"It's a severe level of chakra poisoning," the pink-haired medical ninja sighed, stepping out of the room and closing the door behind her.
"Chakra poisoning?" Inuzuka Kiba blinked, confused. "What's that?"
"You really don't know?" Nara Shikamaru looked over at his fellow chunin. "How troublesome…"
"Oh, shut up, Shikamaru!" Kiab growled.
"It's a special jitsu straight out of the forbidden arts scrolls that were confiscated from the Sound country," Aburame Shino spoke calmly, trying to stop his teammate from escalating an already-tense situation. "One Orochimaru wrote himself and taught his upper-level subordinates, apparently."
"So then, was it him that…?" Kiba gestured helplessly toward the door behind him.
"No." Haruno Sakura spoke up firmly, shaking her head and making her short pink hair bob around the line of her set jaw. "He says it was a survivor of Orochimaru's ranks, aiming for all of you."
"And Naruto took it all in one hit?" Shikamaru's usually impassive face slipped into one of shock.
"A poisoning jitsu meant for six people," Akimichi Chouji mused softly, actually not eating for once.
"I, for one, am not inclined to believe that traitor," Hyuuga Neji stepped forward a bit and crossed his arms over his chest, almost daring the woman to challenge his words. She rose to the fight swiftly, her teal eyes flashing dangerously.
"Sasuke says that he was passed out for most of the battle, and woke up only in time to see the survivor and kill him," she repeated her old teammate's testimony, word for word. "But, by the time he could move, the jitsu had already been performed." Neji snorted and Sakura bristled. Shikamaru, sensing the tension, sighed and held up his hands.
"Alright, alright, just calm down," he shook his head, his eyes sliding over to the taller man's: "Look, Neji, it's not our place to judge Sasuke. We weren't the ones directly betrayed; they were," he turned his head to Sakura, "so it's really their decision whether or not to believe him."
Neji merely shrugged and turned away from the confrontation, arms crossing over his chest. "I don't really care either way."
Sakura opened her mouth to snap at him again and Shikamaru turned pleadingly to the others, looking highly exasperated. Chouji saw the expression on his friend's face and interrupted her, trying to switch the topic as much as he possibly could without being insensitive.
"Sakura, I still don't understand. What exactly is chakra poisoning?" he asked.
Her anger switched rather abruptly to something resembling helplessness, turning to him and the others to explain: "It's caused by a rather complex jitsu, and essentially uses 'anti-chakra'--for lack of a better term--to flood the victim's body and render their own chakra useless."
"What are the symptoms?" Shino asked out of blatant curiosity, hidden from the others by his mirrored sunglasses.
"Unconsciousness lasting up to several weeks," she counted on her fingers, her voice growing shakier with each example, "stopping up of chakra flow, temporary or even life-long paralysis of the central nervous system, and in extended periods or cases of high exposure… Death."
That's when she broke down and started to cry.
The figure beside the bed had not moved in over nine hours. He had watched impassively as his old comrade had to be dragged from the room screaming and thrashing, insisting that she could remove all the poison from their friend's body. He had not flinched when the other members of his "rescue" party had assaulted him with questions and accusations and heated looks. He had ignored the staff member who came in and told him visiting hours were over, and when the man had threatened to call security Uchiha Sasuke had finally raised his eyes from their blank gaze at the figure on the hospital bed and stared at him, through him. He had not been bothered after that. The ex-runaway stared at his once-best friend lying limply on the harsh white sheets, showing no sign of life except for the painfully slow rise and fall of a heavily-bandaged chest. His laced fingers, which had propped up his chin, now came undone and ran up through his dirty, tangled hair knotted with dried sweat and blood. He sighed deeply, as if exhaling his disbelief and sucked in breath like he was trying to inhale the truth. It was hard, to have a past that followed you everywhere--and for once, Sasuke wasn't thinking about his brother.
Uzumaki Naruto.
