Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Naruto or any characters in this story; it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

Chapter 18: Nightmares or Thoughts?

Kakashi strolled through Konoha's busy streets with his book in hand as the sun reached its highest peak. While his eye was set on his opened novel, his mind was elsewhere. There had only been a couple of times in his life when Kakashi didn't know what to do, and he was currently experiencing one. He was wholly lost. Enough time had passed for him to digKakashi strolled through Konoha's busy streets with his book in hand as the sun reached its highest peak. While his eye was set on his opened novel, his mind was elsewhere. There had only been a couple of times in his life when Kakashi didn't know what to do, and he was currently experiencing one. He was wholly lost. Enough time had passed for him to digest the Hokage's words and realize there was no way to escape this responsibility.

'The truth.' Kakashi thought back to the answer he had given the Hokage. 'It's a lot easier when you aren't the one who has to tell the truth.' He thought before letting out a sigh as he continued to walk.

'Explaining the Kyūbi and his status as a jinchuriki is the first thing I have to do, and later...' He knew Hiruzen had ordered him to tell Naruto everything, but it was hard to even think about doing so. As he envisioned himself telling Naruto about his parents, he couldn't help but feel incredibly guilty. Apologizing to a name engraved stone didn't change anything. He should know; after all, it was part of his daily routine.

He knew that Naruto hadn't been his responsibility; he had been an orphaned and depressed teenager even before Naruto was born. He knew he hadn't been fit to take care of Naruto then and that his Sensei and Kushina wouldn't have expected to raise Naruto. It was easy to think of the things they wouldn't have expected him to do. On the other hand...

'What would they have expected?' That was the question that was plaguing Kakashi's mind at the moment. 'Does it matter what they expected? In the end, whatever expectations they would have had, I would fail them.'

As depressing thoughts bounced around his head, he dragged his feet until a loud voice derailed his thoughts.

"You are late!"

Kakashi looked up from his book and realized he had arrived at training ground three. Sakura was sitting against a tree while looking furious, but Sasuke was nowhere in sight. After a quick scan through the training ground, he spotted Sasuke exiting the small river that ran through training ground three. His clothes were a bit damp, as well as his hair. While training, the Uchiha seemed to have taken a few involuntary dips in the river.

Sasuke walked in his direction as he shoved his hands in his pockets, and looked at Kakashi with an annoyed expression. It was odd. He thought they were already getting used to his schedule, but one look at the sky told him everything he needed to know. He would usually tell the team to meet around nine A.M. and then show up a little before noon, but by the sun's position, he could tell it was way past noon.

"Sorry, I..." He was about to break into one of his usual excuses, but Sakura spoke again.

"You are even later than usual! And it doesn't even matter because Naruto is later than you! How is that even possible?!" Said fuming Sakura.

"It's possible because Naruto is currently unconscious in the hospital," Kakashi answered Sakura's rhetorical question in his usually bored tone.

Sasuke's brooding expression disappeared from his face, and Sakura's eyes widened as her mouth opened and closed repeatedly.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked.

"It appears that he is suffering from chakra exhaustion. A patrol found him unconscious in the training ground and took him to the hospital." Kakashi lied smoothly, and his cute little genin seemed to buy the story.

"I-I... is he okay?" Sakura asked as she brought her hands to her chest.

"He will be." He answered and was happy that, although subtle, he could see relief pass through Sakura and Sasuke. "It's a bad case of chakra exhaustion, worse than what I had in Nami no Kuni, so it will take him a couple of days to recuperate, but he will be back to his usual self when he wakes up."

Sasuke snorted. "That idiot." He said, but his voice lacked any harshness.

"Kakashi-Sensei... could we go visit him?" Sakura said a bit timidly after a couple of seconds of silence.

The request caught him a bit off guard, but Kakashi was glad his team was getting along better.

Kakashi turned towards Sasuke, who shrugged his shoulders. "Sure, Sakura." He said with an eye smile. "I've something to take care of first, but I'll meet you guys at the hospital." He said before he shunshin out of view.

"Wait, Sensei..." Sakura began, but Kakashi was already out of sight. "He will be late again, won't he?"

"Yes."

"Hi, excuse me." Said Sakura politely.

