Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter One

Kikyo190

Sasuke darkly considered setting the hospital building on fire. While he was inside it.

Then again, that was assuming he could move any of his fingers to perform the required hand seals to execute such a technique. Sakura had done a good job—perhaps, too much of a good job—of tightly swathing both the Uchiha's hands in bandages in such a way that he could barely feel the blood flowing through his fingers.

And using Amaterasu, the black devouring flames of death, was downright out of the question. The additional bandages to his eyes were a testimony to that. Even if they ever let Sasuke see the living daylights again in his unforeseeable future, he didn't want to waste the last of his dwindling eyesight on such an unpredictable technique.

To add to that, both his arms were chained down to the sides of his hospital bed.

And finally, he still had no chakra as of the past two seconds. His body couldn't regenerate enough chakra to perform even an Academy level Transformation technique.

A growl of frustration issued out of the Uchiha's lips. He leaned his head back against the cool surface of the hospital bedpost, the tips of his ebony hair teasing against the whitewashed wall.

Beep, beep, beep.

The annoyingly loud heart monitor was a constant reminder to Sasuke that he was still alive. He was in enough agony to know this anyway without the stupid thing giving him a headache or paranoia.

I'll smash it into a million pieces as soon as I get my strength back. Sasuke promised himself scornfully.

Along with several broken fingers, Sasuke had a partially severed spinal cord—meaning, just like Rock Lee after his fight with Gaara in the Chunin Exams, his chances of ever being a Shinobi again were fifty-fifty—five broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, two broken arms, a sprained wrist, one broken ankle and one twisted ankle, a knee rupture and a broken neck.

The cast around his neck was proving to be a royal pain indeed. Sasuke could only move his head forwards and backwards, and even doing that was excruciatingly painful.

How long had he been here, anyway? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? Sasuke knew he'd arrived at the hospital unconscious. But when was the key question.

He didn't even want to think about how Itachi had defeated him.

Because Sasuke was not yet ready to admit to himself that he had arrogantly underestimated his evil older brother's strength and doujutsu prowess. He hadn't realised Itachi had set him up in a genjutsu trap at the beginning of their fearsome "battle".

The pungent smell of antiseptic filled the Uchiha's nostrils as he inhaled once, deeply, and brushed those irrelevant memories aside.

The only entertainment Sasuke had received so far during his hospitalisation was his so-called "interrogations" and they went a lot like this:

Enter Kakashi, Sakura and Naruto in a wheelchair.

"I saved you from death, Sasuke." Naruto hissed angrily. "I saved you from your own brother at the cost of my ability to walk!"

Sasuke didn't even bother to turn his head in Naruto's direction.

Kakashi swiftly took over. "So... You at least owe us some information, Sasuke."

Sasuke was amused by this. He turned to the sound of his former instructor's voice. "I was your favourite student three years ago. Now you and those other two mean nothing to me."

"Naruto!" He heard Sakura scream incredulously, followed by the sound of screeching wheels and agitated curses.

Sasuke waited for a blow that never came. He was in such a fragile state right now that such a thing would be enough to send him unconscious.

"I didn't ask you to save me." Sasuke cut in before anyone else could speak. "For all you know, I could be better off dead right now. My loyalties don't lie with this wretched village anymore. And I am not going to be a shinobi again with these fatal injuries. So in effect, Naruto, you lost your ability to walk for nothing."

That was the last straw and Sasuke knew it. He could hear Kakashi and Sakura make no protests.

All Sasuke remembered was the sharpness of the fist which connected with his face a split-second later and the harshness of Naruto's follow-up blow to his sensitive stomach.

It took all of Sasuke's might not to throw up and humiliate himself in front of all of them.

At least, that was what usually happened at these "interrogations". Sasuke waited for Naruto to leave in a frenzied fury but that moment never came.

"Alright." Naruto whispered quietly. "If I ever see you again I promise I'll kill you."

Wheels screeched against the floor and the door slammed closed forcibly.

Moments later, this was followed by the sound of two pairs of feet. One, which Sasuke assumed to belong to Sakura, lagged hesitantly behind the other pair slightly as she probably turned around to look back at him sympathetically. Then the door shut for the final time.

Since then, Sasuke had no one come to visit him, not even Sakura. Of course, this did not exclude the nurses who came to tend to his routine blood transfusions, re-setting of broken bones, injecting of unknown chemicals, reapplying of ointments, changing of bandages and the stitching back together of his reopened wounds.

The scars would be a nightmare.

Sasuke scoffed. And he thought they called themselves medical ninja—well, why couldn't they heal his wounds with medical ninjutsu, then? Were they making him heal the old fashioned way naturally to teach him a lesson or as part of his punishment?

Screw the whole lot of these pathetic, useless—

A tentative knock at his door forced Sasuke out of his whimsical thoughts.

It was the Hyuuga girl. She had been the last nurse to reapply ointment to his wounds today when his team left from their final interrogation.

Had he been too harsh to them, reminding them of how he truly viewed them? Had he gone too far? Most importantly, would Naruto really try to kill him the next time he saw him? Because let's face it, Sasuke doubted he could put up much of a fight if the time ever came. Even if Naruto was in a wheelchair, unable to walk on his own two feet, he'd find a way to kill the Uchiha.

And was he scared of dying? It depends. What bothers me more is who kills me. And I am not sure I would like that to be Naruto...

Sasuke waited patiently for the Hyuuga girl's signature self-conscious and measured footsteps to fall against the floor as his door quietly opened.

Unknown to Sasuke, Hinata looked behind her back, checking to make sure no one was watching them even though they were the only ones in the room and the corridors were deserted.

