Chapter 9

[no time skip]

The moment Minato's body instinctually snapped awake, he knew something was wrong.

"-SAYORA!"

Naruto's roar exploded in the home, awakening Kushina with a start. Her eyes widened in shock just as her body reacted and she jumped out of bed. Minato was already half way down the stairs. He vaguely heard the noise of their daughter waking up to her name.

At the bottom of the stairs, Naruto was hunched over, one hand supporting him against the wall. Kakashi was a few feet away from him, having clearly been thrown there. He was bleeding heavily and coughing.

"-SAYORA! Hnng"

Naruto called again, ending in a pained grunt.

"-I'm here!"

The young girl jumped the last few steps of the stairs, hands already glowing green. She was reaching for Kakashi, who flinched back. His eyes were focused on Naruto.

"-Naruto, calm down, I'm fine."

"-Heal him!"

Minato saw Sayora freeze, panicking slightly as Kakashi's blood stained the wooden floor. Kushina reached the bottom of the stairs and shouted out Naruto's name as she took a step towards him.

Minato's arm shot out and blocked her as he felt a burning wave of chakra exploding from Naruto. The blonde man yelled out in pain and fell to his knees.

Kakashi grunted.

"-HEAL HIM!"

"-What is happening?"

"-Aarrgh"

Naruto and Kushina were talking at the same time, not quite managing to cover Kakashi's pained moan. Sayora moved to Kakashi but glanced at her brother. Kakashi kept his eyes locked onto Naruto's, his strained voice trying to calm him down.

"-I'm fine! Naru, I'm fine."

"-THAT'S ENOUGH!"

Minato's voice rang in the resulting silence.

"-Sayora, heal Kakashi. Kushina, help her.

-What?! Naruto is hurt.

-Help Sayora! Kakashi is about to pass out. There is nothing we can do for Naruto."

He was already weaving through hand-seals, a barrier rising up between them and Naruto.

"-What are you DOING?! What do you mean, there's nothing to do, dattebane?!"

Minato's eyes didn't waver from Naruto as he let himself fall fully on his hands and knees. He quickly looked up at his father's barrier before releasing the tenuous hold he had on his body. Naruto's chakra lashed out around him, tearing at his clothes and burning its way into the floor through his hands. Naruto's whole body shuddered and spasmed up with each wave of energy. He vomited, the bile burning his throat.

"-Kakashi~hng!"

Naruto's broken voice reached Minato through the barrier, pain vibrating in every syllable. The Hokage turned around. Sayora had her hands on the jounin's chest, a focused look on her face. Kushina was pushing a piece of her shirt into the bleeding wound. Kakashi was pale and sweating but his eyes were glued to Naruto.

"-Kakashi?"

Minato's soft voice seemed to reach him, black eye snapping to him.

"-I'll be fine. He didn't do it on purpose." He swallowed. "I startled him."

Minato nodded and flashed his own chakra to signal his ANBU guards to stand down. They had arrived just a couple seconds after Naruto's first yell for his sister.

"-Minato," Kushina's voice was hard as steel, "what is happening?"

"-I don't know.

-Like hell!

-Kushina! I don't know what's happening."

Sayora shushed them with a hiss as she focussed on knitting Kakashi's flesh back together. The bleeding had already stopped. Behind the barrier, Naruto's chakra started to recede, leaving behind heavy shakes wracking his body.

After a few more minutes of tense silence, Sayora's voice rose. It was soft.

"-Kashi-nii, can you move your arm?"

Kakashi slowly tried to move his left arm in a circle. He winced. She nodded. Her hands and the front of his clothes were covered in blood.

"-That's all I can do for now. I've stopped the bleeding and healed most of it. Whatever Nii-san did, he did some serious damage that I don't know how to heal yet.

-Wind chakra," came Naruto's broken voice.

Everyone turned towards him. He was still on all four but his head was up and he was staring at Kakashi.

"-I used wind chakra. I didn't have time to pull it back in. I only had time to move so that I wouldn't pierce the heart. But my hand was still coated in wind chakra when..." He swallowed the end of his sentence.

"-Ow, little Naru," Kakashi started with fake mirth, voice raspy and fake laugh ending in a cough, "you flatter me, using your older brother's Chidori like that."

Kushina's hand whipped out to cuff him on the head, though there was no force behind it. Contrarily to what Kakashi was hoping for, Naruto didn't laugh.

"-You're lucky I can control this better than you can the Chidori or you wouldn't be here joking about it."

The younger blonde slowly stood up on shaky legs, motioning for Minato to bring down the barrier. Violent shivers were running up and down his limbs. He staggered then let himself slide back down to a sitting position, back against the wall, head just a few centimeters away from a black handprint on the burnt wood.

Minato let the technique drop while he assessed his son's body with a critical eye. Kushina stood up and rushed to him.

