Click
He felt strangely painless.
Limbs were slightly numb and stiff.
Eyes blurred and head lolled slightly from side to side.
At this particular moment, Naruto's body was feeling quite strange.
Almost like it wasn't his.
He knew how ridiculous that sounded, but it was the only explanation he could think of for this weird feeling.
Click
He didn't remember anything from the previous night, only the feeling of utter sadness and depression that still lingered in his mind.
His mouth twitched uncontrollably as he lay there, he could feel his fingers moving back and forth spastically without his permission.
His back arched suddenly and both his legs shivered.
He was feeling strange indeed.
Click
When he woke up, he remembered staring directly into a sparse white ceiling.
From this and the overpowering smell of disinfectant, he pieced together that he must be at Konoha's general Hospital.
Shivering again, he tried to move his head sideways to look around the room he was stationed in.
Such a simple movement proved to be incredibly difficult, and he found himself using up all of his energy just turning it to the side to rest his face on the pillow.
Click
Focusing his eyes on a figure resting next to his bed, he finally found out where that annoying noise was coming from.
Sitting on a fold up chair, slouching and looking generally sluggish was the Sandaime Hokage.
He was staring listlessly at the ground and with his right hand, pulling and pushing a lid off of a biro pen.
He continued his mantra like he had been doing it for hours, which he probably had.
Click
"Ji-ji?" Naruto barely heard his own voice it was so quiet, but almost as if an alarm went off, the Hokage stood up so fast the chair he was sitting on was knocked backwards.
"Naruto! How are you feeling?" he asked this without taking a breath and his face was taught with worry.
Taking a few awkward seconds to think, Naruto answered the question as if he was unsure himself.
"I feel… weird."
The Hokage nodded grimly at the statement and paced the floor, making his way to the end of the bed.
He stood there for what felt like a few minutes before speaking up again.
" I have to tell you something that will upset you greatly Naruto."
After hearing this, a peculiar feeling started to rise from the bottom of his stomach, a feeling he couldn't quite explain.
Slightly nervous about what would upset him so much, he hesitantly motioned for him to carry on.
The Hokage took a deep breath, shifted slightly to lean on one foot, and then stared directly into Naruto's eyes.
"You are… very sick Naruto."
A feeling of dread dawned upon him, and he suddenly found it quite hard to breath.
Clutching the bed sheets tightly, he gathered up the will to speak.
"Am I… going to die?"
The Hokage jumped slightly in surprise, but again quickly put on a serious face.
"No Naruto, you're not going to die.
But, you have to understand, with this sickness comes the inability to perform missions and go out with your team."
Naruto's eyes widened, and he looked as if he knew where this was going.
"I'm sorry Naruto, but I'm afraid I'll have to revoke your rank as Shinobi."
…
(Three Hours earlier)
The Hokage had just left the meeting room, walking in a swift pace to make it to the Hospital Naruto was staying at.
Upon arriving the first thing he did was sort out Naruto's personal doctor, Hoshino-san.
Hoshino was incredibly inept with seals and general chakra balances within the human body.
This automatically made him the most likely candidate as Naruto's doctor, since if anything was wrong with the Kyuubi, the seal on the young boys stomach would indicate it.
So far he had done his job very well, he wasn't the type to be prejudice and treated Naruto as he would any other patient.
The Hokage was always thankful for this.
Reaching Hoshino's office, he didn't bother to knock as he rushed in and met Hoshino-san sitting in his chair facing the door.
" I was wondering when you'd arrive" he replied in a knowing tone.
"You're here to ask me about Naruto's condition correct?"
The Hokage nodded briefly at the younger man and sat down on the chair in front of the desk.
Coughing slightly to clear his throat, Hoshino began retelling the story.
"As you know, last night Naruto's body seized up and he went through horrific pain until he eventually fell unconscious.
By the time he was at the Hospital and awake, the pain was too much for him to even hear me speak.
Pain like that doesn't just pop up out of nowhere, so I knew it had to do with the Kyuubi in some way or another."
The Hokage nodded his agreement and let him carry on.
"When he was finally unconscious again, I looked over the seal on his stomach to find any abnormalities.
What I actually found was intriguing to say the least.
It looks like the previous Hokage installed a safety measure."
"A safety measure?"
"Yes, that's right.
Apparently when on his mission in wave, the slight break of the seal was worse then we thought."
At hearing this, the Sandaime's face screwed up in displeasure.
" From looking at the seal, it tells me that the Kyuubi was actually very close to breaking free from his cage.
The only reason it didn't go further was the advancement of the seal the Yondaime created at the last minute.
This made it so that if Naruto was ever in real danger of the Kyuubi escaping, it would fuse them together."
The shock on the Sandaime's face was one rarely seen.
The Kyuubi would have escaped? So easily?
He couldn't believe it.
