Naruto the younger was released from the hospital the same day he had been admitted. There was no hint of damage left from the Chidori, but he stayed bedridden in his room for a few days.
Sakura didn't know what to make of it. When he was awake, his eyes stayed half-lidded, and they rarely focused on anything in particular. They hadn't gotten much of an answer out of him so far as to what had happened.
To make matters worse, their time remaining in Suna was quickly running out. Whether Naruto recovered or not, and despite what they wanted, they would have to leave soon to join the other troops in the Lighting Country. The only people remaining here for him would be strangers. Yamato, Baki, and the Wind Daimyo would be the ones in charge of him then.
Sai sat down in the chair beside Sakura quietly. She glanced at him from her book and attempted a smile, but it never fully formed. Naruto was asleep on his back in his bed, head turned away from them.
"Has he woken up even once today?" Sai asked.
Sakura shook her head, biting her lower lip in worry.
Sai frowned. "Do you think..." he started hesitantly. "Could be possible Madara used Tsukuyomi on him?"
Sakura grimaced. She shut her book and gripped the edges of it. "I don't know. He is showing many of the symptoms, but part of what makes the recovery process so long is the physical damage to the chakra pathways caused by a heavy genjutsu like that." She flinched. "But we can't forget, it's... undeniable that he was hit with Sasuke's Chidori."
"It may not have really been him. Madara could be trying to trick us. Sasuke did say he would fight Naruto to the death, but do you really think he'd bother with the younger version? It wouldn't be a challenge for him."
"You're right..." Sakura said slowly. "But I'm not sure we should be relieved if it wasn't really Sasuke. Why would Madara bother doing this if he already had Naruto in his clutches? Why would he go through the trouble of traumatizing and then punching a hole through him if he's only interested in the Kyuubi?"
"Until Naruto tells us what happened, all we can do is guess."
Sakura buried her face in her hands. "Kakashi-sensei was right. We should have told him sooner. It still would have been bad, but... we have no idea what he saw, and now... if it was anything like what Itachi showed you…"
Sai looked away. "I thought it was the right thing, too. But it was naive to think the chances of the enemy reaching him were so low. We let our feelings cloud our judgement."
Sakura lowered her hands and curled them into fists on her lap. "It may be too late now, but I won't make that mistake again. And I don't know what Madara was trying to do, but he better hope we don't cross paths."
Sai laughed lightly. "I'm sure we'll get the chance for that when the war starts." he stood from his chair.
"What are Neji and Gaara doing?" Sakura asked him, turning in her chair to watch as he went toward the door.
"Negotiating, as usual," Sai said. "Ishida still wants to put suppression seals on Naruto until Yamato-taichou gets here."
Sakura stood, radiating fury in no time flat.
"Aha," Sai said nervously. "You know he can't really do anything. No one ever listens to him, not even the Daimyo."
"Maybe they'll tuck their tails and get out of here when all the strong shinobi leave," Sakura said furiously. "I don't even want to think about leaving Naruto with those guys around."
"Baki-san will do the best he can. Yamato-taichou will be here, too." Sai paused. "Are you coming to the meeting?"
Sakura slumped her shoulders. "I'm coming."
She followed Sai out the door and shut off the light. She cast another look at Naruto's back before closing the door softly behind them.
The room was dark when Naruto opened his eyes.
He wasn't completely unconscious as much as they thought, but he had been drifting in a half-asleep torpor most of the times he wasn't. Sometimes the conversations going on around him reached, and other times they did not. He heard snatches of the outside world as if from far away.
Sometimes he felt a hand on his forehead or pushing a stray lock of hair from his face. Sometimes he heard people saying his name, which was usually soft and friendly, but other times came to him in a low, sinister whisper. It was difficult to tell what was real and what was not. He had to untangle the knots his mind carefully and slowly. If he thought too hard about anything or examined his his feelings too closely, the hissing, stabbing voice would come back and threaten to rush over him, spilling boiling anger and helplessness into his veins.
After a while he realized it wasn't Madara's voice tormenting him anymore, but another.
The way things are going, they'll lock you up the moment they get the chance. Are you just going to lay there and let it happen?
He never answered it, normally. He was afraid to, after what happened at the hospital. But the voice would not leave him alone. It had been trying to get his attention for over a day now.
