Shin Ikeda

By Kassien

Written: 10/28/22 - 7/30/23

Rated: M (language, sex, minor drug reference)

Chapter 10: Awakening

I had a lot to think about after my mom left, and the only thing I knew for sure was that I didn't want to return to my old life, and I wanted my chakra back.

Much later that same day, I was being wheeled into yet another test, a full body MRI, after the ct scan, blood, and meningitis tests followed my x-ray, and the only good thing about them all was getting the quiet time to think and try and make sense of what happened to me. It still didn't make any sense, but I was convinced that it was real, that "my consciousness" had somehow traveled to the Naruto world, where I had lived for twenty years, only to waken right back up afterwards, back in my original twenty year old body. I didn't know how to prove any of it, and I was sure as hell not going to tell anybody anything, unless I wanted to spend the rest of my life in a nice padded cell being fed medication until I cracked.

Instead, I was quiet and a model patient, kind to the nurses and orderlies who were taking care of my every need, as I just thought through everything that happened, and continued to try and understand and make sense of it all. During the quiet of the night, I decided to try and start meditating as I did when first finding my chakra in Naruto's world, but every time I felt I was nearing something, whatever it was slipped away out of reach, hovering in my periphery, or I was interrupted by the periodic visits of the nurses on duty. They seemed to have something to come and wake me for every two to three hours, sometimes just to check the readings on the machines I was still hooked to, even through the middle of the night.

The next day was even more boredom-inducing, with even more interruptions, as several different doctors came by throughout the day to see the miracle coma boy who woke up, and marvel over the results of my recent tests, and leave me very little time to myself. Though it was good to get to move around the various parts of the hospital a little, they even had me try and stand a few times on my own during physical therapy, but the lack of muscle in my legs was pretty significant after over two months of atrophy. Luckily, my mom did arrive in the afternoon, and brought my phone charger, so my very dead phone could hopefully/finally get turned back on, and I can figure out what else I've missed in my life over the last two plus months.

Shit, I missed a lot. Danielle had dumped me by text within an hour of leaving me alone at the hospital, having only given my name, and I couldn't find it in me to care too much about that one failing. I got a pair of texts from 'friends' shortly after I fell into the coma, but nothing since which was kind of disappointing. I got fired from my part-time library job, no real surprise after not showing up or responding to the dozens of emails, messages, and texts, and nobody thought to tell them I was in a coma. I also failed my fall finals in absentia, having collapsed at the beginning of December before I could take them, and might …might be able to salvage one or two of the five courses without having to completely redo them. My medical leave of absence seemed to have given me some leeway however, as they were holding my spot indefinitely, and welcomed me to return whenever I was medically cleared and mentally fit to rejoin my peers at St. Bonaventure.

Despite only meeting the man once, that I knew of anyway, my father paid my tuition at his Alma Mater, and arranged for my admittance with his connections, though had never claimed me in any other way. I was probably a pretty resentful and spiteful kid then, since I didn't really care or value the free education he was giving me, or the step up he was trying to provide to give me the chance to get out of the little small town I grew up in. Having never really acknowledged my mother or me when I was younger, I can admit to being quite resentful before, but now saw it as what it was, an opportunity.

And I was completely fucking blowing it, and pissing it away out of resentment and anger at someone who actually paid for me to go to a good college, because I didn't want him to think he won?

Shit, I was a fucking idiot. I needed to step up and grow up. I was already twenty in this life, but wasn't even half the man I was as Shin, who grew up and lived his entire life alone and still remained motivated to grow from an unnamed orphan to a strong Jounin of Konoha. And here I was, a medical leave of absence the only thing preventing me from being tossed from college with no real future or prospects. A few acquaintances, but even fewer if any true friends, a string of unsuccessful girlfriends, but very few real relationships worth mentioning.

