❝𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝑲𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒉𝒂❞

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 14: 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝑨𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒆

Naruto held Sakura bridle style in his arms. She had insisted on helping treat the other wounded and had made it 3/4 of the way before she passed out from chakra depletion and her own wounds. The caravan had lost about 13 percent of the total members but through those sacrifices they were able to save all of the supplies except from the first wagon. Kazuki was surprisingly understanding of the losses.

"I know who Sasuke Uchiha is so I'm actually quite happy. We didn't lose nearly as much as we could have." That was what he said when Naruto questioned him about his attitude. He was surprised that Sasuke was quite infamous but was happy at the logical decision Kazuki had come to. Naruto had to admit that Sasuke had indeed become strong. He felt Sakura shift in his arms and clench her arm in pain. She had torn several muscles in her arm but still followed the code of the medic-nin: "The team comes before you." Basically that meant that unless your injuries impeded your work, your comrades were to be healed first then you could heal yourself. He heard her laboured breath that signified the pain each bump brought but he couldn't do anything about it. Or could he?

Naruto began to sift through the Sage's memories looking for any technique his eyes may hold for healing. They were within sight of the town when he stopped. He remembered something that Nagato had done when using the Six Paths of Pain technique. If one of the Pains were destroyed then the one that always remained in the back would come forward and summon up something that Naruto couldn't see. The injured Pain would disappear before emerging completely healed. Naruto figured hey if Nagato could do it then so can I. He began to concentrate on healing Sakura. He committed everything, mind, body, and soul, to the task. He suddenly felt a strange sense of recognition and spoke without meaning to.

"Jigokudo."

He was startled when a circle of purple flames lit up the ground from which a head emerged. The head possessed a set of Rinnegan and Naruto was thrown off wen he found that he was looking at both the head and himself.

'This must be the shared vision that Nagato was talking about.' He could only imagine the benefits an extra pair of eyes would be on the battlefield. The mouth suddenly opened and a tendril-like arm emerged and pulled Sakura from his arms. To his horror the arm pulled Sakura into the open mouth and the head began to chew. Naruto's stomach dropped and his heart felt like it was being constricted. He could only watch as the head continued to chew Sakura like a piece of food. After several minutes the mouth opened and Sakura stumbled out looking completely bewildered. And healed. Naruto nearly jumped for joy and silently thanked his abilities. He felt a huge grin appear on his face and embraced Sakura in a tight, yet careful, hug.

"Naruto what just happened?" Sakura just remembered having a bright light hit her face and se followed it. It took her out onto the bridge with Naruto waiting for her.

"I summoned some sort of head to heal you because the sight of you in pain hurt. I hate seeing you in pain. Anyways, the head began to chew on you which scared the shit out of me when you suddenly fell out perfectly healed." Naruto shrugged it off like being munched on was a common occurrence to him. Before se could scold him for turning her into a snack he took her anger away with a deep kiss.

"So you two finally got together huh?" They both turned to see a grinning Tazuna. The last wagon was just disappearing around the corner into town. Naruto grinned and nodded while Sakura gave a small, yet honest, smile and nodded. They both had just the smallest amount of pink gracing their cheeks. Tazuna laughed and patted Naruto on the back. "I figured you would get her sooner or later! Congrats kid!"

The mood was dampened when Inari came sprinting back from the hospital with news on a more somber series of events.

"Hey Naruto I got good news for you!" The boy was panting slightly from his long sprint across the now thriving town.