Disclaimer: I own nothing so far, except Sasuke's nurse. And probably not for long. Oh, and enjoy!

HoPe WiThIn DrEaMs

Chapter One : The Project

Black eyes penetrated white walls in an unfocused deadpan stare, the owner of this stare completely unaware of his facial expression. His thoughts were jumbled and confusing, overflowing his mind, the medication they gave him to numb the pain left him drowsy and dazed. White bed sheets were pulled up to his narrow chest, meeting the tip of his now sharp chin and his arms had disappeared under the sheets as if they were lost and meant to never come back again. Sasuke Uchiha had been in this room for the last month, with no breaks. The blinds of the only window in the whole drab room was nailed shut, preventing any sunlight or signs of life from entering. He had tried to open the window once, in a feeble attempt to escape the forever absorbing darkness but in the end, the window had not even moved an inch for the weak boy. So now, after one month with no hope and no will to fight, Sasuke had come to face his faith. He believed that he would never leave this hospital, which he would end up dying in this extremely boring and cruel prison in the end. The pain no longer made any difference to him, he no longer felt the need to speak, or even move. The nurse saw his deteriorating attitude and will, but could nothing more but encourage the boy and try to will him on. He closed his eyes with pale lids, wondering when he had last seen his mother, wondering if she even remembered that he was her son anymore.

An oak wood door painted, you guessed it, white creaked open as Sasuke's nurse wheeled in his breakfast and some medication, incase the teen would need it and as soon as the woman was through the door, her once somber face broke into a forced smile.

"Ah Sasuke-kun, how are you today?" She chirped in her usual manner, not expecting a response and brought the food over the dreary boy. She took the food off of the moving tray it had been on and placed in on the small table beside his bed.

"Ne, guess what Sasuke-kun? I think you're in for a real treat today! Your Mother told me you liked tomatoes sooooooo . . ." The nurse smiled even wider of her own free will this time and pulled out the sentence dramatically, " I talked to the cook and she making you tomato soup for lunch!" She finished in a squeal and looked over that the boy she had been talking to. He hadn't changed position but his eyes had lit up a little at the thought that his Mother still thought about him. He shifted slightly to face his nurse, and immediately Sasuke felt pain. He cringed and closed his eyes once again to only meet strange violent images and shapes that illustrated his pain.

"Sasuke! Do you need your mediation?!" His nurse asked worriedly after seeing his face and went over to his side where he only shook his head 'no'.

"I-I . . . I just want to sleep . . ." He whispered in a barely audible voice, his nurse nodding in understanding.

"Well, I'll just let you rest then. Your breakfast is on the table, and if you need anything just call, you hear?" She said, motioning towards a red button by his bedside before taking her rolling table and leaving his room, shutting the door behind him softly.

With his nice but slightly annoying nurse gone Sasuke sighed, once again all alone and started to dream and wish and hope about school, one in which he hadn't gone to in a long time. He wondered if he would ever return, or if he ever did leave the hospital, if his mother would home school him. She was sure to be extra protective of her youngest son now, with him here and everything. Oh well, this was his life whether he wanted it or not, even thought the thought of death seemed surprisingly appealing to the teen right now . . . But eventually, all thoughts began to slow down as the poor and unfortunate Uchiha fell in a horribly deep and completely dreamless slumber.

Naruto P.O.V

146… 147… 148… I closed my eyes and sighed, inwardly cursing that I had managed to lose count of how many drab, extremely boring words my 3rd period English teacher had said. Now that I think of it, with my eyes close and no longer able to help me, I felt as if my five other senses had sharpened. I could here the soft breathing of the classmate that sat beside me, the idle chatter that was taking place quietly, heck, I could even hear the pauses in Iruka's senseless babble that indicated that the older man was breathing. What would have happened if I had plugged my ears instead? If I tied my-

"Naruto!" Iruka shouted, his usually quiet voiced climbed several octaves and I cringed, trying to think of something to say. So I did what I could, I said the first thing that came to mind.

"Ummmmmmm . . ." Great. I was SUCH a genius. Why couldn't I have come up with something that sounded at least a little more intelligent?

"Oh, so you are wake! And since you are, would you mind explaining to your peers why you weren't paying attention in class?" Iruka continued, raising his eyebrows in an expecting manner. But this time, I was smart enough not to reply. Instead, I looked at my empty notebook in front of me, which was currently the most interesting thing in the world to me.

"Hmmm, no answer? Well, I certainly hope that you will being paying attention from now on for I am about to assign you a huge project that will account for a major part of your grade. Did you hear that, Naruto?" Iruka said, emphasizing the word hear.

I nodded and felt my cheeks heat up as my classmates muttered things along the lines of 'stupid' and 'idiot'.

