A/N- What's up you guys?! So excited to finally be releasing another chapter and to see you guys again. It was dreadfully boring waiting to release the chapters since I have had them done for a while, but I said end of February beginning of March. And I never go back on my word, believe it!

If you're just joining me and all of the other faithful readers I suggest you go read The Depression of a Shinobi first. Let you get yourself in the know of what is happening in the story.

I wanted to get quite a few chapters done before I released any so I could take a short vacation from writing.

SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADEW, I PRESENT TO YOU (drumroll)

Into the Tsukuyomi

Numbness. That's what he felt. Like when you sleep on your arm wrong at night and all blood was cut off causing it to go limp and just hang at your side. That's what his entire body felt like right now. He could feel everything there, just couldn't move it.

With not being able to move he tried to take in what he could by his senses alone. Smell, touch, and hearing were the only ones he could really rely on since he was too weak to open his eyes. He could smell antiseptic in the air so he put together that he was in the hospital.

He was definitely in bed hooked up to several of the machines in the room. Although numb he could still fell a clamp on his finger which led to the EKG that kept his heart on monitor. There were needles in his arm, probably an IV bag, or that's how they fed him.

He was aware of things around him. He could hear the muffled voices of people. He knew he was in a separate room because he would hear a door slide open occasionally and would hear footsteps come to the end of his bed or to the side. There would occasionally be a 'thunk' of something at his side or a ruffle of papers at the end of his bed.

Time ticked by and he had no idea how long he was in the room. He would daze in and out of consciousness. He loved when he slept because it meant that he would escape from the damn hospital he was in, even if it was only mentally. When he was awake he tried to piece together what all he had figured out and what was going on. Since he had woke up he had one hell of a massive migraine and it just wouldn't go away, even if he did sleep.

So he committed himself to trying to be more aware of his surroundings. He thought of it as a way to train his mental state. That was the only way he could make this experience even more tolerable. 'Training, teach myself how to read movements even when not looking at the enemy.' So that's what he did, so he paid direct attention to the noises and movements of the people that came and went from his room.

The things that stood out the most to him was whenever there was the sound of footsteps to the side of his bed followed by the noise on the table next to him. Then there would be a small caressing of his cheek.

The touch made him feel safe, he never felt safe. Years of being secluded from everyone and being rejected taught him how to watch out for himself. He knew that everyone was a potential threat that could hurt him at any moment. Plus a ninja is always supposed to watch his back.

Although, the seclusion thoughts came to a grinding halt as he felt a presence by his bedside. It radiated its presence. Whoever it was sure was powerful. The person just sat there, he could hear the ruffling of their hair, the way only a man would, so it was definitely a man.

Naruto could hear the man intake breath as if ready to say something but would immediately stop himself. From the way the man would stop himself Naruto guessed the man was distraught about something. Naruto could feel the familiar presence about the man, it felt like both Kakashi and Jiraiya's presence but different.

If it were Jiraiya he would have been more quiet and trying not to speak with him as much as the man was trying to. Jiraiya would always think before talking to Naruto, except when it was about his pervy books, women, or if they were just joking around. Naruto's thoughts drifted back to when he began learning the rasengan from Jiraiya. When he was learning to pop the rubber ball. He had thrown the ball at Jiraiya when he turned back around and caught it between his teeth and yelled "STRIKE!" He would have laughed at the thought or even smirked but it was still pretty painful to even move anything.

Naruto thought again back to the presence beside him. If it were Kakashi there would be the occasional flipping of the page from his Icha Icha porno books. So that ruled him out. He racked his brain but couldn't tell who it was sitting beside him.

He wished he could at least open his eyes but before he could even do anything the man finally spoke up.

"Naruto." The man's voice wasn't one he had heard before. He could hear the familiarity and the upset tone in just him saying his name. "I wish I never sent you on that mission. I never should have sent you on an S-rank mission. After all, you are still a genin. I know Jiraiya had trained you well over the past few years but, I shouldn't have risked it. Even with your team and Kakashi. I'm so sorry, I just wanted you to know that I'll be there for you, no matter what. I have to go now, as much as I wish I could stay the village needs me. I'm sure you know how the whole hokage business goes."

