PART 3

Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke woke up numerous times throughout the next week. Sakura and Sasuke had a tearful reunion. Kakashi had woken up seemingly by the call of his students’ tears and stayed awake long enough to say he was proud of them. 

The longer the stay in the hospital ran, the longer each of them could stay conscious. Sakura was physically recovering the fastest, as her injuries were the easiest to heal with medical jutsu. Sasuke was coming along well, his burns fading into scarring with each passing day. Kakashi’s chakra, which had begun to toxify due to the new changes in the seal, started to balance out. Not fully, but it was certainly better. Naruto, however,  just stayed in his silent unmoving coma. The tension in the room rose higher and higher the longer Naruto slept. 

Until the tenth day of their stay, six days after Genma had approached Ibiki to intervene on the kids’ behalf, Naruto awoke. Not slowly like the others and not violently but with a burst of chakra that nearly sent Genma to his knees with its intensity. 

It rolled over his skin like it was boiling water and left his chest tight with heat and no small amount of fear. He knew what it was, he’d felt that chakra many years ago on the field of battle. 

He nearly fell over as he spun around from his place at the door to look back at Naruto. He was still laid out and still, but the chakra around him was literally visible, a bubbling orange viscous kind of energy that enveloped his small frame. 

Genma exchanged a glance with Gai and then Genma sped from the room. He needed to clear the area immediately. Farhu had already cleared the wing they were staying in, but Genma knew there was ANBU around and whatever other spies that the council members had stationed around the place. 

He absolutely did not want to know what would happen if those kunai happy bastards reacted to the chakra surge. He may not know Naruto at all, but he’d spent the last ten days looking after Sakura and Sasuke, and he’d be damned if he let anything happen to them. Anything more, at least. 

Gai barely watched his friend leave, his whole attention on the bed-ridden patients. He put a strong hand on Sasuke and Sakura’s respective shoulders and prevented them from climbing into Naruto’s bed. Kakashi awoke with a small cry of some emotion Gai couldn’t identify. He briefly wished for a third hand so he could hold the copy ninja in place as well, but Kakashi didn’t try to approach Naruto. He just watched with wide eyes. 

Naruto didn’t really wake up so much as sprint headlong into consciousness. One moment he was laid out, same as always, with the chakra swallowing him up. Then he was in a crouch on top of the sheets with slit pupiled red eyes open and scanning the room. The chakra pushed away from Naruto and creeped across the small space. The farther it spread the harder it became to see the orange hue, but the feel of it was more than enough to know where it was. 

Gai didn’t know what to do. He was transfixed by both the boy’s eyes and the chakra that kept pulsing through him like a particularly turbulent sea. Then Genma was sliding past Gai and saying loudly, “You need to get a lid on that, kid, or we’ll have ANBU crawling in here through every gap in the bricks.” 

Naruto didn’t seem to hear him at all. The chakra lapped further and further into the hospital as Naruto took in the sight of his team. A long moment passed as Naruto’s eyes flicked between the five people present in the room with him. His lips twitched up a couple times to show his teeth but no audible noise left him. Then the chakra snapped back into Naruto like a rubberband. 

“Kurama says I’m an overdramatic idiot and that also there’s a team of ANBU on their way here,” Naruto said. It was heavily garbled as his voice hadn’t been used for so long and it broke several times through the short sentence.

“Shit,” Genma said. 

Naruto only barely remembered Genma from when they’d met before he fell asleep. His team wasn't reacting negatively though so Naruto replied, “We need to leave.” He jumped from the bed to the floor and stumbled to his knees, but pushed himself up impossibly quickly. “It isn’t safe here, we need to leave.” 

Another flare of his and Kurama’s combined chakra and Naruto felt another small grouping of chakra signatures swiftly moving from nearby to the hospital. Towards him and his precious people. He turned to look at his teammates who were all still lying in bed looking at him with wide eyes. “Now!” Naruto growled. The other three immediately moved. Gai moved to Kakashi’s side to help him up and Sakura moved to Sasuke’s. 

Genma said, “We can’t just walk out the front door, they’ll see us.” 

“Then we deal with them and keep going.”
“Naruto,” Sakura chided softly. “We’re in the village now, remember?” 

He did remember but it took him a second to figure out why it mattered. He pushed Kurama’s fury down, trying to think a little more clearly. Right, the village wasn’t his enemy. Kurama gave a growl of dissent that made Naruto’s thoughts flame up once again, but only for a moment. The fox allowed his own fury to be leashed and Naruto nodded his head at no one. 

“Alright, then what do we do?” 

Sasuke grunted and then said, “Genjutsu is the obvious answer.” 

“You up for that?” 

Sasuke took a moment to assess himself and closed his already dimmed eyes. After a moment he shook his head. 

“Kakashi’s out of the question,” Sakura added. 

“Guess it’s up to me then,” Genma said. 

Naruto looked to him and ordered, “Then do it. Fast, they’re nearly here.” 

“But where are we going?” Sakura asked. 

Kakashi spoke for the first time, “The Uchiha Compound.” Sasuke flinched and turned a glare at his sensei. “Politically, it’s the best place we could be. They can’t get on clan grounds without permission, it’d be a gross overstep of power.” 

“Even that won’t stop them for long,” Genma said. “They’ve been particularly determined.” 

“It’ll give us some time though,” Gai said. He turned to Genma with that serious eyebrow scrunched look. “I’ll take Kakashi and Sakura, you take Sasuke and Naruto, We’ll body flicker them out near the emergency room doors and then you can take it from there.” 

Genma nodded and stepped forward to grab Naruto’s shoulder and Sasuke’s wrist. The world imploded in on itself as he forced all their bodies to warp with chakra and speed. They all appeared just outside the hospital. Genma released his two charges and immediately moved his hands together, flashing through hand signs rapidly. 

Kakashi let out an impressed noise when Genma’s genjutsu, a more powerful version of the one he’d used to stay unnoticed during Kakashi’s chakra surgery, washed over the group. “That should do it,” the gray haired man said. “I had no idea you were capable of ANBU grade illusions, Genma.” 

“Gotta keep em guessing, right?” Genma said with a wink. He led them forward then, careful to keep them close enough to remain in the shroud of his jutsu, and they slowly walked through the hospital grounds and out in the village. It was dark out, a little past midnight, and they marched their way through the mostly empty streets. Gai picked up a flagging Sasuke and Sakura ended up supporting a stumbling Naruto. 

All three of the genin could barely focus on where they were going due to the wide eyed stares aimed at the familiar buildings all around them. Genma had to stop Sakura from running headlong into a building or tree several times, her eyes barely able to look where she was going. Naruto was the opposite, he didn’t seem to see anything but the few people they ran across who he stared at with unnerving intensity. Sasuke… didn’t seem to focus much on anything beside his next step. However, they made it to their destination eventually. 

The Uchiha Compound was very different from the village. The moment they passed through the gated archway the air felt cooler. It was eerily quiet and the many houses and buildings made it feel like there were a hundred eyes watching from the darkened windows and doors. Genma kept glancing at them and expecting to see shining red sharingans. 

Sasuke stiffly guided them from Gai’s arms with abrupt orders and directions. Eventually they came to a stop in front of a large house with a wrap-around porch. “This is my house,” Sasuke said with no emotion. His eyes were closed and he said nothing more. 

Kakashi took over then, taking the kids to the main living room while Gai hunted for blankets and pillows. The whole building was dusty and dim and dead feeling. The genin gathered in front of the couch on the floor and swapped soft warm materials until they were moderately comfortable. Kakashi fell asleep first, quickly followed by his kids. He lay curled around Sasuke’s back and holding Sakura’s hand while Naruto slept with his back curled against his sensei’s. Gai sat on the couch above them and looked down at them with concern and relief. 

