Heart of the Matter

Chapter 6

Sakura sat in the waiting room down the hall from Naruto's room. She felt bad walking out like she had; but it had been harder than she had expected to see her teammate and friend in that condition. What made the situation worse was not knowing what the poison was that was doing this to him.

Sakura took a deep breath and released it slowly. Naruto wouldn't want her to be worried about him, but considering the circumstances how could she not? She didn't even know if Naruto was going to live and that thought terrified her. It wasn't like she heard this kind of news all the time about her loudmouthed friend. He seemed almost invincible to her but obviously he wasn't, he was very much mortal.

"Naruto's going to be okay." a gentle voice said from beside her. "Things are looking bad for him right now, but we have to believe that he will pull through. Naruto wouldn't want us to think any differently." Iruka said as he sat down beside her.

"I didn't expect him to look that bad when I went to see him." Sakura said looking down at the floor. "I wasn't expecting him to be sitting up or anything but I didn't think he would be that bad."

"He does look bad." Iruka agreed "But he needs us to be there for him now more than ever."

"What if Ibiki can't extract a cure for Naruto?" Sakura asked "Will we have to watch him die."

"Ibiki will find a cure" Iruka said firmly "he has too."

"I love Naruto" Sakura admitted as she looked up and into Iruka's eyes "I'm scared I won't ever get to tell him how much he means to me."

"He deserves to be loved." Iruka smiled at Sakura "You shouldn't let the current circumstances stop you from telling him. You never know it might be what encourages him to keep fighting for a little bit longer."

"Naruto needs all the encouragement he can get." Kakashi said as he joined the two nin in the waiting room. Kakashi could tell both Sakura and Iruka had been crying, he could barely believe what was going on himself, otherwise he was sure that he would have been in tears. Losing one's teammate and student was never easy, and Kakashi felt like he should have known something had been going on with Naruto, the signs of illness had been there for sometime, he just hadn't paid any attention.

"I have a cure for him" Sasuke said as he came around the corner., he had thought about leaving but since his rival was in such bad shape he had decided to stick around to see what happened.

"What's that?" Kakashi asked Sasuke.

"I say we give him the heart of the guy that poisoned him."

"Unless Lady Tsunade can fix the poison problem, giving him a new heart won't do him much good. The chakra will only damage it too." Sakura pointed out, though she thought Sasuke's idea had merit.

"Probably would" Sasuke agreed "But it would buy him a little more time so that she could find a cure for the poison."

"That's an interesting idea but with Naruto being in the shape he is in, he might not survive the operation." Kakashi said thoughtfully "Still it's worth mentioning to Lady Tsunade,"

"It's the only thing I could think of that might buy us some time." Sasuke said "Time is something Naruto could use more of."

"That heart might not be compatible with Naruto's body" Sakura said "And if it's not, we might not have much time to find another one."

"We have to try, we're not going to let him go without exhausting all our options first." Sasuke said "He would do the same for us and you know it."

"No one is disputing that." Kakashi said "And for what it's worth your idea about the heart is a good one. One worth talking about."

Sasuke heaved a sigh and turned to glare out the window. He had a feeling that they wouldn't get anything out of the prisoner. Sasuke hoped that Naruto could keep holding on, because he might be waiting for a little while for a cure. Naruto still had to become the Hokage, he could hardly do that if he was dead. Sasuke might have lost sight of what truly mattered but Naruto had started to show him that there was more to life than revenge. Family and the friendships made were important and since Sasuke couldn't do anything about Itachi at the moment, he would place his focus firmly on helping Naruto. Even though it was starting to look like there wasn't much they could do for Naruto. Not until they could find out some answers anyway.

Sasuke was starting to wish he had been able to help with the interrogation. He knew why they wouldn't let him help of course, but Sasuke had to do something other than feeling helpless, it was a feeling that he did not like.

"I'm going to sit with Naruto" Sasuke muttered before turning and walking down the hallway. He didn't think his friend needed to be alone right now. Sasuke wasn't surprised to see Naruto was still fighting. He just hoped Naruto had enough strength to keep fighting.

"Dobe." Sasuke muttered as he watched Naruto struggle to inhale a breath. He couldn't help but think that Naruto somehow had grown worse in the few short hours that Sasuke had been away from the room.

"I think I have a temporary solution to your problem." Sasuke stated "I just need you to keep fighting. I know you're hurting right now and it would be easier to let go. Please don't." Sasuke felt tears in his eyes but he refused to let them fall. Naruto needed Sasuke to be strong for him right now. " You have friends who are fighting for you. So please don't give up, find a way to beat the pain."

