Well, here is the second half of the two part of this particular moment of "One and the Same". There'll be things that I found interesting to write in this chapter and I hope that you feel the same while reading it. Now, as for the usual disclaimer, I don't own Naruto.
Chapter 21:
Struggle
"How is she?" asked Naruto. Seeing the seriousness of the situation that happen he quickly called for help. Jiraiya would answer the call and thankfully put a halt to any taunting that he may have wanted to say when he saw the condition of the Hyuga girl. That led them to where they were now at as they stood in the hospital hallway and looking through a window into a medical room. The room was currently occupied as lying on the hospital bed was an unconscious Hinata.
"Not really sure." answered Jiraiya truthfully. "Had this happen a couple days ago this would've been a first. However, reportedly there have been cases of people being emitted who were acting similar to how Hinata was acting."
"You mean they were being more…assertive?" The mere thought of that was both funny and disturbing at the same time for Naruto.
"Well, not exactly. It's been said that the people were acting not like themselves before losing consciousness. It was almost as though they were liberated from the things that kept them from saying or doing what they wanted." Jiraiya paused to allow the information to sin in. "Does that sound familiar?"
"It's sounded like what happen with Hinata. No way that's a coincidence." "It'll be pointless to ask if the cause of the whole thing is, would it?" Naruto didn't bother to hear what Jiraiya was saying as he had a good idea what the answer would be. He didn't take real notice when his godfather left. All that Naruto really cared about was the wellbeing of his friend.
Unfortunately, the world didn't see fit to allow him to do so as he heard some of the medics were frantically working on someone being stretcher in. "We got another one here. That makes it the tenth one so far." Unable to help himself, Naruto peered over to see who the preson might be and when he did he was surprised.
"Kiba." Indeed the person was Kiba Inuzuka who was unconscious. Having a good idea what happen he had to be sure. Seeing his mother, Tsume and older sister Hana nearby, Naruto decided to do some investigating. "Sorry if I'm intruding. I'm a friend of Kiba's. Can I ask what happen?" There was a bit of hesitation from the two Inuzuka women but they would concede.
"We're not exactly sure." informed Tsume. Worry was clearly evident in the mother's voice. "He was acting unusual then went unconscious. Do you know what it could be?"
"I'm afraid not. However, he's not the only one as there have been others. Sadly one of those people happens to be Hinata Hyuga." The mentioning of the Hyuga girl's condition brought a bad taste in Naruto's mouth. "Did he happen to go somewhere or do something different that could've led to this happening?"
"Really can't think of anything." told Hana. Like her mother, she was worried about her little brother but she tried to keep up a brave front. "Kiba pretty much did his usual routine that he always does. Although, he did mention one time about his team practicing at some new place that they happen to discover."
That bit of info caught Naruto's attention. "You don't say. Would you happen to know where this place might be, would you?"
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"All right, this is the place." Once getting what he needed from the two Inuzuka women, Naruto took off to the place that they mentioned. Wanting to not go there completely unprepared he went in his demon form, Fox. At first glance the place didn't look suspicious as it appeared to be like any other wide open forest area. "There has to be something here. If only I knew what I was looking for."
"That would make it too easy, wouldn't it?" The sound of someone else's voice immediately put him on alert. Quickly turning around, Fox spotted the person and recognize who it was. But just because he knew who it was it didn't mean he was going to let his guard down. "Don't worry. I didn't come here to fight you. I'm actually here to help."
Allowing himself to ease up a bit, Fox kept a close eye on the person. "What do you mean? Helping with what?" Though he had a good idea why he was there, Fox wasn't about to reveal everything that he knew.
"The cause for all the strange things that have been happening lately." answered person calmly. "Too many people are suffering from the same thing to be a coincidence. Even both of my teammates are in the hospital and who knows if they'll ever recover."