'This man's the hokage?' Naruto desperately wanted to see who this man was but his body still ached. It would be a while longer before he would be able to do much. 'I'm gonna get that furball's ass in gear on healing me.'

"I'll be back later to check on you, as soon as I finish with the paperwork and the village council meeting." With that the man had opened the door and was out of the room.

Naruto was annoyed he didn't see the man. He wanted to see who this hokage was. Last he checked Tsunade was hokage. 'I'm going to definitely have a chat with the furball.'

Naruto turned his thoughts to being pulled inside his mindscape and it wasn't long before he was welcomed by the sight of a dark and sullen sewer system. In front of him stood the cage of the nine tailed fox.

"HEY FOX! IT'S WAKE UP TIME!" Naruto yelled as he saw movement in the cage. The nine tails was awake.

XXX

Out in the hall the voices of a couple people could be heard. One, which was clearly Tsunade, definitely wasn't having the best day. The hospital was busy, she was out of sake, and her godson was still in a comatose state.

"Minato, we have no idea when Naruto will wake up, so please stop asking. It could be tomorrow, it could be next week, he might not ever wake up, we don't know. We just have to make sure we keep an eye on him so things don't go bad."

Minato wasn't an unreasonable man. He never asked anybody to do anything he wouldn't do himself. But this was a request not from the hokage, but a father practically pleading for his son's life. "I understand Tsunade, I just, I want Naruto to be alright. It's my fault that he ended up this way. If I could switch places with him I would. I'm just, disappointed in myself is all."

Tsunade understood the reason for him being the way he was, but she didn't like it. "Minato, it's not your fault, he was always so reckless, plus, it is Naruto we're talking about here. Nothing will hold him down, not until he becomes your successor. Plus if you keep beating yourself up over this, what do you think Kushina is going to say, or more importantly, do."

This elicited reaction from the man as he visually flinched and stiffened. She had already beat him into the ground for Naruto ending up like this, but if she found out he was still beating himself up, the red hot habanero would definitely come back to beat him again.

Minato quickly put his hand behind his head and looked at Tsunade with a fake smile and a scared chuckle. "I guess you're right, I definitely don't wanna make her mad, again. I better get going, that meeting starts here soon." With that Minato was out of the hospital walking much like a wind-up soldier scared of his wife, or the thoughts of what she would do to him.

'She's got him by the balls.' Tsunade thought as she turned and headed down the hall to get back to her patients.

XXX

"What do you want brat, I'm trying to sleep here." The nine tails never did appreciate being woken up, especially not by this loudmouth of a container he had.

"Well first of all I want you to get your lazy ass in gear and start healing me, I can hardly open my eyes!"

"OK settle down brat, you still annoy me so I'll make sure to get things going so I don't have to hear you anymore. Anything else?" Kyuubi was still drowsy and he has definitely learned over the years to avoid an argument with Naruto and not to use big words either, both tended to confuse and anger the boy.

"Yeah, who the hell was that by my bedside and where the hell am I? Last thing I remember was me leaving the village alone." Naruto needed answers but whether the fox would give him any or not was a whole different story.

"These are the only two questions I am going to answer then I'm going back to sleep, got it brat?" Naruto simply nodded. "The first question is answered by the second question. You're in the Tsukuyomi, you agreed to train in here for a longer amount of time than what actually passes in the real world. As for who that was, I will let you put two and two together. Now leave me to my slumber."

With that Naruto was forced out of his mindscape. 'Damn fox.'

No essence of time was recorded for Naruto. The only way he was able to tell time was by the nurse coming in to his room to check on things. He was still in and out of consciousness but at least the Kyuubi kept his promise on healing him. He was beginning to get feeling back in his body.

Even if he could feel more that didn't make his situation better. His body ached and felt tingly all over as if bugs were crawling on him. He swore he was going crazy too. That freaking machine that measured his heart rate was annoying the piss out of him!

