This is the last chappie folks! And for those of you that read 'Warriors' think of Icefire's injury as Cinderpelt's. In about a month, I'll get the sequel 'Dragon Hurricane' up! Enjoy...
Chapter 13
Only God knows how Icefire got himself into this mess. He was on the night shift, guarding Tsunade, because he had volentired. Volentired! Naruto said that he was going to join him, but had skipped out on him to get ramen with his dad. Sighing and shifting his splinted leg into a more comfortable position, he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. He could hear Tsunade complaining behind the closed door, her voice heavy with alcohol.
Hearing footsteps from down the hall, the dragon stood up and tensed. He relaxed again when Naruto came around the corner holding a cup of instant ramen for the dragon.
"You were supposed to be here two hours ago. Kakashi's rubbing off on you, I just know it." he deadpanned in a dangerous tone.
"Sorry, I went to get ramen with dad and lost track of the time."
"More like you skipped out on me. Do you have any idea how boring it is to be guarding a drunken Hokage? Nothing interesting ever happens." holding the cup of ramen gingerly in his hand, he slurped it down slowly listening to Naruto rant on about this and that.
"And how would you know that the night shift is boring when you're doing guard duty? This is your first time doing it."
"Not true. I was asked to guard the Lord of the Fire country a couple of decades ago. And that time I didn't have someone to talk to. Unless you counted the suit of armor that I was sitting next to." retorted the dragon.
"Ero-senin is supposed to show up tomorrow to bring us on that training trip." the blonde noticed that Icefire had something else on his mind. He followed the dragon's gaze to his splinted leg and frowned. "There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?" he asked softly.
"Baa-chan said that because of how many places my leg had been shattered, I won't be able to walk normaly ever again. I'll have a permanent limp, unless some mirical happens of course." he said, his ice blue eyes half lidded. Sighing, Icefire laid down, his injured leg sticking out awkwardly, and closed is eyes again. Naruto could tell he wan't asleep, normaly when ever Icy wanted to think in peace, he would close his eyes and look asleep. Naruto leaned his back against the wall and sighed. Icy was right, night duty was boring.
Tracing his fingers lightly around the scars that remained from their fight against Sasuke on the dragon's back, Naruto thought about how said dragon's handicap might effect them both. Sure he still has speed and power, but because of the new limp, both were deminished drasticly. Icefire couldn't fly everwhere, he would get tired to fast.
"Isn't there any way for Baa-chan to heal your leg corectly?" he asked softly. He wanted his friend to be happy, and would do any thing to do so.
"Don't you think that she would have tried every thing she could already?" he replied, his voice sour. "She's not a mirical worker, or Kami. Ah, this wound won't make much of a diffrence to me anyway." turning away from the blonde, Icefire grunted and stared blankly at the wall infront of him. Naruto noticed for the first time since he met Icefire that he looked like a cross over between an easern and western dragon. Every bit of him except his black claws was blue, and he had a bit of fur on his neck and back. His tail was about as long as his body and his neck was about half of that. Naruto was surprised that he never noticed that, and raised an eyebrow slightly.
Flicking his golden tail slightly, the blonde stood up and stretched. He silently opened the door to Tsunade's office to see the Gondaime fast asleep, a sake bottle hanging loosly from her hand. Snickering, the blonde crept into the office, taking the sake bottle out of her hand and replacing it with a paper wheight. Taking a scroll out of his pocket, the opened it and scanned it for the right item. When he found it, he bit his thumb and swiped it on the correct summon, and in it's place was a large bottle of soap. Taking all of her sake bottles and dumping their contents out the window, he filled them back up with the soap and put them back in their respective places. Creeping back out the door, he closed it quietly and sat down snickering.
Icefire raised his head and shook it slightly. "You didn't..."
"You better belive it!"
"So, what did you replace her sake with this time?"
"Hand soap."
"You're a dead man. And that means I'm a dead man. Think before you act!" rebuked the dragon with a snort. Standing up, he limped down the hall, saying that he needed some fresh air and to streatch his muscles. He was really going to go home and sleep, but if he told Naruto that, he would hit the dragon, tie him up, and plop him down on hot coals for the rest of the night.
Sprinting the best he could, the ice dragon made it to the Namikaze-Uzumaki compound in record time. Opening the door, the quietly made his way to his room and settled down in the comfortable bed, falling into a deep sleep quickly.
