Chapter XVII

Legends Sadly Proven

As I limp painfully and slowly, Shikamaru helps me back to my hospital bed. Once seated, I almost collapse in the latter. I'm immersed in a bath of pain that makes me wince. I no longer feel my arm in agony which is prey to terrible, incessant spasms. Stars twirl around my head, to believe I'm in a whirlwind. In all of this, my body shivers; I'm frozen and my eternally icy extremities are even more so.

I have a fever … a high fever.

Moments later, Lady Tsunade and Shizune enter the room in a rush. Godaime isn't here for a courtesy visit since she hastens to examine me. A hand on my forehead to take my temperature then, using her medical ninjutsu, she inspects my forearm. I whine in silence in spite of myself; every tiny movement is a stab in my burning flesh.

It's only now that I see the state of my sad arm. Bruises already mark the area around the deep and reddish holes; with the size of the wounds, it's a real miracle that the bleeding has stopped. However, what worries me the most is that my skin is briefly swollen and the bruises seem to be spreading at an alarming rate, as if some enzyme is dissolving my flesh which is dying…

"How does … it look like, Lady Tsunade...?" I ask in a whisper.

She doesn't answer me and her silence followed by a frown doesn't bode well…

"Lady Tsunade," Shizune calls out, bitten with worry.

"You have a high fever, but you'll get over it soon enough," she finally says, much to my relief.

She now takes care of me. Little by little, I find sensations in my arm, although painful; at this, the strange spread of this fatal disease in it ceases and stabilizes. Curious.

"Your radiant and median nerve have been severed and one of your chakra veins has suffered significant trauma," she adds gravely. "Your epidermis and your dermis have also been damaged… Yet, I've not found anything that can explain the reason why they are…"

It's not without reason that my body is in agony, especially my arm … yet I didn't expect so much damage… However, I'm worried. How did those fangs manage to inflict so many internal wounds, to the point of making me feverish…? But above all, am I really going to suffer like this every time I give my chakra to Naruto…?

"Naruto didn't go easy," she continues, clicking her tongue in her mouth. "However, it's the exact opposite with your chakra vein. The precision he has shown is surgical. The dexterity with which he pierced it is such that it could rival the Byakugan."

"What do you mean?" Shikamaru asks.

"The chakra veins that make up the chakra network are delicate and can easily be damaged and cut. Not only did he not slice it, but he inflicted minimal trauma. With the naked eye, this is simply impossible. To believe that he's able to see them in one way or another."

"...The fact that he … forcibly sucked my chakra out is to blame for the traumas, isn't it?" I suppose between two breaths.

Godaime nods.

"It must be an ability these creatures possess," Shikamaru sighs darkly. "It looks like we have the answers to our questions…"

A haughty silence sets in.

Sadly, as he put it so well, we have our answers about Naruto: he's a chakra devourer. Why? How? We have yet to find the answers, these and many more. Although we finally have an explanation, the prognosis is grim, very grim. Indirectly, Naruto has become a threat to the shinobis and kunoichis of Konohagakure, and judging by the deplorable state I'm in, that's understood.

I sigh to myself as a shiver of dread slides down my spine. This implies that my pupil will be hungry again… As long as I am the only one able to approach him, I will be a victim of this feeding ritual, again and again. I won't last long if the consequences of his bites are as bad as these. Similarly, there's the risk that he tries to bite off more than he can chew; I could die… Nevertheless, I choose to trust him; the Naruto chaste of evil is still there. I believe in him and I agree to put my life in his hands.

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

"I can't do more," Lady Tsunade tells me, ceasing her technique. "I fixed your nerves and your chakra vein. You should find sensations during the hours to come. I'll prepare a medicine for you to soothe your pain and help you regain your strength."

"I see. Thank you."

My hospital room door opens. Mechanically, we turn our heads. I recognize Sakura, visibly worried and upset.

"I heard you were hurt," she cries, coming to my bedside.

While the Hokage is busy bandaging my arm after applying an ointment to prevent infections, Sakura holds her breath as she brings a hand to her mouth. She witnesses the terrible abuse that scars and disfigures my still trembling arm. With my fever, my probably translucent complexion and my sweaty forehead, I mustn't be a pretty sight. Her face speaks for itself.

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

A silence.

Our throats knotted, no one dares to answer her, although silence is a sufficient answer to her question.

"Are you finally going to tell me what's going on with him?" she asks in a broken voice, thus betraying a pain in her heart.

The tears she holds back moisten her emerald eyes clouded with grief and injustice. Her feelings are legitimate and her pain corrupts me, mingles with my own torments which I'm unable to rid myself of. Incapable to tolerate her being in the dark any longer, I speak up and reveal what I deem acceptable.

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

She nods.

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

"What … what are you talking about...?" Sakura stammers, horrified. "What do you mean by that? I… What you're saying doesn't make sense… There's no way Naruto is… It can't be true…"

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

"Perhaps it would be easier to show her, don't you think, Lord Hokage?" I suggest. "After all, being a member of Team 7, she has a right to know."

"I'll be honest with you, Sakura," Lady Tsunade curtly says, crossing her arms. "The reason why I took you off the case was to protect you."

Sadness turns to anger. The girl clenches her fists so hard that her knuckles are white.

"I'm not a kid anymore!" she retorts, barely holding back her tears. "If I can be helpful in any way… No matter how… I… I refuse to give up on Naruto and just sit there and wait with folded arms. We're talking about Uzumaki Naruto! I refuse to believe that he's lost for good. His amnesia is temporary! Naruto will come back, rise to the surface. I'm sure of it…"

"Sakura …," I whisper.

