Story: Melancholy, Chapter 6
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Note: This chapter is based heavily off of one of my own experiences, so I tried to think realistically about the physical effects of cutting and self-harm.
As a side note, I should probably mention that I have a very hard time focusing on more than one character at a time, so I've been having a very hard time balancing them out as much as I have. It's taken a lot of patience I hope you all understand... Also, from a narrative standpoint, I think I'm going to have some of Kakashi's own troubles resurface and be tackled over the course of this fanfiction. As in the problems of his own past reflecting on the struggles of his students when the issues arise… (It'll make more sense when I get there.)
Replies To Reviews
Phoenixx Rising:
This chapter was intense. I really liked it. Can't wait for more!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! owo
The Keeper of Worlds:
Well done here and I can see the good transition point for how a lot of the problems they have will come to a head either all at once or in steps throughout the mission. Just will depend on what trigger is hit first.
I'm definitely planning to do something like that!
Jorge Luis Arias Arcentales:
Oh man, I can't wait for the next chapter.
I want to see how Naruto is doing about cutting himself when he is on missions. I don't think he does it often on missions because apparently he does it more when the villagers screw him up, so... something heavy would have to happen for Naruto to do it on mission
I'm excited to read the next chapter *w*
I'm glad you're enjoying this! And I do have an idea in mind for that which I'll get to soon enough:3
suki hanasuke:
This is a interesting chapter! Looks like tsunade's mothering tendency's are shining! I did notice that you gave all of team 7 (excluding Kakashi) a equal amount of time per person! How does Kakashi react though if he figures out their past... lots of love!:3:3
Yes, I plan to work with Kakashi over the course of the fanfiction, resurfacing parts of his past that he never truly moved on from, and I'm doing my best to balance out attention on Sasuke's, Naruto's and Sakura's characters. I feel like that's the only way to give this whole situation true justice. Thank you for your kind review!
heartbreakerninja:
This is AWESOME! Can't wait till the next chapter.
Poor Naruto. People can be so mean.
Thank you! And I completely agree! Naruto will be getting the support he needs though, very soon.
...
Naruto was quickly starting to have regrets. Major regrets.
The words "dizzy" and "nauseated" barely scratched the surface of how he felt right now. He'd told himself "just a few cuts", but, of course, it never went that way and now he was paying the price.
He knew he needed to rest a bit or something before he passed out, but he didn't want to cause any unnecessary worry for the others. Unfortunately, it was pretty obvious to those around him that something was off, that he was starting to struggle to even walk straight.
"Naruto, what's wrong?" Sakura asked in concern, without restraint, noticing how pale he looked.
"It's… It's nothing to worry about, Sakura-chan…" Naruto said with a weak smile. "I'm totally… fine…"
"Hn… You'd think he was dying or something." Sasuke muttered with a smirk, hiding the fact that he actually did wonder what was happening to Naruto.
"What was that-" Naruto started to glare at him.
"That's enough, you two." Kakashi said, silencing both of them, before glancing back at Naruto. "Naruto, why don't you sit down and take a moment to rest before you pass out?"
"Yeah, do what you gotta do. It's not like we're in any rush or anything. Besides, we've been walking for a couple hours now. We could use a break." Izumi said casually. Saburo remained silent but nodded in agreement.
"I told you I'm fine…! I don't need to-" Naruto started to argue.
"Now, Naruto." Kakashi emphasized the "now" part. The last thing he needed was a student fainting on him.
"But I-" Naruto once again tried to protest.
"Just do what he said already, Naruto!" Sakura snapped, interrupting him as she accusingly pointed a finger at him. Naruto was always pushing himself to the limit, forcing himself to press forward when he clearly wasn't able to handle it. "And no 'buts'! You need to think about yourself for once!"
Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but caved in at the realization that Sakura was worried for him. "Fine…"
"Now, come on. Sit down." Sakura said.
As he watched Sakura pulling Naruto over to sit against a nearby tree stump and hearing Naruto grumbling in response, Kakashi couldn't help but briefly be reminded of how Rin used to take his and Obito's wellbeing more serious than either of them themselves did. Although Sakura had a fearsome personality, she still had a deep underlying concern and compassion that had developed for both of her teammates, just like Rin had.
Assuming that Naruto was probably dehydrated or something, Sakura pulled out an unopened water bottle from her bag. She uncapped it and without a second thought, she held it up to his mouth. "Here, drink this. It might help a bit."
In all the time she'd known him, he'd rarely ever looked this bad off. Something was obviously wrong.
Albeit reluctant at first, Naruto graciously took a few sips of the liquid and swallowed. He must have lost way too much blood. They'd been on the road for at least a couple hours now, and the heat was unbearable at the moment, so that didn't help anything at all. He wasn't particularly feeling that great when he left, but it was a hundred times worse now.
