Well, Here is the next chapter. I'm taking more time with these chapters now. I write them, then let them sit for a long while before I go over them again. It helps me to make sure things flow, spelling doesn't suck (As bad) and I get all of my facts straight. I hope it helps.
Any way, enjoy. (And RnR any mistakes I may have made. _ I am trying to have better quality content this year.)
Chapter 21: The One
To the former Hokage,
I amuse it is your old age, and your weary mind, that has clouded your judgement towards our future. If this is not the case then I would like an explanation as to why you are abandoning our plan to utilize the world's most powerful weapon. Our dear Minato is not some mere human, who can afford to live as other humans, with the little human pitfalls like children and positions in office. Please do not waist my time, or the time of our fellow country men, in discontinuing what is necessary for our survival.
You have forgotten the blood shed, and the lives lost, and for that I will graciously blame your age. But you can not excuse the willing neglect that will lead to genocide if we do not use The One that has been given to us. I trust you will agree promptly to my request to not only continue our experiments with the ninja known as the Yellow Flash, but you will also gather again the necessary beast powers to enable the experiments to continue.
Your fellow shinobi, Danzo.
…...
Fuka kept the file with the letters tucked tightly under his arm as he turned back to the room that was slowly filling with golden radiant light. His heart was beating unevenly as the new information settled in to his mind.
Naruto. . .
Alive.
He eyed Danzo, who's face was dark, but firm, and focused on his own breathing. Fuka straightened his shoulders, knowing that his mission had now shifted, and forced calm back in to his mind. "What would you have me do?" His voice was level and dry.
"I think you already know what your job concerning this Jinchuriki is." The scared man said darkly.
Fuka nodded once. "I understand." He bowed. "I'll get to it right away."
Naruto, once more counted among the living, had to be contained. His power was unequalled, and his availability as a weapon for Konoha was to be corralled. Fuka could not let the blond ninja out of his sight again, or every thing would fall apart once more.
Fuka caught sight of shadows trembling and looked over to where Shikamaru was grinning coldly. His black eyes glittered like wet flint. "His ability to surpass all human expectations are incredible, are they not?"
Fuka turned to face the thin younger ninja. "They are. But he is still just a human."
"He is not just a human." Danzo said flatly. "As we have said, those letters will give you what you need to know about the jincuriki Naruto."
Shikamaru's grin widened a little further and his eyes darkened. "I should have been more like him, you know, I could have had at least his human strength." Some thing cold lingered in his expression for a moment. "If I had just a tenth of his natural strength, Umino-Sensei, I could have killed you before you hurt Choji."
Fuka's dry smile faded. "That fight was unavoidable, Shikamaru-chan."
The faded smile stayed in place humourlessly. "As will future fights, Umino-san."
Danzo and the elders glanced between them, all scowling, before Danzo stepped forward. "You WILL keep your minds on your missions."
Shikamaru nodded once and let the smile drip away in to an expression of eager hopefulness. "I do not wish to disappoint any one, my lord."
Fuka felt a wave of unease wash through him and checked on Iruka. The flickering spirit in the back of his mind was slowly getting the information that was trickling through the barrier. Fuka acknowledged the Teacher's horror at the different demeanour the dark haired teen was expressing, but he would not share in the pitiful waves of guilt.
"Shikamaru. . ." He started, but a sudden explosive burst of mist erupted between every one. A thin white skinned teen dropped to one knee before Danzo and bowed submissively low.
"My lord."
"Sai." Danzo said with a soft grunt. "Report."
"I failed my mission to kill Sasuke Uchiha." The teen replied smoothly.
Fuka took in a breath, and frowned. "Sasuke?"
"This does not concern you, Fuka." Danzo snapped. "I am disappointed in you, Sai, you have never failed to eliminate your target before. Why now?"
The teen did not flinch at the angry tone, but instead looked up and offered a thin smile of his own. Not a fake, hastily applied smile like Shikamaru's, but a tired genuine one. "The mission was long, My lord, and not with out danger. Naruto is going to need surgery immediately. Sakura has drained her self completely of her reserves. I will write up a full report, sir, when I have rested."
Fuka's heart quivered for a moment at the mention of surgery. Naruto was a quick healer, but there had been times when he had exhausted even his own resources. "Why does he need an operation?" He asked.
Sai glanced up at him, taking him in for the first time. "To clear an infection from a wound. It's quite severe and needs to be cleaned out right away." He smiled a little. "I am sure he will make a full recovery. Even now I am sure I am more exhausted than he."
Danzo's lone eye flashed dark in the light. "That smile. . .Sai. . ." He growled. "Report, now."
"Naruto's personality is of a sunny disposition, My Lord." Fuka offered, feeling intrigued by the teen who had been on Naruto's team. "It can be infectious." Naruto's power to change people, and his dedication to Sasuke, had some how severed at least one person's indomitable loyalty to Danzo. He stepped up to Sai and let his hand rest on the slim shoulder and found that it was trembling. "Perhaps his mind is not clear now. Rest, I have found, will help the young tremendously in writing their reports."
"The paper work ninja would know." The elder woman said with a snort.
Danzo glared, but then nodded. "Fine, rest first. I will have the report as soon as you can write it, once you have woken up."
"I will have it to you promptly." He said with a nod. "Um. . .I do have a request." This time his calm voice faltered slightly.
Danzo leaned forward and studded the slim face. "A request?" He frowned till the corners of his mouth wrinkled down to his jaw line. "Very well, let's hear it."
"I wish to remain on Naruto's team." The boy, Sai, said flatly. The trembling under Fuka's fingers calmed however.
Danzo frowned, "I don't think. . ."
"A second set of eyes on Naruto would be an advantage." Shikamaru said evenly, coldly, the grin sliding back in to place. "We'll need a trusted spy."
"Very well." Danzo nodded. "For now you will remain with Naruto's team. But I will be watching you."
"Yes sir." The youth pulled away and left the room, feet nearly dragging. Fuka watched him go for a moment before catching the ice in Shikamaru's eyes. Fuka sated back, blandly, unafraid of the shadow user.
"As of Naruto. . ." Fuka smiled dryly. "I will go to his side while he is in surgery and learn what I can of the mission my self."
"Yes." Danzo waved his arm dismissively. "Go."
Shikamaru's wicked grin subsided again and he bowed. "I will go tend to my mission as well."
"Your mission?" Fuka asked. The wash of anxiety filled him again. He turned inward for a moment and reinforced the shield between him self and Iruka, cutting off the other man's feeling once more.
"There are more people who are a threat to our mission than just Hatake and the Hokage." The elder woman replied. "It is our job to make sure they do not get in our way."
Fuka studied Shikamaru, free of the horror of his mental captive, and found him self not wholly free of the anxiety. "And if they do get in the way?"
"My mission is not to hunt down our own citizens, Umino-San, but there are people who would oppose our views. It's my job to track them and make sure they don't become dangerous." He pushed off the wall. "I have a long list, and the day is waisting out there." He bowed to Danzo. "My lord."
Danzo nodded back. "Do not arouse the suspicions of any one."
Shikamaru smiled flatly. "I will be. . . normal, My lord." He stepped back and vanished out the door.
Danzo turned to Fuka. "I told you to go, did I not?"
Fuka shifted on his feet and forced him self to smile. "Yes. You did." He turned on his heal and stepped out of the room.
"Do not forget your mission with Hatake." The elder woman called bitterly. "Kill him, and do it as soon as possible. We need to secure Naruto and get him out of the Hokage's range of power as soon as possible."
Fuka smiled this time. "I will." He glanced back. "Consider the report written."
…...
Guy stepped out on to the street and sank to the steps where he buried his face in his hands. No one was listing. No one cared.
"Might-Sensei?" A soft vice called.
He looked up to see the hard milk and grey eyes of Hibiki, Hinata's younger sister.
"Princess." He greeted, straightening up a little.
"I need your help." She stepped up and stood before him. "It's about my father."
Guy tried to smile. Youth was so... hopeful. "I don't know if I can help."
"His chakra has been altered, Might-Sensei. I can see it deteriorating every day, little by little. My fellow Hyuga see it as well, but they are bound by loyalty to keep silent about the health and wellness of their leader." She said, slowly, calmly.
