It had been…different, to say the least. Different from what Uchiha Sasuke had always dreamed to be the end of everything: the end of his bloodline, his brother, him. First of all, there was no terrible killing aura in the air of his dreams (except for his own, maybe) nor had there been allies. Oh sure, he had created Team Hebi, but they weren't his allies—they were his tools ( all dead tools now, he thought grimly). In reality, there were more people in that final battle than he had ever thought possible. But the main thing was: he was facing Itachi man to man, with no interruptions or distractions between them (just that horrible, red, killing aura) and that was what he had always wanted, ever since he could completely understand the depth and berth of revenge in its fullest and ugliest form.

What he wasn't expecting was Naruto.

"Ha! I finally found you, Sasuke!"

"STAY BACK!"

He had yelled with such vicious ferocity that the blond had been stunned, the smug grin over his tanned and annoying face had not merely slipped but dropped and shattered almost audibly on the ground at his feet. His blue eyes had somehow turned dark and intense, and that's when the ugly aura had first started. He now understood—irritatingly enough, thanks to his brother—that the aura itself had not been from Naruto, but from the nine-tailed demon sealed away inside of him. It had answered a lot of questions, granted, but it also felt like all this time, Naruto had been cheating somehow. While Sasuke himself only had his own chakra and skills to rely on, Naruto had whole reserves of the shit just waiting for him to tap into them. Unfair. And when the final battle had begun, he had gone after the head Akatsuki-leader-asshole instead, whose name Sasuke couldn't be bothered to remember.

And then there was pain.

Tsunande scanned her eyes through the hospital room. Three beds lay stretched across to either end, each holding an unconscious figure, each figure being huddled over by one of her best ninja medics. To her far right, Uchiha Sasuke groaned from his bed and tried to roll over onto his side, as if trying to get away from something in his dreams. His medic—the eldest of the three, one who had actually been on Hayate Gekou's med team—grabbed his shoulders and, despite Sasuke's quick reflexes of self-defense, the medic had him lying on his back once more, mumbling soothing-sounding words that were not of comfort but another jitsu in order to calm the patient's mind so they wouldn't struggle during the recovery period. Tsunande thought briefly about Naruto's return with Sasuke and was secretly happy for her young charge. However, the practical and no-nonsense side of her was steadily arguing that it was not a good idea for the last Uchiha to be here. There would be big problems in Konoha if he were allowed to stay after turning his back on the Leaf. No, she corrected herself, that's not quite fair to him. He didn't turn his back so much as he left for an unassigned mission. That was the clearest way she could put it to herself.

On the center bed, the one next to Sasuke, was Naruto and he was being attended to carefully by Hyuuga Hinata—a girl she believed she could one day train into a great medical nin like she had Sakura. But Hinata didn't have the will, and she wouldn't have wanted to do something like that anyway. But looking at her face now, Tsunande couldn't say the girl had no will at all. Her eyes were hard and cold and her face was grimly set as her healing hands passed steadily over Naruto's broken and injured body. When Konohamaru had run into the town screaming for medics, she had first thought he had been overreacting. After she had analyzed Naruto's wounds, she was glad he had put up such a scene. A look that was almost guilt crossed over her face as Tsunande watched Hinata channel her energies into Naruto slowly, filling him. She had picked Hinata to be Naruto's healer because, despite the heartache it would give her, she would perform at least a hundred and ten percent better than if she were treating anyone else. Which was also why…

Tsunande's eyes finally drifted to the left, to the last bed, where Sakura lay nearly comatose. A wave of grief suddenly rose inside her and threatened to leak from her eyes and she clenched her fists sharply, digging the long and well-manicured nails into the meat of her palms. Sakura had done exactly what Tsunande had warned her against: she had used her own life energy to give someone else a sufficient amount to live. Glancing briefly at the other two, she wasn't at all surprised. Those boys were her life, so to speak, and even though Sakura certainly knew better she had done it anyway. Which Tsunande couldn't blame her for; she had tried to do it for Dan but Jiraiya had been there to stop her. Perhaps Kakashi had been incapacitated and couldn't be there to warn her although she doubted it—Sakura most-likely did it, even against the warnings.

Yamanaka Ino was her med nin, and Tsunande mentally clapped herself on the back, despite the situation. The blond girl was sobbing, yes, but she was also cursing as she lay the healing hands on the other girl.

"Sakura, you bitch, come on! You fucker, you had to just go and fucking show off, didn't you? Well, you're not dying on me now, dammit!" Her words hiccupped in her throat as the green glow from her hands eerily illuminated her tears and making them look like sparkling pearl drops. There was no one better for the task, she believed, and she was right as far as anyone that mattered was concerned. Done with her examinations of the three, she turned to go.

"Godaime-sama," the med from Hayate's old team spoke up—Akira, she thought. His name is Akira.

"Yes?" she paused, her hand on the doorknob.

"Why are you… I mean, why did you assign me to…?" he looked almost guiltily down at Uchiha Sasuke. Tsunande understood. She turned to look at Akira, her face stony, masking her impatience with him.

"I chose you, Akira, because you were the best of your old team at mind-soothing, which is what is needed here. Also, Uchiha Sasuke is not guilty of anything until proven so—" It looked as if Akira were about to protest so she held up her hand for his silence. "—he is just like another ninja of the Leaf and I have entrusted him into your care. Do you want me to rethink my belief in your abilities?"

"No, ma'am," he looked mystified, as if he couldn't really understand what she was talking about: his skills were actually trusted and needed?

"Good. And you're not to talk about your current duty to anyone except me or your patient, do you understand?" He nodded. "Not even your teammates." Another nod. "Or your own teacher." Nod. "I'm going to a meeting now. I'm counting on you."

Counting on him, even? Akira looked a bit sick as he nodded one last time. "Yes, Godaime-sama." She left without another word, opening the door, stepping into the frigid coolness of the hallway, and closing the door behind her. She took a moment outside to pause and catch her breath; seeing those three lying in there made her feel nauseous in a way she had never really experienced before and the alien emotion bothered her.

"Nothing is ever easy," she sighed under her breath and straightened up, striding down the hospital wing toward the elevators.