Thank you.
Chapter Ten
The Effects of a Killing Curse on the Seal
Naruto and Sasuke ended up trading off the night shift. Sasuke met up with Naruto on his way back. The jinchuuriki debriefed his partner on the skirmish with all the necessary detail and, surprisingly enough, very little boasting. When they got back to Hogwarts Castle Sasuke all but ordered Naruto into bed. Using that much chakra was dangerous even for Naruto and he needed a good night's sleep to recover.
So Sasuke ended patrolling the halls, his own clones spread throughout the far reaches of the corridors and passages instead of Naruto's. The rest of the night was uneventful. And Sasuke was bored out of his skull.
In the morning Naruto was jostled awake by his fox friends play fighting over his bedroll. He swatted them away from his face, sneezing a little as their tails tickled his sensitive nose. He rolled over and noticed Ron staring at him. The redhead was sitting on his own four-poster bed and was watching the scene with confused interest.
"Morning," Naruto groaned. He stretched under the covers.
"Morning," Ron said in return, "Why do they like you so much?"
"Who?" Naruto wanted nothing more than to bury his head back into his pillow and go back to sleep. But he had to get up.
"Those foxes," he pointed to the gamboling balls of fur that were tumbling pell-mell over their human friend. Naruto sighed and sat up, dislodging one of the smaller ones from its perch on his chest.
"These guys?" Naruto asked, blinking sleep out of his eyes, "Don't know how to explain it. Guess they think that we're alike,"
"Why would they think that?"
Naruto shrugged, "Who knows, maybe I smell like a fox," he said with a hint of sarcasm. "What are you doing up anyways?"
"Couldn't get back to sleep," Ron glowered sullenly.
"So you decided to stare at me till I got up?" Naruto was a little amused. Ron flushed.
"No!" he protested.
"Good. Otherwise I'd have to sic these little critters on you as a wake up call every morning for a month," Naruto smiled brightly, making the threat seem all that more frightening. Ron shivered involuntarily.
Naruto smiled down at his furry friends. At least here foxes weren't hated like they were back home. He playfully tugged at his sleeve as one of the older foxes clamped down on it and teasingly tried to pull it off his shoulder. They competed over the sleeve for several fun filled minutes. Naruto played silently.
Ron watched in amazement as the slight fighter acted like a child in a pen filled with puppies. Only quieter. Much, much quieter. Even the foxes were quiet, not silent, but quiet. It was eerie and very unnatural.
Seamus woke before anyone else. He crawled over to watch Naruto play with his foxes. Naruto paid him no mind. Next one up was Dean. He didn't stick around for long, staying just to change into his school robes. After Dean it seemed like everyone else got up all at once.
Harry woke to a fox peering down his nose at him. Naruto laughed as his charge screamed and leapt out of bed, away from the strange creature. The fox skittered away, startled by the reaction. It hid under Naruto's arm, shaking a little. Naruto chided Harry for scaring the poor creature.
"What'd you scream for?" he asked mildly, petting the quivering fox, "It's not like she bit you or anything,"
"It was staring at me! You'd scream too!" Harry protested, clutching his chest.
"Actually no, I wouldn't. I've been trained to wake up silently in any situation," Naruto stated, "It's handy when you're tied to a chair with interrogators just waiting around you. If you can pull it off well enough they won't even realize you're awake before you can hit them with a jutsu and cut the ropes,"
"Cut the ropes? It's probably a good thing only Ibiki's clued in that he has to tie you up with chains instead," Sasuke joked, standing in the doorway. Naruto flashed him a grin.
"Good thing he's a Leaf and not one of our enemies,"
"If he was an enemy would you have let him live long enough to learn that little tidbit?" Sasuke asked archly.
"Yeah right!" Naruto laughed sharply, "You know as well as me that anyone who managed to capture me didn't even get to live to regret it. Akatsuki included,"
"Good thing too, considering," Sasuke leaned against the door, "McGonagall is going to want a debriefing about last night soon,"
"Right. I'll do that before breakfast,"
Sasuke nodded, "And take the brat with you. I need some sleep. You wouldn't wake up for your shift so I had to cover," and he kicked Naruto physically off the bedroll and instantly fell asleep. Naruto gathered up his fox friends, allowing his partner to get some undisturbed rest.
Naruto stood in front of the head table, back to the teachers, Sasuke standing one pace behind him on his left. The breakfast conversation died a swift death when the students noticed them. Naruto steeled himself and asserted his best 'commander' voice that would have seasoned ANBU scrambling to obey.