He started counting the time between the nurse entering and the beeping on the machine. Best he could tell twelve hours had passed that he was awake for, whatever else there was, he was unconscious or lost in thought.

There was a slow opening of the door. Naruto had his attention on the person entering immediately. The steps were light, light enough to tell it was a ninja. But they were also light enough to tell that it was a woman as well. The woman walked to the side of his bed and placed something down on his nightstand. He could hear her sit in the chair that was by his bedside that was left by the hokage.

The woman stared at him, he could feel her eyes on him. They weren't studying him, they were just looking at him, wanting him to be alright.

"Naruto." The woman spoke up.

'Hinata?' Naruto's mind was going a thousand miles a minute. He wanted to see her, hear her, and even hold her. But he couldn't, not like this. He didn't want her to see him like this.

"Naruto, I, I just want you to be alright. You are always so strong so I know you will come out of this. I know I haven't visited you for a couple weeks, but my team was called out on a mission to wave country. I saw the bridge there, named in your honor. I couldn't tell you the pride of both knowing you and being your friend and the awe I had. I have always known you have the power to change people, you changed me. Your smile saved me. So many times I would have taken the wrong path, but each time you helped me, even if you weren't there. I would always think of you and what you would do or say. That's why I never gave up, you are my strength, even if you don't know it. I just, I want you to know that…" She stopped, she hated seeing him like this, and it pained her. She had to recompose herself before she continued speaking to him. "I know about your feelings for Sakura, I just wish that I could be the one you looked at that way. I know that's just me being selfish but I can't help it. You're my world Naruto, I want you to be happy so long as you are I won't stop you from anything."

With that Hinata stood up and left. She had tears building up and the last thing she wanted was for him to hear her cry.

Naruto was screaming inside his mind, he needed to let her know. He didn't look at Sakura like that anymore, it was more like a sibling relationship now. He didn't want her to go, he fought with every bit of strength he had. He cracked his eyes open just slightly to see her walking out. His vision was blurry and the light about blinded him but he didn't care, he needed to see her.

He was so caught up in this he didn't hear his heart monitor beeping like crazy. He paid no attention to it. All he cared about was Hinata. Nothing else mattered, but once she was out his eyes shut again but he didn't give up. He tried moving again but he heard the door fly open with a loud crash into the wall.

Tsunade started barking orders to get the staff working. She walked over to Naruto and placed her hand on his. "Naruto, if you can hear me, we need you to calm down." After a minute when it didn't slow down any she ordered one of the nurses to give him a sedative.

His last thoughts before entering the black were about Hinata and how hurt she must be. Finally the darkness swallowed him and he fell into a restless sleep. Each dream he had was about Hinata and in each one she would be in danger and always out of reach. He would try his best to save her but it was never enough. He would fail each time.

XXX

He slowly regained consciousness the next morning. He heard the familiar sounds of the heart monitor next to his bed. He could feel most of his body and luckily there wasn't too much pain. He could feel some but not enough to draw alarm to. It was more like a dull achy throbbing feeling.

The greatest revelation to him though was he could now move some and open his eyes. The fox had done good work healing him during the time he suffered through the nightmares. It must have been the fox's way of paying him back for making him heal Naruto.

Naruto finally took in his surroundings a little more. As expected he was hooked up to every machine that the hospital deemed necessary. He turned to the direction of the nightstand and saw more get well soon gifts, flowers, and cards than he ever expected to see.

There were gifts from his team, team Asuma, team Kurenai, team Guy, Tsunade, the Konohamaru corp., the Kazekage and his siblings, Jiraiya, Hinata and Sakura personally, and several others he had made an impact on.

Hinata's gift immediately caught his eyes. Roses, he didn't know much about flowers but he did know that they represent love. 'I need to see her, as soon as I can.' Naruto scanned the room and found his clothing placed on a chair near the foot of his bed.

