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PREPARE FOR LONGEST CHAPTA EVA!!Ok, some pretty dramatic stuff going on, but I will do my best to continue with the story. Once again any suggestions and critiques are greatly appreciated. Also decided to change the format from the stupidity of the last few, hope you like!!

Today was a very, very, very, VERY, bad day. First he had been chased out of the Land of Fire, and then he had been caught by the Mizukage, interrogated, put some poor guy in coma, got the living hell beaten out of him, and he after that it got a little bit better and then a whole lot worse.

He had finally gotten to tell someone about his past since the village was destroyed 3 years ago and he was extremely grateful for there listening to him, but all of the unpleasant memories he recalled gave Hōkkami the chance he wanted and took over. This went like it always did.

When he took over, Patrick’s consciousness was ripped from his body and stuffed into what looked like a very dark room inside of his mind. The first time he was sent there he was confused and tried to escape but failed every time, walking to the edge of the room and somehow ending up where he started again and again.

The second time he just sat there and cried silently until he was given his body back. He knew that they didn’t give his body back to be nice, but because they could only take over his body for a certain amount of time that seemed to grow longer each time they took over.

He was currently inside of the dark room. It was old and smelled musty and covered in old, grey tiles, some cracked or fallen off. Patrick just sat, hugging his knees rocking slowly. He had learned that he could not escape and it would be easier on him if he just stayed where he was and wait to get his body back.

But this time was different because this time Hōkkami and Kitaguma faded into the room, walking out of the darkened corner that he learned to never go near. They approached Patrick, who had his head buried into his knees, breathing slowly.

“What do you want?” Patrick asked uninterested. He used to be afraid of them and he still was, but he also knew them better than anyone else and they didn’t seem like they wanted to torture him this time, so he didn’t particularly care what they wanted. That was until he realized that no one was taking over his body!

“Hey, if you’re here, then who has my body?!” he asked while standing up.

“Relax, young one, your body is fine, it’s just unconscious. Those mist ninja gave us a pretty good chase!” the wolf aura snickered to himself making the other, larger aura smiled stupidly.

“Don’t say ‘us’. You know just as much as I do that you and I don’t like each other.” Patrick sat back down calm now that he knew his body was fine. “Aww, don’t say that Patrick, after all we have been through together-” but he was cut off.

“Ya, and I don’t want to remember what ‘we’ have been through, your nothing but a pain in the ass and I wish you would-” but this time Patrick was the one being cut off by the wolf grabbing him by his throat.

“Know your place, human! We are your superiors and you will treat us as such!” the wolf said as he raised him by his neck so that he was at eye level with him. “Well, what do you say?” he was just teasing him, but if he didn’t respond he would just get worse. “Yes…sir…” Patrick said between breaths that he could muster.

“Good, and don’t forget it!” he threw Patrick down onto the floor. “Now we need to sleep for a while so try to keep yourself alive for the time being, you should be too exhausted and hurt to move anyway.” Hōkkami said as he and Kitaguma walked back into the darkness in the corner of the room laughing, leaving Patrick on the floor gasping for breath.

It was nothing new to him but what he said made him think and worry. They had apparently escaped the Mist ninja but his body was heavily damaged and he didn’t even tell him where he was or how far they traveled, but again, nothing new. He was used to surviving after they had taken his body, gotten it badly beaten, and dumped in a sewage tunnel or a forest full of dangerous animals. In the opposite corner to the dark one, a glimpse of light could be seen which meant that he could return to his body.

“Finally!!” shouted Patrick. He ran toward the light and he let the light wash over him as he jumped into the bright light, letting it surround him.

“He looked pretty beat up, do you think that was enough treatment sensei?” asked a clearly feminine voice that rung in his ears as he slowly opened one eye. The first thing he noticed was that his entire body hurt and that he couldn’t move. Not just because of the pain but something was wrapped around parts of his body restricting his movement.

“Yes, he was hurt pretty badly and he lost a lot of blood but he should make a full recovery if we can get him to the hospital.” said the voice of an older man. Where was he? He felt like he was moving but his legs weren’t moving or he couldn’t feel them moving and his chest and torso were resting on something.

“Are you sure we need to drag this guy all the way back to the leaf?” asked a younger, slightly arrogant boy’s voice. “I mean any hospital should be able to treat him right, so why not drop him off there, he’s probably from around here anyway.”

With his senses slowly returning to him he opened the other eye to look around where he was. The only thing he could see when he first opened his eyes was white. This shocked Patrick because he didn’t sense any snow around here, but with more detail added to his sight he saw that it was just hair, very long white hair, like his only a bit greyer not to mention the person’s hair shot strait up off of his or her head.

Patrick’s was long but fell flat on his head and was more wavy. He looked down and figured out that this man, he guessed, was carrying him on his back with his legs tucked under his arms.

He glanced to his left, not sure if he should let them know he was awake yet, and saw a flash of pink as a girl smacked a blonde kid around his age on the head, and pretty damn hard to!

“Idiot! There are not hospitals around here and even if there were he needs professional treatment, so were taking him back to the leaf whether you like it or not!” She was scary… and mean, but who were they talking about?

Then he noticed something he had seen before, the blond boy he was carrying… HIS BAG!!! While he was escaping the leaf ninja he had lost it, he had to leave it behind, but it contained a lot of important things inside of it! How in the hell did… oh no. nononononono.

He remembered that one of the ninja chasing him through the forest was blonde!! “YES!! HE WAS BADLY BEATEN! WE MUST HURRY TO BACK TO THE VILLAGE TO PRESERVE HIS YOUTHFULL PASSION!!!” Some another really loud kid around his age with a black bowl haircut and a green jumpsuit basically screamed in his ears.

“MORON, HE’S RESTING, BE QUIET!” Yelled the girl just as loudly back at the boy, wait could they be… talking about… CRAP!! THEY CAUGHT HIM, HE HAD TO ESCAPE!! He made a soft moaning sound trying to dismount the middle aged man, an attempt that ended in failure but let everyone around him know that he was awake. Smooth...

The first one to say something was the old man. “Well, well, well, look who’s awake!” said the man, who turned around showing him his face which was partially covered by a mask but otherwise he looked normal.

‘NO, THEY KNOW I’M AWAKE!!’ thought Patrick but all that came out was a long and low moan. “Please set him down sensei, he may need more treatment.” Said the pink haired girl, who he guessed was the medical ninja and the man was her sensei, maybe another medical ninja. Now the two boys started staring at him to see if he was awake.

Patrick’s eyes were shut tightly but he could feel them staring at him, it was creeping him out. The old man set him in an upright position on the side of the road and the girl opened up his robe. He lifted his head a little to see how bad his body was beaten. GOOD GOD! HE WAS A WRECK!!

