Flashback - Begin

Bee was out-cold and Naruto knew that no one else in the Shinobi army was strong enough to help him go after Tobi. It was all or nothing at this point and he knew it.

Naruto and Tobi both fought skillfully, but it was a slip by Naruto that almost cost him his life. He accidentally looked into Tobi's sharingan….and that was it. He was trapped in a powerful genjutsu. There wasn't a moment that he didn't realize he was trapped and was quickly running out of time. Tobi would be attacking any moment.

That's when he felt it…the intense pain. He fell onto his knees and screamed to the sky. His hands automatically grasped where the pain was coming from….his right side. Naruto looked at his hands and saw blood.

"What the…?" he muttered to himself. Is this real, or am I still in the genjutsu? Naruto knew that he might have just been stabbed within the genjutsu, though the pain would feel identical either way.

Naruto looked up as the intensity of the pain subsided. Tobi was no longer focused on him. He was now away from him and fighting with… "Sasuke?" he muttered aloud.

Naruto didn't think and quickly joined into the fight against Tobi. He had so many questions in his head about what was going on, but realized that those would need to wait until the enemy had been defeated.

"Sorry, Dobe, it was the quickest way to get you back from him," said Sasuke.

So it was him who stabbed me.

"I didn't stab anything vital," Sasuke added.

Naruto merely nodded at his…teammate? Still, it was hard to believe after so many years he was fighting alongside Sasuke and not against him.

Tobi was still extremely difficult to defeat even two against one. Both Sasuke and Naruto took multiple hits from Tobi's various ninjutsu, but only a handful of what the two of them threw at Tobi were connecting – as always, Tobi was almost never materialized and all things – ninjutsu, arms, weapons – would just pass right through him.

"I'm going to fake an injury," said Naruto. "Keep him as occupied as possible and most importantly, don't let him kill me."

"Wait - ," started Sasuke, not fully understanding Naruto's plan. Shit!

Naruto thought he knew what Sasuke was going to ask. "I can't use a clone. He sees right through that with his sharingan. It has to be the real me," said Naruto, jumping far into the air to get closer to his nemesis.

Sasuke hesitated for just a second as Naruto jumped again and landed near Tobi, attempting to use his basic rasengan on him with the help of a few clones he made while flying through the air. Tobi easily jumped to the side and slammed Naruto to the ground as his rasengan dissipated from his hand. It looked immensely painful. Naruto attempted to get up from his prone position, but only made it a few inches off the ground before collapsing back down.

Tobi prepared to give the final blow, but was too slow. Sasuke jumped into action and drew his sword. In an instant, he had charged it with electricity and drew it back to stab Tobi. Before he thrust it forward, Tobi – with inhuman speed – lunged forward to stab Sasuke with a kunai that neither shiniobi had seen in the fight up until now.

But just then, Tobi stopped, seemingly frozen in place.

Sasuke was confused for a split second, but was able to fully swing his sword and nearly cut the Akatsuki leader in two. When Tobi fell, Sasuke saw Naruto now kneeling and holding another rasengan in his hand. While Tobi concentratred on Sasuke thinking Naruto was down and out, Naruto had attacked Tobi's back while it was turned. He timed the attack such that Tobi would need to be in his physical form in order to attack Sasuke. Once the rasengan met its intended target and caused damage to Tobi's backside, Sasuke was free to continue his attack on a fully materialized Tobi from the front.

Tobi fell into a heap on the small hill they were on.

"Did we….get him?" said Naruto falling down himself, completely drained and bleeding.

Sasuke soon followed Naruto on his opposite side.

Flashback - End

"Did you guys verify Tobi was dead? I mean, his body was still there, right?" asked Naruto of Sakura.

"Yeah. You definitely got him," noted Sakura. "They already….," she cleared her throat, "disposed of him. He's long gone."

Naruto felt at ease hearing that Tobi was indeed gone. He exhaled and let a small smile come across his face.

"Well, I guess I'll leave you to rest," noted Sakura. "With the defeat of the Akatsuki, all we have left to do is rescue and recover. But that is nothing you need to worry about."

"One last thing Sakura," Naruto said. "Did everyone else…?" He had a hard time finishing that last sentence.

"The Shiniobi Allied Force lost a lot of lives, but I've already heard about most of our friends. They are, thankfully, alive."

"Good," said Naruto. And he laid back and closed his eyes.

OlOlOlOlOlO

A few days had passed since Naruto had told Sakura the story about how he and Sasuke had defeated Tobi together. Although Sasuke had obviously fought alongside Naruto, the blonde shinobi still did not know where things would go from here. He had spent much of his time in bed resting and healing and was now almost ready to return to Konoha. Thanks to the kyuubi, he healed at an incredibly fast pace. However, he didn't want to leave Sasuke behind.

Sasuke had not yet woken up from the beating he had taken those days ago. Naruto was able to visit him a few times while he sat in the hospital. All he could do was talk to the unconscious teenager and tell him many of the things he had wanted to tell him since Sasuke had left Konoha. Naruto desperately looked for a reaction of some sort from the Uchiha, but received none. Above all, he wanted to know what happened to make him rejoin their side in the conflict once again.