"I wonder if Hokage-sama would be interested in taking Sakura on as an apprentice... She has better chakra control than either of her teammates and she has the skills required to effectively care for patients…" Kakashi mused, observing the two. Maybe he would discuss that later with her. He himself wasn't qualified to teach one on such complex procedures, but a huge part of him believed that Sakura truly had what it took to become a medical ninja.
"Thanks..., Sakura-chan…" Naruto said after a bit, once the light headed spell was finally over.
"Don't mention it." Sakura said softly. "So how are you feeling...?"
"A lot better now, thanks to you." Naruto grinned, a small blush heating his cheeks. "I guess the heat was just kind of getting to me, ya know? But now I'm back to normal and ready to go."
"That's good. I'm glad." Sakura sighed in relief, an unidentifiable feeling welling up in her chest.
"And here I was almost worried we were gonna have to carry Naruto back to the village." Kakashi said jokingly.
Naruto smirked after a moment. "Hey, don't count me off that quickly, Kakashi-sensei. It takes a lot more than just a little bit of nausea and dizziness to bring me down."
"I suppose that is true." Kakashi agreed, before placing a gentle hand on Naruto's shoulder and kneeling beside him. "All jokes aside, though, try to go easy this time, okay? It wouldn't do any good for any of us if you went and fainted on us, now would it?"
"Right… Sorry about that, guys..." Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head.
Sasuke scoffed. "Hmph. Just don't hold us back anymore, usuratonkachi."
"Hah, we'll see who's holding who back, just you wait, teme!" Naruto glared at Sasuke, jumping up. "Kakashi-sensei, you said Tanzaku town was our first stop, right?"
"Well, that is what I said, but-" Kakashi started to say, but was cut off by Naruto before he could finish.
"Great! That works out perfectly! Me and Ero-sennin went there to retrieve Tsunade-obaachan. I know exactly how to get there from here! I'll race you!"
"Hold on, Naruto-" Kakashi started to say, but was abruptly cut off by Sasuke, who was smirking himself.
"Tch, fine by me." Sasuke said, fully in on the idea.
"Sasuke-kun-" Sakura tried to speak, but was cut off by Naruto.
"I'm ready when you are." He challenged.
"Naruto, you're in no condition to-!" Sakura reached out to stop Naruto. Unfortunately, neither one of them were paying attention to anybody else.
"Then let's go, dobe!" Sasuke said, before jumping into a nearby tree and making his way towards the direction of their closest destination.
"Just give me three seconds and I'll make you eat my dust!" Naruto immediately took off after him, leaving Kakashi and Sakura sighing.
"Don't those two ever listen…?" Kakashi groaned.
"So much for taking it easy. That idiot couldn't stand still for ten minutes if his life depended on it!" Sakura held up a fist, before slumping. "And Sasuke-kun just went along with it…"
"Well, that's true… But, you know... This could be a good thing, Sakura." Kakashi mused aloud.
It didn't take but a moment to realize what he was referring to. Sasuke and Naruto had been at such odds lately and so focused on their rivalry that they(especially Sasuke) had almost lost sight of the fact that beneath all that, they were still friends. It was nice to see them acting like this again, even if it was at a time like this.
"It has been a while…" Sakura gave a small smile, thinking about it. She couldn't help but hope, more than anything that it could stay like this. That Sasuke and Naruto would start getting along again, like proper rivals and everything could go back to normal.
"So is this how things normally are between you guys…?" Izumi asked, casually.
"Sorry, you'll have to forgive them again." Kakashi held up his hand apologetically. "Those two can be a bit of a handful sometimes."
"On the contrary, it's totally fine." Izumi smiled a bit light heartedly. "Uzumaki-san just seems really… overzealous is all. From where we originally came from, we never really saw people like him."
Izumi gave a glance to the side, as if remembering something painful.
"Naruto is an odd one…" Kakashi agreed. "But perhaps… that's what draws so many people to him."
"That's right." Sakura gave a small smile, looking off in the direction her teammates had ran off into. "He can be a total pain sometimes… But when it comes down to it, there's something about him that really inspires people…"
"Come on, Sakura-chan! You've come so far...! If you let yourself lose now to that crazy Sasuke-chaser, you'll be a disgrace to all women!"
Naruto's words to her from back in the Chunin Exam prelims echoed in her head. If it hadn't been for him, she would have lost to Ino. But he had encouraged her to keep going, and it was because of him that she was able to break the mind transfer and fight as a true equal against her life-long rival.
"He not only refuses to give up on himself, but he won't let others give up on themselves either. Honestly… Naruto's as ambitious as they come… He puts everything he has into everything he does, even when the odds are stacked against him…"
No matter the situation, Naruto always worked hard to prove those around him wrong. She herself used to think that he was more or less just a deadlast with a bad attitude, but over the months, she'd realized just how wrong she was, just how much she'd misjudged him. Naruto had shown so much growth over and over again, right before her eyes, dare say she even admired him now. "I'm kind of jealous, to be honest with you… Both him and Sasuke-kun have come so far over the past few months, but the only thing I've learned is tree climbing..."
