An Unordinary Shinobi

Chapter 14 - Holey child unholes himself and inflicts suffering (by accident)

CW: shouting, caps in a/n   ---   TW: bl**d, injury, v10lence, fod

"Hurry up Elaine! He just got attacked by John! He's going to bleed out!" Isen yelled frantically, sprinting back towards the scene of the fight, Elaine on his heels.

Once John had left, Isen had decided to get Elaine to heal Naruto. No way he'd let a kid die, especially not on his watch (and besides, Arlo might be mad if the person Isen was supposed to be researching went and kicked the bucket). But something was still nagging him. How did Naruto dodge all those spikes and break them? He himself couldn't even snap one of Cecile's ropes with his Hunter ability, so how could a cripple shatter John's spikes? And most importantly, why did John run away?

All Isen had seen was John kneeling down to check if the poor boy had blacked out, and then run off, looking a little – dare he say it? – afraid. He had to agree with Arlo on this one – it was all rather suspicious...

He was snapped out of his thoughts by Elaine, who had let out a small gasp once she had seen the extent of the damage John had caused. Instead of focusing on the wreckage, Isen activated his ability and scanned the area for Naruto, preparing himself for the worst.

What Isen had not been prepared for, however, was to see Naruto sitting cross-legged on a chunk of wall, eating a KitKat, and seeming to be in perfectly good health. By this point, Elaine had also spotted the boy, and was glaring at Isen questioningly when she saw the boy didn't appear on the brink of death at all. Isen shrugged, gave her a well-he-was-dying-when-I-left look, (or something as close to the phrase as he could) and sauntered over.

"So, you ok?" he asked nonchalantly, leaning on some rubble, as if being impaled by Joker and being completely fine five minutes later was a daily occurrence.

"Eh, I'm good." The blonde replied once he had swallowed a mouthful of KitKat. At least he had manners.

Isen could see two small pink spots on his hands, presumably where the rods had gone through. Only minutes ago there would have been literal holes through the skin – how had he healed so fast? Even Elaine might not have pulled that off. Speaking of whom, Elaine was now crouching next to Naruto, interrogating him about where it hurt while healing what little injuries he had on his arm. He caught some of the muttered conversation:

"Does it hurt here?"

"No."

"How did you even...?"

"No, it's nothing, really, I'm fine..."

"Are you sure?"

"Yup, completely!"

Isen caught Elaine giving him a look that said, 'he's hopeless', so he decided to take things into his own hands. Time to interrogate.

"So, what's with the already healed injuries? You were bleeding out the last time I saw you," Isen asked. Naruto just rubbed his head bashfully and grinned.

"I've always healed super quickly! It's really handy, believe it!"

"And what about the KitKat? Surely you didn't go all the way to the cafeteria for one KitKat?"

"Nah, of course not!" Naruto grinned and lifted up his jumper. A waterfall of KitKats cascaded out like some heavenly fountain. Isen facepalmed, but picked one up and started eating it – it would be a waste after all...

He snapped out of his stupor and sighed. This was getting nowhere. Maybe Arlo could use his cold aloofness to scare some information out of this stubborn person. And if that didn't work, there was always the good ol' violence... not that it had worked with John trying to beat the guy up... whatever.