Naruto, several days after Kiyoshi's misfortune, decided to pay the teen a visit in the hospital. He walked into the room, half-expecting Kiyoshi to have run away. Kiyoshi was still in bed, tied up as before, in the same position as before, and no improvement in condition than before. None of his cuts were showing any signs of healing up.
Naruto came up with a dreadful thought and tried to shake Kiyoshi awake.
Kiyoshi's head bobbed and drool dripped on the pillow. Naruto was rather disgusted to find himself touching the warm fluid, but it was better than being mournful from touching the drool were it cold. Kiyoshi was alive, and still asleep.
Naruto sighed and sat down on a chair. "Hokage..." He thought, "What is a Hokage?"
Kiyoshi woke up and decided to startle Naruto by asking him "Have you come up with an answer?"
Naruto decided to not be startled and answer the question. "No. I mean, not really."
Kiyoshi decided to see where Naruto's train of thought went, so he said, "What have you gotten so far?"
"Well," said Naruto, and decided to answer again. "A Hokage is a leader, that much is obvious."
Kiyoshi decided to agree.
"But a leader is nothing without leadership qualities," said Naruto, and decided to stop deciding and get to the point. "I guess a Hokage is supposed to be there to catch people when they fall."
"You're on the right track," said Kiyoshi.
"That's all I've got."
Kiyoshi was disappointed to find Naruto's reasoning to be so narrow-minded (and he was also disappointed to have the match of decision-making cut short). Naruto, Kiyoshi realized, understood what a 'Hokage' meant deep down, but was unable to put his feelings into words.
The two teens remained quiet for a while, Kiyoshi enjoying his moment of awkward silence. The silence was interrupted when Hinata walked into the room. "Hey, Kiyoshi-kun."
Kiyoshi looked up at Hinata, "Welcome."
Hinata pulled up a chair and put a basket she had brought with her on a table. "I thought I might cheer you up with some home-baked apple pie," said Hinata "You've been all gloomy and sad lately."
Naruto, just then, realized that Hinata was living in a world outside Kiyoshi and Naruto. He felt guilt grabbing him in a tight headlock, feeling torn apart. On one hand he'd keep nothing hidden from Hinata, show her the world that they were tied up in, thus putting her in danger of the ugly side of life. And on the other hand, he could spare her the worries and dangers of Kiyoshi's world, but that meant keeping her in the dark, which felt no better than lying to her.
Naruto glanced at Kiyoshi, who was saddened by Hinata's careless words. Kiyoshi looked up and met Naruto's gaze. Naruto's questioning eyes demanded an answer from Kiyoshi, the eyes demanded guidance.
Kiyoshi couldn't take it anymore, "Why the hell are you asking me?" he yelled, "Decide on your own! She's your girlfriend, not mine!"
Kiyoshi's seemingly random spouting startled Hinata and she started looking back and forth between the two boys. "What's going on?" she asked.
Naruto sighed, then looked over at Hinata. He froze, afraid of the consequences that would come with revealing the built-up secret. Then he spoke. He spoke as much truth as he knew. He told her about Kiyoshi's clan. He told her about the renegade beasts that were once the teen's clan. He told her about the massacre that happened several days beforehand. He told her about all the dangers and horrors of the ugly site of life.
Hinata listened attentively, each word pulling mixed emotions of anger, sadness and relief from deep down. By the time Naruto was done talking Hinata was in tears.
Naruto couldn't bring himself to wrap his hands around Hinata. He couldn't comfort her. He was sitting on his chair in a slouched position, head down, eyes closed.
Eventually Naruto gathered the nerve to look up at Hinata and find the unexpected.
She was smiling.
She hugged him and he felt her tears on his neck. He allowed himself to hug her back, unsure as to what had just happened.
"Thank you, Naruto," she said, "Thank you for not keeping me out of the loop. And thank you for believing in my strength."
Naruto snapped and let go. He'd forgotten how strong Hinata was. He had forgotten how powerful they were side-by-side. He let go of the valve that kept his tears from gushing out.
A while went by before they realized that they were in Kiyoshi's hospital room. The couple looked at him.
Kiyoshi was long asleep and unaware of the happenings around him. He wasn't dreaming. He was an undead, and the undead do not dream.