From what he could see there wasn’t a square inch on him without a cut or bruise, and that’s what wasn’t covered in a bandage!! If these leaf ninja hadn’t found him he might not have made it, even if he had some snow or ice handy. Speaking of which, he needed his bag back, but with his eyes open and his shock appearing on his face, the two staring boys got their answer.

“Hey, he is awake! Hello! What’s your name!” the boys asked in unison, blocking his field of vision, engulfing it in their staring faces. They were creeping him out. “Idiots, give him some air!!” the girl hit both of them again, much harder this time; if this was a regular occurrence they should be dead.

The girl turned her attention back to Patrick, which scared him until he saw her face wasn’t angry but was more worried about him, a look he was getting more in the last week, from pretty girls no less. “Are you in pain? Can you speak? What is your name?” She asked him these questions as Patrick looked over the group.

They seemed like nice people, a little off, but they did apparently want to help him, so he used his arms to sit up further and rub his legs which had fallen asleep from the long travel. “Uhh, no I feel ok, not great but better than if you hadn’t come along. Thank you very much.” He did, in fact, feel pain all over his body but he guessed that was obvious, being covered in cuts and bruises.

“Wow, this already is healing quickly!” the pink haired girl said glancing at the wounds on his stomach. “So what’s your name?” Patrick was caught a bit off guard by her question and looked away from her, making sure to keep his mouth shut so they didn’t see his fangs, those usually freaked people out.

“Come on, how about we tell you our names first, huh?” Well, that did sound fair so he turned his head back to the group. “My name is Sakura, the guy who was carrying you is Kakashi, and those two idiots are Lee and Naruto.”

“HEY! Sakura that isn’t nice!” the two boys said in unison… again. He looked up to the man who just smiled under his mask, and to the two boys who stopped talking to Sakura and turned to him so hear his name.

“M-My n-name is P-Pa-Patrick…” He stuttered quietly, he tried to hide his fangs while he talked not to mention these were leaf ninja, which was another powerful village! “Well Patrick, nice to meet you, we need to take you in for special treatment in the Leaf Village for your wounds.” said Kakashi.

“By the way, how did you get your wounds, they look like battle wounds?” He asked, clearly interested. Patrick panicked quietly again and just looked at his feet not answering. “Not talking right now huh, well that’s ok. We have a long way to walk before we get to the Leaf. We should be there by tomorrow afternoon.” This made the two boys angry as they both puffed up their cheeks and stomped their feet

“BUT WE HAVE TRAINING TO DO!! WE CAN’T WAIT!!” Ok they were DEFINATLY creeping him out now. “Sorry guys, but we have an injured person with us so we can’t travel as fast as we usually do.”

Lee and Naruto both groaned in displeasure and as much as they were weirding him out, he felt bad he was causing them an inconvenience. “I am sorry. You can leave me if you want” Patrick said in a more normal but still quiet tone of voice. This made everyone look at him confusedly for a moment.

“You have already helped me more than you needed to, I should be fine here. I’ve already caused you too much trouble…” Patrick said staring at his feet, expecting them to just pack up and leave him. The first to snap out of confusion was Sakura “You idiots, you made him feel bad!! Say you’re sorry!!” they both froze in fear then bowed

“We are sorry!” they both said very quickly but Kakashi just looked at him as if he was reading an interesting book, of course the types of books he was into would usually include scantily clad women.

Patrick was more confused, now they were not going to leave him? Did they know who he was? Then he remembered something important. “Umm, Naruto… that bag,” Patrick said pointing to the medium sized blue bag with straps that looked old but still usable. “Oh this, I found it in the woods! Nobody was around so I just grabbed it; it looked abandoned anyway so I claimed it as mine!”

He said with a big grin on his face. “Well, you see, it’s actually…my bag.” Naruto’s face was pure shock and the Kakashi raised an eyebrow to him “Naruto, why would you steal from the beaten? Don’t tell me you did this to him?”

Naruto turned to Kakashi quickly with anger in his eyes “I DID NOT STEAL AND I DID NOT BEAT HIM UP!! I JUST FOUND IT!!” But Kakashi just gave nervous laugh “Relax, I was only joking, but to be sure this is your bag, what is inside of it? Just to be sure.”

Patrick thought this was a reasonable request and made a mental list of everything inside of the bag. “There should be a small leather money pouch, a blanket, a piece of bread, some water, and a bag of-” Patrick cut himself off when he was about to say one of the keepsakes he got from his village, still wary of the people he was talking to, he was worried about their intensions. “A bag of what?” Kakashi asked.

“N-Nothing, but there should also be a picture of an elderly man inside, is it still there!” Patrick asked, he wanted to know if the most precious of cargo he had in the bag was ok. “Yeah, that’s about it. This is your bag.” He said a little disappointedly as he gave him the bag back. “Oh, sorry but I had the bread as a snack.”

Naruto said with a small apologetic grin on his face, while Patrick’s was that of shock and fear as he looked in his bag and his bread was gone!!

“AHHH!! That bread was supposed to last me 3 days!!!” He needed that bread to till he got to the next village, what was he supposed to eat?! Worms?! NOT AGAIN!!

“What, 3 days, that was barely a snack, it was only two slices!” Naruto was confused but Sakura was pissed again. “WHY DID YOU EAT SOMETHING THAT DIDN’T BELONG TO YOU!!?” She smacked him but good this time, which Patrick was neutral on, he did eat his only food supply.

“Are you traveling alone?” Kakashi stepped in for Sakura who was pinching Naruto’s ear making tears well up in his eyes and Lee hide behind a tree. “Well, yes and no.” Kakashi sat down next to him. “Who are you with, where are your parents?”

It was a reasonable question and one he was asked often, but he always hated that question. He just looked down at his feet again. “I don’t have any.” “What happened to them?” Asked Kakashi who was now studying the boy’s blank face.

“Their dead.” Kakashi was taken back a bit with the answer he got but stayed quiet. “So you just travel by yourself? What about your village?” another question he hated. “I don’t have one either.” Kakashi guessed that the two things, his parents and his village were related and decided not to go further than he already had, for now.

“Well ok, but you do need treatment and we need to get moving. We can talk more tonight. We won’t make it to the village, but I do know a nice little hot spring on route to the village!” he said a bit loudly getting the attention of the two kids and the one using their faces for boxing practice, having large bumps form on top of their heads.

“YEAHO! A hot spring!!” All three of them were excited, but Patrick had never been to one before, so he didn’t know what it was like. “Ok then, let’s get moving.” Kakashi said as he picked Patrick back up and put him on his back. “Ok, let’s move out!” “YEAH, TO THE HOT SPRING!!” the tree of them yelled.