The doctors were worried about the stress and wear that was showing on my x-rays and MRI, worried that my bones and body had somehow been under constant physical strain despite me being in the coma, but were willing to let me be escorted in a wheelchair to my mother's wedding with strict instructions. Of course, I ignored those instructions completely, when I found my Uncle Mark rolling a joint in the bathroom, and gladly joined him for a proper relaxation session that went completely unnoticed among the craziness that was Frank's family. Uncle Mark, was my mother's only brother, five years her junior, he acted more as my older brother then uncle and had never settled down or completely grown up himself. He worked at the water treatment plant in Alleghany about ten miles from the college, doing something computer related and lived in a trailer park mostly playing video games, near where he and my mom grew up.

I grew up in a semi-nearby house out in the boonies between Alleghany and Olean, with just my mom, and a somewhat constant string of boyfriends that came and went, as she worked as a server in a local diner, called the 417 Diner, on route 417 that mostly serviced the town that built up around St. Bonaventure. It was nothing glamorous, and I spent a lot of time on my own, but it was pretty safe and I rarely went to bed hungry, which looking back must have been really difficult on my mom at times. I was broken out of my thoughts by Uncle Mark stomping out the joint, and then wheeling me out of the bathroom in time to slip back among the chaos and witness all the special events, despite everything feeling like it was going a hundred miles per hour around me, while I was standing still.

It was really special, and I was quite happy for my mom and Frank. His family was quite large and a lot of fun, and I was somewhat overwhelmed at just how many cousins, friends, and siblings he had that came up to me to say hello. My mom just had her brother, me, and Jane from work, who was like her best friend and my honorary aunt that I couldn't stand, and we were all swallowed up in the almost one hundred guests on Frank's side of the family. Before it got too late into the night, the hospital van returned to pick me up and bring me back to Olean General Hospital where I had been for the last two plus months now, and now more desperate than ever to get out.

After happy goodbyes with my mom and Frank, and Uncle Mark promising me a place on his couch if I ever needed it, I returned to the hospital in relatively good spirits. I was happy for my little family, and also somewhat glad to have the freedom away from my mother as I explored whatever it was that happened to me. It didn't hurt that Mark left me with a few treats to help with the pain once I got out of the hospital, and I was soon back in my hospital room counting the ceiling tiles and waiting to get some peace from the constant interruptions and be released.

It was four days of continued tests and doctor uncertainty, but my restlessness and the ability to walk and then do actual cartwheels down the hall by day three, made them take a final look at everything they learned to that point. Me arguing that I wanted to leave, and would against medical advice if they didn't wrap things up hopefully helped speed up the process. Two days after my Mom and Frank left for their honeymoon, I was released from the hospital after they found nothing else wrong with me, and had no leads on any of the causes for my coma and/or the reason of my recovery, just a large bill that I would be paying off for some time in monthly installments.

It was late in the afternoon by the time I made it to my car, though the lack of a parking ticket forced me to pay the maximum $24 dollars to get out of the lot, but I was so grateful to be free of the accursed hospital, I didn't complain too much. How I wish chakra was still a thing, then the hospital visits and recovery at least went quicker. Since it was still the middle of the day, I made my way to campus to see how bad of shape my dorm room was left in, hoping most of my hall mates would be at class so I could slip in unnoticed at first.

Maybe not completely unnoticed, as Sam the Resident Advisor (RA) definitely saw me but was on the phone and I mimed that I would catch him on my way back, before slipping upstairs to one of the few single rooms on the third floor, #314. The notices on my door, and air fresheners hanging off my door knob both clued me into some of the problems I was bound to face in dealing with the aftermath of my coma, but I avoided them all for now and used my key to slip inside. It smelled like a gym locker room that hadn't been cleaned in months, and I quickly locked the door, and went and threw open the window hoping it would help air the room out.

I also shoved some of the dirty clothes on the floor under the door so the light from my room wouldn't spill out into the hall and alert everyone I was back yet, not wanting to deal with others for a while. I then rushed around for fifteen minutes psycho-cleaning and putting everything away, and throwing out anything suspicious or I didn't think I would need any more. With the basics taken care of, I found my old bathroom tote, and grabbed my towel before heading to the communal bathroom on the hall for the long and hot shower I had been dreaming of ever since waking up in the hospital.

