Pushing away this anxiety, he clenched his hands into fists. At the same time, he dropped to his knees.
An electrical current shot through his chest. His heart started to pound faster, and fireworks bounced around in his skull.
“Ngh … Ungh. Ah! … Haah!”
Intense pain shot through his body. This time it felt deeper than usual.
“Why … ah. Ngh … It’s not … the same—”
His limbs trembled, and his body spasmed. The moisture of his throat evaporated.
On all fours, Naruto moaned and clenched his teeth.
His consciousness threatened to exit his head, but the pain pulsing through his body quickly brought it back.
Be calm. It’s the same as always. Grit your teeth and it’ll be over before you know it.
No sooner had he told himself this than a new level of extreme pain electrified his body to its core.
“Aunh?!” He flapped his mouth open and closed and sent up a silent scream.
His pulse was wild, his heart leaped erratically in his chest, and his body was so hot, it threatened to catch fire.
“Ngh! Hngh. Ah. Aah!”
The heat and intense pain were practically ripping him open from the inside.
“Ah! Aunh. Aunnnhhh!”
He lost consciousness and slid down from the rocky face of the Fourth Hokage. His body seized and shuddered, and as he fell he was caught by someone’s arms.
Naruto felt the soft thud of a landing, and the consciousness that had left him returned.
Through a haze he saw familiar feet encased up to the ankle in traditional tabi shoes.
“Sasuke …”
Sasuke had Naruto tucked under his arm and gently set him down on the ground. He was kneading chakra in the palm of his hand. He created Water Style water and spilled it onto Naruto’s face, cooling the fire inside of Naruto’s head, which was on the verge of overheating.
Sasuke started to walk away.
From the sound of his footsteps, Naruto realized that Sasuke was moving in the opposite direction of his house. Naruto pulled himself into a sitting position.
“Hold up, Sasuke …”
He desperately squinted to try and clear his foggy vision.
The receding Sasuke was wearing the long black coat with a collar that he always wore on missions. From the unnatural bulge of it, Naruto knew he had a longsword on his back.
“You … What’s with that outfit? You going somewhere?”
Sasuke stopped and looked back. “As you can see, I’m leaving Konoha.”
“You going to the astronomical observatory?”
Sasuke nodded evenly.
The blood rose to Naruto’s freshly cooled head again. “C’mon, man … You got a notice from Shikamaru. Your next mission is to investigate who was behind the assassination attempt in the Land of Kizahashi. You can’t just go off—”
“Not my problem,” Sasuke said coolly and turned a strong, even angry gaze on Naruto. “If you’re not the Hokage, then there’s no point. I won’t go on any other missions until you’re cured.”
“You … Not happening, Sasuke.” Naruto put some strength into his buckling knees and desperately pushed himself to his feet. Once Sasuke made up his mind, he never changed it. If Naruto was going to stop him, it would have to be with force.
He kneaded chakra in the loose palm of his left hand.
Instantly, a jolt of pain shot through his spine, and he nearly leaped into the air.
Stop, Naruto! He heard Kurama say.
Shut up, he replied in his head and continued to knead his chakra.
The chakra was imbued with wind and began to spin chaotically.
As if in response, Sasuke concentrated chakra in his right hand. Visible voltage bounced up, and the high-pitched cry of Chidori rang out.
While pain shredded every part of him, Naruto readied his Rasengan and started running. Sasuke prepared to counter, raising his right hand to launch Chidori.
Thump!
Naruto staggered in agony. His reflexes gave up on releasing chakra. His Rasengan instantly faded away. And Sasuke’s Chidori flew at Naruto’s chest as he started to pitch forward.
The pale electrical attack pierced his chest.
“Aungh!”
Naruto dropped to his knees and was about to press a hand to his stomach where he’d been shot through, but he couldn’t find any wound.
When he looked up, Sasuke was looking down at him coolly from a distance.
Genjutsu? he thought as he toppled over. Perhaps his forcible kneading of chakra left him with zero strength. Even still, he managed to grasp at the earth and brace himself, but after thrusting his arms out and pushing his upper body up, he collapsed back onto the ground.
“Going easy on me,” Naruto squeezed out, while he ate dirt. “Going easy on a rival.”
“Because you’re a rival,” Sasuke replied and turned his back to Naruto, the hem of his long coat swinging. “Naruto. Do not die before I get back.”
“I’m telling you not to go …”
The sound of Sasuke’s footsteps faded. He was headed to the astronomical observatory.
“Don’t go. Don’t go. Don’t go,” Naruto murmured over and over as he looked up at the muddy night sky. Gradually, he lost even his voice, and all he could make was a faint whistling sound in his throat.
He was so cowardly letting Sasuke go, he could hardly stand it. As the Hokage, he was supposed to protect the village. But here he was now, being protected by people who should have been protecting the village.
“Naruto.”
