Chapter XVII

Sad Truth

Limping painfully, Shikamaru helps me back to my hospital bed. Once seated, I refrain from collapsing. I can't help but squeezing my aching arm, devoid of any sensation and enslaved by terrible spasms, just like my shivering body. Moments later, accompanied by her faithful assistant, Lady Tsunade quickly enters the room. No need to say that she's not there for a courtesy visit since she hastens to examine me. A hand on my forehead to take my temperature before using her medical ninjutsu to inspect the condition of my forearm; in doing so, she wrings some shudders and silent groans from me. It is only then that I notice the bruises that mark it and the protruding, deep and reddish holes; with the size of the openings, I'm surprised the bleeding has stopped.

"How does … it look like, Lady Tsunade..?" I ask with difficulty.

She doesn't answer me and her frown doesn't bode well.

"Lady Tsunade," Shizune calls out.

"You have a fever, but you'll recover pretty quickly," finally speaks Godaime, who is now providing care for my limb, of which I'm gradually regaining sensations, although painful. "Your radial and median nerve have been severed and one of your meridians has suffered significant trauma."

It's not without reason that my body is on fire, especially my arm … but I didn't expect so much damage. Yet, the question of this fever comes to tickle me and torment my mind.

"Naruto wasn't gentle at all," she continues, anguished. "However, it is the exact opposite with your meridian. He pierced it so precisely that he could rival with the Byakugan."

"What do you mean?" Shikamaru asks.

"Chakra veins are delicate and easy to damage and cut. Not only did he not slice it, but he inflicted minimal trauma. Such finesse to the naked eye is impossible… To believe that he's capable of seeing them in one way or another."

"I presume that the fact that he forcibly sucked my chakra out is to blame for the trauma?" I question.

She confirms it with a nod.

"It must be an ability these creatures possess," Shikamaru adds with a sigh. "It seems that—beyond a doubt—we finally know what's going on with him."

A deadly silence sets in.

As he said it, we have our answers regarding the sapphire-eyed boy: he is a chakra devourer. How? We still have to find the answers, these and many more. Although we finally have an explanation, the prognosis remains grim. Indirectly, Naruto has become a threat to the shinobi and kunoichi of Konoha and judging by the deplorable state I am in, that is understood. Moreover, it implies that he will be hungry again… As long as I am the only one able to approach him, I will be a victim of this feeding ritual again and again. Just thinking about it sends a shiver of dread down my spine.

Thus emptied of my precious chakra, sleep claims me; my eyelids are excruciatingly heavy.

"I can't do more," Fifth Hokage announces, ceasing her technique. "I repaired your nerves and your meridian. You should find sensations during the following hours. I'm going to make you a medication to help you regain your strength."

"I see… Thank you."

My hospital room door opens. Mechanically, we turn our heads. It's Sakura, visibly worried.

"I heard you were injured," she says, coming to my bedside.

While Lady Tsunade is busy bandaging my meagre wounds after applying a cream to prevent infections, she notices my arm marked with pain and logically, my incessant tremors that go with it. She must suspect who is responsible—something she confirms when she questions me:

"It's Naruto, isn't it?"

Nobody dares to answer her, but our body language is enough to respond her.

"Are you finally going to tell me what's going on with him?"

Her grim look betrays the tears she is holding back and moistening her emerald irises. Unable to tolerate her being in the dark any longer, I decide to reveal to her what I deem acceptable.

"Sakura, as you know it, Naruto has amnesia."

She nods. Since I am being allowed to speak, I continue:

"I'm not going to beat around the bush. What I am about to tell you is strictly classified. Naruto was the subject of experiments that possibly changed him forever whether he regained his memory or not. He's a feral animal that feeds on chakra now. Chances are there's no cure for his condition, as well as the Naruto we all know may be lost for good."

"What … what are you talking about?" Sakura mumbles, horrified. "What do you mean by that? What you're saying doesn't make sense. It can't be true…"

Unsurprisingly, she doesn't believe me—rather, she sinks into denial.

"Perhaps it would be easier to show her, don't you think, Godaime? After all, being part of Team 7, she has the right to know."

"I'll be honest with you, Sakura," Lady Tsunade curtly says to her young disciple. "If I took you off the case, it was to protect you."

Sorrow and anger mingling with each other, the emerald-eyed teenager clenches her fists before facing her.