I was bound to get noticed eventually, and John from #319 passed me in the hall on my way to the bathroom, and the widening of his eyes and rush to welcome me back told me I was soon going to be inundated with the welcoming committee of visitors. It was bound to happen eventually, and I needed to get it over with, but not until after my long awaited shower. It was the best hour since I woke up, as I stayed under the commercial grade shower with seemingly unlimited hot water for a dorm this size, and amazing water pressure that felt wonderful, not caring in the least about anything else.

When I finally emerged from my wonderful shower, it was to find my hall a whirlwind of activity that all paused at my arrival, before a cheer went up, and several of the residents of 3rd right came to welcome me back from the dead. They were in the process of preparing for a hall party tonight to celebrate my return, and all of them wanted to know what happened and how I was doing. I gave them all the doctor's spiel, that it was an unexplained collapse and coma, and I didn't really feel or remember anything but waking up in the hospital.

With Spring Break only two weeks away, the campus was buzzing with excitement and anticipation for the time off of classes, and the many trips students were undertaking or preparing for, and a hall party was well received and attended. Even my ex Danielle, showed with another guy, and I got to have an awkward conversation with the pair of them, that told me nothing new about my collapse but confirmed it was after walking into "Fiona's Fortunes" that I just seized up and collapsed in the middle of her rug. She kind of apologized for panicking and bailing, but I didn't really care, and wished her no hard feelings before saying my goodbyes from that conversation and finding myself another beer.

The best part of the night was actually meeting and talking with Sarah, a sophomore art student with a very kind face, and cute dyed pink hair in a pixie cut that actually reminded me of Sakura for a moment, and made me strike up a conversation with her. Turns out, she was a huge Naruto fan, Sakura and Tsunade being her favorite characters, and we talked for most of the night, or at least she did as I mostly nodded along saying I only knew a little in passing but enjoyed what I saw. It was very difficult for me at that point to even remember the original Naruto Manga story, and not think of the characters as my friends and colleagues, so I made sure I did as little talking as I could to not make a mistake right off the bat.

Though, it was almost given away by my calling her favorite character Tsunade-sama reflexively, as she was my Hokage as of a few days ago, and those were hard habits to break. Luckily, it went unnoticed or commented on, and as the party was winding down, I was invited to her room to watch the Manga. I had been in college long enough to know what that would entail, and gladly accepted, both fascinated to see the Manga itself after living as part of that world, and eager to spend more time with Sarah.

I felt significantly older and wiser than before my life as Shin, and used some of that knowledge and experience to ensure that Sarah was very happy and well taken care of while I was a guest in her room. We were grateful her roommate had a boyfriend of her own who she spent most of her time with, as the next few days we barely left her room except to get more food and the exciting trips to the communal shower together. We did eventually get around to actually watching the Naruto Manga in the brief moments of rest we needed, but hadn't gotten very far by the end of that first week, until she mentioned something that had me wanting to watch the rest of the series immediately.

"I just wish they went into the other characters' stories more," she said as we were eating in the cafeteria away from pretty much everyone in our own little world of a new relationship and discussing the episode we just watched were Hayate died, "we never really hear about Yugao's life much after Hayate dies, just a few of her missions but not how she is or what her life becomes. We never really see much of the lives of other majorly named characters like Anko, Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai; it all just gets assumed and maybe briefly mentioned in passing while they are on a mission, but never looks at their lives and relationships. We also hardly learn anything more than the names of several important ninjas of Konoha, like about Genma, Ibiki, or even Asuma's missing best friend Shin. I mean he names his and Kurenai's baby after the guy, he must have been somebody important."

"Shin? Wh-what episode is that?" I asked almost frozen, thinking I knew for certain that there was no Shin character in the Naruto series I remembered, and I could feel a thudding in my chest as my heart seemingly wanted to explode out of my chest.