Genma and Gai settled in to watch and wait, trading small shifts of restless sleep. Genma had had less anxiety inducing missions than sitting in the Uchiha compound at night. 

Sasuke screamed them awake that night, left in hysterics for an hour as Sakura and Naruto tried to console him. Bleary eyes watched things that weren’t there until the sun rose and illuminated the room as it was. 

They moved to the Hatake Compound the next day, once they gathered enough strength to do so. Farhu came to them and ran her diagnostic checks, her expression becoming more and more pinched with the information she received. 

Kakashi wandered the rooms with an empty gaze. He would often stop his wanderings to wash his hands for long moments in the kitchen and bathroom sinks. Genma hated watching it, but he hated the despairing expression on Gai’s face more. The genin slept fitfully and Kakashi was the one that screamed that night. He muttered about blood and stains and death. 

The next morning Genma went scouting. Kakashi had given him some half lucid ideas and instructions. With Anko’s assistance it didn’t take them long to find the ideal place. A large manor built on the outer fringes of Konoha. Surrounded by trees and easily defendable. It was expensive, it was in disrepair, and it was a rash decision, but more importantly it held no personal ghosts. 

They moved in that night after Kakashi and Gai siphoned most of their life’s savings into putting down a payment on the place. It was the first night they all slept with a feeling even approaching security. In a pile of blankets and pillows gathered from four different houses, they rested. 

The spies couldn’t locate them for days, undoubtedly panicking at the prospect. Genma helped run interference with Anko and Ibiki, as the group happily used the hours to catch up with each other and to release some of the tension that had been wracking their minds and bodies. 

Farhu came by unannounced on the third day with a heavy heart and a steely gaze. She wasn’t the least surprised to walk into the massive house to find all three of them curled up on the floor of the living room. Naruto was asleep again, or perhaps just meditating in a horizontal position, his teammates easily within reaching distance. Sakura, Sasuke and Genma were playing a game of poker. She couldn’t believe that Genma had introduced them to gambling and couldn’t make herself be surprised by his encouragement of cheating. She winced when she saw Sasuke flash his sharingan as he held his cards close to his face. 

Kakashi was laid out on the couch but his eyes were open and looking at her, she still wasn’t used to seeing both eyes at once. She could hear Gai whistling away in the kitchen to the left. 

It was so domestic and peaceful and she hated to have to disrupt it. She leaned against the wall and waited for Gai to come back into the room with three cups of tea. He handed one to Sakura, one to Sasuke and the third to Kakashi. 

“What brings you by, Farhu?” Naruto asked. She blinked in surprise and her gaze moved to the previously asleep genin. He slowly sat up and crossed his legs in front of himself. Sakura and Sasuke put their cards down, sipped their tea, and gave her their full attention. 

She cleared her throat and tried to swallow down the guilt that was threatening to choke her. “Well, kiddies, it’s time for a very serious conversation,” she said. “This involves each of you individually. So I can pull you out one by one and talk to you or we can have a group discussion.” She had no doubts which they would pick and the dead-eyed gazes of the three were enough of an answer for her. 

“Okay then, would you like Genma or Gai to leave?” Genma pouted but his face quickly went blank when she glared at him. “This is about your medical conditions and it’s your right to have control over who learns what here.” 

“Of course, precious genin! She is right! You but say the word and I will-” Gai exclaimed with borderline violent gestures. 

“They can stay,” Sasuke interrupted. 

Gai’s eyes teared up as he looked at the most removed child of the group and Farhu jumped in before he could start on a speech about youth or comradery. “Alright, then. Everyone shut up and listen to me.” She took a deep breath and stood from her lean on the wall to take a few steps closer to the group. “Your bodies and chakra systems have taken consistent and serious abuse. I’ve done everything I can to aid your recovery and fix the damage done but each of you will be sporting permanent consequences.” 

Sasuke’s hand came to hover near his face and he looked down at his lap. As good a place to start as any, she figured. “Sasuke, your eyes.” 

“They’ll be like this forever?” he asked without looking up. 

“Fevers don’t normally cause permanent eye damage, but very high and long term fevers have been shown to interfere with the chakra system. With your frequent use of the sharingan during your run home, the fever got mixed up with the chakra threads and nerves behind your eyes.” 

Naruto growled and she could see tears running down Sakura’s face. She continued, “The chances of fixing them are low.” 

“But you can fix them?” Sakura asked. 

“The damage is behind his eyes not the eyes themselves,” Farhu said. “I’d need to do both chakra surgery to the nerves as well as physical surgery to the eye where the nerves connect. That means I’d need to remove his eye, cut into it, then stabilize the chakra. The likelihood of that succeeding is far less than the likelihood of making it worse.” 

“How much worse?” Sasuke asked. 

“You could lose all vision and/or use of the sharingan entirely.” 

“What are the odds we’re looking at?” Kakashi asked. When she glanced at him he wasn’t even looking at her but instead at Sasuke. The kid still hadn’t looked up from his lap. 

“3-6.” 

“You mean there’s only a 33% chance that you could pull it off?” Sakura gasped. 

“Those aren’t good odds,” Sasuke muttered. Naruto’s growl had grown in volume and rolled from his chest in a never ending purr. Sasuke smacked the blond in the chest and said, “Shut up, dobe.” 

“But Sasuke-” 

“I know.” 

A long pause followed as Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto had a silent conversation. Or rather Sakura and Naruto did while Sasuke sort of blankly looked at them. She wasn’t sure how much he could actually see clearly. 

Genma cautiously raised a hand like he was in school and Farhu sighed before nodding to him. “How bad is the damage to his eyes?” he asked. 

Sasuke scoffed and said, “Like she’d be able to answer that.” 

“Okay,” Genma agreed. “Sasuke, how bad is your vision?” 

Sasuke didn’t answer for a full minute and the room waited patiently for him to come to his answer. “It’s like I’m looking through wax paper. I can still see general shapes, colors, and movements, but it’s like there’s something between my eyes and everything else that makes it all blurry and indistinct.” His lips curled into a smirk as he flashed his sharingan at the room. “But with the sharingan I can see perfectly.” 

“That’s good news!” Gai exclaimed. 

“Overuse of the sharingan can also cause blindness,” Farhu said, hating herself for doing it. 

Sasuke nodded, “I know.” He leaned back into nothing, but Naruto moved to catch the boy’s back with a perfectly positioned leg. “It’s still nice to be able to see sometimes though.” 

“What about Sakura?” Naruto asked. His still red eyes caught hers and Farhu sighed again. “Sakura, your muscles and bones were pushed to their limits. You siphoned so much chakra to them to dull the pain and increase the strength of your hits that you created new pathways in your chakra system.” 

“What does that mean?” Sakura asked. 

“It means your body was trying to fix the damage you did to it by rerouting energy to stabilize the breaks and rips. You unconsciously sunk large amounts of your chakra into the muscles and bone themselves, and your body isn’t going to stop that any time soon.” 

“Why does that matter?” Kakashi asked, his eyes finally on her and not his students. “All chakra systems are unique. We share the same 216 hotspots but just like muscles, chakra melds to the demands of the body and training.” 

“It matters because she didn’t just ‘customize’ her chakra routes, she actively siphoned her chakra into specific areas. And the chakra was used to fix the damage it could.” 

“So her body will just keep sinking chakra into her joints, basically,” Genma said. 

“Yes. A chunk of your chakra is already spoken for, Sakura. It has a duty and it’s going to continue doing it.” 

