DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything from the Naruto universe.
Thinking (+ flashbacks, "Naruto speaking to Kurama in her mindscape," etc.)
Emphasis
Bijuu, etc. speaking
Bijuu, etc. thinking
I should've attacked from within. My clones had been there before: what the hell was I thinking?!
…
"Chidori!"
The was nothing but pain and the sound of those birds when Naru was hit with Sasuke's jutsu: right in the chest, just like before. As she began to sink into the water, wondering why-oh-why after not seeing him for so long - and only having been partnered with him in THIS life for such a very short time - he'd done this. How did they even get to the Valley of the End? But the Chidori was still lit up as she bled out through her chest and Sasuke wasn't the one who had attacked her. No, it was Kakashi's angry masked face that was hovering over her.
"Why?"
Everything went dark.
…
"Chidori!"
Pain: terrible, bone-splitting pain.
Why is this happening?!
Kakashi's Sharingan spun in front of her - but it was on the wrong side. "NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!"
"Baby, stop! I need you to tell me what you did with the Sanbi."
"Where... are we?!"
"It's alright: this is my Kamui dimension. Naruto?"
"What. Did. You. Do. To. Me?"
…
"Chidori!"
Oh, God! The pain was so bad that it had to be real. "Ka-ash? Why?"
…
"Chidori!"
Naruto moved at the last possible moment and watched as Kakashi's jutsu went through someone's - Haku's? - chest.
"Demon bitch. Look what you made me do."
Naruto sharply turned her head with wide eyes. "Kakashi?" This isn't real. This isn't real - this isn't real! He wouldn't call me that.
"I wish you were Rin."
Naruto felt her heart shatter for both of them. "I'm… sorry… that I'm not her, then?"
"I just don't get it," another voice said. –It was a voice that was somewhat familiar but mocking. Everything was dark.
Naruto couldn't see anything but the bright light of Kakashi's jutsu continuing to flicker in front of her husband's masked face.
Sensei…
And blood. Yeah, there was a lot of blood. And dirt. Broken cement. But who's voice was that again? "Who's there?" she asked in a broken whisper. It was dark.
"Ah; you're finally back! …Maa, that's good!"
"Kakashi? Y-you're here?" Her voice was a broken whisper and her lips felt really dried and cracked.
"I am," he said in the silky tenor she loved so much. "Kiri wants the Sanbi, back, Naruto, and there will be a war if we don't turn it over."
Naruto looked at her husband in disbelief. She was hurting so much, so filthy in some kind of prison. She discharged her chakra but nothing changed. Kakashi rolled his eyes at her and looked put out. "Naruto, please."
"Sorry but um… I don't remember; my chest hurts really bad, ya know."
"I know you're lying."
Naruto blinked a few times and "Tobi" became infuriated.
"Kakashi?"
CHIDORI!"
…
Naruto watched as the Kyuubi - Kurama, something deep within her said - used a claw to violently pierce her parents' backs. She cried out, helpless because she was a baby, and shuddered when she soon saw a young Kakashi's face hovering over her.
This wasn't right. This wasn't NORMAL! But there they were: her father had rushed behind her mother, hoping to take the brunt of the fox's claw to save them.
She tried to hold out her arms but they were so heavy and wouldn't do as she wished.
What is happening? Why does Kakashi look so angry?!
Help me, Kash.
"Chidori!"
…
For a moment, she was in that weird gray space of Tobi's again, then back on the battlefield.
Genjutsu: it's a genjutsu, Naruto!
…
Kurama where are you?
"NO!" Kurama was yanked out of her and she fell, landing on …sand? Sakura-chan was doing something to her that she couldn't feel and then Kakashi was there.
"Chidori!"
He betrayed me!
Can anything hurt more than this?
…
Madara Uchiha?
"What are you doing here?! What did you do with Tsunade-baa-chan?!" Naruto realized that Kakashi was standing next to her and flinched, jumping away from him even though they were in Kurama's cloak.
Madara smirked and tossed his hair back. "What did I do with her, I wonder?"
Tsunade-baa-chan torn in half… Gaara half dead…
…
Deidara sitting on Gaara's lifeless body.
"Stop it."
Kakashi was suddenly in front of her. "Don't move"
Just get it over with, Kakashi.