Then in one fluid motion she strode over to Sasuke's side and was slashing apart the chains around his wrists.

Both his arms that were chained out to the sides of his bed dropped to his sides pathetically.

He heard her inaudible gasp and chuckled darkly.

"That's right. I have two broken arms. And they haven't even been splinted yet so it's likely that they'll never heal back properly."

"Maybe... This is only the case simply because you are being uncooperative during interrogations. Maybe if you were to coopera—"

"My current injuries are a result of the interrogations. Naruto has literally been breaking every bone in my body until there is none left to break." He stated matter-of-factly.

"Why would you lie about something like that?" Hinata asked in disbelief.

"I'm not. Check your observation files. During my fight with Itachi, the only injuries I sustained were stab wounds to my torso, spleen and gut. They're already nearly healed."

Sasuke leaned forward slightly in his neck cast. "But I know I deserve the extra damage Naruto has been inflicting upon me."

"Just tell them you got them off because they became loose." Hinata said, referring to the severed chains that had previously bound his wrists to his bed as she backed away. "They'll believe you because Ino was the one to bind them for you and she's still an inexperienced trainee."

Hinata quickly left the room without reapplying the ointment she had meant to be applying to his torso.

As she ripped down the corridor in a blinded daze, the Hyuuga heiress wondered silently if it had been the right thing to do to remove Sasuke's chains to confirm her suspicions that his arms were indeed broken and needed splintering.

She'd suspected as such the first time she'd applied ointment to the Uchiha's torso earlier that afternoon—he had been reasonably silent and unsociable at that time. Hinata had just assumed the nurses had somehow managed to miss the disfigurement of his arms and had even brought along two splints with her inside her backpack the second time she came to visit him.

She hadn't expected to hear what she'd learned. That Naruto had been breaking Sasuke's body. Seemingly out of bitterness and anger at his own predicament. The only reason Hinata was agreeing to treat Sasuke was because she thought Naruto had forgiven him for the sacrificing of his legs to save his life.

"How may I help you?" The receptionist asked politely.

"Please may I view an observation file. If... that's OK."

"For whom?"

"Patient... 109."

"You mean the Uchiha?"

"Yes... I mean the Uchiha."

"I see."

"... Please." Hinata added quickly.

"Alright. But do not reveal anything concerning his observation to anyone else. This is classified information and you may put your job at risk by disclosing it to anyone. I can only grant you access to these classified files if you consent that you are his routine nurse because..."

Panic started to worm its way through her stomach. But I'm not Sasuke's routine..?

Unless she became one. Unless she became the Uchiha's routine nurse.

"Hinata Hyuuga, would you be willing to treat patient number 110 within the hour?" Came a new voice behind her, interrupting these thoughts.

Hinata turned around with a start.

It was Danzo Shimura.

A dry smile curled over Sasuke's lips as a recognisable knock issued hesitantly against his door. Followed by the profound clip, clip of Sakura's boots as she entered.

"What do you want?" Sasuke asked, more to himself than to anyone else. His head was leaned back weakly against his bedpost.

"I am going to splint your broken arms. They've been broken for weeks."

"And you let the dobe do it to me." Sasuke stated flatly. There was no accusation or hurt in his voice.

Just weary resignation.

A pause. "He could have done much worse if I hadn't been there and you know it."

"What are you really here for?" Sasuke's interest had already switched to another completely different topic. He clearly wasn't in the mood to listen to her sad excuses. It was obvious to him that she had salvaged some form of twisted satisfaction out of Naruto snapping his bones.

It took Sakura a few moments to transition. "Like I said, to splint you arms. Although I doubt that it will make much of a difference, I'm afraid."

Sasuke chuckled.

Sakura furrowed her eyebrows. "What?"

"The Hyuuga girl wanted to find out if my arms really were broken. I could tell."

"You mean Hinata?" Sakura asked, absently. "Hm. Well anyway, since the bones in your arms weren't realigned, they may face permanent disfigurement but we can never be sure unless we try... So I'm going to perform a technique to pull the bones back into position."

Sakura's brow furrowed as she placed glowing chakra-hands on either of his arms. She didn't even bother asking why the chains binding Sasuke to his bed were broken, instead focusing all her attention on the task at hand.

No sound of discomfort left Sasuke's mouth. He didn't even so much as flinch as Sakura emotionlessly snapped his bones back into place with a few carefully executed jerks and attached the splints.

When she was done wrapping them none too lightly, she got up and turned as if to leave but Sasuke stopped her.

"Thank you."

"Well... OK." Sakura stated, unperturbed.

Sasuke smirked. She clearly had not forgiven him for what he'd said to her, Naruto and Kakashi during their last interrogation.

"So when do you reckon I can open my eyes again?" Sasuke said it nonchalantly but his full attention was centred intently on her answer.

Sakura turned to face him with a start. "Shouldn't you be more worried about your health in general and not just your stupid eyes?"

"Don't change the subject." An edge had come to Sasuke's voice.

"The likes of you make me sick. I've already been asked this question and it's getting old, to be quite frank."

"What do you mean by the likes of you?" Sasuke's anger rose threateningly. No one insulted him like that. No one.

Sakura smiled coyly. There was a frightening edge to the expression.

"Didn't you know, Sasuke?" Sakura asked quietly. "Itachi is in this hospital too."

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Author's Note: How was this first chapter, everyone? By the way, regarding the Amaterasu which requires the Mangekyo Sharingan, I know Sasuke is meant to acquire that after Itachi dies... but clearly Itachi does not die in this fic! So, let's just pretend that he had it before his fight with Itachi, okay? Technically, he did watch his mother and father die and that sort of trauma awakens it!

Review my lovely readers!

See you!