Naruto was startled to be falling through darkness. He was falling upwards, or rather downwards but head-first. This, although physically possible, was somehow odd because he didn't really expect it to happen. He thought it might have been something to do with severe blood-loss, but then realized that his blood-loss wasn't severe enough to send him into the bottomless pit of his consciousness.
As he looked down past his feet, which was actually upwards due to a nifty little thing called gravity, he realized where he was. He groaned.
"You goddamn fox!" He yelled at the eyes and blood-thirsty grin in front of him. He turned and found that the cage wasn't separating him from the beast. "Why are you on my side of the bars?"
On a closer observation, Naruto realized that it was actually himself that had crossed the cage bars. He turned to look around and realized that he wasn't actually falling, but floating in a very awkward position.
The fox snapped its jaws, "You were visiting me for tea."
Naruto thought about this, then shook his head because he found something wrong with the fox's logic. "I'm not thirsty."
The blond boy then heard a faint scream. He listened closely. It was indeed, without a doubt, a scream. He turned to the source of the scream, which was behind him. After a while he came to the conclusion that no matter how much he turned or twisted the scream would always stay behind him, in the back of his head, in the subconscious thoughts of his mind.
"Who is that?" whispered Naruto.
The scream was becoming quieter, drifting into silence. This made the boy nervous because he recognized the scream as being Hinata's.
He focused. Then unfocused. Then focused some more, trying to pinpoint Hinata's direction. She was awakening Naruto, allowing him to step into the domain of his conscious thought. He squeezed past the Kyubi that was occupying his mind and tried to push the beast away.
He could hear Hinata more clearly now. She was calling out to him. He strained his will on pushing through.
Hinata ran up to Naruto, bearing the heat of the red entity gushing out of him like a violent flame. She hugged him, then kissed him, then could no longer recognize his eyes.
She activated Byakugan and started plugging the chakra holes on his body. She couldn't get enough of them before the Kyubi's tail swept her off her feet.
"Naruto!" she called out, "Snap out of it!"
Naruto was so close to gaining control again that he could see Hinata once before he was pushed back again.
Then he felt a warm touch. He grabbed onto it to help him through.
His hopeless struggle seemed to disappear as he got engulfed in violet flames. He cut through the Kyubi like katana through waterfall. He fell over when he regained complete consciousness, breathing heavily.
Hinata ran up to him, hugged him, kissed him, and recognized his eyes when he reopened them. "Don't scare me like that again."
Naruto hugged her back and promised that he wouldn't let the Kyubi hurt her again.
Hinata looked back at the unconscious Kiba. "Why's Kiba-kun here?"
Naruto sat up and looked at Kiba, "He fought me because you chose me over him."
"Kiba?" exclaimed Hinata, "That's impossible! We were just friends!"
"Are you sure that's how he felt?" asked Naruto, he looked back down at Kiba, "He was pretty envious of me." He looked up at Hinata again, "And I can see why he would be."
Hinata smiled, "What are you doing here anyways?"
"I was in the middle of the case about dogs when..." He realized something and his eyes widened, "Kiyoshi!"
If crucification involved breaking every limb, stuffing gravel and rocks down the victim's throat, and making multiple deep bloody cuts across the body in all directions, then Kiyoshi was crucified in the most severe way.
Naruto ran up to Kiyoshi, and heard Hinata vomit behind him.
Kiyoshi was hanging upside-down off a cross, his arms and legs making sharp bends in ways they shouldn't be, and bloody mud slowly dripping out of his open mouth. He looked as if somebody had gutted him like a fish, but not completely. Severed muscles were loosely hanging out of his chest and arms, revealing several of the bones and ribs.
Naruto let the image sink in before he also vomited.
Kiyoshi twitched.
Naruto ran up to him and wiped blood off his face. "Hinata! I need your help!"
Hinata was too traumatized to move. She sat on her knees, tears pouring down her pale face.
Naruto cut the dirty ropes that tied Kiyoshi to the cross and the boy fell to the ground.
"Hinata!" exclaimed Naruto, "Go get Sakura!"
