-The Extinguished Sun- Naruto Fanfiction

Chapter 14

3rd POV

Inari glanced up curiously at his grandfather, Tazuna. His grandpa's expression was somber and serious, his calloused hands shakily holding a letter addressed to them.

"Inari...." Said boy's brows furrowed, his dark hair falling in his eyes, annoying him slightly, but not enough for him to bother brushing the untamed locks aside.

Inari had grown over the years. The baby fat from his childhood had been replaced with slight muscles, and he had grown, the tip of his head now reaching Tazuna's shoulders. Sweat decorated his forehead and soaked noticeably in his dark blue T-shirt.

Inari gently set down the wood and dusted his own calloused palms in his tan pants. He took a rag and dabbed at his face to wipe away the dirt and sweat.

"Yeah...?" Tazuna averted his similarly dark eyes back to the letter and reread it, his worn wrinkled face conflicted and distraught. He sighed and roughly ran his hand through his greying hair and look back at his grandson.

"Naruto's teammate, Sakura, sent a letter..." Inari recalled Naruto's teammate. She was... Interesting to say the least. Her bright pink hair and piercing green eyes, along with her violent tendencies, were hard to forget. He rubbed at his jaw, a past pain aching at the reminder of the she-devil and shivered. He'd never insult her again...

He shook his head and took the letter Tazuna offered, curiously glancing at the neat script, though he could see the shakiness of the letters. He quickly read the letter, nearly dropping it in shock after the first few paragraphs. He glanced back in alarm at his grandfather, his gaze demanding.

"Continue reading.." Inari did so begrudgingly, now reading the words carefully and hesitantly.

'Tazuna-san,

It's been awhile. I know it's strange that I'm adressing you, and not Naruto, but...' There were wet blotches in the simple white paper. '...he's not able to at the moment.' You could see that she stopped here for a moment to prepare herself. 'I'm sure that this isn't allowed, but, you and Inari-kun deserve to know.

A few months ago, Naruto came into the hospital. I was working at the time and was extremely surprised, since he almost never goes to the hospital willingly.

He complained of some... phantom pain in his chest, something that had been occurring for a while now. He said that it usually happened after a rigorous training session, or a tough mission, and explained that it was getting worse recently and was sometimes occurring without exercise and wondered if he was suffering from chakra exhaustion.

This made me curious, since usually, he could just eat a few bowls of ramen or take a quick nap and feel perfectly fine, but he explained that the aches would last hours, sometimes even days, afterwards.

I told him to follow me, and I took a sample of his blood, wondering if by some off chance he was sick or poisoned. But I figured that that couldn't be it, since the Kyuubi would've combated the illness or poison by then. So perhaps I did it by curiosity, but...' She hesitated more, her words slightly smudged by her tears.'...when I discovered what was wrong, I couldn't believe it.

I checked tens, no, dozens of times, each with the same results. I even asked Hokage-sama to double check and she came to the same conclusion.

Naruto was dying. He--' the words were almost illegible, but he pushed through it, his eyes blurring with unshed tears. 'had a terminal illness. We couldn't--can't--do anything about it.

Kakashi-sensei has only visited Naruto but one time--now, don't blame him. He had a mental breakdown the last time he had visited--and Sasuke has been even more reclusive than normal.