It was already five days since the incident and Naruto was woken up by the sudden commotion outside of his room. Still half awake, he prop himself up on his left elbow and rubbed the sleep away of his eyes as he looked at the door groggily. The blonde boy noted that it was 27 minutes past nine when he checked the wall clock, yet he did not want to get up. He wanted to sleep more, but the noise outside his room made it hard for him to fall back asleep and dream.
Outside Naruto's hospital room were Iruka, Yamato, and Sai, subduing some villagers that had made their way in pass the entrance. Apparently, it was weekend and Iruka decided to spend his free time entertaining Naruto who he knew must be bored. The Commoner teacher run into Sai along the way and the latter tagged along. When they reached the hospital, they were greeted by a mass of civilians crowding outside. They had to squeeze themselves in before they made it to the hallway where a pack of people was being pushed away by Yamato.
"Where here for the boy!" someone exclaimed within the crowd.
"I heard what had happened, so I'm here to give him flowers." The woman in the front line said, waving said flowers.
"Damn it! We just wanna see the boy!" a man complained at the back.
"I'm sorry, but the kid is not up to for visitors." Said Yamato, sweating.
Naruto in the other hand, after staring at his door, noticed a tray of breakfast on the bed side table. A slice of apple, a glass of milk and water, and a bowl of chicken stew were prepared. He was hungry, but had no appetite to eat until he felt pain in his stomach and decided to just eat at least a little. Grabbing the tray, the boy settled it on his lap, took the spoon and scooped the stew, and brought it up for his mouth to take on, but he was only halfway through when the door busted open, startling him.
Because of the sudden interruption, the boy spilled his warm stew on the hospital blanket. He looked down and frowned at it before averting his eyes to scan the group of people that had stumbled in his space. Naruto had recognized Iruka immediately, and then Yamato, but not Sai, who was not at the time when Dr. Sasaki had introduced some people to him. And then, there were people, the villagers that he did not know.
Everything had quieted down soon after the crowd had burst in the patient's room, and said patient could only stare at them in shock, which soon morphed into a neutral expression, and Naruto stared at them dazedly, lost in his mind.
One second he was looking at the crowd, and then the next little Naruto found himself in a familiar place, a dark alley way, hiding from the grotesque creatures in human form. He stood shakily from his ball form and hesitantly peeked outside his hiding spot, which almost had his heart stop beating the moment he saw those people.
People looked at him in disdain, then they smiled wickedly at him, and he heard word that he could not comprehend, but he knew it from the heart what they were saying. Not long after that, the people malformed, turning into black shadows that eventually combined and made the action that looked like the shadows were about to devour him. At that very moment, Naruto snapped and screamed to the top of his lungs.
The civilians cringed and were surprised at Naruto's reaction. They were at the lost, not able to process what had just happened that made the boy screamed like he was being chased as he buried himself under the blanket and shivered. While the civilians were at the state of shock, the ninjas, Yamato, Iruka, and Sai took the moment to usher the crowd out and closed the door.
Iruka then went to Naruto's side to calm the boy, but no matter what he did, Naruto would not stop shivering. While the academy teacher was tending to Naruto's need, Sai picked up the tray that once had Naruto's breakfast, which was now useless, and placed the utensils on top of the bed side tale before going out and cleaning the mess.
Picking up a nearby chair, Yamato sat on it and watched as Iruka gently cuddled the scared blonde boy on his lap, whispering soothing words whilst rubbing the boy's lap.
"It's okay, Naruto. No one's going to hurt you." Iruka told the boy, who was clutching at his head with wide teary eyes staring at a distance.
. . . .
"Master Tsunade?" inquired Shizune, who had Ton-ton in her amrs, when the Hokage sighed tiredly and pinched the bridge of her nose.
Papers that Tsunade's assistant and apprentice had carried in piled up so high like a tower. There were so many of them on both floor around the table and on the table that hid the Hokage as it surrounded her. But, in spite of that, she paid it no mind as she studied the scroll she found about ancient times. It was written during the very first era of shinobi where it was mentioned that someone had created a technique that had the same effect as of what had happened to Naruto. Because, the scroll was so old, there were scriptures that were hard to decipher as it was fading with old time, yet, Tsunade did not want to make it as an excuse to not be able to learn how to counter the technique that was used against Naruto.
"I need a bottle of sake, Shizune." Tsunade informed the black haired woman.
Shizune would rather not give her a bottle of sake and make her do her job, but she knew not to disobey since Tsunade was working so hard just to find a way to return Naruto back to normal. And, the Hokage was willing to abandon her work until she found a way.
"I'll e right back, Master Tsunade." Shizune bowed and walked out of the office to fetch her Hokage a bottle of sake downtown.
. . . .
"Hey!" a seven-year old boy in white round neck shirt and blue shorts with short black hair greeted Kaoruko, who was sitting on the bench like usual.
Looking up, Kaoruko nodded at the boy, and then went back on observing the mystery, which was Milly.
"Mind if I sit here?" asked the black haired boy.
"I don't." said Kaoruko.
"Name's Ao. What's yours?" the boy, now named as Ao, tilted his head as he inquired.
"Kaoruko." He replied without tearing his eyes off the woman, who was busy with the children playing.
Frowning at the lack of Kaoruko's enthusiasm, Ao, undeterred, pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket and showed it in front of Kaoruko's face. The auburn haired boy blinked at it and looked at the other boy at his right. "I found this at the backyard. It's Mr. Torio's; he forgot it.
An idea made its way in Kaoruko's mind and asked his companion if he could borrow for a moment. With a nod, Ao gave it to Kaoruko, who immediately took it and put it on before activating his sharingan.
Sasuke, in the guise of Kaoruko, scanned the area. He could see the chakra flow of the children, but when his eyes landed on Milly, he was shocked to see nothing but a shell of human body.
Ao furrowed his brows when Kaoruko flinched, so he asked if something was wrong. Kaoruko only shook his head, gave the sunglasses back to Ao, and stood up, shoving his fists inside his pockets as he went back inside. The black haired boy could only follow him with his eyes and shrugged before putting the sunglasses on and giggled to himself, finding it amusing to see things in a darker color.