"Aren't you bound as well?" Guy asked gently.
"I am. . ." She tilted her head. "I am thirteen and I am acting the part of a rebellious teenager. That is the correct term, is it not? Rebellious Teenager?"
Guy nodded, smiling a little. "Yes. . . youthful rebellion to change the broken paths of the old and broken. You are correct."
She gave him a polished little smile. "I need you to give my sister and my cousin a letter for me." She pulled a neatly sealed roll of paper from her sleeve and offered it to him. He took it and slipped it in to his vest.
"Your father. . . how much do you know?"
She tilted her head. "If I never speak of what I know then how can any one accuse me of any thing?"
Guy nearly grinned. "Crafty, sneaky, youthful, child!" He stood and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Princess, You have my loyalty. I will deliver this message and I will protect your sister and cousin."
She nodded, her little smile growing slightly. "When they have read the letter they will ask you to do some thing. If you truly pledge your loyalty to me then promise me what ever they ask you to do you will do it."
Guy nodded. "I will I. . ."
An angry, high-pitched, snarling, shriek split the air. "MIGHT-SENSEI!"
Both Guy and Hibiki turned to see Kurenai storming their way. "Where are my children?" She snarled, fists clenched.
Guy gulped and let Hibiki go. "Run child." He whispered. She nodded and took off, vanishing before Kureni could reach them.
"Ah, you look, glowingly maternal . . ." Guy started, but her nails rushed out aqnd bit viciously in to his throat.
"Where is Kiba? WHERE IS AKAMARU?"
Guy gulped.
"Kurenai?" Some one called, hopeful.
She turned and glared. "Asuma. Where. Are. My. Children?"
From his place across the street Guy could see the light fade from his eyes. "Let him go, my love, I. . ." He shook his head. "Akamaru is dead, and I have lost track of Kiba. Hate me, but let Guy go. He has protected your other students with valor. . . I. . ."
Her claws left his throat and guy gripped the bloody little picture wounds with a gasp. He watched as the ravin haired woman stalked across the street and grab Asuma by the vest. She was shaking.
"Dead?" She hissed. "HOW?"
Asuma's voice was to low for Guy to hear, but he could see Kurenai's shaking steadily grow. Her death grip loosened and slowly she wilted. Then, with a choking sob, she slid to her knees. Asuma knelt down and continued to murmur.
Guy rubbed at his throat and started to inch closer. The low murmurs ware filled with pain and dread. Guy stopped a few feet away and waited. Kurenai sobbed for what seemed like ages before she turned and buried her face in Asuma's chest.
"I'm so sorry." She moaned.
"For what?" Asuma asked, rubbing her back. "It's my fault Akamaru. . . and Choji. . ." He stopped and looked up at Guy with heavy, dark, eyes.
"Can you bring Hinata and Shino home? They need to know."
Guy nodded gravely. "I was about to go fetch them any way. I'm. . . so sorry. . ."
Kurenai took a deep breath and pulled away. "It's no your fault Guy, just. . . Just get my kids home, OK?"
Ge nodded again and stepped back. "I'll go now." The stopped. "Um. . . Kurenai?"
She looked up at him. "Yes?"
"I did hear you were going to have a child, did I not?" He glanced at Asuma who turned ashen, then glanced back down at her.
"Yes." She scrubbed the back of her hand over one eye. "I hope he, or she never becomes a Ninja."
"Then," Asuma gasped. "You. .. I mean when I couldn't find you. . ."
"What?" She asked. Blinking, tilting her head and sniffling.
"Nothing." He pulled her close and held her tight. "Guy-San. . ."
"Going." He stepped back again, then turned away.
Some where in the back of his mind he could feel his worry for Kakashi festering, but he had a duty to the students first. Heavy hearted he pushed his love for the white haired Copy Cat ninja aside and headed for the gate.
It was going to be a long day, he bemoaned to him self, and felt no younger.
…...
Naruto felt cold hands pulling hot cloths off, binding his limbs down, and pressing a needle in to his arm all in a slow motion blur. From with in he could feel inhuman panic, a reaction to the binds and the pain racing through his shivering body. He heaved in a breath and let the fear wash over him, like a wave over a rock. The Raccoon's terror was a golden sea all around him.
"Sakura." His voice was a rasp in hos own ears.
Slim fingers slipped in to his hand. "I'm here."
He turned his head and looked up at her. Her eyes were lined as heavily with black as his were. "If some thing goes wrong please. . . Get me out of the city. Tell Kakashi I'm sorry."
She stared blandly down at him, her mouth drawn in a thin line. "Don't you trust my medical prowess?"
"Of course I do. I just don't trust my strength."
She squeezed the hand tightly. "Well I do. If I have told you once I have told you a thousand times. I believe in you."
The fear ebbed in the wake of her words. Her touch anchored him firmly to the here and now, brining him, for the moment, away from the gilded terror. He closed his eyes and squeezed her hand back. "Just promise me you'll protect them from me."
She sighed, weary. "I promise."
"Thank you."
"But you gotta promise me you'll do every thing you can to keep that new pet of yours from painting the town red."
He frowned. "It's not a pet." He looked up at her, feeling the wash of terror start to pick up a hint of red rage. "It's a monster and it's not bound to any thing. If it gets free. . ."
She grunted and let go of his hand. "Naruto, for the sake of argument, and BOTH of our minds, lets just call it some thing cute, rather then address it as a 'free range demon', all right?"
He started at her, scowling. "But. . ."
"ACHT!" She snapped, lifting a finger, silencing him. "We are about to cut in to your stomach, where that thing is. If I have it in my mind it's going to jump out like some sort of 'snake in a peanut can' trick I might just slip and cut some thing that isn't supposed to be cut."
Naruto settled back down and stared up at the ceiling, thoroughly troubled by the image that painted in his mind. "OK, fine, but no pet names." He said past a drying mouth.
She nodded once with a grunt.
A shadow fell over Naruto and he glanced up to the other side. Tsunade was looming close in surgical scrubs. "That thing is really loose?" She made a motion as if to bite her thumb nail, but stopped her hand just short of the mask on her face.
Naruto nodded and closed his eyes. "Yeah. It's been hiding in me since Gaara was revived."
Tsunade turned her eyes to Sakura. "What do you recommend we do to ensure the Raccoon doesn't decide to come out of hiding."
"Well," she said slowly, glancing down, it reacts to out side stimuli when Naruto isn't in control of his body. Danm thing tried to eat me, so I kicked it in the jaw. Seamed to respect the fact that I was a lot stronger than Naruto's body at the time."
Naruto scowled. "You broke my jaw?"
She turned her dull gaze down on him. "You had a hole the size of your own head in the middle of your chest and you were a puppet to the beast. Your jaw was the least of your concerns."
Naruto felt another wave of fear and swallowed. "Puppet?"
She shifted on her feet, looking grim. "After Naruto went down that thing was hell bent on brining him back. It didn't abandon the body, but used it as best as it could with the damage it had taken."
"It's depending on Naruto." Jiraya's voice floated over. He stepped up to the table, also in scrubs, and folded his arms. "It knows."
Tsunade nodded. "So what do we do? If it thinks Naruto is in danger it could attack us."
"I'll keep it calm." Naruto closed his eyes and let the fear filter through his mind. "It has listneded to me before."
"Naruto." Sakura said slowly. "Just how do you propose to do that while we are operating on you? You'll be asleep."
"Don't put me to sleep." He opened his eyes and looked up at her.
"The level of pain. . ." She protested.
"Is acceptable if it means keeping you and the village safe." He replied, firmly.
"Are you sure?" Tsunade asked, eyes worried.
"If I can talk to it then I can keep it calm." He took a slow breath. "At least, I think I can."
"You can." Jiraya unfolded his arms and set them on Naruto's shoulders. "You have a gift to change the hearts of people, I don't see why it can't also be used for a tailed beast."
"But the pain. . ." Sakura snapped, rubbing her bloodshot eyes. "Wait... what about an epidural?"
"I was just going to suggest that." Tsunade said, nodding in apparent approval. "It would alow us to proceed with out putting him under."
"A what?" Naruto's brows furrowed.
"It's a drug injected in to your spine to kill any pain in your stomach. It's used primarily on women in labor to help deliver the baby painlessly. . ." She smirked a dry, sarcastic smirk. "Not all that off from what you are, really."
