AN: Boom! Two chapters. All aboard the exposition train!

Chapter 22: The Night of Reckoning

"Memories are like stones, time and distance erode them like acid."

~Ugo Betti

Naruto sank back into his stiff pillow as his father told the story he'd so long awaited to hear.

"It was a dangerous time for us, Naruto," began his father, "A dangerous time for everyone, really. But we, well, I guess you could say we were at the center of the storm. The Akatsuki were at their strongest and were about to change Konoha as we knew it. The Konoha Special Ops, or 'Konoha Corps' as we were more commonly known, were the only thing stopping them from taking over the entire city."

"Yeah, Kabuto told me." said Naruto. "He said you'd developed a cure."

"That's right." His father sighed. "I was never originally a part of the special ops. I was just a scientist that worked with them from time to time in criminal investigation." He smiled fondly. "That was how I met your mother."

An image of his mother grinning proudly in full, padded corps uniform flashed into Naruto's mind, an image he thought he'd long since forgotten.

His father continued.

"I developed the cure along with some brilliant minds. We had been working on it day and night since they brought in the first sample of the drug. It was still in the early stages of development, and had cost two informants their lives for us to obtain it. You see, we had some key people working both sides, the few left who were willing to stand up to the Akatsuki."

"They were the ones who died, right? When you and Mom were…" Naruto trailed off. "Obito said he killed you, that he did it himself."

"He was mistaken." said his father quietly.

"Then how did you…?"

"I'll get to it, but I feel I should explain the situation first."

Naruto held back the million questions burning on his lips and nodded.

His father continued,

"We didn't give the Akatsuki those names, Naruto. There was a mole in our organization."

The word. That word that everyone had been saying, that was breathed from their lips in hushed tones at that gray safehouse over and over. He remembered it now. Mole.

"I knew it." He whispered. "I knew you never betrayed them. That you couldn't have-"

His words were cut off by the lump in his throat. He gripped the grey hospital blanket.

It wasn't his fault. It had never been his fault. All those deaths, the senseless deaths of innocent families, the names and hate that had been thrown at him over the years. His parents had never betrayed the Konoha Corps. They had never given out those names. They had stayed strong.

He gripped the blanket so tightly he could feel his nails dig through the fabric.

"No," said his father. "We didn't."

But no pride tinged his voice.

"They had you, Naruto."

For the first time, his father's voice cracked. "They had you and were willing to use you to get to us."

Naruto frowned. He didn't remember this. His only memories of that time were the safehouse and the police station, the somber expressions of the police officers who brought him the news of his parents' death and that gray, gloomy trip to the children's home.

"They never had me." He said, "I was at the safehouse."

"They had you." said his father in certain tones. "The mole had you."

He leaned forward. "Do you remember who was with you that night?"

Naruto shook his head. "I can barely remember the house, let alone that night."

"Please try, Naruto." said his father, clasping his hands together. "Any detail could help."

Naruto frowned and closed his eyes. He remembered the maroon couch. It smelled like old mothballs. He remembered someone sitting with him in Konoha Corps uniform and another standing across from him. He always was with one or more of them when his mother or father was gone. He wasn't even sure if this was the right night. The person next to him looked down at him. Their face was blurry, silhouetted by the ceiling light. The face looked up at the sound of a door crashing open, and Naruto turned to see a man in the familiar black uniform standing at the door. Fear rushed through him as he saw the blood dripping from their fingertips onto the carpet. The person next to him smiled at this stranger, a smile so familiar. He remembered pain as his upper arm was taken in a painful grip and he was hauled off the couch. Then the memory was gone.

"I…I'm sorry. I don't remember their faces. It's blurry. Just…sensations and snatches."

His father leaned back with a sigh. "It's okay, son. It was a long time ago. You can't be expected to remember that far back."

It's a treasure hunt, Naruto.

The words flashed into his mind.

"The house." said Naruto. He stared at his dad in surprise. "They searched the house. There was stuff thrown about everywhere. They said it was a game."

"They?"

"There were two of them, I think." He said.

His father nodded thoughtfully. "Two of them. Hmm. It didn't occur to me that there might be more than one. They must have been looking for the cure."

"They never found it though, did they." replied Naruto in a flat tone. It wasn't a question.

Naruto's father shook his head slowly.

"They didn't."

"Because…" Naruto began. He swallowed. "Because you put it in me, didn't you."

The image he had had of his father coming towards him with a syringe. It had been real.

His father took a deep breath.

"We did." He answered.

Naruto waited, but his father said nothing and the silence only lengthened.

"So, that's why," Naruto said at last, "It's why I was able to survive this drug."

"Twice." He added. "It's why I heal faster than most people and have more stamina, right?"

"You have those abilities?" asked his father, his eyes widening.

Naruto nodded, and his father shook his head in amazement.

"Uh, it's called 'Kyuubi'. We named it after the mythical nine-tailed fox because, as the legend goes, whoever ate it would be protected against poison. I hadn't anticipated those kinds of side effects, but I guess it makes sense."