He needed to go see her. He did his best to sit up but had issues forcing himself to. His body racked with pain as he sat up. He was already panting as he pulled the wires and IV's out of him. He threw his legs over the side of the bed and prepared to stand up. He pushed himself up using his arms and stumbled to his feet.

As he stood there he began feeling light headed and dizzy, he also heard an announcement over the intercom but paid no attention to it. He grabbed onto the railing of his bed for support as he threw the hospital gown off that he was wearing. He struggled with his pants and shirt. He left his jacket unzipped as he walked next to the window.

He looked down to see that he was on the fourth floor of the hospital. Usually he would jump out of a window no problem but in his current state he didn't have too much of a choice. 'I highly doubt Grandma Tsunade would let me leave out the front door so I guess I don't have too many options.'

He slid open the window and started to climb out. As he did so he heard a group of medics rushing down the hall. No doubt towards his room since he took off the heart monitor and it flat lined. He quickly shut the window and did his best holding himself to the wall using chakra making his way down.

When he reached the ground he dropped to his knees panting. "Using chakra is hard work after not using it for so long." He spoke out. "I have to get through this first, I need to see Hinata." With that he forced himself up and started off towards the Hyuuga compound.

He took note that the villagers would actually smile at him as he walked past them. He worried there might be something else, like someone hired an assassin to kill him or something. They would be happy to see him gone.

XXX

Tsunade was finishing up with another patient as she heard the code blue go off in the hospital accompanied by the floor and room number. (A/N: A code blue in a hospital in the United States (not sure about many other countries) is used for when a patient goes into cardiac arrest or is in need of resuscitation.) She immediately recognized the number as Naruto's and took off with a sprint. She was not going to lose him.

She pushed her way past several other lower tier medics who had amassed outside of his door. Since he was a high priority patient he had several tags on the door to prevent anyone without permission from getting in. She quickly broke the seal and made her way in.

Tsunade gasped at the sight before her. Naruto was gone, his gown was laying over the chair and all the wires lay astray. She was brought out of her stunned silence when another medic tapped her on the shoulder. "Get a message over to the Hokage, NOW!"

'Naruto, where are you?' Tsunade turned and headed down the hall. She would be damn sure to give that little idiot a piece of her mind when she saw him.

XXX

Naruto sombered his way through the crowd. The world was spinning and he had almost collapsed from exhaustion several times. The only thought was of Hinata and how hurt she had been. He would not let her keep going thinking that he didn't care about her.

He couldn't explain it, but he remembered kissing her the night he left and her showing up in front of Itachi. Her confessing to him that it was him who she loved. He never really knew what love felt like until her. He finally understood what it meant and he was not going to let her go, no matter what.

Although he also remembered talking to her about his interest in Sakura. He was pretty sure it didn't happen but if he had the memory, then maybe it did?

He eventually found his way to the Hyuuga compound and stood outside the main entrance. There were two guards that eyed him. He was usually used to the stares given to him, but the way the Hyuuga did it was just, creepy.

He knocked on the door and waited for an answer. He could feel the exhaustion setting in and struggled to stay on his feet. It was a good five minutes before a younger girl answered the door.

"Can I help you?" The girl asked innocently.

"Is.. Hinata here?" Naruto sputtered out. He was just now aware that his voice was hoarse sounding from disuse.

"Hinata and her team were assigned another mission. She just left, she shouldn't be at the main gate quite yet but if you hurry you might catch them."

Naruto thanked the girl and took off towards the main gate. He thought he was sprinting, but to any bystanders he looked like an old man that was running with a brand new hip.

The girl just smiled as she watched the blonde go. 'He looked like a lovesick puppy, and for Hinata too. Well Sis, try not to faint when he catches up to you.' Hanabi just grinned mischievously and walked back inside the compound.

XXX

"Relations with Cloud have been slowly getting better since the incident 13 years ago, and the incident with your son lord hokage, but still not well enough to consider them a trusted ally. Stone still hates you for the third shinobi world war, so they won't be sending any genin to the chunin exams here in a few months. Mist is still iffy at best but they remain more neutral since the fifth Mizukage took the leadership position. But it is still too early to tell their allegiances. Sand has been a faithful ally and the recent mission to save the fifth Kazekage really bolstered our relationship."