Naruto glared up at her mildly. "I'm not. . ."
"And that makes Gaara the daddy I suppose." She rubbed her eyes again, but did not loose the lazy sneer. He gazed in to her bloodshot eyes and noted the way her hands were shaking with fatigue.
Naruto turned his attention up to Tsunade, worried with his own growing fear. "She's not going to help you, is she?"
The Hokage shook her head 'no'. "Consult only." She looked at the exhausted pink haired medic. "Sakura, as soon as I have a grasp of what I am to do you will be dismissed. Understood?"
Sakura nodded slowly, eyes still not focusing. "Aye ma'am."
"We are going to roll you on your side." Tsunade said, attention back down on Naruto. Her hands slid under his back on one side while Sakura reached over and grabbed his shoulder and hip. "Count of three."
Naruto felt a wave of nausea roll through him as they counted then rolled him By now the pain he was feeling was a constant gut churning throbbing and he hardly felt the motion. He swallowed hard as a needle pressed hard, then 'popped', in to his spine. This hurt in a new and jarring way, and he had to bite down hard not to moan. He winced and looked over at Sakura who was looking down at him with glassy red eyes, but there was still a fierce determination aglow from the green irises.
"You look like crap." He whispered through clenched teeth.
She glowered at him. "I look a whole lot better than you do right now."
Naruto felt a wash of some thing cold filter down his back and sooth away much of the pain. Taking a full breath he felt a twinge of anger and couldn't tell if it was his own of the Fox's. "After this is over I'm going to sleep for a week."
She smiled dimly. "That's a good idea." She looked up away, at Tsunade. "Are we set?"
"Ready." The Hokage replied firmly.
Naruto was lowered back down slowly. The pain was gone, more or less, leaving only the fog of exhaustion. He closed his eyes for a moment and felt him self drifting off to sleep. A fearful snarl in the back of his mind returned his attention to the monster with in.
He reached out and set his hand on it's muzzle in his mind. Even here, though he wasn't really moving, only thinking of movement, he was sluggish and slow. "Stop. These are. . . well most of them are. . . my friends. They are trying to help." He tried to shoved his still festering mistrust of Tsunade out of his mind, it would not help at all now.
The Raccoon growled again and bristled.
"No more pain, see? It doesn't hurt. They are fixing me." A sudden and violent jerk near his stomach sent a jolt of new pain through him, snatching his breath away, and snapped him back to reality. A blue screen had been set just under his collar bone, preventing him from seeing what was going on. Another violent tug winded him completely and he gasped.
Jiraya was hovering near, looking down at him, his bushy grey eyebrows furrowing and bristling with obvious worry. "It's OK. Just try to relax." A gloved hand rested on Naruto's forehead. "Just try to keep your breathing level. This shouldn't take long."
His lips all to dry all of a sudden Naruto licked them futilely to chase away the sand paper feeling. "What's happening?"
"I. . ." Jiraya looked up, seemingly not knowing how to answer. "Well. . ."
"We are making an incision." Tsunade replied. "Can you feel any thing?"
"Feels like you are pulling on me." He swallowed. "Hurts just a little too."
"Bad?" Jiraya asked.
Naruto shook his head. "No." He closed his eyes again and winced when he felt more sharp pulling. Some where in the distance he could hear a door open. "Lady Tsunade? I came as soon as I hear the news!" The voice was bubbly and had far and away to much energy shooting from it for Naruto's taxed systems to properly proses. He closed his eyes and took a slow breath in.
"Shizune." The Hokage greeted levelly, calmly. "Sakura, stand down, you don't have to leave, but get out of the guts. Shizune, scrub up and get in here."
"Yes Ma'am." Sakura sighed, and then appeared next to Jiraya.
"I can't belive you two are OK. . ." Shizune's voice broke. "
"Guts?" Naruto asked, ignoring the Hokage's aid. "You that far in already?" A new wave of fear washed over him.
Sakura nodded. "Your not that hard to slice open." It was a flat, some what detached, reply.
"Does it look bad?" Naruto licked his lips again as more pulling jarred him literally from the inside out.
"Doesn't look good." She replied, still flat toned and detached. "Think we got here just in time, to be quite honest." She added, finally looking down and making eye contact.
Despite the medical mask on Jiraya's face Naruto could see the frown in his features growing. He looked strange with medical scrubs on and his messy hair tamed back on to a rough pony tail, stuffed partially under a cap. "I should have been there with you." He half moaned.
Naruto shook his head as best he could. "Didn't know what we were in fore."
"He's right. . ." Sakura's words were swept away on a wave of sudden pain. Naruto grit his teeth and gasped. Some thing slid over his nose and mouth, smelling of sickly sweet plastic. For several moments he could do nothing but endure the agony. The Raccoon thrashed from with in, chattering and growling.
He forced him self inward and once more grabbed on to the monster, clinging as much for support as to give support. "Shhhh... They are helping us." He wrapped one arm around the muzzle and reached up with the other arm to scratch at the ear. "It's OK."
The Raccoon growled, but the fur relaxed. Another wave of pain hit, causing Naruto to cry out in a gagged hollow scream. The Raccoon in turn leaped back, terrified beyond all reason, and tossed him away. His inner self flew through the body-scape and slammed in to what he could only assume was a rib. He hit hard and pain washed through him from the impact. Not a bone jarring pain like the rib had really been hit, but more like an over all body head ache.
"Strange." He grunted, and rubbed his inner being's temples. The pain in his guts faded again and he took a calming breath as he sat up. "OK, look, Coon, Just calm down? I'll let you know when you need to be scared. I can see what's going on and you can't."
The Raccoon dipped it's head and hissed, but calmed a little. Naruto took that as a good sign and returned back to reality.
"DANM IT!" Tsunade's voice cut through the air violently. "Tell the Zoo to NOT heal you till we are done. The incision keeps trying to reseal."
Naruto winced at the ferocity in her words. The same ferocity she had shown when Kakashi was about to die. "I'll tell them." He submerged in to his mind again and faced the Raccoon. "Hey, Raccoon, listen. . ." He glanced at the cage and the thin strand of ckakra holding the seal in place. "You too, Fuzzy."
The Fox rumbled. "You wish to speak to me now? Have you grown weary of conversing with a beast who's mind has been torn apart?"
Naruto glanced over at the Raccoon. "Torn apart?" A nagging, horrible feeling entered in to the back of his mind, the feeling that once more he'd missed some thing obvious. He shook his head and waved his hand, dismissing the feeling. "Nrrg.. No, yes. . . Look." He took a breath. He did not have time or the energy to deal with their problems at the moment. "Can either of you cure an infection? Poison?"
The Fox glanced at the Raccoon, and the Racoon looked any where but at the Fox or Naruto.
"Didn't think so." Naruto folded his arms and leaned against some thing soft and slightly damp. Maybe the spleen. Or his idea of what an inner body-scape spleen would look like. . . He rubbed his still throbbing temples. "When Kabuto blasted that hole in to me, and then latter filleted me like a fish, all sorts of dirty crap got in, and now I'm some sort of walking cesspool, according to Sakura. . ."
The Raccoon cowered.
"The other humans are trying to save my life, and YOUR'S, by opening me up, and cleaning my internal organs out. They can't do this if you guys seal up that hole too fast."
The Fox tilted his head a little, the vindictive sneer vanishing for a moment. "How long will this cleaning take?"
"I don't know. But I will tell you, BOTH of you, when you can do that. . . make-magic-flesh thing happen again."
The Fox sat back and snorted softly. "Very well."
"That's it?" Naruto asked, a little surprised. "No threating to eat people, no attempts to escape?"
The Fox glared at him silently, then turned away. Naruto opened his mouth to say some thing more, but a veritable flood of torment overcame him. Every thing with his his mind dimmed and he found him self once more back in reality. He didn't have the air to moan, or he knew he would have. A bubble of bile slid up his throat, so he settled for swallowing.
Jiraya was rubbing a cool wet cloth over his head, gently, mumbling soft soothing words. Naruto couldn't make out any of the words, but they sounded sickly sweet. Some thing not common for the master pervert of the hidden leaf village.