3 Hours Later

It took them a while to get to the hot spring and they kept cheering for it the whole way there and so far he didn’t see what was so great about it. From the outside it looked like any other building except it was a bit bigger than the average hotel he was used to sneaking into, but what was weird was that it was a lone building in the middle of the forest.

It was made in a traditional style with a wooden frame with a thin paper lining between the frames. The paper was decorated with cherry blossom trees and vine flowers swirling in strange, swirly patterns. It reminded him of the home he had with his sensei, a place he missed more than anything except the old man himself.

He just remained quiet staring at the building, which wasn’t strange to the people, who he learned from talking to them on the way there, were ninja from the leaf, as he didn’t talk much to begin with. The fact that they were leaf ninja made him slightly more wary because he had heard rumors of Kakashi the Copy Ninja from the occasional drunken rant of some older men in a bar he used to wait…

One Year Earlier

A Bar in the Land of Rice Patties

“I swear he dafeated entire armies!” one drunken old man shouted. “He took one nook at therse stone ninas and they terned tail runin’ HA HA HAA, Kakashi the Copy Ninja, he’s a close pers’nal friend o’ mine!”

Patrick had heard it all before from these old dried up geezers who drifted into the bar at two in the morning, looking to keep the ‘party going’ after most of their friends had gone home and the ones that were left smelled of cheep alcohol and moth balls, but the story of a powerful ninja sounded interesting.

“Hey kid, refill my blass will ya!” the smelly geezer shouted, his bad breath was bad enough to peel the paint off the walls.

“Sir, I think that you have had enough, why don’t you-” but before he could calmly ask the old man to go home, he was slapped hard across the face, knocking him down on the floor.

“SHUD UP, BRAT!!” he went from laughing to being in a rage in an instant, a side effect, he learned, of being extremely drunk “I don’t need ta hear shit from some snot nosed little freak, now just fill it up!!”

“Yes sir, sorry sir…” Patrick was defeated, he needed this job to buy food and his boss was not the most understanding of people, so he had to do as the old man demanded and refilled his sake.

“Now that’s more like it! Here’s ur tip!” the old reached into his pocket, making Patrick extremely happy. When was the last time he had gotten a tip, he couldn’t even remember!! But his hopes were dashed as the man just pulled his hand out showing his empty hand and hit him again, this time sending him flying into an old chair breaking it.

“Respect ur elders!! HAHAHAHA!!” him and his drunken friends all laughed hysterically as Patrick slowly rose to his feet rubbing his head. “Oww…” Patrick looked over the damage done to the chair and became even sadder.

This was coming out of his pay, which meant he would need to work free for another 3 days…

Present

Naturally he was a little shocked to realize that this was the famous ninja whom he had heard so much about, but he became calmer the more they talked to him about how cool the leaf was and how he was lucky that they had found him bleeding out next to a tree close to the road.

The whole way their Naruto just talked about all of his awesome training, and about some ramen that was apparently very good by the way he talked about how much he missed it. While Lee mostly just talked about ‘revitalizing the flaming passion of youth within his soul’… whatever that meant, and some guy called Gai who was sounded like was very cool but Kakashi just laughed quietly to himself making him doubt Lee a little, but still he sounded like a nice person.

Sakura just talked about the Hokage, Tsunade, and how skilled a medical ninja she was and that it was good she had found him because she was new to it and needed the practice. This freaked him out a little but she assured him that she was still very skilled… ya…

So they finally made to this hot spring they kept talking about, but he just felt uncomfortable around the building and not just because of the decorations reminding him of his past but because the closer they got to the building the hotter it got.

It was like a sauna!! But when he learned what a hot spring was he wasn’t too surprised, but he was more vulnerable to the heat then he liked to admit and it made him a little nervous.

Kakashi noticed how he was staring at the building strangely and seemed interested “It there something wrong?” Patrick’s back stiffened in fear that they would learn his weakness so quickly but he calmed himself down trying to play it cool. Yeah, cool… he was going to die.

“N-No, I’m ok.” Kakashi still didn’t believe him but he just raised an eyebrow and dropped the subject as they walked inside the building “Ok, if there’s no problem.” They all walked over to the counter and ordered two rooms, one for the four boys and one for Sakura.

After dropping their stuff off in their rooms and getting the ok from Sakura that his wounds had healed amazing quickly and that he was ok to get in the bath. After finding out what they meant by ‘bath’ he was a little weirded out when he learned that he would be in the same place as these people… naked.

But they assured him it was not weird and they made their way to the bath. “Awww, nothing like a nice relaxing bath after a mission.” said Naruto “A mission that you failed by the way.” rebutted Kakashi, making Naruto spin around angrily.

“IT WAN’T MY FAULT, THE WALL SHOWED UP OUT OF NOWHERE AND SHOT KUNAI AND SHURIKIN AT US!!!” this made Patrick stop in his tracks, his suspicions had been confirmed, these were the ninja who had been chasing him after he woke up a few days ago.

He needed an escape plan in case they found out. The Ice Wall Jutsu was one of the many kinds of Ice style he had learned from Sensei, even he was impressed at how fast he had picked them up, learning a complex new jutsu every one or two months!

But he still needed to heal himself before he tried anything drastic. “I can’t believe that you’ve never been to a hot spring Patrick, they’re the best!!” Naruto said with a big grin on his face. Why was he always so happy?

“Umm… Kakashi, do you know if there is any ice around here? It’s uh, kind of hot.” Patrick had his best poker face glued on while Kakashi just stared at him with one eye, but then his stare turned into a smile.

“No, sorry, I don’t think they have any around here. I think they said that their ice machine was out of order.” Kakashi said that like it meant nothing but it meant a whole lot to Patrick. How the hell was he supposed to heal himself fully without any ice!! He just sighed to himself and decided that it was best if he just went along with these guys until he could get some ice, or even just cool water.

“YES!! THE HOT SPRINGS CLEANSE THE PORES AND CLEANSE THE SOUL, STRENTHENING TO POWER OF YOUTH!!” Lee basically screamed at the top of his lungs out of nowhere, scaring the crap out of Patrick but not even fazing the other two. “Ok Patrick, here we are.”

Naruto said as he opened the sliding door, hot air slamming him in the face. After reopening his eyes he looked through the steam and saw a pool filled with almost boiling hot water.

‘What was am I supposed to do?’ thought Patrick until he got the answer as Naruto and Lee both rushed into the water, discarding their towels laughing all the while until they both hit the water and both of their bodies went completely limp sighing in relief. Patrick was utterly horrified.‘HOW IN HELL CAN THEY STAND THAT HEAT?!’