"Hi, how can I help you?" the nurse behind the front desk responded with a smile.

"We are here to visit our teammate. Could you tell us what room he is in?"

"Sure, what is his or her name?" She replied sweetly.

"Uzumaki Naruto," Sakura replied, and she saw how her eyes widened a little. Her smile faltered, but she quickly ducked her head as she started to look through a list of names.

"Room 148."

"Thank you," Sakura said, a little confused before she turned and walked towards Sasuke, who was resting his back against the wall. She didn't have to tell the Uchiha anything since he was already walking toward the hall leading to Naruto's room.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura heard the voice of a girl she despised, and before Sasuke could do anything, he already had Ino clinging to his arm. "It's so good to finally see you! Did you miss me?"

"Get off Sasuke-kun Ino pig!" Sakura shouted as she pointed at Ino.

"Oh my, if it isn't billboard brow." Ino pretended as if she hadn't seen Sakura before. "I guess I know why my Sasuke-kun is in the hospital now." She said in a fake tone before turning to Sasuke. "Have you already gotten sick of her, Sasuke-kun?" Ino asked in a sickly sweet tone.

A vein became clearly visible on Sakura's forehead after hearing Ino's words. "Ino!" She screamed her name at the lack of comeback and prepared to lunge towards Ino, but before she could reach the blonde, her body paralyzed.

"Don't neither of you can see each other without being at each other's throats?"

Sasuke looked over Sakura's shoulder only to see Shikamaru holding a rat hand sign as his shadow stretched until it met Sakura's.

"We are in a hospital, for Kami's sake. Could the two of you be not troublesome for at least a second?" An annoyed Shikamaru asked.

"Hmph, fine," Ino said as she let go of Sasuke's arm and turned her head away from Sakura, and in that motion, her ponytail hit Sasuke in the face.

Shikamaru merely rolled his eyes and undid his hand sign, freeing Sakura. "What are you guys doing here anyway?"

"The idiot injured himself training," Sasuke explained.

Shikamaru sighed. "Is he okay?"

"Kakashi-Sensei told us he'll be," Sakura answered, and her eyes shifted to a fruit basket that was lying on the floor beside Shikamaru. "What about you guys? Visiting someone?"

"Chōji is here."

"Did he injure himself training too?"

Ino snorted. "I wish. I have to drag both of their asses every day, so they train at least a little."

Shikamaru didn't even attempt to deny Ino's statement; instead, he shamelessly put his hands in his pockets.

"Then why is he in the hospital?"

"He overate barbecue, and he got sick," Shikamaru answered as Ino face-palmed. It was hard for her to admit how lame her team was. "Anyway, which is Naruto's room? We brought this basket for Chōji, but the doctor said it's better if he doesn't eat anything for a while, so I might as well give it to the blonde headache."

"We were just going over there. He is in room 148." Sakura said, and the four genin started walking towards the room.

When Sakura turned the knob and pulled it, she didn't expect to see anyone other than his blonde teammate in the room, but to her surprise, someone else was already in the room. It took Sakura a few moments to come up with the name.

"Hinata?" She called and alerted the people behind her about the presence of the young Hyūga.

Shikamaru peeked his head in and found that Hinata was indeed there, at least physically. She didn't react to her name being called, and although she was looking at Naruto, her stare seemed so far away. Shikamaru's sharp mind didn't miss the band-aid that covered Hinata's right cheek nor how her arm was in a sling, but all that was like background noise to the utter expression of misery on her face. She looked so sorrowful that Naruto might as well not be breathing.

"Hinata?! What happened to you?!" Ino's loud voice filled the room, and they managed to snap Hinata out. The lavender-eyed girl tensed up before flinching and turning to face them, but she didn't seem to have any words. Thankfully, one out of the two loud blondes in the room was conscious.

"What are you doing here, Hinata?!" Ino asked with curiosity and mischievousness as she approached Hinata's side.

"H-hello, guys." After the shock passed, Hinata regained her composure and greeted the genin crowd at the doorway. "It's nice to see you."

"You okay, Hinata?" Sakura asked after seeing the band-aid and sling.

"I'm f-fine, Sakura-san. I just injured myself while training with my clan." She lied as she managed to smile.

