Tenten has to admit, the mission has gone much better than she'd first thought.
It's her first mission with Naruto– rather, Naruto alone, and not his other teammates accompanying him.
Not that it was his choice – Sasuke had left for Sound many years ago... Sakura almost going with him. Of course, she had backed out, but...
It was a heavy burden on him, even she knew that, and she hardly knew him at all.
He's a lot different now, from then. Taller, faster. He stands straighter, talks a little slower.
And she has to admit, Naruto's a skilled ninja now. At times, he has trouble working through general troubles– like where to set up camp, and where to gather the mission's intelligence (the locations of several new stone camps), but he's a quick strategist. Thinking a few steps ahead of even her.
And now... she has to admit, there is something seriously wrong with Naruto.
She hadn't wanted to even consider it, but he was sick. With what? She wasn't sure. All ninja were required to get vaccinated before going on missions, and most diseases were easily curable by medicine or chakra. So it wasn't probably something he'd caught in the wilderness.
But whatever it was, it was impairing his ability to walk. He can barely stand. He's not even carrying anything.
"Naruto, maybe we should stop and rest... you look–"
"I said I'm fine," he grunts, "I don't need to stop."
Tenten knows there's something wrong. She admits it. They need to stop.
"Well, what if I want to stop? What if I'm tired?"
Naruto forces another step, barely able to keep pace with the casually-strolling Tenten.
"We can't... we have to keep moving..."
Tenten walks around to the front of Naruto, she turns around and starts walking backwards.
"This mission isn't time-sensitive, Naruto. It's not even crucial. Just a routine checkup. Everything's all normal too. Nothing to get ourselves killed over."
"Now tell me what's wrong."
Naruto curses under his breath, clenching his fists. "It's not something I can explain, Tenten, just something we can't stop for."
"How far is Konoha?"
"At this rate? A month. If you rest, half a day."
"Either way, we'll have to stop and rest eventually."
"Shit," Naruto curses, Tenten notices a bit of blood dripping from his hand.
"Naruto, if you're sick, I need to know–"
"I'm not fucking sick!" Naruto explodes, his eyes turning crimson, his voice deep and rough and his back hunching over.
He grips his head and shakes it, tearing at his hair. Eventually, he calms down.
Tenten is horrified. She jumps back at his outburst, falling on her butt.
"Not sick... I'M fine..." he hisses, "Not S-Sick.."
But she stands her ground, and walks towards him, "Naruto, I don't know what's going on, but you need to lie down. You need to rest. If you don't wake up, I'll carry you to Konoha," she coaxes him to fall onto the forest floor.
She would have done so from the beginning, but his stupid pride–
Naruto's purple eyes snap open, Tenten is momentarily mystified by the elongation of his pupils.
"Tenten-chan... get the fuck out of here... r-RUN."
No. She won't abandon a teammate.
"What's wrong Naruto? Just tell me what's wrong!"
He hisses, hesitates, and growls out, "When I was born, they sealed a demon into me," he laughs gutturally, "A fucking BITCH... wheneVER she GOES intO H-H-He–"
She can hardly believe what she was hearing, she tries placating him, maybe he'll make sense if he keeps talking, "Go on, Naruto, or if you can't, just try and relax. I'm not going to–"
He just growls, spitting a wad of blood from his mouth, scrunching his eyes shut for a moment. He's in serious pain.
What's wrong with him? A demon? That's ludicrous.
Tenten notices his eyes are turning a deeper red, the hand she's grasped is turning rigid– his fingernails are starting to lengthen.
"R-RUN, I-I won't DIE," the cracking of his voice sounds far worse than it sounded a second ago–
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