Naruto closed his eyes and slowly opened them again on the other side of enormous barred gates, looking up with tired eyes at the vast silhouette vaguely outlined in the dim light.
"If they want to do it, they will," he said. His voice echoed around the chamber. "If I try to fight, it'll just make things worse. They already think I could be some kind of lab experiment put here to mess things up in the war… and I don't know if they're wrong."
The red eyes high up above Naruto narrowed and bent down closer to him.
"If they're going to think that anyway, why not fight? We'll be stuck in this annoying world if you don't do something, idiot brat."
"World—I told you, we're in the future. It's not my fault you've been taking a nap this whole time, or whatever it is you've been doing."
A deep, low growl started up from deep in the darkness. Small ripples spread from the edges of the bars and washed over Naruto's feet. He watched the water lap over his toes impassively and then raised his head back up.
"What's the point going back, anyway?" he said in a barely audible voice. "I... I don't know what I'm supposed to do. If I go back and try to make everything how I want, I'd be doing the exact same thing as him. But I can't let everything happen the way it did, either. Besides, there are some things—things I couldn't, no matter how much I wanted to—"
"This container is suffocating me," the Kyuubi hissed. "I haven't been able to think clearly since we got here! If I stay in this prison, it is going to eat me alive! I couldn't give a damn what else you do, we are going to leave this crappy future, no matter who we have to claw through to do it."
"It won't work!" Naruto shouted back, clenching his fists. "No one's going to just let us go looking for the way home. And if I try to use your power, someone will get hurt, and that won't solve anything. Kakashi-sensei told me the seal nearly breaks in the future because I used it too much."
"Then go ahead and break it yourself," the Kyuubi growled so low that Naruto felt the vibrations in his chest. "If you do, you won't have to think anymore. You won't have to worry about anything. You can get everyone back for lying to you all this time."
Naruto took a step backward. Frothing, malicious chakra crept over the surface of the water toward him. It rolled and built up and formed itself into the giant head of the demon fox, bearing its teeth at him. Small tendrils of acidic energy wound up his legs and arms like steam, stinging the skin. Naruto stared into its eyes, his mind starting to go blissfully blank. The fox's head grinned, front legs forming, with claws ready to sink into their victim.
"NO!" Naruto shouted suddenly, pushing against the encroaching ill intent with all the force he could muster. It was surprisingly effective. The chakra construct in front of him exploded and melted into formless gunk that sank into the water and withdrew quickly behind the bars. The Kyuubi gave an unexpected, earsplitting roar of rage and pain.
Naruto gasped and splashed over to the bars to look in. The Kyuubi was writhing, agitating the water as he twisted and nipped at the dark black vines growing from nowhere at an unbelievable rate, wrapping themselves around him and tightening painfully. Thorns sprouted and dug into his skin, eliciting more enraged roars.
"What is happening?" Naruto said, panicked. As his fear spiked, the vines aggressively pulled the fox down to the floor, shaking the entire room with the impact.
"You're the one controlling these things!" the Kyuubi spat out, tugging at the vines around his neck with long claws. "If you don't calm down, this place really will eat me."
Naruto watched, mouth slightly open, as the vines cruelly subjugated his long-time cellmate. His fear melted into mingling sympathy and guilt. He'd assumed the fox's complaints were just another ploy for control, but it looked like he was actually telling the truth.
"W-what should I do?" Naruto asked hesitantly.
"This body is a low-quality clone of the Shodai Hokage," the Kyuubi snarled, continuing to struggle with the plants. "It only attacks me when you resist the flow of my power. If you don't, it simply feeds off the energy, like earlier."
"So you're saying not to resist when you try to take me over? Yeah, I'd bet you like that." Naruto gave a snort.
"Argh! Just—shut up and relax before I rip you to shreds!"
"You're not being very convincing."
Nevertheless, Naruto took several deep breaths and tried to relax his mind. It was difficult with the fox's agitated energy swirling in the air—waiting, perhaps, for him to drop his guard so it could consume him again.
But even though he was frightened of the Kyuubi's power, the suggestion his body was some kind of freakish plant clone was even more disturbing. He'd heard the disquieted murmurs and speculations over the past few days.