"Wait, what exactly do you mean by fused?"
Hoshino stared at the Hokage for a few seconds, then sighed as if the exhaustion was starting to creep on him.
"It means that all of Kyuubi's chakra has replaced Naruto's chakra, and with it superhman abilities.
This also means that Kyuubi's soul is in essence, destroyed.
The bad part to all of this is the immortality that comes with these powerful abilites.
The life span of the Kyuubi is something well beyond our comprehension, it could take years before we figure out a way to overcome it."
Sarutobi relaxed his face and went into deep thought.
There was a huge possibility that Naruto would have to live longer than he could possibly comprehend.
And since he doesn't age from this point on being in a team would certainly be problematic.
Hoshino who grunted to get his attention interrupted him.
"If you think about this loosely, Hokage-sama, you could say Naruto is no longer a jinchuriki. He is a new Bijuu. "
…
Naruto lay there taking in all the information.
He wasn't a ninja anymore. He couldn't fulfil his dream.
His nindo.
He was nothing without his shinobi rank.
A tear made its way slowly down his face. He didn't know how to express all these emotions in one go.
Would this mean he wouldn't be able to see his team anymore?
After all, they only saw him anyway because they had a reason to.
Now, he doubted they would even bother to visit him in the hospital.
For the second time in his short life, he felt truly, deeply and utterly lonely.
'No' he thought 'I need to think positively'
At least he wasn't going to die, and he had Ji-ji right? He would always come to see him and look after him.
At least he had someone.
He was brought out of his thoughts by a creak of the door to his right.
Looking up he saw it was once again the old man who had come to visit him.
"How are you doing Naruto?"
The question seemed to be quite ridiculous given the situation, but at least he was worrying about him.
"I'm managing"
The Hokage smiled and relaxed his standing position.
"Good. I have a few things I need to get out of the way first.
I asked the Doctor if I could the one to explain things to you."
Explain?
"You mean about my condition?"
"Yes that's right.
The condition you have is very rare, so it hasn't really got a name yet.
But your body will be very stiff and hard to move, you'll have to go through therapy to be able to move freely again.
We have to do blood samples regularly and simple check ups every so often.
I would recommend you stay at the rehabilitation centre until you're able to move to go outside again"
As he registered the sentence, a daunting thought came to him and he started sweating.
"Do you mean, I won't be able to go out anywhere? I'll have to stay inside a centre until I'm all better?"
Sarutobi looked sympathetic but answered truthfully.
"I would think so, Naruto."
The young boy gulped and struggled to sit up.
Why was everything so damn hard?
"…How long? How many months?"
…
The silence form the Hokage told him it wasn't as short as he would hope.
After thinking how to answer this carefully, the Hokage decided to just tell him straight out.
He should get to know how long he'd be trapped in their right?
"About 5 years."
…
Knock
Waiting for approval, he stood silently with his hands linked behind his back
"Enter"
Holding the bronze handle on the door, Kakashi turned it slowly and pushed the door open wide, revealing the Hokage's office.
He had come to ask about Naruto, after all finding him unconscious and impossible to wake had been very worrying.
Standing in front of the desk, he was about to speak when the Hokage did it for him.
"I know why you're here Kakashi, at least you've saved me the trouble of calling for you."
Slightly taken aback, he merely stood there waiting for the Hokage's explanation.
The older man looked into Kakashi's eyes.
"I'm having Naruto removed from your team."
Almost jumping at the statement, Kakashi didn't know how to react to the sudden news.
"Wha- Why? Please tell me you're reasoning Hokage-sama!"
Sarutobi's face creased in sadness and looked at the floor, as if he would start crying
"Naruto has a terrible illness. There's no way he can carry on being a shinobi."
Kakashi had no words to express his shock, just staring wide-eyed at his leader before him.
It took a few minutes before either spoke again.
"How bad is it Hokage-sama?"
For the Hokage to be acting like this, it certainly couldn't be something easily overcome.
The Hokage put his hand to his face and leaned on the desk.
"He… can't even stand up on his own, let alone walk.
Something happened to his body that will make his muscles unusable for some period of time."
Of course he left out the fact that all the muscles were practically re-grown and he needed to learn how to use them all over again.
Kakashi stood there in silence not knowing how to react.
Naruto's whole life was focused on being a great ninja, having that dream taken away, how must he feel?
They weren't even teammates anymore.
'I'll need to visit him later'
"Hokage-sama, is Naruto at the hospital right now?"
The Hokage shook his head and pointed out his window.
"He'll be living in the rehabilitation centre north from here until he can walk again.
It'll take about 5 years so he won't be going out for a while, make sure you visit him often."
…
A/N this chapter was mainly just focused on characters reactions and explanations.
Hope its not too boring, I'll update as soon as possible.
Love
MrsKasoogi