"Oh... well, I hope you get well soon," Sakura said as a strained smile appeared on her face.

"Say Hinata, were you visiting Naruto by yourself?" Ino asked as they turned to look at the unconscious Naruto before looking back at Hinata.

"Hai, I heard a nurse-" Hinata began to explain.

"You weren't hoping to steal a kiss from him so he could wake up? You do know that's only a story?" Ino asked with a fake innocent voice.

Hinata's eyes went impossibly wide as blood rushed to her face as her mind inevitably pictured the scene I had just described. "N-no, no, I-I just I-I..." Hinata became a stuttering mess.

"That's not funny, Ino!" Sakura reprimanded after taking pity on Hinata.

"Oh, come on, forehead! I'm just trying to lighten the mood around here. Have you ever thought that maybe besides your ugly forehead, Sasuke-kun doesn't like you because you are a stick in the mud!"

"I'm not a stick in the mud, Ino!"

Shikamaru sighed and briefly turned to Sasuke, who was doing an excellent job of ignoring the whole situation by closing his eyes and leaning against the wall. Ino was troublesome enough, and he couldn't imagine how much she would be if she liked you.

"What did you say about my hair?!" Ino screamed at Sakura as they faced each other.

"You heard me, Ino-pig!"

"Would you two stop it already? We are in a hospital, if you are going to be troublesome, at least keep down."

"You stay out of this, Shikamaru," Ino growled, not bothering to look back at her teammate.

"But he is right. It's rude to be loud when people are recuperating. Besides, I've heard that some nurses can be pretty mean around here."

Everyone turned to face the new voice, only to find Kakashi standing beside the door with a creepy eye-smile.

"Kakashi-Sensei!" Sakura screamed in surprise.

The copy ninja never dropped his eye smile, and instead of blessing everyone with an excuse, he brought his index finger to where his lips would have been. Apparently, it was creepy enough to calm Ino and Sakura down.

"It would be a good idea to go to your homes. Visiting hours are almost over. Besides, the injured and ill won't be doing much recuperating if you act like that around them." Kakashi said as if he was speaking to toddlers, and his tone only seemed to bring more shame to Sakura and Ino.

Shikamaru didn't waste the silence he had been gifted and walked next to Naruto's bed to put the fruit basket on the nightstand before grabbing Ino's arm and leaving without a word. Sakura turned to look for Sasuke, but the Uchiha had already left. She turned to Hinata once more to give an apologetic smile before walking out of the room, leaving only Hinata and Kakashi in the room.

"You should go too. Kurenai wouldn't be happy if she learned you weren't resting properly." Kakashi said as he put his hands in his pockets. The little girl looked back at him before her eyes shifted to the unconscious blonde with a troubled look in her eyes. She turned to face him, and it seemed she was about to ask something, but the words died in her tongue, and instead, she just gave Kakashi a polite bow before leaving.

After Hinata closed the door behind him, Kakashi took out a set of scrolls from his back pouch and sat on a chair in the corner of the room. He unfolded the scrolls and began reading through them.

Hinata lay in her hospital bed for hours, staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. It was a couple of hours past midnight, and she hadn't been able to rest properly. Whenever she closed her eyes, two images of Naruto would appear in her mind. The first one was Naruto's usual look, a toothy and cocky grin with vibrant blue eyes and cute whiskers. Then the image would change; his eyes would become tinted red, his smile would melt into a feral snarl, and his whiskers would become darker.

Did it scare Hinata? Of course, it did. The chakra she had felt had been so vile and filled with bloodlust that just remembering it made the hairs in her neck stand up. However, that chakra was so vile that it was impossible that it belonged to Naruto.

Hinata's head was a maelstrom of thoughts and emotions. More than scared, she was confused, worried, and curious at the same time. No one had really explained what had happened. Kurenai's total refusal to even broach the subject and all secretness made her curious. That curiosity made her mind wander, and she worried for the blonde. Whatever happened, it was clear that it had affected Naruto the most. Sure, her arm still hurt, and her face felt numb, but aside from that, she was fine. However, Naruto didn't seem to be close to waking up. The Hokage told her that Naruto was fine, but how fine could you be after being unconscious for a day? She couldn't help but worry for him, and she suddenly felt the need to go see him again.