“And I can’t access that chakra?” Sakura asked. 

“Exactly. You chakra reservoirs have dropped by roughly a third.” 

“She already had low chakra reserves,” Sasuke accused no one. 

“It might straighten itself out over time, a couple years most likely. But if you continue with your high-force taijutsu, you’re only going to cement the changes.” 

Gai’s brows were furrowed tightly and he asked, “But won’t having that automatic chakra use help her with the taijutsu? It reinforces her bone density and muscle structure, right?” 

Sakura whipped her head between Gai and Farhu and it was almost cute. But those green eyes were wide and panicked. 

Farhu replied, “Yes. It should help prevent further injury to herself but if she keeps using those techniques the chakra flow change will become completely permanent.” Farhu turned to address the girl in question, “It depends on what you want, Sakura. Your chakra at your fingers, or in your bones.”

“I’ll be at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to ninjutsu,” Sakura said. She turned to Sasuke and Naruto as the three descended into a harried whispered conversation. 

Farhu allowed it for a couple minutes but then drew the attention back to her. “Naruto, your consequences are perhaps the most concerning.” 

All three of the genin’s heads whipped around to stare at her. Sasuke’s gaze was unfocused but directed accurately at her face. “Why is that?” Kakashi asked. He had sat up at some point, she hadn’t noticed when. His feet were flat on the ground and his forearms braced against his knees. His fingers hung down toward the ground, but he looked a moment away from erupting into motion. He couldn't chase away the news that Farhu was giving them no matter how much she wished he could. 

“You show no long term damage to your body whatsoever. When I run diagnostic chakra tests on you however, there are some concerning results. The biggest being that I can’t sense your chakra at all.” 

“What?” Naruto asked. “I have plenty of chakra.” 

“But it’s not your chakra.” 

“The Kyubi,” Genma said. 

“Okay, but why is that a concern?” Naruto asked. “We all already know about Kurama giving me chakra.” 

“You still have your own chakra, Naruto,” Farhu explained. “The Kyubi’s chakra should be separate from yours. Think of the two different sources as vinegar and oil. If you put them together, they will always separate themselves into two distinct layers. The oil sinks to the bottom and the vinegar rises to the top. Your chakra is the vinegar, it should always be the first resource that gets pulled on, as it’s the first you would reach. The Kyubi’s chakra would be the oil, only accessed when the vinegar is gone or through purposeful action.” 

“But you’re not seeing that separation?” Sakura asked. 

“Not at all. It would seem that Naruto’s chakra has been completely absorbed by the nine tails.” She crouched in front of the kids and asked, “Can you show me your seal, Naruto?” 

He pulled his jacket and shirt up to reveal his stomach where the seal lay. It was broken into pieces, some of the characters still lethargically moving and twisting but not at the same speed or desperation as it had during her first glimpse of it in the hospital. Farhu grimaced, “It’s worse than I expected. The seal is what was keeping your chakras separated, but it’s obviously not doing so anymore.” 

“So my chakra is gone? Like just gone gone?” Naruto asked. 

“No, it’s still there, I assume. It’s just lost with the rest of it.” 

“So why is that a problem?” 

She gave him a little glare that he returned with wide confused eyes. “I know you’re in constant pain, Naruto. I can pick that much up from the diagnostic sweeps.” 

Kakashi twitched violently and asked, “How much pain?” 

“It’s not that bad,” Naruto said. 

“Immense,” Farhu refuted. “The human body wasn’t meant to hold as much chakra as yours currently is. The nine tails is healing all the damage it does to you, but it’s still damage. I don’t know exactly what’ll happen if it’s not addressed, but your chakra coils are overheating.” 

“So what do we do?!” Sasuke asked. 

She ignored the question. “That’s not the worst of it,” she gently poked Naruto’s stomach. She quickly retracted the finger when it burned on contact with Naruto’s skin. “I have a feeling that it’s not just your chakras that are merging, is it?” Naruto looked anywhere but at her. 

“Naruto,” Kakashi prodded with a warning tone. “What is she talking about?” 

“I don’t know!” Naruto denied with an obvious lie. 

“Naruto!” Sakura scolded at the same time as Sasuke hissed, “Dobe!” 

“You’re angrier now, aren’t you?” Farhu said. 

Naruto turned to her and nodded shakily. “Kurama’s always angry, so I’m also angry.” 

She pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers and desperately wished these children hadn’t been through hell. “Your consciousnesses are being merged as well. And if we don’t do something your entire personality and mind will be absorbed by the Kyubi’s, just like your chakra.” 

A dead silence overtook the room as they all processed that dire possibility. Not only would Naruto be a threat, he would be functionally dead. 

“Kurama says…” Naruto started and then had to stop to sniff and rub at his left eye. “He says that we should be able to fix it.” A tremulous smile appeared on the blond’s face and he turned to grace its image on everyone in the room. 

“Then we’ll fix it,” Farhu said with a sharp nod. “And hope that it doesn’t leave behind too much of a mess.” 

“How do we start?” Sakura asked. 

“I need to learn more about seals,” Naruto said. “Kurama’s only got half remembered theory from my mom’s head, but we’ve made sense of a lot of things already.”  

“A seal to hold a bijuu is a lot more complicated than a strengthening seal, Naruto,” Kakashi said. 

“We know,” Naruto replied. “But we don’t really have a choice here, do we?” 

Farhu smiled softly and stood from her crouch. “Glad to hear it, kiddo.” 

“This won’t stop us from becoming ninjas,” Sakura said. 

“Of course not,” Sasuke scoffed. 

“We’re gonna be the strongest team since the Sannin,” Naruto exclaimed with a fist pump, “Believe it!” 

The tension in the room was shattered as the adults chuckled at three miracle kids. Sakura managed to beat Sasuke at their game no thanks to Genma, and Anko swung by with food for all of them that night.

The next evening they called a meeting. They invited only a few. Gai, Genma, Anko, Ibiki, and Farhu. The adults sat on the two mismatched couches of the living room and listened to the slight framed Sakura as she explained all she saw. All she heard. 

Kakashi revealed the Konoha weapon workmanship, the Root masks, and the threats they’d been bombarded with during the numerous attacks. He talked about the kekkei genkai obsession and how they were specifically targeted. 

Naruto talked about the torture, about the questions they asked him and the things he learned from Kurama. Sasuke mumbled about the threats to remove his eyes and the gossip of other captured ninjas. 

 All of them made it clear they were not safe in Konoha, for it was Konoha that had attacked them. 

Anko ranted about how the council sent them off in the wrong directions to search for them. Admitted they’d gone against orders to find them, and Ibiki shared the few tidbits of information he’d gleaned over the past few days dealing with council members and spies. 

“It’s a fucking mess,” Ibiki growled. He rubbed at his scarred skin under his hitai ate. 

“They’re a fucking mess,” Farhu said with a gesture at the abused genin. 

Anko scoffed and crossed her arms, “My own genin days seem like a cake walk compared to this.” 

“What’s already happened isn’t important anymore,” Genma stated. “We’re running out of time before we have to report. What are we, or rather you guys, going to tell them?” 

“The closest thing to the truth as we can,” Kakashi replied. 

“Don’t mention Root,” Ibiki said. 

“Don’t threaten the council,” Genma added. 

“And don’t let them intimidate you,” Anko threatened. 

Naruto raised a hand and asked, “Why can’t we mention Root?” 

“Dobe,” Sasuke hissed, “we can’t let them know we know that we were attacked by traitors of the village. That’s a perfect way for us to get locked up.” 