On and on it went. Sometimes Naruto reminded herself that she had to be in a genjutsu but only because of the smell of death and decay around her.
Other times she was in that weird gray place which was even more terrifying: there she couldn't move at all. Some chick she didn't know had forced fluids in her at least a couple of times there; the woman had been absolutely terrified.
Naruto didn't remember who had attacked her aside from Kakashi but knew she had to get away. Someone came into her cell - someone with red eyes that, thankfully, were not Sharingans - and laughed at her for trying to bury a dead man with one hand.
When did I even get here?
Then he did something to her that made her body - even her damaged hand begin to move. The man looked like her attempts at not screaming gave him pleasure.
The man in the orange mask reappeared in a vortex and smacked him in the shoulder. "Knock it off."
Naru repositioned her bad, swollen hand under her bandages and lay back down, whimpering. A mist came into the cell and she tried to hold her breath.
A dead man Naru didn't recognize. It seemed like she should.
She looked up and wasn't sure whether to be relieved or not when Kakashi opened the cell door. "No please!" He was powering up his jutsu.
"Chidori!"
…
…
During her more lucid moments, Naru continued digging out from under the deep cell wall. She did it even when she couldn't and Naru could swear that the Akatsuki kid with the red eyes was there again. She was also fairly sure that she'd reached a tiny bit of fresh air, at least, and she piled the dirt she was digging up under the broken cell floor on the dead man, apologizing to him repeatedly for using his very slow burial to hide her attempts at an escape.
She had to get out of here.
...
"Kaa-chan?"
"Sakumo-chan! C'mere, baby." A silver-haired little boy ran into her arms. He pulled down his mask and showed that had drawn dark whisker marks on his cheeks with a marker. "Kakashi! Look what your son did!"
"Maa, maa, Sake-chan…"
Her son wrapped his little arms around her neck and whispered into her ear. "Otou-san's scaring me."
"What? Why would you say that?"
"Chidori!"
"NO!"
Her son was dying, bleeding out in her arms, along with her.
…
"Naruto?"
"Who's there?!"
"Your husband. It's alright: calm down. Come here, baby." Naruto shuddered for who knows how long before she cried into his silver hair, almost in disbelief that he'd finally come for her.
He doesn't smell right: he doesn't smell at all!
"You're not gonna hurt me?"
Naruto knew he would.
"It will be alright." Kakashi rubbed circles into her back.
"Chidori!"
This time the jutsu went through her back.
Naruto woke up again, completely exhausted but furious. "Don't. Touch. Me." She looked around her dark cell but only found the partially-buried dead man with her. Again.
She tried to push herself up off the ground but something really shitty had happened to her dominant hand and it was so swollen, Naru feared that… Wait. What was she worried about? She'd tucked it underneath her bandages, so wasn't that good enough?
It really hurt, though. Lightning flickered again and Naruto didn't try to stop him.
"Chidori!"
Why can't I just stay dead?!
…
That fucking cold, gray space again. Why does he bother taking me here?
…
Her hand: no, what she'd done with it wasn't good enough. Something that she'd learned when she'd grown up again with the Naras told her that her mashed hand could cause future problems.
The Naras. Home! "Shika."
"Chidori!"
Naruto cried out until her throat was raw when the force of the jutsu caused her to fall on her bad hand. "Shika! Kakashi… No, please," she sobbed. "No more!"
"Naruto where are you?!"
"Sh-sh-shika."
"Naruto keep talking to me!"
"No. Don't."
"Chidori!"
"Ka - ka-shi." Kakashi's hand was through her chest again but this time, he looked SO young and her hair - whipped up in the wind - was brown and mid-length.
And bloody now.
It didn't matter, she guessed. Naru was pretty sure she died again anyway.
…
Over and over and over again.
Eventually - who knows how much later - she felt the tiny bit of fresh air that had managed to get into her cell get sucked out at the same time there was a sound that reminded her of a pop. "No. No! I'll be good!"
At this point, no sound would come out of her dry, dry mouth and cracked bloody lips
"Doton: Moguragakure no jutsu."
Naruto silently screamed again as two figures came out of the earth beneath the cell. Snarling and ripping into both men with her teeth as she (very weakly) tried to fight them, she was quickly knocked unconscious before disappearing in another teleportation with them.