"Kyuubi." whispered Naruto. He had heard that name before.

"It acts as a virus, Naruto, or perhaps it's more accurate to refer to it as a symbiotic anti-virus, the first one ever created. It replicates and lives off its host, but in return it spurs regeneration and fights against degenerating factors such as the Akatsuki's drug."

A surge of nausea rose in Naruto's stomach as he remembered Orochimaru's curved smile, the pleasure in his face as he had reveled in Naruto's naked fear that day in the classroom.

"Those neural pathways have been destroyed."

Naruto swallowed, forcing himself back into reality.

His father didn't notice and continued. "Bliss works by deteriorating neural pathways. It breaks them down, and also increases the production of certain chemicals in the brain. Kyuubi is designed to counteract the deterioration."

"So Bliss works like Alzheimer's or something?"

"Something like that. In fact, it was through researching Alzheimers and dementia that they were able to create the original drug. It was groundbreaking work in its own way."

He hummed and placed a hand over his mouth.

"Let's see. You've heard of truth serum, right?"

Naruto nodded.

"Bliss works in a similar sense. Truth serum increases feelings of trust at the expense of rationalization. Under a truth serum, you should know not to tell someone your secrets, but you would because your emotions are in control. Your rational thinking has been compromised. In a similar way, Bliss increases feelings of happiness to the point of ecstasy, but of course, being a drug, the effects are temporary and the side effects are detrimental. Its biggest side effect being that it inhibits your ability to rationalize your negative emotions. They become new and unfamiliar. If you take it for long enough, you can never regain the capacity to process them and become completely reliant on the drug to stabilize you. "

"Yeah," said Naruto quietly. "Someone told me something like that before."

Naruto's father gave him a questioning look, but Naruto quickly looked away.

There was silence for a moment, and then his father spoke in a quiet voice.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. It was the only way we could think of to keep it safe, to keep you safe if anything were to happen to us. If the drug were to be successfully spread." He sighed. "If we were to fail."

"But you didn't." said Naruto, breathing a sigh of relief. "You're here. You're alive. And the Akatsuki didn't win. They never distributed the drug."

"Yes, and many people died." replied his father in a heavy voice. "All those who were willing to stand up to the Akatsuki were slaughtered. It was like…one final warning before they disappeared into the shadows."

He frowned. "They had the city at its knees. To this day, I still don't know why they didn't take their opportunity back then."

Naruto shrugged.

"I'm glad they didn't." he said simply.

His father smiled, and there was a long silence as both of them were lost in their own thoughts.

"Dad," said Naruto finally, savoring the word on his tongue.

"Yes, son." His father replied, his eyes showing their first light since Naruto had woken up.

"You still haven't told me how you managed to escape, how you survived and… why you've been away all this time."

The sparkle died in his father's eyes.

"Ah, yes." He said. "That."

His father stood up and walked over to the bed, sitting down at the foot of it. The duvet pulled away from Naruto slightly as his father sank down, but the stiff, hospital mattress remained firm. The man scratched the pad of his thumb with his forefinger distractedly. He shot Naruto a tentative smile.

"Your mother and I knew it was no longer safe to be with you. The Akatsuki thought we were dead. If they found out we had survived, then they wouldn't have stopped until they had hunted both us and you down. It didn't matter that they didn't think you had the cure. They would have used you to get to us. That, and we still didn't know who the moles were. Our only way of keeping you safe was to leave you, to get as far away from you as possible. And then, to keep you hidden, and safe. So…we left." He shook his head. "I wish to god we hadn't."

"When we were...captured, we found out the Akatsuki had you with their mole. They'd known where you were all along. They threatened your life."

Naruto was taken aback as his father looked up at him with tears in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. It's my greatest regret, not protecting you." He said, his voice thick.

Naruto sat up, grabbing his arm, the irritating plastic tubes restraining him slightly.

"It wasn't your fault. You did try everything." He said, "Listen to me. The only thing I've ever regretted was that you sacrificed other's lives to save me."

He shot him a quick smile and squeezed his father's arm. "But now I know that's not true. You didn't betray Konoha for me. You sacrificed everything for this town, for its people, even me. I don't know. Maybe it's weird to be happy about something like that. I guess I should be angry or something."

His father shook his head. "I should never have put the anti-virus in you. I couldn't tell them where it was without endangering you further. I couldn't help you. I couldn't save the lives of our informants or our agents. Your mother was…-"

He broke off.

Naruto sucked in a breath, pulling his hand away.

"What happened to her?" he asked quietly.

"They knew I was the weak link." said his father. "Your mother, she had training. She wouldn't crack easily. So, they…hurt her in order to get me to talk."

Naruto could tell the words were difficult for his father to say, but he stayed silent, waiting for him to finish.

"They pushed her, Naruto." He said, his voice cracking. "They pushed her too far. She couldn't come back from it."

Naruto frowned. "What do you mean?"

His father sighed. "Let me show you." He said finally. "She's in this hospital too."