Naruto had followed him as he abandoned all hope and principles not once, not twice, but three times in attempts to bring him back, to convince him to come home. And this time, finally, Sasuke had had no choice. He could only remember snippets before he had awoken in the abandoned courtyard of Orochimaru's headquarters, looking up at the legs of the same five that attempted to bring him back the first time: Shikamaru shouted orders from directly in front of Sasuke's sprawled figure as he manipulated seemingly endless streamers of his shadow to entrap the oncoming assailants; Chouji was pushing back a wave of them with an incredibly thick, solid wall of chakra; Kiba and a huge white animal that he thought could possibly be Akamaru were ripping through the ranks with razor sharp claws and fangs; Neji flitted through the Sound ranks, finding chakra and pressure points with impressive ease, knocking them instantly unconscious. And there had been at least a thousand black-and-orange-clad Narutos spilling out across the grounds, pummeling, tripping, kicking, clawing, their eyes all glowing a terrifying blood-lust red as the opposing ninjas fell against their combined wrath. At first, all Sasuke could manage to do was blink in astonishment; he had been in the lower chambers of the laboratory, held in a cell against his will to be Orochimaru's test bitch at any minute, and Kabuto (that rat bastard) had come in and performed some sort of jitsu on him, and even though he tried to counter it…
What is going on here? was all he could manage to think as he blinked incoherently at the battle taking place before him: a handful against a country. All he could do was stare in wonder.
And then, it was over. The bunshin disappeared, leaving only one very haggard-looking Naruto panting within a circle of bodies, covered in blood and sweat and dirt and bruises, but smiling. Grinning, even. And he raised one arm in victory. But Sasuke saw behind him, saw the survivor, saw the seals flashing in his hands and oh god.
Naruto! he tried to scream, tried to leap to his feet and shove the blond idiot aside just like before…and then, thankfully, Shikamaru saw him too.
"Everyone MOVE!" he had never heard the lazy ninja ever sound so urgent. "It's going to break and come at us individually! Don't get hit!"
He disappeared. Sasuke caught a glimpse of Chouji, Kiba, and Neji dashing out of range. He still couldn't move. Naruto had turned, saw the attack, and rounded about, trying to escape, when he caught Sasuke's eyes.
Sasuke shivered, dropping his hands and looking down at the closed eyes. He had never been stared at so…intensely. So loudly. He had never received a look like that before, from his parents, his brother, the girls that always claimed to be in love with him, Orochimaru…and at the same time, Sasuke saw every one of those inside that stare: the pain, the confusion, the sense of being lost, and so much love it hurt.
Naruto had pivoted mid-run, heading now for the jistu user. He had dove, tackling the caster, knocking him into the trees, and Sasuke had heard the solid thwack as the jitsu struck a target and someone's head hit a tree and suddenly he was up. He was awake, he could move, and he did move; he teleported to where Naruto and the Sound nin were laying in a heap, took the bleary-looking man's head in one hand and flicked his wrist, smiling bitterly at the audible snap that echoed in the trees. Then, even as the body was still falling, he had knelt swiftly and checked Naruto for any sign of damage the jitsu had done. He knew this one--Orochimaru had taught it to him himself. The crimson spiral seal on the blond's stomach was pulsing eerily. Something was wrong. Sasuke lifted him in his arms, turned in the direction of the Fire Valley and Konoha, and started walking back.
Naruto had not woken up since.
"Naruto…" Sasuke's voice cracked dryly and he swallowed thickly, wincing as his parched throat ached in protest of talking. "Naruto, wake up." He hadn't been expecting a response, but nonetheless, the silence made him suddenly angry. He grabbed the blond's shoulders abruptly, knocking over the vase of flowers that had been standing on the bedside table, from Yamanaka Ino. "Naruto!" He shook the other man roughly. "Get up now! I'm not kidding around! Naruto!"
And there was no response. Naruto's head lolled back and forth, making a slight whistling sound from his slightly-parted lips as his breathed in and out slowly buy steadily. If that changed…. If it became less and less steady…
"Fuck," Sasuke spat and relaxed his hold on Naruto's shoulders. "Fuck…" his tone changed from anger to sadness, and he lay his head down against the blonde's chest, one ear pressed over the area where his heart was. Thump…thump. Thump…thump. "Come back, Naruto," he murmured, not even aware he was speaking now. He wasn't aware of the tears that welled up in the corners of his eyes either, even when they began pouring down across his face. He closed the forever-accursed Sharingan orbs and whimpered into the empty room, the only person who would care or would help, dying beneath him.
"I didn't want this…not for you… I-I wanted…to come back, and have you welcome me home, you idiot…" He squeezed his eyes shut and reaffirmed his tight grip on Naruto's unresponsive shoulders. "You hear me? Dobe! Don't die on me, usuratonkachi! Understand? God dammit, Naruto don't die! You have to welcome me back home you can't die now! Not when I've come back! NARUTO!"