Chapter 10

Naruto knocked on the door frame as he entered a small room through the open door. A tall blonde woman had her back to him, washing her hands in a small sink in the corner. She turned around with a glare that went away as soon as she recognized him.

"-Hey, kiddo! This is a nice surprise!"

Naruto smiled at the soft voice and happy greeting.

"-Hey, Tsunade-baasan!"

Naruto simply looked at her smiling while she finished washing her hands. When she was done, she walked and hugged him. He hugged her back a little bit longer than he usually would. She frowned as she pulled back.

"-Is everything all right?"

Naruto chuckled.

"-I can never keep anything from you, can I?

-Spill."

Her tone indicated she wouldn't take no for an answer. She motioned for him to sit on the sofa next to her desk. Naruto obeyed and sighed.

"-I had some complications during my last mission."

Tsunade snorted.

"-When do you not?

-Ahah, funny, baa-chan." Naruto looked at her more seriously. "That's actually why I'm here. I need you to do a full body check on me."

Tsunade sat down in the opposite sofa, all trace of humor gone from her face.

"-Did your mother order you to come see me?

-She did but I would have come anyways."

Tsunade frowned. Naruto's being a jinchuuriki insured he almost never required medical attention. For him to seek her out before her planned visit to the village next month did not bode well.

"-What happened?

-You know I can't tell you that.

-Bull.

-Fine. I went out on a mission. Got tangled with some Iwari hotheads. I got messed up pretty badly. Long story short: nasty jutsu, seal malfunction, Hiraishin backlash and chakra poisoning."

Tsunade's eyes widened in surprise. She whistled.

"-You never go easy, do you, brat?!

-Where would be the fun in that?

-You owe me a drink.

-Ow come on, Baa-chan! At least I'm keeping life interesting for you!"

Groaning, Tsunade motioned for him to settle on the examination table on the other side of the room. Naruto wisely obeyed without fuss. He knew what he just told her would make her worry. Naruto hated to worry her straight away after not having seen her for a couple months, but he knew from experience that she would have been a lot angrier had he waited to mention his injuries. Especially when it was the reason he was there.

Tsunade took a good look at him.

"-Where were you hurt?

-Belly. Some twat tried to gut me. It's all healed though.

-I'll be the judge of that. Lie down."

When he laid down, Tsunade brought her glowing hand above his belly and sent her chakra out to check the area. She then extended the jutsu to the rest of his body.

"-You seem all right. A bit tense but nothing you'd need me for.

-Well, the injuries are not why I'm here for. I need you to check my chakra network. Thoroughly. I got hit with something weird that poisoned my chakra. It's been completely out of control since then. I almost ripped apart with an Hiraishin twice ~ ow! Why did you do that for?!"

Naruto yelled after she whacked him on the head.

"-For trying to use the Hiraishin when injured, you brat! You're not your father!"

Naruto puffed. His mom, then now Tsunade! He would have to change that. He might not have had his father's control over the technique on this path, but he'd completely mastered it on the other path. He'd even bested his father at it!

"-I'll have you know I'm perfectly capable of using the Hiraishin, thank you very much. But, I'll admit I shouldn't have used it while the seal was acting up.

-What seal?

-…

-What?! How~ what happened?!

-I don't know but relax, Mom and Dad already checked it. It's back to normal."

Tsunade didn't need to know it was most definitely not back to normal, but he wasn't about to explain to her how his own seal from another timeline was better than his father's. That could wait.

The blonde woman looked like she was about to call his bluff when a wave of pain made him wince.

"-What was that?

-That is why I'm here. I've been telling you. Something happened to my chakra. I need to make sure nothing is too damaged. And I would very much appreciate the pain going away.

-What kind of pain?

-The kind that never goes away. I've been feeling like my bones are on fire for the last three weeks or so and it's starting to annoy me.

-Is it constant?

-More or less. It's been decreasing but not by much. Sometimes, like now, it flares up."

Tsunade nodded and closed her eyes to focus. She weaved a few seals with her hands before placing them on top of Naruto's heart. Naruto immediately felt the pain he'd been repressing crash into him. The burning coldness settling in his bones and making his muscles spasm up. He groaned and tried to breathe through it but just the air passing through his throat was a torture. All of it, all the pain he'd been feeling since absorbing Tobi's chakra. It was all back and with a vengeance.

Tsunade spoke lowly through clenched teeth.

"-Sorry, kiddo. You unconsciously numbed your pain receptors but I need to know the extend of the damage.

-I'll be fine." Naruto managed to answer in a snarl, clenching his hands into fist to repress the instinctual need to push her away. He focused on his breathing. He would endure the pain. He'd done it before. This was nothing.