"It's every where." Shizune's voice cut through it all, riding on a current of desperate worry.
He took a breath and rolled with the pain, moaning a little. "Th't you said... wouldn't. .. hr't." He managed.
Shizune peered over the blue sheet. "Sorry, Naruto. The drip line seems to have come a little loose, we have the medication up all the way, but only some of it seems to be getting in."
"Fix it." He gasped.
Jiraya's fingers skimmed over his cheek. "We can't, not right now. We can put you to sleep. . ."
"No." Naruto shook his head. "No, to dangerous."
Tsunade growled from some where. "This is a disaster."
Sakura's tired voice drifted through the air. "Just cut it out. Trust me, give him enough food from the IV feed and he'll grow it back in minutes."
"You know what you are asking me to do." Tsunade replied. "This goes against every medical. . ."
Sakura's sighed. "Oh for the love of. . . I'll do it."
Naruto had no time to brace him self before there was an explosion of pain. He could hear yelling and alarms and felt the darkness closing in once more. Jiraya's voice was sounding out in a frosty blizzard of cursing. The Raccoon's chakra swamped him, and red rage mixed with gold. He fought his way back to his mind and grabbed the Coon's muzzle again, clinging, as he felt his teammate's cold hands pull his guts out.
"Stop, please." He held tight, not knowing quite who he was begging, human or monster. "Just wait. . ."
"Naruto?"
The voice was distant, but familiar. He stroked the Raccoon for a moment before forcing his eyes open with a shuttering breath. A scar over the bridge of a pale nose greeted him. There were brown, warm, damp, eyes.
"I-r-ruka. . .?" Beyond the blue sheet Stunade was raving, and Sakura was raving back, voice slurred to an almost drawl, and both women were giving Shizune orders.
A warm strong hand gripped his. "Shhh... It's OK. I'm here."
From with in the Raccoon was keening with terror and drooling. His chakra was flaring all over the place, but there was no attempt to heal any thing. The Fox was snarling, but Naruto couldn't tell what the snarls were about exactly.
"You have to get them away." Naruto swallowed hard and gulped back tears. "It'll kill them."
"What will?" Iruka smoothed back damp hair.
"Raccoon." Naruto replied, then felt a twinge of his own fear. In the back of his mind he recoiled at having given up information about the Raccoon so quickly under the pressure of pain, but he trusted the man bent over him. "Please. Don't let it hurt any one."
'Can we do some thing now, this. . . thing. . . is driving me insane!' The Fox snapped.
"Yes." Naruto replied. Any thing to stop the pain. Death was a close, hovering, shadow, but completely barred by all of that swirling chakra. "Do some thing." He pleaded, this time he knew he was begging the beasts with in. The Raccoon shuddered as he began to send his chakra out to the body.
Soft cool fingers slid down Naruto's cheek, brining him back to the operating room. "It's OK, Naruto, it's not going to get out. Trust me. I won't let any thing happen to you. You are almost done, OK?"
"Hurts."
"We are not done yet, Naruto!" Sakura growled. His whole insides felt as though they were bing ripped out. Some thing squishy fell to the floor. Tsunade and Shizune didn't seem to be there any more. Jiraya seemed to be missing as well.
Naruto closed his eyes. "I. . . I was dead." He grit his teeth and braced him self for more pain. "It hurt. It hurt to die!"
"Shh... I'm here now." Iruka soothed. "I'll keep you safe. Your my student, my. . . son."
Son. Naruto smiled in spite of the pain. In spite of the deaths. In spite of every thing. Son. Family. But the Raccoon was panicking. Visions of the dead Serpent Sanin filled his mind. "Run, get away, I'll eat you. Leave me." He opened his eyes to see brown rimed with blue looking back down at him.
"I will never leave you, Naruto." Hand squeezed hand. "I love you." Iruka reached up and pulled the mask free and bent low. Softly he kissed Naruto's forehead. "You need to realize that." He slipped the mask back up, blue eyes shimmering.
"Iruka. . . F-father?" He closed his eyes and squeezed the hand back. A new wave of pain washed through him and the Raccoon's energy spiked, nearly taking over his physical being. With a cry of pain he pulled every ounce of will and energy in to pulling the Raccoon back. It slammed against his chakra and snarled.
"He's trying to escape." Naruto moaned.
"Trust me, Naruto." Iruka said firmly. "You need to calm down. That Raccoon isn't bound to you, and didn't run when you fought Orochimaru. It isn't going to run now, either."
It was still pressing hard, but not snapping through. ". . .But. . ."
"It needs you, just as much as you need it. Trust it, Naruto, and trust your self. I trust you." He pressed the shoulders down firmly. "You can do this."
Naruto took a breath and forced him self to relax. The pain spiked, then ebbed. The panic swelled for a moment and he swallowed a whimper.
Tunade's voice drifted through the haze. "It's all growing back."
"Told ya'." Sakura grumbled. "Get him more IV nutrition! He'll snap those restraints and eat us if he can't get food in fast enough!"
"I'll get more!" Shizune's voice was sharp and crisp.
Naruto opened his eyes back up and looked in to Iruka's. The blue was gone and only the brown was there.
Blue? There had never been blue before. Dizzy he took a shuddering breath as the whole room spun around them.
"It's OK. I'm here." Iruka squeezed his shoulders gently.
Exhausted he closed his eyes again. He didn't care what color those eyes were, so long as they were looking at him. The pain was going away and his father was there. For now that was all he could ask for.
His family, his father. The pain melted and every thing stilled.
…...
Pakun paced over the hard wood floor of Kakashi's apartment, his nails clicking with every step. Normal dogs, by nature, could not dwell on the past, nor could they fret the future. Dogs, rather, lived in the moment they were given, their minds conditioned to react in one way or another to any command or stimuli by their past experiences. Pakun was not like normal dogs. He and most of the others in Kakashi's care were very carefully crafted Summons. They had been given two gifts. One was the ability to think both of the future, and of the past, and the other to think in abject terms. That abject thinking gave them the power of speech.
"Damn humans."
Not all speech was acceptable to all that listened, but at the moment, Pakun didn't rightly care.
Not this time.
He and the pack had been anxiously awaiting the recovery of their master, hopeful that the man would be all right after all they had heard about his ongoing hospital stay. The near death scares and the threat of total chakra loss had weighed heavily on all of their minds. It had been almost a relief to Pakun when he had been summoned, but the relief had been short lived. He could still smell the horrible ANBU lair in his fur. It wreaked of fear and insanity, of imbalanced minds and wrecked bodies.
Kakashi had wreaked the strongest. He nearly oozed with self destructive scents. And his voice had a cold human hitch to it that made him sound soulles. An undomesticated animal, even an abused animal, would have sounded more alive than Kakashi had.
Pakun rounded the coffee table and walked back towards the kitchen, his nails clicking relentlessly under him as his mind jumped from the resent past, to the distant past.
His father had warned him about these times, about when humans would go insane. Pakun had been an intrepid pup, mindful of his lessons, but head strong. Back then he had seen his boy only a hand full of times and only smelled stress and sorrow, never insanity. He had brashly thought that HIS human would balance out eventually and be as strong as any dog in a well maintained pack. His father had only replied to that logic that a human could sever it's bonds with a pack of its own free will.
Sever bonds? Pakun had laughed out loud. What animal could sever bonds? That would be like cutting one's own brain out. Death would be instant.
Or so he had thought.
But bonds could be severed, his father had argued. Kakashi's father had severed his bonds, and then killed him self. The little ninja boy had found the body, the old pug related, and it would be the seed for insanity latter on.
Watch for it, Pakun had been warned, wait because the insanity of a severed bond would strike, sooner or latter, any Ninja who walked the earth.
"Damn humans." He snorted again, shaking his head. Kakashi may have severed his bonds with the world around him, but Pakun would cut his own heart out before he let his own bonds die.
Die for the Pack, live for the Pack. Be one with the pack. The pack was every thing. Every thing. When the leader of the pack was hurt the pack could help it to heal, or kill it, before it hurt any one else. Those were the rules. But he couldn't kill a human. That was against the rules.
He had to restore sanity or die trying, because if he didn't the whole pack would self district.