"Your attention!" he called, silencing the last, "Due to some unfortunate situations that have been cropping up lately some new rules have been approved for implementation among the population of the school: Hogwarts," there was a confused murmur among the students. Sasuke handed Naruto a rolled up piece of parchment. Naruto unrolled it and glanced about the hall once more before beginning, "In the event that any Dark Creatures are found anywhere on the school grounds you are not to confront. Retreat and inform Sasuke, myself or, if we cannot be found, the professors, who will then in turn inform us. If a fight breaks out like the one witnessed a month and a half ago you will stay with the castle and will not try to assist. To do so will result in the immediate assumption that you are an enemy and your life may very well be forfeit,"
The students stared at them with wide eyes, some of the Gryffindors looking a little rebellious. Naruto continued anyways.
"If either Sasuke or I find any student attempting to break these simple rules you will subjected to the type of 'detention' that shinobi students have to suffer through. These conditions have been approved by all of the professors so there is no point in protesting. If you have a problem with it, then suffer," and the ANBU stepped down, returning to their accustomed posts. The buzz of animated conversation rose to almost deafening levels.
Voldemort felt like screaming in frustration. Who in the entire world was powerful enough to stand up against that many giants? The entire situation was simply inconceivable.
That was the last straw. "Gather everyone," he commanded his Deatheaters, "They have insulted me for the last time,"
Naruto laughed wickedly as Peeves skittered down the hall, fleeing from the blond ANBU. The students looked at him, surprised.
"What's wrong with Peeves?" Ron said, asking the question that was on everyone's mind.
"He doesn't like me," Naruto said smugly.
"Peeves never acts like that," a Huffelpuff boy protested.
"I could show you what I did to him, but I think your sensei would protest, on grounds of overly abusive psychological torture," he shrugged helplessly.
"Psychological torture?" Hermione gasped.
Naruto shrugged again. "Well, you can't physically touch a ghost so what else can you do?"
"What did you do, Usuratonkachi?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto spun around to face his partner, flashing a triumphant grin and a victory sign, "Tsukiyomi: Uzumaki Rendition!" he declared. Sasuke's eyes widened and his jaw dropped, not that anyone could see since he was wearing his mask.
"You ripped off the Tsukiyomi?" he stormed forward and grabbed Naruto by the front of his vest. "How? How did you do it without the Mangekyo Sharingan!" he demanded.
"Hey, hey! The Uchiha's don't have dibs on being the only plagiarizers in the Five Great Countries, you know. It just takes a lot more chakra and it took me ages to figure out genjutsu. It's not exactly my strong point, you know. I still can't even do a plain henge. I have to up the difficulty to a kagehenge,"
Sasuke let him go and stepped back, "Yeah, you were always more of a demolition-style fighter than silent subterfuge. I still don't like the fact you managed to even get close to something only Itachi can do,"
"I'd teach you," Naruto offered, "But my way of doing it would probably kill you,"
"Dobe," the insult was said more with exasperation rather than venom. Naruto smirked.
"Come on Sasuke-kun! We're going to make these kids late for class!" he laughed, tugging on Sasuke's sleeve.
"What do you care?" Sasuke asked, somewhat curious despite himself.
Naruto made a face no one could see but it carried nicely though into his voice, "Like I want these kids to turn into Kakashi-sensei?"
"Point made. GET TO CLASS!" Sasuke roared. The students scattered.
Sasuke and Naruto grinned. They loved this.
A garter snake slithered along the edges of the corridors, seeking out its master. Sasuke bent down and allowed it to climb up his arm, wrapping itself around the appendage for a better hold.
"What is it?"
"Monssterss on the move," it hissed, "through the foresst. Many many monssterss,"
"What kind?"
"Ssame as two attackss before. Only more. With humanss in black capess,"
"How far?"
"Ssix minutess at currant sspeed,"
Sasuke nodded, "Find Naruto and tell him," the snake allowed Sasuke to set it down on the floor again. With the faint hiss of scales against stone, the reptile was gone.
Six minutes before pandemonium reigns supreme? Sounds fun, Sasuke thought.
Naruto met the Uchiha out in front of the school. Both were clad in their ANBU uniforms and armed to the teeth.
"So your snake said that there should be a pretty nice fight heading our way," he commented casually.
"That's the word," Sasuke agreed.
"We should go meet them," Naruto said seriously, "After all it would only be polite since they came all this way,"
"I don't think there'll be a need. They're here,"
And the host of Deatheaters and Dark Creatures broke through the forest line. The ANBU stepped forward, away from the castle.
