Author Note:
Finally got some free time to finish the chapter. Thank you for waiting!
Declaimer: All characters in Naruto and Boruto series belong to Masashi Kishimoto and Ukyo Kodachi respectively.
This chapter is not beta'd.
Enjoy!
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Naruto blinked as he saw the familiar ceiling, "Is this...?"
He quickly sat up, feeling the familiar wet floor, the dimmed light around him, he knew he was in his mindscape. But how? He was trying to get in for the past few days after he woke up in the hospital without success.
"Naruto..."
The blond Hokage turned to the voice, "Kurama?"
Behind him, a massive famous nine-tails demon fox, Kurama.
Naruto walked towards his old friend before he suddenly stopped as he noticed something different about Kurama. "Ne, Kurama... Is it just me or you are smaller than your usual size 'ttebayo?"
Kurama gritted his teeth, "I can still rip you apart, you insolent brat."
Naruto chuckled nervously, "Ah... Hehe...sorry."
The blond Hokage looked around him, his mindscape didn't change at all though he saw additional seals on the walls. "Are those...?"
"The seals your pink-haired teammate put in you after you passed out? Yes. Not that they did a very good job, anyway. They actually worsening your condition."
"What? But Sakura said..."
"Those seals would work just fine, but she forgets that you are a Jinchuriki. Jinchuriki's chakra coil actually works differently than other shinobis. Tailed-beast chakras actually poisonous to you human beings, except for you Jinchurikis, with the condition of balance, that it."
"Balance? You meant the balance between your chakra and mine?"
"When that Momoshiki brat tried to suck out my chakra, you mixed most of your chakra with mine in order to fool him, resulting your chakra coil can't handle the imbalance between our chakra and damaging it. The damage spread out as you continue to mould our chakra in the fight, and after it was over, your chakra was too low, resulting futher damage in your chakra coil as my chakra corroded it. You didn't sustain the same damage when I was pulled out from you during the war, because my chakra were drained fully from you."
"Co-coride it?" Naruto swallowed nervously as he unconsciously gripped his stomach.
"My chakra is too potent for your chakra coil without your own chakra to balance it. Ever wonder why you were a failure in chakra control when you were young? The imbalance of our chakra in your chakra coil made it hard to control as my chakra was sealed. You have gained the control slowly as my chakra leaked into your chakra coil over time. Don't you realize how easy for you to mould chakra after you took my chakra by force, and then after you released me from the seal during the war?"
"Oh." Naruto blinked as he stared at Kurama, clearly just realized it after the fox explained. "Now that make sense."
Kurama sighed, "Why I am ever surprised..."
"So, that's why I am feeling so much pain? Because it-" Naruto gulped, "It was corroded?"
"One of the reasons."
"Huh?"
"The seal which your pink-haired teammate put on you blocks my chakra from entering your chakra coil, creating imbalance in your chakra coil as your chakra slowly returned thus causing you pain. Your chakra coil has developed since you were young to withstand my chakra and your chakra is much potent compared to the other usual chakra. So, without my chakra in your chakra network, the imbalance will just causing you more pain as time goes. You fake chakra network in your prosthetic arm also sustained similar damage because of the imbalance."
"The other reason?"
"Your emotions."
"My emotions? What that has anything to do with chakra?"
"Idiot, don't you ever learn? Your chakra tied to your emotions! Why do you think I tried to get you angry whenever I want to be free from that stupid seal?! Your chakra reacts to your emotions. Negative emotions gives you negative chakra. The more negative chakra you accumulate, the more pain you will feel. In other words, your guilty towards your family is causing you pain."
Naruto looked down at the water on the floor. That makes sense. No wonder he felt tired and pain all the time. He been buried all his feelings, the uncertainty, the guilt, the painful feeling whenever his son looked at him with resentm-
"Kit."
Naruto looked up as Kurama continued, "I have used my chakra to balance with the negative chakra inside you, but I can't do that forever, it took a lot of me as you can see. I also don't have enough chakra to undo those seals your pink-haired teammate put in you. The seals also prevent you from entering your mindscape. I barely had enough chakra to bypass the seals to call you here." Ah, that's explain the smaller size.
"Anyway, I called you here because I need you to tell her to undo the seals, also if you don't settle your emotions soon, the negative chakra will eat you from inside out. Remember the time when you got hurt after fighting against that snake at the bridge? It will be ten times worse since you got the complete yin and yang me, and probably you might die in most painful death you can ever imagine."
Naruto paled.
A loud whamp was heard as Kurama suddenly smacked Naruto on the head.