.
Tsunade rubbed her tired, dry eyes, again grateful that Minato had been the one to know what to do when the Kyuubi wasn't healing Naruto. He'd taken Five Elements Seal off of her granddaughter who still wasn't waking up. Her shattered right hand and arm, up past her elbow, were now braced and full of pins but at least she was successfully out of surgery. She'd been cleaned up but Naru still looked terrible.
"She's been locked in a genjutsu and I have TRIED to disrupt her chakra. It's just not working. Kakashi-brat tried and Naru... Well, just leave it at she looked like she was screaming her head off. She was terrified." In a quieter tone, she added, "I had to reheal her throat afterward. Obviously, we're pumping her full of fluids…"
"Chidori!"
Minato nodded as he stood up and paced around the room again. "Do you know what caused the burns?"
"Explosive notes, most likely," Tsunade said as if this was just any other patient. To her, Naruto was anything but, however. "Be grateful the Kyuubi - Kurama - helped her shed that burned skin, hm?"
Minato ran his hand through his daughter's sweaty bangs - she was obviously still in great distress - refusing to think of how she'd looked when he and Kakashi had found her. He figured the vision would haunt him at night. Naruto had disappeared from the world for almost six days before using her communicator earring to speak to Shikamaru.
Even with the earring, Naruto had been unable to respond to anything Shikamaru asked, and her chakra was so faint that if Kakashi hadn't put his seal on her, they may have never found her. Minato had been able to link the fuuinjutsu on Naruto's earring to Kakashi's seal. Because her chakra was blocked, Minato's half of Kurama hadn't even been able to reach her.
In the genjutsu, Naruto watched as her parents were killed again.
Kakashi had been beside himself and had caused "issues" by slaughtering all but one of the Kiri nins (also sparing a toddler) present at what was supposed to be the Sanbi's sealing. "The situations you get yourself into, Naruto. –When are you going to value yourself as much as you value everyone else?" Silence followed his words for a couple of minutes.
"You're going to have to put a leash on her, Minato." They'd already put a chip in her that her son had devised but Tsunade feared it wouldn't be good enough.
"Right," Minato breathed to the renowned med nin, not appreciating what she'd said at all. His little girl had just gotten out of being imprisoned and was still in trouble! Whatever she was going through caused her heart rate to spike every thirty minutes like clockwork.
"I'm serious," Tsunade said, knowing exactly what she would do if she were in charge of the brat. "From what Jiraiya told me, she's not going to stop putting herself out there. Kakashi's a step or two away from personally causing a war so he needs to be kept in the village, too."
"You don't think I know that?" WHAT was Hiruzen doing pairing two such vulnerable, traumatized people together? Minato understood that the Sandaime was trying to protect Naruto, and gods help him if he hadn't been convinced that the couple was madly in love but still… "Maybe if they were older they'd each be more stable," he mumbled to himself, wishing it were so.
"Chidori!"
Tsunade hummed and stretched, finding that hypothesis silly. "Things are what they are. And who knows? Given more time, they may not have found each other at all; shinobis' lives are short. They're each powerful - and they're stronger together; just think about it. …I'm going to go get some shut-eye but I'll be in my office," she said as got up. "I'll send the brat in. Ja!"
The door opened half a minute later and Kakashi slowly made his way in. His one visible eye sported dark bags down past his mask and that eye was trained on Naruto. "Has she woken again at all?"
"No. Tsunade-hime said she's mostly unresponsive and remains in a strong genjutsu."
Kakashi nodded as he approached his little wife, wincing at the color of her hand and arm, and at the pins that he knew all-too-well were very painful. He was afraid to touch her after what had happened the last time he tried to disrupt her chakra to free her from the genjutsu. He was relieved, at least, to see that her burns had been mostly healed. "Thank you, Kurama," he whispered.
"Chidori!"
The Hatake felt raw and exposed: he just wanted to take her home and be done with everyone and everything.
He wanted her to wake up.
"You saved her," Minato said after a beat. "If it hadn't been for that 'Big-Ass Seal' you put on her - as she's repeatedly called it - we may not have found her in time. Thank you for that."
