Tsunade stared at the piles of money that was now hers. She normally didn't take it, but she had a feeling she'd need it.
She took it with a fake grin. She wondered if something bad had happened in Konoha.
Obviously, with this amount of money, something had.
~:~
Jiraiya slipped into the bar. There she was, drinking.
"Tsunade-hime."
Tsunade sighed and turned, an annoyed look on her face.
"What?"
Jiraiya's face was grim.
"Your granddaughter needs your help."
Tsunade broke the glass.
"What did you just say?!"
~:~
Tsunade stared at the pitifully small form of the child under the hospital blankets. She looked bleached. And she was on life support.
"Take me in," she said. "I need to see the damage."
Inoichi nodded, and they were in.
~:~
It was like stepping stones. The shattered fragments of her mind were being held in a lock by the red Kyuubi chakra. Some pieces had been pieced together.
When they reached 'solid ground', they saw a half-formed being - Naruto herself - in sewer water. It was less than half a formed being - more like a head and half of half her torso. It was cracked, and even as they watched, some of the 'skin' peeled away to show nothing.
A hollow shell.
The hall that contained the Kyuubi was there, but probably because the Kyuubi itself had saved that piece of her mind, and that's why she was there in the sewer water. He was trying to preserve her very being, even as pieces cracked and floated out to the darkness that Tsunade and Inoichi had come from. Despite that, she looked to be unconscious, and if Tsunade hadn't seen a piece of her face float away and ignored the fact she was missing most of her spiritual body, she'd assume that the girl was just taking a nap.
The Kyuubi was sitting behind open gates - and that was alarming, at first. Until they realized that the Kyuubi was staring at them passively and not doing a damn thing to hurt Naruto.
"I allowed you in her mind, because I alone cannot repair the damage she did. The foolish child."
"What did she do?" Tsunade demanded.
"None of your business, woman," the Kyuubi scoffed. "I need use of your healing chakra. Place a hand on my tail." The Kyuubi sent one of the tails towards her.
Tsunade grasped the tip of it, her green healing chakra finally coming to the forefront of her mind and to her hands.
Almost instantly, the Kyuubi seemed to glow. Its fur seemed to grow darker, and it seemed to grow larger as it took Tsunade's energy.
"Release my tail, female."
Yin energy! That's what the Kyuubi needed!
The Kyuubi summoned a bijuudama, but it glowed green. Then blue.
And he shot it into the darkness. When it exploded, they saw what looked like a sunset at the end for a brief moment. Then the darkness once again swallowed it up.
"I need your Yin energy, human female. Otherwise I cannot heal her mind."
Again, Tsunade touched his tail, and the fur kept growing darker every time he shot a bijuudama. And every time he shot into the darkness, the fragments of her mind came back together.
"Oh, my kami," Tsunade breathed as, weak, she saw her mind.
The Kyuubi's prison was a sewer, but it seemed to be a tunnel leading into a grassy plain with hundreds of colors and thousands of unnameable flowers, thousands of blades of grass... Her mind was beautiful. There were books almost carelessly scattered across the landscape - some of them thinner than others, the others thicker than the thickest book she'd ever seen.
"AH!"
They turned to see Naruto sitting up, cracks in her skin healing. While her mind had healed, it seemed that she had healed with it. Of course there would be side-effects, but right then Tsunade didn't quite know what they'd be. After all, she'd never dealt with a problem like this before.
"YOU FOOLISH CHILD! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU COULD HAVE DONE?!"
Flinching back at the roar, Inoichi tensed as the Kyuubi shoved its face right in Naruto's.
"Yep, I could've died," she said flatly. "Excuse me for not wanting to be used like a tool. You've had enough of that, right, Kyuu?"
The Kyuubi huffed. "I hate you."
"Yeah, and that's why you have zero hatred in your voice." Naruto beamed at the Kyuubi and pet his snout.
"Stupid gaki. You do this again and I'll kill you," the beast grumbled. "Also, Yami-you wants to play chess."
"I'll play chess with him later," Naruto dismissed. "Give him my love!"
"Yeah, yeah," the beast rumbled, walking into the meadow. "I'm taking a nap. Get the hell out."
Naruto sent the Kyuubi a rude gesture.
"I saw that."
Naruto rolled her eyes. "Later, Kyuubs."
"You're slowly getting on my final nerve!"
Naruto turned and smiled crookedly at Inoichi and Tsunade.
"Let's go before he gets even more pissy," the young jinchuuriki said in a bright voice.
The three left Naruto's mind.
~:~
Naruto woke up, smelling something warm. Homely.
"Jiraiya, shut up! She's still sleeping!"
"Tsunade-hime -"
"No. We'll talk about this later. It was hard enough getting sensei to approve of her leaving. Never mind the fact that I'm going to be Hokage in a month, and she'll need to pretend that she's amnesiac!"
Naruto sat up.
She figured she'd start pretending then, as the blonde chick and Jiraiya turned to her.
"Who are you two?" she asked, tilting her head.
She fought to keep from smirking as Jiraiya paled.
"Naruto-chan, you don't remember me? I'm your -"
Naruto burst out laughing at his reaction.
But then, she sobered up quick. She looked at the blonde lady.
"I really don't know who you are."
"I'm Tsunade," Tsunade replied.
Naruto's jaw dropped at Tsunade's name.
"You're... Mito's granddaughter!"
Tsunade blinked. "I don't think I've had anyone connect me with her before. It's always 'you're the granddaughter of the Shodai Hokage'."
"That's because nobody knew Mito was a badass," Naruto huffed.
Kiana was one, too.
Her heart ached.
She missed Kiana. So much. It was such a suffocating pressure she felt like she was drowning - like she was getting closer and closer to dying herself.
Kit, we need to talk.
Am I dying?
No, you idiot. I need time to repair your mind. I also need your help doing that. So, you need to tell Tsunade that you'll be in a coma for the rest of the month she needs you to act amnesiac for.
You used her name. Naruto felt a little jealousy.
I used her name because she's someone important to you, Naruto. Kurama sounded amused.
"Kyuu-kun says that -" She stopped, because Kurama had resumed speaking.
Tell them that you're a shitty actor when it comes to things like faking amnesia.
"-that since I'm a shitty actor when it comes to things like faking amnesia, and the fact that he needs my help to repair my mind, that I need to spend however long you need me to in a coma," Naruto reported to the two in front of her. "It's a win-win."
"Except you will be in a coma," Tsunade repeated worriedly.
"I'm leaving Konoha anyway," Naruto said, her eyes becoming distant. "Uzushiogakure no Sato will rise again."
Naruto laid down again, sleep tugging at her eyes.
"I'll wake in about a month or so," Naruto said after barely managing to contain a yawn. "Or after I fix my mind."
She slipped into the darkness of her own mind.
~:~
"What, exactly, do I need to help you with?" Naruto questioned Kurama seriously.
"I need your help putting the rooms back where they belong." Kurama looked troubled. "Since you were an idiot and shattered your own mind, who knows what's missing."
"Will you know if it isn't there?" Naruto asked wonderingly.
"Yes," the bijuu said. "I know your mind quite well."
Naruto suppressed an urge to sigh. Then she sighed. Heavily.
"Let's just get this over with. I want ramen when we're done here."
Together, bijuu and human rebuilt Naruto's mindscape.
