Prologue.
NARUTO
I should never have left the village. Looking at Sasuke's unmoving body on the white hospital bed, I felt sick. It's been a month since my return from Jiraiya's training, and there hasn't been any improvement in his condition. After suffering multiple cuts to his torso, he had almost died of severe hemorrhaging. Thankfully, Tsunade-obasan was able to do a blood transfusion in time to keep his life, but he had gone under a coma because of the interval when blood had failed to reach his brain. Shizune says that they can't tell when he will wake up, if he does manage to wake from the coma.
"Damn you Sasuke! Weren't you always talking big about how good you've become? How are you going to kill that twisted snake bastard or exact your revenge when you're out like a freaking sleeping beauty in here?! Wake the hell up and get off your ass!"
The thought of his still body lying there in the bed forever, brought a crushing feeling to my heart. He was my rival, my goal, my brother and he might never wake to smirk his annoyingly sarcastic smile, or brag about how he could kick my ass ten different ways, ever again.
Two years after I left the village with Jiraiya to learn how to control the Kyuubi's chakra, Orochimaru had planned and executed a raid in Konaha, with an attack force of six thousand strong Sound shinobi and some undead zombies. They had planned to strike Konoha when it in the middle of a celebration for the newly promoted Chunnins who had completed the Chunnin exams successfully, their goal was the extraction of Sasuke from Konoha, they struck at our most vulnerable time. Sasuke remains here, but it was at the cost of sixty-eight shinobi and ANBU. Another fifteen people were grievously hurt , and out of these fifteen, eight would never be able to be a shinobi ever again. Ino was one of them, her legs were crushed under a section of a destroy sentry wall and they had to amputate them to remove her from the scene. Twenty-two civilians had lost their lives in the struggle to protect their village. Because of that he bore the brunt of the whole villages' hate, they blamed him for the deaths of their beloved family. They even tried to kill him while lay defenseless on the hospital beds, so far there were eight assassination attempts on his life. As a result, Tsnunade-obasan had to restrict the people who were allowed to enter his ward.
This isn't the first time the villagers had expressed contempt against one person without a rationale. They were treating him like they did me before I had proven myself. While Tsunade fought to save Sasuke's life, they had the gall to petition the Hokage to euthanize him. Luckily the council had supported Tsunade in denying their request. Inretaliation, riots between the villagers and the shinobi families had broken out in the streets of Konoha and the ANBU had to pull off a mass genjutsu to put all the ordinary villagers to sleep.
We were all in grieving, for one person or another. A friend, a comrade, family or a lover. At times like this isn't it more important than ever to bond together, to ease the pain of your loved ones? Somehow the villagers couldn't seem to understand that, instead they acted like mindless animals. Being frightened and angry, they turned to the first person they could think of to blame for their hardship and losses. This was not unlike how they reacted to me after the siege against kyuubi sixteen years ago.
A soft hand rested on my shoulder and I looked up to it's owner. It was Sakura. Her eyes were red rimmed and swollen, her cheek stained with tears. She looked down at me and gave me a watery smile. Telling me that she understood my pain.
I stood up to give the seat next to the sick bed to her. She needed to be with him.
"Don't worry Sakura," my throat was dry and hoarse like I hadn't used it for years "he'll wake up soon, he's such a workaholic he can't stand slacking off for too long."
Sakura's voice came out equally parched. "Yes, Sasuke will definitely wake up, Naruto. We shouldn't worry too much of Sasuke will make fun of us."
"Yeah, he will definitely come back to us. Then my family will finally be complete again."