Patrick was freaking out, ready to make a break for it when Kakashi put a reassuring hand on his back. “It’s ok if it’s too hot, just put your feet in, it’s fine.” He had that weird smile where you couldn’t see his mouth on again but it somehow made him a little more relaxed as he and Kakashi walked to the pool.

“Those two are just so hot-headed that they don’t notice how hot the water is.” Patrick laughed a little at his joke, air becoming a little thin the closer he got to the water. Kakashi went to the far end of the pool, close to a small waterfall, and pulled out a book from his towel and started reading while Naruto and Lee started splashing each other.

Patrick found a spot that wasn’t as hot on the far end and put his feet in slowly. It stung and it took him a few tries but he got his feet and eventually most of his legs up to his knees in the pool.

Aside from the heat he could see why they were so excited, it was very calming and he almost fell asleep right there resting with his arms behind his back for support. The gentle ripples of the warm water brushed against his legs. He hadn’t felt this relaxed in years!!

He could stay just like that for the rest of his life, but fate had other plans. While Naruto and Lee were splashing each other, Naruto noticed that Patrick wasn’t among them. “Hey Lee, do you know where Patrick went?”

Lee stopped for a second and looked around, spotting him at the far side of the bath. “He is over there, why does he not get in the spring and fully relax in the spring time of youth?!” Lee shouted more quietly than usual. “I’ll go get him.” said Naruto as he swam and then waded over to the edge of the water.

“Oh, hello Naruto, how is it going?” Patrick said, so relaxed he wasn’t even scared of Naruto as he got up and out of the water and walked up behind him with a mischievous smile stretched across his face. “Come on Patrick, get in the water!” Naruto yelled.

Patrick realized what he was about to do and tried to get out of the way in time but only made it worse by standing up as Naruto pushed him over the edge and sent him flying about two feet into the middle of the pool.

“AHHHHHHHHHHH NARUTO, NO PLEASE!!! AHHHHHHHHH!” said Patrick with a blood-curdling scream as he submerged into the water. “AHHHHHHHHHH!! IT BURNS!! HELP!! AHHHHHHHBBLBLBLB!! BAHH, HELPLBLLLLLB…”

To Naruto and Lee’s shock instead of just being a little annoyed at the playful and slightly rude gesture, he was screaming like someone had stabbed him!! They both for a few seconds just watch Patrick thrash around violently in the hot water, not sure if he was really hurt, until the thrashing suddenly stopped as Patrick ceased his struggling and sank below the surface of the hot water, only a few bubbles reaching the surface before even they eventually stopped.

Realizing after the bubbles stopped coming up that Patrick was drowning, Naruto and Lee dived into the water. After a second of looking they saw Patrick passed out at the bottom of the stone pool. Diving down to the in a bottom of the pool, Lee and Naruto proceeded to half-drag, half-carry Patrick out of the water.

Once he was out of the water, they saw how bad the injuries were. Patrick’s entire body was swollen and a deep shade of red, his breathing labored and shaky and his wounds opening back up. He looked, ironically, like a boiled lobster, but the fact that his breathing was so unstable worried the two boy ninjas.

While Naruto and Lee were freaking out, not knowing what to do, Sakura rushed in wearing a robe with a shirt and a pair of shorts for extra covering. “What happened here?!” she shouted seeing the state Patrick was in.

“I don’t know! All I did was push him into the water and he just started freaking out and then he sank to the bottom and now he looks like THAT!” Naruto shouted, refereeing to Patrick’s puffy, red skin and re-opened wounds.

“Patrick!, Patrick!! What happened, can you breathe!! SAY SOMETHING!!” Sakura shouted as Patrick was slowly reentering consciousness. “S-Sa…kur…a… I…. n-need… i..ice…” Patrick said just barely able to speak though the pain of his entire body feeling like it was on fire, but he was able to tell them what he needed or else he might die, and he didn’t want to die here, from falling in a 5ft pool!!

Sakura just looked confused “Ice, what do you need ice for?!” but his consciousness was already fading again. “Ice...need…ice…” Sakura was extremely worried, his condition was healing faster than was normal, but now all of his old wounds were opened and he was now bleeding and even his bruises were back, what happened and why did he need ice?!

“That’s enough Sakura. I’ll take it from here.” Startled, she turned around to see Kakashi, dressed back in his full ninja outfit, holding a large metal bowl. Sakura reluctantly backed away from Patrick as Kakashi approached him. As he was kneeling down he reached into the container and pulled out a small chunk of ice.

“Where did you get that, I thought the ice machine was broken?” asked Sakura, “It is, but not the one in the manager’s office. I told him it was for an injured person and he was more than happy to give me this whole bowl of it.” Kakashi said, as he opened Patrick’s mouth and placed the shard of frozen water in his mouth.

Once it was in his mouth, Patrick started chewing on the ice crystal, then swallowed, some of the redness went down around his face and he wasted no time in snatching the bowl from Kakashi and shoveling the stuff in like it there was no tomorrow.

“Patrick, take it easy, no one is going to take it away from you!” Kakashi said as he tried to get Patrick to slow down a little but failing miserably as he scarfed it down, barely chewing. It seemed the more he ate, the hungrier for the frozen water he got until he had eaten the entire large bowl full of it!

As he sat back down on the ground, the puffy red skin was shrinking and becoming whiter until he was back to his original skin tone. His wounds that re-opened started to heal themselves again much more quickly this time, visibly shrinking until they were little more than tiny scares and the bruises fading from dark purple back to a pale white in a matter of seconds.

For more than a minute, Naruto, Lee, and Sakura just stared in amazement at what happened to Patrick’s body, that they didn’t even notice that he was staring at them trying to get their attention. “Guys, what’s wrong, are you ok?” Patrick asked, legitimately worried for them as they looked like they had seen a ghost or something.

They all snapped out their trance and shouted “WHY ARE YOU ASKING THAT, WHAT JUST HAPPENED!!”

“AHHHH! I’m sorry!” Patrick said hanging his head low thinking he had made them mad.

“DON’T APOLOGIZE!!” they shouted back annoyed and confused by what had just happened and how Patrick just played it off, all the while Kakashi just kept looking at him with a growing sense of interest…

What is Patrick?
Why is Kakashi so interested in him?
What will he have for dinner later?
When did Kakashi have time to change?
All these questions and more in the next chapter of Patrick’s Story!

LONGEST. CHAPTER. EVER! If you read the whole thing you are a trooper and I commend you as I am just starting out as a writer and still have a lot to learn (like how to format) and stuff. Thank you and, as always, comments and critique is extremely appreciated!!
Naruto and its characters © Masashi Kishimoto

YEAH!! Chapter 4!! Snow day so I got alot done, hope you all like it!!