Kakashi didn't feel that way at all. Naruto should not have been able to escape him like that, and it was his fault that he hadn't tied her up or something when he realized how reckless she was being the night she was taken away. He looked away and nodded at what his sensei had said, refusing to acknowledge what had to be false praise then decided to sit down. "Have you received confirmation that the Akatsuki hideout has been destroyed?"
"Hai," Minato said, sitting on the opposite side of his daughter's bed. "Dragon and Tenzo took care of it with extreme prejudice."
"Good," Kakashi hissed. "Wrong or not, after taking my… Naru?" he gulped. "The Obito-kun we knew is dead. I hope they buried the other Obito, or TOBI, inside of that hideout for good this time." He was surprised (and almost relieved) to find hesitant agreement in his leader's blue eyes. A knock on the door made both men stand with kunais at the ready. Tsunade entered and rolled her eyes at them before dragging a cloaked figure in.
"Chidori!"
"Alright. It's safe," she said. Tsunade's big reveal came when the hood fell from the tall shinobi's cloak after she shut the door and put the silencing seal back up. "Ta-da."
"Itachi-kun," Minato and Kakashi said in surprise.
"I thought we could use a Sharingan to take a better look at her," Tsunade said easily although she did shoot a momentary glare at Kakashi who had, in her estimation, been afraid to raise his wife's eyelid and take a look for himself.
Although Naruto had what she had first thought was a seizure when Kakashi pushed his chakra into her. Considering that, she could understand his hesitance.
"Kakashi-senpai. Hokage-sama," Itachi greeted the older men respectfully. His gaze turned fond at seeing the blonde lying unconscious in the bed. Although he'd checked on her a few times over the years with his crows, he hadn't seen Naruto with his own eyes in many years. "Naruto-chan," he said much more softly before walking over and taking her hand.
"Yo, Uchiha," a tiny blonde in orange pointed at the cousins who were hiding in the trees. Itachi became exasperated with his cousin who was sniggering and supposed to be hiding from the jinchuuriki he was shadowing.
"Uzumaki-chan, be quiet," Shisui whispered as he settled down. "You're not supposed to know I'm here, remember?"
"Other-guy," the little blonde said as she peered up into the trees with a soft smile "Promise me somethin', kay?"
Shisui nudged him (almost off the tree) and Itachi finally responded. "Hn."
"What a shitty response," Naruto said, tapping her little foot with a furious pout.
Shisui broke into a fit of what could only be described as giggles. Itachi clicked his tongue and knew that if his nearly four-year-old otouto used language like that, he'd get his mouth washed out with soap. –Although now he had a feeling he understood why Shisui enjoyed his assignment so much. "Naruto-chan, children should not use that type of language."
"I could say the same things to you! 'HN!' What kind of grunt-ish non-word is that?!"
"Where did she learn to speak that way?" Shisui just shrugged but Naruto was glancing around looking to see if anyone was close by.
"Promise you won't believe that bandage guy with the scar on his chin, Uchihas. And check with Jiji if you get evil orders, 'kay?" –That was something she repeated to Itachi many times.
Shisui - incredibly concerned - jumped to the ground and kneeled in front of the little ball of trouble. "Naruto-chan, what are you talking about? Has someone bothered you?" Itachi continued watching from above, knowing exactly who the little one was talking about: Danzo.
Naruto chuckled in a way that no child her age should: it was all sarcasm and bite. The boys knew why: she was threatened or worse nearly every day. "I just don't want anyone to try to hurt you." She looked up with big blue eyes into the tree and Itachi felt like she was staring into his soul. She smiled, then patted Shisui's head.
She ran off as Itachi and Shisui frowned at each other until Itachi realized that Naruto-chan had left a little present for her ANBU guard. Strange or not, the way Naruto-chan treated Shisui so affectionately was adorable but the little girl had glitter bombed him when she touched her ANBU's hair.
Minato stepped in front of his nutty apprentice before Kakashi did something else that was ridiculously doggish or feral.
"May I, senpai? Hokage-sama?" Itachi asked. Only Minato agreed but that was enough for Itachi. He lifted Naruto's thickly-lashed eyelid and frowned, his Sharingan spinning to life. "Naru-chan. What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?" He looked up to his senior when he growled. "Senpai?"
Kakashi crossed his arms over his chest. "Maa, maa. Proceed, Itachi-kun: just remember to be very careful with my wife." Kakashi didn't give a damn that his sensei groaned, obviously displaying his exasperation with his behavior. What did Minato want? They'd both agreed that he needed to better protect Naruto!