Noticing the tone that was behind the person's voice, Fox couldn't help but be a bit amuse. "Now isn't this a sight. I never thought that I would see someone from the Aburame family show so much emotion." The opportunity to further the teasing was there but wasn't done since in a way Fox felt the same way. "If you want to help then so be it. But first answer this question. What exactly happen when your team was last here, Shino?"
To Fox's luck, Shino didn't take notice of the fact that his name was known without telling him. Now wouldn't be a good time for someone discovering his other self. It would only lead to unwanted problems and that was something that Fox didn't want to deal with at the moment.
"I was training with Kiba while Hinata watched." recalled Shino from the incident. "When we were done we decided to head back. There was nothing unusual." Unfortunately that didn't give anything of real use.
"Come on. There has to be more." Fox somewhat complained. "You must've missed something."
"No I haven't." Shino shot back in a calm but in some way annoyed voice. "That is all that happen. When it was time to leave I called by bugs back and we left." Something must've clicked for Shino as he went back to his usual quiet self and didn't move for quiet sometime.
Before it could be asked what was going on, a light buzzing could be heard. The buzzing would stop as soon as it started and when it did, Shino started to go over to somewhere. Becoming curious, Fox followed though from a safe distance. No words were spoken from either of them and this continued until they came to a small alcove that contained some strange flowers.
They were all the same as the pedals were a yellow color with reddish-orange trim and with some type of bud in the middle. Another thing that was peculiar was that the flowers were seemingly leaning themselves toward the two boys all of their own. It was almost seemed as though the flowers had a mind of their own.
"Those flowers aren't normal." acknowledged Shino. "My insects said that there's something strange about them when they came across them."
"So you're saying that your buys have been in contact with these things?" asked Fox. Sh8ino confirmed it by nodding his head. "Then is it possible that your buys got whatever is in these flowers and spread it to your teammates?"
"It's possible." Shino reluctantly agreed to the theory. "Then how do you explain how all of the other people got affected?"
"We'll figure that out later. For now we need to get this know. Go to the hospital and tell them all about it." Reaching over, Fox pulled one of the flowers from the ground. "I'm going to get this thing checked out."
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"Is there someone back here?" After hearing something moving around, Ino opened the door to her family's plan nursery and took a look around. Though she didn't see anyone it didn't shake off the feeling that someone was in the room and was watching her.
Ino knew that it wasn't the smartest thing to do but couldn't help herself. Stepping further into the nursery she tried to see anything that may have been out of the ordinary. "I guess I must've just been hearing things." Turning around Ino was about to leave but jumped back in shock when someone suddenly stepped in front of her. Before she could let out a scream the person clamped their hand over her mouth.
"Calm down. I mean you no harm. Now I'm going to remove my hand and you're not going to yell. Nod your head if you understand." Thankfully, Ino nodded her head. "Slowly the person removed his hand and Ino luckily didn't yell. "I need your help. You know who I am right?"
"You're Fox." Ino verified after regaining enough of her composure. "Why should I help you? You sneak in here and tell me what to do. Why should I do whatever is that you want me to do?"
"Because many lives could end up dead if you don't." That stopped any kind of retort that the girl may have had came up with. "I'm here because your family knows a lot about plants and I need that knowledge now." Reaching into his pouch Fox pulled out a small plastic bag and inside of it was the same flower that was discovered earlier.
"I believe that this thing is the caused so many people to be infected." He tossed the bag to Ino. "You and your family need to figure out what you can about that flower. Whatever you find out give it to the people at the hospital." Having said all that he wanted to say, Fox started to head for the exit.
"Wait." shouted Ino. "Why are you doing this? What purpose could you have by getting involved in this?"
Stopping but not turning around fox went ahead and give her a reasonable reason. "If nothing is done it could greatly harm Konoha and everyone within it." Fox would finally look over to the bleach blonde girl from over his shoulder. "I just want to try and make sure that doesn't happen. Wouldn't want people like you to have such a thing to happen to them, would we?" He followed that up by giving Ino an interested stare up and down her body. Realizing what he was doing, Fox quickly took his leave, completely missing the slightly flustered look that came over the Yamanaka girl's face.