What if it was true? What if he really was some kind of... creation? Madara had practically said as much.
A particularly vicious snarl from the Kyuubi brought Naruto's attention back to the task at hand. He couldn't get his mind to stay clear. Concentration had never been his strongest asset, and the jumbled thoughts and noise made it nearly impossible.
Naruto growled in frustration, a sound much less intimidating than the roars of struggle still coming from behind the bars. He opened his eyes.
Maybe they weren't on the best terms, but he didn't want to imagine what would happen if the fox got eaten by those things. So since the relaxation idea wasn't working, Naruto did what he did best, and rushed headlong into the situation without a defined plan.
Giving barely a pause at the edge of the bars, he ran through them into the fox's cell and grabbed one of the thick, thorn-ridden vines. He gave the vine an experimental tug, but had to jump back to avoid an angrily thrashing claw.
"What do you think you're doing, idiot brat? Do you ever listen to anything?"
"Your plan wasn't working out, so I had to try something else!" Naruto shouted. "Taijuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
He remembered belatedly there was no guarantee jutsu would work in this strange internal space. To his relief, a battalion of shadow clones appeared and swarmed all over the fox.
Naruto grunted, tugging on the thickest vines around the Kyuubi's neck. They were keeping him tethered to the ground like a collar. "If these things really are made by me, then why can't I make them go away?"
"You're sitting on my head!" the Kyuubi growled in rage. "You should consider yourself fortunate I can't move, or I'd snap your little body in half."
"Just shut up already! I'm trying to help." Naruto drew a kunai from the pouch on his leg and tried to cut the vine, which was starting to solidify into a curved, root-like structure. He paused in his hacking and drew his hands away when he realized the vine was reacting to his touch. The living, squirming material became inanimate and solid. Naruto dug the blade into it with renewed determination.
"Guys! Touch the vines! If they stop moving, I think you can cut through them!" he called excitedly to his clones.
"Osu!"
"Okay, boss!"
"Hey, I think it's working!"
As the binds holding the Kyuubi started to crack and break, the fox stood and shook himself, snapping the brittle wooden chains and shaking off the hoards of bunshin.
"Whoa—!" Naruto pitched forward and rolled down the fox's shoulder, landing ungracefully on the floor with a splash.
He looked up from where he lay on his back, and the air whooshed out of him when the Kyuubi pressed a huge, clawed, hand-like paw on top of him. He was pinned helplessly, completely unable to move under its great weight. The fox lowered his bared teeth and turned one huge red eye to stare down at his host.
It occurred to Naruto that coming into the Kyuubi's cage might have been a little too reckless. The few times they had met so far, their interactions had been punctuated with a heavy, threatening sense of urgency. There was usually no time to be afraid until after the fact, when everything had settled down and there was enough space to sift through the blurred, frantic memories. Just like now. He had simply acted, forgetting how small and weak he was compared with the vast powers of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox—who, in fact, hated him.
But there must have been something severely wrong with his sense of self-preservation, because suddenly all he could think of was the same great and powerful Kyuubi yelling at him for sitting on its head, and scolding him for not listening, and a bubbling feeling of laughter welled up in Naruto's chest at the absurdity of it all.
He would have covered his mouth, but he couldn't move his arms. His face worked and tears pricked the corners of his eyes as the exaggeratedly menacing expression on the fox's face threatened to push him over the edge. He just couldn't help it. The laughter burst out of him all at once, sounding high-pitched and giddy.
"What are you laughing at?" the Kyuubi snarled incredulously, looking at him like he had a screw loose.
"I-I don't know!" Naruto gasped out as the pressure weighing him down increased, the laughs still spilling out of him in a strange staccato. "I guess I just—I think I'm relieved. I know we don't exactly like each other, but you're the only other person from my time around, and I forgot you were stuck here, too."
The fox paused, and lifted up his paw. Naruto blinked up at him in surprise.
"Listen well, brat," he rumbled. "I have no intention of being stuck in this time, especially if it means being manipulated by the likes of Uchiha Madara." He spat the name as if it was a curse. "I don't believe for a second he's given up on using us, even if this body prevents him from drawing me out. You need to hurry up and find whoever can undo this jutsu and send us back. It seems I can't do it for you."