He heard a familiar voice and slowly lifted his eyelids.
Clear green eyes looked down on him in utter exasperation. “Same old idiot as always.”
“Me? Sasuke?”
“Both of you, obviously.”
Sakura crouched down and gently helped Naruto sit up. She touched his cheek and poured chakra into the scrapes he’d gotten falling from the Rock to heal them. Ever since his symptoms had begun, Naruto’s natural healing power had dropped dramatically. Before this, scratches like these would have healed easily on their own.
“Sasuke left,” Naruto said slowly.
Sakura nodded easily. “I know.”
“If you know then … why didn’t you stop him?”
“I tried. But you know that Sasuke’s impossible once he makes up his mind about something. Now that he’s decided to help you, he’ll do everything he can.” Sakura removed the headband she had pushed high on her head to keep her hair back and set it down in the middle of her forehead as if to cover the hyakugo jutsu mark there. “I’m going after him soon myself. He’ll probably use Susano’o, though, so I won’t be able to catch up for a while.”
“But what about Sarada?” Naruto asked.
“I’ll have someone I can trust take her,” Sakura said. “Shizune joined the deciphering team at the institute, so she’s not around. But I’ll find someone Sasuke trusts too. Can you stand?”
She slipped herself under Naruto’s arm and stood him up, leaning him on her shoulder. Together, they took one step after another toward the old city.
“So, listen,” Sakura started casually as she matched Naruto’s pace. “You remember you came to the hospital and we did those detailed tests? I just got the results back. You’re basically in perfect health, but there was one weird thing. It looks like your chakra channels are closing up.”
“My chakra channels?”
Sakura nodded and continued.
“But you don’t have pain when I pour my chakra into you, and your scratches did in fact heal, right? That would mean you’re not rejecting chakra itself. Most likely, the problem is with your chakra channels. If the Sage of Six Paths had the same symptoms, then the failure of your chakra channels is likely due to taking a Biju into your body.”
“But Gaara and Bee and them are all just fine,” he protested.
“True,” she agreed. “This is just a hypothesis at best.”
Naruto lowered his gaze. “If my chakra channels close, what’ll happen to me?”
“If the issue is only your chakra channels, you won’t die if they close up,” Sakura told him. “You just won’t ever be able to use chakra again.”
“‘Just’ …” The color drained from Naruto’s already ghostly pale face.
With the chakra of the Nine Tails inside of him, Naruto’s fighting style depended on the amount of his intrinsic chakra. Not being able to knead chakra now after all this time—to be honest, it would be a fate worse than death.
“That’s serious,” he said slowly.
“It is,” Sakura replied with a sigh. “But I’m relieved at any rate. We’re not at war right now, and it doesn’t really matter if the Hokage stops being able to use chakra.”
She was maybe right about that. But for Naruto, who had dreamed of becoming the Hokage since he was a child, a totally obvious prerequisite was that he had to be strong. That prerequisite hadn’t changed since he became the Seventh Hokage.
“. . .”
Unable to say anything more, Naruto quietly dragged his still-spasming left leg forward.
He couldn’t go home in his muddied clothes, so he spent the night in the nap room next to his office.
He tossed his filthy clothes into the laundry, curled up in his shorts on the thin futon, and spent the rest of the night in thought.
If he ultimately couldn’t use chakra anymore, would he quit as Hokage? Or would he rethink old notions and determine that strength and force in a time of peace were no longer necessary? Would he then remain in his position?
“Aaaaah, I hate both options.”
There were still plenty of things he wanted to accomplish as Hokage. He had no interest in passing the torch when there was still more on his to-do list.
Before he knew it, the dawning of a new day came without his getting a wink of sleep. He stepped back into his office early and finished up his routine duties. Not until it was past noon was he finally able to go back to his own house.
When he opened the front door, he found a pair of unfamiliar zori sandals, heels together, neatly placed on the entryway floor.
Maybe Hinata’s? Bit big for her though.
He sat down on the step leading up to the house, and as he took off his shoes, Himawari came flying out of the living room, having heard him come in.
“It’s Daddy! You’re home!”
“I sure am, Himawari.”
“Okay, so, we have a guest. He drew this for me!” She beamed at him and held up the paper in her hands. It was a portrait of Himawari and Hinata drawn in gentle pastel colors. Even Naruto, who knew nothing about art, could tell it was well drawn.
A guest who can draw like this? Who?
Naruto looked toward the door of the living room down the hallway. The faces of Sai and Inojin popped up in his head, but the zori in the entryway were very much a woman’s.
“Come to the living room! Come on! He’s waiting for you, Daddy!”
“Y-you bet.” Yanked along by the hand, Naruto poked his head into the living room and almost choked on his tongue.
“Goodness! You’re later than I was expecting.”
Sitting at the table and sipping tea was the elusive snake man, shiny black hair hanging to his waist—Orochimaru.