Melancholia

Chapter 5

Naruto was quickly starting to have regrets. Major regrets.

The words "dizzy" and "nauseated" barely scratched the surface of how he felt right now. He'd told himself "just a few cuts", but, of course, it never went that way and now he was paying the price.

He knew he needed to rest a bit or something before he passed out, but he didn't want to cause any unnecessary worry for the others. Unfortunately, it was pretty obvious to those around him that something was off, that he was starting to struggle to even walk straight.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Sakura asked in concern, without restraint, noticing how pale he looked.

"It's... It's nothing to worry about, Sakura-chan..." Naruto said with a weak smile. "I'm totally... fine..."

"Hn... You'd think he was dying or something." Sasuke muttered with a smirk, hiding the fact that he actually did wonder what was happening to Naruto.

"What was that-" Naruto started to glare at him.

"That's enough, you two." Kakashi said, silencing both of them, before glancing back at Naruto. "Naruto, why don't you sit down and take a moment to rest before you pass out?"

"Yeah, do what you gotta do. It's not like we're in any rush or anything. Besides, we've been walking for a couple hours now. We could use a break." Izumi said casually. Saburo remained silent but nodded in agreement.

"I told you I'm fine...! I don't need to-" Naruto started to argue.

" Now , Naruto." Kakashi emphasized the "now" part. The last thing he needed was a student fainting on him.

"But I-" Naruto once again tried to protest.

"Just do what he said already, Naruto!" Sakura snapped, interrupting him as she accusingly pointed a finger at him. Naruto was always pushing himself to the limit, forcing himself to press forward when he clearly wasn't able to handle it. "And no 'buts'! You need to think about yourself for once!"

Naruto opened his mouth to protest, but caved in at the realization that Sakura was worried for him. "Fine..."

"Now, come on. Sit down." Sakura said.

As he watched Sakura pulling Naruto over to sit against a nearby tree stump and hearing Naruto grumbling in response, Kakashi couldn't help but briefly be reminded of how Rin used to take his and Obito's wellbeing more serious than either of them themselves did. Although Sakura had a fearsome personality, she still had a deep underlying concern and compassion that had developed for both of her teammates, just like Rin had.

Assuming that Naruto was probably dehydrated or something, Sakura pulled out an unopened water bottle from her bag. She uncapped it and without a second thought, she held it up to his mouth. "Here, drink this. It might help a bit."

In all the time she'd known him, he'd rarely ever looked this bad off. Something was obviously wrong.

Albeit reluctant at first, Naruto graciously took a few sips of the liquid and swallowed. He must have lost way too much blood. They'd been on the road for at least a couple hours now, and the heat was unbearable at the moment, so that didn't help anything at all. He wasn't particularly feeling that great when he left, but it was a hundred times worse now.

"I wonder if Hokage-sama would be interested in taking Sakura on as an apprentice... She has better chakra control than either of her teammates and she has the skills required to effectively care for patients..." Kakashi mused, observing the two. Maybe he would discuss that later with her. He himself wasn't qualified to teach one on such complex procedures, but a huge part of him believed that Sakura truly had what it took to become a medical ninja.