It takes all of two days for Koru – the grouchy healer – to get absolutely sick of Naruto's constant nagging and hyperactive energy. By the third day, he's discharged with a bag full of medicine and a manual of chakra exercises he's got to practice in order to not burn his insides the next time he performs a jutsu.
Stepping out of the hospital, Naruto is greeted with the sight of Kiba and Shikamaru, waiting by the gates. While the former appears to be narrating a very exciting tale, the latter stares at the clouds above, entirely ignoring his current chat buddy. The moment Kiba hears Naruto approaching, his head whips towards him, face breaking into a roguish but sincere grin and he leaps without preamble to tackle his friend into a hug.
Naruto braces himself and withholds a wince, hugging Kiba back with a huge smile on his face. Shikamaru watches them with his characteristic bored amusement but joins in without much protest when Kiba ropes him into their shared embrace.
"It's so good to see you, bro!" Kiba says when they're done being a bunch of 'sentimental fools' in Shikamaru's words. "Are you feeling better?"
"Yeah, I am. All thanks to this medicine," he thrusts the paper bag forward in demonstration, "that tastes like decades old mouldy ramen."
"Of course you'd know what that tastes like," Shikamaru snorts, tucking his hands back into his pockets. He nods towards the street to the right. "We'll walk you home. Let's go."
Naruto narrows his eyes as they walk, "What? You two are my personal bodyguards or something?"
Kiba gives him a sheepish smile, entirely aware of how that must be an annoying notion for the blond. "Nah bro. We're just going in the same direction so we thought... why not?" he shrugs.
Naruto's far from convinced. But he lets it go. He can imagine him acting the same way if any of them had been injured. Hell, he wouldn't leave their side for one second and obnoxiously ask them if they wanted him to carry their belongings every other minute like a fretting parent.
"So, what have you all been upto these last couple days?" he inquires. He's genuinely curious – last week had probably been the first time he hadn't met them every single day in the last year or so.
"Nothing much," Shikamaru says, idly rolling his neck. His gaze then focuses on Naruto – more intense than it's ever been. He pulls out something from his pocket and gives it to Naruto. "Chouji made that for you. A spicy riceball with ramen stuffing. Said it's a get well soon gift or whatever."
Naruto holds the wrapped ball in his hand and smiles. The gesture warms him up from the inside, "Wow. That's gotta be the coolest riceball ever."
Kiba nods in absolute agreement. "Oh, by the way. We've got some good news!"
"Oh? What's that?"
"Tenten was able to complete the compact storage seal thingy with your designs! She said it was super good when she did the trial run – and well, their team received a C rank mission to go on in two weeks so it's awesome timing."
Naruto's truly relieved on hearing that news. Their failure to reverse-engineer the instant teleportation seal still stings but at least Tenten won't be without an ace up her sleeves when she goes out into the world.
He grins, "That's actually great! How's she doing though? Was she hyperfixated on that seal? Did she get enough sleep?"
"Well, to be honest, we all missed out on proper sleep these last few days," Kiba sighs, looking rigidly ahead as he continues, "We were so freaking worried about you. That damn healer wouldn't allow anyone but Sakura and Sai inside for some reason and even before that – when we got you to the hospital – she... she said she wasn't even sure you'd survive before they operated on you."
Guilt bubbles up inside Naruto as he hears the agitation in Kiba's voice but he squashes it just as quickly. He knows he would risk it all to save Sai again, even if it means causing his friends some worry.
"I'm totally fine now," Naruto nudges Kiba lightly, meeting his eyes, "so you better catch up on that sleep, alright?"
Kiba nudges back, harder, so much so that Naruto ends up jamming his elbow into Shikamaru's side. As the Nara pins Naruto with a supremely annoyed look, Kiba stands and laughs unrepentantly.
Naruto feels inexplicably happy, in that moment.
"Ah, that's my stop!" Kiba says after they've travelled across a few more lanes, pointing to an old, grey building. Catching Naruto's questioning look, he explains, "My aunt lives there. I'm going for a visit."
"That's sweet," Naruto pats his back, "Go on, then. Thanks, for like, y'know."
"I know," Kiba replies. He sprints off and the other two resume walking.
"Shikamaru?"
A hum from the boy in question encourages Naruto to continue. "Why wasn't Akamaru with Kiba? I've never seem them apart."
"Oh, um," Shikamaru looks at Naruto from the corner of his eye. "There's no good way to say this but Akamaru's been a bit sick ever since that day. Kiba's mum said he absorbed the malignant chakra pouring out of Sai's body. He's gonna be fine though – so don't worry."
