A fight to live

Chapter 7

Jiraiya worked consistently for the next several hours, Naruto's struggle to breathe, a harsh background noise in Jiraiya's ears. Jiraiya wondered as he looked up to check on Naruto's monitor, how much longer Naruto was going to be able to last. He went back to his research hoping to find an answer soon, because he had the feeling the clock was running down.

A four short hours later Jiraiya had his answer, he had found a seal that would in effect replace the one that was wearing off. Jiraiya stood and walked to the door, intending to go get Tsunade from her office which was a couple of doors down, when he felt a huge blast of red chakra. When he whirled around he saw that Naruto's body was writhing on the bed, as the chakra slowly came out, covering every inch of his skin.

"Oh hell" he muttered and hollered for Tsunade as he approached the bed. He had a seal that would repress the red chakra until he could get the seal fixed. Tsunade came rushing through the door; she paused when she saw the chakra leaking. She swallowed hard; she hadn't thought it would happen so soon. She wasn't ready for this to happen, she hadn't prepared herself for what was going to eventually happen. Because after all she had known that there couldn't possibly be any way to fix the seal at least not without someone dying.

"Are you going to help me or not?" Jiraiya asked as he placed a seal on Naruto's forehead and slowly the chakra disappeared again but in its place it left severe burns. Tsunade winced those would hurt if Naruto ever gained consciousness again.

"What do you need me to do?" she asked approaching the bed.

"I'm going to need help holding him down, I found a seal that might work, and if it works it just might help us all." Jiraiya said "it will allow the fox to get out but it will be forced into a physical fox body from there we can kill it. Might be a little dangerous letting the fox out though but at the moment I don't see any other options."

"And what's it going to do to Naruto?" Tsunade demanded worried about the knuckleheaded teen lying on the bed.

"It has about a fifty percent chance of killing him" Jiraiya admitted dodging the fist that was swung his way. "The way I see it, his odds are worse as they stand now"

"You better hope it doesn't kill him" Tsunade growled but moved to assist him, but it quickly became apparent that they were going to need more help as the fox was already trying to fight the seal. Tsunade paused briefly and called for Shizune, who was around the corner attending patients. She came quickly as soon as she heard Tsunade call, she knew that Tsunade would be with Naruto at this time and that something must have been going on with him. She entered Naruto's room to find Tsunade holding a writhing Naruto down. From the looks of things she was having a hard time.

"Call in any Anbu that can get here" Tsunade demanded panting "We're going to need some help." Shizune nodded and turned and ran out the door. Tsunade turned back towards Naruto.

"Hang on kiddo" she said softly as she tried to avoid grabbing ahold of any burned skin, though she doubted he could feel much of anything at this point. At least she hoped not, the burns were at least third degree and from the looks of them were quite painful. She hoped Jiraiya knew what he was doing.

Naruto's body continued to seize as Tsunade struggled to hold him down. The Anbu better hurry up and get here she thought as Naruto released a pain filled cry. The sound made Tsunade's heart bleed, she hated to see her brat hurting in any way, but this was definitely the worst.

Ten minutes later several Anbu entered the room, they quickly moved into position without being told what to do, with the added help Tsunade was able to help Jiraiya get Naruto ready for the procedure. Even as Jiraiya was getting ready to break the seal, the fox's chakra started leaking out again.

"Just how much physical damage is this going to do to Naruto?" Tsunade said Jiraiya shrugged.

"The only thing I cared about was the results" Jiraiya replied "I only care about what's going to happen in the long run."

"You don't even know if it's going to help or not" Tsunade said "You're leaving too much to chance." After that there was no talking for several minutes, as they waited to see what happened. Nothing changed until Jiraiya made the proper hand signs and touched the seal that was slowly fading off Naruto's stomach. The room exploded into a bright red light and they were all thrown into the wall.

"Tell me again how this was a good idea?" Tsunade demanded as she pulled herself to her feet.

"You wanted to save Naruto didn't you?" Jiraiya asked his eyes not leaving the fox demon was snarling at them. Jiraiya approached while the Anbu were trying to distract it. All he had to do was place a seal on the beast and it would be in a physical form, they could kill it then. But something was telling Jiraiya it wouldn't be that easy.

Somehow they were able to hear the sound of pounding feet coming from down the hallway. To Jiraiya's surprise Sakura rushed into the room. Sasuke and Kakashi along with a few others were right behind her. The fox seeing that Sakura was blocking the exit grabbed her and flung her out the window but while he was distracted by Sakura and the others, Jiraiya ran forward and slapped the seal on him, and within a few seconds. The demon fox was roughly the size of a small dog.

"Somebody go check on Sakura" Tsunade ordered as she went to help corner the fox.

"Better yet" Jiraiya said "check on Naruto there is no promise that he is still with us. We can catch the fox." Tsunade nodded and went to the boy lying on the table. Her heart ached at the sight of him bleeding, it looked like all the burns he'd suffered had just burst open and he was bleeding.

"Guess that's what happens when you have a demonic fox pulled from you." she muttered before checking his vitals. She felt a stab of pain through her heart when she didn't feel a pulse and it didn't look like he was breathing at all.

"Oh Naruto" she murmured softy "It wasn't supposed to end like this for you." she felt a tear drop down her face. Words couldn't express the pain this particular loss caused her. She wished she could go back and stop the removal of the fox, then again who's to say that Naruto wouldn't have died anyways.

"I'm so sorry" she murmured as she ran her hand through his hair. "You were destined for great things how the hell could this happen to you? Why couldn't I save you?" she closed her eyes for a moment as if to shut off the pain. But she knew nothing could take away the hurt she was feeling.

"I need some Sake" she muttered even she knew that's not how Naruto wanted her to be. She swallowed hard trying to rid herself of the lump in her throat; she had hoped to never have to feel this way again, she should have known this would happen, after all everyone she ever cared for was taken from her, why should Naruto have been any different?

"Lady Tsunade?" Shizune asked softly knowing that she shouldn't interrupt her grieving process. "Sakura needs surgery; it's not looking very good for her right now."

"You take over tonight" Tsunade said softly "I'm not going to be able too." That being said she turned and walked out of the room.

Is Naruto really dead? Guess you shall have to find out in the next chapter. Thanks for reading and reviewing.