When Naruto Uzumaki finally awoke the only thing he remembered was his best friend walking away from him. All the wounds he sustained were nothing compared to the guilty pain he was feeling in his heart.
Looking around the room Naruto saw that flowers were sitting in a vase, a simple card leaned against it. He grimaced from the soreness when he reached out for the card. Naruto was about to open it when he saw that someone was now standing in the doorway of his room.
"You're finally awake, you had me worried there for a bit."
Sakura Haruno was smiling at him, it was obvious that she had been crying, her jade eyes seemed brighter than usual.
"How are you feeling?"
She moved across the room and stopped at the foot of his bed. Naruto could now see the dark circles under her eyes from the sleepless nights she'd had and even hear the tiredness in her voice. Seeing her like this only made him feel even more guilty.
"Sakura I – "
"It's alright Naruto, I know," she gave him another smile. Her eyes watering as she said, "You tried your best, that's all that matters."
Images of happier times flashed through his mind's eye and Naruto had too look away from her. Seeing that sad gleam in his eyes repeated over and over exactly what he had lost in failing to bring his best friend back to Konoha.
"C-Can I just be left alone for now, Sakura?"
Naruto didn't turn to look at her when she placed something on the table beside his bed before leaving, closing the door quietly behind her. Looking back to confirm that she was gone he saw what she had left behind and his heart quickened. It was a forehead protector with the Leaf emblom crossed out. He recognized it at once as Sasuke's. Naruto himself watched him use the kunai to cross out the symbol, it was his way of cutting ties to those back home.
"Maybe I couldn't stop him this time, but I will definitally bring you back Sasuke," tears fell down his whiskered face, "Believe it, Sasuke."
Outside the door to Naruto's hospital room stood Sakura. Tears falling down her cheeks too and she dropped to the ground. Outside of her teammates hospital room she let the sobs she was trying to hold inside out.
A couple more days had gone by before Naruto was released from the hospital. Almost all of his injuries had healed up, thanks to the Kyuubi, but the usually energetic blond was not bouncing all over the streets of Konoha. Instead Naruto had elected to holding up in his room with week old milk and packaged ramen noodles.
He wasn't exactly sure what he wanted to do now. Tracking down Sasuke as he is was pointless, he wouldn't be able to bring him back to Konoha by himself and all his friends were still in the hospital recovering. Another thing to add to his guilty list.
"So this is where you live, it's nice," Naruto whipped around, ready to throw his bowl of ramen at the intruder. His gaze narrowed at the very large ape like man leaning against the wall.
"Master Jiraiya! What are you doing here?!" he lowered his ramen bowl only slightly, low enough so he could slurp a little from it but still was a feasible weapon if need be.
Jiraiya chuckled and crossed the room to sit at the table across from Naruto.
"I'm here to make you an offer, one you really won't want to refuse."
"Oh yeah?" asked Naruto suspiciously, "And what's that?"
"Kakashi and I have discussed that you could use a little more training. I have gotten permission from Tsunade to take you with me tomorrow when I leave the village," explained Jiraiya. "The training would let you expand your personal chakra and you wouldn't have to rely on the Kyuubi's… like you are now."
Naruto wasn't exactly sure what to say to this. He knew turning down an offer like this would prove that he was an idiot. There was only one thing that was holding back his agreement and Jiraiya seemed to guess this because he next said.
"You don't need to worry about Sakura, she's going to be just fine," he placed a small list on the table, "These are the things you will need to pack, everything else you'll leave behind. Me asking you is just out of politeness, there is really no option in this Naruto. You are coming with me and you are going to be given neccisary training."
"But what about Sakura-chan, I can't just leave and not tell her!" argued Naruto.
"Like I said, she's going to be fine. You cannot tell her what you're doing. Telling Sakura could put her at risk because she'd know where you've left. If Akatsuki were to come back looking for you she's going to be the first one they look for with information on you."
Naruto frowned and crossed his arms.
"I can protect Sakura just fine," he pouted.
Jiraiya leaned forward and replied, "Just like you were able to keep your friends safe and bring Sasuke back?"
It was a low blow and the sannin knew it, but he also didn't exactly care. He had heard the chatter, Akatsuki was coming for a second attack on Konoha and their shinobi had barely survived the last attack from them.
"We leave tomorrow morning, you best start packing soon."
Jiraiya left Naruto to think about what was about to happen. He had life experience that Naruto did not and he completely understood the conflicted emotions that Naruto was now dealing with. The fact that he couldn't tell his only teammate where he was going and why or for how long would eat him up inside until he got back. But what Naruto did not know was that while they were away, Sakura would be doing training of her very own.
It had been brought to Tsunade's attention by Kakashi that Sakura has very precise chakra control and he suggested medical training for her. It wasn't uncommon for kunoichi to go into the medical field, but what Kakashi had suggested was that Tsunade herself train Sakura and train her much like she had with Shizune.