Itachi agreed and began to use his cousin's Sharingan for the first time. His eyebrows rose when he landed in front of the great fox rather than Naruto. He refused to gulp and stood tall but did give the demon a respectful nod. "Kyuubi-sama."
"Chidori!"
Itachi jumped at hearing his senpai's very famous jutsu. It seemed to be echoing throughout Naruto's mindscape.
"Well if it isn't my favorite Uchiha: the clan killer. What are you doing here, Uchiha-brat?"
Itachi hated that moniker but stayed on task. "I came to help Naru-chan. Tsunade-hime said that she is in a Sharingan-induced genjutsu." The fox moved slightly and Itachi silently gasped when he saw Naruto's blonde hair. She was lying between the fox's paws (hands?) and underneath his jaw. It was then that he had a moment to look around and verify that the fox really wasn't locked in a cage, per se, at all.
"Tell that thieving yellow-assed monkey to join us and maybe we'll have some success." Kurama kicked the Uchiha out unceremoniously, smacking him in the face with one of his great tails. Oh, if only he could do that with all Uchihas: how satisfying that would be… All two or three of them: that's not so satisfying, now that I think about it more.
"Chidori!"
Kurama closed his eyes and hoped that Naruto's suffering would soon end.
The next thing the fox knew, his yin-stealing formerly dead nemesis was standing in front of him, along with his handsome other half. Just as Kurama-1, (as he liked to call himself,) really considered eating the monkey again, the Uchiha reappeared. "Ugh."
"Kurama-sama," Minato bowed to Naruto's half of the Kyuubi. He looked around, confused, when he heard the sound of a thousand birds chirping: Kakashi's jutsu.
Kurama-2 didn't like the sound of that jutsu: what was happening made no sense to him and he knew that his other self did not know how to stop it, either. "Where did you get the trees?" Minato's fox growled at the slightly larger fox. He'd seen them once before, coveted them, and wanted some of his own.
"Naruto's boytoy-ningen fuck-buddy gave them to me," Kurama-1 gritted out and then gave a fangy grin, knowing that it would bother that nancy-boy, Minato. Sure enough, Minato groaned and looked miserable.
Minato knew he was blushing. "Flushing:" that's a better description. He was not a prude! "Can we move forward and help Naruto? Should we… bump fists?"
"Fuck off," both foxes exclaimed as one.
"Hokage-sama…"
"Shut up, Uchiha," they both said at the same time again.
"Kurama! Don't!"
Minato tried to be pleasant to the two foxes, wishing he was anywhere else. He was tired, his daughter was injured, and he didn't see any humor in what was going on. "Perhaps Kakashi can agree to enhance my mindscape if you'll explain why I'm here and what I can do to help my daughter? And is it just me or have I heard Kakashi-kun's jutsu twice now?"
Both of the foxes snarled at him. "Use the Flash-thief as a medium," one fox said to the other. It was worth a shot.
"Agreed."
Naruto's fox pointed Minato to a spot between Naruto's Taki-like forest and his rather desolate but organized system of… sewers in the basement of his Mind Palace.
"Stand right there."
"Uchiha, hold his hand!"
"If you'll allow me, sir?"
"Of course," the Hokage agreed, having no problem with holding the younger shinobi's hand. Itachi was his godson!
"Chidori!"
Minato sucked in a breath, having just glimpsed his daughter being killed by his student, her husband. The foxes had bashed him and Itachi out of their joined mindscapes and Minato found himself reeling on the floor, panting heavily. He looked up at Kakashi who hadn't moved to help him as Tsunade had - but his student clearly had questions.
So did he.
Kurama didn't know what to do. While his kit was out, however, he was going to demand answers. "Now," Kurama-1 said, exposing Naruto who had been hidden between his paws and pointing his index finger at his counterpart after moving her forward. "I know you care about her."
"Of course I do! Do you think I want to stay with that… human?"
Kurama-1 was a little surprised that his other half referred to Minato as a human, even though most humans were still disgusting. Kurama-2 must be getting soft. "What do you know that I don't?! Don't hold out on me!"
"Baa-chan! No!"
