Reality Bites

Part Eleven

Tsunade stood in the doorway of Jiraiya's study, watching the man flip through the many texts and scrolls laid out before him, scrutinizing every word he read.

"You know," he began thoughtfully, "there's always the possibility someone is manipulating the seal, and by sealing off Naruto's chakra, we're playing right into a trap."

"I've considered it," Tsunade reassured, earning an impatient glance from her old friend. "I dispatched half a dozen ANBU – and a bunch of his genin friends to keep him company. He's safer right now than any day he's lived with chakra so far. And–well he doesn't know it yet, but I've got him on lockdown."

Jiraiya responded with a dry laugh, gaze never straying the material before him. "I'm sure he's gonna be so happy to learn that."

"Yeah," Tsunade agreed. "I'd rather he try to kill the messenger instead."

"Callous," Jiraiya condemned, before adding in afterthought, "and honestly…pretty smart."

"They didn't name me hokage for nothing."

Jiriaiya didn't acknowledge her, or mention that the position was offered to him first; bringing it up usually didn't benefit him in any way, so instead, he posed, "Who's the most meticulous person you know?"

"Hatake Kakashi," Tsunade responded at first. "Or Nara Shikamaru," she added in an afterthought.

"Shikaku's kid?"

"That's the one."

Jiraiya laughed again, flipping through a large book of seals. "Bring them both. I need someone with a particular eye."

Kakashi was easy to find, but Shikamaru was tucked away in a corner of the village, well into a game of shogi with his chain-smoker of a teacher, which the younger complained was troublesome to pry him away from. But with or without complaint, no shinobi in the village dared snub the hokage, and within half an hour, both he and Kakashi were in Jiraiya's study, discussing in detail everything that's been happening with the seal over the last week.

Kakashi's first conclusion was the one Jiraiya came to earlier – that someone outside the village, or even more troublingly, inside the village, was manipulating the seal. Shikamaru was more quiet, debating internally his most logical guess.

"Do you have any regular documentation of the seal?" the young Nara asked.

Jiraiya pulled out a stack of tracings of the seal painted on a clear, plastic material, about as thick as stock paper but flimsier. "I've taken about two of these a month since I started training him."

Shikamaru held the stack in his hands, finding no distinction between any of them.

"The most recent one was from about a week and a half ago," Jiraiya mentioned, pointing toward the top sheet. "It couldn't hurt to get another tracing now."

Jiriaya placed a blank sheet on top of the stack in Shikamaru's hands, earning a great, tired sigh. "Fine."

"Just mold a little chakra and the tracer sheet will do the rest."

"It's no problem–running errands on my day off," the young Nara supplied cynically.

"Good sport," Jiraiya humored with a smack on the back in encouragement.

oOoOo

Naruto wouldn't call his apartment large – for him, it was always a functional size – but any time he had company, it seemed to highlight the fact that the area was big enough for him alone. Just minutes ago, his two teammates and the entirety of team eight had been crammed in here on some stupid assignment from Tsunade. But that moment was brief; the group of them cycled through keeping watch, posted at separate locations around Naruto's apartment complex. At the moment, only Sasuke and Kiba remained inside with him.

"So, you're all basically babysitting me in case someone who wants to kill me catches wind that I'm as threatening as a box of wet matches."

"Pretty much," Kiba agreed easily.

Naruto felt like complaining but hadn't the energy for it. The longer he went without his chakra, the worse he was feeling. It made him feel lightheaded – incomplete; and he didn't know if that feeling was real or psychological.

With a heavy hand, Naruto reached for the water bottle sitting at the edge of his nightstand, knocking it to the ground by accident instead.

"Wow," Kiba laughed, "you're even more uncoordinated than usual."

"Shut up, Kiba," the blonde bit back while he picked up the bottle from the ground and set it on his bedside table.

Naruto looked a mixture of stung and irritated – the same look he got any time someone questioned his capabilities – only now he didn't seem to have the self-confidence as he usually had to come to his own defense; maybe because this time he agreed with the person insulting him.

"To be fair, he wasn't discharged that long ago," Sasuke interjected, feeling uncomfortable with watching Naruto's self-esteem take a plunge. "There're still drugs in his system – he's been stumbling around like an idiot since we left the hospital. I mean, more than usual."

"No I haven't," Naruto complained unhappily.

"Yeah, you have," Sasuke reassured simply; Naruto seemed visibly upset with Sasuke, but that seemed leagues better to Sasuke than the self-doubt there earlier.

"It's okay, Naruto," Kiba reassured casually. "It'll fade over the next few hours." Few ninja were strangers to the effects of pain medication.

"No it won't!" Naruto complained. "You don't get it – they took my chakra!"

Kiba and Sasuke only stared back soberly, because neither of them had anything to say that could make him feel better about it. There probably wasn't a ninja in the hidden villages that felt comfortable with the idea of losing his chakra.

"It's just temporary," Sasuke tried.

"What if it's not?" Naruto imagined. "What if Ero-sennin can't fix the seal?"

What if he was stuck in limbo for the rest of his life, reduced to a container of dangerous, untouchable chakra, as useless as he was fragile? The rest of what he feared was too personal to leave his mouth, the thought dying on his tongue.

"If he can't figure it out, the hokage will find someone who can," Sasuke supplied with confidence. "Think about it, you're a jinchuuriki–one of the village's greatest assets. The village leaders wouldn't want to seal off that potential forever."

"Yeah," Naruto acknowledged unsurely.

"You should just try not to think about it," Kiba offered, somewhat unhelpfully in Sasuke's opinion.

"What if we got out of here for a bit?" Sasuke posed instead.

"And go where?" Naruto shot back.

"Anywhere," Sasuke offered, "anywhere in the village."

"Well, what about–?"

"And not the training grounds, okay?" Sasuke interjected, already sensing where Naruto was headed. "That's not in the village."

"Yeah, I'm not allowed to do anything anyway, so what's the point?" Naruto complained flatly.

A week ago, Sasuke wouldn't believe he was about to ask, but all he could think of was, "What about ramen?"

Naruto struggled with hiding his interest, unwilling to feel appeased over anything in his current predicament. "I guess," he agreed, "If you really need it that bad."

"It's for you, idiot."

"Well, I'm not hungry," Naruto lied badly.

"We're going," Sasuke finalized. "Let's go."

But actually leaving was an ordeal in itself. When they tried to exit the building, a pair of ANBU blocked their path, advising them to stay put.

"We're not leaving the village," Sasuke insisted, earning no give.

"You're to stay put–Hokage's orders," one ANBU insisted from behind his mask.

"So now I'm on house arrest?" Naruto complained.

"Not for anything you've done," the other reinforced–a woman. "For your own safety."

"Well how long is that supposed to last?" the blonde pressed on.

"ANBU follow orders, we don't question them."

Naruto felt frustrated and cooped up–he couldn't really understand what about the village was so particularly dangerous for those without chakra; the villagers seemed to navigate it daily without chakra just fine. "Well can I at least talk to Tsunade-baa–?"

But before he could finish, he was cut off by a loud, low wail accompanied by a bright, blinding light; none of them could see a thing or hear over the noise, and what was only several short seconds felt like many long minutes deprived of two of their senses.

And when the light finally disappeared, Sasuke turned to find so had Naruto, along with the ANBU once standing in their path.

A/N: Sorry for deleting and reposting a chapter. I've rewritten the second half so, although you might recognize a lot of the dialogue in the first part, this chapter does end differently than before. Sorry for that! I have a much better idea for the layout of the next few remaining chapters, so won't have to do that again. Anyway, thanks for reading! Review if you can. :]