The world suddenly disappeared in a blur of speed as Orochimaru grabbed him by the collar and shunshined. Naruto tried to struggle but accomplished absolutely nothing.
It couldn't have been even a minute before the world came back. He found himself standing beside Orochimaru in the center of a hospital tent. Emergency personnel were racing back and forth, setting up equipment and bringing in casualty after casualty on stretchers. Most of the casualties were badly burned, and far too many of them were children.
"What happened?" Naruto asked weakly.
Orochimaru shoved him down in a camp chair next to an operating table. "Gas line explosion," he said curtly. "You're going to help."
Naruto blinked and looked around. Not far to the east, the entire city was in flames, burning so high that the air was being sucked in, causing a wind that tugged on his hair and clothes. Groups of ninja were destroying block after block of buildings in order to make a firebreak. Others were using water jutsu to soak everything in sight, focusing more on reinforcing the firebreak than on putting out the massive firestorm.
"You look better than last time," Dr. Hashimoto grunted, stepping into view from behind Naruto and eyeing him like a bug.
"Yes," Orochimaru said. "He's your chakra battery. Don't worry, he's not going anywhere." Without looking away from the doctor, he blocked Naruto's attempt to stand.
"Hey, you can't—" Naruto protested.
"Shut up," Orochimaru snapped. "My people are dying; given unlimited chakra, the doctors can work faster and use techniques they couldn't normally sustain, and that will increase the survival rate of thir patients. You're going to supply them." Without apparent effort he yanked Naruto's arm out to full extension and ripped the sleeve away.
"Where the hell is my next patient?!" Hashimoto yelled to the room at large. "What am I, a leper? Why is my table empty?!"
Almost before he'd finished speaking, two orderlies were setting a stretcherful of badly burned girl in front of him. Hashimoto grabbed Naruto's forearm in his left hand and put his right over the girl's heart. The green glow of medical chakra was nearly blinding.
Naruto felt the foreign draw on his chakra and instinctively yanked himself back, pulling both his body and his chakra away from the doctor. Or, at least, he tried. Orochimaru instantly stopped him, before grabbing him by the back of the neck and dragging him to his feet. He bent Naruto over the table until his face was inches from the girl's ruined body and his nose was full of the scent of barbequed flesh.
"Stop it," Orochimaru hissed in his ear. "You will help my people or I swear by every kami that I will snap your spine here and now. We don't need you mobile, just alive." He paused; when he spoke again his voice had shifted, a seam of raw pain exposed to the light. "Please," he said. "Her name is Chiyoko; she's eleven, and she likes gardening. She has a brother, Noburu, who we haven't recovered yet."
Naruto blinked, then nodded. "Of course." His chakra, restricted to a miserly trickle before, suddenly poured into Hashimoto like a tsunami. The doctor stiffened, his body arching up as though he were being electrocuted until he managed to master the flow.
"Cut it out, you jackass," Hashimoto snarled. "What, are you trying to make me kill her? Don't push it on me, just don't resist."
Naruto swallowed guiltily and stopped pushing. Hashimoto harumphed, shifted his grip on Naruto's arm, and went back to work. A blue aura of chakra flared around him, leaving him standing in the middle of a heatless pyre; tendrils of chakra like frozen blue lightning stretched out from him, winding across the tent and pouring over another doctor...and another...and another...and another...
Naruto took a deep breath and focused on keeping the flow of his life energy steady. He'd never in his life felt anything like this; it was like creating hundreds of clones and then immediately doing it again and again. His muscles felt...heavy? Maybe? That wasn't quite the right term. It was like being sleepy, except he was fully awake.
"What's happening?" he mumbled.
"Don't worry, it's normal to be a little tired when transfusing," Hashimoto said absently. He finished regrowing the last piece of Chiyoko's burnt skin and stepped back, not releasing his grip on Naruto or allowing a single flicker in the massive web of chakra transfer links he was currently maintaining.
"Why is there a healthy kid on my table?!" he yelled. "Somebody get me a patient, because I'm getting bored just standing here!"
The words were barely out of his mouth when Chiyoko was whisked away and a new patient delivered; a heavyset woman in her fifties, her breath came in shallow wheezing gasps and most of her clothes had been burned away. Hashimoto went to work immediately.
The orderlies carried Chiyoko out of the tent and set her on a grassy lawn a short distance away. More people—healthy people, fresh from the healing hands of the med-nin, were being laid beside her. Nurses moved down the line, giving out water and telling people to rest.
"This is Miyu," Orochimaru said quietly, gesturing to the woman on the table. "She's only thirty-eight years old; she looks older because she spent most of her time working a tenant farm in northern Lightning. Her village had some bad luck four years ago—a flood wiped out a good portion of their crops, meaning they couldn't pay the tax and still eat. Their lord didn't care, so they ended up slowly starving, which made it harder to bring in a good enough crop for the next set of taxes. It was a vicious circle; when she arrived last year I could count every rib." His lip twitched in a flicker of amusment as he considered the woman's thick waist. "I feel she has perhaps overcompensated slightly, but it's every person's right to make bad choices."
"I feel...weird," Naruto said, slumping in his chair. "Is this what it feels like to be tired?"
Orochimaru snorted. "Probably," he said. "I'll get you some food and water, and maybe a soldier pill. We can't afford to have you falling over on us." He flicked some handsigns at an orderly. "And yes, it will be ramen."
