Ill Fated - Blackkitten23 - Naruto (Anime & Manga) [Archive of Our Own] (2024)

Chapter 1: Illness Takes Hold

Chapter Text

Ino smiled as everyone was relaxing at the hotel after a hard mission. Naruto and a clone were dancing, making everyone laugh, except Sakura, Sai and Shino, and everyone was trying to recover. Two were simply reserved or doesn’t laugh. The pinkette just had no sense of humor;

Besides some minor injuries everyone was fine and they got to this hotel just in time to avoid the bad storm that was approaching fast. They were lucky the hotel had enough room and enough medical supplies for them to treat what injuries they had. Granted, they had to share two rooms, but they will be dry and getting a hot meal so the only complaints came from Sakura.

“Come eat, you guys! The food is here!” Ino called out so Naruto and Lee could hear her over the music.

Sakura huffed, “Finally. Took long enough.”

Naruto grinned, “Yay! I’m starv-“ the blonde was suddenly hit with a mild coughing spell.

“Hey, man. You ok?” Lee asked curiously. Sakura gained a few nasty glances with her silent uncaring eye roll.

“Yeah. I’m fine!” Naruto said cheerfully, shrugging off the coughing incident as he sat with Sai and Shino.

Shino raised an eyebrow, “That’s blood.” He pointed to a couple red specks on the hand the blonde coughed into.

“Oh?” Naruto blinked curiously and looked at his hand. “It is!”

“Umm How many ribs did you break in that fight again?” Ino asked, knowing Naruto took a lot of hits in their mission. “It could be blood from your wounds.”

Naruto pondered a moment as he sat down, “I did break one … and all that dancing probably didn’t help!” Naruto chuckled and snapped up some chopsticks.

Shino adjusted his glasses, “Take it easy then.” He said, but sighed as the blonde just started munching happily as if nothing happened.

The ninjas ate their fill and went to their rooms. Naruto shared a room with Sai, Lee and Shino while Sakura and Ino shared a room. With the sounds of the storm overhead everyone relaxed in their beds and fell asleep. However, just as they were in the middle of the night Naruto started coughing slightly.

“You ok, man?” Lee asked groggily as he glanced at the wall that separated them from the medics. It wouldn’t take much to wake them. They might even be able to hear this conversation with these thin walls despite the storm.

“Yeah, just .. a tickle. You … guys sleep.” Naruto pressed out between coughs and stepped out of the room to not bother his teammates.

It should’ve just been an annoying tickle in the back of the throat. It wasn’t supposed to last for very long, but it did. After 2 minutes of mild coughing it became violent body shaking coughs that forced Naruto onto his knees.

“Hello?” It seems despite the storm his coughs became loud enough to alert a staff member. “Are you ok-“ the guy gasped fearfully. “Oh dear god! I’ll get some help. Just stay here!” He yelped before running down the hall.

Of course, that last part was not something he needed to say. At the moment Naruto was coughing so hard he couldn’t even stand let alone go anywhere. However, the poor guy probably wasn’t thinking logically considering the bloody scenario he witnessed.

Naruto was on his knees with his head down so low that his forehead was touching the cold floor. Both of the blonde ninja’s hands were covering his mouth. Of course, the hands did nothing to stop the coughing, but the most frightening thing about this scene was pouring out between them.

Copious amounts of blood was coughed up and freely flowed from his mouth . So much blood had collected in his hands that it was overflowing and dripping to the floor. It was more than enough to scare most people. Even Naruto seemed quite scared as he clearly struggled to breathe.

At least, he seemed to be. As Naruto coughed violently his blue eye opened briefly and it looked oddly calm as it glanced around for people. Once that eye saw that a group of people were headed towards him it closed.

“Oh my god!” One person exclaimed as they knelt down next to naruto. “Help me lay him on his back! Did he come with someone?” Naruto felt the people hold his arms and tried to move him onto his back. “Can we just … You know, get rid of him?” The person whispered. Despite the storm and violent bloody coughing Naruto heard and his eyes cracked open showing a bit of shock before closing again.

“Sorry, sir. He came with the ninjas.” Another person said indifferently as he placed a strange smelling cloth over Naruto’s mouth to catch the blood. “Oops … Wrong cloth.” He commented when he caught a whiff of the fumes coming off the cloth and swapped it out for a plain cloth.

“Don’t waste the chloroform … Go wake the ninjas. Maybe we can dump him on them and they’ll leave early.” The man ordered casually. Clearly he thought the ninja coughing up a lung in front of him couldn’t hear the whispers.

“Right!” A person, who sounded a lot like the scared guy who first found Naruto, exclaimed and ran off. Seconds later, and a little bit of coughing, Shino, Sai, Lee and Ino came running down the hall with Sakura trailing slowly behind them.

Sakura yawned, “Why did I have to come?”

Ino deadpanned, “Because you’re the main medic and that guy said Naruto was coughing up blood … which he is. This is our department!” She snapped as Sai, Lee and Shino tried to help the blonde to his feet.

“He seems fine. See he’s already sleepy. Let the demon handle it.” Sakura muttered when she saw the sleepy dazed look in the blue eyes. She started walking back to her room even though Naruto was still weakly coughing and there was blood all over his clothes, hands and the floor.

The man who accidentally used the chloroform cloth just hummed, “That’s probably more blood loss related than plain sleepiness. Should we help you get him to a room? It seems far more serious than anything we can handle.”

“What youthful service!” Lee yelped.

Sai shook his head, “We aren’t too far from our village.”

Shino nodded, “We only stopped because of the storm.” He quickly clarified when he saw the puzzled looks on the hotel staff. “Help him onto my back.” He said and Sai, Lee and Ino placed Naruto exactly where it’d be the easiest for Shino to carry him and secured the blonde in place.