"I guess," said Hinata, "I shouldn't have told him that he needed to cheer up. That was very inconsiderate of me."
"Hush, you didn't know." replied Naruto, "He'll get over it. Eventually he'll feel the need to see Hikari again."
"Being unable to speak to her must be painful and heavy. I couldn't imagine losing you," said Hinata, "It'd be unbearable."
Naruto looked at Kiyoshi again, "I don't think he's bearing it," he replied, "He seems to have given up altogether."
"How so?"
"Have you seen him sleep? Such deep sleep can only mean that he's sleeping through darkness, not dreaming anything. It's the same as being dead."
Hinata also looked down at Kiyoshi, "Perhaps he needs to rest in peace for a while."
Ino sat in a shade, looking up at the sky. Kakashi was passed out, resting not too far off. She was tired of thinking, so she was considering going home, taking a warm bath, and going to bed.
She got up and started walking. After taking several steps she caught sight of a shrine, with numerous people attending a ceremony.
She gasped when realizing that she'd forgotten something very important. She said "Oh my god" and ran off.
Kakashi woke up later on to find himself caught a cold from lying on the cold Autumn ground. He sneezed and walked off.
Sakura stepped out a door. She was now outside. The inside that was behind the door belonged to a boy she'd met more than once, and under more than one circumstance. She was cheery and in an overall a good mood because the boy, under each of the circumstances of their encounters, was hot, and because their encounters were mostly dates. This was the end of one of those memorable dates.
She hummed as she danced down the paved road. She was hoping that it would start raining so that she could express her joy by breaking several copyright laws posted by the creators of 'singing in the rain', and possibly the noses of attourneys that would file the complaints and hand her the court orders for breaking those laws. This would lead Sakura into more problems, like being sued for assault and, perhaps, even manslaughter. Luckily it didn't rain, but she was still happy.
She felt her joy and pace slowly fade away as she skipped past a ceremony commemorating all those who lost their lives fighting the Kyubi. She whispered several words, five of them were vulgar curses, three of those swears had never been heard by the ears of mankind. She rushed down the street, remembering something she'd forgotten with all the chaos happening around Konoha.
People flew and flipped through the air as Sakura pushed and tackled her way through the crowd, looking for a store.
That night everyone slept tightly, like the loss of tide before a Tsunami. Even the senators, who were secretly keeping constant tabs on Naruto, were in deep slumber. Kiyoshi was the only one awake, because he was the only one who knew what was coming. He couldn't sleep. The next time he'd fall asleep would be his last.
He felt too restrained to think properly. He felt trapped. He twisted his wrist and tore the leather handcuff off. He kept ripping the leather belts off himself, but he still felt trapped. He lay in his bed, twisting and turning.
Hours passed before he finally got up and walked out of his room. He couldn't take it. Throwing everything away was too ubearable, he wasn't strong enough to do it. He felt the only way to actually fight the beasts was to become a beast himself. He soon realized that in order to become as powerful as the beasts, was to throw away everything he'd ever cared for.
Throw everything away to save everything. It felt too unfair that the universe had suddenly turned all its laws of karma against him. It was unfair that evil had it so easy. All evil had to do to become powerful was do more evil, cause more pain to others. Grow by doing. He knew he was no saint. He knew he wasn't an avatar of goodness. But having no way out, no way to save his friends without first destroying them, he still couldn't sacrifice them. This was a law of the universe under which all evil basked in.
Kiyoshi came up to a vending machine. He slammed it to get a free drink. The slam of fist on machinery woke up a nurse that was sleeping not too far off. She rushed to the source of the disturbance, and gasped to find Kiyoshi drinking a warm beverage beside a fizzing, then smoking vending machine.
"How'd you get out?" she exclaimed.
Kiyoshi put his index finger to his lips, and said "Shh... there are people sleeping."
The nurse didn't know whether to calm down or take his words as a threat and scream. She slowly backed away just in case Kiyoshi was actually dangerous enough to have earned the bondage of leather belts.
Kiyoshi simply turned around and walked back into his room.
The nurse ran up and peeked through the doorframe. Kiyoshi lay in the bedsheets as before, but the belts weren't binding him.
Kiyoshi kept wondering what'd happen next. He knew all too well the kind of enemy he was facing. A ruthless swarm of unstoppable beasts that would rip through Konoha without the need of slightest effort. He knew that they'd come and do it too.