Description
PREPARE FOR LONGEST CHAPTA EVA!!Ok, some pretty dramatic stuff going on, but I will do my best to continue with the story. Once again any suggestions and critiques are greatly appreciated. Also decided to change the format from the stupidity of the last few, hope you like!!

Today was a very, very, very, VERY, bad day. First he had been chased out of the Land of Fire, and then he had been caught by the Mizukage, interrogated, put some poor guy in coma, got the living hell beaten out of him, and he after that it got a little bit better and then a whole lot worse.

He had finally gotten to tell someone about his past since the village was destroyed 3 years ago and he was extremely grateful for there listening to him, but all of the unpleasant memories he recalled gave Hōkkami the chance he wanted and took over. This went like it always did.

When he took over, Patrick’s consciousness was ripped from his body and stuffed into what looked like a very dark room inside of his mind. The first time he was sent there he was confused and tried to escape but failed every time, walking to the edge of the room and somehow ending up where he started again and again.

The second time he just sat there and cried silently until he was given his body back. He knew that they didn’t give his body back to be nice, but because they could only take over his body for a certain amount of time that seemed to grow longer each time they took over.

He was currently inside of the dark room. It was old and smelled musty and covered in old, grey tiles, some cracked or fallen off. Patrick just sat, hugging his knees rocking slowly. He had learned that he could not escape and it would be easier on him if he just stayed where he was and wait to get his body back.

But this time was different because this time Hōkkami and Kitaguma faded into the room, walking out of the darkened corner that he learned to never go near. They approached Patrick, who had his head buried into his knees, breathing slowly.

“What do you want?” Patrick asked uninterested. He used to be afraid of them and he still was, but he also knew them better than anyone else and they didn’t seem like they wanted to torture him this time, so he didn’t particularly care what they wanted. That was until he realized that no one was taking over his body!

“Hey, if you’re here, then who has my body?!” he asked while standing up.

“Relax, young one, your body is fine, it’s just unconscious. Those mist ninja gave us a pretty good chase!” the wolf aura snickered to himself making the other, larger aura smiled stupidly.

“Don’t say ‘us’. You know just as much as I do that you and I don’t like each other.” Patrick sat back down calm now that he knew his body was fine. “Aww, don’t say that Patrick, after all we have been through together-” but he was cut off.

“Ya, and I don’t want to remember what ‘we’ have been through, your nothing but a pain in the ass and I wish you would-” but this time Patrick was the one being cut off by the wolf grabbing him by his throat.

“Know your place, human! We are your superiors and you will treat us as such!” the wolf said as he raised him by his neck so that he was at eye level with him. “Well, what do you say?” he was just teasing him, but if he didn’t respond he would just get worse. “Yes…sir…” Patrick said between breaths that he could muster.

“Good, and don’t forget it!” he threw Patrick down onto the floor. “Now we need to sleep for a while so try to keep yourself alive for the time being, you should be too exhausted and hurt to move anyway.” Hōkkami said as he and Kitaguma walked back into the darkness in the corner of the room laughing, leaving Patrick on the floor gasping for breath.

It was nothing new to him but what he said made him think and worry. They had apparently escaped the Mist ninja but his body was heavily damaged and he didn’t even tell him where he was or how far they traveled, but again, nothing new. He was used to surviving after they had taken his body, gotten it badly beaten, and dumped in a sewage tunnel or a forest full of dangerous animals. In the opposite corner to the dark one, a glimpse of light could be seen which meant that he could return to his body.

“Finally!!” shouted Patrick. He ran toward the light and he let the light wash over him as he jumped into the bright light, letting it surround him.

“He looked pretty beat up, do you think that was enough treatment sensei?” asked a clearly feminine voice that rung in his ears as he slowly opened one eye. The first thing he noticed was that his entire body hurt and that he couldn’t move. Not just because of the pain but something was wrapped around parts of his body restricting his movement.

“Yes, he was hurt pretty badly and he lost a lot of blood but he should make a full recovery if we can get him to the hospital.” said the voice of an older man. Where was he? He felt like he was moving but his legs weren’t moving or he couldn’t feel them moving and his chest and torso were resting on something.

“Are you sure we need to drag this guy all the way back to the leaf?” asked a younger, slightly arrogant boy’s voice. “I mean any hospital should be able to treat him right, so why not drop him off there, he’s probably from around here anyway.”

With his senses slowly returning to him he opened the other eye to look around where he was. The only thing he could see when he first opened his eyes was white. This shocked Patrick because he didn’t sense any snow around here, but with more detail added to his sight he saw that it was just hair, very long white hair, like his only a bit greyer not to mention the person’s hair shot strait up off of his or her head.

Patrick’s was long but fell flat on his head and was more wavy. He looked down and figured out that this man, he guessed, was carrying him on his back with his legs tucked under his arms.

He glanced to his left, not sure if he should let them know he was awake yet, and saw a flash of pink as a girl smacked a blonde kid around his age on the head, and pretty damn hard to!

“Idiot! There are not hospitals around here and even if there were he needs professional treatment, so were taking him back to the leaf whether you like it or not!” She was scary… and mean, but who were they talking about?

Then he noticed something he had seen before, the blond boy he was carrying… HIS BAG!!! While he was escaping the leaf ninja he had lost it, he had to leave it behind, but it contained a lot of important things inside of it! How in the hell did… oh no. nononononono.

He remembered that one of the ninja chasing him through the forest was blonde!! “YES!! HE WAS BADLY BEATEN! WE MUST HURRY TO BACK TO THE VILLAGE TO PRESERVE HIS YOUTHFULL PASSION!!!” Some another really loud kid around his age with a black bowl haircut and a green jumpsuit basically screamed in his ears.

“MORON, HE’S RESTING, BE QUIET!” Yelled the girl just as loudly back at the boy, wait could they be… talking about… CRAP!! THEY CAUGHT HIM, HE HAD TO ESCAPE!! He made a soft moaning sound trying to dismount the middle aged man, an attempt that ended in failure but let everyone around him know that he was awake. Smooth...

The first one to say something was the old man. “Well, well, well, look who’s awake!” said the man, who turned around showing him his face which was partially covered by a mask but otherwise he looked normal.

‘NO, THEY KNOW I’M AWAKE!!’ thought Patrick but all that came out was a long and low moan. “Please set him down sensei, he may need more treatment.” Said the pink haired girl, who he guessed was the medical ninja and the man was her sensei, maybe another medical ninja. Now the two boys started staring at him to see if he was awake.

Patrick’s eyes were shut tightly but he could feel them staring at him, it was creeping him out. The old man set him in an upright position on the side of the road and the girl opened up his robe. He lifted his head a little to see how bad his body was beaten. GOOD GOD! HE WAS A WRECK!!

