Naruto lay pinned against the freezing cedar planks of the lobby floor, his vision swimming in a nauseating sea of grey static.
Every frantic beat of his heart drove a white-hot spike through his wrenched right shoulder, radiating down to his numb fingertips. Above him, Anko and the stranger—Idate—remained locked in their shouting match, but their voices reached Naruto as a muffled, distorted echo.
The elderly innkeeper shuffled into his blurred line of sight, clearing his throat with a delicate, polite cough. He stared at the tableau of chaos.
"Uhm... would you mind... changing your dirty clothes first?" the innkeeper asked, his voice trembling slightly. "The other guests are... concerned."
Naruto gritted his teeth, attempting to push his upper body off the floor with his left hand. The room tilted violently. Bile rose in his throat as a wave of intense vertigo crashed over him. His abused thigh muscles trembled, entirely refusing to lock into place.
Sylvie crouched beside him. She dropped his ruined orange jacket onto the floor and gripped his uninjured arm, hauling upward to steady him. Naruto leaned heavily against her, gasping for shallow breaths through his teeth, acutely aware of his own humiliating vulnerability as his body completely failed him.
Kakashi leaned over the second-floor railing, scratching his nose through his mask. "He didn't pack extra."
Anko didn't look up, her finger still leveled directly at Idate. "We," she corrected sharply.
Naruto watched Kakashi side-eye her from the balcony. "We."
Dragging himself down the hall to the washrooms demanded a sheer, agonizing effort that drained the last drops of Naruto's adrenaline.
He hated this—the deep, humiliating helplessness, the way his own nervous system refused his commands. Stripping off the blood-glued mesh shirt peeled raw skin along with the stiffened fabric.
Every shift of his ribs sent a sickening, audible grind through his joint. By the time he managed to pull the borrowed, stiff cotton over his arms, a cold, clammy sweat coated his back, leaving him shivering uncontrollably despite the inn's heat. His chest heaved with shallow, labored breaths, his ribs aching with every frantic intake of air.
Ten minutes later, the group shuffled into the common dining area, transformed by the inn's courtesy loaner wardrobe.
The yukata offered bright, solid colors but lacked any distinct patterns, clearly cut for passing tourists.
Sylvie wore a pink one bordered with black trim, her face securely hidden behind her blue gaiter.
Naruto tugged awkwardly at the collar of his orange and blue-trimmed yukata.
He grimaced as the rough fabric scraped relentlessly against his swollen shoulder. The friction sent fresh waves of nausea rolling through his gut, forcing him to hunch forward to protect the joint.
Idate wore dark blue with light blue trim, looking incredibly off-balance without his training weights.
Anko strode in wearing dark purple with black trim, finally free of her ash-stained trenchcoat.
Kakashi brought up the rear in a grey yukata with black trim, looking entirely too comfortable.
The dining room smelled incredible. The rich, nutty aroma of roasting semolina clashed violently with Naruto's lingering nausea, while the warm, caramelized scent of melting jaggery made his mouth water so fast it physically hurt his jaw.
A sharp kick of cardamom hung over the low wooden table, tangling perfectly with the savory steam of grilled mackerel and miso soup. His stomach let out a violent, hollow cramp, demanding immediate attention and forcing the throbbing pain in his shoulder to take a momentary backseat.
Kakashi drifted to the table, loaded a plate high with fish, dashora pudding, and rice, and immediately turned around.
"I'll eat in the room," Kakashi murmured, vanishing back into the hallway before anyone could demand he remove his mask.
The rest of them sank onto the floor cushions. Idate took a seat next to Anko on one side of the low table. Naruto and Sylvie sat opposite them.
The table groaned under the massive spread. In the center sat a huge wooden bowl of dashora, the dark, golden-brown pudding glistening with ghee and heavily studded with fried cashews.
Naruto slumped forward, resting his good arm heavily on the low wooden table. He just wanted to eat and pass out, desperately wishing the searing burn in his neck would finally stop.
Sylvie hesitated, scanning the room, before pulling her mask down to her chin to take a quick sip of green tea.
Idate blinked, his dark grey eyes widening as he looked across the table. "Oh, you're cute."
PFFT.
Naruto choked on his tea. The sudden, violent spasm in his chest yanked at his injured shoulder, forcing a fine spray of hot liquid from his mouth that hit Idate directly in the face. Naruto hunched over, coughing and clutching his collarbone as a fresh wave of agony radiated from the joint.
Sylvie's eyes went wide. She immediately yanked her gaiter back up over her nose, the tips of her ears burning a bright, furious red.
Anko sighed, leaning back on her hands and staring at the ceiling. "...Idate, she's twelve."
PFFT.
Idate choked on his own spit. A reactive spray of tea and saliva flew across the table, splattering heavily against Naruto's forehead. Naruto just squeezed his eyes shut, too physically exhausted to even lift his hand and wipe it away.
