"Naruto..."

"...Sasuke..."

"...Naruto!"

"Sasuke?"

As if waking from a deep smog, the first thing Naruto realized was that he disliked his head being stuffed full of cotton.

Especially if said cotton did absolutely NOTHING to muffle his and Sasuke's names or the sound of crying. It had been going on for an excruciatingly long time, after it had happened.

Kit, I'm lending you this power just this one time. Just kick the bucket, is that what you thought you could do? Wake up and smell the roses... maybe the antiseptic or the chloroform, but it'll take a while. Soon enough, though, you'll be able to hear the voices of those other Konohan brats. After that, just wait patiently and don't try anything drastic. Oh, and I'll be out of commission for a while. Don't come looking for me.

And that had been it.

A little while ago, he could hear, but it was peculiar not having to breathe and not feeling his pulse beat at all.

And presently, he was moving, according to the change in direction of his comrades' voices that was not accompanied with sounds of their movement.

At that exact time, in the room in the hospital that Naruto was in, Sakura looked up.

Then she stared disbelievingly, puffy eyes red and forgotten tears rolling down her cheeks.

And she screamed.

Shocked, Kakashi and the others turned around to an even bigger shock.

Naruto was sitting up from the surgery/medical table Kakashi had placed Naruto's body on after finding it, bloody and battered, at the Valley of the End, and bringing it back to Konoha. His body which, by the way, was supposed to be a lifeless corpse.

So it's excusable that Hinata immediately collapsed with a shriek, Iruka's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell back into a chair, and that no one moved to see if either was all right.

Then Naruto's eyelids lifted, revealing that he was, indeed, still dead.

"How - how-" Sakura stammered, unable to finish her sentence.

Kiba and Konohamaru, for once, were speechless, and even Shikamaru looked tense and ready to run at any sign of danger.

"Presently, the kit is going to wake up. Have the life support ready, some strong sedative, and prepare a blood transfusion, a big one, if you want him to stay that way."

The voice hadn't been Naruto's. It was much lower, much deeper, so much more frightening and chilling, suggesting lifetimes of knowledge and wisdom.

With one evil grin, Naruto's body fell back again, producing a 'clang' as his head hit the thin metal surface.

That seemed to wake Sakura from her daze. Sticking her head out into the hallway, she started yelling, ignoring her scratchy throat, rough from all of the sobbing she had been doing the past few hours.

"We need life support, STAT! And blood for a transfusion, lots of it. Get me a strong knock-out drug too. WHAT BLOOD TYPE IS HE!"

Kakashi seemed to be woken up by Sakura's sudden authority. Without even so much as a blink, he answered, "He's Type B."

"TYPE B! What do you mean, NO? Do you like having your hair? And YOU! Do you enjoy the ability to have children?"

That sent the nurses and doctors bustling into action. Any that didn't were 'escorted' out by Sakura, and the other genin and jounin were quickly sent into the hallway and out of the way.

All except for Kakashi, who, at the information that there wasn't enough sedative to be had, positioned himself so enough chakra to use a knock-out jutsu was stored in his fingers, and his fingers were hovering over Naruto's face.

So when a nurse was ready to stick a blood-carrying needle into a pre-inserted tube running into Naruto's vein, another nurse was ready to stick a nutrient-carrying needle into a tube running into another vein, an oxygen mask was strapped over his mouth, and doctors were healing his internal organs and stitching up his many wounds, Kakashi barely noticed a transparent, ghostly little wisp of blue and orange tinted fog drift in through the glass of the closed window. He shivered a little as it passed through him on its journey in. And as soon as the wisp encountered Naruto's body, it was sucked in.

Naruto's eyelids flickered.

And before he could register all the pain he was bound to be in, Kakashi prodded his forehead, transferring the chakra. Naruto's eyelids went limp again and his head lolled back.

But now, his heart was beating, and he was breathing.

Kakashi was pushed into the hallway to deliver the news to the genin who were conscious, Hinata, who was recovering, and Iruka, who was pacing anxiously, both having been filled in on the message delivered by 'Naruto.'

After hearing the news, everyone collapsed in relief, whether back onto the bench, against the wall, or in Iruka's formerly devastated case, hard on his bottom on the floor.

And after the floods of relief, there had been more tears.

For the first time, Kakashi grasped the idea of just how many people the hyperactive ninja had made a difference to.

There was Iruka, but he was to be expected, along with Sakura and Hinata. What he hadn't expected was for even Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji, Kiba, Shino, Lee, Tenten, Neji, and all three of their jounin senseis to also be there in varying stages of grief and anguish. And even now - there were two of the Sannin, Jiraiya the Toad Sage, and Tsunade, the Hokage, storming down the hallway, knocking anyone foolish enough to get in their way aside. Tsunade-san had immediately shoved her way into the hospital room, taking over the care of her precious person, and Jiraiya had followed closely behind, yelling at the doctors and nurses who had refused to help.

And there was Shizune, who had been trailing behind them, muttering quick apologies with an extreme look of worry in her eyes for the blond brat.

It extremely comforted Kakashi to see all these people Naruto would have to care for him as he recovered.

But with a great deal of sadness, Kakashi realized the one person who Naruto would truly have wanted by his bedside, even if it was in the bed beside him, was the one who had killed him. The one who had run away.

But instead of dwelling over this heartbreaking fact of life, Kakashi focused instead on comforting the near hysterical Iruka, who had just been put through too much this day. And he focused on reassuring Sakura as she was finally herded away to deal with her loss and near loss, even as he himself was struggling to completely come to terms with the fact that he had lost one student and just about lost another.

And in the future, they would have to deal with the aftershocks of Sasuke's departure.

But for now, they'd be satisfied with knowing that one of their teammates, possibly the one most influential person either would ever meet, was now alive again.

Because he would be suffering along with them soon enough.

And they needed to strengthen and prepare themselves for that moment.

A moment that came all too soon, as blue eyes opened determinedly, refusing to stay still for any longer.