A minute later, Hinata stood outside Naruto's room. She carefully pushed the door open, careful not to make any noise. Unfortunately, the door creaked as it opened, and Hinata winced slightly, but it wasn't loud enough to draw any attention. She slid into the room illuminated by the slight moonlight. She walked silently until she was standing next to Naruto's bed. Surely enough, Naruto was still there and still unconscious. His face was completely peaceful as his chest rose and fell rhythmically. Everything was how she knew it. He had no sharp fangs or claws, and his whiskers were as cute as always. She had always been curious whether they were birthmarks or actual whiskers, but she had never asked. She debated for a second about finding, and her left hand subconsciously extended to reach Naruto's cheek. Before she knew it, she found her answer. She caressed Naruto's cheek, and it turned out they were birthmarks, which made sense now that she thought about it.

"Isn't it past your bedtime?" A voice asked behind her that almost scared her heart out of her chest.

Hinata turned around on instinct and found Kakashi sitting cross-legged on a chair at the far corner of the room with a book in hand.

"Kakashi-Sensei." Hinata gasped after identifying the man as her heart drummed loudly.

"Yo," Kakashi answered as he waved with his free hand.

Relief passed through Hinata before she remembered that he must have seen her...

As realization dawned on Hinata, so did the embarrassment. She started blushing profoundly and tried to explain herself, but it was as if her voice had been stolen. Her mouth only opened and closed as she tried to speak. If there ever was a good time to faint, it was this one, but her consciousness didn't waver even a bit.

Kakashi resisted the urge to giggle like a little girl. Oh, he had seen everything alright. He had stayed in the room reading the scrolls he borrowed from the Hokage before the temptation won out, and he pulled out Icha-Icha violence. The hours passed, and he remained absorbed in the delicate yet complex plot until a creaking sound alerted him of someone entering the room. He had taken out a kunai as a precaution, but after seeing who the visitor was, it was clear he didn't need the weapon. It had played out like something out of a romantic novel. A love-struck girl comes to visit the boy of her dreams under the moonlight as he lies unconscious in a hospital bed. Beautiful. Now, most people may consider Hinata's actions a little weird. Still, Kakashi wasn't one to judge, especially since he read uneducated people considered smut in public daily.

A few seconds passed, and Hinata still seemed to struggle to speak. "Don't worry, I won't tell him anything," Kakashi assured, trying to calm Hinata down.

Hinata covered her eyes with her hands in embarrassment and nodded reluctantly. "T-thank you."

They both remained silent, and the situation quickly became awkward.

"He is fine. He has a case of chakra exhaustion. It isn't that bad; he will wake up in a day or two."

Hinata didn't answer, and Kakashi was starting to regret speaking up in the first place.

"That chakra I felt wasn't Naruto-kun's." Hinata broke the silence with a low voice but loud enough for Kakashi to hear. "I-it felt evil and dark. Naruto-kun isn't like that."

Instead of answering, Kakashi stood up and headed for the door.

"Does it h-have to do with why the village hates Naruto-kun?"

The question made Kakashi stop before he opened the door. "You have good eyes," Kakashi said cryptically before opening and exiting the room.

The sound of water dripping was the first thing Naruto's brain registered as it restarted. The next thing Naruto felt was a painful migraine that filled his head and made him jolt awake. He opened his eyes and found himself at the ceiling with pipes running through it.

'Where the hell am I?' Was his first thought as he sat up and tried to ignore the throbbing pain in his head, which wasn't helping to answer his question. It didn't take him long to notice that his body felt stiff as a wooden plank. He tried to think back, but his head was a swirling mess trying to put itself back together. He recalled being in the clearing with Hinata and a steel cage, but other than that, the details were nonexistent.

Naruto scanned his current surroundings, a corridor that seemed to go on forever in both directions with multiple annexing corridors attached. Although it perplexed Naruto, he didn't really question it. He didn't feel in danger or that feeling one gets when you are somewhere you shouldn't be. He didn't feel a sense of familiarity, but he also didn't feel out of place, although the place was creepy.

"What is your name?" a childlike voice asked, echoing through the corridor.