A Sound ninja shunshined up in a swirl of soft chimes. "Chuikage-sama," she said. "We've spotted a group of survivors one block back into the fire. I need permission to redeploy some of the firefighter units to clear a path."
Orochimaru frowned. "Which block?" he asked.
"The three hundred block of A Street, Chuikage-sama," the woman said.
Orochimaru shook his head. "No. It would need at least two dozen ninja to venture into that, and the firefighters are already overstretched just keeping the firebreak in place. That area is mostly warehouses; there's nothing in there that we can't afford to lose, so letting it burn itself out is the better move. If there are survivors there, there won't be more than a few of them. I'm not risking the lives of the firefighters and the integrity of the firebreak to rescue a handful of people."
"You can't just abandon them!" Naruto said. "They're your people! What kind of monster—"
Orochimaru backhanded Naruto so hard he was nearly knocked out of the chair. "Do not presume to lecture me about my duties, brat," the Sannin hissed. "You want to be Hokage? This is what it means—choosing who lives and who dies when there aren't enough resources to save everyone."
Naruto glared at him. "I'll go myself, then!" he snapped. "I can get through the fire on my own if I use the Kyuubi."
"You're needed here, powering the doctors," Orochimaru said.
Hashimoto shifted uncomfortably. "Actually...," he said.
Orochimaru paused, then turned slowly to the doctor. "Yes?" he asked in a tone of patience with a looming monster behind it.
"Well...some of my students, orderlies, and nurses are good enough at chakra control that they could do the transfer at range, Lord Chuikage," Hashimoto said. "We'd need to leave a chain of them, separated by not more than thirty or forty yards, but there's plenty of them and it's only half a mile to that block. If it would save our people, I think it would be worth devoting a couple dozen people to the job for a short time."
Orochimaru, the man who had earned the title 'Legendary Ninja' on a battlefield soaked in blood, simply looked at the doctor for long seconds. Hashimoto shifted his weight nervously.
Orochimaru turned to a nearby ANBU. "Find the Konoha nin and get them here."
o-o-o-o
Sound ninja intercepted them within a mile of their cottage and brought them to the medical tent where Naruto and Orochimaru waited.
Their teammate sat at the center of a web of chakra that flowed out into dozens of doctors; an attendant was bringing him ramen and water as they arrived. Hashimoto stood beside him, one hand clamped on his forearm like a vice, the other working on his latest patient. Orochimaru stood beside them, speaking quietly to Naruto.
"Hashiro," the Snake Sannin said as they arrived. "Came to us from a small village in Earth. Father of five; one died at birth, one was killed by a samurai at age ten. Two are missing, but we've found his son Haru."
Hashimoto cursed. "I'm not going to be able to fix his face," he growled, sounding as though he'd suffered a personal affront. "The nerve damage is too severe. He'll live, but he'll have trouble speaking and eating." He concentrated for a few more seconds. "Same for the peripheral nerves in his legs and hands. He won't have a sense of touch across sixty percent of his body and I'm not sure he'll walk." He gave Orochimaru a studied look; the Chuikage nodded. "Orderlies! Take this man to the medbay at Sound General!" Hashimoto yelled. "And get me my next damn patient!"
"Naruto, are you all right?" Anko asked.
Naruto nodded. He was pale and sheened in sweat, but he gave them a thumbs-up with his free hand. "Doing great, sensei!" he said.
The orderlies set down a stretcher bearing a young boy. A quick three-count, a coordinated heave, and he was on the table. The orderlies set him down as gently as they could, but the semi-conscious boy still moaned in pain as his burns and broken leg pressed into the table.
"Isamu," Orochimaru said. "Four years old. His mother brought him in two weeks ago. His father was a farmer; his farm burned down in a ninja battle, so he became a bandit. Konoha ninja killed him but didn't bother to check if he had a family who might be starving."
Hinata tapped Anko on the wrist. "Sensei," she said quietly. "Naruto-kun is running low on chakra."
Anko blinked. "What."
Shino had been calmly surveying the scene since the team arrived. "In fairness, sensei, he is currently supplying chakra for forty-six doctors that I can see. I'm pushing my allies out for a better count; there may be more."
"Oh," Anko said. She paused, then turned to Orochimaru. "How can we help?" she asked.
"There are people trapped in the fire about half a mile from here," Orochimaru said. "Reports say it looks like a dozen, maybe a few more. I do not have the resources to rescue them, but Naruto insists on going. It's possible; using fire, air, and water jutsu to cool the ground and move the heat aside would allow you to make progress and bring civilians out. Unfortunately, Naruto is needed here to provide chakra for the doctors. If Naruto is going to do this, we need an alternate source of chakra for the doctors. Fortunately, Shino's insects can do the job."
Shino shook his head. "I apologize, Orochimaru-sama, but I do not have enough kikai for the task. My colony is only twenty-five thousand; there's no way they could contain anything like enough chakra for your needs."
Orochimaru flashed the gennin an annoyed look. "Don't play stupid, boy," he said with an irritated look at the . "The big swarm, get it up here."
Shino shrugged innocently. "What swarm? I have my colony and a few thousand more in the canteens that Naruto wears, but nothing like—"
"If your other swarm does not appear within the next three seconds, I will shove a kunai through your left eye," Orochimaru said calmly.
"Oh," Shino said. "You mean that swarm?"
Behind the nearest row of houses, the sky went dark as a hundred million kikai lifted into sight.
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