"-Mom, don't!" She stopped in her movement. "Just don't come near me. I don't want to hurt you.

-What is happening, dattebane?"

Naruto didn't answer and closed his eyes.

"-It's that chakra isn't is?"

Minato's voice sounded calm despite the situation.

"-What chakra?"

Naruto sighed at his mother's question.

"-I was hit with a foreign chakra blast on my mission. It's been messing with mine. But no, that's not it." He gestured to his whole body. "That's from the Hiraishin just now."

"-Naruto! You know how dangerous that can be if something's wrong with your chakra!

-What choice did I have?! I put my hand through Kashi's chest!"

Sayora winced.

"-I knew this would happen but I had no choice, I had to Hiraishin in. It doesn't matter. What matters is that Sayora managed to heal him.

-Not completely," she countered in a small voice.

Naruto smiled despite the pain wracking his body.

"-But you saved his life. Good job, sis!"

She blushed at his praise.

"-He's right," Kakashi coughed, "thank you, squirt!"

Sayora puffed and pushed his uninjured shoulder slightly, but a discreet smile appeared on her lips.

"-Right, let's get you to the hospital, 'ttebane."

Kakashi's eye closed in his rendition of a blinding smile.

"-Nope!

-You little~! You don't have a choice, Kakashi! I'm taking you to the hospital and that's final!"

Kushina was already moving towards him. In the blink of an eye he was on the other side of the hallway, swaying on his feet and hissing in pain but jaw clenched as he spoke slowly.

"-I am not going to the hospital."

Kushina was already moving in his direction when Minato's voice anchored them both where they were.

"-Enough."

He had spoken in a quiet voice. His whole demeanor was calm and focussed. It was the Hokage speaking.

"-Sayora, does Kakashi need to go to the hospital tonight?"

The teenager straightened as she stood up.

"-No. I've healed what I could. The bleeding has stopped. He doesn't need any emergency attention anymore. But he will need one of the senior mednins to heal the deep tissue damage as soon as possible if he wants to recover his full range of motion with his arm again."

Minato nodded then looked at Kakashi.

"-You can stay here tonight but you will get yourself checked first thing tomorrow morning. Am I clear?

-Yes, sir.

-Good. Naruto, do you need medical attention?

-I do but nothing can be done about it for now.

-Naruto, you pigheaded brat! I'm gonna sick Tsunade on you!

-Mom!

-Kushina, please."

Minato had spoken softly, pleading with her. In his eyes she could see the same worry she knew was in hers. She bit down on her retort. Minato turned back towards Naruto, who was still seated against the wall.

Now that the threat of going to the hospital was truly gone, and that Kushina's attention was on something else, Kakashi discreetly and carefully made his way back to the rest of the family.

"-At least let your sister check on you?

-No," the younger blonde shook his head. "Something's wrong. It's not the chakra. It's something else. I should not have reacted that badly to the Hiraishin. I don't know how I'll react to Sayora's chakra. I don't want to risk it. But Mom's right. I need to see Tsunade-nee."

Minato and Kakashi both saw the flash of pain in Naruto's eyes at his admission. They could only imagine how he would feel about seeing the fiery woman again. There had been so much pain in his eyes and in his restrained tone when he had told them about her.

"-You'll go and see your aunt first thing tomorrow!

-Will you be able to travel tomorrow?

-I should. As long as I don't use chakra, I should be fine. It'll probably take me the best part of the day getting there walking but I can go tomorrow.

-Jiraiya will go with you."

Naruto simply nodded. Just as the silence was about to turn awkward, Kushina spoke, pulling Sayora towards the stairs.

"-Let's get you cleaned up, honey."

Both women started walking up the stairs. Naruto's eyes followed his mother and sister. He sighed.

"-She shouldn't have had to deal with that. I should have gone to the hospital. I wasn't thinking.

-Your sister is strong.

-She is, but she's young. She didn't need to see me or Kakashi is the state we were in."

Minato didn't answer.

"-Will you be ok?" Kakashi addressed Naruto.

The blonde man simply looked at him. Kakashi resisted the urge to fidget under the intense look. The blue eyes were blank of emotions.

"-Go to sleep, Kakashi."

Naruto's tone was neutral, with just about an edge of dismissiveness. Kakashi could almost see the walls around Naruto's emotions. Was that how Naruto sounded on the battlefield, when he would send his men to their tent for a few hours of sleep while he stayed awake through the night?

Naruto broke eye contact, slowly pushing himself back up. They would not get anything out of him tonight. Kakashi briefly looked at Minato, who nodded at him. Kakashi sighed and slowly walked to his room. He doubted he would get any sleep.

Once Kakashi was gone into his room in the house, Minato turned to Naruto. The younger blonde raised his hand, silencing Minato's question before he could form the words.

"-Whatever you're about to say, I already know. I'll be downstairs."

Not waiting for an answer, Naruto headed to the sealed room under the house.