The door knob rattled and Pakun jumped up to the coffee table. He sat down and reminded him self to be calm, but firm. Read the man's energy first, then address it. Match it, and redirect, if he could, and try to re-balance the human.
He longed for his father's presence. The old dog would have known what to do, when to do it, and at what intensity.
Then again his father had lost Kakashi's father.
The little nin-dog had never felt more alone than this moment.
The door opened and Kakashi stepped in like he was gravely wounded. His movments were painfully slow, and he winced when he breathed to hard. Despite the agony clearly written on every move the man made Pakun could feel an erratic and forceful energy exploding off of his human form. He took a breath and stood, bolstering his own energy to match the highest level of the human's energy, but forced him self to be calm.
This would never, ever, work if he panicked.
"Kakashi." He stated, drawing the man's attention his direction. The wolf mask barred Pakun's view of the face, but he could feel the energy scrawl crazily in every direction. It was like the energy of a thousand birds all trying to flee at once from a cat.
"Wolf." The human snarled. "I am wolf." there was a rush of killing energy and Pakun tried not to wince. This conversation would be like dancing with a poisonous viper in a burlap sack. He took a calming breath and lifted both his head AND his tail.
The human was no longer in control of him self, let alone his dogs. Pakun would not insult the human by commanding with voice, but he would not let this one human kill off every thing with the insanity.
"No. Your name is Kakashi. You have ordered me on a number of occasions to call you that."
The human snarled again and tore the wolf mask off of his face. "I am Wolf now."
Obsessed, Pakun noted, and distracting him self with these little nuances of 'rules' to protect him self from pain. The human was rudemating, no doubt, and Pakun had to stop it. Viper-sack-dance or no.
Die for the pack. He dropped his voice lower, but made his energy stronger by sheer force of his own will. "I will not call you Wolf, Kakashi. Not when you do not have that mask on. You are a human being, not an ANBU Automaton."
There was a lull in the energy for a moment as Kakashi pulled off the cloth mask. His lips curled into an almost inhuman sneer. "I give you orders, dog." His energy was wavering. He was exhausted. He couldn't fight for much longer.
At least, Pakun hoped he couldn't fight for much longer.
"That isn't an order, Kakashi, that is a statement of fact. I will not address you as some thing you are not. A dog can not lie about the true nature of a man or animal. You know that." He took a step forward, focusing his calm energy towards the human swaying before him. "You also know that what you are doing will get you killed."
There was a sudden, horrifying, excited jump in the man's energy. It was like the hunger of a hunter wolf, but more depraved, in a way, colder. A wolf hunted to live, to feed it's family, to help the pack. It killed swiftly, and did so with out joy or sorrow. This energy was hungry, yes, but trembled in odd way.
It felt like a cat toying with a helpless mouse. Only the hunter and the hunted were the same thing, the same person. Pakun licked at his teeth and took a step back reflexively. His tail sank to line up with the rest of his spine.
"My life isn't worth the mission paper it's noted on." The voice was freezing. The energy beyond Pakun's ability to read it.
"No. Kakashi, do NOT let your mind entertain that thought!" Pakune forced him self to breath calmly. "You can not throw your own life away." Severed bonds. . . He may have abandoned the dogs, but Pakun could not believe he'd abandon his students like that. Not unless. . .
The little dog felt his tail drop to where his ankles jutted out behind him. "It's Naruto, isn't it? Some thing happened."
The energy kicked up even higher, though it straightened out to pure pain again. "I want you out of my house." Kakashi snarled, flat little teeth flashing.
Pakun stood firm. "Not until you tell me you won't do some thing so stupid as to kill your self over this." He stomped his foot, but the only sound was a soft click of nails.
Kakashi snarled darkly. "I am ANBU. If I die, I die in battle. Else I wait for my orders." He tugged off his shirt and stalked off towards the bathroom.
Showing his own teeth for just a moment in fear and agitation Pakun followed him. "You are just like your father, you know, wallowing in your own self pity. I can tell you are lying to me, Kakashi. You may not pick up your own weapon to kill your self, but what can you say to make me think you won't toss your self in to the path of an enemies strike?"
Kakashi froze, hand on the shower knob, back stiff. "I am nothing like that man." His words were so deep and so dark that it didn't sound like his voice.
"No?" Pakun scrambled in to the shower and looked up. The human's whole body was shaking slightly now. "Every thing with in you is screaming some thing, and it's horrifying. You are angry, and hurt, and you are dangerous."
"My death." He ground out. "Would only end my suffering." He gripped the shower's knob tightly for a moment. "Trash should suffer." There was a lull in the energy for just a moment, a weak second of near collapse, and Pakun jumped on it.
"Trash doesn't suffer, Kakashi, that is the nature of trash. That's why it is called trash." He sat down, matching the new lower energy level. "You feel pain. Trash can't do that. Naruto would never want you to suffer like this. Obito wouldn't want. . ."
The energy spiked again, violently, and Kakashi turned away. "Never speak to me again, unless I have spoken to you first."
"Where are you going?" Pakun stood. "Kakashi!"
The man scooped up his cloths and left the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.
Pakun sat down slowly. Even from a room away he could feel that enormous insane energy flowing like acid over every thing.
He'd felt this before, yes, but never this bad. Never this complete. The little nin-dog stepped out of the shower and followed the sent of his master to the front door.
There he laid down and set his head upon his paws. His tail tucked tight and his ears drooped. There was nothing more he could do but hope.
…...
There was a long, warm, stretch of peace where Naruto felt whole. He could still feel the light pressure of the comforting hands on his shoulders and his body was clean, clear, and mended. With the mission over he could just lay there, resting, basking in the warmth of his family.
He'd never felt so at home before.
In the back of his mind, however, anxiety festered as the fleeting images of his silver haired teacher flickered like a half forgotten dream.
He opened his eyes and glanced up in to the blue eyed blond leader of his world. "Hokage-sama." He sat up slowly, pushing the blue screen off of his chest slowly. His stomach was a grimy mess, and all about the table below him were the remains of the infected tissue. All eyes were on him, watching him.
"How do you feel?" Tsunade asked, looking at him wearily, like one would look at a dangerous animal just set free from it's cage. Naruto leveled his gaze in to hers. He still could not find it with in him self to forgive her for what she had done.
"Alive." He replied coolly. Before she could say any thing more he turned to Saskura and looked her over. "Get some rest."
She grunted and nodded as she peeled off white gloves. "Not till you promise me you won't go and strain your systems. You just had your entier abdomen stripped of it's internal organs. They may have grown back but it'll be a cold day in hell before I believe you aren't in for some sort of back lash from all that's happened to you. And so help me if I find out you have gone and hurt your self some how I will personalty gut you like a fish and strangle you with your guts."
Naruto slid of the table and cringed when his feet landed in what looked like a half dissolved liver. "You are so charming when you are tired." He started to redress.
"Naruto."
He turned and looked to where Iruka and Jiraya were standing, looking at him wide eyed. "Iruka. . . Thank you."
Iruka smiled a cool, dry smile. "I'd like to treat you to some thing to eat, if it's OK with the doctors." He nodded towards Sakura and Tsunade.
"He should eat." Tsunade folded her arms and looked naruto up and down. "I'd like to see him build some mass back up."
Naruto looked down at him self. Even with the pilfered vest on he could tell he was thin. "I'd love to have a bowl of raman. . ."
"I'll take you now, if you are ready." Iruka offered.
He looked up at Iruka, ignoring the temptation of food, as the nagging feeling towards Kakashi continued to fester. "I'm sorry, but there is some thing I have to do." He turned to Jiraya. "Where is Kakashi sensei?"
A cold silence filled the room and he turned about, seeing mixed looks of pain and anger. "What? What happened?"
Tsunade averted her eyes and Jiraya seemed to shrink on him self. Iruka gazed at him, but it was a hollow cold gaze, completely turned about from the warmth projected only moments ago. Sakura stepped up to him, her dark rimed eyes burning. "Well, he asked you a question, Hokage."
naruto set a hand on her shoulder and gave her a small push. "Go. Sleep. I'll take care of things here."
"He's my teacher too."
Naruto shoved again, a little harder this time. "Go before your charm gets you in to trouble."
She tossed a venomous glare at him and lifted a finger. "I want you to behave your self. No more wounds, no fighting, and no exacerbating your body's long list of problems."