His next series of thoughts were a bunch of hopeless battle plans. He snapped out of his contemplations and chuckled at his own stupidity. The beasts would be able to turn ethereal, and make Konoha turn itself over and inside-out with presence alone.
"Umm..." said the nurse in a hushed voice.
Kiyoshi turned to her. She was still peeking through the doorframe, afraid of entering. "Who are you?" he said.
"How mean..." said the nurse, and slowly walked into the room. "I came to tend to you several times."
"Oh, right..." remembered Kiyoshi, "You're the one who took my words of wisdom as words of mental instability."
"I'd hardly call that wisdom," she said, "You just said a several random words without any real explanation."
"Whatever," said Kiyoshi and turned away.
"Um," interrupted the girl again.
"What is it?"
The girl hesitated, then asked, "Why are you still here?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, you're probably healthy enough to leave."
Kiyoshi thought about this for a moment, then replied, "You really think so?"
The girl failed to catch the sarcasm, "If you were able to free yourself, then there's no doubt."
"I've got nowhere I want to be right now."
"Don't you have family?"
The words hit Kiyoshi like a rock. He didn't know how to answer. He simply got up and walked past the girl without answering her, picked up his clothes, and walked out the door for the second and last time that night.
Naruto woke up from a knock on his door. He got up, rubbing his eyes.
He opened the door, fingering a shuriken that he thought he was unlikely to need. He was half-correct. The shuriken would be useless.
Kiyoshi was leaning on the frame of the door. He held onto his stomach which was, along with many other parts of his body, bleeding.
"Kiyoshi! What happened?" exclaimed Naruto, and gave the boy a shoulder for support.
Kiyoshi declined the shoulder and walked in on his own. "Nothing. I still haven't healed up properly."
"You've been bleeding for the past several days! Where do you get all the blood from?"
"I'm a vampire," explained Kiyoshi.
Naruto stood still for a moment, then shook his head, "What?"
"I'm just kidding, Naruto," chuckled Kiyoshi, and tears formed in his eyes as if they were a biological response to his own laughter, same way that people are prone to laugh when tickled. "I'm just... I'm just losing blood," he sobbed.
"Whoa," thought Naruto, "Something's seriously fucked up with him." He then remembered things Kiyoshi was dealing with, and left his reasoning at that. He once again gave Kiyoshi a supportive shoulder, this time without meeting resistance, and helped him limp over to a couch.
"Naruto," said Kiyoshi, quiet sobbing becoming quieter and fading, "I'm in no position to fight those things."
"I can see that," said Naruto, tying a piece of cloth around one of Kiyoshi's numerous gushing cuts, "And you're in no position to bleed all over my apartment, so stop it please.
"And you won't let me leave peacefully to meet my end," added Kiyoshi.
"Go fuck yourself, or go get drunk and wasted," replied Naruto, "But just don't go and kill yourself."
"Very well. But make no mistake. Konoha will be attacked, and it will get slaughtered like every other before it."
Naruto kept wrapping cloths. "We'll fight. We'll endure. And I won't let anyone die."
"Such conviction," thought Kiyoshi. And it was almost enough to bring Kiyoshi back into the game of the living.
"We won't give you up no matter what."
Kiyoshi sighed, "How will you do this?"
"What do you mean?"
"The only people that know about this threat are you, Hinata, and me. You don't have time to prepare. I doubt you even have enough time to warn everyone."
Naruto smirked. "I've already warned several people," he said, "We're training like no other."
"How many people?"
"Including myself?" asked Naruto, "Enough."
Kiyoshi gazed up at Naruto, "Naruto," he said, "A dozen people won't be enough."
"We'll be ready for them," said Naruto, "We've found a way to combat them."
"You're not fighting animals or humans!" exclaimed Kiyoshi, "You're not even fighting hybrids! You're fighting semi-gods! You're fighting Demons!"
"That's why knowledge and spirit are power," said Naruto. "That's what you told me I needed to become Hokage. Power through knowledge."
Kiyoshi froze, "It's not the same!"
"We shall see," said Naruto. "Now stop speaking. You're losing blood."
Kiyoshi calmed down and lay still. Then he spoke again, "The least I can do is help you prepare for them."