"What the fuck?!" Naruto shouted in fright as he turned towards the direction of the voice, kunai already drawn. Naruto would like to think that he was brave. Still, something about ghosts gave him the creeps. Waking in the dim corridor and suddenly hearing a child's voice gave him ghostly vibes.

"W-who's there?" Naruto asked shakily.

"Inu." A new male voice sounded from the same corridor.

"Inu?" Naruto repeated in a question as his head tilted slightly to the side.

He didn't really know what he expected when asked who was there, but it certainly wasn't that. A confused and slightly curious Naruto walked up to the annexing corridor while still on guard. The corridor seemed covered in darkness, but Naruto's curiosity was getting the better of him. Besides, he needed to figure out what was happening and how he could get out of whatever place this was. Reluctantly, he started to walk down the dark corridor. He walked in almost complete darkness until he saw a light, and he squinted his eyes as he became accustomed to it.

"Thank you, Inu!" the childlike voice shouted enthusiastically from the light.

When Naruto's eyes conditioned themselves to the light and his vision focused, he wasn't any less confused. His mind was still wrapping around what he was seeing; if he had to compare it to anything, it would be to a cinema; he once snuck in to watch a Princess Gale movie. Just a few steps in front of him, the dark corridor morphed into a snowy street. The street would have been desolated if not for two shapes, one which he recognized immediately, Inu. It had been years since he last saw the ANBU member, and he wasn't as tall or as buff as Naruto remembered, but he still looked cool as hell. His eyes moved to the second shape that was hugging onto Inu's leg. It was obviously a kid; although he couldn't see the kid's face, he had golden hair and wore an orange and cream jacket along with a neatly tied red scarf.

Naruto watched the scene with an odd sense of familiarity and satisfaction for a few more seconds before a lightbulb went off in his head. 'Wait... is that me?' As soon as he asked himself that, Inu separated himself from the boy enough to see his face. The three whiskers on each cheek were enough of an answer for Naruto to confirm his thoughts.

Naruto watched wide-eyed and confused about how the scene continued to develop, unable to shake the sense of familiarity. He saw how Inu patted his younger self on the head before disappearing from view and how he started to wander the lonely and snowy streets with a massive grin. This little version of him roamed throughout the village until the tale-tale sound of crying reached him, and he approached an even smaller figure than the miniature blonde.

"What are you doing?" His younger self asked as he approached the figure lying alone in the snow.

The other kid lifted her head enough for him to see her face.

"Hinata?" Naruto asked out loud, but he already knew. It had to be her; she had the same hairstyle and pure eyes that distinguish her from anyone. It was almost uncanny how much she hadn't changed aside from growing taller. She was nearly the exact same.

'This is so weird! I don't remember this, but it feels so familiar.' Naruto thought as he watched how this younger version of himself tried to console Hinata and help search for her home.

"I don't have anyone, but I never cry. Never!"

Naruto heard his younger self and couldn't help but look at him with a sad smile. He definitely remembered saying those words more than once. He saw how the little version of himself waved goodbye to Hinata before everything darkened.

"Hey! What happened?! What was all that?!" Naruto shouted into the darkness but was only met with a deafening silence.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted again before he broke into a run into the darkness. A few steps later, Naruto crashed face-first into something solid he couldn't see.

"Agh! What the fuck?" He shouted as he mended his throbbing forehead. Naruto reached forward with his free hand and felt a wall in front; confused, Naruto started looking around, but everything was dark besides the dim light from when he came. Walking back from where he came from, he returned to where he woke up with a storm of thoughts flooding his head and no idea where to go or what was happening.

"You brat! Go away!"

Naruto's eyebrows shot up his face in surprise before they came back down, and his face formed into a scowl. It was strange; he didn't precisely recognize the voice nor could put a face to it, but the tone... that was familiar. With a sour mood and ready for anything, Naruto walked decisively to where the voice had come from.

Okay, He hadn't been ready for that. Although, in all fairness, who would have been? At first, he remained confused while he observed a man push a younger version of himself to the ground while trying to buy a mask. That did ring some bells, but not loud enough. However, he saw how this younger version of himself seemed to meet the Ichiraku's for the first time. Everything seemed familiar: Teuchi's younger face, Ayame's smaller size, how Teuchi told him the two meanings of his name, but above all, that first taste was of the succulent broth so familiar that he could practically taste it in his mouth. Then, he realized, and everything made a little more sense. These weren't random things he was seeing; these were memories, his memories.