Sylvie yanked her mask down and shot a furious glare at the Jōnin. "ANKO-SENSEI!"
"Alright, alright," Anko said, brutally biting the inside of her cheek to stifle her laughter. She wiped a stray drop of tea from the table and pointed her chopsticks at Idate. "Explain how you got here. And why you look like you crawled out of a swamp."
Idate dragged the sleeve of his borrowed yukata across his dripping face. He clapped his hands together, his expression instantly shifting into dramatic, theatrical terror. "Actually, it's a pretty crazy story..."
He leaned in, lowering his voice into a gravelly whisper. Naruto found himself leaning forward too, the intensity of the older boy's tone temporarily cutting through the dull throb in his back.
"First, my master told me to come to the Forest of Bewilderment to train," Idate whispered. "He said I would get super fast there. 'Go run with the spirits,' he said."
Anko, Sylvie, and Naruto stared blankly at him, their chopsticks hovering halfway to their mouths.
"So," Idate continued, his eyes widening to comical proportions, "I got here this morning, and the first thing I saw was a GIANT FREAKING SPIDER! It had fangs the size of broadswords and eight hairy legs thick as tree trunks! It was drooling this glowing, acidic venom everywhere!"
Naruto slowly looked at Sylvie, then at Anko. He saw the Jōnin's eyes narrow slightly in silent recognition. Kyodaigumo.
"So, I ran as fast as I could," Idate said, gesturing wildly and nearly knocking over an empty tea cup. "I think I lost a couple of pounds in stress-sweat, for real. I didn't stop for three miles. The clicking of those massive legs just kept echoing behind me." He took a deep, shuddering breath. "And then... the scariest part happened."
Naruto leaned in closer, captivated, his pain entirely forgotten for a split second.
"I saw... Bugmen. Literal monsters made of crawling, chittering swarms, stepping straight out of the shadows! They had hives growing out of their actual skin!"
"AHHH!" Naruto shot up, kicking his cushion backward. He ignored the screaming protest of his injured shoulder, shouting like a victim in a B-grade horror movie.
Sylvie pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a long, measured sigh. She grabbed the sash of his orange yukata and yanked him firmly back down into his seat, entirely refusing to feed into the hysteria.
"Ow! Watch where you grab!" Naruto yelped, clutching his ribs as a fresh jolt of pain flared in his joint.
"Sorry! But shh!" Sylvie hissed. Her grip loosened, and her eyes quickly scanned his hunched posture, mapping the tension in his back to ensure she hadn't genuinely exacerbated his injury. "You're being loud again, and he's obviously exaggerating."
"I'm ALWAYS loud, Sylvie!" Naruto retorted, crossing his arms and pouting defensively.
Idate coughed loudly, demanding his audience back. "Anyway... the Bugmen."
Naruto's eyes widened again, and he gave a full-body shiver, imagining a swarm crawling under his skin. "Ugh."
Sylvie rolled her eyes, picking up a piece of fried cashew with perfect composure. "Naruto, he probably means Shino and his dad. Not actually man... bug... uh..." She trailed off, looking to Anko for the right terminology.
"Hybrids," Anko supplied helpfully, leaning over and casually stealing a piece of Naruto's sashimi.
"Yeah, hybrids," Sylvie agreed, chewing slowly.
Idate shook his head vigorously, his spiky hair flopping around his face. "ANYWAY... they were these creepy looking guys, completely surrounded by buzzing swarms and dead bugs. The smell—" Idate gagged dramatically, waving a hand in front of his nose. "Like rotting leaves mixed with sour milk and wet copper. Just everywhere. I kept running."
"Okay," Anko said, chewing her stolen fish. "And then you got here?"
"NO!" Idate slammed his hands flat onto the wooden table, rattling the dishes. "I SAW THE WORST THING OF ALL!"
He pushed his chair back, standing up and throwing his arms wide to exaggerate the sheer size of the horror. "There was a girl... IN A COCOON!"
Naruto gasped loudly, slapping both hands over his cheeks. Sylvie stared at him with deadpan exhaustion, and he hurriedly clamped his hands over his mouth, mumbling a muffled apology through his fingers.
"And there was a boy," Idate continued, his voice dropping into a frantic, conspiratorial whisper, "with completely blank, glowing white eyes! A literal demon! He stood over her, mercilessly stabbing her with a kunai! The squelching sound it made... ugh! Blood spraying everywhere! He probably wanted to suck out her soul to feed his spider queen!" Idate nodded solemnly, treating this insane leap of logic as absolute, undeniable fact.
Anko dropped her face into her hands, her shoulders shaking with silent, exhausted laughter.
"How are you Ibiki's brother?" she groaned into her palms.