A silence.

She's in denial… She doesn't know anything. She's in a blur, abandoned in a fog in which it's impossible to find her way out. In her place, perhaps I'd have reacted in a similar way… However, I found my way in the latter a long time ago and not even denial could protect me from such a dark reality. Whether Naruto's amnesia is temporary or not…

The old Naruto will never fully return.

Like me, she will have to accept it.

"Perhaps you'll be more inclined to believe it if you see it with your own eyes," Shikamaru sighs, scratching the back of his head. "Follow me."

Sakura swallows, hesitates, then rushes to the teenager's heels. I hope she won't be too heartbroken, that she won't be as devastated as I was… But knowing her, I remain pessimistic. Anyway, she will eventually find out one day or another; better burst the abscess now. As for me, I'm already dreading seeing Naruto again and inevitably, feeding him…

Exhausted, I bury myself under the sheets to fall asleep. After the medicine of Godaime, I sink deeply into the arms of Morpheus.

I sleep like a log.

- XxX -

Sakura followed Shikamaru in silence, in this narrow and dark corridor to which she had always been refused access. Kakashi's revelations occupied her thoughts, tormented her. She did not know what he really meant by "a feral beast that feeds on chakra now." Except that Naruto had returned to the village seriously injured and that he had amnesia, she did not know what was going on with him. Despite her many pleas that she could help him regain his memory since the two were very close, Tsunade forbade her.

Of course, she was not fooled. The situation was serious, very serious. After seeing her Sensei's wounds, the pain that engulfed him and the obvious weakness that had hit him hard, to believe that he was suffering from an incurable disease, she had a very bad feeling. These were the consequences of feeding Naruto with chakra. Yet she refused to see the evidence before her eyes witnessing the suffering on Kakashi's delicate skin.

Until now, she did not know the evil that gnawed her comrade and soon, she would get the answers to her torments.

They arrived in the observation room in which there were two members of the team in charge of this case. These people, Sakura had never seen them before, although their faces were familiar. Logically, she deduced that they were part of the research unit.

Just like Kakashi before her, Sakura swept her gaze everywhere. On the central video screen, she could get an aerial view of the jail in which Naruto resided. However, she could not find him anywhere.

"Is he still down there?" Shikamaru wondered with a sigh.

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

"What a drag…"

"What do you mean?" The kunoichi asked. "Where is Naruto? I thought he had been imprisoned."

Shikamaru let out another exhausted sigh.

"As Godaime said, you're not going to like what you're about to see," he warned dryly. "Of course, I can't let you approach him in person."

"Why?"

"Because you're going to complicate things. Let's just say I'm afraid I screwed up all of Kakashi-Sensei's efforts earlier. I had no choice, but I had to help him. He almost fainted in the cage."

"What happened?" she wondered.

"I could show you… On the other hand, I prefer to show you the video which pretty much sums up everything that's going on with him. Roll the first video," he ordered to the other two.

The same way they showed it to the Copy Ninja, they showed it to her. That moment when Naruto first woke up between those four walls played on screen…

Sakura could only watch in awe at Naruto's wild demeanour, who seemed possessed by something as dark as the Nine-Tails. The devastating flames that transformed her friend into an unrecognizable entity, the rage in the heart that overpowered the violence he displayed, the howls of a monstrous beast…

She felt like seeing her raging comrade again on The Tenchi Bridge. She refused to believe it. It was not Naruto. An inhuman thing had taken over his whole being; that thing had devoured every trace of humanity in him. As Kakashi summed it up so well, he was nothing more than a feral beast, a hollow shell of himself.

She wished with all her heart that she had hallucinated, that this person vilely sported the image of Naruto to deceive them … alas, that was the reality and she had to accept it. This realization constricted her throat; the air could hardly fill her lungs. An unfathomable pain shot through her heart. Her chest on which she placed her hands shrank more and more with each heartbeat. The suffering being so great and unbearable that she wanted someone to put an end to her ordeal, no matter the means. She was helpless.

Sadly, Sakura understood the Hokage's will to protect her from a reality she could not have imagined in her worst nightmares.

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

A clear tear escaped from the girl's emerald eye.

"Apart from not recognizing us, he's very hostile to anyone who comes near him," he continued darkly. "Kakashi-Sensei's the only one who can approach and tame him. I don't want to hurt you, but we don't know if he'll regain his memory one day…"

They avoided each other's gazes as a heavy, deadly silence reigned.

Although he did not show it, Shikamaru cared a lot about his childhood friend, his brother-in-arms… Even though Naruto annoyed the others due to his colourful personality, he made Konohagakure alive. In addition, the blond had a strange gift that rallied people, pushed them to change and become better; his Nindō, that of never giving up, resounded in hearts and encouraged the troops. Touched by this phenomenon, it prompted Shikamaru to pull himself together; it gave rise to this non-existent long motivation in him. He wanted to walk by his side, help him realize his dream of becoming Hokage.

Henceforth, the young man whom Shikamaru secretly admired had sunk into darkness of infinite depth, where light could never illuminate. His organ of love twisted in a vice of pain. He felt sorry for Naruto.

Like Sakura, Shikamaru felt anger, hatred towards those responsible for this tragedy. Now they could only trust Hatake Kakashi to bring Naruto back and save him from this unfathomable darkness.

At least, get him back to his memories.

If they are still in him.

And not forever lost like his humanity.