Naruto, now freed, slowly got to his feet. "He said it's the Edo Tensei-zombie-whatever version of the guy who destroyed the entire village, and—and killed Ero-sennin. I can't just find somebody like that and ask for help. Besides, I have no idea what he looks like, and even Madara doesn't know where he is now. I don't even know where to start. And I can't leave this time knowing what Madara's plans are."
The Kyuubi gave a frustrated sigh. "Forget about Madara! Do you really think there's anything you can do to stop him? If you really care about it so much, the best thing you can do is go back and tell the people in our own time what he's planning. Leave things here to your older self and the others."
"My older self..." Naruto said, eyes wide with sudden realization. "Kyuubi! If there's an older version of me here, does that mean there's an older version of you, too?"
"Obviously. Though, four years hardly counts as 'older' for me. You're pretty slow, aren't you?"
Naruto reddened slightly, but continued. "I knew that, I just wasn't thinking about it that way. I mean, you're from my time, and you don't get what's going on in this time any better than I do."
"What's your point?"
"Is there any way you could... I don't know, help me find aniki and your older self? Sniff them out or something? We already know they're in the Lightning Country somewhere, so finding them might be easier than looking for some dead guy I don't know. They might know how to find him and how to fight him, if it comes to that. I'm sure they'd be willing to help, too." but Naruto frowned slightly.
"You don't look sure," the Kyuubi noted. He raised his head and looked around, as if listening. "I can feel the presence of my other self, but I can't feel clearly where it is coming from. Wherever they are, it must be somewhere that completely masks their chakra. It is only because of our special connection that I can feel them at all."
"So, can they feel us?"
"I don't know—a little, maybe. The same way I can. The barrier probably blocks sensing in either direction. If they were to leave the barrier, their location would be like a beacon to me, and vice versa." He snorted. "But I'm not so sure your older self will be of any help to us. They say you're something great now, but I haven't seen anything to back that up. A war is about to start, but where is he? And even I'm surprised your little Uchiha friend seems free to join Akatsuki."
Naruto stiffened and glared up at the fox. "There has to be more to it than that. I would never let Sasuke go along with people like them. Even if… he might have a reason for it."
"Aa, I'm sure there is more to it than that," the Kyuubi said in a patronizing tone. "It's possible the older you is being completely led on by everyone, too, or maybe he's just too afraid to to face him. I wouldn't blame him, after seeing what the kid did to you."
Naruto turned around sharply and walked back out between the bars. "You know, next time you think about talking to me, don't."
"Hey!" The Kyuubi slammed against the gate, making it rattle. "You might think it's harmless to stay here worrying about things that have nothing to do with you, but never forget how we got here in the first place. Everything has consequences, including—believe it or not—dangerous jutsu used on you by your enemy."
Naruto cut off the conversation with the mental equivalent of a door slam and opened his eyes in reality.
He made a face at the ceiling and sat up in bed. A quick glance around the room showed there was no one around—no one visible, anyway, he reminded himself. He didn't know how much the Wind Daimyo's paranoia had carried over into action over the past few days.
Naruto let out an annoyed grumble and rubbed his eyes. He felt sluggish. Even after laying around with nothing to do but think, his head still felt like it would could burst. Nothing had been resolved.
This complicated situation was a lot harder to figure out than anything in his previous life, where he at least knew what a friend was and what an enemy was. Naruto and the Kyuubi had never had a real conversation before. It was different from what he'd expected. It was strange to think about the fox seeing and commenting on things in his life, or having any kind of personality at all beyond the scary-evil-demon-ness.
The fox had been right on at least one point, though—nothing good would come of just laying around. Naruto threw back his covers and got out of bed. He stood there for a while, staring at the faint outline of the doorway in the darkness.
How was he supposed to face his friends? He didn't know what to feel about them. And they were probably going to ask what happened. He didn't want to lie, but he didn't want to tell them everything Madara had told him, either. But how else was he supposed to know if Madara had been telling the truth?
I'll worry about that later.
Naruto had heard Sai and Sakura leave to go to some kind of meeting. Maybe now was a good time to go around unnoticed.
Naruto pulled on his shoes and peeked out into the hallway. He had no idea what time of day it was, since this floor was underground and lit dimly with lamps, but everything seemed quiet.