From what he could see there wasn’t a square inch on him without a cut or bruise, and that’s what wasn’t covered in a bandage!! If these leaf ninja hadn’t found him he might not have made it, even if he had some snow or ice handy. Speaking of which, he needed his bag back, but with his eyes open and his shock appearing on his face, the two staring boys got their answer.

“Hey, he is awake! Hello! What’s your name!” the boys asked in unison, blocking his field of vision, engulfing it in their staring faces. They were creeping him out. “Idiots, give him some air!!” the girl hit both of them again, much harder this time; if this was a regular occurrence they should be dead.

The girl turned her attention back to Patrick, which scared him until he saw her face wasn’t angry but was more worried about him, a look he was getting more in the last week, from pretty girls no less. “Are you in pain? Can you speak? What is your name?” She asked him these questions as Patrick looked over the group.

They seemed like nice people, a little off, but they did apparently want to help him, so he used his arms to sit up further and rub his legs which had fallen asleep from the long travel. “Uhh, no I feel ok, not great but better than if you hadn’t come along. Thank you very much.” He did, in fact, feel pain all over his body but he guessed that was obvious, being covered in cuts and bruises.

“Wow, this already is healing quickly!” the pink haired girl said glancing at the wounds on his stomach. “So what’s your name?” Patrick was caught a bit off guard by her question and looked away from her, making sure to keep his mouth shut so they didn’t see his fangs, those usually freaked people out.

“Come on, how about we tell you our names first, huh?” Well, that did sound fair so he turned his head back to the group. “My name is Sakura, the guy who was carrying you is Kakashi, and those two idiots are Lee and Naruto.”

“HEY! Sakura that isn’t nice!” the two boys said in unison… again. He looked up to the man who just smiled under his mask, and to the two boys who stopped talking to Sakura and turned to him so hear his name.

“M-My n-name is P-Pa-Patrick…” He stuttered quietly, he tried to hide his fangs while he talked not to mention these were leaf ninja, which was another powerful village! “Well Patrick, nice to meet you, we need to take you in for special treatment in the Leaf Village for your wounds.” said Kakashi.

“By the way, how did you get your wounds, they look like battle wounds?” He asked, clearly interested. Patrick panicked quietly again and just looked at his feet not answering. “Not talking right now huh, well that’s ok. We have a long way to walk before we get to the Leaf. We should be there by tomorrow afternoon.” This made the two boys angry as they both puffed up their cheeks and stomped their feet

“BUT WE HAVE TRAINING TO DO!! WE CAN’T WAIT!!” Ok they were DEFINATLY creeping him out now. “Sorry guys, but we have an injured person with us so we can’t travel as fast as we usually do.”

Lee and Naruto both groaned in displeasure and as much as they were weirding him out, he felt bad he was causing them an inconvenience. “I am sorry. You can leave me if you want” Patrick said in a more normal but still quiet tone of voice. This made everyone look at him confusedly for a moment.

“You have already helped me more than you needed to, I should be fine here. I’ve already caused you too much trouble…” Patrick said staring at his feet, expecting them to just pack up and leave him. The first to snap out of confusion was Sakura “You idiots, you made him feel bad!! Say you’re sorry!!” they both froze in fear then bowed

“We are sorry!” they both said very quickly but Kakashi just looked at him as if he was reading an interesting book, of course the types of books he was into would usually include scantily clad women.

Patrick was more confused, now they were not going to leave him? Did they know who he was? Then he remembered something important. “Umm, Naruto… that bag,” Patrick said pointing to the medium sized blue bag with straps that looked old but still usable. “Oh this, I found it in the woods! Nobody was around so I just grabbed it; it looked abandoned anyway so I claimed it as mine!”

He said with a big grin on his face. “Well, you see, it’s actually…my bag.” Naruto’s face was pure shock and the Kakashi raised an eyebrow to him “Naruto, why would you steal from the beaten? Don’t tell me you did this to him?”

Naruto turned to Kakashi quickly with anger in his eyes “I DID NOT STEAL AND I DID NOT BEAT HIM UP!! I JUST FOUND IT!!” But Kakashi just gave nervous laugh “Relax, I was only joking, but to be sure this is your bag, what is inside of it? Just to be sure.”

Patrick thought this was a reasonable request and made a mental list of everything inside of the bag. “There should be a small leather money pouch, a blanket, a piece of bread, some water, and a bag of-” Patrick cut himself off when he was about to say one of the keepsakes he got from his village, still wary of the people he was talking to, he was worried about their intensions. “A bag of what?” Kakashi asked.

“N-Nothing, but there should also be a picture of an elderly man inside, is it still there!” Patrick asked, he wanted to know if the most precious of cargo he had in the bag was ok. “Yeah, that’s about it. This is your bag.” He said a little disappointedly as he gave him the bag back. “Oh, sorry but I had the bread as a snack.”

Naruto said with a small apologetic grin on his face, while Patrick’s was that of shock and fear as he looked in his bag and his bread was gone!!

“AHHH!! That bread was supposed to last me 3 days!!!” He needed that bread to till he got to the next village, what was he supposed to eat?! Worms?! NOT AGAIN!!

“What, 3 days, that was barely a snack, it was only two slices!” Naruto was confused but Sakura was pissed again. “WHY DID YOU EAT SOMETHING THAT DIDN’T BELONG TO YOU!!?” She smacked him but good this time, which Patrick was neutral on, he did eat his only food supply.

“Are you traveling alone?” Kakashi stepped in for Sakura who was pinching Naruto’s ear making tears well up in his eyes and Lee hide behind a tree. “Well, yes and no.” Kakashi sat down next to him. “Who are you with, where are your parents?”

It was a reasonable question and one he was asked often, but he always hated that question. He just looked down at his feet again. “I don’t have any.” “What happened to them?” Asked Kakashi who was now studying the boy’s blank face.

“Their dead.” Kakashi was taken back a bit with the answer he got but stayed quiet. “So you just travel by yourself? What about your village?” another question he hated. “I don’t have one either.” Kakashi guessed that the two things, his parents and his village were related and decided not to go further than he already had, for now.

“Well ok, but you do need treatment and we need to get moving. We can talk more tonight. We won’t make it to the village, but I do know a nice little hot spring on route to the village!” he said a bit loudly getting the attention of the two kids and the one using their faces for boxing practice, having large bumps form on top of their heads.

“YEAHO! A hot spring!!” All three of them were excited, but Patrick had never been to one before, so he didn’t know what it was like. “Ok then, let’s get moving.” Kakashi said as he picked Patrick back up and put him on his back. “Ok, let’s move out!” “YEAH, TO THE HOT SPRING!!” the tree of them yelled.

