Picking up the Pieces Chapter 1: Broken, a naruto fanfic

Picking up the Pieces

Summary: Sometimes things need to be broken before they can be fixed. After the disastrous mission to the Valley of the End, Konoha's Rookie Nine watch the lives they once knew go up in flames. But from the ashes, a new, united generation is born.

Disclaimer: As always, I do not own the characters of Naruto.

I'm finally back! This story has been sitting in my hard drive collecting dust for months, and I decided it was finally time to start getting it ready for readers. Please be patient, as the updates are going to be slow due to my class load this semester. As always, I hope you enjoy the story, and look forward to hearing what you think!

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Shikamaru would never forget the look on that face when he opened the door. That image would remain scarred into his memory for all time, of a living person who was dead inside. There was so much that person represented: he was always cheerful, persistent, and determined. But now, sitting on that hospital bed, clutching a scratched Konoha headband, his face showed no energy, no hope: only weariness. Shikamaru had never realized how much strength he drew from the other boy's constant enthusiasm until it was gone.

"So, you're awake after all." His voice finally broke out of his throat, causing him to jump slightly in surprise. Slowly, the figure on the bed turned, troubled eyes meeting his own.

Shikamaru's insides turned to ice on the spot. There, trapped in those cerulean depths, lay a tortured soul. The pain emanating from that single look almost took his own breath away, and the only reason he could comprehend it was because of the ordeal he himself had just been through.

"Shikamaru!" And just like that, the spell was broken. A bright, sunny smile was pasted securely across a bandaged face, and although the eyes couldn't quite hide the sadness completely away like usual, they managed to swallow the agony that had just been reflected in their depths.

The village's laziest genius returned the smile with enthusiasm, entering the hospital room and coming to sit on Uzumaki Naruto's bed. "They said you were in pretty bad shape when Kakashi brought you back, but you look ok. Well, you know, except for being wrapped head to foot with bandages." He offered a smirk, bringing his elbows to his knees and beginning to twirl his fingers slowly, a nervous habit he had recently acquired.

Naruto gave him a toothy grin that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Yeah, I think Shizune overreacted a little," he raised one bandaged arm, gesturing to the excessive amount of bandages, and then shrugged. "Anyway, I'm a fast healer. What happened to your finger?" He gestured with his chin to the other boy's index finger, which had been carefully splinted yesterday.

Shikamaru glanced down at his injured appendage and then back to Naruto, not allowing the disbelief to show on his face. How could the blond, who sat before him wrapped up like a mummy, be concerned about him and his stupid finger? "It's nothing," he spoke softly, guilt rising like bile in his throat.

He had been the leader. He had been responsible for all of their lives. And yet, here he was, sitting among all of his critically injured friends with the most menial and minor wound of all. His comrades had been stabbed, poisoned, and beaten within an inch of their lives, and what had he suffered? Nothing but one broken finger.

Naruto nodded, noticing that it was a sore subject and letting it go…for now. Shikamaru was a little surprised by the normally hyper boy's silence, and noted for the first time how perceptive the blond could be sometimes.

"Everyone's safe," he mentioned offhandedly, and for the first time since he entered the room, a sincere, small smile spread across the other boy's face.

"I'm glad," Naruto choked out softly, and Shikamaru noted the genuine relief in the blonde's voice that almost rivaled his own. He studied the other boy tentatively, desperately wishing he could avoid the next question but knowing it was impossible.

"…And what about Sasuke?"

The smile was immediately gone, and once again, Naruto's eyes took on a haunted look. Shikamaru could almost feel the boy's pain and anguish as it radiated from his hunched form, swallowing everything in the room. Bandaged hands gripped the bed sheets as if to anchor a drowning soul.

"Yeah," he whispered softly, his voice heartbreaking, "he got away."

Shikamaru had never heard three words that said so much, that carried so much meaning and emotion. His heart constricted painfully, and he sat at a complete loss for words, wishing so badly that he could offer some kind of comfort but knowing he never could.

Fortunately, he was saved as the room's doorknob slowly turned, and two figures slowly entered the room. Glancing back to Naruto, his breath caught in his throat at the expression on the blonde's face. Those sad, agonized eyes were back.

"S-Sakura-chan!"

After one look at the pink haired kunoichi, Shikamaru knew that she knew. Her eyes carried that same haunted look Naruto's did, and the smile she offered them both failed to reach her emerald eyes. "Naruto," she whispered, shocked not only by his battered state, but by the look on his face that had disturbed Shikamaru so deeply only minutes before.

"I heard that you were severely wounded," Tsunade bustled into the room after her, trying her best to diffuse some of the tension, "but you look fine." She smiled at Naruto, her eyes filled with relief.

The blonde's hands wound tighter around his sheets, his eyes suddenly unable to meet the girl's face as pain and guilt overtook him. "I'm sorry…Sakura-chan…"

Seeing her teammate's pain, the kunoichi hurriedly plastered a smile across her face, but the forced cheerfulness almost hurt him more than the tears they all knew she was holding back. "Why are you apologizing?" She asked dismissively, rushing over to the window and pulling at the drapes almost desperately. The constant stream of babble continued to pour from her lips. "As usual, you probably overdid it, right? Jeez, you look like a mummy."

The pain in Naruto's eyes only seemed to deepen. Staring at some imaginary point on his blanket, his mind trapped in some horrific memory, he spoke softly, as if in a trance. "I'm sorry…I…"

But Sakura was determined to cut him off. "Hey, since the weather is nice, let's open the curtains." she spoke louder than necessary, her voice carrying an almost hysterical quality to it. However, as she hurriedly threw the windows open and felt the cool breeze on her face, the girl seemed to finally deflate and go silent.

