And so she did. His entire hospital room was filled, wall-to-wall, with medical documents, books, scrolls and other pieces of information, dating back to even the founding of the village. He'd often skip his meals, his eyes glued to the papers in front of him in order to find a way to fix his friend.
Sakura would come by often to visit, to help him eat just a little bit to help him heal a bit better. She also helped in his search, looking through medical files and organizing which was read and wasn't read already... and the "was read" pile was stacking up high already. Naruto was delighted to hear that she had begun to study under Tsunade, so she can become an accomplished healer and ninja. That delighted Naruto.
But it was also from her that Naruto had heard that Sasuke had woken up... and that he was in a similar state to how he was. She explained that he blamed Naruto, yelling at the Hokage, and how he broke down into tears now that he realized that without his Chakra Coils, he couldn't exact his revenge on his brother... and the thought made Naruto's scowl deepen. Sasuke had gotten one thing right, it was his fault, but he would fix it.
Two weeks have passed, and the young Jinchuriki had searched nearly every file there was to offer... it was night, the moon full, and every light in the village turned off, except for his room. Not that he noticed... but the fatigue was getting to him. He felt the pricks of whispers forming around his mouth and on his chin under his bandages... his cerulean eyes drooping every so often with every word he read. With a frustrated sigh, he tossed the book he was holding into the large pile that was the "was-read" section. He leaned over his bed, and picked up a scroll.
Naruto unrolled the scroll and began to read the characters... it was old, most likely before the villages founding. It was here that his eyes widened as he saw the drawings and the readings... and for the first time in two weeks, his lips turned upwards.
He had found a solution.
"Absolutely not!" The slug princess's yell seemingly echoed throughout the village.
"Baa-chan, please! Out of nearly every piece of paper I've read, this is the only one that provides a solution!" Naruto pleaded. Jiraiya watched, a scowl etched into his face after hearing what Naruto had to offer.
"No, the cost is too great, I won't allow it-" Tsunade would continue before she was interrupted.
"Tsunade!" Naruto yelled, slamming a skinny hand into the table beside him, his eyes closed in restrained anger... tears welled up in the corners of his eyes and Tsunade saw the desperation.
"If I do this... I can't protect you." She'd whisper. Naruto's body relaxed at her words, letting out a sigh as he opened his eyes to a half-lidded state... He looked so tired. Jiraiya had his arms crossed... he was planning on taking Naruto for a training trip, but if Tsunade agrees...
"I don't need protecting. I'll do whatever is necessary..." He says softly, looking out the window.
Jiraiya sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose...
"Naruto," The Toad Sage's deep voice cut through the silence.
"I'll see you around then..." He'd finish, the blonde turned to look at him, before nodding. Jiraiya, he looked sad at this, before turning and walking out of the room, leaving Tsunade and Naruto.
"Can you stand?" She'd ask. Naruto nodded weakly...
"Follow me."
In the past
The great Kyuubi no Yoko stood upon a cliffside and overlooked the view... lush green forests, grass and blue water... dyed orange with the light of the setting sun. To him, the strongest of the tailed beasts, it was a beautiful scene. But something ultimately bothered him...
This human.
The "YiLing Patriarch."
After destroying that village, the human had been following him around, wearing a smile on his face. What's more is that he doesn't feel fear around him. Him. How could a mortal be so comfortable around the "Demon Fox." This mortal, whoever he was, had a lot of nerve.
"The view is quite beautiful, hm?" The human's voice cut through the Biju's thoughts. The fox looked down at him, his eyes portraying annoyance... and frustration. The Kyuubi could kill him in an instant. He could step on this puny human and he'd be out of his fur, so why? Why won't he kill him?
"Hmph." The fox huffed, before turning away to continue admiring the sunset. He felt the human lean on his front leg, to which the Kyuubi turned an eye to see him, hanging a leg off the cliff, leaning his back into the fur of his front leg, and his eyes closed. A small breeze passed by, which made his fur and the man's clothes and hair sway, perhaps majestically.
The scene would be picturesque, perhaps even beautiful, if not for the Demon Fox which was one of the subjects.
The trees, too, rustled in the gentle wind, and many leaves would blow by the two. The man opened his eyes to see the leaves passing by, his eyes searching each individual leaf, before leaning forward, and off the Fox's front leg, and grabbing a leaf which blew by with two fingers.
There was nothing extraordinary about the leaf. It was green, symmetrical, and based on the texture it was rather young. The YiLing Patriarch leaned back on the Fox's paw, much to the Fox's annoyance. Rolling his eyes, the Kyuubi returned to admiring the scene and the setting sun... only for his ears to twitch at the sound of... a flute?
(The Untamed OST - WuJi Flute Instrumental)
The Kyuubi's head turned to look at the human, his eyes were closed and his body relaxed, his hands holding the leaf he picked to his mouth... and hearing this melody, which was beautiful like the wind which passed them by, it made the constantly angry Kyuubi no Yoko calm. He was curious about this human... he was curious as to why he wouldn't kill this human. He was curious about the melody. But he recognized that this wasn't an appropriate time to ask, so he simply turned back to the setting sun, and listened to the sound of the leaf flute. And for the first time in what seemed like an eternity...
The Kyuubi allowed a calm smile to grace his snout.
Hello hello hello. Welcome to another chapter of this fanfiction. I'm quite surprised to see the number of followers it already has. Thank you to everybody for supporting this dumb idea that I came up with in my head.
There's only 1 vote for the pairing so far, thanks to:
MonsterOfLogic
So it's currently:
- Kurotsuchi: 0
- Shizuka: 0
- Ino: 1
If you noticed from the first chapter, I didn't really include more popular pairings such as Hinata or Sakura, because I want it to be different.No hate towards people who like that, I will add them if they're brought up, but I want to try to stay away from the typical pairing.
Thanks to everybody!
Nitro