"Oh, it was during the Shippuden Series," continued Sarah, seemingly not noticing my completely frozen body as she explained about an episode in a TV show that may just be about the life I just lived. "The leaf sends out squads to search for the Akatsuki in Fire Country, and Asuma's team fights Hidan and Kakuzu, and Asuma makes this amazing speech and reveals why he will defend Konoha's Will of Fire for his son, his wife, and the missing best friend he was still hoping to see one day. It was probably one of my favorite ever episodes of Shippuden."

"Hnn," I hummed in agreement, not knowing what else to say, and wondering if Shin was always a part of the Naruto story, or did he just become part of the story because of the life I just lived.

"Are you alright?" Sarah asked me a few moments later after continuing on without me following, and probably just now noticing my somewhat chalky look and robotic behavior, "you don't look well?"

"Oh, it's nothing," I answered with a small grin, "just thinking about how long its going to take to understand all these references, and really follow what you are telling me?"

"Why," she grinned back, "are you in a hurry to get rid of me?"

"Not in the least," I answered back with a grin of my own, "just worried about how long watching the whole series is going to take with all of these wonderful breaks we are taking."

"You want to skip some of the breaks?" she pouted cutely.

"Not at all," I laughed, leaning in for a quick kiss and whispering, "I want even more breaks …but I do eventually want to watch all of the Naruto stuff too."

"Hehe," she giggled happily, "then let's hurry up and get back to my room."

Over the next week, we kept up our busy schedule of plenty of fun breaks as we methodically watched through the entirety of the Naruto and Shippuden series, as well as all accompanying one shots, and even looked at the Narutopedia website but didn't encounter Asuma's mentioning Shin, even though Sarah knows she remembered it. I was scouring for any references to Shin beyond a single throw away line only she seemed to remember, buried at the end of a long speech by Asuma, hoping to somehow connect it to myself or find more information on the character not even mentioned and knowing I wasn't the Shin from Root, as the only mention I found. Sarah eventually realized that I didn't have any classes, and if she didn't want to drop out, would have to start going to hers again leaving me with decent chunks of time to continue my research unhindered.

During that time I contacted my teachers from last semester and made makeup arrangements for my own classes where I could. I also avoided heavy meditation, as I kept getting the peripheral glimpse of something just out of reach, and wanted to be truly alone when I attempted anything too serious, but did continue my new habit of running in the morning and lots of daily exercise with my girlfriend. That was the only real drawback to having and wanting to have Sarah around more, was that my own research into chakra was being pushed to the back burner for now, but I was willing to live with that as I learned more about the Naruto Manga and Sarah herself.

Sarah was amazing, funny, smart, and didn't take herself too seriously or worry too much about her appearance beyond wanting to be clean and enjoy her life. It was refreshing and so much fun to be around her, and I wasn't going to waste that time with her around, not lavishing her with attention and affection. So, I gladly put some of my personal research on hold and enjoyed the time I had with the beautiful girl from Virginia.

When she apologized during our second week of dating for not being able to bring me home over Spring Break, due to her conservative parents, I was completely understanding and promised I would be here waiting for her return. It made her push back leaving by an hour, but it was so worth it to be with her one more time before she left for the week. With the Shin research a complete dead end and the school packed up for Spring Break, I went back to the only other lead I had. I went in search of my elusive Fortune Teller that got me into this mess in the first place, though I didn't know what I was hoping to find when I reached her.

I didn't think it would be possible to go back, at least not back into Shin's body as I knew it, maybe it could start the whole thing over again, or maybe I would get pulled into a different Edo Tensei target of Orochimaru, and live a completely different life than the one I just lived as Shin. Even if that happened, would I want that? Is that why I was still seeking out the Fortune Teller in secret, and hadn't truly come clean about everything with Sarah, did I want to return to Konoha?