3 Hours Later

It took them a while to get to the hot spring and they kept cheering for it the whole way there and so far he didn’t see what was so great about it. From the outside it looked like any other building except it was a bit bigger than the average hotel he was used to sneaking into, but what was weird was that it was a lone building in the middle of the forest.

It was made in a traditional style with a wooden frame with a thin paper lining between the frames. The paper was decorated with cherry blossom trees and vine flowers swirling in strange, swirly patterns. It reminded him of the home he had with his sensei, a place he missed more than anything except the old man himself.

He just remained quiet staring at the building, which wasn’t strange to the people, who he learned from talking to them on the way there, were ninja from the leaf, as he didn’t talk much to begin with. The fact that they were leaf ninja made him slightly more wary because he had heard rumors of Kakashi the Copy Ninja from the occasional drunken rant of some older men in a bar he used to wait…

One Year Earlier

A Bar in the Land of Rice Patties

“I swear he dafeated entire armies!” one drunken old man shouted. “He took one nook at therse stone ninas and they terned tail runin’ HA HA HAA, Kakashi the Copy Ninja, he’s a close pers’nal friend o’ mine!”

Patrick had heard it all before from these old dried up geezers who drifted into the bar at two in the morning, looking to keep the ‘party going’ after most of their friends had gone home and the ones that were left smelled of cheep alcohol and moth balls, but the story of a powerful ninja sounded interesting.

“Hey kid, refill my blass will ya!” the smelly geezer shouted, his bad breath was bad enough to peel the paint off the walls.

“Sir, I think that you have had enough, why don’t you-” but before he could calmly ask the old man to go home, he was slapped hard across the face, knocking him down on the floor.

“SHUD UP, BRAT!!” he went from laughing to being in a rage in an instant, a side effect, he learned, of being extremely drunk “I don’t need ta hear shit from some snot nosed little freak, now just fill it up!!”

“Yes sir, sorry sir…” Patrick was defeated, he needed this job to buy food and his boss was not the most understanding of people, so he had to do as the old man demanded and refilled his sake.

“Now that’s more like it! Here’s ur tip!” the old reached into his pocket, making Patrick extremely happy. When was the last time he had gotten a tip, he couldn’t even remember!! But his hopes were dashed as the man just pulled his hand out showing his empty hand and hit him again, this time sending him flying into an old chair breaking it.

“Respect ur elders!! HAHAHAHA!!” him and his drunken friends all laughed hysterically as Patrick slowly rose to his feet rubbing his head. “Oww…” Patrick looked over the damage done to the chair and became even sadder.

This was coming out of his pay, which meant he would need to work free for another 3 days…

Present

Naturally he was a little shocked to realize that this was the famous ninja whom he had heard so much about, but he became calmer the more they talked to him about how cool the leaf was and how he was lucky that they had found him bleeding out next to a tree close to the road.

The whole way their Naruto just talked about all of his awesome training, and about some ramen that was apparently very good by the way he talked about how much he missed it. While Lee mostly just talked about ‘revitalizing the flaming passion of youth within his soul’… whatever that meant, and some guy called Gai who was sounded like was very cool but Kakashi just laughed quietly to himself making him doubt Lee a little, but still he sounded like a nice person.

Sakura just talked about the Hokage, Tsunade, and how skilled a medical ninja she was and that it was good she had found him because she was new to it and needed the practice. This freaked him out a little but she assured him that she was still very skilled… ya…

So they finally made to this hot spring they kept talking about, but he just felt uncomfortable around the building and not just because of the decorations reminding him of his past but because the closer they got to the building the hotter it got.

It was like a sauna!! But when he learned what a hot spring was he wasn’t too surprised, but he was more vulnerable to the heat then he liked to admit and it made him a little nervous.

Kakashi noticed how he was staring at the building strangely and seemed interested “It there something wrong?” Patrick’s back stiffened in fear that they would learn his weakness so quickly but he calmed himself down trying to play it cool. Yeah, cool… he was going to die.

“N-No, I’m ok.” Kakashi still didn’t believe him but he just raised an eyebrow and dropped the subject as they walked inside the building “Ok, if there’s no problem.” They all walked over to the counter and ordered two rooms, one for the four boys and one for Sakura.

After dropping their stuff off in their rooms and getting the ok from Sakura that his wounds had healed amazing quickly and that he was ok to get in the bath. After finding out what they meant by ‘bath’ he was a little weirded out when he learned that he would be in the same place as these people… naked.

But they assured him it was not weird and they made their way to the bath. “Awww, nothing like a nice relaxing bath after a mission.” said Naruto “A mission that you failed by the way.” rebutted Kakashi, making Naruto spin around angrily.

“IT WAN’T MY FAULT, THE WALL SHOWED UP OUT OF NOWHERE AND SHOT KUNAI AND SHURIKIN AT US!!!” this made Patrick stop in his tracks, his suspicions had been confirmed, these were the ninja who had been chasing him after he woke up a few days ago.

He needed an escape plan in case they found out. The Ice Wall Jutsu was one of the many kinds of Ice style he had learned from Sensei, even he was impressed at how fast he had picked them up, learning a complex new jutsu every one or two months!

But he still needed to heal himself before he tried anything drastic. “I can’t believe that you’ve never been to a hot spring Patrick, they’re the best!!” Naruto said with a big grin on his face. Why was he always so happy?

“Umm… Kakashi, do you know if there is any ice around here? It’s uh, kind of hot.” Patrick had his best poker face glued on while Kakashi just stared at him with one eye, but then his stare turned into a smile.

“No, sorry, I don’t think they have any around here. I think they said that their ice machine was out of order.” Kakashi said that like it meant nothing but it meant a whole lot to Patrick. How the hell was he supposed to heal himself fully without any ice!! He just sighed to himself and decided that it was best if he just went along with these guys until he could get some ice, or even just cool water.

“YES!! THE HOT SPRINGS CLEANSE THE PORES AND CLEANSE THE SOUL, STRENTHENING TO POWER OF YOUTH!!” Lee basically screamed at the top of his lungs out of nowhere, scaring the crap out of Patrick but not even fazing the other two. “Ok Patrick, here we are.”

Naruto said as he opened the sliding door, hot air slamming him in the face. After reopening his eyes he looked through the steam and saw a pool filled with almost boiling hot water.

‘What was am I supposed to do?’ thought Patrick until he got the answer as Naruto and Lee both rushed into the water, discarding their towels laughing all the while until they both hit the water and both of their bodies went completely limp sighing in relief. Patrick was utterly horrified.‘HOW IN HELL CAN THEY STAND THAT HEAT?!’

