Naruto's Illness

~Naruto pov~

"Sakura, are you kidding me," I looked at the reddish orange fox plushie she brought with her. It was puffy with two medium-sized tails; it basically looked like the nine-tails with two tails and a smile, in chibi form.

"Oh come on Naruto, it's cute," she shoves the plushy closer to my face, "you need more company so why not?"

"You've got to be joking, I'm sick, not insane," I overstate pointing at the toy. 'Beside if I could leave, I wouldn't need the plushy'.

Ever since they discovered the disease I've been stuck in the hospital. It's been over a month and a half and I've looked at the same white walls and smelled the same bitter scent of death and medicine. They won't let me eat my ramen so I have to eat the hospital food, which sucks. They know almost nothing about my sickness besides what it's doing to me. It's killing me from the inside, it's too unpredictable for me to go out so I'm in the hospital 24/7. The last time I tried to sneak out, they tied me to the bed for a week; I didn't try again after that. Freedom in the hospital is better than nothing.

"Will you just keep it?" I take another look at the plushie then turn to Sakura. She looks slightly worried, she has a glint of pity in her eyes that she hides behind the worry. I hate being pitied!

"Fine," I say grabbing the fox toy out of her hand.

"Great, now I have to go, I have a mission in an hour,"

"Bye," I give her a big smile as she leaves the room.

When the door swings shut, my smile dissipates and becomes a frown etched into my face. A mission. Going outside. I hate this hospital room.

I toss the plush to the end of the bed. I didn't need some imitation of the nine-tails, I have the real thing. I shut my eyes and try to drift to sleep, which is difficult cause all I do nowadays is sleep.

"Hey! Kurama! You there!," It's darker than usual and I'm a little worried. I wander around until I see a dim light coming from the back edge of the mindscape. As I walk closer to the light I am able to hear a low groaning sound. When I finally get close enough I see he has shrunk a considerable amount- he is still huge, just smaller.

"Kurama! What's going on? Why couldn't I contact you till now?," I start throwing questions out left and right.

"Stop shouting," he barely growls out. He shifts his weight so he can look me in the eyes.

"Whats going on?" I ask gentler.

"I don't know but my chakra is dissipating. I don't quite understand, this has never happened before," he said avoiding any further eye contact.

"There's something you're leaving out, isn't there." I move so I stare him right in the eyes.

"You were always sharper than they gave you credit for. I've never been sealed in someone as young as you before. I think this might be a side effect."

"What do you mean a 'side effect'! You're first holder had you long than I have!"

"I know that! But you were a baby, your body didn't have the time to adjust that hers did."

I couldn't believe it. It was so unbelievable is was funny. My own parents damned me to death the day I was born and didn't even know it. I burst out laughing, getting a mixed look of shock and pity from Kurama. This wasn't my normal laugh. This was dark. I continued to laugh until one tear rolled down my cheek. Kurama took one of his tails and gently wrapped it around me, pulling me into a hug/cuddle.

~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~

Hours later I woke up. I didn't care that I wasn't supposed to leave. I didn't care that they would be angry and hurt. And I didn't care that they would probably never let me leave the room ever again. All I cared about was getting out of this room. I knew even if I hide, I couldn't get away for long. It was around the middle of the night, so hopefully, everyone was asleep. I'm as fast or strong as I was. Now I hardly have any meat on my bones, I don't do anything so running is pretty much out of the question.

I walked through the cold night air, shivering every time the wind blew. I never noticed how cold it got before; or how fresh the air really was. I decided my first stop would be to the K.I.A stone, (I forgot what it was called) if I was gonna be confined in a hospital room for the rest of my days, I wanted to say goodbye to my parents first. I don't remember it being so far but then again, I don't think I've ever moved this slow in my life. When I could finally see it in the distance, I was out of breath. I walked up to it and ran my hand across the names 'Minato Namikaze' and 'Kushina Uzumaki'.

"I guess this is it," I grinned and started walking away.

"Where are you going? You know you're not supposed to be out here," I turned around to see Kakashi-sensei standing there.

"Does it matter?" I ask but it wasn't a question. 

I already had the answer. 

It didn't.

"You can't be out here if you expect to get better," I didn't have any tolerance of ignorance right now.

"Shut up! You don't know anything! Just..." I took a deep breath to calm myself before I said something I would regret, "Just give me tonight ok. Just tonight."

"But Naruto..."

"No! I just need some time to think," I turned back around.

"If you're not back in two hours, I'm going come get you."

"Ya, two hours."

I walked away, heading toward a special place in the wood I like to go to when I need peace and quiet.

"Why didn't you tell him" I heard Kurama deep voice echo through my head, although it was raspier than usual.

"That's a long conversation I don't have time for," I heard an unsatisfied grumble from Kurama as I kept walking.

~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~

Finally arriving, I looked around. This place hasn't changed, It's still so peaceful. I bit down on my thumb and summoned Gamakichi.

"What's up Naruto, you haven't... you look terrible"

"All this time and that's the first thing to come out of your mouth," I gave him a small smile amidst my panting. "I want you to deliver a message to Grandma Tsunade in the morning."

"Sure."

"Tell them to never seal a tailed beast inside a baby ever again, tell them thank you and that I love them," I know It was short but It would mean just as much.

"Naruto what's going on!" Gamakichi says frantically.

"Oh ya, tell them not to attack the Kurama when they see him next."

"Kurama? What are you talking about?"

"Just promise me you'll get it to them."

"I promise but..."

"Thank you and goodbye Gamakichi," I gave him the best smile I could muster. I un-summoned him before he could say anymore.

"Are you sure about this?" I nodded leaning back against a lone tree in the clearing.

"I won't erode away in a hospital room, If I'm going to die, I'm going to pick where." 

"That's just like you," even though we were talking telepathically; I could tell he was smiling.

After that, Kurama stopped all the functions in my body. 

Darkness took over.