And so, the two halves finally shared what had happened after Naruto had saved the Deer Boy and her friends - and almost everyone - up until she was forced to battle Sasuke to the death. Kurama-2 only remembered so much of that battle, as he'd also been imprisoned by the - at the time - lone and despicable Uchiha. He warned his other half of Zetsu, Madara, and most terrifyingly of all, Kaguya's return.
"Chidori!"
Both heard the dreaded chirping of Hatake's jutsu but were unable to help Naruto until they combined more of their chakra. He called his siblings to aid him.
Kurama hoped that hearing this jutsu wasn't an omen. In the end, before, it was Indra/Sasuke that took their lives before, wasn't it? –And with that very jutsu.
Naruto woke up first in her mindscape with a start, her heart racing and in pain. She wasn't alone, though, and for that, she was incredibly grateful. Not to mention that if her heart was pounding, that meant that she still HAD a heart! "Kurama? Are you real?"
"Yo, kit," she heard in stereo.
"Kurama-2?" Naru said weakly, curling up and wondering if she was about to get hit with a Chidori again.
There was no doubt in her mind that it would happen again.
"Stay still, Naruto, and don't move your arm. That Uchiha did a number on you."
"I'm so sorry," Naruto said, her eyes tearing up. She had things she needed to apologize for before she was killed again.
"I almost got you captured! I think Tobi cut off my chakra completely sometime after I lost most of our chakra to Samehada and was knocked out. I was falling, ya know after I sent Isobu away; I don't know why I didn't go to the mountain with him –I definitely reverse summoned him to the mountain and SHOULD HAVE poofed away with him although then… Oh, my God! Han; Kokuo," she continued in a whisper. She looked up to see Kakashi in front of her and panicked. "No… You can't be my…"
"Chidori!"
"Naruto," the two yelled when they saw exactly what their host had been going through., "STOP!" Kurama-1 gave his other half a significant nod and let him speak for them both for a moment. "It's not real, Naruto, and while we appreciate your efforts at stopping Kaguya and Zetsu's madness, you cannot save everyone! Kokuo will be greatly missed but…"
Naruto whimpered as she rose from the water again. Instead of being at the Valley of the End, she was in her mindscape - or… Is it Kurama-2s?
Why is there water on the ground again?
She wanted to die but couldn't. Not yet…
"What's wrong with you? I - I know that wasn't Kakashi: I think but," she began before shaking her head. "You're not you, either! –I'm going to get him Kokuo out of that statue. There's GOT to be a way to get out!"
…Poor Han. Poor Kokuo.
She began to shake again - from grief, this time - remembering Han's stiff remains. She'd tried to bury him, hadn't she? She wasn't sure exactly what happened in that cell or how she'd gotten out. "Am I still there? I'm not going to let you get taken, Kurama."
…
"Chidori!"
"Enough! Naruto!"
The blonde couldn't move and looked up at Kurama with Kakashi's gloved hand through her chest and back, and that was when she felt each fox's fist pressed against her. "Guys?" Eight of her tailed friends were there: I'm probably imagining them. She felt darkness trying to take her into a fitful sleep but hung onto Kurama's fur as tightly as she could with the fingers of her good hand.
Am I finally dead?
At least this time it was nice dying while she could feel Tsunade-baa-chan's iryo-ninjutsu soothing her head.
She's alive.
…
"Naruto?"
"Don't touch me. Please: I don't want to live again.! Just… Alright, just do it and… And…" She sucked in a breath when she saw Itachi standing in front of her instead of her furious or cold husband; she made sure to close her eyes. "You're here to take him from me? –I'll find a way to kill you before you take Kurama!"
"Naruto-chan," Itachi said, almost feeling whiplash at her attitude change mid-genjutsu/mid-panic attack, "I need you to wake up."
"No," she said stubbornly. "I know what you're doing, ya know. Oh, gods: where's Kurama?!"
NO!
Kurama had just been pulled out of her again.
"He's just over there," Itachi soothed. He pointed toward the mountain-sized fox and watched Naruto's blue eyes scan the area although she didn't seem to see it. She looked bewildered and exhausted; beaten, filthy, and far more bloody than he knew she was within her hospital room.