“We are genin,” Sakura said. “They’ll underestimate us. If we say Kakashi was unconscious and never saw them, that we assumed they were hunter nin, there’s no reason for them not to believe it. How would we know about Root, after all? About any of what happened to us?” 

“You’ll have to play dumb. Dumb, mute, and blind. You saw nothing,” Anko said. “You heard no talk of kekkei genkai. You survived through chance and luck and nothing more.” 

“Sakura,” Ibiki said with a gesture at the girl, “don’t meet their eyes, cry about your hair, do everything to make them think of you as a sniveling girl who barely made kunoichi.” He pointed to Naruto next. “You, play it off, you were confused and scared. You don’t know what’s wrong with your eyes, you don’t know when it happened, and you most certainly do not mention seals or tailed beasts.

“Sasuke. You were the saving grace of this team, the awakening of your sharingan was the advantage that allowed you three to pull through.” 

“But Naruto,” Sasuke said. “He’s the only reason we survived.” 

“I don’t care. Sasuke Uchiha is the name everyone’s heard of. You’re a prodigy and the last of your kind. They’ll expect you to be the leader of this team. So you will be.” 

“That’s not fair,” Sakura said without any real complaint. 

Naruto grinned and said, “That just means they’ll be all the more impressed when I really show them what I can do.” 

“Whatever you do, don’t show them what you’re capable of,” Kakashi said. All three sets of eyes turned to him. He gave a sad smile. “I’m being deadly serious, you three.” 

“Got it,” they said in unison. 

Kakashi was unsure if the council was idiotic enough to be fooled by the show his kids had put on during their official verbal reports, or if they were just smart enough to not push the problem. The three had been pretty heavy handed with their delivery. None of them had deception training or intelligence and interrogation awareness.

Sakura had spent her interview blushing over Sasuke as if she still harbored her infatuation. Sasuke had spent his with the sharingan activated and the classic Uchiha ‘better than thou’ attitude, which had the result of not letting the council members know Sasuke was basically blind without his kekkei genkai and reminded the room of just how powerful said eyes were. It lent credence to his claims of dragging his teammates with him to Konoha.

Naruto was perhaps the most impressive and the most morbidly amusing of the three. The questions thrown at the jinchuriki were not so subtly aimed at Naruto’s awareness of his prisoner, or as Naruto would say, his partner. When asked about his eyes, Naruto had brazenly declared that he may very well be a long lost Uchiha child and his sharingan was becoming active like Sasuke’s. When questioned about how his chakra behaved, Naruto had gone on a tangent about how Sakura had perfect chakra control and wasn’t that so unfair? An older woman had inquired if Naruto had had any strange ‘gut feelings’ and Naruto had complained about how some of the food they’d had to eat gave him gas. 

Naruto was, Kakashi knew, half feral after their months imprisoned and running. It wasn’t uncommon to find the kid stalking the perimeter of the manor in the early hours of the morning, blood red eyes scanning and scanning and clawed hands clenching and unclenching. The kid had very nearly attacked Anko the other day when she’d accidentally bumped into Sakura’s side. He growled more than he talked and he bled killing intent all over the place. After Farhu’s bomb the night before about Naruto being absorbed by Kurama, it made sense. Watching him play dumb like he had no care in the world, was surreal. And enraging. And highly impressive that he managed to pull it off at all.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were so much more than any of the stuffy elders of the council would know. They’d overcome odds that Kakashi couldn’t fathom and now they were acting like idiots. He hated it. 

But he was thankful when the council gave them space after that. He knew it was only a matter of time before they struck in some other way. They were unable to pry the answers they wanted or suspected from them but he and his kids would not be forgotten so easily. 

So they had to take advantage of the time they were given. 

Kakashi brought them home to the manor, carrying an exhausted Sasuke who finally let his sharingan go dormant. Sakura and Naruto walked close next to him, keeping wary eyes on the civilians wandering the village streets and straight up glaring at anyone with a flicker of chakra in their bodies. 

Kakashi kept close tabs on Naruto, as he was the most likely to attack out of instinct or anger. None of them relaxed until they stepped foot on the manor property. Then Naruto cracked a joke about Sakura’s old crush back from the dead and the two of them disappeared into the house at a dead run. Kakashi chuckled and brought Sasuke to the couch before heading to the kitchen to make some food. 

When he had lunch prepared he shook Sasuke awake and called for the other two to come eat. He forced them to eat slowly, trying to unteach the frantic rapid consumption they’d gotten used to. And as they took measured bites of rice and vegetables Kakashi asked, “So what do you three need now?” 

“In what way, sensei?” Sakura asked, her mouth full of rice. Newly genin Sakura would never have dared to talk with food in her mouth. Kakashi just took a deep satisfaction in seeing them eat real food. A primal sort of pride kept popping up in his chest whenever he saw them safe and cared for. 

“You’re all on the mend now and it’s time to start thinking about training.” 

“I want my sword back,” Sasuke said immediately. 

“I think it was confiscated, but we’ll get you a better one.” 

“I want to train with Gai,” Sakura said. When Kakashi looked over at her in surprise she just said, “He can break people just like me. And Farhu, I want to train with her.” 

Kakashi nodded his acceptance, “Okay, that won’t be a hard thing to pull, Gai’ll be delighted and Farhu is an easy mark for your green eyes to guilt trip.” 

“And I need to get started on sealing,” Naruto declared. A tilt of his head and those eyes went a little vacant for a long moment. “We have some ideas,” he mumbled before snapping back to the present and shoveling more food into his mouth. 

Kakashi tutted gently and Naruto glared but slowed his chopsticks down. 

“I’m not adept at seals, there aren’t a lot of people who are. I’ll get you some resources from the library, but Kurama will have to be your responsible supervisor.” 

All three kids gave him a sideways look, even Sasuke who Kakashi knew couldn’t see him properly, and he sighed. “I’m working with what we’ve got.” 

He started them working the next day. He gave Sasuke one of the Hatake family katanas, perfectly tempered steel with the bonus of being a chakra insulator. Sasuke had started several electrical fires within the first couple of hours. Kakashi had given up on trying to prevent them after the first couple and just had Naruto run back and forth with buckets of water to minimize most of the damage. 

After most of the trees around the manor had been scorched in some way or another, Kakashi took away the sword and gave Sasuke three more. These were varying forms of practice swords. One of them was heavier than the real one, one was dulled, and the third was chakra reinforced to aid in learning how to channel chakra into it without, say, starting a wildfire. 

Sasuke’s exuberance at having something to focus on was a sight to see. Kakashi smiled as his student threw himself into training with all the energy that Sasuke rarely showed. When the kid’s sharingan bright eyes turned to him after executing a perfect lightning strike, he instinctively tried to flash his own sharingan eye to preserve the memory. Which reminded him that he wouldn’t be able to coach Sasuke effectively when it came to the kekkei genkai. It would be easiest for Sasuke to just watch Kakashi work with the sharingan with his own sharingan, and copy the technique. Sasuke would be working… blind. It felt like a bad joke. 

And to make it worse it became obvious that Sasuke’s left eye wasn’t as stable as Farhu had thought. Or that Sasuke had hoped. Even with the sharingan active, the vision in his left eye continued to deteriorate. 

“The damage to the nerve behind his eye was extensive and his chakra has mostly settled from the fever, but sometimes damage takes a while to manifest properly,” Farhu told Sasuke and Kakashi a couple weeks after training began. 

“Hn. So there’s no telling how bad it will get?” Sasuke asked. 

Farhu shook her head. “Your right eye is okay, though? With the sharingan, I mean.” 