Tsunade didn't answer and focused back on sending her chakra deep into Naruto's body, down to the cellular level and around the chakra pathways. She examined each tenketsu.

Naruto only very distantly managed to follow her progress through his body. The pain was overwhelming. Aching, twisting, freezing, burning. With it came the anger, the sadness and the despair. Everything he had felt after flashing away from the battlefield.

Suddenly Naruto found himself in an unfamiliar setting. Instantly he knew he was inside his seal. The moment he realized this, Kurama appeared in front of him, as tall as usual. Naruto smiled. The fox grinned back at him.

"-What up?" Naruto asked, extending his closed fist up. Kurama was quick to bump his own massive fist against it.

"-You crazy mofo. I can't believe you actually managed to get us here.

-Hey! It's not like it's a big surprise. You knew the moment Hagoromo told us about this that we would end up here.

-I guess. Still, Father didn't seem so sure about it."

Naruto shrugged.

"-So, is that the new seal?"

Naruto looked around. It felt like a big room but he couldn't see any wall. They were kind of floating in a deep blue space, yet he could feel warm ground under his feet.

"-Kind of, yeah. What did you do to it? It feels weird.

-I figured my pops' seal wouldn't do anymore. It kept us completely separate except for your chakra being syphoned out. Very similar to what he used before actually, but without the Shinigami's part of it. It was interesting to see. Somehow some parts of my other seal got carried over from the other path since it was bound to our souls. It was messing up with the seal here. So I burnt some arrays to keep things stable, but without my chakra or a safe place to work things out, I pretty much had to leave things as they are.

-So you're just saying you've got two partial seals somehow not exploding in your face but not working properly either?

-They work! You're here, aren't you?

-My soul is bound to yours.

-Irrelevant."

Kurama snorted at Naruto dismissive gesture. Naruto chuckled too.

"-Does it hurt?

-The seals?

-Yeah.

-Not really. It just feels weird. Like, I have to focus into shape.

-Hm, I see. I was planning to find Octopops as soon as I'm cleared for duty. I'll have to see with him if we can use that cave of his to fix your seal.

-Naruto…

-Hm?

-You do realize you're practically at war with them here, don't you?

-I am not yet familiar with the specifics.

-Well, I am, and I'm telling you things are not exactly peachy between your villages at the moment.

-Again, irrelevant. This has nothing to do with Konoha and Kumo. It's jinchuuriki business.

-I'm not sure anyone else is going to see it that way.

-Bee will.

-He might. If you manage to get to him without being killed first.

-I'll be fine. You know me.

-Exactly."

Naruto just shrugged the fox's concerns off.

"-What happened to you, anyways?

-What do you mean?

-The other Kurama, the one from this path?

-Same as you. My soul kind of merged into this one.

-Can you still feel yourself over there?

-A little. It's more like feeling there is something but not really feeling it. Like when you know you forgot something but can't place it. You?

-Nope. Not a trace. Just Tobi's chakra.

-About that…

-Yeah?

-It's mostly gone.

-Already?! I thought it was going to take weeks? We barely have been here a few days.

-I thought so too, but I've been able to burn it a lot quicker than before. It should be gone in a few more days.

-How come I'm still in so much pain, then?

-I have no clue."

Naruto nodded and sat down on the non-existing floor. Kurama laid down next to him and closed his eyes. Both were lost in thoughts for a few moments. After a while Kurama shifted to look at the blonde.

"-You all right?

-Hm? Yeah. It's just a lot to take in, you know?

-I guess. My memories from this path are mostly me being locked away in here. Your birth was different. No damn Sharingan. The monkey used a different seal than you had before. But that's about it.

-I guess. We didn't really take the time to talk on this path, did we?

-Your parents kind of locked me rather tight.

-I'm sorry.

-Not your fault.

-Still, I could have made the effort.

-Don't sweat it. You're here now.

-It's weird. Being here. I mean, it's so different. It's like, all these people I know but at the same time, completely different people. Sometimes, I don't even know how to react to them. And I haven't even been around the village much since coming here. Hell! I've got a sister, did you know that?

-Hm. She's insignificant."

Naruto slowly nodded, aware that Kurama didn't mean it in any bad way.

"-I guess she would be to you. But not to me. I've got her, and Mom, and Dad. It's just plain weird feeling like I've known them my whole life yet I have lived a life completely without them too."