A part of me definitely did. The village and ninja life was so exciting and different from the world I knew on earth, but there was no telling if I would get the same positive experience again. And if I think about it, the beginning of that life was not positive, and was in fact filled with countless tragedies and unending pain and constant training. But, it also came with great rewards, like chakra and the Village and purpose and friends, though there was no guarantee you would get all of those on another turn through the metaphysical wheel of destiny, I also couldn't ignore the possibility of another chance.

It took me the first two days of the break driving from Flea Market to swap meet to antique malls and back in some of the smallest towns of Western and Central New York and Pennsylvania, until I found Fiona's Fortunes. Unfortunately, nothing happened upon my entry, and despite paying fifty bucks to get her to talk to me about the last time I entered her tent, the only thing she could tell me was that the rug I collapsed on had been thrown out after me, something about it being burned up after I collapsed. It cost me another fifty bucks to get her to tell me everything she knew about the rug, which wasn't much as she had just purchased it from a fellow Flea Market regular the day before I arrived, and threw it out after I was gone because in her words it burned up after I collapsed.

Then it was back on the road to the same Flea Market I collapsed in, and an old Asian Rug seller named Ito. It took two more days for Ito to arrive for the weekend Flea Market, and in that time I had managed to meditate for several hours uninterrupted, but still hadn't managed to surpass the block I was at. The man was tiny, and old, like die-any-day old, and barely spoke English or understood what I was asking him about until I grabbed a pad of paper and started drawing several common looking Fuinjutsu seals. Once he saw those, his eyes lit up, and he eagerly nodded and grabbed my hand in a surprisingly firm grip for such an old man, and brought me behind the table to his supply of rugs and started going through the pile.

He pulled out a single rug near the bottom that had what could only be a Fuinjustu seal sewn into the very rug itself, though it was one I was unfamiliar with, it made me realize there was even more to this than I thought. He then led me to the furthest back corner, moving some rugs and other things until he unearthed something that I instantly recognized as a storage scroll, and could hardly believe my eyes. He explained in Japanese, which was at least somewhat understandable after living in Konoha for so long, but not everything translated, that he was given the two rugs and scroll together by an old man he helped about twenty years previous while living in Japan, as they were apparently relics of that man's family or trophies from his enemies, that part was a little unclear.

I had to pay a pretty steep price for the pair, but it was so worth it to have them in my possession, and was soon back in my dorm room planning my next steps, and wondering if I should bring in Sarah when she came back, and if she would even believe me. I thought back to the Fuinjutsu rug and scroll that were currently locked in my trunk, and wondered if Fuinjutsu might just be the answer to awakening my chakra. Similar to how I first used the Ikeda Clan seal to widen and strengthen my pathways and chakra, I decided to try my hand at the same procedure again, hoping it would work.

Since I couldn't charge the seal with chakra, I was hoping to use my blood and would have to hope the natural chakra in the world would provide the additional boost I might need to get the seal activated and working. With one night until Sarah's return, I locked my room and drew the familiar Fuinjutsu seal on my stomach in the blood I collected from an incision I made on my finger, and waited for the Fuinjutsu seal to activate. After an hour of nothing happening, I felt a bit like an idiot, as I had no way to charge the seal and activate it, nor was it going to be a permanent thing doing it like this, and started brainstorming again.

To solve one of those problems, I went that night to the local tattoo shop that did relatively good business, as they were near a college in today's age, and asked about the inks and equipment they used and was soon chatting away with Steve the owner, and finding myself a new part time job if I wanted it. I agreed only to learn enough about tattooing in order to successfully tattoo the Fuinjutsu seal on my stomach, and groaned when he asked if I wanted to sit in on the next tattoo and get started right away. By the time Sarah returned the next day, I had already seen three tattoos performed, knew the very basics, and was planning to spend another few nights at the shop continuing to learn before I was allowed to practice on pieces of synthetic skin.

