It was nighttime, and they were setting their camp. They would reach Konoha by the following evening, so there was no need to push too much. Naruto ran out of his poison in the morning since he didn't really carry the poison for this purpose.
It was supposed to be used on enemies, but he hardly ever relied on poisons. So he only carried a tiny vial, and now he was in agonizing pain. Each time he used chakra to tree hop, the pain would shoot through his body, making his vision foggy.
He did his best to hide the pain and push through, but he didn't believe he could last another day of tree jumping. He made quick work of their dinner. He must have looked exhausted because Shisui promptly took the cleaning duty.
Others must have been aware, too, because Minato ordered him to get some sleep, and when Naruto complained about his watch, he said he would take care of it, and he was the Hokage, so his words were final.
Naruto reluctantly went to the tent. He had a fever from overuse of chakra combined with the side effects of the poison. He was in so much pain he couldn't fall asleep even if he wanted to. He was lying on his bedroll when Shikaku came in.
He didn't say anything, he just sat next to him and reached a hand to touch his forehead. Naruto tried to pull back, but all his strength left him. Shikaku's hand felt cool. "Shit, you are burning up." He said and quickly hurried to pull the blanket off him and take off his clothes.
Naruto didn't have the energy to complain. Naruto looked at him with questioning eyes. "My son is the same age as you. He gets the same way when he is trying to hide he is sick. Going to the doctor is too troublesome." Shikaku said with a chuckle.
When Shikaku was taking off his shirt, he saw the needle marks, which were bruised around since his senbons weren't as gentle as a needle. "Brat. You have 5 seconds to explain yourself." Shikaku said as he grabbed his arm a bit tighter.
"I needed excess chakra extraction. My coils are burning. I used one of my poisons to numb the pain, but I ran out." Naruto said, voice ragged and breathy, forcing every word out. He was trying so hard to stay focused, but it was a losing battle.
"Shit, what can we do?" Shikaku said. He was done taking off his clothes, down to his underwear, and was now checking his pulse and other vitals.
"I will be fine. Just tell them what I said when we get back." Naruto said as his eyes began to close.
"No, no, no, don't fall asleep on me. I need to make sure you are stable." He tried to shake Naruto's shoulders a bit. "MINATO, GET IN HERE NOW," Shikaku yelled. The next thing Naruto felt was his father suddenly coming in, followed by Shisui and Kakashi.
Naruto couldn't understand what they were saying. He was hearing their voices distorted as if underwater. He could hear the tones of a quick argument and then being lifted into gentle arms. He heard his father whispering in a soothing voice before losing conciseness.
Naruto woke up in the hospital bed. He tried opening his eyes, but the light was too much. He then slowly reached with his senses. He was in the regular hospital and not ROOT. He could feel people going around, but his room was thankfully empty.
He still felt heavy, and his body was aching, but his chakra was stable. They must have flushed his system. He could feel Kurama slowly working on healing him without agitating his coils again. Finally, Naruto felt a Shizune approaching his room, so he decided to wake up.
As soon as Shizune opened the door and saw his eyes were open, She called for a nurse to notify Tsunade and ran to his bedside. She was checking his IV and monitors. She didn't use mystic palm since, in his condition, it would be too delicate a procedure not to trigger his body again. Tsunade was the only one who could perform it 100 percent safely.
Tsunade came in with a Hyuga nurse. Tsunade didn't bother asking him anything since the look of exhaustion was enough to tell her it wasn't a good time to ask questions. She did the mystic palm as Shizune told her the other stats, and the Hyuga nurse used her eyes to confirm things further.
After a quick check-up, Shizune injected a syringe into his IV. "Get some sleep, brat. You will be fine."
The next time Naruto woke up was nighttime, and his father was sitting on a chair in the room. He was reading some documents but quickly looked up when Naruto jerked a bit, trying to get himself into a seated position.
His father quickly put aside the documents and rushed to his side. He helped him into a seated position. He looked conflicted, as if he didn't know what to do. He finally settled on gently grabbing his hand and running his thumb over the back of his hand in circles.
"Please don't scare me like that again. I was so worried." Minato said. His voice was soft, as if he was afraid to scare him.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to happen. Even since I remember, this has happened to me. I had to go through regular sessions to flush the chakra. As I got older, I didn't need it regularly or as frequently. I guess it was just building up for a while without me noticing." Naruto said hoarsely. His throat felt raw from the fever.
His father got him a glass of water and helped him drink. "That is not what I'm talking about. I read the whole situation from your file. What I meant was hiding that you were in pain. You don't have to hide these things from me." His father said as he sat on the edge of the bed.
"I didn't want to bother anyone. I thought I could make it back to the village, but I ran out of the poison." Naruto said sheepishly.