----The Next Morning----
"ICEFIRE!!!! YOU'RE DEAD!!!" Naruto boomed as he stormed into the main house. He had been waiting for the ANBU that guard Tsunade during the day to show up for five hours before that, that way, he could strangle Icefire and not get in trouble. Aformentioned dragon hid under his bed and held completely still. Searching throughout the complex, Naruto spent a good portion of his morning looking for the dragon before he ran into Sasuke. "Have you seen that teme-dragon any where?"
"Uh, no? Why?"
"I'm going to fucking kill him! He told me that he was going to get some fresh air, but I waited for five hours and he never showed up!! I asume that he came back here to get some sleep."
"Why don't you sniff him out?"
Naruto blinked. "Never thought of that." following Icefire's scent trail, the fox boy charged straight to said dragon's room. Icefire meanwhile opened his window and slipped out side, taking to the skies and hiding somewhere in the forest. He was not going to die young! Surprisingly enough, he ran into Ero-senin (I call him that because I can't spell his name) and followed him back to the village.
Naruto stomped back to the den and sank down into a chair, growling in frustration. "When he shows his sorry scaled hide, I'm turning him into a pair of boots." he muttered. Minato walked in at that point in time and snickered. His son would never see this coming. Doing a quick summoning jutsu, he sent Gamakichi around behind the chair that Naruto was sitting in. Gamakichi then leaped onto Naruto's head from behind and nearly gave the fox boy a heart attack.
As Naruto was trying to get Gamakichi off his head, the door bell rang and Sasuke went to answere it. Ero-senin followed him into the den to see Naruto tugging on a poor innocent toad. Icefire meanwhile went the complete opposite direction, into the kitchen.
Explaing the training mission to Naruto—who had gotten Gamakichi off his head—Ero-senin made the blonde fox boy that he wouldn't kill Icefire and had the dragon come back into the den. Naruto emeidiatly tackled the dragon, wrapping his arms around his neck in a choke-hole.
"I thought you said you weren't going to kill me?!" he managed to choke out.
"Hey, I'm part fox now, I find loop-holes. Ero-senin never said that I couldn't mortaly wound you." he growled with an evil look in his eyes.
"If you mortaly wound me, the training mission is going to be delayed until I recover." retorted the dragon, his scales turning purple. Naruto let go of him at this point, and the dragon dropped to the ground gasping for air. "Sweet Jesus air!" he gasped. Glaring at the shorter blonde, he stood up as straight as he could and snorted. "I will be at the south gates if anyone needs me." he said in a sour tone as he limped out the door.
"What's wrong with him?" asked Sasuke.
"Baa-chan said that because of how many places his leg was shattered, he will have a permanent limp. It's going to slow him down and diminish his power drasticly. He must be taking it harder than I thought." Naruto replied. "I'll go pack." with that, he sprinted to his room and quickly threw some clothes, scrolls, and extra wepons in his back pack, racing out the door and to the south gates in only thirty minutes.
Ero-senin arrived about ten minutes later and they started off. Naruto took one last long look at the village when they reached the top of a large hill. 'I'll be home soon.' he thought as he ran to catch up with the dragon and his new sensei.
---oXo---
Though some say that you can get stronger by hard work, others say that you can get stronger by just trying new things. For those of you with handicaps, it doesn't matter what you do, you can be strong in your own way if you just try new things, or just plain try. Icefire found this out. His permanent limp made it hard for him to do things that he wanted to do, but he kept trucking, never giving up and always trying his hardest.
In time, his limp lessened, to where it wasn't as noticeable. It was still there, and you could still see it as he walked and run clearly, but it wasn't as bad as it was at first. Because of his handicap, he became stronger and faster than he had been before, and was able to live normaly again. He doesn't blame Sakura for what she did, she hadn't been paying attention to how much power she put behind her blow when she shattered the dragon's leg, and had been very sorry for it. How ever, Icefire does hold a small grudge. It was her fault that he was limping like he was, and deep down, he wanted to return the favour. The dragon always ignored these feelings, and continued with his training.
--Bloodfire, Leader of the Ryuu Clan
There you go! That's the story. And if your wondering who Bloodfire is, you'll find out some time in the sequel if you decid to read it. Reveiw! Ja!