Any doubts he had about his theory were clear, completely cleared after watching this memory, and he walked back to the main corridor just to walk into another. The memory he walked into wasn't difficult to remember, quite the contrary. And this is why he was now currently watching Inu carrying a six-year-old blonde on his back after encountering the drunk store owner in the cemetery.

Inu looked a little bit taller and more muscular, just like he used to remember him. As he watched the scene, he couldn't help but wonder about Inu's identity behind the porcelain mask.

'He can't be that old." Naruto figured since he was decently taller from the last memory. He then fixed his eyes on Inu's most distinguishing trait, his silver hair. 'There aren't a lot of people with silver hair aside from Kakashi-Sensei...' Naruto thought, and suddenly, a lightbulb went off in his head. He looked at Inu's stature and hair in a different light.

"No way," Naruto muttered as his eyes centered on Inu. From what he could tell, The hair was the same shade of silver, and they were similar in height. It seemed far fetch and a total coincidence to Naruto, yet a shinobi wasn't supposed to believe in coincidences. He knew that Kakashi had been a member of ANBU by order of the Hokage. He didn't know exactly when Kakashi had left ANBU, but he also hadn't seen Inu in years, though that didn't mean they were the same person.

Naruto had been so lost in his thoughts that he didn't realize it when the room went pitch black, just as it had been before. He stood in darkness debating the possibility for a good amount of time, but he knew there was no way to be sure unless he asked the man himself.

'That's if he answers me.' Thought Naruto, doubting that Kakashi would ever tell him the truth. Resigning himself, Naruto walked back from where he came from. Naruto arrived back at the main corridor.

'So, each corridor is filled with my memories? Why am I even here?' The blonde came up with every possible reason he could imagine, and nothing explained his current situation.

"Hello?! Can anyone get me out of here?! I swear if you get me out of here, I'll only kick your ass for a bit!" Naruto shouted, hoping this time someone would answer, but he was met with silence again. Naruto's shoulders slumped, and he decided to keep exploring, hoping that he could find an answer.

Naruto was at a loss for what to do; he had roamed the corridors for a very long time. He hadn't been keen on reliving some childhood memories, but it hadn't been as bad as he would have thought. Sure, there were lonely and painful memories. Still, a few made him genuinely happy, especially his memory of meeting his mother. He wished he could have replayed that memory for eternity, but once the room went dark, it didn't matter how loud he shouted or how long he waited. The memory wouldn't replay.

Even though he had been walking for an eternity, he felt rested, and his head had stopped hurting long ago. It had been an interesting experience, to say the least; it put a lot of things in perspective, but above all, it made Naruto grateful for the few people he connected with. Hinata, Shikamaru and his family, Chōji, Lee, the Ichiraku's. Not that he wasn't appreciative before, but being able to watch everything again made him realize how much he really valued the bonds he had formed with those precious to him.

'I wonder what will happen after I watch all the memories." He thought as he was about to enter another corridor when suddenly everything went black.

Naruto's eyes fluttered open, and as everything came into focus, he realized he was no longer in the dark corridor. Instead of the dark concrete walls, he was staring at an unfamiliar white ceiling illuminated by a dim light.

"What happened now?" Naruto muttered as he felt the coolness of bedsheets on his skin. He stretched his body and sat up before looking down at the bedsheets and realizing that he wasn't wearing his regular clothes; instead of his usual get-up, he was wearing a gown. He also noticed that it must have been a little past sunset due to the distinct moonlight that illuminated the sheets.

"You are awake."

The sudden voice that he recognized belonged to Kakashi demanded his attention. The blonde looked up and saw Kakashi sitting in a corner with his signature book in hand.

"Kakashi-Sensei?"

"How do you feel?" Asked Kakashi as he stood up and walked up to Naruto's side before grabbing a pitcher full of water and feeling and glass.

"What happened? Where are we?" Naruto questioned in quick succession.

Instead of immediately answering, Kakashi simply handed him the glass of water. "Here you go."

The blonde stared reluctantly at a glass of water before he reached out and then gulped everything in one go; he hadn't realized how thirsty he was.

