Heart of the Matter

Chapter four

Sakura sat in the waiting room, nervously wringing her hands. Awaiting news on her friend and teammate, Sakura was afraid for him, afraid that they were going to lose him. In fact she couldn't get his pale face out of her mind. She had never before seen Naruto so sick. She couldn't imagine life without her friend if the worst ever came to pass. Feeling a sick feeling in her stomach, Sakura moaned softly and laid her head on her knees. She was going to be sick if she kept worrying like this. Feeling a hand on her shoulder Sakura looked up to see Kakashi's one eye staring worriedly at her.

"I'm okay Sensei" she said "just worried"

"More likely making yourself sick" Sasuke said wondering over from his place on the wall.

"Naruto will be alright" Kakashi said "nothing keeps him down for long." Literally Sakura thought why isn't the fox healing him, Naruto shouldn't even be here right now.

"Naruto shouldn't even be here right now" Sakura voiced her thoughts "the fox should be healing him and he's not."

"Hokage-Sama will find an answer" Kakashi answered though the thought also bothered him. "You know she is a very impressive medic Nin"

Sakura sighed and sat back up, she was glad to have her friends here, the waiting was really starting to get to her.

"I wonder what Naruto did to make that villager so mad?" Sakura wondered out loud and Sasuke scowled. He hated how Naruto was treated for essentially protecting the villagers.

"Nothing probably" Sasuke replied "it seems he doesn't have to do anything to make them hate him."

"I hope he's in jail for a long time" Sakura muttered feeling her anger grow again.

"If Lady Tsunade has her way he will be" Kakashi stated. He wished he had gotten there sooner, in order to beat some sense into the man.

"Has anybody noticed Naruto has been sick lately?" Sakura asked.

"Of course" Sasuke said "he's been a bit off in training, he gets winded pretty easily."

"Before all this happened" Sakura said "when has he ever been sick?"

"You have a point" Sasuke said frowning he knew she was thinking of the fox and its healing powers again. He couldn't deny the thought was bothering him too. The fox should be healing but it's not.

"Can fox's get sick?" Sakura wondered out loud.

"I'm sure regular fox's can, not spirit demons" Kakashi said "it seems as if something is suppressing the demon somehow."

After that Sakura drifted into silence as she tried not to give into her fears. She hoped it wasn't too late for her friend. They sat in silence for ten minutes before an "How troublesome" brought them out.

"Shikamaru" Sakura was surprised to see the lazy ninja enter the waiting room. "What are you doing here?"

"Heard Naruto was brought in and wanted to see how he was doing" he stated in a bored tone.

"We haven't heard anything yet" Iruka said anybody could tell Naruto's former sensei had been crying.

"How troublesome" Shikamaru muttered before taking a seat beside Ino and Choji who was silently munching on some chips. Neji was there also sitting beside the Hinata who had yet to utter any words.

"Everything's troublesome to you" Sasuke said with a slight smirk on his face.

Meanwhile back in the treatment room, Tsunade had discovered that Naruto's heart was very badly damaged and was starting to fail.

"What I don't understand" Tsunade muttered sending another blast of healing chakra into his system "is why the stupid fox isn't healing this damage; it would be very easy too." As she was healing she noticed none of the chakra she was sending in was affecting the damaged heart in the slightest.

"Get me Neji Hyuga" Tsunade ordered the worried Shizune that stood behind her. "Something's going on and I want to find out what" Shizune nodded and turned and left the room. Tsunade sighed and ran her fingers through Naruto's hair.

"Why aren't you healing brat?" she murmured "at the rate your going, you only have a few more weeks to live, unless we can get the fox to heal you again." She swallowed the lump in her throat, she didn't like to think that this time next month unless they figured something out, Naruto wouldn't be alive. Tsunade refused to let him die, if it was the last thing she done, she would save him. She refused to let the boy she had come to love to die; she was a Sannin for crying out loud. While waiting for Shizune to return, Tsunade got busy working on the injuries that had been inflicted with this latest beating. Tsunade didn't understand why Naruto just put up with it, if it was her whoever was doing the beating would be in much worse shape then they started in. sighing quietly, Tsunade continued working, but with each broken rib she wrapped the angrier she got. No one had the right to hurt her idiot, and if she had her way, the villager would be severely punished. She would make it a law no one could harm the boy not unless they wanted to spend the next couple of decades in prison.

As Shizune returned, Tsunade was placing an oxygen mask over Naruto's mouth and nose. She had noticed that Naruto was beginning to have trouble breathing. And she hoped the oxygen would help the overworking heart.

Neji was surprised at the sight of a panting, unconscious Naruto lying on the table before him. Neji hadn't been expecting Naruto to be so bad off.

"What happened to him?" Neji asked, concern bleeding into his voice. He had never seen Naruto so still in his life and unknown to everyone else, it scared him.

"His heart is failing him" Tsunade said "in short he is dying."

"Why isn't the fox healing him" Neji asked after all it wasn't secret that Naruto had fast recuperating powers.

"That's what I want to know" Tsunade replied "nothing I am doing is helping, which is strange." Tsunade walked over to the sink and wet down a small towel and went back to Naruto's bedside and placed it on his sweat drenched forehead.

"What do you want me to do?" Neji asked, willing to do whatever it took to help improve his friend's chance of survival.

"I need you to use Byakugan and see what is going on" Tsunade replied, hoping this would answer at least some of her questions.

"I'm on it" Neji replied turning his eyes on and looking towards Naruto. He noticed immediately that the fox's chakra had been suppressed to the point that it barely even registered with his eyes. What was worse was it was Naruto's own chakra that was causing the damage to Naruto's heart.

"It doesn't make sense that the damage to his heart is not responding to your healing chakra" Neji muttered "being the kind of medic you are you should have been able to heal this very easily." The longer he stared at the chakra Neji sensed that there was something foreign in the chakra that had a metallic property that appeared to be blocking Naruto's chakra points and was forcing his chakra towards his heart which is what was causing the heart damage, he didn't know what it was. Perhaps this was the reason Naruto's body was being harmed by his own chakra.

"What's going on with the fox's chakra?" Tsunade asked, fearing for the blond's life.

"There is some kind of seal suppressing it, one I have never seen before" Neji replied turning the Byakugan off. "His own chakra is working against him and it's what is causing his heart to fail."

"Why am I unable to heal it then?" Tsunade thought out loud.

"I think you might want to ask the villager who attacked Naruto in the first place" Neji suggested it wasn't by accident that whatever this was was floating around in Naruto's chakra. Tsunade frowned what did the villager have anything to do with Naruto's current condition.

"There is a foreign substance in his chakra stream and its blocking all his chakra points forcing them to go towards his heart." Neji said "whatever it is didn't get there by accident." Tsunade frowned again, she had never heard of something like this before, and therefore didn't know how to heal it.

"How does a villager know how to do something like this" Tsunade muttered the whole process sounded like it would be on the difficult side to accomplish.

"I don't think he is a villager and I certainly don't think he is from Konoha." Neji said. This situation was getting more complicated by the minute.

AN

sorry it took so long to update, I was figuring out how to make this chapter make sense and to me it does but if you have any questions let me know thanks for reading. enjoy and please review.