As her fellow ninjas jumped through the window and took off through the storm, Ino gave the hotel staff a sharp look, “The pink haired bitch is picking up the bill.” She said and rushed out after Lee, Shino, Sai and Naruto. Once she caught up with them she chuckled. “No one is around, Naruto. You can stop.” She said, but frowned as Naruto stopped coughing, but the blood didn’t. In fact, she noticed his lips were turning blue. “We need to stop!”

Sai raised an eyebrow as they stopped on a tree branch, “Did something happen with the seal?” He asked and he saw the blood gush out when Shino put his fingers into Naruto’s mouth.

“He didn’t turn it off.” Shino said as he inspected a little seal on the roof of Naruto’s mouth, which was dripping blood. As Lee held Naruto upright, Ino cleared Naruto’s airways. The insect user gently reached into the blonde’s mouth and used a fingertip to turn off the seal on the roof of the mouth. When he leaned close he noticed an odd smell. “Was chloroform part of the plan?” He asked, recognizing the distinctive smell coming from around the unconscious blonde’s mouth.

A baffled Ino shrugged, “Maybe Lady Tsunade knows. We need to hurry anyway so we’ll ask her soon.” She said and they rushed towards their village with the unconscious Naruto being dragged along.

XXXXXXXXXX

“I already said no many, many, many times.” Tsunade said as she kept a steady glare on the old bandaged fool standing in front of her desk. The pissed off woman was restlessly squeezing a red stress ball as fast and as hard as possible.

Danzo winced at the ear piercing squeak that the abused stress ball gave off, “Naruto is the son of the fourth hokage and the vessel of the demon fox. We can’t miss out on-“

Tsunade forced the ball to squeak again just to cut Danzo off, “I. Said. No.” She hissed dangerously as she stood up and glared at the old man. “If you bring up breeding programs again I will sign you up for the breeding program’s clean up crew. Is that understood?”

Danzo grimaced at the disgusting punishment, “Yes, hokage-sama.” He grumbled through clenched teeth.

A worried Shizune opened the door, “Lady Tsunade, we have an emergency-“ Shizune was cut off when Danzo rudely turned and brushed past her. “It’s Naruto. He’s sick.”

Tsunade saw Danzo pause slightly before officially leaving, “Where is he?” She asked and, to waste the smallest amount of time, they jumped right out of the window taking the red ball with her. Barely 5 minutes later they jumped through the window of the hospital. “Asshole is persistent.” She muttered as the window she and Shizune came through was closed. “Ok, how was … Is he actually out cold?” She asked Ino, Shino, Lee and Sai after she saw that Naruto was asleep on the hospital bed.

Ino raised an eyebrow, “Wasn’t chloroform part of the ruse?”

“Nope.” Tsunade commented only to shrug it off. “Naruto is good at improvising. Anyway, did Sakura buy it?”

Shino nodded, “Obviously, she wasn’t concerned, but that’s no surprise. We left her with the bill so she’ll realize how serious this is soon.”

The red ball started wriggling on its own. It was even mumbling, but the words were muffled inside Tsunade’s fist. All that seemed to annoy Tsunade, however, and she threw it at the wall. The red ball rolled out of the dent it made in the wall. As it rolled to a stop it seemed to unravel revealing it wasn’t a ball at all. It was a very dizzy small toy sized person with red hair, red eyes, nine fluffy fox tails and two fluffy fox ears.

Tsunade tapped her chin in thought, “Now the next steps will be crucial. Everyone needs to believe it.” She said seriously and looked at Sai.

Sai nodded and pulled out a canvas and some ink, “Danzo will be having me help report, but he doesn’t fully trust me. I’m sure he’ll have another ROOT agent checking in on Naruto so this mouse, or one like it, will appear whenever another agent is around.” He said as he drew an ink mouse, which came to life with a little chakra.

The hokage nodded as she looked at the mouse, “We’ll all play our roles when we see it.” She commented and tilted her head as she pondered something. “Make a few more of those.” She ordered and she absentmindedly stepped on a tail effectively preventing the little humanoid fox creature from escaping as Sai proceeded to paint several more mice.

“What the f*ck?!” The living human-like fox plush yelled angrily. “You stupid humans make everything so complicated. Just give it back and everything will be solved. Maybe I’ll even be merciful.” He said as he tried to pull his tail out from under Tsunade’s foot, but nothing worked.

Shino scoffed as he adjusted his sunglasses, “It’s your own fault you’re in this mess. As far as we’re concerned you’re on your own.”

Lee huffed, “So unyouthful.”

“Exactly.” Tsunade hissed furiously as she easily grabbed the plushy sized creature by the scruff of the neck and glared at it. “We refuse to let your screw up drag Naruto and Kakashi down too.” She threatened as the army of ink mice went off to guard the perimeter.

“You humans are all pathetic!” The creature snapped and sulked as he dangled from Tsunade’s hand.

“Oh shut up, Kurama!” A finally conscious Naruto grumbled as he sat up. “For creatures that you think are so pathetic we certainly screwed your plans up a lot. My father-“

“Don’t you dare bring him up!” Kurama growled furiously, but his size made him sound like an annoyed cat instead of a threatening demon. “I can crush-“

Tsunade squeezed the mini demon, “Not anymore.”

Naruto rolled his eyes, but then he remembered something, “Oh. About that hotel we went to-“

One tiny squeak from an ink mouse standing under the window alerted everyone to a spy. In a split second Tsunade rolled the Kurama back up into a ball and quickly shoved Naruto back down on the bed. Shizune moved to take the blonde’s vitals, but not only to sell the story. It really sounded like Naruto smacked his head on the way back down on the bed. In fact, he really was out cold again …

XXXXXXXXXX

Danzo went into a hidden compound and looked at the nearest ROOT agent, “Go to the hospital and keep an eye on the demon brat. I want to know his condition.” He ordered and without question the agent left.

The ROOT agent quickly made his way to the hospital. Without being spotted he found the window in Naruto’s hospital. His target was clearly unconscious on the bed. There didn’t seem to be any obvious wounds, but there was a lot of blood on his clothes.

