THANKS TO

The Keeper of Worlds
ahmadaziz
The portalmaster
EmilyLovesbooks
Deadman19

For reviewing last chapter.

Chapter 35

Once again, Naruto awoke feeling like he was drugged. He felt weak and the command of his limbs was lost to him. He struggled to sit up from the musky water around him, annoyed that he found himself in this predicament again.

"I'm not speaking to you, Kurama. Go away," he growled, shutting his eyes tightly. Suddenly, a pain flashed through his belly like a spike trying desperately to push its way out of his belly button from the inside of his stomach. He gasped and instantly rolled his body over, not caring that his mouth suddenly filled with the disgusting, musky water.

A voice reached his ears that sounded like an unpleasant mockery of his own. "I'm sorry, Friend. But the old furball isn't here to hear you right now. We're somewhere he can't find us, and we're going to have a little fun."

Naruto gasped and found himself sputtering as the water filled his nose and lungs. He shot up from the ground with a start, coughing and hitting himself in the chest. In less than a second, he felt Kurai beside him, punching him in the back in a feigned attempt to dispel the water.

Finally, Naruto forced himself to stop coughing. But not before Kurai was able to get a few more good stinging hits in. Naruto had to convince himself that it was just mental and the pain wasn't real before the hurt finally began to dull. There was one thing that Naruto never denied about his Alter Ego: he was strong. "What do you want?" he asked Kurai finally, fists clenched in his lap.

His other half flashed in front of him in only a moment. He smiled, showing a mouth filled with almost perfectly normal teeth, save for a pair of sharply pointed fangs. "I want to talk to you for a moment, Naruto-kun. Is that so much to ask?"

"You've hidden from me for two years. Even when I tried conjuring you up, you wouldn't come. Why now?"

Kurai continued to offer that same wolf-like grin at him. His purple eyes flashed in amusement. "I worry about you, Friend. I hear that you're dying."

Naruto almost snorted. He resisted the urge. "You say that like you aren't dying, too. If I go, you go." Naruto knew the rules of the beings living within him. He figured that just like the fox, when he died, Kurai would be long gone, too.

But Kurai didn't seem fazed. In fact, he looked smug. "I don't know about that, Friend. I don't feel like I'm dying at all. In fact, I feel stronger." He crossed his left arm across his chest and rested his right elbow on it as he tapped his lips. "As a matter of fact, it seems that the sicker you get, the stronger I get." He only paused for a moment to allow the words to reach the original's ears. "I've even managed to get out and have some fun."

"What? How could you get out? You're in my head," Naruto stammered out.

Kurai smirked. "You really are stupid, Naruto-kun. You know those black outs you've been having? Those moments when all of a sudden time's passed and you have no recollection of the hours or days in between? That's when I get out," he revealed. "And I'm in full control. I don't have to give you your body back but sometimes it's worth it to watch you get in trouble for what I've done. Like with our Sakura-chan."

Naruto instantly snapped into protective mode over the mention of Sakura's name. His blood boiled when Kurai referred to her as "their" Sakura-chan. Hell no, she was his! He wasn't sharing with anyone, not even himself! "What did you do to my Sakura-chan?" he snapped, jumping into a standing position.

Kurai smirked, standing up coolly. "You haven't connected the dots yet, Naruto-kun? Do you remember a particular black out? Come on, I would think that the curiosity about that day would have killed you."

Naruto opened his mouth to respond that he had absolutely no idea what the psychopath meant when his mind wa suddenly filled with an image.

Sakura was asleep in her own bed, snoring adorably in her peaceful slumber. She was unaware that she was being watched.

It didn't take Naruto long to figure out that what he was watching was one of the moments when Kurai took possession of his body. He had no recollection of this event and it bothered him.

Naruto's own hand reached out and touched the pinkette's soft cheek. He could feel her skin beneath the rough palm of his hand. He leaned down, gently kissing her slightly parted lips.

Naruto felt like he should have looked away or closed his eyes or done something so that he couldn't see the image in his head.

He pulled back the blanket and Naruto saw that she was dressed in her pajamas: a baggy white T shirt and he could just make out the top of her pink pajama bottoms. Naruto felt his mouth - his own mouth - pull into what even he could tell was a sick smile. His hands slid beneath the pink T shirt...

Naruto felt like he was going to be sick. He gripped his stomach and sunk to his knees, clenching his eyes shut so tightly that it actually began to hurt. "I-I don't remember..." he stammered, trying to catch his breath.

Kurai chuckled behind him. "Of course you don't, Friend. That's not you, it's me."

Naruto whirled on his darker half. "What do you mean you?" Naruto growled, narrowing his eyes.

Kurai didn't seem fazed at all by the sudden anger erupting from Naruto. "I think you know what I mean, Naruto-kun."

"You... You touched her? You touched my Sakura-chan!?" Naruto screeched, jumping up and gripping his fists tightly enough to cause them to shake. His entire body tensed up like a snake coiled to strike.

