The Windmill Turns Both Ways

Team

Chidori.

"What..." Naruto didn't know where to begin. He waited for Sakura to explain what was going on.

She stood and put her hand over his. "Hold on a minute. I have to let the others know you are awake. Let the Suna medics take a look at you, okay? Please," she gripped his hand tightly. "Please hold on just a moment."

Naruto looked down at her hand and then back up at her as she gave a final painful smile and pulled the screen open to the rest of the room.

"Uzumaki-san?" one of the Suna medics stepped up. He wasn't acting as strange as Sakura, but his movements were tentative, almost flinching. Naruto felt like he'd woken in a world on the verge of exploding.

"I'm going to check your pulse and listen to your heart and lungs, to make sure that everything is working fine now. Is that alright?"

Naruto wasn't really listening. It was all real. It was real. Somehow, he had missed every single thing that was most important. And they had known. They knew Sasuke was with Akatsuki. That he left Konoha. He was gone. Out there, and no one was doing anything about it.

Sasuke—in Akatsuki. He was part of the group trying to find and kill his older self. He was a traitor. But Tobi had said he just wanted revenge because Itachi acted on orders. That it was the Hokage that had told him to do it. Did they know that too? What the Hokage had done? What the village had done?

And the Yondaime...

Brushing against that thought was like touching a white-hot knife. Naruto whimpered and clutched the sides of his head and curled up, chin on his knees. He tried to shut out the stabbing voice in his memory, but it refused to stop.

The truth is, though, you didn't entirely disagree with Pein's ideals. You must have identified with him on some level.

The only change will be you. But you will find out how much difference that can make.

"Uzumaki-san? What's wrong?" the medic asked urgently.

All of this is reality. Here and now. And you say this is somehow better than what I want?

Do you honestly think that's different from what I am trying to do?

The medic reached out to touch Naruto's arm, but jerked back when a wisp of red flickered over it like a flame. Naruto shuddered. Bubbling, agitated red energy started seeping from his tenketsu. It ran over his spine and spread down his arms to the tips of his fingers, nails lengthening into sharp points.

"What's going on?" a couple of other medics had rushed over.

"It's the Bijuu! It's—he's starting to lose control!"

They only treat you well now because you're important. That doesn't change the fact that they see you as nothing more than a beast.

He dug his long fingernails into the mattress and his back arched as his muscles and bones shifted around into a more animalistic configuration.

"Oh my god!"

"W-What do we do?"

"Someone get Gaara-sama right now!"

Naruto's body burned. His skin cracked and peeled. Everyone was yelling in panic and confusion. Their fear made the hard wedge of grief and anger dig even deeper into his heart. More and more demonic chakra bubbled and frothed around him—and the more of it there was, the stranger his transformation became. Something was happening that had never happened before.

When the second tail of the chakra cloak had almost formed, strange knobs growing along his skeletal structure burst into twisted, lethal-looking spikes along his spine, shoulders, and collarbone. The ever-increasing outpouring of energy only made them grow larger and deadlier. They weren't made of bone. They were made of wood—a dark, almost black wood corrupted by toxic chakra. The more energy that seeped from his tenketsu, the larger they grew.