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"Stupid. Why did I do that?" Ever since leaving Ino's place, Fox had been berating himself for acting like he did when he left. Putting that away for a later time, he focused on the real matter at hand. "The Yamankas may figure out what the flowers are but who knows about finding a possible antidote." Stopping on top of a rooftop he tried to think the situation over.
"Jiraiya said that basically all the medics were working on this problem but haven't really come up with anything. Even the 'great' Tsunade hasn't figured out how to cure the infected people." Clearly there were still issues between the medical specialist and the boy. Suddenly an idea came to Fox and when it did he wasn't all that thrilled about it. "I'm so not going to like this."
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"My, isn't this a surprise?" Despite that he wasn't that eager to do it, Fox had decided to go through with his idea and it led him to being where he was. "What do I owe for this visit?" Standing by a nearby open window was a serious Fox who kept his sights on the other person in the room.
"Well, this'll come as a surprise but I came to ask for your help." The person didn't bother to hide the surprise from hearing that. "Trust me, I rather be anywhere else but here. But there's no other choice. Your help is needed, Kabuto Yakushi." Indeed the person that Fox was talking to was Kabuto, who used his own brother in an attempt to steal a scroll.
"You must've already heard about what's been going." All he got for confirmation was Kabuto nodding his head slightly. "Well, everyone who has extensive medical knowledge to find an antidote. From what I heard you're pretty good as a medical specialist. So, what I'm saying is that you should help. Maybe you'll think of something that they haven't figured out yet."
"That may be but why should I care?" wondered Kabuto with the same lay back attitude of his. "Why should I care if a few meaningless people die?"
An instant later, Fox had Kabuto slammed against the wall with one hand gripped tightly around the older boy's neck, his claws close to piercing the skin. "You should care." stated Fox angrily. "Because if you're not going to bother to help then perhaps I should take care of you now and eal with an annoying problem." He further explained by tightening his hold to point that a bit of blood started to trail down the traitorous Yakushi boy's neck.
Suddenly realizing what he was doing, Fox let go of Kabuto's neck and stepped back. "Personally you may not care what's happening but what about in the long run? Certainly you boss wouldn't want Konoha to be destroyed before getting whatever it is that he wants. Wouldn't you agree?"
"You wouldn't be wrong." Kabuto confirmed. He went ahead showed some of his medical skills by haling the wounds on his neck with a simple swipe of his hand. "My Lord does indeed have plans for this village, including it destruction. Of course, that's not for quite some time."
Nothing was aid between the two as it was the moment to know what the next thing was going to be done. "Why don't you tell me what's exactly going on?" For the next couple of minutes Fox explained the situation that was happening in Konoha.
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"How could you allow such a thing to happen?" an upset Neji demanded to know. After 'convincing' Kabuto to help, Naruto returned to the hospital to check on Hinata. When he arrived he was greeted by her cousin, Neji Hyuga. Apparently it was thought that she needed someone to watch over her while she was unconscious. "Why didn't you try to prevent it from happening?"
"Didn't really have a say in the matter." retorted Naruto in an irritated tone. The boy was obviously getting fed up with the continuous berating. "After all, she became affected while she was with her team. Why aren't you bothering them instead of me?"
"Because it wasn't one of them that Hinata was staying with these past few days." shot back Neji without missing a beat.
"Is that what this is all about?" asked Naruto. Not backing down he got face to face with the Hyuga boy. "Are you upset that Hinata's sick? Or is it because when given the chance she chose to stay with me instead of being in her own home with you in it?"
Although he didn't want to show it, that verbal jab really stung Neji. "And look at what good that did. She's probably going to die and you didn't do anything to stop it."