OlOlOlOlOlOlO

"Naruto, you are officially discharged," said a lighthearted Sakura the next afternoon.

"I'm not going anywhere," he replied defiantly to his friend.

"But Naruto, you can't just stay here taking up resources. We need to -," started Sakura.

He looked her square in the eyes. "You above anyone else ought to see where I'm coming from," he sternly lectured her. "Until I speak to Sasuke, I'm not leaving this hospital."

"Hn," she replied. "I want him to return to Konoha, too. But my duty above all else is to make sure everyone is taken care…"

Naruto crossed his arms and started pouting in a way that only he could. Sakura knew she wasn't going to get anywhere with this attitude. She may as well try to intervene now to make the situation acceptable for both sides.

Sakura left the room for only a few minutes. When she finally returned, Naruto was still sitting in the same position.

"You can stay," she remarked. Naruto jumped up happily, but was quickly interrupted by his teammate. "But you need to stay in Sasuke's room."

He thought for a moment. "I guess that's alright," he murmured.

"I can get you a futon for the floor, and you'll have to pay for your meals just like everyone else who isn't a patient," explained Sakura. "Just….stay out of everyone's way."

"Is that any way to talk to the hero of the war? I did kill Tobi after all," said Naruto.

"Naruto, you are an amazing shinobi and you will forever have my respect and devotion, but like I was trying to tell you before...if someone else dies because of me or another hospital worker is too busy fawning over you, well, I could never forgive myself," said Sakura.

"Oh," said Naruto. He finally understood. Heroics were fine and all, but there had been a great deal of death and injury as a result of the war. He had to think about others as well. "I'll move to the Teme's room now."

"Sounds good," said a thankful Sakura.

OlOlOlOlOlOlO

A few more days passed and the medical personnel in the field hospital got used to seeing the strange blonde shinobi in Sasuke Uchiha's room. At first, they were surprised to find him there and even notified the higher ups of his presence in case he wasn't supposed to be there. After being told of the agreement that Sakura had negotiated, they settled back down and eventually even came to be friendly with Naruto.

Naruto didn't do much other than stare out the window. He found himself, at times, talking to Sasuke almost like they had been best friends all along despite Sasuke's betrayal.

It was late one rainy afternoon when Sakura opened the door and appeared at the bedside of Sasuke for a regular check-up.

"Hi Naruto," she said to the sad-looking shinobi who sat in a chair next to the window looking at the rain.

He turned to look at her. "Oh, hi, Sakura."

"Notice anything new today?" she asked, referring to Sasuke.

"Nope, nothing's changed," he replied.

Sakura took Sasuke's vitals and adjusted him in the bed just a bit. "You're right," she noted. "He's exactly the same." She moved down to his chart so she could record her data.

Naruto turned to look back out the window. "The hospital is nearly empty."

"Most of the injured are already gone. The severe cases will be taken back to their own lands by the end of the week," said Sakura. "This was meant to be just a temporary set-up, after all."

"I was hoping he'd wake up by now," said Naruto.

"It's hard to tell in cases such as his. Of course he wouldn't heal as fast as you, but there are times that badly injured shinobi never wake up," Sakura explained.

Naruto never even considered that as an option. "Don't say that!" he shouted. "I will never give up on him!"

"Naruto - ," she started as she walked over to where he sat. "I'm sure he will wake up. I just don't want you to assume…"

Sakura attempted to place her hand on Naruto's shoulder, but he was angry at her insinuation and just swatted it away. As a result, she got a bit angry.

"I love him, too, y'know," she said matter-of-factly. "I guess I'm just more of a realist than you."

"Can you keep it down over there?" said a new, third voice to the conversation.

Two heads immediately snapped to the bed where they saw Sasuke still lying there with nothing appearing any different than before.

Naruto looked at Sakura. "Did you hear something?"

"I thought -," Sakura started, but before she could finish, she walked over to his bedside. "Sasuke?" she questioned.

"I said knock it off," Sasuke said.

"Oh Sasuke, you're awake!" she said with tears welling in her eyes. She didn't think before wrapping her strong arms around him and squeezing.

"Ow!" he shouted, his eyes opening for the first time.

Sakura backed off immediately. "Sorry," she muttered.

"She did the same thing to me," said Naruto to his friend as he moved the chair to Sasuke's bedside. "Apparently she doesn't realize her own strength."

The three members from team 7 were reunited for the first time in a very long time. The last time they had all seen each other, Sasuke was open to killing both of them. That knowledge flooded back to the three of them which left the room in an uncomfortable silence, no one really knowing what to say.

"Um, I'm kind of tired," said Sasuke. "Do you guys mind if I…?"

"No! Not at all!" said Sakura getting the message almost immediately.

"I don't mind, but this is pretty much where I'm staying while you are still in here," noted Naruto.

Sasuke gave Naruto a disbelieving look.

"Seriously," said Naruto. "They let me sleep here. My futon's in the corner."

Sasuke groaned.

"C'mon Naruto," said Sakura. "You can come back later. Sasuke wants to be left alone right now."

"OK," said Naruto. "But you'd better be here when I get back. No funny business."

"I will be. I promise," said Sasuke.