"That's another thing. You shouldn't use poisons on yourself. You know how dangerous they are. I already know that Tsunade is going to give you a full lecture on that but don't ever do it again. If there is a problem, you will tell me." Minato said urgently. He leaned forward and finally pulled Naruto into a gentle embrace.
Naruto knew that he couldn't give him his word, so he opted to stay silent and enjoy the embrace. They had to pull away eventually.
"What happened after I passed out?" Naruto asked.
"Well. I hiraishined us back as fast as I could and got you to the hospital. Others packed the camp and followed after us. They got here in the morning. Shisui was staying with you during the day, but I ordered him to go back home for the night and get some sleep." Minato said.
Naruto nodded and yawned as he felt himself getting drowsy. His father was quick to help him lay down again. "Get some sleep. I will be here in the morning." He said and caressed Naruto's cheek before pulling the blanket on him.
Naruto mumbled goodnight and fell asleep.
Naruto was on a mission with Itachi and Shisui. Their extensive search for finding a way to defeat Zetsu brought them here. They were in underground ruins in the land of snow. Years ago, some of the people decided to dig down in order to escape the harsh climate.
So they did so and created a series of tunnels underground. However, defending yourself underground is an arduous task, so they built traps. They made a giant maze-like structure with traps lying everywhere. One wrong move would mean certain death.
After the mysterious extinction of the clan, many tried to find their village. The clans who lived there were historical and collected many artifacts and valuables over the years. They were all Shinobis, and once they were sure no one could steal from them, they became collectors.
Now, after all these years, no one had managed to conquer the maze. Itachi and Shisui came across some documents about this place a while ago. During the warring clan's era, some Uchiha decided to use their sharingan to navigate the maze.
The Uchiha clan was going through a rough patch, and they could use the resources. So they began their journey. They strategically used groups to navigate. They sent a large group of retired warriors. Those who were no longer capable on the battlefield.
They all went to the sight. They would go in one by one. A person would go ahead till some point and then come back to give a report of the safest path. Then they would switch with someone else who would go and navigate further.
After a few navigations, the whole group would move forward. Then they would go again one by one. It was a tedious task. Especially since they gave each person 30 minutes of forward movement. Based on the estimated time they had to get back, if there were no news for an hour after the designated time, they would send the next person.
Some of the bodies were never recovered, and they made good progress, but they had no way of knowing how far along they were, so when only a handful of them remained, they went back with all their data.
After finding the documents, Naruto started his own investigation with the help of his network of clones to find all the materials they could find. There wasn't much to go on since hardly ever anyone used the same method as the Uchiha.
But there were a few. Some of them explored different paths than the Uchiha, and some had common areas; with some help from a reluctant Shikamaru, they managed to construct the most accurate map available.
So they packed their gear and got ready for the adventure. Naruto was using his clones to ensure the safety of their paths. So far, they discovered quite a few of the hidden traps that were not discovered before.
It ranged from classical traps such as pitfalls and hidden weapons to ones using primary seals, which Naruto was thankful for since fuinjutsu wasn't advanced back then. They were so far 24 hours in, and they were taking a break in a small clearing. It was a crossroad connecting 4 paths. Naruto made quite a few clones to navigate ahead for the night and set a safety barrier around them.
They weren't worried about Shinobi coming since hardly anyone managed to get by this point. They were primarily concerned with timed traps. Some of the traps activated at certain intervals, and they didn't want to die unaware.
Naruto was using his best defenses, and he even used his sensing around them to check for any hidden traps, but he wasn't willing to risk it. They were going to take shifts for 9 hours of sleep. Naruto was also using seals to monitor the oxygen, the air, and anything they might not notice.
It was the second day, and they finally had a breakthrough. During the morning, an interesting conversation came up. They couldn't speak since some of the traps were voice-activated, so they used signs to communicate.
Shisui was frustrated since they had managed to navigate the map they had the previous day, and now they were going in blind. Naruto was completing the map with the help of his clones, but still, there was no telling how much further they had to go.
So far, they figured that a lot of paths circle into each other, and they moved a lot in circles.
Shisui joked that he wanted to throw himself into a pit, and that's when it clicked. Some of the pits his clones came across had spikes, and some didn't. They were just pits. Yet they had this spherical shape that only allowed him to see the bottom and a bit of the side. What if some of them were not just pits?
He decided to test his theory and sent a big group of clones. Since they weren't meant to fight or do anything too hard, Naruto could technically make thousands of them without exhaustion at a time. So a group of hundred wasn't that big. He quickly explained his idea to the boys, and after a while, he got the memories of some clones.
It was indeed the case. However, the problem still remained that if they chose the wrong pits, they might get trapped. So Narurto made even more clones to find their correct path.