Kurai smirked. His fangs flashed like taunts in Naruto's eyes. "She's our Sakura-chan, Friend. We both had her. Actually, I had her first. Maybe not to the extent that you had her, but I experienced and knew her before you did." He crossed his arms smugly across his chest. "I told you that my way of getting Sakura was more efficient."

Naruto didn't know what to think. The image of Kurai using his body to touch Sakura-chan that way... Naruto felt his body begin to shake. His fingers curled into tight fists, trembling with heated emotion. "She isn't ours. She's mine," he growled behind clenched teeth.

"Oh really? What happened to all that talk of being brothers, Friend? You can't even share Sakura-chan with me?"

"Don't talk about her like she's some kind of object, you bastard!" Naruto shouted, running at Kurai and closing the distance between them in two long strides. He was much faster than he was the last time he encountered his alter ago - even in his mind - and Kurai couldn't dodge the lightning fast fist that shot at his face fast enough. Naruto's knuckles clipped Kurai's jaw and sent the boy flying ten feet away.

Kurai got up and wiped the blood from his mouth. "I'm going to make you regret that, Friend."

Sakura couldn't remember a time when she felt this sick to her stomach. Her head ached, her muscles were sore, and her stomach churned and flipped with each passing moment of the day. And that was before the start of her twenty-four hour shift at the hospital. Now, she could add exhaustion on top of her other symptoms. She wished that she could simply go home and be done with the day but her conscience wouldn't allow her to do that without checking up on Naruto for the sixteenth time that day. And his room was all the way on the other side of the hospital. She groaned and slammed her forehead against the counter of the front desk.

"Are you alright, Forehead?" Ino asked, sounding concerned behind her. Sakura almost forgot that the blonde was standing there as she gathered her patients' clipboards.

Sakura lifted her head again and gave a shaky smile. "Just tired and stressed, Ino-pig. I've been worried about Naruto for the past three days and I haven't been able to sleep because of it. Plus my stomach has felt queasy for a while now. I think one of the kids last week had the flu and I caught it. I really just want to go home and sleep but I want to check up on Naruto one more time before I go home. If I can make it down the hall without keeling over." She rolled her eyes at her own complaining. She didn't want to do it, it just came out.

Ino smirked at her friend, holding out one of her charts. "Well, you're in luck. A certain blonde boy is on my route this morning. I can walk with you."

Kurai had Naruto by the throat, claws digging into the flesh of his skin. Kurai always looked like he was under the influence of the fox's chakra with clawed hands and sharp fangs. But Naruto had undergone a change of his own. The orange chakra of the Kyuubi was encircling his body like a cloak, hugging him like an old forgotten friend. His own teeth had shaped into sharp fangs like Kurai's and his pupils were bloodshot red. His own hands shaped into claws at the tips, which were now scraping at Kurai's face.

"Gah!" his darker half screamed as one of Naruto's claws scratched down Kurai's right eye, causing him to drop Naruto.

Naruto flipped back and landed on all fours. The chakra cloak followed the movements of Naruto's body, forming two tails behind him.

Kurai growled, blood dripping from his eye. "Two tails? Tsk, Tsk, Naruto. I would think that by now you would have improved somhow."

Naruto growled. "Stop talking down to me!" he screamed, lunging at Kurai again.

Kurai grabbed him out of mid-air and flung his body behind him like a ragdoll. Naruto flew an unmeasurable distance before crashing to the ground with a large thud. But one wouldn't be able to even tell how hard he hit with how quickly he got up again. In only an instant, he was on all fours and facing Kurai again.

Kurai smirked at him, arms crossed over his chest. "I would be careful with your anger if I was you, Naruto-kun. If you get any more tails, I'm not sure how long you'll last. Can't you already feel it burning you up, setting you aflame from the inside?"

Naruto snarled at him like a rabid dog. He was past the point of reasoning. Again, he launched his entire body in Kurai's direction but this time he added more power to his legs to increase his jump speed. It worked and he connected with Kurai's face again. It seemed like his goal was to horribly disfigure him.

Claw marks appeared on Kurai's face and for once, the darker persona look phased. The edges of the bleeding wound were bubbling with orange chakra, sizzling against his skin. "Gah," Kurai gasped, falling to his knees.

Naruto hadn't had enough. He bared his fangs and launched at the wounded Kurai, claw pulled back as another tail began to form next to the others...

Sakura gently touched Naruto's cheek and leaned down to gently kiss his lips as he slept. She swiped the blonde bangs out of his eyes and used her fingers to smooth the discomforted creases out of his forehead. "You've been asleep for three days, Naruto-kun. It's time to wake up," she whispered as if her love was just napping.

Ino stood awkwardly in the doorway. "I'm so sorry, Sakura. I didn't mean for this to happen. When I saw him, I panicked and I just... If I knew he wouldn't wake up, I wouldn't have - "

"It's not your fault, Ino," Sakura replied without facing her friend. "This has happened before. One second he's normal and then he falls asleep and just doesn't wake up. It's what happened back in Tanzaku Town." She slid her hand down and grasped Naruto's hand in hers. "Even if he would have laid down for a nap, I figure it would have been the same. I'm just glad that we're not on a mission this time around."

