It didn't take very long for Haruno Sakura to acknowledge the fact she was alive. The pain was enough of reminder to that. That and she could feel her chakra weakly pulsing along with her heartbeat.
Sakura desperately wanted to open her eyes, but she couldn't. Her eyelids were too heavy. Her body was too tired. She was in too much pain.
Her mind was all over the place and her mind could hardly string her thoughts together. It was understandable. She shouldn't even be alive, let alone awake. Conscious.
She could feel a tingling warmth on her wounds, and she could feel the radiating heat from whatever was…healing her?
Sakura's brow furrowed as she coaxed her healing chakra along her pathways, down her side until it pooled around the independent energy coating her wounds. With a mental hiss, she flinched back as her chakra was burned away by the healing chakra. Tensed, Sakura inspected her chakra pathways, frowning at the small, insignificant burns that peppered her tenketsu.
It didn't seem malicious, just…caustic. Curious, Sakura blindly groped down her side toward the stab wound in her stomach…
"I wouldn't do that."
"Wha-!" Sakura started, half into a sitting position before she registered the debilitating waves of pain that radiated from her back and side.
"Whoa!" A pair of strong arms wrapped around her shoulders, gently resting her shoulders back on the fluffy pillows that propped her up into a less painful position. "You just woke up, you shouldn't be moving around like that."
Blond, was the first thing that came to mind. Sakura blinked as she took in the vivid color of the young man's blond hair, falling in a bright mane down to the top of his shoulders. Two distinct locks of hair fell in front of his ears, framing a tanned face. By his features, she wouldn't guess him to be any older than her, barely nineteen years in age.
If not for his hair and lack of red clan tattoos, Sakura would guess he was an Inuzuka. His canines were elongated, gathering into points that looked wickedly sharp. Six dark scars posed as whiskers on his face, and his eyes, though blue, were slit like a wild animal.
"Who are you?" Sakura asked, shifting in the comfortable bed. After all, she had to be ready to react if he was an enemy.
"Naruto Uzumaki." He said, flashing his canine teeth in a grin. "What's yours?"
"Sakura Haruno." Sakura replied easily, subtly checking for any sign of allegiance in the Spartan room, bare of anything except her futon.
"Ah, I've heard of you!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly, seemingly unaware of the sudden tensing of Sakura's shoulders. "You're that medic-nin! The one who studied under Obaa-chan!"
Sakura twitched a tick working above her eyebrow. "O…baa-chan…?" Gritting her teeth, Sakura forced her reflexive punch instinct down, reminding herself that Naruto was a stranger, and not an annoying teammate who deserved a super powered punch to the noggin.
"I've seen her! The saggy one, right?"
"BAKA!" Sakura yelled, spinning in her seat and lodging a punch into the blonds' skull, sending him catapulting through the paper thin walls into the next room over. "Treat Tsunade-shishou with some respect!"
Even as she finished her scolding, Sakura knew that was a bad idea. Her body was ripped through by another wave of pain that almost made her bite through her tongue.
Immediately , the Naruto was at her side, all signs of her punch invisible on his face.
"Open your mouth." He commanded, noticing the trace of blood from her bit tongue on her lips. At her hesitance, he grabbed her chin with calloused, worn hands and pried open her mouth, ignoring her struggles. "I don't want you to choke."
With a simple brush of a finger, Sakura could literally feel the teeth marks on her tongue disappear, leaving only the bloody residue in her mouth.
"What happened to the Oto-nin?" Sakura asked weakly, whatever technique Naruto did had sapped some of her already low energy.
Naruto's eyes narrowed and she swore they flashed red for a second. "She won't be bothering anyone anymore. That shrine was particularly important to me."
Sakura blinked, confused by his anger over the overgrown, untended shrine. "We're you the priest in charge of it?" Though, looking at his current clothing; a loose black hakama with a red haori pooling around his seated form, she doubted it.
Naruto's eyes widened in surprise for a second, confused, before he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and grinned. "Nah," he said, chuckling. "My father met my mother there." He said, a slight blush dusting his cheeks.
Sakura winced as Inner Sakura let out a fangirly screech. So kawaiiiii!
"Also, the shrine marked the edge of my territory." At this point, Sakura definitely noticed the feral attributes of her host as his eyes flashed red and he bared his teeth. "I was patrolling my borders when I noticed you both trespassing."
Sakura blinked and nodded, settling back on her pillows. And even in her sleepy, pain filled mind, she noticed something out of place.
"Wait, your land?" she demanded. "There are no reports of any feudal lords of any sort in this area! In fact, this has been the quietest part of the Konoha-Sound border since the war started!"
Naruto smirked, as if he were enjoying his own private joke. "This isn't a state recognized officially by the daimyos of the elemental countries," Naruto stood and went to the door, and looked over his shoulder. "If you asked any of those fat lords who like to lounge around in their fancy palaces, they wouldn't know my name. But hey," he shrugged. "I'm not a feudal lord."
"Than what are you?"
This time Sakura actually gasped as she witnessed Naruto's iris change to a bloody red, his whiskers deepen to a thick black, and his atypical canines lengthened to canine proportions.