"I'll be good." He promised.
She huffed. "Well, that's about all I can expect form you, I suppose." Tuurning she grumbled under her breath as she opened the door and stepped through it. As it swung closed Naruto could hear words like 'double monstered' and 'zombie ninja'. After that the cold silence returned once more.
He settled back on his heals and folded his own arms, feeling suddenly alone again, even with iruka still in the room.
"What happened to my teacher?" He asked, keeping his voice level. The beasts with in were still riled up and any anger now on his part may tip the scales. He felt them boiling just under the surface.
When no one replied he turned to Jiraya and looked the old sage in the eyes. From his three years of daily training with the man Naruto could clearly see worry and pain written on the normally confident face, even though the Toad Sanin was doing his best to hide it. "Where is he?" He asked, his voice just hovering between a growl and a shout. He held tight to his emotions as memories of his own hands ripping the third Sanin apart rolled through his mind. "Tell me."
Jiraya looked away and shook his head. "Naruto. . ."
Turning about Naruto faced Tsunade. The woman was standing tall and cool before him, her eyes like frozen pools. "Where is Kakashi Sensei?"
She took a breath, her whole chest lifting with the air. "He's out of the hospital against medical advice."
Cold dread trickled down Naruto's spine. He clenched his fists, as if physically grabbing on to his control. He couldn't keep his eyes from narrowing however, or the inhuman anger from filtering in to his voice. "Why?"
"It broke his heart." Jiraya said quietly. Naruto turned and looked at the old sage. His head was low and shaking slowly back and fourth. "When he heard what had happened it was like a part of him died right along with you."
Naruto clenched his fist again and lifted it slightly. "Where. Is. My. Teacher?"
The cold silence that drifted in the room was suffocating. With in anger burned hotter and Naruto had to turn away from the two sanin.
"I can search this whole village in ten minutes." He leaned his fisted hand up against the sill of a window and looked down over the village. He rubbed his chin with his thumb as he gazed down. "And none of you could stop me."
"Naruto." Tsunade half whispered. Her voice was trapped between fear and force. "He left of his own free will against my advice. I don't know exactly where he is right now." She tilted her head back a little, looking down with narrow eyes. "I've done all I can for him."
Naruto turned sharply on his heal to face her. "You promised to look after him. You are the Hokage if your word can't be trusted. . ." he held up both hands and looked at them, flexed them, and then looked back up, eyes dark.
She glowered down at him.
Naruto stepped up to her and squeezed his fists tight, torn between fear and anger. "You are hiding some thing, Tsunade. That's the face you make when you gamble. Like you have some thing to loose."
Jiraya stepped up to them, his hands wringing at the hems of his garments. "He joined the ANBU." He blurted, shame written over his face.
"ANBU?" Naruto stepped back and glared at them both. Flesh and bone, that's all they were, not a monster serpent, and yet they still called them selves Sanin. He turned away and swallowed a growl.
"Naruto." The voice was like a line in the dark, an anchor to grasp at.
"Iruka." He turned back to the mostly forgotten man. His first one. His. . .
"He's abandoned you."
. . . father. . .
"No." Naruto closed his eyes against the images of the silver haired Copy Cats near death. He'd nearly given his life for Naruto on far to many ocations. "No, he would never, NEVER. . ." He opened his eyes to a sad flat smile and brown eyes gazing softly at him.
Iruka stepped up to him and took both of his shoulders in his hands. "Do you remember last time we talked about him, in the Hokage's office?"
Naruto twisted around and looked up at his former teacher. "Aren't you leaving?"
Iruka ignored the question. "You just said when you woke up Kakashi was gasping for air." He turned and gave Naruto a soft pained look. "Were you sleeping in his room?"
Naruto froze and look up in to the clear brown eyes of his former teacher. "I. . ." He stood fully and shifted nervously on his feet. "I was." He said flatly.
"Why?"
Naruto scrambled for an answer. All of his inner torment, all of his horrible dreams, they were nothing he wanted the other ninja to see. Not after he'd been so very kind. But he knew he couldn't lie to Iruka, the man was a teacher of children after all. He could spot a lie a mile away before it had even been told. Naruto remembered all of the times he'd been caught in a lie as a student. Just for a moment he felt like he was in the principles office all over again about to be questioned and subsequently punished for some thing he'd done. He'd never been able to lie his way out of a bad situation with Iruka around.
"Naruto?" Iruka folded his arms over his chest. "I want honesty here, young man."
"I'm worried about him." He finally replied, desperate for an answer that would pass the grade. It wasn't a lie, but it didn't tell the truth.
Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Yes. What about it?"
"Do you remember what I told you about him? About hos he killed one of his own team mates?" Iruka's smile was dry, cold, but there was honesty in his eyes.
"Yes."
The whole scenario sent a shiver down his spine. . . he looked the teacher in the eyes. "What are you talking about?"
"He may try to kill you."
"That's insane! Kakashi would NEVER hurt one of his own team mates!"
"He already has." The strange kind smile lingered, but some thing else entirely was visible in his eyes.
Naruto pulled out of Iruka's grasp slowly, and turned to the two Sanin still standing behind him. "Is it true? Did he kill one of his own teammates?"
Jiray shifted, butwould not look him in the eyes. Tsunade glanced at him only for a moment, then her gaze landed on the floor.
Iruka had never lied to him, not once. But some thing felt different, unnatural. Remembering Kakashi's promise from the night before Naruto clenched his fists, angry and fearful. "He is my teacher. He would never hurt me. He will never hurt one of his own team mates."
"You do not know what I know." Iruka firm grip tightened. The strange smile morphed in to a sinister sneer. "I only want to protect you."
Naruto turned back to Iruka. "Tell me what you know."
"I'm afraid it's classified." Iruka looked up to the others. "I can't tell you any thing. . ." He looked back in to Naruto's eyes, soft brown meeting livid blue. "I can only tell you that I want you to stay away form him. Please."
Naruto glanced down at his own feet. "I have to help him. If he's hurt because he thinks I'm dead then all I have to do is show him I'm alive." He glanced back up. "Right?"
"Naruto." Jiray's voice held a little more strenght. "You might be right."
Naruto turned to him. "Where is he, I have to find him, Jiraya."
"Yes, but, Iruka is correct." Jiraya finally looked up, his expression dark and hard. "Kakashi is in a very bad state right now. Your death triggered memories of the most painful missions he's ever faced. He did kill a tam mate, one he loved very, very much. She was supposedly dead, but he found her by accident and she attacked him."
"She?" Naruto asked, his mind trying to proses the new information. "If he killed her then she was the enemy. He shouldn't feel bad about that."
"How would you feel if you were forced to kill Sasuke?" Jiraya asked slowly.
A freezing cold chill filled his gut and the room tilted. "I. . ." He shook his head and he lifted his hand to his temple, trying to clear the sudden realization and horror. "Kakashi." He closed his eyes and swallowed the horrible feeling that was welling up in side of him.
Iruka's hand found it's way to his shoulder once more. "I'm asking you, please, he's dangerous now. Stay away from him."
Naruto opened his eyes and looked up in to Iruka's worried face. "I have to go to him. I can't leave him, not knowing that it's my fault." He lowered his hand and looked up at Jiraya. "We have to find him."
Tsunade looked up slowly, with dark hopeless eyes. "He's probably just come off the wall guard duty I assigned to him. He may have gone home by now."
Naruto pulled out of Iruka's grasp and looked up in to his eyes. Fiery blue meeting deep pools of brown that were flecked with sapphire. "Iruka, I have to go to him."
Iruka stood for a moment, face oddly dark, before he straightened up and smiled a little. "I know you do." The smile was dry, hollow. "I just want you to be prepared. He's not the same person you remember."
"No matter what's happened to him, I know my teacher is still in there." He turned on his heal and walked towards the door, stepping over the remains of his former infection. He straightened his vest and tugged his cat suit sleeves straight. Grabbing the door knob hard he turned and looked back at Tsunade. "Hokage."
She turned slowly, almost painfully. "Yes?"
"When I find him, and I will find him, and my team is whole, We need to have a talk." He yanked the door open and looked out in to the empty medical hall.
"I'm coming too." Jiraya stepped up to his side and looked down with a small smile. "Kakashi believed you had the power to change people, even him."