"You don't remember anything, do you?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto stared at Kakashi with questioning eyes as he tried to remember, but aside from being in the clearing with Hinata, he was drawing a blank. "No," he answered as he shook his head.

"Well, to answer one of your questions, you are in the hospital."

"The hospital?!" Naruto repeated loudly in surprise as he tried to get up from the bed; he had never been to a hospital in his whole life.

"Easy there," Kakashi said as he used one hand to set Naruto back into the bed. "You have been out for three days, don't overdo it."

"Three days?! What happened?!"

'It was a good idea to put a silencing tag on the room in case he woke up today. Well, if anything, him being this loud means he is fine.' Kakashi thought. "Yes, three days. You suffered from a severe case of chakra exhaustion and strained all the chakra pathways in your body."

Naruto looked at Kakashi with confusion. "How?"

"You tell me, Naruto... perhaps you remember coming up with an idea to speed up your elemental training? A training method that involved you using kage bunshin."

Naruto scratched his head at Kakashi's words before remembering his brilliant breakthrough. "Oh yeah, yeah! I remember! I figured out that since I got back the memories, I could also get back the experience, you know! Although I don't remember if it worked or not."

"Well, I got good news. It apparently worked... however, you are prohibited from using that training method."

Naruto had been ready to celebrate after hearing the first part of Kakashi's statement, but after hearing him finish, he was outraged. "What?!"

Kakashi was trying not to go too hard on Naruto. After all, he had done something similar to Naruto when he was younger; in fact, if it weren't for Minato saving when he first tried Chidori, he wouldn't be standing here. However, he needed to be clear the training method was extremely dangerous.

"Didn't you hear me say that you have been unconscious for the past three days? You should have died by depleting your chakra so much." Kakashi paused as he let his words sink in. "The only reason you are alive right now is because..." Kakashi stopped abruptly and let out sight. "Naruto, listen, I have to talk to you about something important. I know it will be difficult, but please try not to interrupt me."

Naruto looked at Kakashi skeptically before nodding.

"What do you know about the Kyūbi attack on the village all those years ago?"

Naruto's eyes widened at the mention of the topic. 'Why is he bringing this up?!'

"Oh, you know, what they told us at the academy. It appeared suddenly in the village, and the Yondaime Hokage took it down with him. Why?" He tried to sound as casual as possible but knew he hadn't managed it.

Kakashi spared a long and thoughtful look at his blonde student. "Have you also noticed how your body heals and recuperates faster than Sakura and Sasuke?"

Naruto gave a shrug. "I guess so." Trying to deflect the question.

"There is a reason for that." Kakashi began, and Naruto unconsciously grabbed a fistful of the bed sheets. "When the Kyūbi attacked all those years ago, it proved even too difficult for the Yondaime Hokage to defeat and to safeguard the village he was only left with one option. He was forced to seal the Kyūbi in a baby that had just been born and created what is known as jinchuriki." Kakashi stopped to observe his students' tense posture and how he was trying to strangle the bedsheets.

"You... knew?" Kakashi realized and asked at the same time.

Naruto didn't seem to acknowledge the question for a long moment as he stared down at the bedsheets, trying to find a reasonable explanation.

"I always knew I was different from everybody. The way they looked at me, how they treated me, the subtle whispering around me when I walked by." Naruto said quietly. "I've seen my seal before, alright? That's part of why I wanted to learn fūinjutsu, to understand what it meant or why it was there."

There was a long, uncomfortable silence in which Kakashi didn't know what to say. When he first planned the conversation, he thought he would have to reassure Naruto, but it turned out to be the contrary.

"Why tell me until now? It seems like something I should have known before?" He didn't raise his tone, but the anger in his voice was evident.

Kakashi sighed. "Years ago, Hokage-Sama made a law prohibiting everyone from talking about your status as jinchuriki. He hoped it would allow you a normal childhood before you learned the truth."

Naruto let out a humorless chuckle. "That worked out well." He said before turning towards Kakashi. "But why tell me now?" the blonde repeated his questions.

Kakashi took a couple of seconds to answer. It surprised him that the truth hadn't affected his student much. Still, then again, Naruto had a good understanding of fūinjutsu. The village had not exactly been subtle with his treatment, but this next part might affect him more.

