The shadows

ch13

It took a second for Naruto, but he got up quickly. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I saw you trying to use that seal and got curious, so I looked. I noticed a problem, but before I got the chance to say something, you activated the seal, so I had to act quickly. Are you ok?" Naruto said nervously.

Itachi looked at him for a few moments before answering. "I am alright. Are you by any chance a seal master?" he asked.

" Well, I'm pretty adept, but I don't think master is a good word. I work in the sealing division. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, by the way." Naruto said, extending a hand to help Itachi up.

"Uchiha Itachi. Nice to make your acquaintance," he said, taking the offered hand to get up. As he tried, he winced when he put weight on his ankle.

"Let me take a look, please," Naruto said, helping Itachi sit and check his ankle.

"It doesn't seem broken. Is it ok if I use iryojutsu to check and heal it?" Naruto said as he examined his ankle.

Itachi just gave a Hn and a nod for Naruto to go on. Naruto healed his ankle and unsealed a roll of elastic bandage to secure it. "I healed it as best as I could. It was just twisted. Still, you should try and rest it tonight just to be sure, but it should be fully healed by the morning." Naruto said.

"Thank you, Uzumaki-san. I am in your debt. May I ask what was wrong with the seal?" He said.

"There were actually two problems with the seal. The seal is an old version. They had a problem with excess yin chakra. It caused the seal to deteriorate. Sealing ink tends to lose potency with time. When you tried to push your chakra, which leans toward yin affinity in the seal, it caused it not to fully activate evenly. So there were areas with too much chakra and areas with no chakra. That's why it exploded."

"It is also why the person who uses the seal needs great chakra control. In the newer versions of the seal, the problem with yin affinity is solved, but I won't suggest using old seals under any conditions." Naruto said thoughtfully.

"Still, I might have gotten seriously injured if it wasn't for you. Is there any way I can thank you?" Itachi said.

" Well, you don't need to thank me. We are comrades, after all. But if you insist, we can become friends." Naruto smiled brightly.

"Friends?" Itachi asked, a bit shocked.

"Well, yes. I was a bit isolated when I was younger, so making friends makes me happy." Naruto said shyly.

Itachi extended his hand towards Naruto, which he shook happily. They sat a bit longer talking about seals but then it was time to go. Naruto accompanied Itachi to his house even though he insisted he could make it alright.

In the end, he agreed since Naruto insisted that he didn't want Itachi to injure himself again. After a quick goodbye, Naruto returned to the ROOT base to report his day. He didn't want to give Danzo any reason for mistrust.

Naruto felt sick and tired. It's been a few months since the bandit mission, and Naruto was getting worse. Ever since his mission, he constantly had flashbacks and visions of war and death.

He tried his best to suppress them during the day, but at night they were hitting him with full force; that was why he was in Uzushio now with Itachi, Kakashi, and Shisui. It all started a week ago.

Naruto remembered an artifact he had found before in Uzushio. It was for sealing memories and emotions. It was banned and inhumane since it could be used to seal someone's memories and make them into an emotionless machine.

It still had its uses since it was first designed to help shinobi with PTSD. Naruto discovered it in the war after he was rescued from Madara. He was a mess, so the Nidaime suggested the use of artifacts to seal his memories.