Despite only seeing the medics’ backs it was easy to see how worried Tsunade and Shizune were especially with how hard the hokage was squeezing her stress ball. Another disturbing thing was that Shino, Lee and Ino also had blood splattered on them. The only one not showing concern or covered in blood was Sai, who was secretly a fellow ROOT agent so that made sense considering their training.

Chapter 2: Illusion

Chapter Text

Last Time:

“Yes, Danzo-sama.” The ROOT agent said and quietly left to start a thorough investigation …

XXXXXXXXXX

The ROOT agent made it to the hotel that was mentioned. It was easy to slip into the civilian operated business and find the room where all the footage from the security cameras are stored for the week. With some searching and a little luck the agent managed to login into the computer. Thankfully, the footage he wanted wasn’t from very long ago.

Much to the agent’s annoyance it was a rather sh*tty system. Not that the picture quality wasn’t great, but there were a lot of glitches. You’d see a hotel guest just walking one second and then they disappear because of a poorly timed glitch. It would make it impossible to track someone just from the end of one hall to the other. Still he obediently searched for the footage.

Just by chance there were no glitches during the hours of the storm. The perfect clip of Naruto leaving his room was found. After switching from each camera’s perspective the ROOT agent was able to watch the entire story.

Naruto was coughing a little when he left his room and as he wandered around his coughing got significantly worse. It was when Naruto collapsed that the hotel staff got involved. After some panic the rest of Naruto’s team were called to help. The agent took the entire clip of footage. With a quick copy and paste to a USB drive it was ready to show his leader, but first he wanted to keep looking around.

One thing he knew Danzo would want to know is why Sakura would go back to the hotel room. While the pink haired ninja was never close with the demon vessel she clearly didn’t seem worried in the footage. In fact, Sakura went back to her room so that’s the window the ROOT agent kept an eye on after going back outside. He even carefully opened the window so he could put a microphone just inside and closed the window. Now he could hear everything …

XXXXXXXXXX

Sakura yawned as she got up early that morning, “Damn Naruto being overdramatic.” She grumbled as she reluctantly got out of the comfy hotel bed and stretched. “Time to- …” The pinkette’s sentence trailed off when she saw that Ino wasn’t in the other bed.

For a moment she shrugged it off and went to clean up. By the time she showered and dressed she realized that she still hadn’t seen Ino. She gathered all her things and went to breakfast.

“I don’t get it … All of her stuff is there.” Sakura muttered as she walked down the hall. Even though she was still annoyed with Naruto’s drama, she knocked on the door of the hotel room the boys were staying in, but there was no response. “Come on! We’re going to be late getting back!” She exclaimed, but no one answered. “Fine. I’ll eat without you guys.” She snapped knowing that the idiots were just annoyed because she went back to bed instead of putting up with Naruto’s theatrics.

The sulky pinkette went down to eat the free breakfast. As she chewed her mind kept going back to the incident from last night. Sure, Naruto was coughing up a lot of blood, but that could easily have been caused by a fish bone or something. The idiot has a demon in him so why worry?

A clerk came over to her table, “Excuse me. About what happened last night-“

“You don’t need to say anything. My teammate was being dramatic.” Sakura said between bites.

“Umm … Your friends didn’t seem to agree. The rest of your group left last night to get help.” The clerk explained right when the pinkette had a mouthful of the house pancakes. Since she was still unable to say anything he gave her something. “When you’re done you can handle that.”

A shocked Sakura picked up the piece of paper, “They left me the bill?!” She screamed in fury, effectively sending pieces of chewed pancake across the table.

Fueled by anger pinkette took full advantage of the free breakfast. After eating more than her fill she reluctantly paid the bill and began to walk as slowly as possible back to Konoha just to be late to give the report. Anything to annoy the woman who favored Naruto over anyone. As an extra dose of pettiness she didn’t go back up to get any of her teammates’ things.

Sakura finally walked, not knowing that there was a ROOT agent tailing her the entire way, into the hokage tower, “I’m here-…” Again Sakura let her sentence drop when she saw that no one was in the office. “What the hell?”

“Oh you are here, Sakura.” The pinkette turned to look at the person talking and saw Shizune standing there. “With all the craziness we nearly forgot.” Shizune said, taking note of a little ink mouse hiding out of the pinkette’s line of sight. It was enough to warn her that a ROOT agent was lurking nearby.

The pinkette rolled her eyes and shoved her way past Shizune, “What could possibly be that bad? This is just Ino playing a prank so give it up. I’M ON TO YOU, INO!” She yelled down the hallway.

Shizune sighed, “This isn’t a prank-

“Bullsh*t.” Sakura snapped and whirled around furiously. “Where is she? She’s going to pay for ditching me with the check again!”

“At the hospital-“ Shizune blinked as Sakura ran off ready to strangle Ino. The ink mouse suddenly dropped out of sight meaning that any ROOT agents were gone. “I almost feel bad … but then she’s mean and can’t act soo …” Shizune trailed off with a shrug as she went back to the hospital.

XXXXXXXXXX

“How long are these tests supposed to take?” Ino muttered as she kept an eye on Naruto's pale form on the hospital bed. The other eye watched an ink mouse that was hiding under the bed. “What’s that sound?” She pondered when she heard a loud rumbling approaching the hospital.

It sounded like a stampede of elephants, but Ino suspected that someone was rampaging. At first it was coming closer. Then it was coming from the lobby of the hospital where it stopped for a moment. Once the elevator was heard stopping on the same floor Ino was on the stampede continued. Everything stopped when the door to Naruto’s room was thrown open by a furious pinkette.

“What the hell-“ Sakura shut up when several of the medics shushed her. “You left me with the bill.” Sakura growled through clenched teeth, but at a more appropriate volume level.

Ino scoffed, “Naruto needed help-“ she gaped in shock when Sakura actually got past her and then the pinkette slugged Naruto in the gut making him cough up blood.