"Quit with that pathetic look on your face!"
"OUCH! Do you want to kill me for real 'ttebayo?!"
Kurama just huffed as Naruto rubbed his aching head, "Then stop being an idiot and go talk to your family about how you feel."
"It's not that easy..."
"It's easy, remember how you talked to your mate about your feeling before? You are the one who make things harder than it looks. Besides, you are just afraid of their reaction afterwards."
"It's kinda scary when you are like to know everything about me 'ttebayo."
"I am literally inside you from the day you were born, what you do expect? You wouldn't believe me how annoying it was, be able to hear your thoughts all the time."
Naruto mumbled, "Try having a grumpy giant fox spouting hatred in your head all the time."
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
Kurama looked at the pouted Naruto with a sigh.
"Naruto, I am serious about you talking to your family and settle your emotions quickly before I take action myself, since my existence also at risk. Anyway, I guess you should wake up now before you scared your kit to death."
"Huh?"
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"Dad!"
"Naruto, can you hear me?"
Naruto slowly opened his eyes to see Sakura has her chakra-glowed hands over his chest as she checked on him. He can see his son's relief face entered his vision behind her. He was still laying on the floor.
He blinked as he tried to remember what happened to him that made him lying flat on his back at the floor. The last thing he remembered was when he tried to fetch a glass of water. Judging by his slowly blossoming headache, he managed to fall down from the bed and hit his head on something. "Sakura?"
Sakura just kept calm, ending her jutsu as she healed a few small cuts on him from the broken glass.
"Don't worry, just relax. Boruto, help me get him on the bed. Slowly."
With Sakura and Boruto on each side, Naruto slowly sat up with stifled groan, the familiar pain he been feeling ever since he got admitted pulsed through his body. He felt Boruto's hands supported his back and shoulder, helping him to sit up as Sakura barked commands to the nurses. He grimaced and closed his eyes, letting Boruto guided him to stand but the movement throbs his head even more. He almost fell again if not for Boruto quickly held him and managed to steady him on his feet.
Naruto breathed through the pain, waiting it to decrease from the pain that threatened to split his skull into two to bearable throbbing, barely heard Boruto asked him. It took him a few seconds for the open his eyes again, ignoring the headache as he whispered, "Dizzy."
He felt Boruto tighten his hold as he helped him lay on the bed. He ignored Boruto's concerned voice to Sakura, he also faintly heard Kurama shouted at him in his head about the seals, which not helping with his already throbbing head. He can felt his chakra raging inside him, the pain intensified each minute.
He blinked through the pain before he weakly touched Sakura's hand, "Seals... Remove them..."
"Seals? What are you talking about? Naruto? Hey, stay awake!"
He felt Sakura shook his shoulder, but he was too tired to answer and once again let himself into unconscious.
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Sakura cursed internally as she hovered her chakra-glowed hands over his stomach after Boruto managed to lay his father on the bed, how Naruto's condition went downhill in matter of minutes was beyond her. She was on her way to the nurse office before Boruto's shouts alarmed her, and after a short sprint towards Naruto's room, she was taken aback by the sight of unconscious Naruto on the floor and panicked Boruto kneeling beside him.
Sakura turned to Boruto after the young genin helped his father back to the bed, "Boruto, I need you to step outside for a moment. I already sent an Anbu to inform your mother so don't worry about it. I will get back to you later, okay?"
"What? B-but..."
"I need a hyuga in here stat! Boruto, I need you to-"
She stopped as a hand weakly touched her. "Naruto?"
Naruto blinked before he whispered, "Seals... Remove them..."
"Seals? What are you talking about? Naruto? Hey, stay awake!"
She tried to wake him up as he went limped. She checked his pulse and cursed as the drumming beats weaker than before.
"What seals that he talked about? The Fourth Hokage's seal isn't..."
Sakura trailed as she realized the problem and shouted, "Get me Shizune-san!"
"What is happening?" Sakura noticed newly-arrived Hinata at the door as she looked at her and nurses in confusion before noticing Naruto's unconscious form on the bed. "Naruto-kun?"
Sakura marched towards the confused Hinata, ignoring Boruto who already went out of the room to calm his sister down, "Hinata, I will tell you later, but we need space to work. I promise you that he will be fine."
Hinata blinked but before she can say anything, the door was closed.
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The update wouldn't be up anywhere soon, I just managed to post this one as it already half-written by the time I decided to be on hiatus. My schedule still not allow me to do regular updates, so I would leave the hiatus label as it is.
Thank you for the support guys, much appreciate!