Naruto smiled, just a little. "He's never given up before."
Jiraya's smile faded for a moment, then slowly crept back, turning at length in to a grin. "You know, you may be right. He went to the ANBU to help protect what you love, and I know some where inside he's still trying to protect you. We should show him that he still can."
Naruto's own smile shifted in to a grin and for once since the whole mission with the Akatsuki in Sand he felt a trace of his old self reignite. "What are we waiting for then! Lets go!"
Jiraya set his hand on Naruto's head and ruffled his dirty blond hair. "That's it! That's what we need! There is nothing you can't do, I believe, Naruto. Lets go save Kakashi!"
Naruto laughed and launched out of the door. "BELIVE IT!"
…...
Guy rounded the corner of one still mostly empty quiet dawn street and tried not to drag his feet. The students. . . Oh how his heart ached for the students. He would be the one who would see them first, and he would be the one to have to tell them about Akamaru and Choji. It hurt, physically, in his chest, to even think of telling them about what had happened.
It just might brake little Hinata's heart, and that might finally brake his.
Laughter drifted over the air, seeming to mock his very feelings. The laughter was bright, and familiar. His head lifted a little.
Very familiar.
Guy walked on, and came to a long covered back street. It was dark and cold, the night was still clinging to the damp brick and stone, but ahead was the light.
Laughter from a sunny voice drifted through the slowly warming air.
Then all at once the dark gave away to the brightest morning Guy had ever seen, and in this morning's center Naruto stood, arms tucked behind his head, grinning form ear to ear, and clad in full ninja garb.
Guy had to stop and just look. Tears welled up in his eyes again at the shear brilliance of the moment. Hope was raining down like hot sun beams on every leaf in the village. Naruto was the sun, and the glowing day star had to squint to look at him, Guy was sure of it.
"Naruto." He spread his arms wide and ran. "NARUTO!"
Naruto tried to move out of Guy's way, but could not escape the hug that was thrust upon him. "Oi OI!" The blond cried out as they both fell to the ground. Guy sobbed, freely, in to the dull uniform Naruto had on. "Guy Sensei!" Naruto pushed against his arms, but they would not move.
"YOU ARE ALIVE!"
"Not or long if you crush me!" Naruto thrashed a little. "Off. OFF!"
Guy let go and sat back, only dimly await that Jiraya was chuckling some where in the distance and saying some thing about 'quick healing'.
Naruto glared and rubbed the back of his head. "I'm on a mission. It's very important! I can't be delayed."
"What ever it is you have to set it aside and come with me." Guy grabbed on to his arm and pulled him to his feet.
Naruto pulled his arm away with a quick jerk. "No, this is the most important thing I can be doing. I have to find. . ."
"Who ever you are looking for, who ever it is, Naruto, forget it." Guy could feel desperation swelling up in side. As his feelings bubbled up so did the tears.
Naruto stood firm, but relaxed just a bit. "OK Guy-sensei, slow down, what are you trying to get me to do?" A look that betrayed the blond's youth to budding age washed over his face. Guy wasn't sure if he liked it or not... but he was listening, that was the most imperative thing.
"It"s Kakashi. . ."
"Kakashi. That's who I'm looking for!" Naruto grabbed his shoulders and held tight. "Where is he? Is he OK?"
Guy stood in the intense gaze and inhumanly strong grip, marveling at the teen who was supposed to be dead. There was a new fire in his eyes, and an new strength. "He thinks you are dead." Guy replied, all of the feelings clashing so hard they left him almost emotionally void in the middle. "He needs you now."
"Yeah, I know."
"No, you don't." Guy felt the flood of past fear and hope towards his eternal rival rush him and he hung his head. "Kakashi is not like other people, Naruto. When people he loves die a part of him dies too." He looked up again as he remembered a distraught silver haired child with dead eyes going through the motions of deadly moves. The blank face and the black mask hiding pain Guy could never comprehend.
"But I'm not dead!" Naruto snapped. "We can fix this!"
"We can, because I believe you can." Jiraya said firmly. "But we can't fix it here." The sage looked up and Guy could feel the faith in Naruto radiating off of every inch of the old wrinkled body.
Doubts clung to his mind, but Naruto's radiant light chased most of them away.
Most.
"Come on, we'll try his apartment." Guy smiled. "I believe in you too, Naruto!" He gave the blond his best 'thumbs up' sign.
"YEAH! Lets go!" Naruto took off in to a run and Guy had to press hard to keep up.
…...
Sakura wasn't sure where she was, but there was a bed. Dimly she knew that she was still in the hospital, and that this room was for the staff, but what exact room, she was not clear on. She sat down on the bed and pulled off the heavy, gore slimed, toe trapping, boots. Wriggling her toes was one of the most wonderful feeling she had ever felt in the world. Boots were safer, yes, but almost unbearably stuffy.
Her eyes started to slide shut before she could fully lay down. A shadow filled with odd chakra flickered from some where in the distance. All of the horror from the past few days rushed through her at once and her eyes snapped back open. For a moment she glanced Shikamaru slinking through the halls.
Standing on wobbly legs she walked up to the door and peered out. Shikamaru was peering in to a patients room with a dark cold look on his face. The aura he was sending out was so unlike his normal aura that it made her stomach churn. Still, if he was in the hospital for some one, he could have been under stress.
Sakura's head dipped, even as she was trying to watch the other teen, and she fell half asleep where she was standing. Groggily she shoved her worry to the farthest reaches of he mind and staggered to the bed. She dropped down and fell over on to her side, asleep literally before her head hit the pillow.
Moments latter the dark shadow slid over her body for a moment, sinister, and cold, before vanishing completely.
…...
Guy stood before Kakashi's apartment door and pounded on it hard. Behind him he could feel Naruto's hot breath on his neck and feel Jiraya's bodily warmth drifting through the cramped hall way. He pounded once more.
"Kakashi there's some one here to see you!"
Only silence greeted them. Glancing back he could see the deeply furrowed lines of worry on Jiraya's face. It was such a strong look of worry that a cloud of fear passed over Guy's heart, blocking some of Naruto's hopeful eagerness. Guy turned back to the door and pounded again.
"Jiraya. . . where else could he be?" He glanced back at the old man.
Naruto followed his gaze and some of that exuberant energy drained. "Pervy-sage?"
Jiraya shrugged a little. "There are a lot of places he could go, but as worn out as he is this would be the only place I could think he'd go willingly."
Fear kicked up in Guy's heart then, cold and harsh. "Tell me, is it like that time?"
Jiraya's head fell again and his eyes misted. "It's, bad, just like then."
"Just like when?" Naruto demanded. "What are you talking about?"
"It has some thing to do with the Fourth Hokage." Guy answered honestly. "His former Sensei."
Naruto's brows furrowed. "The more I hear about the Fourth the more I don't like him." He balled his fists for a moment, then his face turned truly sower. "Move." With a soft growl he shoved Guy out of the way and lifted his own fist to the door. "KAKASHI SENSEI! OPEN UP!" He pounded hard, nearly splintering the wood.
Still there was only silence. Jiraya tossed a look of dread towards Guy, who's heart shivered with the horrible thought that Kakashi might be. . .
"That's it, I'm kicking in the door. Naruto, stay here." Jiraya moved Naruto to thew side before leveling his gaze on Guy. "Both of you stay until I have cleared the apartment." He took a stance and readied him self to kick in the door.
"Why?" Naruto asked. "Is he in danger?"
Guy pulled him back and held the youth's shoulders gently. "We don't know that yet." But he was so very afraid that he already knew.
Jiraya kicked out with a loud cry and wood shattered. A startled yelp sounded form with in the apartment. A yelp that was NOT human.
"Pakun!" Naruto shoved Guy back so hard he slammed in to the opposite wall and saw stars. "Pakun! Why didn't you answer us?"
The pug shook off wood splinters. "I was yelling my muzzle off, but the apartment must have been sound proofed."
Guy exchanged a worried glance with Jeraia. Naruto caught it and scowled. "Why would he sound proof his apartment?"
"He. . .Some times when a person is in a lot of pain. . . when he was young. . ." Jiraya abandoned the train of thought with a heavy sigh. "Some times adults do that?" He offered, trying to make it sound suggestive.