Less then a second after those words were said, Neji found himself being slammed against the wall as Naruto had a hold of his neck while with his free hand gripped one of his arms. "I'd watch what you say, Hyuga. Wouldn't want to repeat of what happen last time would we?" Naruto's tone lacked its usual carefree attitude. Instead, he was peaking with a voice that contained malice and content. "You remember what happen last time, don't you? I believe that I was about to stab you with a kunai before I was interrupted. Do you think that someone will stop me this time?"
Whether Naruto was going to actually go through with that subtle threat was unknown because someone did interfered before it actually could happen. "What's going on here?" At the doorway of the hospital room was Jiraiya and he was clearly confused at what he walked into. All he knew was that just before showing up he felt a strong feeling of a vile chakra.
A slight scowl on his face, Naruto let go of Neji. "Nothing's going on Jiraiya. Just talking is all." That be said he brushed past the older man as he left the room.
"Naruto, wait." Completely ignoring Jiraiya's words, the spiky haired boy continued to leave. "What's up with him? Naruto wouldn't act like this. Not with the condition that his friends are in."
The confusion that Jiraiya had was put on the backburner when he saw Tsunade talked heavily with a blond haired man with a young girl who seemed to be the man's daughter. Going over he realize that they were talking about what had been going on. When he got closer the three of them took notice of him. "What are you guys talking about?"
"Apparently we've discovered the cause for all of this craziness that has been going on." Tsunade showed her former teammate the strange flower that was in a container. "It's called the Nicodemus flower. Not much is know about it except that its spores can cause a person's basest instincts to come out. This goes on until they pass out from a fever. If not cured in time it'll result in…death."
Not even realizing it, Jiraiya glanced from the corner of his eye to where the unconscious Hinata was. "Then that means that Hinata doesn't have much time left." "Then it's a good thing that you discovered what the cause was. Now you can make an antidote."
"Unfortunately, that's easier said than done." Tsunade begrudgingly informed. "There's no known antidote for such a thing. We're doing everything we can to create one though." Knowing the difficulty that was going to be the medical specialist rubbed the bride of her nose. "What I wouldn't do for a bottle of sake right now." "Besides, it was these two that identified the flower. Let me introduce you to Inoichi Yamanaka and his daughter, Ino."
"Thank you, Tsunade." said Inoichi. "But we shouldn't be getting all of the thanks. My family did identify the flower but it was given to us by someone."
"It was that Person, Fox." continued Ino from where her father left off. "He gave me the flower and asked to find out what it was. However, I'm not sure but he appeared to be a bit strange. Like he was not acting like himself."
"Hearing that sent worry within Jiraiya and to a lesser extent Tsunade. They looked at each other and they knew that they were thinking the same thing. "This could be bad. Very bad."
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"Finally found you." After hearing what the Yamanaks had to say, Jiraiya went looking for his spiky haired godchild. "It took a while but he was able to find him. "I've been looking for you everywhere. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprise to find you here at your private training area."
Naruto was indeed at the area that he usually used to train and that mostly involved in him being Fox. At the moment he was sitting on a branch of the tallest tree that was there. "Now how about we head back to the hospital? Does that sound good?"
For his part, Naruto didn't say anything. He didn't even look at him as he just stared out head. It was hard to tell if he even noticed the older man and it wasn't until he saw the boy looking over at him from the corner of his eye did Jiraiya know that he had Naruto's attention. "Listen, Naruto. We need to go so we can talk."
"Why do we need to do that?" One second Naruto was sitting on the tree branch and the next he was standing behind his legal guardian. "Here's good enough."
"Something's off." Jiraiya recognize. "He never was this fast before, even when he was in his demon for." "Naruto, we need to get you back to the hospital. You've probably been affected like everyone else."
"So what if I have? Like you actually care what happens to me." That caught Jiraiya off guard as he didn't expect that to be said. "Let's be honest. You only took me in because you felt obligated to do so for my father." As Naruto spoke it sounded as though he believed what he was saying for quite some time. "Who knows, maybe if things were different you would've consider me as a demon with a human in them and not the other way around."
