The shadows

ch46

It was nighttime, and they were setting their camp. They would reach Konoha by the following evening, so there was no need to push too much. Naruto ran out of his poison in the morning since he didn't really carry the poison for this purpose.

It was supposed to be used on enemies, but he hardly ever relied on poisons. So he only carried a tiny vial, and now he was in agonizing pain. Each time he used chakra to tree hop, the pain would shoot through his body, making his vision foggy.

He did his best to hide the pain and push through, but he didn't believe he could last another day of tree jumping. He made quick work of their dinner. He must have looked exhausted because Shisui promptly took the cleaning duty.

Others must have been aware, too, because Minato ordered him to get some sleep, and when Naruto complained about his watch, he said he would take care of it, and he was the Hokage, so his words were final.

Naruto reluctantly went to the tent. He had a fever from overuse of chakra combined with the side effects of the poison. He was in so much pain he couldn't fall asleep even if he wanted to. He was lying on his bedroll when Shikaku came in.

He didn't say anything, he just sat next to him and reached a hand to touch his forehead. Naruto tried to pull back, but all his strength left him. Shikaku's hand felt cool. "Shit, you are burning up." He said and quickly hurried to pull the blanket off him and take off his clothes.

Naruto didn't have the energy to complain. Naruto looked at him with questioning eyes. "My son is the same age as you. He gets the same way when he is trying to hide he is sick. Going to the doctor is too troublesome." Shikaku said with a chuckle.

When Shikaku was taking off his shirt, he saw the needle marks, which were bruised around since his senbons weren't as gentle as a needle. "Brat. You have 5 seconds to explain yourself." Shikaku said as he grabbed his arm a bit tighter.

"I needed excess chakra extraction. My coils are burning. I used one of my poisons to numb the pain, but I ran out." Naruto said, voice ragged and breathy, forcing every word out. He was trying so hard to stay focused, but it was a losing battle.

"Shit, what can we do?" Shikaku said. He was done taking off his clothes, down to his underwear, and was now checking his pulse and other vitals.

"I will be fine. Just tell them what I said when we get back." Naruto said as his eyes began to close.

"No, no, no, don't fall asleep on me. I need to make sure you are stable." He tried to shake Naruto's shoulders a bit. "MINATO, GET IN HERE NOW," Shikaku yelled. The next thing Naruto felt was his father suddenly coming in, followed by Shisui and Kakashi.

Naruto couldn't understand what they were saying. He was hearing their voices distorted as if underwater. He could hear the tones of a quick argument and then being lifted into gentle arms. He heard his father whispering in a soothing voice before losing conciseness.

Naruto woke up in the hospital bed. He tried opening his eyes, but the light was too much. He then slowly reached with his senses. He was in the regular hospital and not ROOT. He could feel people going around, but his room was thankfully empty.

He still felt heavy, and his body was aching, but his chakra was stable. They must have flushed his system. He could feel Kurama slowly working on healing him without agitating his coils again. Finally, Naruto felt a Shizune approaching his room, so he decided to wake up.

As soon as Shizune opened the door and saw his eyes were open, She called for a nurse to notify Tsunade and ran to his bedside. She was checking his IV and monitors. She didn't use mystic palm since, in his condition, it would be too delicate a procedure not to trigger his body again. Tsunade was the only one who could perform it 100 percent safely.