Hinata was shaking, but nodded slightly. She slowly got up and turned around. Before she was able to move, Kakashi put his hand on her shoulder.
"It's alright, Hinata," he said, "Calm down."
Naruto ran up to Kakashi, "We have to get him to a hospital!"
Kakashi didn't move an inch, "Naruto, sometimes people die."
"He's not dead! He still has a pulse!"
Kakashi's eyes widened. Chills came down his spine as Kiyoshi's corpse got up and limply stood like a puppeteer's doll. There was still dirt in his throat, his blood gushed out, and he fell to the ground when the bone in his leg snapped again. The boy got up again.
Kakashi rushed over to the boy and supported him over his shoulder. Kiyoshi was heavy. "Naruto!" he exclaimed, "Go get help from the hospital! I'll get him there as quickly as possible!"
Along with a team of skilled medic-nin, Sakura examined Kiyoshi, surprised by several things.
"Naruto," she said, "What the hell is he?"
Naruto nodded, "He's one tough son of a phoenix."
"Not that," said Sakura. "He should have been dead long ago, I'm guessing months ago."
"What do you mean?"
Sakura checked her charts again to make sure, then frowned at the boy, "Most of his organs are no longer functional. Furthermore, his bones were broken prior to this incident."
Naruto didn't understand. "How do you know that?"
"The two halves of a freshly broken bone have sharp ends. These sharp ends fit together to form the original full bone, and in time the bone heals, reforms."
"Yeah, so?"
"Kiyoshi's bones are shattered in many places, and in several of those places the sharp ends of the shards are rounded."
"How does that happen?"
"Kind of like the round rocks you find in an ocean," explained Sakura, "The rocks grind against each-other, and eventually the corners become rounded off. Several of Kiyoshi's bones that are broken can't even be healed anymore."
Naruto flinched at the thought, "Why does he still resemble a normal human?"
"His muscles are supporting the bones into place. They're kind of like slings that keep the bones from bending. Still, even the slightest movements prevent a bone from healing properly, and he's moved a lot."
"Scary," whispered Naruto.
Sakura looked at the chart again and frowned even more, "Another thing," she said, "I've run several tests, and they all confirm something that shouldn't be possible."
"That is..."
"Naruto," whispered Sakura, "Kiyoshi's cold-blooded."
Naruto chuckled, "What did you say?"
"He's not a homo-sapien," she repeated, "I even doubt that he's a mammal."
Naruto looked down at Kiyoshi, "Putting racism aside, how's he able to breathe?"
"He isn't," replied Sakura.
"Explain."
"I can't explain it," replied Sakura. "I've cleaned his lungs, but they were also damaged prior to the incident. He hasn't been able to use them to breathe for a while now."
Naruto shook his head, "I don't get it," he said, "You are a medic-nin, tell me how he was able to survive."
Sakura shrugged, "That's something I can't explain," she replied, "I don't know how to describe him other than a rag doll. Because that's what he is, a rag doll."
"No he isn't!" snapped Naruto.
"Yes I am," said Kiyoshi, startling his friends and the med-nin trying to operate on him. "I am only able to survive due to the strength of my spirit."
"How are you breathing?" asked Naruto, ignoring his comment. "How are you surviving?"
Kiyoshi sat up, ignoring the complaints and fuss coming from the medic-nin. "I call it the pore-breathing jutsu."
Naruto demanded that Kiyoshi explain everything at once, but Kiyoshi ignored him. He just limply stood up and put his clothes on before stepping out of the operating room. Pushing through the resistance of the medic-nin and Naruto, he managed to say only one word before someone cast a sleeping jutsu on him. The word was "Akane..."
He broke the jutsu two days later when nobody was attending him. He got up, dressed himself, and not feeling any better, he sneaked out of Konoha using the support of a wooden staff.
He traveled several days before reaching a familiar location. He stepped off the path into the woods, pushing past the growth. He walked for half an hour before he hit a genjutsu barrier. He dispelled it and fell to his knees when he saw what had happened to Akane's village.
He cursed god for keeping his eyes functional so that he was able to see his slaughtered home-town. He then thanked god for keeping his eyes functional so that he could mourn for the loss of Akane.