"I'm not a kid anymore," she retorts, barely holding back her emotions, her tears. "If I can be helpful in any way, no matter how… I… I refuse to give up on Naruto and just sit there and wait. We are talking about Uzumaki Naruto! I refuse to believe that he's lost for good."

A silence.

"Sakura," I whisper.

"Maybe you'll be more inclined to believe it if you see it yourself," the teen sighs, scratching the back of his head. "Come with me."

My student hesitates for a moment before following Shikamaru. Deep down, I hope she will not get too heartbroken. Still, knowing her, I remain pessimistic. In any case, she will end up knowing it one day or another; better burst the abscess now. For my part, I already dread seeing Naruto again…

Exhausted, I slip under the covers to fall asleep. After Godaime's medication, I close my eye; I sleep like a log.


Sakura was accompanying Shikamaru in silence, in this corridor which it had always been refused access to. Kakashi's speech occupied her thoughts, tortured her. She didn't know what he really meant by "a feral animal that feeds on chakra." Except that Naruto had returned seriously injured to the village and that he was suffering from amnesia, she hardly knew what was going on with him. Nevertheless, she was no fool; the situation was serious, very serious. Despite her insistence that she could help him regain his memory since the two were relatively close, Tsunade forbade her. Until now, she did not know the evil that gnawed at her comrade. The young girl would soon have an answer to her torments.

They arrived in the observation room, occupied by two members of the team in charge of the case. These people, she had never seen them before. Yet their faces were familiar to her; she assumed they were part of the research unit—a logical thinking. Just like Kakashi before her, Sakura swept her gaze everywhere. On the central monitor, she could see the cage where Naruto resided. However, she couldn't find him anywhere.

"He's still there?" Shikamaru asked with a sigh, somewhat surprised.

"He didn't move an inch," one of the men replied, nodding.

"What do you mean?" Sakura wondered, confused. "Where is Naruto? I thought we had locked him up here."

The teenager with the dark irises let out another sonic complaint as he is too used to.

"As Godaime said, you're not gonna like what you're about to see," Shikamaru warned, crossing his arms. "Of course, I can't let you approach him in person."

"Why?"

"Because you might complicate things. Let's say I'm afraid that I screwed things up when I went in there earlier to help Kakashi-sensei."

"What happened?"

"I could show you … but I'd rather show you what's going on with him in a concrete way. Put on the first video," he ordered to the others.

As they had shown to the Copy Ninja, they showed to her, that moment when Naruto first awoke within those four walls… She could only watch in awe at Naruto's feral behaviour where he seemed possessed by something as black as the demon fox. The devastating flames that transformed the boy into an unrecognizable entity, the rage in his heart that dominated the violence he displayed, the screams of a monstrous beast… The teenager had the feeling of seeing her unleashed comrade again on the Tenchi Bridge. Mechanically, she refused to believe it; it wasn't Naruto—rather, an inhuman thing that had taken over his entire being, devouring every bit of humanity. As Kakashi had summed it up, he was nothing more than a wild animal, the shadow of himself. This realization gave rise to an indescribable twinge in her chest which grew smaller and smaller with each heartbeat, to the point of being forced to put her hands there in an attempt to appease the pain that was gripping her, in vain.

"That's what Naruto is now," Shikamaru said, gloomy. "I can't help thinking that I'd be in the same state as him if my father hadn't saved me that night… If I had survived this hell that he went through, of course."

A tear escaped from the girl's emerald eye in spite of herself.

"Besides not recognizing any of us, he's very hostile to anyone who comes near him," he continued. "Kakashi-sensei is the only one capable of reaching and taming him. I don't want to make you sad or whatever, but we don't know if he'll regain his memory one day…"

The two teenagers avoided all eye contact. Although he wasn't showing it, Shikamaru worried a lot about his childhood friend, his brother-in-arms… After all, even though he annoyed others in period by his colourful personality, he made Konohagakure alive. Moreover, the sapphire-eyed boy possessed a strange gift that caused Shikamaru to stop being lazy, sparking that long-absent motivation in him. He wanted to walk beside him. Seeing him like this greatly affected him, squeezed his heart in a vice; he felt sorry for him.

Just like Sakura, he felt anger, hatred towards those people who did this to him. They could only trust Kakashi to bring Naruto back now.

At least, made him remember who he is.

Hoping his memories are still there.

And not gone forever just like the loss of his humanity.