"Your seal allows for a small part of the chakra of the Kyūbi to leak into your system, but you are able to suppress it with your own reserves. However, during your training experiment, you exhausted yourself so much that the Kyūbi's chakra started to affect you." Kakashi heard an audible gulp from his student.

"A-Affect me? What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked with fear evident in his voice.

"You were... not yourself." Kakashi began, careful to choose his following words appropriately. He wanted to be tactful but still be accurate with his statement. "From what I understand, the Kyūbi's chakra feeds off your negative emotions and makes you act on them. You lost control of yourself."

Naruto went wide-eyed as he tried to speak, but the words seemed stuck in his throat. A million thoughts raced through his head until they suddenly stopped and landed on one name.

"Hinata!" The blonde shouted and jumped out of bed while Kakashi saw how all the color drained from his face. "H-Hinata! S-She was there with me when I was training! Did she see me?! Is she okay?!" Naruto asked hysterically as he moved his hands.

Kakashi didn't answer instantly, which only caused his worry to go through the roof as his heart rate accelerated. "She is fine now. It seemed like she came into contact with a part of Kyūbi's chakra, which did harm her, but she is all right now."

Kakashi had expected his words to calm Naruto down a bit, but instead, he saw how Naruto froze still and became even more pale before his eyes started looking frantically for something. A second later, Naruto flew past him, went straight for a bin behind him, and started puking his guts.

As the bile and gastric acid burned his throat and his abdomen flexed on reflex, only one thought crossed his mind. 'I hurt Hinata.'

He didn't know how many times he barfed, but by the end, he was drenched in cold sweat, heaving, and his throat felt like it had been dragged across a sandpaper. He felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see Kakashi with another glass of water. Naruto stretched a shaking hand to grab the glass without a word before downing the whole content.

"Thanks," Naruto said weakly after cleaning his mouth with his forearm. "W-what happened to her?"

"I'm not completely sure. She was already hurt when I arrived, but it seemed she got in contact with some residue of the Kyūbi's chakra, which was painful, but I promise she is fine." Kakashi said, and Naruto gave a slight nod. "As for what she saw, she was confused about what really happened, and we chose not to explain to her, so your secret is safe for now."

The words seemed little to reassure Naruto, who was still clutching the bin like a lifeline. The blonde didn't utter a word for a long time, and Kakashi didn't force the issue, letting his student gather his thoughts.

"So, you were there? How did you find us?" Naruto asked in a hoarse voice.

"Hmm... I had a hunch you might need my help, and Pakkun and the rest helped me find you."

"Were you... were you the one that stopped me?" Naruto ventured to guess.

"I did."

Naruto turned towards Kakashi and looked straight in the eye. "Thank you." He said in the sincerest tone.

Kakashi answered with an eye smile and a gentle tap on the shoulder. He then offered Naruto a steady hand and helped him to bed. "Try to rest for now. Tomorrow, a doctor will come and clear you to leave; you'll have tomorrow off before you return to team seven. Good night"

Naruto nodded and saw Kakashi head for the door, and when the noise of the door closing echoed through the room, Naruto looked up to the ceiling. His mind was a scrambling mess that he was trying to organize. He felt guilty, sad, angry, and scared simultaneously. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep. Whether that was a good or a bad thing was still to be seen. If he remained awake, at least there wouldn't be any nightmares, but would nightmares really be worse than being left alone to his own haunting thoughts? As the minutes passed, Naruto balled his hands into fists and glared at the ceiling.

'Don't cry! Don't you dare cry! It won't change that you injured Hinata or that tou-chan sealed the stupid fox in you!' Naruto screamed in his mind, yet as hard he tried, he couldn't stop the tear that slowly trickled down his face.

Author's notes:

Sup people! I know this chapter took a while to release, but it was due to some unforeseen complications. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, and as always, leave a review with your thoughts on the chapter. As always, special to Naj for editing my work, and thanks to Sprig, MatteusN, Kawasaki1298, Sentinel123, HurZysn, Ravendle, Gamesdean1, Min-chan17, UzumakiRamen, St0rmRid3r, MaxPrime, and Drcoogans for leaving reviews in the last chapter. Hope you guys are having a great start to the new year.