Chapter Nine
"Yamato, handle Zetsu! Sai, you're with me!" Kakashi shouts as he charges forward, making a beeline straight for the psycho who was killing Naruto. He felt he didn't need to tell Sakura what to do. She would already know, in fact, she was already doing it.
As Kakashi and Sai jumped Madara, distracting him with a flurry of punches, and Yamato fought off Zetsu, Sakura sprinted for Naruto. She could hardly see or hear anything other than him...at that moment, nothing else even existed. Naruto was the only one that mattered.
The world moved in slow motion when she reaches him. Her best friend was thrashing and jerking on the table he was strapped to. His head tilted slightly back as he screamed his lungs out. A funnel of bubbling, angry chakra connects his stomach to the large, gray statue in the center of the room.
Her quick, nimble fingers undo the straps, freeing his hands and feet within seconds. Oddly, his struggles do not increase now that he is free to move around. If anything, his body relaxes slightly. Part of the rosette flirts with the idea that he knows they are there to save him. But, by the look of his condition, that was not the case.
Sakura leans down, pulling Naruto into her arms. His body was limp, like a rag doll, when she picked him up, his head easily leaning into her shoulder. His skin was so cold it made her shiver. "You're going to be okay..." She whispers in his ear, praying he can hear her reassurances. "Naruto...we're here now. So you're going to be alright..." Much to her surprise, the blonde's screams begin to lessen once he's away from the table. The amount of chakra pouring from the seal diminishes and she hears Madara swear, loudly on the other side of the room. Eventually, the cries of agony become quiet moans. "Sai!" Sakrua calls. "Do it!"
The dark haired boy flips away from Madara, pulling out his scroll and paint brush. "Super Beast Imitation!"
-xXx-
"Naruto..."
Naruto had thought he was the only one in this weird little space of nothingness. Apparently he was wrong. The boy stares with wide, stricken eyes at the other figures. Yes, figures. Two of them.
"M..." He begins but his voice chokes and he can't finish.
The woman smiles at him. Her long, glossy, red hair shining in the white light. Beside her, a man with spiky blonde hair and cerulean eyes smiles at the both of them. "Naruto." The man says.
"D-dad? M-mom?"
Kushina Uzumaki giggles at her son's sheepishness. She breaks away from her husband's arm, which was around her waist, and races to her son's side, pulling him into a tight bear hug. "Naruto!" She cries, burying her face in his hair. He felt cool tear drops dampen his head.
"Mom...don't cry." Naruto says.
Minato grins at his son. He, too, embraces him and Naruto ends up with his face crushed between his mother and father. An unbelievably warm feeling tingling in his stomach.
Naruto laughs, shortly. "What are you doing here?!" He asks, utterly delighted to see them.
"Um, we're dead. Remember?" Kushina says.
"The real question is, why are you here?" Minato asks him. "How did you manage to see this?"
"Huh?" Naruto tilts his head. "What do you mean?"
Suddenly, Kushina flashes a look at Minato. Her eyes are tight.
"Naruto," His father begins. "What happened that brought you here?"
The younger blonde frowns. "You mean, how did I die?"
"Oh...!" Tears spring into Kushina's eyes. Her hand flies to her mouth, clamping it shut as the reality of what has happened sinks in.
Minato's face turns deadly serious. "What are you saying?"
Naruto chuckles. "Man, you guys got real serious all of a sudden! And what do you mean 'what am I saying'? I mean, I'm dead! That's obvious isn't it?" He grumbles.
Kushina lets out a horrified sob. Her son was DEAD?! How had that happened?!
"Naruto, what happened?" His father asks.
"Um..." Naruto hesitates. He really didn't want to relive it. He swallows. "Madara...Uchiha happened."
-xXx-
"Super Beast Imitation!"
As Sai's hand dances across the page, three huge lions spring to life. They charge Team 7's enemies as Kakashi and Sai scoop up the unconscious ANBU and Yamato takes Naruto onto his back.
Sakura spins a full three-sixty, knocking away a Zetsu dupliacate with the heel of her boot as they make a break for the exit. Her eyes never once leave the motionless form of her best friend, slung over Yamato's shoulders. You're gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay...She tells herself over and over and over again. Naruto will be fine, he'll be alright...we just have to get away!
One of Sai's lions is defeated, its ink splatters across the wall as Madara sinks a blade into its head. Only to be replaced by another. The masked man swears under his breath as he struggles to keep an eye on Naruto, who was quickly receding from his vision. It appears I under-estimated these Leaf Ninja...As he quickly strikes down another lion. I won't make that mistake again...!
-xXx-
The minutes pass at crawl as Team 7 rockets through the woods. There was no sign they were being followed, but they didn't want to take any more chances. So they kept running.
The sun was nearly set at this point. The sky was a mesh of oranges and reds, as well as a few splatters of pink and blue. The fiery, red sun was still blazing on the horizon when Sakura noticed something.
"Sensei," She says. "I think we need to stop."
Kakashi turns. "I don't think that's a good idea. Naruto is-"
"Look at him." She motions to Naruto.
Kakashi's expression immediately changes when he sees what she means. Finally, he nods in agreeance. "We should be far enough away for now." And they all drop to the ground.
Kakashi and Sai set the passed-out ANBU members against a tree while Yamato lays Naruto in the grass. Sakura kneels down beside him, fear was making her hands shake as she brushes his bangs from his face.
He was so pale, his face was white as a sheet. And his skin was ice cold. There were dark shadows beneath his half-lidded eyes and his chest was moving to rapidly. His breaths short and labored. The blonde's sunshine hair was dull, a sickly version of grayish-white. In short, he looked like death.
"Naruto..." Sakura breathes, gently brushing her fingers over his cheek. She moves her hands to his chest. Beneath her palms, she felt the rapid pulse of heart. It was moving much too fast, like he'd been working out for hours. Instead of being strapped to a table...Her hands begin to glow a soft green. She wasn't sure what she was healing, he didn't look injured. But she had to try.
-xXx-
Without their really noticing, the empty space the family occupied was slowly turning a shade of emerald. Little wisps of golden-green light waft through the air, passing completely unnoticed.
"Madara...Uchiha?" Kushina gasps. "You mean the same Madara Uchiha that withdrew the kyuubi from me?"
Naruto nods, slowly. "Yeah."
A small, angry growl builds in Minato's throat. "That little..."
"So you were captured too?" Kushina frowns, wiping a tear from her eye. "Honey, I'm so sorry..."
Naruto shakes his head, shrugging off the violent memory. "I don't-" He words freeze on his lips as a little twinkling ball of chakra floats through the air between his parents and him. It's only then that he notices the dramatic change in their surroundings. "This is..." The chakra felt firmiliar. But for some reason, he couldn't place who it belonged to.
"You're being healed!" Minato says, gazing around the jade-colored space.
"Healed? But I thought..."
Kushiha squeals in delight as she throws her arms around her son's neck. "You're alive!"
"But...I..." He remembered dying. Didn't he? Wasn't being here proof that he was no longe living? Or... "I'm...not dead?"
"No." Minato's hand ruffles Naruto's hair. "You'll be okay, as long as don't give up. You have to fight, Naruto. You don't belong here yet."
Naruto frowns. "But...what about..."
"We'll always be here, waiting for you." Kushina says, softly. "So take your time in coming here again."
Suddenly, the world got a whole lot brighter and Naruto's parents became oddly transparent. "We love you..." They say together as they dissapear. And then...darkness.