Sarah was less than pleased to discover I had a job that now cut into our nighttime activities, but I promised I was only going to do it for a few weeks at most, until I learned the basics and could get my own equipment. I told her I had a few plans for tattoos in my future, but wanted to be able to do them myself, and would quit as soon as I knew enough, and would make sure she got a discount if she wanted too. By the end of my first week, I knew enough to where I only needed practice and experience, and after my lessons prompted a pair of new apprentices to join, I told Steve I wanted to purchase some equipment to practice with, and peace off if it was alright.

Steve, was a real laid back guy, and easily accepted, knowing he would be busy enough with the two new apprentices, and grateful for all my help and my business in the future. Sarah was even happier to learn I quit, as she did not like the missing evening hours, and I was all about keeping my girl happy. I also turned in several makeup assignments, and made the arrangements to re-take my finals in two classes the following week, and used my little bit of free time leading up to it, making sure I was ready.

Despite not having unlocked my chakra yet, my meditating had done wonders for my memory and school work, and just having a better attitude and much more life experience, made everything seem easier in the world of education. I breezed through the two finals without any trouble, and spent most of the month of April practicing my tattooing until it was clean enough to follow a pattern exactly, and looking into ways to incorporate my blood into the tattoo ink I was going to use. The rest of my time was spent with my beautiful Sarah, who I finally came clean to on April Fools Day, about what I experienced during my coma, and what I had come to suspect in regards to the Fuinjutsu rugs and Orochimaru's own experiments that brought my soul into the Naruto world.

To say she was shocked and doubtful were both a given, though I just continued talking about everything, my life growing up in Konoha, the Academy classes, and endless training of chakra and control and Fuinjutsu because of what I thought (or knew) was coming. I talked about my genin team and Sensei, the missions and training, the Chunin Exams and their injuries, my continued growth and training, learning more Fuinjutsu and meeting Jiraiya and Naruto and the other characters she knew about, setting up my teammates' shop, and befriending Asuma. I continued talking about how I learned of Orochimaru's clone experiments and soul transfer experiments and that I was one who managed both and lived, my experiments with water chakra, learning I was a clone of the Second Hokage, then helping setup the Peace Treaty with Mei Terumi and the Land of Mist, and getting caught and tortured by Orochimaru, eventually leading to being possessed by the snake, and waking back up in the hospital a few months ago.

She had questions, lots of questions. Mostly about the characters she thought she knew, and I was able to confirm some of the basics as I had met most of them at least once, though she was less pleased to discover I had one-night stands with both Anko and Hana, and had a crush on Shizune, but I wasn't going to lie to her. I also told her of my plan to tattoo the Fuinjutsu script onto my stomach in the hope it would awaken my chakra, and also about the rug I planned to use to power that Ikeda Seal.

It was at this point that I knew I loved this girl, as she didn't bat an eye after learning all of this, and simply demanded that she be given every opportunity to unlock her own chakra if it worked for me. So, while I was studying and steadying my tattooing skills, Sarah was looking into renting a small out of the way house, where we would have plenty of privacy this summer to spend together and implement all our plans. I was also starting to teach her my meditation methods, as it would be an essential part of her being able to use her chakra if we were able to unlock it this summer, but we made sure it didn't disrupt all of our fun.

With Sarah on board, it was easier to talk and work through everything, and by May our plans for the summer had been finalized, and we were both working out and increasing our daily activities in anticipation of our experiments. We ran in the mornings, and were often outside in the afternoon exercising and stretching, and spent a lot of our behind closed door time exercising a different way, and were both in our bodies' best shape. Sarah's classes were going well too, and we were anticipating her end of May finals, so we could be done with school and attempt the impossible.

Impossible? Maybe not anymore?

It was a warm sunny June first, that had me clearing out a large space in the completely private backyard of our rental house. Once I found a nice clean patch of grass, I drew a chakra power gathering Fuinjutsu seal that was in the familiar Uzumaki spiral style of their Clan, but used every bit of Fuinjutsu knowledge I possessed to tweak for this very purpose. Ruining the grass with the prepared mixture of my blood and ink, and leaving a small open space in the middle for me to lay down the Fuinjutsu rug that would power my seal.