Sasuke’s eyes bled red and his left eyelid came down in a parody of a wink. He looked around them at Farhu’s clean office and shrugged. “Seems fine to me.” 

“If it’s still not showing any darkness or blurriness at this point, even after the left sharingan worsened, then I think it’s safe to say it escaped the damage.” 

“You thought both sharingan had done that just a couple weeks ago,” Kakashi accused quietly. 

Farhu gave him a sharp glance and responded, “Yes, I did. New evidence has come up though, hasn’t it? I’m a doctor but chakra makes my work entirely unpredictable.” 

Sasuke made a dismissive ‘hn’ grunt and stalked out of the office. Kakashi sighed and rubbed at his eyes distractedly. His fingers brushed the upper edge of his mask by his nose and for half a second he wanted to take it off. He’d gotten so used to being without it. 

“I need to go after him before he runs into too many walls,” Kakashi said. 

Farhu glowered but waved him off. “I’m trying my best, you know,” she said once he turned to the door. “For you and those brats of yours. I want to be able to tell you all good news but I won’t give them false hope.” 

Kakashi opened the door and replied, “Sakura will be coming to you for healing training.” He looked over his shoulder at her in time to catch her grimace. 

“It’d be a miracle if she could manage the simplest of exercises, not with her chakra system.” 

“I know.” He stepped out into the hall. “She needs to know it for herself though. I know you’re on our side and we owe you so much. I apologize for sounding dismissive of your knowledge.” 

“It’s fine, I know you’re worried.” 

Kakashi sighed and closed the door as he left to find Sasuke. He found the young Uchiha a couple corridors over, heading in the wrong direction of the exit. His eyes were dark with just a tinge of red underneath. Kakashi put a hand on Sasuke’s left shoulder and steered him in the right direction, making the contact look friendly and casual, and not like he was making sure the kid didn’t give away his disability. 

“One sharingan is still enough,” Kakashi said once they were deep in the trees and nearly home. “It’s served me well.” 

“I’m an Uchiha though,” Sasuke grumbled. 

“Most Uchiha go blind.” 

“But not until late into their lives! Don’t patronize me!” 

“I’m not.” Kakashi came to a stop in the trees just outside of their home. Sasuke stopped as well, sharingan flashing for brief moments to gather his bearings and set himself opposite of Kakashi on a separate tree branch. “There are ways that the Uchiha dealt with their vision loss, though.” 

“What.” 

“And I bet that your clan records would give us a hint as to where to start.” 

Sasuke’s mouth curved down into a frown, but it didn’t look particularly sad or upset. More thoughtful and surprised. “Why didn’t I think of that?” 

“It’s harder to see a problem for what it is when you’re standing in the middle of it.” 

“It’s hard to identify a problem when there’s always a new one,” Sasuke replied and then jumped down and made his way into the manor. 

Kakashi, with Sasuke’s permission, raided the Uchiha clan vault, grabbing scrolls and notes and books on anything that seemed relevant. And while he was on a roll, he stopped by Farhu’s office and stole half of her books to give to Sakura. Her lessons with Farhu had been going poorly but the girl was whip smart and a fast read. She would know the ins and outs of anatomy and medicine even if she couldn’t soften her chakra into healing. 

With all the scrolls and resources that Kakashi had stolen, rented, bought, or smuggled into Konoha for Naruto, the large living room that took up most of the bottom floor of the manor looked like a blown up library. Naruto’s papers and brushes were mostly contained to one corner where Gai had dragged a heavy long wooden table for Naruto’s experiments with seals. The wood itself was reinforced with seals all over it, which was the only reason it and the corner were still in one piece. 

Sakura’s books were far more organized and piled around the soft couch at the center of the room. He’d caught her more than once, using the pile of books as a seat rather than the couch itself. She had a color coded and alphabetized system for them that Kakashi, nor anyone else in the house, understood in the slightest. But they’d learned to leave it alone or face her wrath. 

Sasuke’s scrolls were kept in the kitchen where the best light filtered in through the big window that took up most of one side of the room. Sasuke tried his best to read it on his own, but the use of his sharingan left him tired and achy, so more times than not Kakashi settled in at the breakfast nook with him and read the words out loud. Sometimes Genma would do it instead. Either way Sasuke would eventually tire and storm out of the kitchen and into the living room where his swords were carefully arranged and hung on the wall by the back door. 

It felt homey in the manor, but tensions were too high to enjoy it. Sakura and Sasuke were frequently woken by nightmares and each other’s screams. Sparring for the two of them was emotional turmoil, frequently flying into flashbacks that brought them to their knees, or being unable to attack each other due to fear of harm. Ibiki helped them during the training sessions he was able to attend. Eventually, as weeks passed into months, the two of them learned to compartmentalize the way a proper shinobi does. 

Kakashi hated watching that blank eyed dead look that washed out their expressions when they did it. He recognized the look, had seen it on himself and his fellow fighters too many times not to. He knew it helped them get through the day but he so desperately wished they didn’t need it. But that ship had sailed back when Kakashi hadn’t been able to protect them from Root. 

Naruto though… Naruto couldn’t separate anything. Not the future from the past, or himself from the kyuubi. A fight for him was to the death, always. He was on the defensive at all times, barely able to sleep or eat. His fixation on seals became his only anchor, and the deeper into the research he got the more he blended into Kurama. They were spending too much time together in their head space and Naruto had nearly completely stopped speaking with ‘I’ and had reverted to ‘we’. 

The blond was banned from visits to the village as he proved he couldn’t stop himself from attacking bystanders. Genma and Anko had taken to carrying around a strong paralytic that was brewed to thrice its normal potency, senbons dripping with it and ready to dig into Naruto’s neck. He barely remembered to sleep or eat half the time and Kakashi’s stomach was eating itself in his worry. Forced to watch and listen to Naruto’s half of the dialog of conversations that went over his head.

“If he doesn’t stop, he’ll be lost,” Kakashi confessed to Farhu. 

“If he does stop we’ll never find a way to fix the seal and he’ll be lost,” Farhu argued. “You can’t stop him-- them now.” 

“So we’re just putting all our faith in the nine tailed fox stuffed inside my student?” 

“Naruto trusts him.” 

“Naruto is him.” 

“No he’s not. Not yet.” 

Ibiki was even less help. “We need to help him,” Kakashi insisted with a point at Ibiki’s chest. “You need to get his mind right, like you’re doing with the other two.” 

“I wouldn’t know where to start, Hatake,” Ibiki replied. “Naruto doesn’t respond to the world the way a human does, at least he doesn’t right now. I don’t know how he was before but…” 

“Surely you’ve dealt with something like this before!” 

“Where two highly different individuals are being forcefully merged together on a chakric and mental level? Where one’s a twelve year old boy and the other is an ageless chakra construct that the entire world fears? No, no I haven’t, Kakashi. No one has!” 

“That’s not an excuse!” 

“I’m not making excuses! If I could help him, I would! But I’m more likely to get torn apart by the kid. Or make things worse by sparking a level of disassociation that would just speed up the kyuubi's take over.” 

There was nothing for Kakashi to do for Naruto but remind him to eat and sleep with varying success. To make him slow down and try not to wince at every use of the word we. To not ask if the occasional uses of I meant Naruto or Kurama. He could support Naruto’s endeavors to help himself and that was it. So he’d do that to the best of his ability.

Kakashi searched the library from top to bottom and scraped together the scrolls that Naruto needed. Called in favors from other shinobi to answer specific questions that could help. Spent the last of his money buying rare books from other lands. 