"Good! Well, everyone will get to choose whether they will a. go to a retirement home b. go to a hospital c. interview an adult that you know. Then you will write up a report about what you learn. Things like jobs, feelings on their position, interest and personal thoughts, etc. will all be accepted. But remember during you interviews and such not to be insensitive to these people, seeing as a lot of them have been through many hardships and may even be fighting for their lives. The report must be at least three pages long, and must go into depth and detail. That's all for information on the project. I have a clipboard up here so one by one, come and write down your name underneath the type of interview you wish to do. And I think I'm done." Iruka said heaving a long sigh before moving to sit down at his desk.

What the heck was I going to do? I had no clue but most honestly, the whole project spelled out BORING. An-

"Naaaruto! Get your butt over here!" Sakura's voice penetrated my thoughts as she motioned for me to come over to her from across the room. Sakura-chan was calling me. I jumped up excitedly, stumbling a little and ran over to her, sliding into a seat nearby. Beside her was her best friend (sometimes enemy) Ino and in front of her sat Kiba Inzuka, a boy who I was fairly close to. And beside sat… Well, me.

"My gosh Naruto, what are you going to do?" Sakura asked looking at me with waiting aqua eyes, her lips parted slighty, and her hair perfectly neat. I licked my lips.

" Well… for me… Whether it's a senile old man in a retirement home, a dying pops in a hospital or a plain Jane adult, the whole project is still going to be PRETTY boring to me." I said in one quick breath, looking at the girl of my dreams the whole time. Luckily for me, Kiba and Sakura nodded simultaneously. But Ino disagreed.

"Ne Naruto, that's completely what Iruka-sensei said not to do. He said to be sensitive and understanding, or were you not listening? …Again." Ino said a serious looking crossing her face but she smiled when she said the thing about me not listen. As for me? At that part, I cringed.

"Come on Ino, let's NOT bring that up again. It was embarrassing." I said groaning and hitting my forehead with the palm of my hand to emphasize.

"Excusing me for interrupting," Kiba said sarcastically, "But what exactly are we going to do?" He looked at us expectantly, as if we held all the answers to his problems but I knew in all my right mind that I did not. How was I supposed to know, when I was deemed one of the most, if not the most stupid kid in the whole class?

But as for Ino? Well, the blonde-haired blue-eyed girl seemed to have an idea and not a complaint for once.

"How about we approach this differently? How about we eliminate the most unappealing choices and choose the ones that has the least faults?" She suggested, her face scrunched up in a thoughtful way.

To others, it may of seemed cute but to me, it seemed like the face she always made after showing some poor fool like me up. I bet that the little she-devil had that idea already from the start. Now don't get me wrong, I loved Ino like family but sometimes, she came across as a mean ol' big sister who enjoyed to bother, torture and embarrass her little brother. Sakura nodded contently. Her pretty face lighting up in joy, immediately liking and embracing Ino's idea. See what I mean? Gosh.

"Yeah, that's a totally great idea!" Sakura said, nodding her head.

"In the retirement home, a geezer could be tell you his life's story and then bloop!, he either falls asleep or dies in mid sentence." Kiba said, turning around and changing his position so that he was sitting in his chair backwards.

"Yeah, but a neighbor will probably be extremely annoying, and will probably pester us and keep our parents updated." I added on.

"In the hospital, we might at least get a cool kid our age with a broken leg or something…" Ino murmured, placing her chin in her hand gently.

"But in a lot of TV shows, old guys are portrayed a super cool." Kiba said.

"Yeah, but what's on TV usually isn't true…" Sakura replied.

Ino grinned. "It's settled then, we're all going to the hospital!" She squealed in a happy, giggly way, clasping her hands together and closing her eyes. Kiba and me though threw up our hands defeat, knowing that the battle was lost. But truly, Ino was usually right, so we weren't too disappointed.

"I'll sign us all up!" Ino said, getting and a Sakura bounced up right after her, squealing a 'me too!' So with the two rambunctious yet beautiful girls gone, Kiba and I turned to face each other.

"So, I wonder which patient we'll get. There's no grantee that we'll get a kid our age, but at least we have a better chance than if we went with the other to choices." Kiba murmured. I nodded, putting my feet up on the desk in front of me. I took this time to look around the classroom at the rest of my classmates, most of who were at the front of the classroom.

"Ne Kiba, this is going to be a real bore, eh?" I said, looking at the brunette with a sideways glance, my eye furthest away from him closed.

" No Naruto, not really. Maybe we might actually learn something, maybe this might change us." Kiba said quietly and I almost fell sideways off my seat.

"What??!!!" I asked in disbelief, my eyes bulging,

Kiba saying something that sounded semi-smart? What the heck?!

Yaaaaaaaaaay. I'm relieved to say that I have survived the first chapter of Hope Within Dreams. Hopefully, I'll have the next chapter up this weekend... That is, if people actually like this story. Please review! Ciao~