"Okay," Naruto frowns, looking in the direction Kiba disappeared. "I hope Kiba's okay. He didn't seem any different today, though I know he must be worried sick about Akamaru."
"Yeah, he's handling it well," Shikamaru pauses, nose scrunching up, "except when he first found out and cried all night and wiped his snot on my shirt. That was fun."
Naruto's startled into laughing. "If you can't be his personal tissue box, then you aren't much of a friend."
"Forgive me for caring about my personal hygiene," Shikamaru responds, his tone drier than Suna.
"Anyway," Naruto swings the bag in his hand, back and forth, "You have any clue who that aunt of Kiba's is? I thought all born Inuzukas – including the ones married out of the clan – lived in their compound."
"They do," Shikamaru nods. "But this one's different. I don't really know much but she's Kiba's great aunt actually. An exception to the rule."
Naruto mulls over that for a few seconds before getting distracted by a small shop at the end of the road. "Hey, Shika, you hungry?"
Shikamaru follows Naruto's gaze, reads the Ichiraku Ramen sign, heaves a sigh, then says, "No, but that doesn't matter, does it?"
"Correct," Naruto grins widely, pulling Shikamaru by his wrist towards arguably his most favourite place in the world.
Their spontaneous lunch goes as well as it could have, given Naruto's coughing fit after biting into Chouji's spicy ramen riceball which was more spice than it was rice. Shikamaru's adamant ignoring of his friend's pretend-dying didn't help any but at least Teuchi thoroughly enjoyed chuckling at the boy growing up so wonderfully before his eyes.
For his part, Naruto rode through the fire that had settled on his tongue and managed to unload everything that had happened in the past month onto Teuchi – his honourable uncle.
"... and that's why this idiot is with me right now, 'cause apparently I can't take care of myself and need to have a babysitter to escort me home," Naruto slurps the last of his noodles, ending his twenty-minutes-long rant.
"Need I remind you that you're the one who pulled me here?" Shikamaru stands up from the stool and places the right amount of money on the slate, "Thank you."
Teuchi nods, amused, "Look, Naruto. This good lad's paying for you even after you've annoyed him to almost-death."
"Nah," Naruto flips a hand dismissively, "His dead look is a constant. He's practically known for it. I am not the cause of it at all."
"Really?" Shikamaru smiles thinly, "If you wish, I can make you look pretty dead too."
Naruto snorts, standing up, "You wouldn't dare. Not with Teuchi here to testify against you."
Teuchi grins and Shikamaru returns it. "He won't," "I won't," they say together.
Naruto mock-gasps, "You traitor! I will not stand this Teuchi-san! I will not come to eat at Ichiraku's anymore! I will go and eat... eat... steamed dumplings instead! Yes!"
Teuchi smiles brightly at him, "You hate dumplings."
Naruto deflates. "I really do."
"See you tomorrow then!" Teuchi waves at them.
"See you," Naruto returns miserably because there's no way Shikamaru won't pull his leg for this. But when he looks at the Nara, he finds his lips quirked up, eyes intense again as he stares at Naruto.
"What?" Naruto asks.
"Just appreciating the sheer levels of your idiocy," Shikamaru quips, looking forward again and though he sounds way less smug than usual, Naruto lets it go.
Once Naruto's home, things slow down. He spends most of the afternoon and evening alternating between napping and trying to catch up on classwork and homework done during his absence at the academy.
He's still pretty sleepy by the time night rolls around but he's itching to dig into some seal-work so he ignores his yawns and pulls out all his drafts of the human-object and human-human Chakra Transfer Seal.
It's been a while since he'd worked on them so having a look at his designs with a fresh perspective seems like a good restart. It also helps that he has a new idea which can lead him to more progress in the right direction.
As morbid as the incident had been, when Naruto saved Sai – he'd transferred his own chakra, indirectly, to Sai's body through Danzo's seal. He'd done something he's wanted to achieve using a seal.
It's exciting to think that humans are capable of chakra transfer without any seal assistance but it's usually a last resort to save someone facing chakric exhaustion due to the high risks involved. That's the whole reason why Naruto wants to construct this seal so that such sharing of chakra can be done not only for medical treatments but also in situations that are not as severe.
One of the biggest obstacles in making this seal, Naruto realises while recollecting one of Sakura's monologues about the nature of chakra, is the incompatibility that can arise during a chakra transfer. There's a small chance someone giving their chakra to another can cause harm to the pathways of the recipient.