He hadn’t even thought about being ‘caught’. Until he was summoned by the council and before the hokage to explain himself. He tried to cover it up, brush it aside as his own sudden interest in sealing. To fix his eye, he told them. They didn’t believe him though and the hokage had looked at Kakashi with such disappointment. Kakashi wanted to melt the damn look right off his face with a generous application of his chidori. 

“Naruto Uzumaki cannot be given any hints to his own condition. It would be catastrophic,” the hokage said. Kakashi wondered when the man stopped seeing Naruto as a child rather than a weapon. Maybe he’d never seen the kid the way Kakashi thought. 

“Who are we to stop him from becoming the shinobi he wants to be?” Kakashi asked. 

“We allowed him the headband, but I will not risk the safety of this village because of your whim and your team’s lack of discipline and direction.” 

Kakashi nearly sneered. Naruto wasn’t allowed anything, he earned his headband. And lack of direction? He thought about the way Sasuke and Sakura trained from sunrise to sunset, the way that Naruto studied until his eyes were dry and itchy, and was baffled as to how anyone could think they didn’t have discipline. Sasuke couldn’t see his own blade and still he swung. Sakura’s dreams of being a medical ninja had all but been crushed to pieces but she studied anatomy anyway. Naruto was losing himself everyday and still he worked. They all worked so hard. 

“I haven’t told him anything,” Kakashi said, a lie bigger than any he’d ever told. “He has Uzumaki blood, sealing is in his ancestry.” 

“An ancestry he should never know about.” 

“I can’t control--” 

“You may soon be retired from active duty,” one of the council members said, “but even you are capable of controlling a child.” 

Control Naruto? Kakashi swallowed down his scoff and just suffered through the beratings that came from every direction. He gritted his teeth and hated them all for endangering his kids. For allowing Root to pull the strings of Konoha. 

The council talked more than Sarutobi, and when the hokage did speak it didn’t sound like his own words. Kakashi missed Minato more than ever. He’d be able to pull Naruto from whatever complicated chakric mess he was embroiled in, and he’d be able to whip Konoha into shape.

Kakashi was buzzing with barely hidden rage when he was finally allowed to leave. His killing intent and rage were stuck inside his damaged body and chakra system, which made it feel even more boiling hot. He wouldn’t be stopping, that was an impossibility at this point. He wouldn’t deny Naruto anything he asked for or could need. He’d just have to get smarter about how he did it.

Gai, who had heard about Kakashi’s reprimation, was shocked when Kakashi came home to the manor a week later with an armful of scrolls and a manic gleam in his eyes. When he asked about it Kakashi had just waved him off, “They’ll never find them. They’ll never even know they’re missing.” Gai was astonished. Honestly thrown for a loop. Kakashi had always been obedient, obsessed with rules even. 

“Are you sure this is the best way to go about it?” Gai asked. 

Kakashi shrugged and laid the scrolls down at Naruto’s research table. “What else was I to do?” He walked over to the kitchen, through the large living room. He stepped over Sakura’s many weights and straightened one of Sasuke’s practice swords on the wall. 

“The hokage--” 

Kakashi’s eyes narrowed and Gai found he couldn’t say anything more. 

“The hokage is nothing but an echo. A relic of times long past. He should have stepped down years ago.” Kakashi disappeared into the kitchen and Gai followed him slowly. 

“Your loyalties…” 

“Still burn as hot as ever.” 

“But…” 

“Gai, do you really want me to say that I would listen to the village over my kids?” Mismatched eyes met Gai’s. “Naruto would be forgotten if I do. Sasuke would be stripped of his headband. Sakura would be cast aside. You didn’t argue against us lying to the council during their interrogations. You didn’t say anything when we were hiding. Why is this different?” 

“Because you’re going against a direct order.” 

“So ignoring implied orders is better?” 

Gai didn’t even know why he was arguing anymore. He agreed with Kakashi, he did. It was just the idea of blatantly disobeying the hokage’s will… If Kakashi, and Gai himself, could do that so easily...where would it end? Ninjas were tools. They were mercenaries in everything but name. Orders and rules were their bread and butter. 

“You’re the one who said it was my will of fire.” 

Gai nodded. Helpless in his own confusion. Kakashi was right, so why did his chest hurt so much? Kakashi had grown so much since his return to Gai’s side, and Gai cherished the other man more than ever. Seeing him with the kids every day, on the other side of the table at breakfast, at night before he went to sleep… it was everything Gai had ever wanted. But the manic obsessive terror that surrounded Kakashi was not. 

And that was the problem, wasn’t it? Gai was scared for Kakashi, because his rival had more to lose now than he ever had. He knew Kakashi would fight with every part of his being and soul to protect that. Denying orders was just the beginning. 

“Just be careful, dearest one. Please,” Gai said. 

Kakashi’s strung out frantic energy calmed as he returned Gai’s earnest gaze. “Of course, Gai. I would never do something that would endanger any of us.” He stepped closer to Gai and grabbed one of the other’s hands with too much force, though Gai would never turn the contact down. “I’m a genius, remember?” It was a challenge and a comfort in one.

Gai chuckled and wiped at the tears on his cheeks that he hadn’t noticed in his earlier reflection. He brought his empty hand around to gently engulf Kakashi’s hand in both of his own. “You’re so much more than a genius,” Gai replied. He saw the dark bruises under Kakashi’s eyes and the stress lines around his uncovered mouth. He’d spent years wishing his rival didn’t feel the need to hide his face away, but it wasn’t worth the sacrifice. The mask had been replaced with exhaustion and fear. 

His fingers brushed against Kakashi’s cheek and his thumb pressed and swiped gently at the underbags of his gray eye. “You need to remember to look after yourself sometimes too. You need to rest.” 

Kakashi scoffed quietly and made no move to get away from the gentle touch. “You sound like Farhu.” Then he smiled and Gai’s breath caught in the back of his throat for a moment. Kakashi’s uncovered smiles were still such a new marvel, though he doubted repeated exposure would make them any less devastating in the future. “Besides, you’re back for the day, right? I’m always more relaxed when you’re in the house with me.” Kakashi leaned closer and one of Gai’s hands dropped down to settle on a slender waist. 

“Rival, I--” 

Gai nearly bit his own tongue when Sasuke fell through the doorway with a loud curse and the clank of metal hitting stone flooring. “Did someone move the door?!” Sasuke demanded loudly and Gai’s eyebrows went up. When Kakashi bit his lip to hide his amusement Gai found he couldn’t be bothered to look at Sasuke’s undoubtedly humorous face, all he could see were those perfect teeth on a plump pink lip. 

“There’s no weapons in the kitchen, Sasuke,” Kakashi reprimanded with an audible smile. 

“I wasn’t trying to be in the kitchen!” Sasuke all but shouted. 

Kakashi sighed and broke away from Gai to help his student up from the floor. Gai thought about offering his own aid, but Kakashi picked up the dropped sword and ushered Sasuke out of the room with comforting promises to help train. 

Gai was left alone in the kitchen with a lot of thoughts. All of them centered on Kakashi. 

When he eventually made his way back out to the living room it was to find Sasuke and Sakura snuggled up to Kakashi’s sides on the couch. Kakashi was reading out loud from a book that Sakura had bought for Sasuke. There was no Naruto though, which was strange. A glance at the massive table in the corner showed it to be empty. 

It was the beginning of a pattern.

Over the next several weeks the hope that had filled the team to the brink began to fade and wither. Sasuke was exhausted and grumpy from his overused sharingan use. Sakura was frustrated by her inability to tame her chakra channels into formation for healing. And Naruto… Naruto was disappearing, in more than one way. He spent more time in abandoned rooms of the manor in parts of the building no one ever used. He spoke little and growled more. Sometimes it felt like he didn’t recognize his team until a second before he was about to attack them. 