"Yo!" Naruto waved, "So you finally decided to show your ugly faces! It's about time!"
Sasuke almost died. This idiot was going to be the Village's leader?
One of the cloaked men stepped forward, "Who are you peons?" he demanded, "Let us pass or you shall die,"
Naruto laughed, "Us die?"
"You are clearly out numbered,"
"And you're stupid. Are you all followers of the Dark Lord Vold-whatever-his-name-was?"
"That is Lord Voldemort to you, worthless scum!" the man shrieked. Naruto winced.
"Yeah. Whatever, sorry. So should I take it that you are?"
"Dobe," Sasuke sighed, "Of course they are,"
"Right. Then lets get down to business," Naruto ran his fingers fondly over the handles of his kunai, "Surrender or die,"
The entire army before them laughed. Sasuke and Naruto grinned.
"We'll take that as a 'no,'" Sasuke said, activating his Sharingan.
"I kinda hoped you'd say that," Naruto said, a hint of a feral growl creeping into his voice as he woke Kyuubi. The two ANBU blurred out of sight, instigating the battle. They darted in and out of the creatures and Deatheaters with deadly ease and inhuman speed. Within the first five minutes a good portion of the army had fallen to the foreigners.
"Doton: Jaws of the Dragon no jutsu!" Naruto cried. The earth shuddered, lifted and buckled, deadly spikes of stone forming the teeth of a giant hungry mouth. More than twenty monsters fell to the jutsu.
"Yukiton: Ice Blood no jutsu!" Sasuke breathed a burst of chilling chakra on those nearest him, freezing them solid. He dodged the coloured lights that streaked his way from the wands of the Deatheaters. He noticed that Naruto had performed a large scale kagebushin, increasing their numbers exponentially.
Sasuke and Naruto – almost as one – bit their thumbs and flashed a rapid series of seals while screaming, "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"
The giant bodies of Manda and Gamabunta crushed many on the battlefield. Naruto and Sasuke surveyed the now panicking army from on top of their Summon's heads.
"What do you think you're doing calling me here, brat?" Gamabunta demanded crossly.
"Hey!" Naruto protested, "It's me and Sasuke up against an army! You gonna help us out?" Gamabunta looked down at the battlefield around him.
"Looks like you kids were doing just fine but I'm bored so I'll help you out for a bit," he agreed as he lifted a giant foot and stepped on a cluster of monsters.
"Thanks!" Naruto cheered.
Meanwhile Sasuke and Manda were having a conversation of their own.
"Long time no see, Manda-sama," Sasuke said respectfully to his ally.
"Sasuke-sama," Manda greeted in return, flicking his tail and sending several monsters flying into the lake.
"Sorry for calling you. Naruto and I were a little out numbered," he apologized.
"At least you have more respect than your late master," Manda sighed and snapped at a particularly large clump of creatures. "I can only stay for a minute,"
"That's all we'll need,"
Destruction reigned supreme for what seemed like an eternity as the two giant summoned creatures did their jobs. Within minutes of their arrival the snake and the toad vanished, leaving Sasuke and Naruto to freefall back into pandemonium. They both landed expertly, Naruto swinging his kodachi and Sasuke carving creatures up with a deadly shinobigatana. Blood and body pieces flew through the air, bathing all indiscriminately.
Until Naruto was stuck from behind by a blindingly green light.
The jinchuuriki screamed as the killing curse tore through his body. Kyuubi would not permit his host to die but the curse weakened the seal allowing the fox's chakra to explode around him. Sasuke cursed viciously and ran for his life. Everything living that the red chakra touched was incinerated almost instantly. The force of the pure, inhuman energy tore into the ground sending rocks and dirt shooting outwards at high velocities. All of the creatures that were not incinerated by the chakra were struck down with the projectiles.
Naruto fell to his knees, gasping and coughing up blood. The chakra storm around him died down revealing that the entire Dark Army was destroyed. With a shudder the jinchuuriki collapsed. Sasuke teleported to his partner's side and check his vitals. The prognosis was not very positive.
Swearing as intensely as he possibly could he created a kagebushin clone and sent it to the Hokage. He ripped a sleeve off his shirt and wrapped it around the worst of the chakra-inflickted wounds, trying to stem the flow of blood. Naruto was not healing the way he normally would because, Sasuke suspected, too much of Kyuubi's chakra had been released.
With a grunt he lifted Naruto into his arms and trudged into the castle. He was met at the doors by Professor McGonagall and a few other professors. They were all pale.
"We need to get him to the Hospital Wing," McGonagall stuttered. Sasuke nodded and followed her through the halls. When they got to the Hospital Wing Sasuke refused to allow Madam Pomfrey to treat Naruto.