Sakura rolled her eyes as Ino pushed her away to get to Naruto, who somehow remained unconscious. “The demon can heal him from anything so don’t give me this worried act.” Sakura growled only to step back in shock when Ino full on slapped her.

Ino glared at the pinkette, “Naruto doesn’t need to be used for a prank. We have plenty of other reasons to ditch you. After all, no one likes you!”

Sakura gasped while rubbing her cheek, “That’s not true!” She snapped, earning another round of shushing from the staff outside.

“Oh it is.” Ino said with a smirk though she conveniently moved so she blocked Sakura’s view of the blonde’s face. “Literally the only one who is too nice to ditch you is Naruto. Haven’t you ever wondered why when Naruto isn’t part of your team you always seem to have something bad happen? Maybe you lose supplies or bugs cover your meal or sleeping bag no matter how fast you are getting to it? Always after the mission is complete too.”

You could see that Sakura’s mind was quickly connecting the dots, “You-

“Not just me. Everyone.” Ino remarked sad*stically. “We respect Naruto too much to cause him extra trouble by saving you from us, but we don’t want to let you get away with being mean to him. He’s likable, you aren’t. No one regretted leaving you behind.”

Before Sakura could respond a medic came running into the room with a laptop, “I didn’t even bother printing them as the hokage instructed. It’s all there and the hokage should be back soon.”

Ino nodded as she took the laptop, “Good … This isn’t promising. These test results are all point-hey!” Ino snapped when Sakura shoved her and took the laptop she was looking at.

The medic pale, “You should be careful with the laptop-“

“f*ck you and get out!” The pinkette growled, sending the poor medic running out of the room. “I’m not falling for these lies. I bet there isn’t even anything here. The idiot is just faking and you’re just trying to hurt me because Sasuke wants me, not you.”

With a strong confidence in her beliefs she looked at the results. Something about those results actually did the impossible. They made her shut up. She was so distracted that she also didn’t hear Tsunade come in.

A very annoyed Ino looked at Tsunade, “The results are here.” She muttered and sent a glare at Sakura. “They don’t look good.” She commented while turning to glance at Naruto and to keep track of the ink mouse.

Tsunade scoffed and promptly yanked the laptop away from Sakura with one hand as she squeezed her stress ball with the other, “Go ahead. Speak.” She said with a deadly tone basically daring the pinkette to open her mouth.

Sakura huffed, but stayed quiet until she saw Tsunade put the laptop down, “Real or not this isn’t that serious, right? He has a dem-“

“Sakura.” Tsunade said in a dark tone that promised death. “After so many years I’d think you’d understand when a situation is serious or not. What about this strikes you as false or even remotely not serious?” She asked sharply while adding emphasis to nearly every word by squeezing the red ball.

Sakura gulped and took a couple steps back out of fear, “The demon can heal him.”

Tsunade’s eyes narrowed, “What is it?”

“Huh?” Sakura muttered in confusion.

The hokage leaned dangerously close to the pinkette, “What infection do these results point to?”

Sakura gulped fearfully, “It … it suggests that Naruto contracted a chakra eating infection, but-“

“Oh f*ck no.” Tsunade growled with an especially hard squeeze to her ball. “What but are you going to bring up? The one your legs are connected to? Because that’s literally the only but there should be in this conversation. After all, you have no other arguments in reach or do you really think a chakra based demon can fight a chakra eating infection?”

“I … He’ll be fine.” Sakura said stubbornly, but her eyes flitted back and forth frantically as she tried to think of something. Suddenly her eyes widened and she smirked. “Most of the few strains of this infection that have been recorded in this region are curable.”

Tsunade scoffed and signaled to Shino, who was now outside the room, “I’m well aware. The second I noticed Naruto wasn’t healing I organized a group to find the rare herb needed.” She said and Ino rushed out of the room to follow Shino. “I will have a test done to confirm which infection it is before they even get back. Hopefully, it is the right type-“

“Hokage-sama, let me go. I’ll make sure they find the damn thing.” Sakura demanded, sounding almost annoyed that she wasn’t asked already when Ino and Shino were clearly already in the group.

Tsunade squeezed her stress ball a couple times as she raised an eyebrow skeptically, “Oh? You suddenly believe that this is serious?” She said sharply, making the pinkette flinch. “If you can catch them then go. Be thorough. That storm was pretty bad, after all, and a few more scattered showers are expected.” She commented without looking away from Naruto’s pale form.

Soon Sakura ran away from the room to join the group. Once she did, Tsunade immediately got a needle and, still holding the red ball, skillfully drew blood from Naruto’s arm. After ordering, and slightly threatening, the medic to get the sample tested it was off. With the sample getting tested she slowly shut the door and sat in silence next to the hospital bed. That was until the ink mouse signaled that the coast was clear.

Tsunade smirked, “She’s too easy … What's with you, brat? I didn’t even use a real vein to get the blood.” She muttered when she saw Naruto groan in pain and grip his side.

“Sakura was not gentle.” Naruto grumbled as he pulled out some tubing and a blood bag that was hidden in the sleeve of the arm Tsunade drew blood from. “Were there any test results for … He’s ok, right?” He asked as he gave the tubing and blood to Tsunade.

“Officially nothing was tested.” Tsunade said as she hid the tubing and blood bag in a scroll. After any evidence of a trap was gone she smiled softly. “Unofficially, however, there is. Kakashi wants to tell you himself.” She said and Naruto grinned happily.

Unfortunately, Kurama took advantage of that tender moment and wriggled out of her steel grip, but she grabbed the fluffy tail before he got far, “You assholes owe me! Release me now!”

Naruto’s eyes narrowed on the fox, “You just wanted to escape so no. We owe you nothing even if one good thing came out of your mistake.” He said seriously as the fox was rolled back up into a ball.

Everyone, including the tiny unwilling demon who resumed his role as a stress ball, continued playing pretend just in time for some test results to come back …

Chapter 3: Setting the Scene

Chapter Text

Last Time:

Everyone, including the tiny unwilling demon who resumed his role as a stress ball, continued playing pretend just in time for some test results to come back …

XXXXXXXXXX

Danzo scowled as his ROOT agent completed the report, “Follow the group and make sure that herb is found.” He ordered despite not wanting his agent to take that risk.