If there was one thing Minato hated about his job it was listening in on these stupid council meetings. Well that, and paperwork. He hated the paperwork. It wasn't until Naruto suggested he have shadow clones do it that he started enjoying the job position a little more.

Minato was lost in his thoughts about Naruto and his accident until the door burst in revealing Shizune panting. "Lord Hokage, it's Naruto, he's gone!"

Minato stood up and adjourned the meeting early. He was stopped by one of the village council member. "So what if the demon is gone, it means we no longer have to worry about him, plus we save the village money from letting him be off life support."

The man was quickly silenced as Minato threw a three pronged kunai at the man. He quickly ducked but was met from behind with a regular kunai at his throat. "You have broken the law that I placed by speaking of my son in such a matter. You know full well of the repercussions." With that Minato drew the blade across the man's throat cutting it. The man gargled in blood before dropping to the floor dead.

"Now if everyone is done insulting my son, I need to find him." With that Minato walked out the door leaving a very terrified villager council and a completely stoic ninja council.

XXX

"Come on Kurenai-sensei! You're too slow, me and Akamaru are ready to go!" Kiba was always impatient. It must have been something to do with his blood. The Inuzuka clan were all impatient people.

"You know you really shouldn't pressure our sensei, even if she is a bit slow at times." Shino said pushing his sun glasses up back onto his face a little more securely.

Kiba and Hinata stared at Shino then one another. It was Kiba who finally spoke up after his mouth hung open. "Did Shino just tell a joke?" Kiba said looking at Hinata. "Shino never tells jokes."

"It would seem so." Hinata spoke as Kurenai finally closed the gap between her and her team.

"Sorry about that, Asuma wanted to make sure I was safe before I went." Kurenai spoke as her and her team turned and headed for the gates.

"That's what most men do for women they love, and also vice versa." Shino spoke.

"Too bad Naruto isn't here to see you off, right Hinata?" Kiba said. He had no idea the impact his words would have on her as she lowered her head.

Kurenai was immediately in front of Kiba ridiculing him. "Apologize to her, now Kiba."

Kiba immediately went pale as he saw the hate in her eyes for the time. "O-ok, I'm sorry Hinata, I didn't mean it that way. I meant it's a shame he is still in the hospital and all."

"I-it's ok Kiba." She said looking back at him.

Shino just turned towards Kiba. "Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn Kiba. You should know that better than anyone, being you live with two of the most violent women in the village excluding Ino, Sakura, and Tenten."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?!" Kiba snapped back.

"Your family is violent, you know it just as much as I do." Shino once again retorted.

"Well, I guess you're not wrong there." Kiba replied sheepishly.

Kurenai still standing in front of the three decided to talk to Hinata before returning to where they were heading. "Hinata, you went to see Naruto yesterday right?" Hinata nodded. "Was he doing any better?"

"He is still in a coma. I wish I could have stayed but I just couldn't stand to see him that way." Hinata spoke solemnly.

"Well maybe he will be better by the time we get back." Kurenai spoke trying to reassure her. Hinata nodded again and they began walking again.

No more than thirty seconds passed as the group soon heard a small 'eep!' come from Hinata. They all turned to see Naruto hugging her from behind. Hinata was a dark shade of red and would be getting darker if it were even possible.

"I'm.. so glad you're ok Hinata. P-please be safe-" He was cut off mid-sentence as he lost consciousness and began to fall backwards pulling Hinata with him.

Hinata braced to hit the ground as they were falling but the rough landing on the ground never happened. Hinata looked up, surprised to see the man who had caught them both so suddenly.

"Lord Fourth Hokage…"

So how was that for a first chapter? I'm excited for this story and cant wait to put out more chapters.

Let me know what you guys think of the chapter, next one doesn't come out on time until I get at least 8-10 reviews so give that to me guys!

Well I'll see ya next time!

Dcept