She did feel happy to hear what Tsunade had said about her, but she still couldn't help but have some doubts about it all.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, Sakura." Kakashi smiled softly, placing a reassuring hand on her head. Sakura looked up at him, surprised.
"While it's true you may have not learned any special ninjutsu like Sasuke or Naruto yet, you've still shown amazing growth in other ways. You've overcome impossible obstacles for somebody of your skill level and I'm more than proud to have you as my student." Kakashi said, with all sincerity.
At hearing such words from him, a sudden warmth filled Sakura's chest. It made her so… happy.
Tears welled up in her eyes, almost spilling out. However, before they could, she reached up, wiping them away. "Thank you… Kakashi-sensei."
"Don't mention it." Kakashi slightly ruffled her hair, before walking ahead. "Now, we should probably quicken our pace. We wouldn't want to be too left behind by those two, right? In fact, why don't you go and catch up with them and make sure they haven't gotten themselves into any trouble?"
And to be honest, he was still kind of worried about Naruto. On top of his recent physical ailment, it'd be really troublesome if somebody happened to come after him again like Itachi and Kisame had not too long ago.
"Right." Sakura uttered, before heading off in the direction her teammates had taken off in. She'd already looked at numerous maps for the Land of Fire before, so she had a general idea of where she was headed.
…
Naruto felt like his lungs were on fire, and due to the fact that he still was suffering the effects of blood loss, his body was undeniably weak at the moment. After about fifteen to twenty minutes, the worst wave of dizziness yet hit him like bricks.
In an instant, he felt himself miss his step, almost slipping out of consciousness and hurling towards the ground.
He barely registered Sasuke's voice calling out his name, or the small clicking sound of his tongue as the raven haired boy rushed down without hesitating to catch him right before he landed.
Sasuke skid across the dirt, skinning his elbow while he was at it.
"Naruto… What's with you today?" Sasuke asked, looking down at him, undeniable worry consuming him against his wishes. Even a blind person could tell that something was horribly wrong. Naruto was never one to nearly pass out after barely doing anything. "This isn't like you."
"...'s nothing… Jus' give me… a minute..." Naruto weakly said between breaths, trying to ignore that part of his vision was growing heavy and black. He cursed himself for having to be rescued by Sasuke, but knew he was too weak to do anything until he recovered his strength, and, of course, his breath.
As Sasuke sat there with Naruto, he wondered what he should do.
Tanzaku town isn't that far from here. I'll probably let him rest for a few minutes and if one of the others don't get here by then, I'll take him there myself.
Much to his relief, however, he didn't have to wait long, because, almost immediately after, Sakura had finally caught up with him, calling out his name.
"Sasuke-kun, how's Naruto? Did he pass out?" Sakura asked in concern, jumping down beside him and Naruto.
"See for yourself." Sasuke said, masking nonchalance.
"Heh, I'm still conscious,... if that's what you're asking…" Naruto looked up at her, giving a weak smile. "I said before I don't go out that easy, didn't I…?"
"And that's why you're laying on the ground right now, you idiot." Sasuke quipped. "You're lucky that I was here to catch you when you fell, or you probably would have broken your neck."
"Shut up, teme...!" Naruto snapped.
"...Naruto… You reckless dumbass!" Sakura shouted, startling both Naruto and Sasuke. "Both Kakashi-sensei and I told you to not over-exert yourself right now, but instead, you immediately rushed off and nearly fainted again! Haven't you ever heard of following directions...?!"
"...I'm sorry, Sakura-chan… I guess I kind of should have listened to you..." Naruto murmured after a moment, looking away, feeling horrible for making her worry about him.
Sakura sighed, feeling kind of guilty for being so hard on him. "Don't apologize… I'm just glad you're okay…"
A/N: You may think this is overly dramatic, but this kind of thing happens when somebody cuts too much or they lose too much blood(it happened to me, and I felt major light-headedness and nearly passed out several times in my life, so I was basing Naruto's experience off of my own past symptoms.) Also, it can sometimes take a long time to recover from blood loss, whether or not the injury is healed, so considering how Naruto has been bleeding on a regular basis(supposedly every few days, lately more), he's not been giving his body enough time to recuperate and considering how much he lost this time, it only made it a shit ton worse where it's actually a hundred times more noticable. As for Sasuke and Sakura, they still don't know what's wrong, but they're starting to suspect something, and I do plan to have the reveal soon enough. Please forgive me. I'm trying to take as realistic of an approach as I can on this without dragging the matter on too long. Forgive me please…
