Naruto : Path of Wind

"Naruto! Please!" Sakura cries in a strangled voice. She stares up at me, her green-gray eyes boring into my own. Her eyes, which are quickly being turned from green-gray to solid, murky gray. Tenten's eyes. It's happening right in front of me.

To construct and utilize a seal that one hasn't learned inside and out or used in the past is more than unwise. It is suicidal.

...

Oh to hell with this.

I fall into a crouch and slam my hand down on the hook. Chakra surges through me, a familiar giddy presence rushing down my arm and out my hand. The circle hums and the sound of rushing wind fills the air as the seal absorbs my chakra, true to Sakura's word. I don't have time to think about what that could mean before light fills the room and Sakura cries out in pain.

My chakra sets the blood seal glowing a furious crimson, running a blazing path along the symbols until her whole torso is glowing red. I try to jerk my hand back, but the seal holds it in place somehow. It continues to suck greedily at my chakra, and all of a sudden eight points erupt in radiant blue pillars of light. The restriction subseals.

The circle claws at more and more of my chakra. Wind moans through the room, rustling the scroll containing Sakura's outline of the seal and sending it rolling towards the sealing circle. I twist awkwardly and kick it out of the way. The pull grows stronger, and my chakra howls, sending Sakura's long pink hair whipping around. I grit my teeth and yank again at my hand, but it's no good. Then something happens, and I forget all about my hand.

Black ichor is leaking out of my teammate's eyes and down her cheeks, and I can feel it. The day Iruka taught us about chakra sensing immediately jumps to my mind, but I've never had that talent. Something tells me this isn't some hidden talent I've just unlocked- it's whatever that is. It's strong enough that it doesn't matter. It's wrong enough. I shrink back as far away from the seal as my hand will allow me, and then the ichor touches the blood seal.

A sound escapes from Sakura's lips, hardly loud enough to hear over my raging chakra. A cold shiver runs down my spine. It goes so far beyond agonized that it almost hurts me to hear it.

As soon as the ichor touches the cuts Sakura had given herself the crimson glow darkens, becoming a dark, dark gray. The mix spreads further along the seal as more and more ichor runs down into it. A familiar burn begins to build in my stomach, but the seal keeps on pulling, and my hand holds firm.

Finally, when the cuts littering her naked torso are nearly all grey, the last drops of ichor fall from Sakura's eyes, and the tear stains on her cheeks melt down into the seal, pulled by some invisible force.

I clench my eyes shut as the eight pillars of light flare, and feel the pull on my chakra cease all at once. I yank my hand back and crack an eye open hesitantly.

Sakura, wavering dangerously from her place kneeling in the circle, gasps raggedly, and the gray seals carved into her flesh move, crawling past her collarbone and up her neck. In their wake once cut skin bubbles and smooths, becoming pale and unmarred. The symbols crawl up her chin and past her cheeks, framing her face for one disturbing moment before gathering at her forehead. I watch as they bunch together, overlap over each other, until finally her skin stops bubbling and the eight pillars of light fade.

Two simple black lines sit starkly contrasting against the pale skin of her forehead, each curling from one temple and meeting in the middle. They intertwine there, then curl around the other to the opposite temple.

"... Is that it?" I whisper into the silence. Sakura's eyes flutter open. Pure grass green.

"Yes," she breathes. "It's gone."

"So you're cured now?" I ask cautiously. She nods.

"It's not-" she says, but mid-sentence her eyes roll up into the back of her head and she collapses face first onto the carpet. I scramble forward and press my finger to her throat, but her pulse thrums steadily beneath her skin. I roll her over onto her back and lift one of her eyelids up, just in case, but they're still green. I sigh, and a weeks worth of anxiety drains out of me along with it.

A gloved hand falls onto my shoulder, gripping it painfully. I twist sharply around and see a shinobi decked out in Anbu attire, mask and all, connected to it. I take a few seconds to consider what this shinobi is thinking right now, with me hunched over a half naked girl in the middle of a sealing circle.

"I can explain-" Well, no I can't. "This isn't what it looks like!"

...

After a dizzying series of shunshin the Anbu, Hawk, knocks twice at the solid oaken door leading to the Hokage's office. I don't hear anything from inside, but a moment later the Anbu standing guard opens the door and Hawk shoves me in. I stumble inside, looking up and seeing the Hokage regarding me with a flat stare.

"Hey old man," I say weakly. He gestures at the chair across from his desk.

"Sit." I sit. "I've been told that the sixth patrol team felt a large spike in chakra and found you with an unconscious girl in the middle of a sealing circle, with a blood seal etched onto her forehead. Is this true?"

Wow. Anbu work fast. "Well yeah, but when you say it like that-"

"Do you remember what I told you about blood seals?" he commands, not asks. I frown.

"Don't mess with them," I say reluctantly. "You don't understand though-"

"I understand that the chakra team six sensed was not regular chakra. It was elemental in nature." He narrows his eyes. "Do you mean to tell me that it wasn't your chakra they sensed?"

"No, but-"

"Do you realize what the punishment is for using a blood seal without the proper qualifications? A minimum of three months-"

"Damn it old man!" I explode, slamming my fists down on the wooden armrests of my seat. "Listen to me! That wasn't just some girl, that was Sakura. And I didn't create the seal, she did."

"You still helped her perform it. Why?" He counters.

"Because she was going insane!" I say heatedly. "Your stupid medics couldn't find anything wrong with her, but whatever that bastard of a nukenin did to her on our mission has been driving her crazy since we got back to Konoha."

If that takes him back, he doesn't show it. His face just grows harder. "And you decided that using the seal she designed was the best course of action?" I open my mouth, close it, and think.

"Yes."

"Do I have to explain to you why and how monumentally stupid that decision was?" He asks quietly.

"Do I have to explain to you why I made it?" I throw back at him.

"Yes."

So I launch into my long, frustrating recount of my interactions with Sakura from her visit to me at the hospital to a few minutes ago, and everything I've learned about what was happening to her. It isn't much. By the time I'm finished the Hokage look has faded and the old man just looks tired. He leans back in his chair, procuring his pipe from underneath his desk, and takes a few puffs at it.

"You're saying you believed your teammate was going to deteriorate to young Tenten's level?" He finally asks. I nod.

"It's hard to explain. But her eyes kept getting darker, and it reminded me of Tenten. When she told me she was running out of time I kind of panicked." I scratch at the back of my neck. "I just... didn't want the same thing to happen to her, you know?"

The old man's eyes soften. "I think I do."

"And anyway, it worked," I say hastily. "She told me herself. And her eyes were all cleared up, too. I've still got no idea what was happening to her, but whatever it was, it's gone now."

"Not gone," The old man corrects me, giving me a funny look. "Sealed."

I blink. "Is there a difference?"

"Of course there is," he says firmly. "Depending on the nature of the seal she used, it may be required that she renew it after a certain period of time, or it may require a constant effort to keep functioning, or any number of things. Seals are nigh impossible to predict if you don't have any prior knowledge of them- the possibilities are virtually endless."

"Well whatever it requires, I'll make sure it gets done," I say determinedly. "I'm never letting that happen to her again."

The old man smiles. "That's good to hear, Naruto." He takes a few more puffs of his pipe, and raises an eyebrow at me. "So, setting that aside for the moment, where's your progress with that scroll I gave you?"

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