Kurama shrugged. Naruto chuckled softly. Kurama might have changed through the years and they might have become good friends, but the big fox still resented most humans on principle. Weirdly enough, the only other non-jinchuuriki human he tolerated was Minato. The fox still hated him for locking him away on the other path, but years stuck with him in the belly of the Shinigami had forged a reluctant respect for him. Not that he would ever admit that to him or to anyone other than Naruto. And even that was mostly reluctant grunts of approval.

"-Naruto… Are you all right being here?

-Are you getting senile? I just told you~

-Not what I meant. I meant here, with the Senju."

Naruto pressed his lips in a thin line. No, he was not all right. Very far from it. And he knew Kurama could feel it. Seeing Tsunade was tearing him apart. Probably just as much as the physical pain he was in.

"-I can't think about that right now, Kurama. You know that.

-But she is there.

-She's not. I had the Toad Elders burn Tsunade years ago. This is not Baa-chan. This is Tsunade-nee. I can't think of them as the same person. Yet."

Kurama grunted. There was no moving Naruto when he was in this mood. He might not understand human emotions that well, but the giant fox understood that Naruto was very carefully keeping himself at a distance from the people on this path. Not all of them, but it would take a while for him to ease out of his tightly controlled mindset and warm up to the people here.

After a long silence, Naruto and Kurama spent what felt like hours just enjoying each other's company and talking about Naruto's newfound life. They very carefully avoided any topic related to the war-torn reality they had left behind, very much aware of the darkness lurking in those thoughts.

Naruto knew he would have to address it at some point, but he had years of practice ignoring his feelings about the whole thing. He would push it back a little more and address it at a time and place of his choosing.

After a while, Naruto felt himself waking up from his trance. His body felt heavy but years of living on the battlefield made themselves known as awareness slammed back into him. Within an instant he was standing, ready to strike, a thin layer of sharp wind chakra instinctually coating his skin.

An admirative whistle registered in his mind at the same time he recognized the two presences in the room with him. He reigned in his chakra, closed his eyes, and collapsed on the bed he had previously been lying on. He groaned.

He opened his eyes as Jiraiya's impressed whistle died down.

"-That's a nice little trick, gaki."

The Toad Sage and Tsunade were slowly relaxing from their ready stance, standing close to the door for an easy exit.

Naruto shivered.

"-What happened?"

Both Sannins completely relaxed and Tsunade walked towards him with a glass of water. He accepted it gratefully.

"-I had to knock you out. You've been out for two days."

Naruto sighed.

"-Was it that bad?

-Your whole network was out of alignment. It's a miracle you haven't blown yourself up.

-I might have come close.

-You'll have to thank your little bug for keeping you in one piece then.

-I will. So, what was the problem?"

Tsunade sat down in a chair she pulled to face him. Jiraiya did the same. The blond woman looked at Naruto for a few seconds before answering him.

"-Honestly? I don't know. Like I said, your whole system was out of alignment. Somehow, and I have no idea how it could even be possible, you dislodged all of your tenkestu and every pathways from their place.

-I fried my system?

-Not exactly. You see, chakra systems are delicate webs of paths and knots and points. All these elements form a structure within which chakra is created and circulates. When we mold chakra, we just make it circulate in a particular way that serves our purpose. Your network looked like it was entirely taken apart and badly reassembled. All the elements are there, but everything was disconnected.

-Hm. Is that why my chakra exploded when I Hiraishined?

-Yes. You somehow managed to mold enough chakra to perform the technique. But the output of chakra couldn't be contained within your network. So it got expelled out of your body. I'm guessing the only reason you even managed to do the technique is the insane quantity of chakra you have. Even though so much of it was leaking out of your system, you must have managed to mold at least enough of it for the Hiraishin.

-But I lost control of it.

-Yes, with your pathways so disconnected, there was no way for you to contain it.

-Did you fix it?

-I did what I could but I'm not finished. Whatever tore your network apart badly damaged its basic structure.

-How so?

-It's as if it was overwhelmed by too much chakra, but both from the inside out and from the outside in. What did you get yourself into, Naruto?"

Naruto swallowed. It was extremely rare for Tsunade to use his first name. The absence of anger from her tone indicated she was a lot more worried than she let on. He had fully expected her to try and tackle him for his stupidity. The fact that she was simply frowning at him while clenching the armrest of her chair spoke volumes. To be honest, a small part of him was plainly weirded out to see Tsunade like that.

Naruto sighed and dragged his hand through his hair and down his face.

"-You're not going to tell me, are you?" came Tsunade's soft voice.

The blonde man slowly raised his head again to look at her, hand still cradling the side of his face. He let it fall back down.

"-No, I'm not. Part of it is because I actually don't know what happened exactly.

