Author's note : Thanks to those who reviewed and/or added me to their Story Alerts. I'm very glad you liked the beginning of the story. A couple of things you should know:

- there are spoilers for the manga and the anime in the story.

- I prefer doing short updates often than lengthy chapters at a longer interval. And I always write a few chapters in advance, just so you know :)

Now on to Chapter 2.

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"Sa… Sasuke…"

At first the only thing he could feel was his heart pounding – engulfing his entire body, it seemed. There was nothing else but the pulse, and the pain – in his throat, his ears, his head, his members.

He wasn't dead. It hurt too much to breathe. The realization struck him like a crushing weight, and almost immediately he started to panic.

Sasuke.

The eyes were the last thing he remembered – red and angry, boring into him… Was that his real memory, or a memory of a past battle? Long ago, at the waterfall…

Sasuke was going to kill him. Then if he, Naruto, was still alive, that meant…

"Sasuke," he whimpered again, and it seemed to him that his voice was coming from another body than his.

He had to get up – he had to get going… somewhere… find Sasuke… He pushed himself up on his arms, but almost instantly his head spun sickeningly and he fell back down on the pillow, exhausted. He had never felt so weak – so pinned down by his own broken body…

"Naruto!"

With tremendous effort, he opened his eyes again. Green, and pink, and a smile…

"Oh my goodness, you're awake… You're awake!" There was a blur, and some voices. "Nurse, Naruto just woke up. His eyes are open and… he's trying to say something."

"Sa – Sakura…"

He felt a hand in his, a squeeze. "Yes, Naruto, it's me. I'm right here. Nurse! Quickly, prepare the shot…"

A shot? I hate shots, he thought. And that's when he knew he had really come back to reality. There was a sting, then darkness, again.

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When he woke up for the second time, his mind felt much clearer, as if a veil was had been lifted from his perception while he slept. Sakura was still there. She had dozed off in a chair next to his bed. From the look and sound of things, it felt like the middle of the night. Then again, he had no idea how long he'd been out – time had gone on without him for an undefined period. So many things could have happened, if he was back in Konoha, and treated in the ward…

He made another fruitless attempt at sitting up. Falling back on the pillow, he squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and tossed his head impatiently in the other direction.

A young man with dark hair was lying in the bed next to his.

For the fragment of a moment, Naruto was persuaded that he was dead, and that someone had simply forgotten to pull the sheet over him. But then the hospital fell back into place in his consciousness – they didn't put dead people in hospitals. And Sakura… she wouldn't be sleeping so soundly if…

"Sasuke!"

"Uh? Oh goodness, Naruto, you startled me..." Sakura stretched her arms and rubbed her neck. "Feeling better? I gave you some medicine to make things less foggy…"

"Me? Yes… yes, I suppose, but… is that…?" He looked at her in awe. "Who brought him back, Sakura? Why is he here? You see him too, don't you?"

Sakura gave him a weary smile. "Yeah… Sasuke. He's here. Still unconscious, though."

"What happened? Sakura, you have to tell me…"

She held him back, stroking his shoulders soothingly. "Don't get upset, Naruto, you still have to rest…"

"Upset? What are you talking about? This is – this is incredible!" In spite of his wretched state, he felt like jumping up on his bed and cheering so loud that the entire village would hear. "Sakura, we did it!"

"You did it," she said warmly, but there was a hint of anguish in her voice. "You alone."

He paused for a moment, digging into his memories. There were blurry bits and pieces – he was in a field, on the ground, with the sky blue and cloudless above… The smell was horrible… And Sasuke hadn't been the only one there…

"Did I manage to tell him? The truth, I mean?"

"It seems so. I can't see any other reason why…" She fell silent and covered her mouth with her hand. Naruto realized she was about to cry. "… why he would save your life."

Sasuke saved my life. Naruto repeated the sentence in his mind, testing the words for truthfulness, weighing each one against his own intuition.

To me, you have become my closest friend.

These words had kept him going for so long… And now they finally made sense again. He felt such an overwhelming sweep of relief that he started to weep.

Sakura leaned over him and ever so gently, took him in her arms.

"You know what that means," Naruto whispered. "That means I kept my promise to you, Sakura. I finally kept my promise."

"Oh, Naruto!"

She held him tightly against her, still sobbing. Once her tears had subsided, she sat up again, wiping the wetness from her cheeks with the back of her hand.

"Kakashi-sensei will come visit tomorrow morning – I sent him message that you were awake."

"That means he'll come by around noon," Naruto said, laughing through his tears and wincing slightly at the pain it caused to his ribs. "I'm glad to hear he's all right."

"He's going to fill you in on what happened. I wasn't on the scene so…" She smiled at him again. "I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit longer to know all the details."

"It doesn't matter – I can wait," he assured her, glancing at Sasuke every now and then as if to make sure he wouldn't disappear. It was still so hard to believe it was him, a few feet away…

"So how are the others? They're all okay, right?"

"Everyone came back to Konoha, yes," Sakura said in a strange voice. "A lot of us had to be patched up and take some time to recover – Lee could barely move a muscle for a week, and Hinata got a terrible injury… But we're all okay now. For the most part."

"Sakura… you're not telling me everything. I want to know, whatever it is."

She bit her lip. "Choji was hurt. Badly. That's been the worse, honestly. We didn't know if he would make it."

Naruto looked down at the sheets. He imagined Lee giving his all and making a show out of it even if all his strength was gone… Kiba risking the life of his most precious friend to attack the enemy… Shikamaru catching his breath and devising a plan against all odds… And Hinata, so gentle and shy, throwing herself into the fray and battling with all her might, until she was stricken down…

Choji. He was so tough, so determined. Over the past few years his abilities had grown to the point where lesser opponents looked like waves smashing against a rock. How did this happen?

"They were stronger than us," he said, already forcing his heart to accept the truth. "Much stronger."

"Most of them are dead," Sakura said. "It's over and done for Akatsuki and Hawk. Sasuke made sure of that – he eliminated the last ones standing."

"But the war isn't over, is it?"

Sakura shook her head slowly. "Madara got away."

Naruto closed his eyes and let out a slow, deep breathe. The task at hand was huge, but…

"The fight's never really over when you're a ninja," he said. "And now that Sasuke's back, we'll become an invincible team again. No one will be able to stop us!"

Sakura gave him an affectionate look and pushed back his hair from his forehead. "You should rest some more."

Naruto gave a big yawn. "You're right, Sakura-chan. There'll be plenty of time to talk about it tomorrow."

She nodded, but it seemed to Naruto there was still something troubling her deeply. Whatever it was, he told himself, settling back into the mattress, he'd have to make sure and find out.