Ino frowned, coming fuller into the room. "But why do you think he just... hybernates like that?" she asked.

Sakura mimicked her expression, looking down at the sleeping boy in the hospital bed. He looked so different from the boy that attacked her in the bathroom, and that was how she knew that this was her Naruto sleeping. The other person that occupied his body couldn't hope to look this peaceful.

Again, Sakura's hand reached out to smooth Naruto's creased forehead, only to pull back as soon as her fingers touched him with a yelp.

"Sakura, what's wrong?"

"He... He burned me. His forehead... It was normal a second ago but now he's got a fever hot to the touch," she whispered, still staring at Naruto while gripping the burned fingertips.

Ino went to the door. "I'll get Lady Tsunade."

Sakura nodded, her eyes never leaving Naruto. What just happened?

The second that Ino shut the door behind her, Naruto lurched forward out of bed. With the lightning fast reflexes of a trained medic-nin, Sakura grasped a pan and held it in under Naruto's chin just as he began to vomit blood. She watched in horror but held the pan determinedly until he was finished. Then she set it to the side and watched as Naruto's weak body sat upright on his own. Was he finally...?

"S-Sakura," he coughed, "-chan."

Sakura smiled as bright as could be and held Naruto's shoulders to keep him sitting upright. "Naruto-kun, you're awake!" she exclaimed.

The blonde didn't share her glee. "Sakura-chan," he repeated. Sakura tilted his head up by his chin so that she could look into his eyes. They looked pained. "Why didn't you tell me... what I did to you?" he rasped.

Sakura was so shocked by this that she accidentally let Naruto go, sending his body falling limply back to the bed. She instantly knew what he was talking about. There was only ever one thing that he'd ever truly done to her. But how did he know? He didn't remember! "W-What do you... What are you talking..."

Just then the door opened again, revealing Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Ino.

"I brought her," Ino called, panting.

Tsunade quickly moved Sakura out of the way and began checking over Naruto without even realizing the blue eyes that were opened and staring at her apprentice.

"Sakura-chan, no lies. We promised not to lie to each other. Tell me the truth," he muttered weakly.

Tsunade jumped at the noise but quickly fell back into medic mode. She only glanced over her shoulder at Sakura in question. "What is he talking about, Sakura?"

The pinkette frowned, moving on the other side of Naruto as Tsunade checked his temperature. "I didn't want to hurt you. I knew it wasn't you, it couldn't have been. And I didn't want you to hate yourself," she whispered, grasping his hand.

"I hurt you," Naruto whispered in a way that made it seem like the words were painfully torn from his throat.

"You didn't mean to."

"That doesn't change the fact that I did. I only want to protect you, but I...I'm - "

Tsunade covered his mouth with her hand, stopping him from speaking. "Shut it, brat. All your wheezing is making this difficult."

Naruto clamped his lips shut tightly. Jiraiya, on the other hand, decided that now was the time to talk. "Tsunade, I think this is what we were afraid of," he muttered.

Sakura had almost forgotten he was in the room. She looked at him, eyebrows raised. "What do you mean, Jiraiya-sama?"

Tsunade shook her head, ignoring her pupil. "It can't be. Sasuke just disappeared. It can't be time already," she denied, using her stethoscope to check Naruto's heartbeat. All the while, the blonde was silent.

"Sasuke? Sasuke's gone? Where is he?" Sakura inquired.

Again, she went ignored and her questions went unanswered. Jiraiya simply walked over to the pan filled with blood and lifted it to Tsunade's eye level. "Then what do you call this?" Tsunade forcibly shoved it away, causing the blood to splash onto the toad sage's clothing. He looked instantly digusted. "Tsunade!"

"Don't 'Tsunade' me, Jiraiya!"

Sakura was becoming fed up with all of this. "What the hell is going on?" she demanded, shouting at the sages which no one else in their right mind would have done.

Tsunade jumped, looking at her normally collected student as if she suddenly grew snakes for hair. "Sakura, Sasuke..." she bit her lip, searching for the right words to say. "Sasuke is dead. Orochimaru took his body sometime last week."

Jiraiya stepped forward. "And consequently, Naruto is dying, too. I'm sorry."

She barely had time to step over to a chair before her body crumpled and her vision went black.

A/N I no likey cliffies, so I really wanna get this next chapter written and posted quickly. But I don't want to do that because some people won't get a chance to review. So maybe I'll just write the chapter early and post it early.

Hey, did you realize I updated a day early? I should get a cookie. I'm not late for once!

I can't think of any obvious questions for this chapter so I have nothing to explain. But I'm sure YOU all have questions, so feel free to ask.

Which brings me to...

Comments, Questions, Concerns? REVIEW!

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