Nightmares - Naruto Fanfiction

26: Birthdays

AN: Heheh... Time to be evil... Enjoy ;)

Jiraiya POV:
I think we all thought that he would be more enthusiastic about his first time leaving the hospital, but he seems on edge more than anything else. It's funny how much a person can change after something like that happens to them. Well, funny isn't the word. It could never be the right word for this situation.

"Ohayo, Naruto!" Genma said as we passed the dango stand, Anko next to him. Naruto looked at the sword on his back and flinched. Genma had been wearing Hayate's sword on his back in memory of him, because Hayate wanted him to have it. Genma smiled grimly at the memory. He then saw that it made him anxious and immediately and swiftly took it off and set it under the table and made sure that both of this hands were clearly seeable. Naruto was shaking a little bit,which was not a good sign. I gently put my hands on his bony tense shoulders and rubbed them gently until he relaxed.

"Do you wanna say hi to Genma and Anko?" Kakashi asked in a gentle voice.

"H-hello" Naruto stuttered out with a crooked smile, blowing a tuft of overgrown hair out of his face shortly afterward.

"Well, you guys better get going. And Naruto" Anko said pausing to smile "Happy birthday." She said sincerely.

At this Naruto chose to smile back instead of responding, and Jiraiya continued wheeling Naruto to the Hokage Tower, where Tsunade as well as Naruto's team, the jonin senseis, Iruka, and the entire rookie nine wers waiting for them. Tsunade had been taking the time to set some ground rules for everyone: no loud noises, no sudden movements, talk in a calming, gentle voice, give Naruto some time to respond if you talk to him because sometimes it can take him a while to formualte words, don't touch him unless he anticipates it, ect. Tsunade wanted to make these things very clear to each and every guest at the party; this was Naruto's special day, and everyone wanted him to be happy.

Naruto wasn't happy to be seen being wheeled through the village in a wheelchair at first, but Jiraiya and Kakashi promised that no one would make fun of him or tease him. What Naruto didn't know was that Kakashi was standing behind them as Jiraiya talked to Naruto, giving everyone in their line of sight a death glare so no one would say anything.

After a short but nice walk, we arrived at the Hokage Tower.

Wait... Something wasn't right. Do I smell... Blood?

"Watch Naruto, and tread carefully." I spoke quietly, killing intent beginning to leak from my voice.

"W-what's G-going Onn?" Naruto stuttered out, distrust and panic clearly evident in his voice.

Kami, we didn't have time for this.

"Shhh everything's okay Naruto" I said with a sad smile while running my fingers through the sides of his thinning blonde hair. "I just have to check on something, but Kakashi's gonna stay with you. Is that okay?"

I could clearly see the discomfort and worry in his eyes, but he shakily nodded anyway.

Without looking back, I went inside, leaving Kakashi making goofy faces and talking to the kid in a gentle tone while Naruto tried to smile. Kakashi really knew how to calm him down.

Fourty Seconds, that's how much time it took for Naruto's world to fall apart.

I heard the sound before anything else. Smoke started to seep through the door, and in about three seconds, Kakashi ran through the door, freezing at what he saw. Naruto was still struggling in Kakashi's tight grip, facing the other way, still uncomfortable from when Kakashi pulled him out of the wheelchair and pushed him into his own chest.

Finally, in a moment of triumph, Naruto was able to rotate his frail frame in Kakashi's grip and turn around to face the other way.

"My, my, Naruto. We meet again." A familiar voice said, his Sharigan matching the blazing one of the much smaller shinobi he was forcefully holding with a kunai to his neck.

Naruto looked around, panicking when he saw everyone he knew and loved unconscious on the floor, except for Tsunade, who was clutching her side attempting to stop a wound from bleeding.

He looked pleadingly at Jiraiya, who kept his eyes on Itachi. Naruto could feel Kakashi's grip on him tighten.

Itachi saw the fear in the young boy's eyes and smirked. "Don't worry, I only knocked them out." He said while still smiling.

The two sanin and the jounin had already figured out that it was useless to plan an attack; with Itachi holding Sasuke hostage and Kakashi having to protect Naruro, there was just no way to counter the Uchiha.

"Well, I think I've stayed long enough, maybe we can have some fun another time, my little Kyuubi brat." And with that, the man was no more, leaving nothing remaining but the younger Uchiha, who was writhing on the floor gasping for breath.

There was a moment of silence; no one moved. Then, as if the world had stopped then started again, everything happened at once.

"Tsunade, are you okay? What are the status's of the others?" Jiraiya said urgently running to his former teammate and knealing beside her.

"I'm... Okay. Everyone else is stable, a few of the jounin got a little beat up but should be fine." She said and began attempting to heal the open wound on her side. Jiraiya looked over at Sasuke, who's head was against Kakashi's thigh as he helped him control his breathing, Naruto shifted in one arm, a look of pure horror in his eyes, perfectly matching his shocked, unmoving form. Tsunade spoke for him. "Go help them, I'll be fine." She said with a forced smile, then got back to healing her wounds.

"That's right, in and out, in and out." Kakshi said while rubbing Sasuke's back, using what he'd learned in the lessons Tsunade had given him. Jiraiya bent over next to Naruto, who was being gripped in Kakashi's other arm, legging dangling from Kakashi's thigh onto the floor.

"Naruto?" He said gently at first, taking the blonde and placing him in his own lap. "Naruto, can you hear me?" He said gently shaking his shoulder. He remembered the first time this happened, and remembered all those days in the hospital since. "Naruto! Talk to me!!" No reply.

The jounin began to wake up, then Iruka.

It wasn't until an hour later that the barrier seal Itachi had put up had released and teams of ANBU and medical ninja had begun flooding in.

End of Chapter 26,
Read author's note if you like this story.

Author's Note: (first part is what you should probably read XD)
And you all thought he would be having a party ;) One point author-chan :P Anyway, I'm holding not really a contest, but an opportunity to be part of this story. I wrote my summary/description of this story when I first started writing (as we all do) and it's really crappy. So I'm going to ask you guys to write my description for me :) Just comment what you want it to be and I'll probably end up taking some of everyone's description and mashing them all together. I'll give you all credit for writing so your name will be part of this story :) If you don't want to comment your description, you can message it to me.

Thank you all for 30k reads! ^^ and now our highest ranking is number 871 in Fanfiction!! Thank you all for the support, I would never be here without you and really enjoy talking to you guys. I get lots of positive comments every day, and those make me so happy, but in the past few days I've gotten lots of critiques. So if you're going to critique my story, please just use constructive criticism in a nice way :) Thank you! Much love ❤ -author chan