It's what happened to Naruto. His chakra channels were left burnt due to the nature of the kyubi's chakra that didn't agree with how Naruto's natural pathways were made. That incompatibility caused him internal damage which, though rare for two humans instead of a human and chakra monster, is still a possibility.
Mostly all humans share the same kind of pure chakra that's generated within them. Their nature can be manipulated but that's not the state the chakra flows through them most of the time. But minor differences are present amongst everyone's chakra due to different proportions of mental and physical energies that goes into moulding their chakra.
These differences pose risks while transferring chakra between two humans. And Naruto's determined to overcome them.
For that – the solution seems simple. A filter that can balance the components of pure chakra to a safer average ratio.
Thing is, no one's ever manipulated pure chakra in a way that its constituents are changed. Naruto doesn't even know where to begin with such a seal-device.
The next best option that comes to his mind is to build something that can detect this incompatibility so the transfer's prevented instead of preventing the incompatibility entirely. While not the most ideal option, he'd rather the transfer not be done if it can cause more harm than good than carry on and later let the recipient reap the consequences.
Yes, this final seal may not allow everyone to transfer their chakra but at least the ones it does allow will be at their safest while doing so.
Decision made, Naruto gets rid of a few kinks in his neck and rubs his eyes aggressively to sway away the oncoming drowsiness. With his lip between his teeth and brush between his fingers, he begins creating.
"Staring at the door won't make him get here any faster," Sakura slides in beside Sasuke, watching the Uchiha's cool expression morph into annoyance with reserved amusement.
"I'm not staring," Sasuke says, staring at the classroom entrance.
"You definitely are!" Ino shouts from the back of the class.
"There," Sakura says with feeling, "I've got a supporter to back me up. Now quit staring."
Sasuke rolls his eyes before finally meeting the girl's gaze. "Why are you doing this?"
Sasuke smiles. "Doing what?"
"Annoying me."
"Oh? Am I? Sorry, I didn't notice. I was too busy telling you not to fucking stare at the door – unblinkingly for ten minutes might I add."
"Are you done?"
"Maybe," Sakura hums, slumping into her chair casually. "Actually no. I don't think so. You're too fun to rile up."
"Go back to your seat," Sasuke says flatly.
"This is my seat."
"No, it's not," Sasuke looks back at the door. "It's Naruto's."
Sakura smiles again. It's less teasing this time around. "He can sit with Ino for a day. He won't die without your precious company, don't worry."
"I don't know how he tolerates you," Sasuke wonders aloud, as if sincerely giving it a lot of thought.
"Because he loves me!" Sakura replies cheerily, finding inmmense joy in making Sasuke regret his existence with this single conversation.
"Can you feel something poking you?" Sasuke asks, turning to look at her.
Sakura blinks in confusion and then...
"Yes," she gulps, feeling the sensation on her thigh. It's a kunai.
Sasuke gives her a light smirk, "Go."
With a put upon sigh, Sakura gets up and trots back to Ino.
"I've been gone one measly week and you're threatening people will bodily harm already?"
Sasuke jerks back, cursing under his breath. All his vigilance and for what? He missed Naruto's entrance – and was that not a ridiculous thought for him to have?
"Hey," Naruto takes his usual seat beside him, a notepad clipped with several pieces of paper clutched in his hands.
"Hi," Sasuke says, "How are you doing?"
"A tad sleep-deprived but otherwise pretty good. You?"
Sasuke ignores the question, "You're coming to my place for lunch today. Obito's invited you."
"What?" Naruto looks at him for a solid minute, his expression more than conveying his surprise. An invitation to do anything with Sasuke been unexpected, nevermind lunch – with his only remaining family, that too. That's the kind of news he'd spit a drink out after hearing. "What," he repeats. "Why?"
Sasuke shrugs, "I don't know. But you better come. I need to... " he trails off before starting again, sounding nervous, "I have something I want to ask you about. If you'd wanna tell me. Um. You're in?"
He's a bit weirded out and a teeny bit wary but he grins, eyes trailing the borders of a matrix displayed on his notepad, "How can I ever say no to free food?"
Author's Note:
i keep thinking the academy phase will be over in so and so words but i do think i've got a more solid idea of when we can see naruto and his batch graduating now. only thing i'm unsure of is sasuke's arc, only because i've given him a very similar one in twist in time, another fic of mine, and i wanna do smth more with him this time.
anyway, thanks a ton for reading!! i appreciate everyone so much, the favs/follows and the comments y'all send. it's awesome. thanks!
have a great day everyone!