Sakura and Sasuke began to crumble as their teammate pushed them away. No more games of cards between them, no more jokes or even bad shared flashbacks. Naruto didn’t sleep in the same room as them anymore and he was actively avoiding physical contact with anybody. 

Naruto’s face started to change. The whiskers got deeper and his canine teeth remained sharp and threatening, but more than that his mouth turned down in the corners and his top lip pulled up into a sneer. His eyelids drifted lower until he was only ever looking at the world in a wary squint. His eyebrows were drawn down and taut. He didn’t look like Naruto even if he was clearly the same. 

Kakashi held Sakura as she sobbed about it. He comforted Sasuke when the Uchiha chopped trees to bits in his helpless rage. And Kakashi had nightmares every night. Sometimes of his father or Minato, sometimes his old team, and most often his current team. On bad nights they’d all flood together and he’d wake with a gasp and a caught scream and a drowning feeling of hopelessness. 

And then one morning, three months after their return to the village, Naruto really did disappear. A scrawled note left on the kitchen table the only evidence of his exit from the manor. It was written out on a scrap of sealing notes, and said simply, ‘we’ll be back’. It was signed with Naruto’s name which would have been comforting if the character didn’t look so wobbly and mangled, like he’d gotten confused halfway through writing it. 

Everyone panicked. Farhu, Ibiki, Anko, Genma, and Gai found their ways to the manor where Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke were in a frantic mess. They wanted to go and find their teammate, they couldn’t let him be alone. Ibiki convinced Kakashi that it would be too noticeable if he went after his student, not to mention how vulnerable he was without his chakra. And Naruto, of all of them, would be able to take care of himself. 

No one mentioned the obvious. That Naruto would be more likely to hurt someone than need protection. That Naruto, the real Naruto, would never forgive himself if he hurt an innocent. 

Gai would be equally as noticed as Kakashi and Ibiki couldn’t leave work or all of T&I would fall to pieces. Farhu wasn’t combat oriented and no one felt comfortable sending her out on her own. “So it’s one of you two,” Kakashi said resignedly with a gesture at Genma and Anko. 

“Sakura and I will go!” Sasuke argued. 

“You’d give yourself a concussion on the first tree you ran into, Sasuke!” Kakashi snapped. Sakura moved to interject but he turned to her and added, “And you would be stuck dragging his ass back because you’re incapable of healing him!” 

Both of them deflated and glared at Kakashi and the floor in equal measure. “That’s a gross oversimplification,” Sakura muttered. 

Genma cleared his throat and said, “I’ll go, of course, but Anko should probably come with. Neither of us are great at tracking but together I’m pretty sure we can manage it. Naruto and Kurama don’t seem like the type to worry about leaving a trail.” 

Anko nodded. “My snakes aren’t on the same level as your dogs, Kakashi, but they can sense chakra.” Kakashi looked mournful at the mention of his summons. 

“And the two of us are the most competent at restraining him if he turns violent,” Genma added with a snap of his teeth on his senbon. He and Anko had perfected their strain of paralytic for Naruto sized emergencies. 

“Fine,” Kakashi conceded. “Go then.” 

Genma rolled his eyes and looked to the two terrified children. “Hey, kids, you know I’ll find him.” 

Sasuke glared at Genma’s shoulder and Sakura cocked her hip and gave him a raised brow. “We’re not worried about you finding him.” 

“We’re worried what you’ll find…” Sasuke finished. 

Genma swallowed and nodded his head stupidly, he had nothing to say to that. He was terrified of that as well. Naruto was powerful and incredibly dangerous. Genma hadn’t spent the night at the manor in a month because of the way Naruto tended to prowl the halls silently with glowing eyes. 

“Ahh, cheer up, kiddos!” Anko exclaimed. “Naruto said he’d be back, so have some faith in him.” 

“Naruto’s a self-sacrificing idiot,” Sasuke replied. 

“And so are you two!” Anko reminded them. “Now let’s go, Gen, we’ve got a genin to stalk.” She flounced out of the room and then out the front door. Genma exchanged a few more promises with the people they were leaving behind and then left the same way, with far less flouncing. 

On the fortunate side, Genma was right and Naruto had left a visible trail. On the not so fortunate side, Genma was even worse at tracking than he’d thought. Anko’s snakes were easily confused and impatient, a terrible combination, but their ragtag group stumbled through the forest together after their lost charge. 

Genma didn’t think he’d ever been so tense during a mission before. Most of his missions were assassinations. He only had to worry for short periods of time, and most of that worry was about people actively trying to kill him. But the waiting for someone to attack? Not really his norm. He was the person attacking. 

And he’d heard the brief stories that the kids told, or the worried fretting that Kakashi and Gai did. He knew that Naruto had killed dozens of Root ninja. He knew that Naruto didn’t hesitate to go for the throat or any other easy to strike and heavily bleeding areas. He knew that Naruto was half animal and would attack with little to no provocation, he’d seen it. And here they were, him and Anko loudly walking through the forest as they tried to follow something they could barely see. 

He wouldn’t turn back though, he was stubbornly invested in the well being of Hatake’s brats and he wouldn’t leave Naruto behind. He knew Anko was of a similar mind. 

After 6 days they found him. 

A few miles out from his location and the snakes suddenly became agitated, they easily steered the humans in the right direction. Within a mile of Naruto and they didn’t need the snakes at all. The chakra that was pulsing through the air was just like the chakra he’d felt in the hospital. But also not. 

Stepping through the tree line exposed a small clearing, about ten meters by twelve, and at the center of the clearing was Naruto. The boy didn’t even notice them, he was too busy writing on the ground. 

The clearing floor had been transformed from scrub grass and weeds to a perfectly even dirt floor. An obvious earth nature manipulation that Genma knew Naruto couldn’t do, not alone at least. And across the dirt was drawn an intricate seal array made up of smaller arrays that stretched to the edges of the clearing. Different groups of symbols overlapped with others, and some linked into a twining design, while others kept to very strict lines. They looked to be in three different character types and at least two handwritings. 

Another look at Naruto revealed that his skin was also covered in twined seals and geometric shapes. He was wearing just a pair of cut off pants and the seals curled around his ankles to calves, wrists to biceps, around his stomach and covered his chest. 

Anko stepped forward to get a better look and the moment the toe of her sandal passed the edge of the grass to dirt, Naruto pounced. She stumbled backwards with a gasp and Naruto just stared at her and Genma. Not moving beyond the circle. 

Genma helped Anko gain her footing and then said, “Naruto? You there, bud?” 

The chakra surrounding them pulsed heavily but Naruto gave no response. Genma shuffled a little closer, staying clear of the dirt, and held out a tentative hand. Naruto swiped at it half heartedly and glared full heartedly. Genma backed up again and tried talking to him, but nothing got through. Naruto just crouched and stared. 

“Oh, fine!” Anko grumped. She grabbed Genma’s elbow and dragged them back just past the trees. Naruto stayed put for a minute before standing to return to the center of the array. He didn’t hesitate to turn his back on them and Genma suddenly felt like a weasel staring at a lion.

Naruto added a few more lines, a couple more characters, and then laid himself out at the very center of his masterpiece. Genma couldn’t make anything out of the mess, but the seals started to light up once Naruto went still. 

Then the overwhelming chakra turned suffocating. It pressed down on Genma until he fell to his knees, and then from his knees to his ass. Anko followed quickly behind him, and they sprawled on the grass gasping. It came and went like a tide, giving them a few moments to breathe between the onslaughts of intense energy. And underneath the tide it was… churning. Genma realized that was the difference he’d noticed. The chakra felt like it was fighting itself, turning in on itself uncomfortably, trying to take a shape that didn’t fit. 