And suddenly Naruto was sitting straight up in the bed, his eyes finally meeting Sakura's and his voice desperate and pleading, near the point of tears. "Sakura-chan…I…I will definitely keep my promise! I told you that it was the promise of a lifetime!"

The kunoichi had her back to him, looking quietly out the window as his words washed over her. "It's alright, Naruto…" she spoke quietly, despair filling her voice.

As he watched Naruto's face fall once again, Shikamaru felt anger and frustration rising in his chest. She was trying to protect him, to forgive him, but all Sakura was really doing was hurting him more. "Sakura!" He warned sharply, emotion overwhelming his usually logical brain, "He's trying to-"

But this time it was Naruto who interrupted. "Always," he whispered, eyes closed, and for a moment the chuunin thought he had slipped off into his memories, speaking to someone who wasn't there. However, azure eyes suddenly snapped open, piercing everyone in the room with a shadow of their old fiery determination. "Like I said, I won't go back on my word! Because that's my way of the ninja!"

Shikamaru felt a small smile tug at his lips as his friend began to finally sound like himself again. Glancing across the room, he saw that Tsunade was watching the boy with a similar expression, and in the middle of the room, Sakura had finally allowed her poorly constructed mask to crumble.

The pink haired shinobi stared at the blond, seeming to cling to his words and the hope they were offering her. Hope that she so desperately needed, and depended on Naruto for. As they stared silently at one another, gazes locking in some type of wordless communication, Shikamaru suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if he was intruding on what should be a private moment for these two teammates. However, Sakura suddenly broke the gaze, blinking slowly and smiling tentatively at Naruto, who smiled encouragingly back.

Nodding, the girl turned and walked to the door. Looking back over her shoulder, she spoke softly. "I'm sorry, Naruto. I had to make you wait awhile, but…next time, we'll do it together!" And with that, she was gone.

There was a minute of silence as Naruto sat on the bed, staring at the empty doorway. A small smile quirked the corner of his lips upwards as his thumb ran thoughtfully over the groove in Sasuke's abandoned headband. Finally, he shook himself from his reverie and glanced up at his two remaining visitors.

Motioning to the small bottle in Tsunade's hands the blond grinned. "That vile smelling concoction had better not be fore me, Tsunade-baa-chan," he joked weakly.

The Fifth shook her head, a thin, endearing smile on her lips. "Just trying to glue the pieces back together," she quipped, coming to sit on the other side of his bed. "Your dressings need to be changed anyway, and this ointment will help you heal faster."

"I already heal fast enough," the blond whined loudly, half-heartedly batting at her hands as they began to fuss with his bandages, "I don't need any help. I'm fine." Glancing to his left, he noticed Shikamaru getting up to leave. "You're fine," he offered to the chuunin, and his eyes were almost pleading. "Really, I don't mind. Besides, it'd be nice to have some company…unless you need to visit Choji or something."

Shikamaru shook his head, sitting back down in a chair near the other boy's bed. "Choji isn't allowed to have visitors yet," he explained, getting comfortable, "I can stay for awhile."

Naruto nodded, relief on his face. The thought of spending hours with nothing but memories of betrayal and guilt was something he simply could not bare right now.

The next twenty minutes were relatively quiet, as Shikamaru watched Tsunade remove soiled bandage after bandage, replacing them with clean ones after rubbing Naruto's wounds with salve. Sometimes her soft touches were received with quiet hisses of pain, but when she glancing questioningly at her patient he would just shake his head and tell her to get on with it.

Shikamaru was shocked at the extent of the blonde's injuries, and after the first three fatally serious wounds were re-bandaged, he was beginning to stare at Naruto in awe. How could he possibly be sitting up and talking in this state? He should be unconscious and in horrible pain.

At that moment, Tsunade finished removing the dressings from the blonde's chest, and Shikamaru heard her sudden intake of breath match his own. Naruto's entire chest was a mass of dark purple bruises and angry red burns. However, it was the gaping, circular wound to the right of his heart that had caused the chuunin's eyes to widen in disbelief.

Although it was obvious that this wound had been healing for quite some time, the skin was still broken deeply in some places, and from the looks of it, Naruto's chest had been punctured clean through. His right lung must have been impaled, and several ribs would have been snapped in half. But what really bothered Shikamaru was that Naruto hadn't shown any sign of this wound at the beginning of their mission, and based on how much it had healed, it was impossible that he had received it during his battle with Sasuke…wasn't it?

'Christ, he should be dead.'

It seemed that Tsunade's attention had also been fixated onto this wound. "Naruto, wha-?" she began, her hand reaching to bathe the area in green healing chakra, but the younger boy caught her wrist and cut her off.

"It's from chidori," he said softly, his suddenly dead, emotionless eyes staring straight ahead. "My body normally would have finished healing it by now, but there are too many other injuries to focus on. I'll be fine. Leave it."

But despite his assurances, Tsunade's eyes had narrowed, a furious fire burning in their depths. "Do you mean to tell me," she ground out in a dangerously low tone, "that Uchiha landed a direct chidori attack on you?"

"Please," blue eyes closed painfully, "just leave it." This time, his voice was barely over a whisper.

Tsunade just stared at him for a moment, tears threatening to spill from her eyes. Finally, she began wrapping his battered chest in new bandages, leaving the wound untouched as he requested.

"Naruto, you should be dead," she finally said softly, her voice tightening with emotion.

Shikamaru resisted the urge to snort. Well, at least he wasn't the only one who thought so…

That's all for now, folks! Please write a review on your way out, and stay tuned for updates!