Inheritance

CHAPTER 25

And with that, the man made no further sound, and Naruto could detect no further hint of his presence; and finally, Naruto felt the last traces of adrenaline that was coursing through him abandon him, and he very nearly slumped to the floor in exhaustion, regardless of the blades pinning him to the wall, which would have resulted in what would quite possibly be a career ending injury.

He took a raspy, gurgling breath, and steeled himself even as warm blood trickled from the two wounds in his back, soaking the fabric of his black clothing - even as he coughed up even more of the thick, red liquid. Naruto knew this meant he was bleeding internally, and that his airways had been damaged. The blades themselves however, hadn't struck those areas, which meant they had been augmented with chakra, and it was that chakra that had done the damage. This in turn meant that the wounds would not heal so easily, and anybody but a Jinchuuriki likely would have already bled out and died at this point.

As it was, it was only the regenerative abilities that came with being the container of the Kyuubi keeping him alive, or even just awake enough to escape.

Most infuriatingly however, Naruto thought, was the fact that the man had known all of this. He wasn't even trying to kill the blond. Which meant that couldn't even claim escaping as a small victory.

He pressed both his shaking hands against the wall he was pinned to, as though he was about to do a press up, and began to steady his breathing in preparation for the pain he knew was about to come.

A strangled cry erupted from Naruto as he forced himself back from the wall, pulling the blades from the stone using the hilts against his back to ensure that he didn't just slide over them, causing himself even more damage. He staggered back once free from the wall, and fought momentarily to keep his balance, as pain and exhaustion-induced wooziness threatened to topple him.

His teeth ground as he fought through the pain to keep himself silent, even as he knew the very next part would hurt even more. Gripping the right blade in front of him between both his palms, held flat together as though he were praying, he pushed it back and out of him, and it clattered to the floor in a frenzy of blood, and crashing steel.

Moments later, Naruto joined it, bleeding heavily - albeit not as much as he likely should have been - and Naruto's only thought beyond the pain questioned his odds of making it back to Jiraiya in this state.

A brief respite was all he allowed himself before he readied his hands to repeat the process with the remaining blade - and pushed once more. This time, a strangled cry made it past his firmly gritted teeth, and finally tears of pain began to well in the blonde's eyes, the blurring of his vision letting Naruto know he had almost passed out from his efforts.

Breathing heavy, ragged breaths, he dragged himself to the bed and sat on the floor, leaning against it, his eyes locked on the frighteningly large splatters of his blood. Naruto's brain was racing. First, he needed to do something about the bleeding; then, he needed to get out of here, because there was no chance that he's be able to leave the same way he'd entered undiscovered - not with wounds like his.

He could feel his heart pounding furiously at his chest, pumping blood around his body in what would soon be a vain effort to cling to life, should Naruto not move soon; the effort ironically pushing him closer and closer to death as he lost more and more blood. He reached for the bedsheets on the bed above him, and clumsily tore them into strips, all the while fighting the urge to close his eyes and sleep, a move that would guarantee his death.

He wrapped the sheets around his abdomen tightly, trying desperately to stem the flow of blood from the wounds, each layer staining red almost as soon as he placed it upon himself. Eventually satisfied, he heaved himself to is feet, the effort very nearly too much for his exhausted body, and shuffled cautiously to the room's only window.