Chapter XV

The Chakra Devourers

Shikamaru and I went to the Hokage office. I am anxious and nervous; my hands are shaking and I have heart palpitations. What if they don't believe me? What if I was wrong from the start? What if I was making yet another mistake? Possible, but I can't go back now. I let myself be convinced by my own madness. It's the answer. I can't explain it, but I feel it; I'm on the right track.

Along the way, I devoted myself to refining my ideas, preparing my speech… But since anxiety is a destructive demon, swallowing everything in its insatiable hunger, it's complete emptiness in my head when I knock on her door. In silence, I inhale calmly and deeply, hoping that Shikamaru doesn't notice; a habit of not showing any weakness or trouble to anyone.

I open the door after a loud voice invites us to enter. We're greeted by the Hokage and her assistant, Shizune. Surprised, but not surprised, Lady Tsunade's face is excruciatingly stern. Joining her hands, she looks at me coldly. I stiffen, aware that I am about to receive a sermon worthy of a tidal wave. She's not at all happy regarding my getaway this morning, that is understood.

"You finally found him, Shikamaru," she snaps, not taking her eyes off me. "Kakashi, have you forgotten your obligations regarding this case?! That I didn't allow you to take time off from your convalescence?! Should I also remind you what happened yesterday with Naruto?! That it was far too early to rush things about his memory?! Can I know what was more important than your duty?!"

Shikamaru and I exchange an ephemeral glance, neither I nor him regret our decision to return the forehead protector to Naruto. Moreover, he's impatient to hear the discoveries and information that I am about to reveal in any seconds now.

"Please forgive my insolence, Lord Hokage, but I haven't wasted my day twiddling my thumbs," I retort. "I may have found what's going on with Naruto."

Silence settles as the atmosphere grows heavy, so heavy that the air is suffocating. I am pierced by their eyes bitten with curiosity, to the point of feeling vulnerable and exposed. I don't like to get all the attention and it always makes me feel uncomfortable…

"What do you mean?" asks Godaime, frowning.

"Have you ever heard of 'chakra devourers'?"

"Chakra … devourer...?" Shizune mechanically repeats.

"When I was a kid, my father used to tell me stories of all kinds and one of them was about these creatures," I begin calmly. "From the information I was able to glean from the library, they were known to feed on chakra and they excelled in elemental ninjutsu and genjutsu. These beings are described as demons creating nightmares and working in the night. If we relate Naruto's symptoms to this theory, it makes sense. His sudden talent for Katon, his refusal to eat, his sensitivity to light…"

"How did you come to this idea?" asks Lady Tsunade.

"When Naruto pounced on me, he cast a genjutsu on me … and I've never seen a spell like his. It was delayed and it activated during my sleep, in the form of a lucid dream. Everything felt so … real… I couldn't tell right from wrong. That's the reason why I'm sure it was an illusion. And this illusion… I was unable to break it…"

I pause. I think back to this nightmare in which I drowned in this ocean of darkness… Just to imagine myself reliving the scene, this feeling of dying and falling asleep forever… A shiver of dread slides down my spine.

"In that dream, Naruto was absorbing my chakra. I'm ready to put my hand to the fire that this was his way of communicating his need for chakra to me. He used his eyes to bewitch me and in doing so, they glowed in the dark. It was simply impossible for me to break eye contact. Then, a great fatigue took hold of me and forced me to go to bed, to immediately fall asleep. This fatigue, this dream … the two are intimately linked."

My monologue finished, a silence lingers.

According to the faces of Shikamaru and Shizune, they're plagued by questions mixed with a touch of confusion. However, the Hokage got lost in her thoughts. It reminds her of something, that's obvious.

"Was that what you were looking for with those books?" asks the teenager. "Pardon my words, but your theory sounds more like a fairy tale than a reality. I've never heard of it."

"You're too young to know," Lady Tsunade retorts darkly, rising from her chair to gaze at the horizon beyond the window. "A very, very long time ago, there did exist what was called 'chakra devourer.' The greatest threat the shinobi world has ever faced. These chakra leeches… These veritable parasites with a bottomless appetite targeted a clan of shinobis and during their sleep, they devoured them the nights that followed."

She clicks her tongue in her mouth, clenching her fists, her eyebrows furrowed. She hides it, but I sense a tumult of emotions taking hold of her.

"Although they were increasingly exhausted, no one seemed to be able to explain this phenomenon or remember these nocturnal assaults. And this continued, again and again, until these shinobis were annihilated by an opposing clan who then became the new prey of these creatures, thus perpetuating this endless cycle. Of course, their existence was eventually discovered. One day, if not all, the shinobis allied to put an end to the threat once and for all."

Godaime sighs, then turns to face us before concluding.

"Those dark times when shinobis lived in fear and helplessness against predators thought to be invincible are over. It's thanks to my grandfather, the first Hokage, that I am aware of this fragment of our past that everyone has forgotten. In his lifetime and in the lifetime of his father and ancestors, no one has ever seen any chakra devourers. They've been exterminated for generations, to believe that their existence has disappeared from this world and from collective memory."

Like the others, I am speechless. I didn't expect her to know anything at all. Even less to provide us with their origin and the cause of their extinction. These are the missing pieces to complete the puzzle I've started. Although the prognosis is rather gloomy, I regain hope; it's a relief to have answers, good or not.

"It's… If what you say is true, how is it possible that Naruto is one of those demons?" Shizune swallows in anguish, thus breaking the leaden silence.

"Experiments …," I whisper faintly.

"Kakashi-Sensei's theory may be the answer," Shikamaru nods with a serious and concerned expression before going deeper into his thought. "Experiments have been done on him. That's irrefutable. And until now, we didn't know for what purpose. If these chakra eaters, or whatever, were truly feared in the shinobi world, seeking to bring them back to life as weapons makes sense."

A cold sweat breaks out on my temple. If what he says turns out to be true, Konohagakure, like the other hidden villages, is threatened with a potential future war that would immediately end this fragile era of peace.

"Thanks to Sunagakure, we know that Naruto isn't their first subject," he continues. "These kidnappings, these deaths… The corpses they found are failures that had succumbed to the experiments done on them. On the other hand, what bothers me is the targets. Why were Naruto, Kiba and I targeted? And there weren't just shinobis who were in their line of sight too…"

"To increase the chances of success, the subjects must correspond to very specific criteria," I add.

"I think so. But I have no idea what these criteria could be," he painfully sighs.

"We'll find out in due time," Lady Tsunade suddenly blurts out with a sigh. "For now, we only have one thing left to do."

Saying so, she turns her hazel eyes on me. I can already guess what she's about to tell me…

"If it's chakra Naruto wants, we just have to give it to him. If he devours it, we can confirm this theory. Since you're the only one he trusts, you will vouch for this task, Kakashi."

I swallow and I am bitten with anguish. I don't like this situation at all. I remember the terrifying size of those fangs hiding in his mouth… At the idea of letting them dig into my flesh, feeling them sink deeper and deeper to reach my chakra vein in which my already limited chakra flows… At the idea of letting Naruto devour me alive as if I were a bag of milk, feeling him suck my vital energy with gigantic and pain-creating straws…

My back is moistened and many shivers of dread run down my spine relentlessly.

However, I have neither the right to complain nor the right to refuse. I'm the only one capable of approaching him, not to mention that it was me that Naruto spoke to for the first time, albeit in an abstract and very, very awkward way. If this is what Naruto really has become, I can only brace myself for this blood-chilling fatality.

Deep inside of me, I hope with all my heart that I was wrong, that this isn't the answer and that Naruto is still human, and not a rumour of yesteryear that has passed through the ages…