more once the room was cleared of the first batch.
Glancing over at Kakashi he forced a smile. "Don't worry Sensei! My brain will fix your problem!"
For a moment the three women took on a doubly worried expression before stoically returning to their tasks. Naruto ignored them and scooped up the book he had been reading and sat back down.
Once more time move by slowly and tediously. The excitement of the idea and the method for quickly finding the cure faded with in minutes, and was forgotten by the time the first hour had dragged it's self by. Then, like distant thunder, several pairs of feet could be heard racing towards the Hokage's office.
All four looked up as the feet neared and stopped. There was a moment's pause before the door was thrown open and four clones all carrying books tumbled in at once. It was a small miracle that none of them harmed one another enough to cause one to release.
"We have it!" One cried.
"TSUNADE SAMA!" Another shouted.
"It's terrible!" The third wailed.
The fourth, buried under the other three, fought to free his head. "This is all my fault!"
"Calm down all of you!" Naruto stood and swiped the book from his clones. "What page?"
"The one book marked." Number one said. "We can't undo this!"
"Hush!" He hissed as he handed the book to Tsunade. "One of you release." He added, pointing to the one on top of the pile. It obeyed instantly and a flood of information his him all at once. As he let it wash over his mind he realised just how right Tsunade had been about learning to much too fast. This clone had scanned three books and chatted for twenty minutes to a group of four others about the books they had read. All of that information had to be swallowed before he could get to the information he wanted. The answer to the questions they had all been asking.
'What was the poison'? It was a special blend of plant toxins that are grown from mold. Once the mold infects the body it makes more and more poison. But if treated the right way it was easy to kill.
That was the good news.
'How could they reverse the process of turning a full grown man in to a baby'? The short answer was they couldn't.
That was the bad news.
". . . will grow then?"
Naruto shook his head, trying to clear it of the added information swirling around in his brain. Sakura was talking as Shizune was injecting Kakashi with the cure. His clones were all babbling on and on about what they had found. He shot them a silencing glare as he rubbed his now aching head. It had taken a long time to ingest the information.
"He will grow yes." Tsunade was stroking Kakashi's hair and looking down at him thoughtfully as she read from the pages. "He'll grow in spurts in his sleep. These growth piriods could be as short as two weeks, or as long as six. It's not all that clear on why he'll grow this way, but it seems to suggest that the growth will follow his natural growth spurts from the past. Apparently as he grows he will regain all of the information he already learned."
Naruto rubbed his throbbing temples. His three clones were picking them selves up and dusting each other off in silence. "So he'll grow up fast?" One asked.
Naruto slumped in to the chair he'd been sitting in before. "He's thirty now." Naruto answered his clone. "So, because he's about two years old now, that will be any where from 56 to 176 weeks." As the numbers settled in to his consciousness a chill raced through him. "So he'll be back to normal in one to three years. That. . . that just can't be right."
Tsunade was nodding with a deep set frown. "I think we can speed the process up, maybe, but only after he's reached full adult hood."
Sakura was nearly done with the poison and looked up with a deep frown of her own. "Both of his parents are dead. Who's going to look after him while he's small?"
A short heavy silence followed as all looked the now pint sized ninja over. His breathing was still rough, and his body still limp. Naruto glanced around the room, hoping someone, anyone, would have the answer.
"Sakura couldn't you...?" Shizune asked slowly, braking the thick silence.
She shook her head frantically and held up her hands while distancing her self from her sensei. "N-not with my medical duties. I don't have the time!" She bumped in to the wall and pressed her self there as if trying to merge with the plaster. "He needs some one who has no obligations except to completing missions. Some one who only has him or her self to lock after. Some one who's. . . who's not ME.""
Slowly, one by one, all eyes turned to Naruto. He felt a swell of dread knot his stomach up as the reality his him. "Who? ME! Oh no. No no no no..."