"That's not true." Jiraiya quickly denied. "The affects of the Nicodemus flower are messing with your head. Otherwise you would never think such things were true."
"Or maybe you never knew what I was thinking at all." Naruto shot back, finally showing signs of anger. "You try to believe that what I'm going through but you can't. Honestly, sometimes I wonder what I really am. Am I Naruto Uzumaki, a boy trying to live his life?" Without any kind of warning he changed to his demon form. "Or am I really Fox, the human form of the nine-tailed fox, Kyuubi? I truly don't know."
"You're whoever you choose to be." stated Jiraiya. He needed to choose the right thing to say to keep things somewhat under control. "Just because you have a demon living within you it doesn't define who you are and what you want to be. You just have to want it."
"Perhaps you're right. When that was heard the white haired man was more at ease. "And you know what I want right now?" Sensing somewhat coming at him from behind, Jiraiya moved out of the way. The thing that he had sensed was discovered to be another Fox. Obviously one of them was a shadow clone. "I want to see how good I really am compared to you."
Not allow him the chance to register what he just heard; the two Foxes went after the man. On any other time Jiraiya would've easily dealt with such a situation but that wasn't the case here. "What's going on here? He's never been this tough to deal with before. What makes now any different?" As the fight went on he notice that a thin layer of what appeared to be red chakra was covering the two look-alikes. "So, that's the reason. I guess I'll have to use it after all."
Putting his plan into action he bit one of his thumbs. Performing the necessary hand signs he slammed his hands down. "Summoning Jutsu." Appearing on either side of Jiraiya was two toads that were two toads that were as tall as he was. The toads went to work and were able to wrap their tongues around the two Foxes. They tried to free themselves but found it impossible.
"No point trying to escape." informed Jiraiya. With the situation now being more to his liking he was able to be a little more at ease. "YOU won't be able to move around that much. At least not enough to do any hand signs or escape." Going into his pocket he pulled out a small square piece of paper. Written on the paper were some strange markings. "I had hoped that I wouldn't have to use such a thing on you but there's no other choice."
He went ahead and placed the paper on one of the Foxes' foreheads. It didn't appear like anything was happening. That would soon change as slowly the red chakra started to disappear. Not long after it was gone so was the other Fox, which was revealed to be the shadow clone. By the time that the paper did whatever it was that it was suppose to do it caused him to pass out and reverted back to Naruto.
"You really are more trouble than you're worth." Going ahead and having the toads go away; Jiraiya picked up the unconscious Naruto and placed him over his shoulder. "But I guess that's just one of the things that make you who you are."
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"At last, you're awake." Jiraiya was referring to was the now conscious Naruto who was sitting in his bed. "It's about time that you did. You've been out of it for half a day."
"Wh-What happen?" Naruto groggily asked. "The last thing that I remember is going to the hospital after getting Kabuto to help with figuring out what was going on. Everything else is a blur."
"Apparently when you took the Nicodemus flower to the Yamanakas you must've gotten affected by it. Long story short, you brought out more of the nine-tailed fox's chakra than usual. Fortunately I was able to stop you before anything bad could happen." It was then that Jiraiya showed him the same type of paper that he used earlier. 'The seal that's on this paper can be used to repress that chakra in case you lose control."
"What about everyone else? Are they okay?"
"Everyone's fine." Jiraiya reassured. "Mostly everyone that could be saved was and that includes your friends."
Letting out a breath that he didn't notice that he was holding Naruto became calmer. "Thank goodness. I'm glad to hear that. How did you guys find the cure?" From the look that Jiraiya was giving him he had a feeling that he wasn't going to necessary like what he was going to hear.
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"I was wondering if you would actually show up or not." commented Kabuto in a casual tone. "I guess I shouldn't be surprise that you did."