The last thing he wanted was for Tsunade to learn that he still has an army of agents. However, he had no choice this time. If he wanted to make sure that the demon vessel will have offspring then the cure had to be made. To make sure everything goes smoothly Danzo felt it necessary to get involved. Besides, Sai was going too so his agents can back each other up.

“Yes, Danzo-sama.” The ROOT agent said before disappearing.

Once the agent left Danzo summoned two more agents, “Keep an eye on the demon vessel’s condition and get me a copy of all related test results.”

“Yes, Danzo-sama.” Both agents said in perfect sync and promptly left to complete the tasks that they were given. One ROOT agent went immediately to get the results and the other stationed himself right next to the windows of Naruto’s hospital room.

XXXXXXXXXX

“What the hell is keeping you all?! Hurry up!” Sakura screamed while running through the treetops at top speed. She heard a dog bark in the far distance ahead of her not behind and looked around only to find that she was alone. “They ditched me!” She exclaimed, but just tried running even faster.

It was getting close to the point where her legs were going to break. The building strain made her want to give up, but she knew she had to hurry. If she wanted to keep her idiot teammate around then she needed to get that herb. There was no way anyone can get it without her help. After all, she can make it into a medicine as they return to the village. They all needed her skills!

Thankfully, she came across their campsite after a couple hours. She was too tired to yell at them for now so as she crawled into the campsite she just glared at each person. It didn't matter if it was Lee, Kiba, Ino, Shino, Hinata, Tenten or Sai she glared. Even poor Akamaru didn’t escape her rage. Unfortunately, the whimper from the dog is what made everyone bother acknowledging her.

Kiba gave Akamaru a comforting scratch behind the ear while shooting the pinkette a glare, “Knock it off, Sakura. Akamaru is the only one who bothered making sure you didn’t get lost.”

“A truly youthful friend!” Lee cheered, making Akamaru’s tail wag.

“You’re the ones who stopped to take a break even though this is a serious situation.” Sakura muttered sourly despite pretending that her legs weren’t so tired that she couldn’t move.

Hinata frowned, “We know how serious this is. That’s why we were moving so fast-“

“And yet you’re here relaxing and you nearly lost me!” The pinkette snapped.

Kiba rolled his eyes, “That’s on you. Keep up next time or, at least, check to see who was following us while you’re slacking off. I’m not the only one who noticed something, right?” He asked, getting curious nods from a few others effectively directing all attempts away from the needy pinkette.

Shino adjusted his glasses, “For sure someone was near us.”

“It might’ve been a coincidence and they were simply passing in the same direction.” Tenten suggested thoughtfully. “It’s not like this person tried to get too close or even attack.”

“True.” Ino said with a sigh. “That person didn’t seem threatening, but we can’t take any chances. Hey, Lee? If this person is spotted again can you get them to back off?

Lee grinned and gave the thumbs up, “Leave it to me!”

Sakura huffed as Lee got the gratitude she wanted, “You all need me especially without real talent like Sasuke or Kakashi-sensei with you. I can make the medicine once we get the herb and avoid wasting time, which Naruto doesn’t need right now. I’m necessary here!”

“We tried to get other people on this … except Sasuke.” Ino said with an eye roll.

Literally only Sakura wanted the bastard involved. Not that he wasn’t more skilled than Sakura. He was, but they knew he’d find some way to screw this up deliberately just to ruin Naruto’s happiness. No one trusts him.

“Kakashi was sent on a mission with Shikamaru and Neji over a week ago. He probably hasn’t been sent a message yet so even if they left now they won’t be back in the village until we have to start heading back.” Ino growled with a vein pulsing on her temple. Hinata put a hand on Ino’s hand and the blonde calmed down a bit. “Everyone available was brought on … and we didn’t ask you, remember? The plan was for me and Hinata to make the medication or did you forget our skills?” She snapped glaring back at the pinkette.

Sai quietly pulled out his ink pad as Ino and Sakura glared it out, “This should help.” He said as the slightly larger than average hawk sized bird he drew came to life and perched on Sakura’s head.

Sakura scowled as Ino snickered, “You could’ve made it bigger.” She grumbled sourly as the ink bird pecked her head.

“We’re trying to conserve our strength for the journey, right? I can’t make it too big.” Sai said indifferently and put his ink away. “It’ll make sure you don’t fall behind again.”

Tenten stretched her arms, “Well that’s all settled! Let’s get some rest. We’ll have to push it over the next couple days!”

Sakura muttered something nasty before swatting at the ink bird pecking her. Once the bird relocated to a tree farther away she quickly ate a snack from her supplies and got into her sleeping bag. Just as everyone seemed to be asleep Sai quietly got out of his tent. His eyes only stayed on Sakura’s sleeping form as he walked away from the campsite. Thankfully, she was deep asleep and once he was far enough away a masked ROOT agent dropped down from the treetops.

“You came too close to the others.” Sai whispered to his fellow ROOT agent.

The agent nodded, “I know. Danzo-sama wanted me close, but observing this group won’t be easy. Should I just keep Sakura in sight? Will she spot me?”

“Unlikely.” Sai answered and mused over the situation for a moment. “She isn’t very observant and I bet she’ll be too busy glaring at the others from high up to see you. Just don’t get too close again. Everyone is on edge so if you’re spotted I doubt it’ll go well for both of us and Danzo-sama. I’ll leave an ink mouse with you to help you keep at a safe distance.”

The masked agent nodded and disappeared into the trees. Sai calmly returned to his sleeping bag. However, before he fell asleep he allowed two ink mice to escape from his bag.

As promised one of the ink mice rushed over to perch on his fellow ROOT agent’s shoulder. The other mouse slipped off into the darkness and was grabbed by the ink bird. Thankfully, the bird was too deep into the darkness for the hidden agent to notice the bird fly off with the second mouse.