Naruto glared hotly. "What are you hiding from me?"
Guy winced. "A more important question is 'where is Kakashi'?"
Naruto scooped Pakun up and held him securely. "Do you know where he might be?"
"No, I could track him, but if he's really determined to be alone he'll have masked his sent. I can't smell any thing from the hallway except the sent he left when he came in."
Naruto set Pakun down and then straightened back up with fire in his eyes. "Stand back."
Jiraya stepped out in to the hall and backed away quickly.
"You to Guy-Sensei. I'm going to look for him my self!" He brought his hands up and started to sign. In seconds clones filled very square inch of the apartment's floor. Each of them looked grim and determined. "GO!" Naruto shouted.
Guy had to press him self hard against the wall to keep him self from being trampled.
When each had cleared out Naruto stepped in to the hall, his eyes dark, and his fists balled. "Not enough room in here." He turned and started to march down the hall. "I need to get out side."
How many is he going to make?" Guy asked, his heart trembling with excitement.
"As many as it takes." Jiraya replied with a grin.
Guy watched as Naruto walked on, his new boots sounding like tightly controlled thunder over the hard wood floor. For just a moment Guy could not see the loud mouthed blond kid that had been trust upon his eternal rival, but the Hokage. He wasn't sure if it was the past Hokage, or the future Hokage, but he saw THE Hokage. "He's. . . really going to save Kakashi, isn't he?"
"No," Jiraya's voice was hushed awe. "He's going to save us all. He's The One."
…...
Fuka stood near the Hokage who was nearly quivering.
"My lady." He offered, gently, smiling softly, with out feeling.
"Orochimaru is dead and Naruto is back." She whispered. "And he hates me."
Fuka reached out and set his hand on her shoulder. He caught his reflection in the window. Iruka was disheveled, his hair hanging limp around his shoulders, and his eyes burning with a million emotions. "Naruto is, has always been, and will always be, his own person." Fuka stared at the reflection eying him. "But he has me now."
Tsunade looked up, and forced a smile. "I' glad you were here. I just don't know if he can forgive me, but I know he'll be OK with you close by."
Fuka's smile widened just a little. Iruka sank down the glass, looking so very badly torn and hopeless that it seemed like he'd expire right there. "I'm more worried about how he will react to Kakashi. The Copy Cat ninja is dangerous. I just hope nothing happens between Naruto and him."
Tsunade looked up, here eyes coming back in to focus. "He loves Kakashi."
"He also has the pain and rage and power of two tailed beasts in side of him. Kakashi has the Mangekyo Sharingan. The only thing reported as having the power to control a tailed beast. He did kill that woman, Rin."
Tsunade's eyes narrowed and she bit the nail of her thumb. "He'd never hurt Naruto."
"He'd never mean to." Fuka stepped up to the window and stuffed his hands in to his pockets. Iruka was looking up at him and shaking his head. The teacher's eyes were wide, wild, and filled with shock.
'Pleas don't do this.' He looked like an insane person trapped in a mental ward. His hair was stringy, limp, his eyes blood shot. 'I just got him back, don't do this! LET ME OUT!'
'Quiet.' Fuka replied. 'You are weak, and you will not do what must be done.'
"He'll use his eye to try and harness Naruto's powers." Tsunade said after a moment.
Fuka glanced sideways at her. "I had thought he might, yes."
Iruka slammed up in to the reflection, pounding against the glass. 'Don't you dare TOUCH my son! I'll KILL YOU!'
"It's sad, how devoted some people have become to him, it blinds them to the reality of who or what he is." Fuka turned his back on the reflection. "But we both know the truth."
"What truth?" Tsunade asked, sounding almost bitter sweet. "That he's the most powerful human being to have ever walked this side of a ninja war? Or that he's supposed to be The One, the person who will end all ninja wars?"
"The truth that he's a child, and he's got no idea how high of a price people will put on his head. He's not a normal human being, and he needs guidance, training, and support. Can Kakashi give that to him?"
Tunade ran a hand through her hair and shook her head. "No, he's to unstable now. Even if Naruto can snap him out of his depression he's gone through ANBU immersion. His emotional self was locked away and it can take months of reprogramming to undo that."
Fuka stepped up to Tsunade and gazed mildly at her. "He trusts me. And I trust him. And I trust you."
She looked up at him and let go of her thumb. "You don't have the rank to train your own students, not out in the field."
"He's a double Jinchuriki. Who in the woeld has the rank? A Sanin? He killed Orochimaru." Fuka smiled once more, coldly, as he thought of the sheer power that had to have taken. "Kakashi is dangerous and I'm. . ." He tilted his head and glanced over to Iruka, who had curled in on him self. ". . . just a lowly paper pusher."
She looked at him with a dower frown. "At this point in time, for his own safety, I can't let him out of the city, or even on another mission. I agree he needs to be kept away from Kakashi for the time being, after today, and I agree that those two could be a problem."
"Then will you allow me to keep an eye on him?"
Tsunade nodded. "I. . ."
The door opened with a knock, cutting Tsunade off, and Shiziune walked in. "Iruka, I'm glad you are still here!" She shut the door and beamed at him. "Who would have thought! Naruto! I can't believe it!"
"Well, Believe it." Fuka offered with a small dry laugh.
Shizune laughed a clear, happy laugh, in response. Then cleared her throat and attempted to look some what serous. "I know you won't exactly like this, but you still have to stay with me for a little while. I couldn't get the orders rescinded."
Fuka moved back to the window and looked past Iruka - who was rocking back and forth and hugging his knees, staring blankly and mumbling to him self - out to where the city sprawled in the now bright sunshine. A flicker of movement on the roof tops caught his attention and he spotted a half dozen Naruto clones searching.
"I'm fine with the orders, so long as it won't put you at any risk." Fuka replied. "So long as you don't mind Naruto being there while I'm there. I'm going to take over Naruto's care until. . ." He trailed off and turned to Tsunade.
"Until Naruto is cleared from any dangers of having two beasts with in him, AND the threat of the Akatuki is eliminated once and for all. With two tailed beasts they'll want him more than ever." She set one hand on her hip fisted the other. "Orocimaru is dead, thanks to him, but it's far to dangerous for him to go on any missions out side of our walls."
"Do you think he'll just sit back and let you restrict him to the village?" Shizune asked. "What about his quest to find Sasuke?"
Tsunade's gaze leveled on to Fuka. "Can you keep him out of harms way, and keep him in this city?"
He turned back to the window and the despairing reflection of Iruka. "Lady Hokage," he smiled levelly, coldly, and watched the clones rush by, "Naruto is the future of this world. As his father it's my duty to protect him." He gazed down coldly at Iruka. "Even if it's from the people he loves."
…...
To my dear old friend,
I am tired, yes, but tired of conflict, not of living. It is true my mind has clouded, but not with the fog of age, but with the mist of love. I love Minato as if he were a precious grandchild, and I will not allow you to continue to torture him to gain what power you think humanity needs for survival. You see, my old friend, there is some thing you simply can not grasp; Minato is more than a vessel to fill with the hate of the tailed beasts, he is a person. He exists just as you or I, as flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood.
When the people reject someone's every existence and then look at that person, their eyes become cold, cold as an ice storm in the deepest winter. I refuse to let fear for my life, or fear for my people, freeze me in to one path of action.
I will embrace the will of fire, and I will live and die with that fire in my breath, in my very heartbeat. And I will not let my grandchild, blood or no blood, face the atrocities you have laid out for him a second time. He is NOT The One you have placed your hopes on. The experiments Will Not Work.
The One, who will arrive, very shortly I must add, will not need your aid in fulfilling his duties to the world. He will not need your cold science, and your frozen logic to forge the will of fire for all to live in peace, free of war. He will need time, and love, and the touch of humanity.
If you can not provide that for the future then you can not understand what it is that makes the future worth living for.
Your Hokage past and present, Saratobi.
Possible text from the next chapter:
Pakun caught the faint sent of his master and tried to call out a warning to Naruto, but the boy was already to far ahead.
"Don't let him startle Kakashi!" Pakun barked back. "He's completely unhinged!"
Jiraya roared ahead and snatched Naruto up mid stride. They all skidded to a halt.