"Like before, Fox showed up at Kabuto's home to talk and get some answers. "Can you blame me? When I found out that you were the one who discovered the cure and saved all those people. To say that I was surprise would be an understatement."
"It wasn't that hard really. You happen to mention that an Aburame's insects were one of the causes of the flower's spores to spread. If so then why weren't the Aburames affected as well? After some research we found the reason and used it to create an antidote."
"That was very clever of you." acknowledged Fox which had a trace of sarcasm behind it. "Hopefully they'll be no need to use it since all the flowers have been destroyed. However, there's something that's been bothering me. How did the Nicodemus flower show up in Konoha all of a sudden? If it simply grew they would've been discoverer before now. Maybe someone planted them. If you know what I mean."
"Are you trying to imply that I had something to do with that so called theory of yours?" questioned Kabuto. By how he was talking it was impossible to tell if he felt offended or not. "Why would I do such a thing?"
"Don't know. But I never said that you had anything to do with it." Nothing else was needed to be discussed between the two Fox decided to take his leave. He was about to go out the window but decided to say a few parting words. "Of course, I never said that you didn't have anything to do with it." Fox didn't look back as he left but if he did he may have saw the irritated look that was on Kabuto's face.
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"Order whatever you want you guys." Naruto announced. "Everything is on me."
"You're picking up the tap?" asked a surprise Choji. "Ladies and gentlemen, hell has frozen over." That being said the Akimichi boy headed for the line to get his food as the others went to get a booth to eat. "You do realize that you're going to lose a lot of money because of this?" stated Shikamaru.
"Mostly likely but it's worth it. After all, we're here to celebrate the full recovery of our friend Hinata." It had been a few days since the whole incident with the Nicodemus flowers and all those who survived had fully recovered and that included the Hyuga girl in question.
"This isn't really necessary." implored a slightly embarrassed Hinata. "It's no big deal."
"You're wrong. It's a big deal." Naruto argued. "You could've died but thankfully you didn't. We can at least celebrate what we almost lost. Is that too much to ask?" Gratefully there wasn't any argument from the girl. It was around that time that Choji rejoined them. "Have to admit though, seeing you act like you did was interesting. Doing and saying what you wanted was a sight to see."
Whetherit was meant to or not, Naruto's remark caused Hinata to blush so much that her entire face became a deep red. "Uh, Naruto. I didn't say or do anything unusual did I?"
Scratching the back of his head, Naruto tried to think back. "Not that I can recall." There was no way to tell if the blond was telling the truth or not. "The past couple of days are a bit hazy. There are moments that are a complete blank. Why do you ask? Is there anything that I should know about?"
"No. There's nothing." Hinata quickly answered. Her blush had gotten down but there was still a trace there. Not seeing the point in asking about it any further Naruto let the subject drop. Unnoticed by those two was that their two friends had been watching the whole scene unfold.
"Do you think that we should tell them everything that happen?' asked Choji quietly to his friend so to prevent from the others from hearing him.
"Don't bother." replied Shikamaru in a lazy tone. "There's no point in telling them what happen. If they remember on their own then so be it." Glancing over to the two in question he saw that they were involved in some kind of conversation. "Besides, doing so would be just troublesome."
So, was this an interesting chapter? Some of you may of already know this but yes, the Nicodemus flower was a reference to the one that was in the Smallville episode by the same name. There were some changes but nothing too over the top. Don't worry about the whole Naruto/Hinata situation. It'll be touch on as the story goes on.
As for the situation involving Kabuto. While Naruto and a few know that Kabuto should be arrested but there isn't any evidence to prove it without Naruto's secret being revealed.
That's pretty much the end of this chapter and I hope that you take the time to leave a review. Speaking of chapters, there'll be a few more original ones before I really focus on the Chunin Exam. As of now they'll be three more before this story goes to that particualr arc.
Well, that's pretty much it. So until next time, see ya and have a happy Thanksgiving.