In just a couple hours the bird flew a great distance without pausing. It never even slowed to let the mouse off. Once their journey together was completed the mouse leapt off. The mouse watched the ink bird turn around to fly back to Sakura before it started bounding away. It kept running until it came across four cloaked figures.

“It’s here.” One of the cloaked figures said as the mouse ran up to him. That person moved his hood back revealing himself to be Gaara. “Is everything set up?”

Kankuro came out of hiding and looked down into the massive canyon from the cliff they were standing near, “Yes. All that’s needed is a believable lightning strike to light the fire.” He reported as he signaled down to the Sand ninjas, who were now climbing out of the canyon.

One of the other cloaked figures stepped forward, “I can handle that.” He said and a few sparks jumped off his hands.

While they made sure all the Sand ninjas were clear, more chakra was pushed into the jutsu. As the electricity accumulated in his hands they started glowing. The light produced from that power revealed that the faces of the last cloaked men. It was Kakashi wielding the electricity and Shikamaru and Neji were the ones standing behind him. Thankfully, that was the case because Kakashi suddenly canceled his jutsu and nearly lost his balance.

Shikamaru and Neji immediately caught Kakashi and helped him stand, “Take it easy. If you push it and get hurt, Naruto will kick our asses. I would rather not go through that again.” Neji chuckled, making Kakashi laugh, but only for a moment.

“Damn nausea is back.” Kakashi whimpered sadly. “At least, I know the truth now. It’s not morning sickness as in daytime. It’s mourning as in grieving. Grief caused by unrelenting sickness.” He groaned as he held his rebellious stomach.

Shikamaru frowned and looked at Gaara seriously. “Can your sand channel the electricity instead?”

A concerned Gaara nodded, “Let my sand do the work.” He said as he had his sand form a slim trail hovering in the air.

That sand trail started just a foot in front of Kakashi and snaked its way to the opposite wall of the canyon. The other end hovered near a dead tree that was clinging to the natural rock wall. However, there were a few scattered plants growing on the wall around it.

When Kakashi charged up some electric chakra, but this time he just wrapped his fingers around the sand band. Like a massive lightning rod the sand conductor sent the electrical charge towards the tree. It was not surprising to see the electricity jump out to its target and the dead tree burst into flames. Everyone watched as the fire spread along some of the other plants that were clinging to the rocky wall.

Gaara glanced at his ninjas, “All the rare herbs were collected and stored, correct?”

“Yes, kazekage-sama.” A Sand ninja said and many of them held up scrolls.

The red haired kazekage nodded, “Good. Be ready to replant them after this is done.”

Another Sand ninja stepped up, “Actually, kazekage-sama, can we try taking a few seeds to grow in Sand? “

Shikamaru frowned, “These herbs have had zero success being grown indoors.” He commented though he seemed to be more focused on giving Kakashi some water as Neji examined his stomach.

“That’s true, but there have been a few advancements since the last so it might be worth trying.” The Sand ninja reasoned hoping for a chance.

Gaara watched the fire spread as he thought about the idea, “This isn’t the main reason we’re here. After we complete this mission we can return and harvest the resown seeds. For now we must all get back and pretend to be shocked and sad.” He said diplomatically.

Shikamaru saw the amused Sand ninjas leave except Gaara, “We’ll need to hurry. Kakashi, Neji and I need to get around to the other side of the village before they get this far.” He explained as the ink mouse crawled up his body and hid in his cloak hood.

“Will you both be alright to ride with me again?” Gaara asked, taking note of Kakashi’s slightly nauseous expression.

Kakashi nodded, “It’ll be fine. I’ll feel even better once this is over.” He said as he stood straight and tried to suppress the feeling of sickness. “Is everything ok?” He asked worriedly.

Neji looked at Kakashi through this byakugan and smiled, “Everything is perfectly stable. I’ll explain as we’re flying.” He said hoping to give Kakashi a pleasant distraction from the nausea.

The Leaf and Sand ninjas parted ways as the fire burned save for Gaara. The kazekage formed a platform of sand under their feet and flew them across the canyon and over the mountains surrounding it. The only thing that they were careful about was making sure Kakashi didn’t breathe in any smoke. No one was even worried about the fire itself spreading too far. Each group could focus on setting up the scenes for what was to come because a light rain storm nearby would calm the flames …

XXXXXXXXXX

Only a couple hours after returning to the campsite the ink bird saw the members of the group wake up. In a matter of moments everyone was ready to leave. The only thing left was for the bird to grab its passenger.

“Ok, let’s move out!” Sakura exclaimed as if she was in charge, but scowled when she noticed everyone was already jumping through the trees. “I thought we agreed that I’m important in this group-Ah!“ The pinkette let out a scream when the ink bird’s talons grabbed her collar and lifted up into the air.

After a few minutes she finally settled down. Unfortunately, that still meant that she had to complain despite no one being high enough to hear her. The biggest complaint was that the bird was too slow. However, while the poor bird was carrying something much bigger than an ink mouse it was still moving faster than she was when she was on foot earlier. Even the ROOT agent following just behind her would make that point, but he couldn’t hear her.

XXXXXXXXXX

Shino risked glancing back at Sakura, who was barely visible through the leaves, “I haven’t spotted any followers this time. Is it safe?” He asked, being careful not to reveal too much in case the ROOT agent wasn’t taking the pink bait.

“He’s staying behind Sakura so it’s safe to talk.” Sai said, confirming that the plan worked.

Ino smirked, “Perfect. Is our Puppy team headed this way or did they pass already?”

Kiba sniffed the air and looked at the equally pleased Akamaru, “We have their scents. They’re close.”

“I’ll check.” Hinata said as the veins around her eyes from her byakugan swelled. “I see Gaara an hour up ahead so he must’ve just dropped them off. He’s actually making the sign now.” She explained as she deactivated her eyes.

“Perfect timing.” A very relieved Ino said and they kept running.