That internal struggle got worse as the tide ebbed on. An hour went by and each pulse made Genma’s chest squeeze. The tide nauseated him and made his head swim. He crawled a few meters further away, dragging Anko with him, but it didn’t get much better, and he wouldn’t risk getting out of sight of Naruto. 

Another hour and the seals on Naruto’s skin began to fade and sink into his body. Another hour and he realized the seals on the ground were creeping toward Naruto at such a slow pace it was only noticeable by the larger gap between the clearing edges and the trees. Those seals, once they reached him, climbed up his skin to sink away as well. 

Four hours in and Genma lost consciousness as the chakra vibrated with a stretched elastic feel to it. He woke up when that elastic broke and the energy came sweeping out in a tidal wave. It hit him in the chest first and made his vision go white. Then it flushed through the rest of his body and he only managed to turn to his side to vomit on the grass instead of choking on it by the slightest time frame. 

The moon shined down on him and he looked to check on Anko. She was awake as well, staring at the stars. “Did you…” 

Anko nodded. “I think we were out for at least six hours.” 

He shivered and realized that an enemy shinobi could have come by and finished them off easily. Then he remembered that they’d have to have gotten through the chakra themselves and felt a little better. But not much. 

A glance into the clearing showed the seals were almost all gone, only the very outer edges still remaining on the ground, hugging Naruto’s form. “Should be done soon,” Genma said. The chakra had lessened considerably after that wave and he sat up with no difficulty. His stomach turned and his head ached, but he didn’t feel like he was about to be crumpled up like a tin can anymore. 

“Yeah, and then what?” Anko asked. She sat up as well and moved close enough to brush their shoulders together. She had dripping senbons in both hands, and he pulled out his own matching ones. 

Naruto was still for another half an hour after all the seals had disappeared into him. When he did finally move it was to stretch his arms and legs out and release a huge sigh. He looked like a toddler or a cat. “Well, buddy,” the kid said to the sky, “I think we did it. I think it worked.” Naruto laughed at something and shook his head, “I told you not to worry so much, you big fur ball.” 

“Naruto?” Anko said, just loud enough to carry. 

Naruto sat up and looked over at them in confusion. He squinted and it didn’t hide the fact that those blue turned red eyes were now a deep purple, as if they couldn’t decide which direction to go. When Naruto tilted his head, the starlight hit the irises at an angle and they shined almost magenta. But the whiskers were back to light scars and his face was more relaxed than Genma had ever seen it. 

“Anko? Genma?” Naruto asked. Then he smiled at them so hard it squeezed his eyes shut, which allowed Genma to focus rather than stare. 

“You okay, kid?” he asked. 

Naruto jumped to his feet and started stretching again. “Oh, yeah. Feeling myself again, believe it!” 

“What did you do?” Anko asked. 

“I fixed it! Sorry, sorry, we fixed it!” Naruto rolled his eyes and gave them a ‘what can you do’ shrug. 

“But how?” Genma whined. 

“In the end, it was pretty simple.” Anko and Genma traded a disbelieving look. “I mean, really, we just had to stop trying to fix the problem.” 

“What?” 

“We were getting all mixed up together, right? And we kept trying to fix the seal my dad gave me,” he gestured unnecessarily at his stomach where the original seal still sat. Broken to pieces and slowly roving about. “But to fix it, we’d have to undo it, and to do that would kill me and scatter Kurama into a billion pieces across the world or something like that.” 

“Okay, so what did you do?” Anko pressed. She was as impatient as her snakes. 

“Oh! It occurred to us that we shouldn’t fight what was happening, but rather just let it happen. But on our terms. So we let ourselves get all smushed together but made these like chakra nets basically, that hold each of us, even when we’re all pressed up against each other. Our chakras are mixed up, it can slip through the nets, right? But us? We’re still in two pieces.” 

“Wait, and that worked?” Genma asked. “That sounds like bullshit.” 

Naruto shrugged. “I don’t really remember what it was like before Kurama, so maybe it didn’t fully work? But I can have my own thoughts now, even if Kurama’s are right next to mine. Does that make sense?” 

“Not at all,” Anko replied. 

Naruto’s expression turned into a frown, but it was nothing like the one he’d been sporting for months. So Genma figured that was a point in Naruto’s direction. 

“It’s sort of like having a shadow clone’s memories, but like all the time.” 

Anko snorted and then chuckled. “Whatever you say, kid. Wanna head back to your friends?” 

Naruto’s purple eyes went wide and he flailed in place. “Yes! I don’t remember the last time I talked to them!” He frowned. “I don’t remember the last time I saw them.” 

“You were pretty out of it for a while,” Genma said, which was the understatement of his life. The whole evening felt dreamlike and hazy. Maybe it was the leftover chakra, maybe it was Naruto’s bright attitude, but Genma thought it was really because of how anticlimactic everything was. Naruto was okay. Or at least, more okay than he was. He hadn’t attacked them. Genma didn’t lose any limbs or even blood. He guiltily stashed all but one of his senbon back into his pouch. 

As Naruto laughed at a joke Anko made that Genma hadn’t heard, his chakra flowed out. It was strong, powerful, and wild. But it wasn’t as biting as it was before. There was a sort of sunshiney feel to it now that tempered the violence it usually swam with. 

“Come on, kid,” Genma said as he stood up. “It took us a few days to get here. It’ll take us at least a couple more to get back.” 

“How are…” Naruto hesitated and bit his lip. “How are they?” 

Genma flicked the senbon in his mouth and looked at Anko. She shrugged and gestured back at him so he sighed and replied, “They’ll be better when we get back, okay?” 

Naruto deflated so harshly Genma was worried. “Okay,” Naruto mumbled. His shoulders drew back as he glared at the forest. “Okay. I’ll get back and I’ll fix that too!” 

“I believe it,” Genma said. 

Naruto grinned bright as the moon above them and launched himself into the trees. Anko cursed and raced after him. Genma slid his hands in his pockets and sighed before he followed them. 

For the entire trip back Genma was tense. Not as wary as when he and Anko had been looking for Naruto, but far more nervous. He was more scared of Naruto showing signs of regression than he was of being maimed. He didn’t think Naruto’s teammates could survive having hope handed to them only to have it snarl and bite at them once again. 

But the three days of travel were peaceful. Naruto was tired from all the chakra use that the sealing had taken from him, but he talked happily during the breaks they took. Genma was meeting Naruto for the first time, really, and the kid was… charismatic. He was too loud to be traditionally charming, but his smiles and optimism were infectious. Genma had never been much of a ‘look on the bright side’ kind of guy, but with Naruto around things seemed lighter. Easier to shoulder the weight of everything that was happening. 

It was hard to tell if Naruto had changed from the original. Genma would be surprised though, if the previous Naruto was as sharp as the current one was. Naruto held himself like he had claws and fangs still. He jumped through the trees using both hands and feet like a beast. And the way he chuckled darkly to himself or smiled with all his teeth during conversations held only in his head was off putting, to say the least. 

All that said, Naruto didn’t feel or act as desperate as before. He acted like a wary shinobi instead of a terrified victim. Genma wondered if having Kurama sharing his head made the terrible things Naruto had done and witnessed easier to manage. Maybe there was some sort of animal detachment that allowed the kid to distance himself from the truth. Or maybe Naruto was just more used to violence than his two teammates… he certainly had seemed the most bloodthirsty in general…