He only made it a few steps toward the stairs when a man dressed in light armor appeared in front of him. The man unsheathed a sword that glowed with energy, but kept it lowered, not pointing directly at Naruto. He didn't seem like a Suna shinobi. Instead of a Suna hitai-ate, the swordsman's allegiance was marked by a red sash tied about his waist with the kanji for 'wind' embroidered on it.
"Going somewhere, Nine-tails?" he challenged.
"My name is Uzumaki Naruto," Naruto answered with a glare, body tensing for a fight. "And? Gaara told me I could go anywhere I want."
"If the Kazekage wasn't so sentimental—"
"Enough, that will do," a voice said from behind the swordsman.
They both shifted their attention to the Wind Daimyo walking toward them, flanked from behind by two other guards.
Naruto's heart leapt into his throat at the sight of him, more so than when he'd been stopped by the guard. He took a step backward, suddenly feeling very claustrophobic in the narrow hallway. He had no idea why he suddenly felt so uncomfortable. But the man's appearance in the hall now, when Naruto knew everyone else was at a meeting, made no sense whatsoever.
"What are you doing down here?" Naruto said, trying to not sound too rude, but failing. The samurai noticed, and pointed the chakra-laden sword at him.
But Yamaguchi just chuckled and walked closer, holding up his hand to stay the guard. The swordsman reluctantly sheathed his sword and stepped to the side, but his hand stayed resting near the hilt and his suspicious gaze never left Naruto for an instant.
"There is no need to be alarmed," Yamaguchi said with a smile that crinkled the edges of his squinted eyes. "Actually, I have been down here once a day since that unfortunate incident, but you must not have noticed. I came to see how you were recovering. It is a pleasant surprise to see you up and awake, I must say."
"But why?" Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Why would the most important person in the Wind Country bother to come see me?" I thought you hate me, he added silently. His scowl probably gave it away.
"You underestimate your own importance," Yamaguchi replied in a kind but slightly condescending way, as if trying to soothe his self-esteem. "After all, I would have to do a great deal more than simply exist in order to instigate a world war."
Naruto didn't really know what to say to that, so he didn't answer at all.
"I assume you're looking for your friends? I can show you where they are. They will be relieved to see you are awake." he gestured toward the stairs.
Naruto felt uneasy again. He did want to find them, but now that the daimyo suggested it himself, it was a slightly less appealing idea. He looked up at Yamaguchi with a scowl. "And you don't mind hanging out with me with no one else around? No offense, but I doubt three of your guards would be much help if I decided to go all Kyuubi-berserk on you."
The guards tensed, and the original one stepped defiantly between Naruto and the daimyo, but the daimyo himself just laughed as if he'd heard a particularly witty joke.
"Tell me, Naruto-kun," he said, brushing the guard off to the side casually and stepping right up to him, dominating Naruto's field of vision with his wide frame. He looked down into his face seriously. "Are you hungry?"
"I—what?" Naruto blinked. The question was so completely out of nowhere that he wasn't sure he'd heard correctly.
"I said, are you hungry? From what I understand, you haven't eaten anything since arriving in Suna, and that was a week ago. You've been unconscious for most of it."
"Well, yeah, I am, now that you mention it," Naruto said slowly, confused. Actually, he realized, though he was pretty famished, it wasn't a week-without-food kind of famished.
"Interesting. I wonder if that is a phantom response generated by your mind, or if the adaptive abilities of the plant cells extend to imitating normal physiological functions. It has been made abundantly clear you at least have normal-appearing organs, whether their function is necessary or not… and somehow, you still have a heart that pumps blood." He pressed the pad of his thumb into the crook of Naruto's elbow from where blood was usually drawn. Naruto pulled away as if he'd been burned, glaring incredulously and wondering how severe the penalties might be if he decided to punch the Wind Daimyo in the face.
"I wonder…" the Daimyo continued softly. "How much damage it would take to detach your soul from that body, or if you would just keep regenerating."
"Is that some kind of threat?"
Yamaguchi just looked down at him and smiled. "I heard your friends saying they would let you eat as much ramen as you wanted when you woke up. Let's go tell them the good news." He turned and walked unhurriedly toward the stairs.