-But you know what caused it.

-I do."

At that, Tsunade turned her head to Jiraiya, who was oddly silent. She lifted an eyebrow and tilted her head towards Naruto, demanding her old teammate support her.

The Sage's dark eyes never left Naruto's. Tsunade frowned.

"-You know!

-Sorry, Hime. I don't have your answer.

-Like hell you don't!

-Tsunade," Naruto's soft but unwavering voice cut through her building anger like a sharp kunai. He had never used that tone of voice on her before. "Jiraiya knows more than you, but he doesn't know everything. And it will stay that way," Naruto finished with a pointed look at Jiraiya, who subtly nodded.

"-But!

-No. I'm sorry, Granny, but that's final. Maybe one day, but not now."

Naruto stood up. And slowly walked towards the door. When he reached it, he turned towards both older nins.

"-Can you heal me?

-What do you think?!" Anger was rising in her tone.

"-Will you heal me?

-I shouldn't."

Naruto smiled a little smile and left the room, closing the door softly.

Tsunade turned towards Jiraiya and exploded at him.

"-What the hell is going on?

-It's a long story, Hime.

-I've got time.

-It's not my story to tell.

-Oh, you'd better tell me, Jiraiya.

-No. I can't. And even if I could, I wouldn't.

-Why the hell not?!

-Because it is not my story to tell!

-It's Naruto!

-Exactly!

-Do you know how close he was to dying?! Whatever happened to his chakra system, he should not have survived it.

-And yet, he did. And he's walking and talking, and even instinctually channeled chakra despite it all.

-That doesn't make it okay! Just the pain alone should have knocked him out.

-No, I supposed it doesn't make it okay.

-So why aren't you telling me what is happening, you stubborn ass! It's Naruto we're talking about. Don't you dare keep things from me Jiraiya!

-I've been sworn, you pigheaded woman! I can't tell you anything! You wanna know what happened, take it up with Minato!"

Tsunade's eyes widened in shock and understanding. Then narrowed in suspicion.

"-He doesn't know, does he? Minato.

-I don't know what Naruto has told him or not. But trust me when I say that the kid has it under control. He knows more than we think and he's stronger than you know."

Tsunade glared at him. She had known Jiraiya for far too long not to notice he was hiding something. She didn't like that. Naruto was precious to her. He was like a nephew, a son almost. Although Tsunade had always loved the fact that his little sister was more inclined towards the medical field, there was just something about Naruto that had always reminded her of Nawaki and Dan.

Knowing she wouldn't get anything out of her old teammate, Tsunade finally relented and let herself collapse further in her chair, her voice a soft murmur when she spoke.

"-Did you see it? The sadness in his eyes when he looked at me. What happened to him, Jiraiya? Why is he hurting so much?

-He's been through a lot, Hime. More than you and I will ever know."

Tsunade startled a bit at that, looking at him. His face was closed off but pain was evident in his eyes. Her heart broke a little. She and Jiraiya had lived through more than their fair share of hardships and pain. Two wars, multiple losses and deaths, betrayal and their own longevity and power.

The pain she had seen in Naruto's eyes had almost made her stumble. It had been brief and masterfully hidden. But she had seen it. The sheer agony and longing flashing in those too-wise eyes had pierced right through her.

She remembered her sensei's eyes, tired of a too-long life. She remembered her great-uncle's eyes, a beautiful deep red that so often hid an ocean of regrets. Above all, she remembers her grand-father's eyes. How they would shine with unshed tears when he thought no one was looking. How they would be turned towards a past filled with losses and hopes and dreams that were long gone. How they would look into things she had never been able to see, beyond the world she could perceive.

She remembered fearing those eyes, fearing the distance she could see in them. She feared getting lost in them, falling into the unseen world only they could see, and never finding her way back.

Naruto's eyes, for the briefest moment, had been opened like an abyss, swallowing her into a world of pain.

Tsunade shivered and stood up. She ignored Jiraiya's questions as she quickly tidied her consultation room. She yelled at him to follow her, slamming the door open and stomping her way out.

"-Come on, you old fart! We've got shopping to do!

-Shopping? You know I hate shopping! Just take the kid with you, I'll be at the bathhouse!

-You're coming shopping, and that's final! We can't have a poker night without good sake, and you're buying!"

Stuttering and already lamenting the lost opportunity to go to the bathhouse, Jiraiya tried to keep as much of his dignity intact as possible as he was dragged through town by his fiery teammate. There was no getting out of this.

And, deep down, he could admit that a poker night with Tsunade and Naruto would be a good alternative to his research.