Sasuke stopped talking knowing that somehow Naruto knew that he was there fighting for him. Sasuke really hoped his idea bought Naruto more time, he couldn't stand the thought of Naruto not being around to spar with. Since Sasuke had learned of the nine tailed fox and his healing capabilities, he had sort of thought Naruto as invincible. That clearly wasn't the truth, Naruto was very much mortal just like the rest of them.

Sasuke glanced at the clock on the wall. It had been four hours since Naruto had been brought in. Ibiki should know something by now, even if he had to torture the guy to get it. Sasuke hoped with all that was in him that they had learned about a cure. Because Sasuke didn't want to think about what would happen if they didn't.

Sitting down beside Naruto, Sasuke made himself comfortable, knowing he was going to be in for a long wait. He wasn't going to leave the dobe alone at a time like this, after Naruto had spent enough of his life alone.

Ibiki

Ibiki stared at the man in front of him, disgust filling him. He had heard what had happened with Naruto. The only thing he had learned in the last four hours was how the man had poisoned him. Naruto was known for his love of raman, and was known to have kept cabinets full at his apartment. It hadn't been that hard to stick a needle through the bottom of the cup. Whenever hot water was added, no trace of the poison could be found. No one would know to look for the poison because Naruto would never had suspected that someone would try to kill him with it.

No matter what technique Ibiki had tried, he couldn't get a solid answer out of the man. Ibiki was ready to strangle him, he knew Tsunade and the other medical nin's were waiting on the information that he could gather from the man. He hated to disappoint them, he knew that if he couldn't find what they were looking for, Naruto would die.

"Listen here, I don't think you understand what's at stake" Ibiki said from between clenched teeth. "A young man is going to die, if you don't give me what I need. Do you really want an innocent kid's blood on your hands?" Ibiki already knew the answer to that because if the man cared, he never would have done it to begin with. The man sneered at him but remained silently.

Grabbing a kunai, Ibiki stabbed it into the man's leg. He was done playing nice. He would find a cure for Naruto if it was the last thing he done.

"Torture me all you want" the man smirked "you're not going to find the answer you seek. By the time you do, it will be too late for that kid. He will be long dead before any cure is found."

"You better pray that's not true" Ibiki answered, glaring harder. If something didn't change he would have no choice but to report what he had found out, which wasn't much.

"Just give me the cure and the Hokage will go easy on you." Ibiki said, knowing very well how much Tsunade cared about Naruto and knew that no matter what, she would not go easy on the man sitting before him. "You poisoned the Hokage's favorite person, she can do whatever she wants to you, including putting you to death, I don't think you want to die over this do you?"

"There is no cure" the man said, looking Ibiki in the eye. "This was just a test to see what it could do."

"I hope that's not true." Ibiki growled, wanting to kill the man. "You better give the truth to me and give it to me now" he reached out and grabbed the man's wrist, bending it backwards until it snapped.

"There is no cure, the poison is being testing against enemy villages." the man growled, glaring at him. "You're village brat isn't the only one that has gotten the full dose."

"Why develop a poison with no cure? What good does it do you, if one of your own people get an accidental dose?"

"The no cure, only insures that there will be no accidental doses, only if you want to die will you get it." The man informed him, making Ibiki sick to his stomach. He hated that he had no good news to report to Lady Tsunade. The news he did have would break her heart.

"Lock him in a cell" Ibiki ordered "I have some news to report to the Hokage."

Back at the hospital

Sasuke was sitting beside Naruto when he heard the door open and Tsunade entered followed by the rest of team 7 and Iruka. Sasuke could tell from the look on her face, that whatever Ibiki had found out hadn't been good. Feeling his heart slam against his chest, as fear started to take over his body, he could barely force the question.

"What did he find out?" he almost didn't want to know the answer especially if the expression on Sakura's face was anything to go by.

"There is no cure, the man was testing the poison out for his village." Tsunade answered and Sasuke saw the tears in her eyes. Sasuke hadn't been expecting that answer and it took his breath away, as he turned to stare at his friend lying on the bed.

"What about my idea about the heart?" Sasuke asked feeling impatient, like time was somehow slipping away from them even faster. "Why can't we give him a new heart and you can have your people working on a cure?"

"Because we don't have time to find him a heart" Tsunade answered as she reached out and gently ran her fingers through Naruto's limp blonde hair. "I'm afraid at this time with his condition quickly deteriorating he only has a few hours left at most. So spend all the time with him that you can, because this time tomorrow he won't be here."

"Give him my heart" Sasuke demanded, his tone serious, drawing every eye in the room to him. "Give him my heart!"

Don't hate me for leaving it there! I am sorry it took so long to update, I hope to have the next chapter up much more quickly. I am also working on a deaf/partially blind Naruto story if anyone is interested in that one. I will post as soon as I get a couple chapters of it done. Thanks for reading and reviewing. Liz