Patrick was freaking out, ready to make a break for it when Kakashi put a reassuring hand on his back. “It’s ok if it’s too hot, just put your feet in, it’s fine.” He had that weird smile where you couldn’t see his mouth on again but it somehow made him a little more relaxed as he and Kakashi walked to the pool.

“Those two are just so hot-headed that they don’t notice how hot the water is.” Patrick laughed a little at his joke, air becoming a little thin the closer he got to the water. Kakashi went to the far end of the pool, close to a small waterfall, and pulled out a book from his towel and started reading while Naruto and Lee started splashing each other.

Patrick found a spot that wasn’t as hot on the far end and put his feet in slowly. It stung and it took him a few tries but he got his feet and eventually most of his legs up to his knees in the pool.

Aside from the heat he could see why they were so excited, it was very calming and he almost fell asleep right there resting with his arms behind his back for support. The gentle ripples of the warm water brushed against his legs. He hadn’t felt this relaxed in years!!

He could stay just like that for the rest of his life, but fate had other plans. While Naruto and Lee were splashing each other, Naruto noticed that Patrick wasn’t among them. “Hey Lee, do you know where Patrick went?”

Lee stopped for a second and looked around, spotting him at the far side of the bath. “He is over there, why does he not get in the spring and fully relax in the spring time of youth?!” Lee shouted more quietly than usual. “I’ll go get him.” said Naruto as he swam and then waded over to the edge of the water.

“Oh, hello Naruto, how is it going?” Patrick said, so relaxed he wasn’t even scared of Naruto as he got up and out of the water and walked up behind him with a mischievous smile stretched across his face. “Come on Patrick, get in the water!” Naruto yelled.

Patrick realized what he was about to do and tried to get out of the way in time but only made it worse by standing up as Naruto pushed him over the edge and sent him flying about two feet into the middle of the pool.

“AHHHHHHHHHHH NARUTO, NO PLEASE!!! AHHHHHHHHH!” said Patrick with a blood-curdling scream as he submerged into the water. “AHHHHHHHHHH!! IT BURNS!! HELP!! AHHHHHHHBBLBLBLB!! BAHH, HELPLBLLLLLB…”

To Naruto and Lee’s shock instead of just being a little annoyed at the playful and slightly rude gesture, he was screaming like someone had stabbed him!! They both for a few seconds just watch Patrick thrash around violently in the hot water, not sure if he was really hurt, until the thrashing suddenly stopped as Patrick ceased his struggling and sank below the surface of the hot water, only a few bubbles reaching the surface before even they eventually stopped.

Realizing after the bubbles stopped coming up that Patrick was drowning, Naruto and Lee dived into the water. After a second of looking they saw Patrick passed out at the bottom of the stone pool. Diving down to the in a bottom of the pool, Lee and Naruto proceeded to half-drag, half-carry Patrick out of the water.

Once he was out of the water, they saw how bad the injuries were. Patrick’s entire body was swollen and a deep shade of red, his breathing labored and shaky and his wounds opening back up. He looked, ironically, like a boiled lobster, but the fact that his breathing was so unstable worried the two boy ninjas.

While Naruto and Lee were freaking out, not knowing what to do, Sakura rushed in wearing a robe with a shirt and a pair of shorts for extra covering. “What happened here?!” she shouted seeing the state Patrick was in.

“I don’t know! All I did was push him into the water and he just started freaking out and then he sank to the bottom and now he looks like THAT!” Naruto shouted, refereeing to Patrick’s puffy, red skin and re-opened wounds.

“Patrick!, Patrick!! What happened, can you breathe!! SAY SOMETHING!!” Sakura shouted as Patrick was slowly reentering consciousness. “S-Sa…kur…a… I…. n-need… i..ice…” Patrick said just barely able to speak though the pain of his entire body feeling like it was on fire, but he was able to tell them what he needed or else he might die, and he didn’t want to die here, from falling in a 5ft pool!!

Sakura just looked confused “Ice, what do you need ice for?!” but his consciousness was already fading again. “Ice...need…ice…” Sakura was extremely worried, his condition was healing faster than was normal, but now all of his old wounds were opened and he was now bleeding and even his bruises were back, what happened and why did he need ice?!

“That’s enough Sakura. I’ll take it from here.” Startled, she turned around to see Kakashi, dressed back in his full ninja outfit, holding a large metal bowl. Sakura reluctantly backed away from Patrick as Kakashi approached him. As he was kneeling down he reached into the container and pulled out a small chunk of ice.

“Where did you get that, I thought the ice machine was broken?” asked Sakura, “It is, but not the one in the manager’s office. I told him it was for an injured person and he was more than happy to give me this whole bowl of it.” Kakashi said, as he opened Patrick’s mouth and placed the shard of frozen water in his mouth.

Once it was in his mouth, Patrick started chewing on the ice crystal, then swallowed, some of the redness went down around his face and he wasted no time in snatching the bowl from Kakashi and shoveling the stuff in like it there was no tomorrow.

“Patrick, take it easy, no one is going to take it away from you!” Kakashi said as he tried to get Patrick to slow down a little but failing miserably as he scarfed it down, barely chewing. It seemed the more he ate, the hungrier for the frozen water he got until he had eaten the entire large bowl full of it!

As he sat back down on the ground, the puffy red skin was shrinking and becoming whiter until he was back to his original skin tone. His wounds that re-opened started to heal themselves again much more quickly this time, visibly shrinking until they were little more than tiny scares and the bruises fading from dark purple back to a pale white in a matter of seconds.

For more than a minute, Naruto, Lee, and Sakura just stared in amazement at what happened to Patrick’s body, that they didn’t even notice that he was staring at them trying to get their attention. “Guys, what’s wrong, are you ok?” Patrick asked, legitimately worried for them as they looked like they had seen a ghost or something.

They all snapped out their trance and shouted “WHY ARE YOU ASKING THAT, WHAT JUST HAPPENED!!”

“AHHHH! I’m sorry!” Patrick said hanging his head low thinking he had made them mad.

“DON’T APOLOGIZE!!” they shouted back annoyed and confused by what had just happened and how Patrick just played it off, all the while Kakashi just kept looking at him with a growing sense of interest…

What is Patrick?
Why is Kakashi so interested in him?
What will he have for dinner later?
When did Kakashi have time to change?
All these questions and more in the next chapter of Patrick’s Story!

LONGEST. CHAPTER. EVER! If you read the whole thing you are a trooper and I commend you as I am just starting out as a writer and still have a lot to learn (like how to format) and stuff. Thank you and, as always, comments and critique is extremely appreciated!!
Naruto and its characters © Masashi Kishimoto

YEAH!! Chapter 4!! Snow day so I got alot done, hope you all like it!!