I was using the gathering seal to build and eventually trigger the rug, which I had sewn in a small Fuinjutsu seal to gather the chakra from the rug into this point. When enough chakra was gathered, that spike of chakra from the rug was going to power and activate my Ikeda Clan Fuinjutsu seal. Hoping this gathered and focused enough chakra to power the awakening and activating of the Fuinjutsu seal I was about to tattoo onto my stomach, I stripped naked and kissed Sarah before entering the spiral with my tattoo gun in one hand and blood infused iridescent ink in the other, and got to work.

As the tattoo gun vibrated in my hand and tore into my skin, it was hard to tell if what I was feeling was just brought on by my shaking nerves and excited anticipation, or if I was really feeling a heavy weightiness settling over me as I continued to fill in the intricate lines of the tricky Fuinjutsu seal. Sarah was further away on the back deck filming with her phone, as we didn't know what was going to happen, and I wanted to ensure her safety and make sure we captured whatever was going to happen from a safe distance for her. As it neared the third hour of tattooing, and the Fuinjutsu seal was almost completed, there was no denying that something was happening, and I only hoped that everything was successful, and we achieved the impossible.

Fuck, the impossible fucking hurt.

The moment I finished the Fuinjutsu seal, connecting the tail of the final script with the beginning marks and completing the circuit at the same moment the rug began burning under me and focusing it's chakra through the tassel in my hand wrapped around the tattoo gun I knew something big was happening. The tattoo started burning and glowing on my skin, and I started screaming as torturous pain that I had only experienced in my life as Shin, flooded through my body like burning acid in my veins, and it was all coming from the burning seal on my stomach.

At the same time, the Fuinjutsu rug below me which had just begun to glow and burn, lit up even brighter in flames, and I could hear Sarah screaming over my own. I simply hoped to any god that would listen, to spare her the pain of losing me, and to stay back as the burning flames of fire seemed to die down just as quickly, but the internal burning seemed to intensify to simply unheard of levels, and I closed my eyes expecting to die, as I couldn't hold on any longer. It was worse than the torture from Orochimaru, or maybe my weak Alex body just wasn't as capable as Shin in dealing with the pain, but it was all consumming burning pain filling every square cell of my body and I knew this was the end.

Sarah's crying alerted me that I hadn't in fact died, even if it felt like it, as my very body still burned something fierce and was beyond sore and painful everywhere. But, there was something else there that wasn't previously, and I dared not hope that all the pain may have actually been for something. My groan of pain though, alerted Sarah that I hadn't in fact died, and she scrambled to my side, disrupting the spiral seal of the rug that was still burning under me, and unknowingly saving both of our lives in the process.

"Alex? Alex, are you okay? Can you hear me?" she frantically called, and I could hear the fear and pain in her voice, and despite it hurting my throat to do so, I quickly responded.

"I'll …be …okay," I breathed out slowly and painfully, still trying to bring my breathing back under control and assess the pain I was still feeling everywhere, and knew I was close to passing out again, "I …love …you …Sarah."

"I love you too Alex," cried Sarah, hugging me in tears.

As I laid there being hugged and kissed by a grateful Sarah, I was also trying to figure out if anything happened as the pain only lessened minimally. It took several long moments until I felt a familiar buzzing that I recognized from my life as Shin, and could only smile in excitement that we had done the impossible, and brought chakra into the real world. Slowly, because my control was shit, and my body still burned in pain, I was able to reach out and guide my very weak chakra from my stomach and up only an inch or so into my chest before losing control, and hugging and kissing Sarah back enthusiastically.

"It worked baby," I smiled into her ear, grabbing her in my arms and breathing in her scent, I had never been happier or more excited for what came next.

THE END

AN: Thanks all! I just had to get this off my computer and mind, and it interfered with my work on my other stories. Sorry! I'll get back to them soon, they've just gotten so big they are hard to jump around between them anymore ;)

Peace, Kassien.