As soon as he caught her blue eyes, his EMS spun to life. It, thankfully, allowed him to release the genjutsu. He stroked her hair and fully returned to the hospital room they were sitting in. He nodded to his seniors and excused himself from the room after throwing on a disguise.
Naruto slowly woke up to her dead (pierced, gone: the Shinigami took his soul) father, (dead, ripped apart by Madara) grandmother, Kakashi - she flinched violently, shaking all over as she waited for his jutsu to plow through her chest again.
"Don't move your arm," Tsunade barked, shocking her.
The Senju put her granddaughter's arm back into the correct position above her heart as she rechecked the pins. The med-nin gave Kakashi a fragile smile, feeling bad for him. Naruto's reaction to seeing her husband was extreme, especially considering how many drugs she'd been given. She'd also been tied down. Sedating her is like tranquilizing a wild elephant mid-rampage. "It's alright, Naruto. You're home now."
"You've all said that before," Naru hoarsely muttered, pulling the covers closer with her good arm and curling up and away from them, her eyes ready for anything to come out of the shadows.
"Kakashi-kun, would you excuse us please?"
Kakashi agreed to leave, pained by the fearful look in his little wife's eyes at the sight of him. He sank down onto a bench next to a disguised Itachi in the hallway. "She's awake."
Itachi was grateful. "I'm glad."
Kakashi hummed. "Thank you, Itachi-kun. Did you see anything?"
"The fox," Itachi stated with a heavy sigh, trying to decide if he should tell his senior what else he'd glanced of the genjutsu she'd been under. In the end, perhaps it would help them both to have it in the open. "She was in a long-range, long-term, repeating genjutsu that made her live through having a Chidori pushed through her heart and torso along with… more."
Kakashi sucked in a breath. Rin!
Itachi continued. "She relived her worst experiences or fears, in my estimation. It was a strange but powerful genjutsu…"
Rin's death was still painful for Kakashi. But this?! Punishing me by hurting my mate? "Obito: you son of a bitch." There was now NO doubt in Kakashi's mind that Obito was the one who had done this to her - to them. He stood and threw open Naruto's hospital room door.
"Senpai," Itachi called out to Kakashi in alarm.
"Fuck off. Naruto, look at me." Minato stood, challengingly, in front of him: between him and his mate and Kakashi couldn't have it. He flashed to her and almost pounced on top of her. "Go," he growled at the others. "I need to stop what he's done to my mate. I won't allow it."
Minato's initial thoughts were pure violence at Kakashi's actions but Naruto's soft voice made him stop his and Tsunade's fists from coming down on his head. "I'll give you five minutes. If I hear anything…"
"Please," Kakashi begged although he wanted to lash out at everyone but his little wife. Thankfully, soon the door closed behind them and Kakashi discarded his vest and pulled his mask down. He looked down at his wife and found empty blue eyes staring back at him. "Naruto, it's really me. Smell me." Naruto seemed to suddenly see him and began shaking underneath him. "I'm not going to hurt you. Scent your Alpha, Naruto."
Hesitantly, Naruto took a little sniff and eventually broke out in fat, ugly sobs. She didn't care what Tsunade and her father (dead, Kurama's claw piercing him, the Shinigami pulling out his and Kurama's souls and falling to the ground in a heap) had been yelling about. She was… relieved?
Kakashi smelled like - well, he smelled like Kakashi, she supposed.
No smell of decay. No dirt. No… Tobi.
She fell asleep and Kakashi refused to get off of her. He even threatened Tsunade to steal Naru's pain pump and the rest of the crap attached to her so he could flash her home.
Naruto let out a bitter chuckle when she woke up, shivering in the dark, sometime later. Her throat really hurt so maybe this was real this time?
She could make out Kakashi's silver hair. "Go on and do it." It would be better that way: Kakashi's jutsu was about to plunge through her chest and back anyway, wasn't it?
Let it happen, she told herself.
Kakashi grumbled as he woke up. The hospital bed was small and he had finally been comfy after not sleeping for a week. He looked down into her beautiful blue eyes again, but they looked so dim and dull. "I'm your Alpha and I'm never letting Obito touch you again, Naru-chan. Go back to sleep."
Naruto inhaled her mate's scent deeply, holding onto his bare back with her good hand. "You know it's him?"
"...Yes."
For some reason, that answer left her deeply - however momentarily - relieved.