"You will not touch him," Sasuke snapped, standing over his bleeding friend, kunai out and at the ready.
"Young man, I don't care what you say. This boy must be treated or he will die," Madam protested.
Sasuke snarled, "You think I don't know that? But no one touches Naruto when he is like this except Hokage-sama. He's unstable enough as it is he doesn't need an inexperienced medic tending him! You saw what he did outside,"
"But-"
Madam was cut off by a series of pops and clouds of smoke. Sasuke finally moved out of the way.
"Hokage-sama," he nodded smartly to the tall, busty blonde woman who had just arrived, "Sakura-kun, Jiraiya-sama," So that was what had taken her so long, Sasuke thought, nodding mentally.
"Naruto," Tsunade gasped, paling at the blood that spilled out of the boy she treasured so much. Sakura and Jiraiya's reaction was just as intense. Sakura choked back a sob and Jiraiya swallowed hard. None of them had ever thought they would see their sunny ANBU Captain in this condition.
Steeling herself, Tsunade rolled up her sleeves and started barking orders to Jiraiya and Sakura. She and Sakura both disinfected their hands and arms up to the elbow and prepared for surgery, Medicnin style.
"Jiraiya, check on the seal," she ordered, "Sakura, help me with triage. We have to stop the bleeding soon. Sasuke we'll need you to perform chakra infusions if you can,"
Sasuke nodded, "Whatever you need," he promised.
Tsunade and Sakura made short work of Naruto's clothing, tossing the destroyed outfit to the side. It landed on another bed, the blood staining the clean blankets upon contact. The Hokage's hands started glowing with visible chakra as she prepared to assess the internal damage. Her hands passed through Naruto's body the same way a ghost drifts through stone walls.
Sakura choked back another sob as she saw her sensei's face tighten. That was not a good sign.
Sasuke scowled and prepared himself to be useful. He stripped off his cape and mask, tossing them to the side so that they were not in the way. Quickly he washed and disinfected his hands as well. Tsunade said they might only need him for chakra infusions but he would not take chances in an operating room.
"The seal has weakened a little," Jiraiya said heavily, "Sasuke, what happened?"
"Gamabunta and Manda had just left the battlefield when Naruto was struck from behind by a green light. I do not know what it was supposed to do but what it did manage to do was make Naruto release all of Kyuubi's chakra at once. Nothing is left of the army now," he explained as briefly as he could.
Jiraiya scowled, "A green light?"
"It would be a Killing Curse," Madam Pomfrey offered.
"A killing curse? That could account for the weakening of the seal," the Sannin nodded.
"Sakura you start with his lungs. I'll take the rest of the chest," Tsunade instructed, "Go slowly. Don't rush," she coached, probably more for herself than her apprentice. Sakura took a breath and sunk her chakra-soaked hands into Naruto's lacerated chest. "Jiraiya, can you tamp down Kyuubi's chakra? Sasuke, you take care of Naruto's," the two men nodded and moved closer in.
Sasuke rested his hands on Naruto's head. As he lowered his consciousness into synchronicity with Naruto's fluctuating life signs he vaguely heard Tsunade mutter that this would be easier with a Hyuuga to close the tenketsu but they had to work with what they had on hand.
Tsunade and Sakura worked for hours, force-healing Naruto and stabilizing his vitals. Sakura shoved blood pill after blood pill down his throat to replace what he had lost before and during surgery. By the time Tsunade declared that that was all they could do the sun was long gone and the moon was high in the night sky. Both Medicnin pushed sweat dampened hair from their faces. Sasuke and Jiraiya steered them to empty cots. Sakura gratefully accepted the soft bed and passed out. Tsunade merely sat down and stared at her friend-turned-patient.
"Will he be alright?" Sasuke asked timidly.
"Jiraiya will have to reinforce the seal in the morning," she sighed, "But the brat's too annoying to die like this. He hasn't kicked me out of office yet," the conscious shinobi smiled wanly at the old joke. "But honestly I don't know how long it will take for him to recover. His usual over-night-miracle recovery is all due to Kyuubi but Kyuubi is drained even more than the brat is,"
"So he's going to take a while to get better," Jiraiya summed up. Sasuke nodded.
"I need something to eat," Tsunade said pathetically. Madam Pomfrey, who had been sitting on the sidelines through the entire surgery scurried forward with a platter of bite-sized snack foods. She set it on the bedside table next to Tsunade. Tsunade thanked the Mediwitch and descended upon the sustenance.