The Neglected Genius

The Drift Between Powers

3rd Person POV

Seeing Kakashi in this state was killing Naruto slowly.

"If only I had been faster..." He muttered as his head was leaning against the edge of Kakashi's bed.

Kakashi's condition was critical, to say the least. 

His body was pale, cold, and yet was sweating profusely. All of these, were effects of whatever had poisoned Kakashi. 

What made Naruto disappointed in himself, was that he could not figure out what caused it.

He prided himself in being a decent medic, so to be brought back to reality with the current condition of his surrogate brother, was too much to bare.

"You need to rest, Naru-chan." came a voice from the door.

Naruto's sigh was the only indication that he heard.

"I can't, kaa-san. It's killing me not knowing what to do. We have no records of this poison, none of the Aburame clan are able to identify what insect causes it, neither Shizune-nee or Anko-san were able to identify the poison, and they're our best poison-experts." Naruto vented.

"I know, Naru-chan. But if we have a chance of extracting a sample of his infected blood, we need you to be in your best condition." Tsunade insisted as she made her way to his side. 

After the Battle of Root, as it was labelled between Minato and Tsunade, Naruto had immediately taken over Kakashi's medical files to be in charge of Kakashi's recovery. 

That had been two weeks ago. 

Since then, Naruto had only rested for 2 days total, claiming that Kurama was able to fix him up by then. 

Tsunade was not convinced at all. But she knew there was nothing she could do at this point. Once Naruto set his mind on something, he would not stop until he was finished with what was plaguing his mind. Only then, did he rest, if at all at that point. 

"You know, Daisuke has been in the compound twice since you've been here." Tsunade informed Naruto, referring to the kitsune Naruto had met two weeks prior.

"I don't have time to deal with Inari-sama at the moment, kaa-san. Only until this situation with Kaka-nii is fixed, will I consider having an audience with Inari-sama, but until then, I don't have the time." Naruto said, looking mildly annoyed at remembering how he almost signed the Kitsune contract.

"I figured as much, so that is what I've been telling him when he appears, but I know he's becoming restless. I would guess Inari-sama might be threatening him for not receiving an answer from you" Tsunade said as she walked around to look outside the hospital's window.

"That is not my problem. Had he done things correctly, I might've agreed to sign the contract, but now, I'm not sure I should." Naruto lied. He was willing to sign the contract since Kurama told him to, but that was not something to tell to anyone until he was ready to announce it publicly. Being the barer of a summoning contract was rare, having two was extremely uncommon, but having two legendary contracts was something only told as such: as legends. This could prove detrimental to the progress he's had with the village. Until he was sure they could handle that information, he will keep it to himself.

*knock knock*

"Excuse the intrusion." came from the door, courtesy of Minato.

"Good morning, Hokage-sama/Minato" came from Naruto and Tsunade respectively.

"How has he been?" Minato asked as he looked at Kakashi sadly.

"No response and no improvement. I was able to slow the poison, so now we're preparing to extract some of his blood with the poison to analyze. Hopefully we'll be able to find out what type of poison this is, or if it is similar to any other we have in our database." Naruto spoke as he looked at Kakashi with a similar sad expression.