At some point they came to a clearing and saw a little puppy made of sand. Sadly, they had to destroy it so the people behind them wouldn’t see it, but it was good to know everyone was safe …

Chapter 4: Critical

Chapter Text

Last Time:

At some point they came to a clearing and saw a little puppy made of sand. Sadly, they had to destroy it so the people behind them wouldn’t see it, but it was good to know everyone was safe …

XXXXXXXXXX

One medic sighed, “So much fuss over the demon.”

In an instant the medic next to her shushed her, “I get it, but do you want the hokage to hear you talk like that?” He warned while looking around to make sure no one overheard them.

“You’re right!” The first medic gasped fearfully, immediately regretting saying anything that would enrage the hokage. She was so scared at the thought of pissing off the hokage that the sudden beep from the computer nearly made her jump out of her seat. “f*cking thing! It better have something important- …”

The medic’s irritation towards the computer came to a sudden halt. It was such a fast shift in behavior that the other medic looked curious and got up to see what was wrong. Once he saw the test results on his fellow medic’s computer screen he knew the problem.

“It could be worse.As long as the herb is found he might be fine.” The male medic commented nervously in a weak attempt to be comforting.

“Maybe.” She said with a sigh. “It’s very advanced though.” The medic said before taking a deep breath and making sure that the results were displayed. “I better take this to the hokage.” She whimpered as she picked up the laptop and headed towards the door.

As the one medic watched his terrified friend leave to make her report he winced, “The hokage can be scary.” He muttered and after thinking it over he also headed for the door.

Just when anyone would think he was going to support his friend and make sure she survived reporting to the hokage, he walked out the door and ran in the opposite direction. In fact, he ran out of the hospital altogether. That was not only a rude, albeit understandable, action to take, but it left the room unguarded and anyone could enter the room. In fact, a ROOT agent slipped through the window and took advantage of that access. Only a moment passed before the test results were conveniently placed on a USB drive and the agent was gone.

Now this agent knew his main mission was to bring the information to Danzo. However, after hearing the conversation between the two medics the agent decided to make a quick stop first. Once he rushed out of the window he immediately made his way to his fellow ROOT agent, who was stationed outside of Naruto’s hospital room windows.

“Be careful.” The one ROOT agent said after he quietly dropped down on the same branch of the tree the other agent was in. “There will be a medic coming to report the test results to the hokage. The medic seemed scared so be prepared in case there’s any danger.” He said and they both casually glanced at a medic who was practically running away from the hospital. After taking note of that they ignored it in favor of their actual task.

“Understood.” The ROOT agent on lookout duty answered and watched his fellow ROOT agent leave.

The moment he was alone again he went back to watching the scene beyond the windows. A very pale Naruto was laying on the bed. As the patient slept the hokage sat next to the bed doing research. No matter what she did she squeezed that red stress ball, even as she slept. Apparently, she ordered her ninjas to move her entire desk into the room along with all the information that could be found on this group of diseases. In fact, everything was already set up by the time the ROOT agent was in position.

The only time the hokage looked away from her work was to sleep on a bed in the same room, to help Naruto during his horrible blood spewing episodes or if someone came near the door. It was that last reason that happened after a few minutes just as Shizune was bringing the hokage some food. When that medic opened the door it made the ROOT agent tense.

Every muscle in his body tensed and prepared to run as the very nervous medic flinched when Tsunade looked at her. In a flash the hokage was in front of her and took the laptop with the results straight out of the medic’s hands. Of course, she still squeezed that ball with one hand. As the hokage read everything both the medic and the ROOT agent began backing away.

XXXXXXXXXX

The hokage’s eyes narrowed in on the laptop’s screen, “If it’s this advanced … BRING ME ANYONE WITH A BYAKUGAN!” Tsunade screamed and she suddenly threw her ball furiously.

After the ball ricocheted a few times off the walls, and once off of the poor medic’s head, Shizune caught it, “Right away, Lady Tsunade!” She said and immediately left the room with the red stress ball, but left the poor medic on the floor, who was out cold.

Tsunade shut the door and noticed that the ink mouse was still under her desk. She told it to go under the hospital bed if they weren’t being watched. Without any hesitation she went over and checked Naruto’s vitals. It was impossible to not tear up because Naruto was actually doing an excellent job looking close to death. Unfortunately, she didn’t realize right away that Naruto was legitimately unconscious again.

Apparently, her act of throwing the stress ball was too much. Of course, she wanted a reason to get the tiny demon ball out of the room for this next step. Just because the fox had no chakra didn’t mean he had no bones or organs that could be seen through the byakugan. However, at some point one of the ricochets sent the stress demon ball at the blonde’s head. The ball was moving too fast for anyone to see what happened. Now she could actually see the bruise forming, but it added to the effect so she didn’t hurry to heal it.

Soon Hiashi was seen rushing into the room without Shizune, “I’m here, hokage-sama-“

“Ow!” The medic on the floor yelped in pain and finally woke up.

Hiashi blinked in confusion, but then his eyes widened, “I’m sorry!” He gasped when he realized that he actually stepped on the medic. Even Hiashi was too frazzled to wonder why the medic was lying on the floor in the first place.

“Shut up and check for the nine tailed fox!” Tsunade snappe.

“Check for it?” Hiashi murmured in confusion until Tsunade shoved the laptop in his face.

Once he read and fully understood the results he activated his byakugan. However, that didn’t mean the medic understood what was happening. After all, to her the demon was right there on the bed. She, like many villagers, had trouble separating the two, but they won’t have a choice soon.

“It’s gone. The nine tailed fox isn’t inside Naruto anymore.” Hiashi announced, making the medic blink in confusion.

Tsunade scowled, “That explains why this seemed to develope so f*cking fast. This disease must’ve been focusing only on the demon’s chakra.” The hokage frowned in distaste. “Figures. I bet this is the first time the fox actually felt pain instead of just Naruto, but once that disease was done with the fox it latched onto Naruto’s chakra.

Hiashi nodded, “Of course … Perhaps that just leveled up the disease and the fox just dragged him down-“ Before Hiashi could say anything else he felt a death glare on him. “I mean, Naruto has survived a lot. We’ll make sure he survives this too!” He exclaimed while praying that the hokage wouldn’t hurt him.

“Damn right we will.” Tsunade growled as she glared down on the clan head. “I’m not going to let Kushina and Minato’s son join them in the afterlife so soon.”

The poor medic paled as the reality finally sank in and her eyes drifted down to look at Naruto, “You mean he’s not a-“

“He’s not going to die. Now get out!” Tsunade snapped and quite literally threw Hiashi and the medic out of the room. “Was she seriously about to have an epiphany about you not being a demon right now?! I’m going to have to retrain my medics later.” She grumbled to herself since Naruto was still out cold and forced herself to calm down so she could continue reading.

Of course, she wasn’t just reading a bunch of boring research. Yes, she was skimming it since this act is based on a real disease and this theory could become a real senecio one day. However, she knew wasn’t in any immediate danger so she wasn’t actually taking this seriously. In fact, tucked between the boring pages was a pamphlet on new alcoholic beverages. That’s what really kept her attention.

Shizune finally returned to the room, “Lady Tsunade, I have your stress ball.” She said as she closed the door behind her and tossed the furry ball back into the hokage’s vice like grip. The assistant was amused by the pained squeak the ball made once Tsunade added pressure. “What did Hiashi say?”

While squeezing her ball, Tsunade leaned back in her chair. She looked truly exhausted and heartbroken. However, her attitude changed quickly when she saw that the ink mouse was now under the hospital bed that Naruto was in.

A smirk came to the hokage’s lips, “He was convinced. I bet he and that medic are spreading the word now.” She said very pleased. Soon the ball started wriggling and she glared at it. “If only the fox was really dead. Although I suppose dying from embarrassment after separating himself from his power and locking himself in a mini human body that was mutated from a pubic hair-“

“My power will return!” Kurama managed to yell after poking his head out through a gap between Tsunade’s fingers. “That stupid seal only delayed my plan and it wasn’t a pubic hair -gah!” He gagged as the hokage pinched her fingers together effectively closing the gap around the demon’s throat.

Tsunade hummed as her fingers tightened even more, “That seal was brilliant. You were the impatient idiot who stupidly tried to use a small bit of chakra to make a pregnancy in your host’s partner and tried to sneakily have your consciousness possess the unborn baby by riding an ejacul*tion. You could’ve nearly killed Naruto because all your chakra might’ve left him at once. That seal slowed the process down and sliced your consciousness away like a cheese grater.”

Shizune giggled, “Besides, it was your bad aim that landed you in a tiny body that doesn’t have chakra coils. Oh and it’s been three months. If your power hasn’t returned by now then it won’t.”

Kurama growled, “All … lies!” He barked between pinches, but he wasn’t allowed to say anything else because he was rolled back up into a stress ball.

After all, both Tsunade and Shizune saw the ink mouse hide under the hokage’s desk. Clearly their ROOT agent was back. Whether the agent reported to Danzo or not it didn’t matter. They had to get back into character either way, which means no talking balls.

XXXXXXXXXX

The ROOT agent winced when he heard that Hiashi was summoned. Obviously he couldn’t let himself get caught hiding in the damn tree. After thinking on it he dropped down from the tree and henged into a random medic. He just so happened to remember seeing a medic run away from the hospital moments before Tsunade received the report so he used that form.

Of course, the agent already knew which room Naruto was in. He calmly went up to that floor and hid in the empty room near Naruto’s room. In no time he looked out the window and saw Hiashi running towards the hospital.

Before that clan leader with the all seeing eye made it up to that floor the ROOT agent made a few more changes. In order to look less out of place he dropped the henge. After all, Hiashi would be able to see past it and he’d be discovered instantly. Instead the agent opted for a simple but effective disguise. By removing his mask and wrapping some bandages on himself he looked like any other patient.

“He didn’t notice.” The very relieved agent murmured softly under his breath after he heard the entire conversation. “I need to report this.” The agent said as he put the bandages away and put his mask back on.

As the agent snuck out of the window he never noticed an ink mouse keeping tabs on him. All he was focused on was racing to Danzo to deliver the information. Thankfully, Danzo, at least, wasn’t as violent when pissed off. Still, standing in front of Danzo after telling him what he heard was rather tense.

Danzo scowled, “Do you have any reason to think anyone was lying?” He asked despite looking at a printed version of the exact test results that his other agent delivered just moments ago.

“No, sir.” The ROOT agent answered obediently.

This wasn’t something Danzo ever wanted to hear. In fact, he never would’ve thought that this was even possible. However, there was no denying it. Konoha has lost their demon weapon.

Danzo sighed in annoyance, “Can you get a sperm sample from him?” He asked far too casually.

As infuriating as losing the demon was there was a chance not all is lost. Just because Naruto wasn’t a demon vessel didn’t mean he didn’t have any use. Simply being related to the Usumaki clan and the fourth hokage made him valuable. It’s precisely why he wanted the ninja in the breeding program. Tsunade never allowed it, but time was running out.

“A sperm sample?” The ROOT agent gasped, not expecting that request at all. “I’m sorry, Danzo-sama, but there’s no chance of getting such a sample … The hokage moved into the room so there’s no chance to sneak in and get … that.” The agent explained frantically. That was just not a task he wanted to do.

Danzo scowled and ignored how flustered his agent was, “Even now Tsunade is getting in the way. I’ll have to talk to her soon. Go keep an eye on your target.” He ordered and the agent immediately left. “I won’t bring this up to Tsunade yet. If the herb is found and Naruto survives I’m sure they’ll be more receptive to the breeding program offer. If it isn’t found … I still might be able to convince Tsunade to see reason.” He pondered to himself.

All his plans were on hold until he gets word from the search team …