Naruto stood over the fallen body of the only man he would admit to ever feeling love for. The only man who had ever been as a brother to him, who had accepted him as an adversary and not as a beast just like the village always had. The one man who responsible for so many pains in his life but also was part of the reason he was as strong as he was.

It was never his desire to be Hokage, nor his desire to protect his precious people that had made him as strong as he was. They were strong contributory factors but they were never the entire reason why Naruto strove to be stronger, trained to be better, tried to surpass himself.

Sasuke was his reason to become stronger. Sasuke was his reason to become better. Sasuke was his reason to surpass himself at every turn he made. That one man was the reason Naruto was the man he was today. Naruto never cared for power to control, he never cared for power to dominate, and he only wanted power for one purpose and one purpose only. He wanted to save the one man that had treated him with an ounce of respect when so many others looked to him with such resentment.

Tears began to form in Naruto's eyes as he looked to the prone form of Sasuke, no movements coming from the Uchiha. He fell to his knees and bowed his head down as he felt the tears stinging at his eyes only stronger now. His vision was blurred but he could see what was directly in front of his face. The face of Sasuke Uchiha, white as a sheet of paper lay beneath his own face. Eyes closed and looking almost at peace.

Naruto stared at the face of his fallen brother for a long time. It was almost as if the world moved around him, not wishing to disturb him in his moment of mourning. The wind passed through the Valley of The End and moved the hair that obscured some of Sasuke's face, giving Naruto the full view of the serene face that was now on Sasuke. His tears flowed down his face and rolled onto Sasuke's head, mixing in with the sweat and rain that was also on his forehead. With closed eyes Naruto silently hated himself for what he had been forced into enacting.

Behind closed eyes Naruto was shown flashes of his battle with Sasuke, in every gruesome detail possible. When Sasuke ran him through with a black Chidori, when he forced a Resenshuriken into Sasuke's gut, only for him to be saved by Naruto's unwillingness to kill him and Susano'o, when their battle was interrupted by Madara and they were forced to join together to fight him and finally the moment when Sasuke was killed by Madara.

It was at that point that Naruto felt his body shifting into overdrive. All of the wounds he had sustained began to fizz and bubble as they were slowly healed. His hands which had been spread openly to support his weight over Sasuke clenched tightly as his body began to malform, with hairs growing out of his body and his fingernails lengthening out to claws. He could feel his canines growing along his jawline and felt his body grow, but then he felt nothing.


With a start Naruto sat up suddenly, sweating heavily and panting in fear, his breathing was not calming down and as such in the dark he held his hand over his chest and tried to slow down his breathing. When eventually his breathing subsided and he was able to calmly look at his surroundings he found himself in a place he detested more than many things, in all these years he had yet to get used to this place. The hospital.

"You talk really loud in your sleep, do you know that?" came a soft voice from his left, to which he turned to and found a pair of azure eyes staring at him softly and a small smile on the face of the one who spoke to him. Naruto thought for a moment and figured out where he was.

"My apologies Yamanaka-san, I have not slept in company for a long time so I don't know" Naruto answered back apologetically as he looked down on his lap. It was the truth though, he had not slept in the same room as anyone in, a fair number of years now, he had always been on the move and not very often had he ever taken the time to share his abode with anyone, except in extenuating circumstances.

Ino was more wondering about the change in formalities with the man in less than twenty four hours, although she did have to admit that even though he put on a show of toughness, he was far from it when he had finally gotten all of them back to Konoha.

"Why am I in here Yamanaka-san?" Naruto asked suddenly as he looked about himself with confusion evident in his voice. Ino didn't know how it was possible for him to be so blissfully unaware of the fact that he was completely covered in bandages. Inside she giggled at the antics of the man in the bed next to her own, no matter how old he got it appeared as though he was forever going to be a child within the shell of a man.

"First of all, please call me Ino, all this Yamanake-san stuff makes me feel old, and it makes me feel as if you don't think we are friends at all" Ino said with a somewhat pout that had Naruto seen he did not comment on it. He however nodded his head in understanding. "Second of all, you are in that bed because not long after Hokage-sama entered the room and you admitted to failing some mission, you fell backwards unconscious" Ino began explaining as she rested into her pillow that had been manoeuvred to allow her to sleep.

"It was only once you fell unconscious that the Hokage was able to see everything that happened to you, there were numerous scars on your body and poisons running through your veins that she almost had a heart-attack at the condition you were in. she said by all rights you should be dead" Ino finished off as she looked over to the face of Naruto. As the darkness of the room became more focused in Ino's mind she could see his face perfectly now. It looked saddened and if Ino was not correct then she could have sworn that she saw a look of disappointment cross over Naruto's features. Was he unhappy that he was alive?

"Naruto? What's wrong?" Ino asked softly as Naruto lifted his head up to look at her, she saw his eyes and saw his flash of his true self before the visage covered it up. His grin grew in proportions and he turned to her with that same smile he had always given her. It made her feel that everything was alright with the world, yet she saw that momentary sadness and was stunned to realise that the mask she was looking at was one she had seen her entire life.

"What? Nothing is wrong, why would there be?" Naruto asked as he smiled to her with his usual disarming smile that made it seem as if things could not go any more smoother. Ino knew for a fact that he was lying to her straight faced, and though she did not like it one bit, who was she to argue? She had not seen him in a long time and sometimes there are skeletons we just wish never to be found.

"It's just that after I told you about all of your injuries you seemed almost sad, I just wanted to make sure you were alright" Ino answered with a genuine smile towards him, if he was trying to smile to make the situation more bearable then it was only fair that she smile back to him in all honesty.

"Oh… I'm fine thanks Ino-Chan, I guess it came as a bit of a shock that there was so much happening with my body and I never realised it, I didn't think I was quite so close to death" Naruto admitted as he kept his smile in place while in his mind his thoughts were thinking along a completely different track. I was so close to death? I guess that was why my movements were getting sluggish. Naruto thought to himself as he watched Ino's mouth move and noticed he had tuned her out, with a slight bit of embarrassment he tuned her back in.

"… it sounded like some strong stuff that was in your blood, just what have you been up to Naruto?" Ino finished with a questioning look that Naruto smiled and rubbed the back of his head, for the first time realising that he had bandages all around his head. Shaking off his feeling of stupidity for that moment Naruto answered Ino.

"You know, this and that" Naruto responded with a slight laugh that again got Ino slightly frustrated in the manner that he avoided her question, she could not get mad at him because he did technically answer her question and she did not want to be too overbearing, after so long apart she did not know what the limits between them were, not the romantic kind just the limits between friends. What she could get away with around him basically.

"I see, despite it avoiding the question entirely I will let you away with it, after so long away I doubt telling everyone everything is high on your agenda list" Ino admitted more to herself than to Naruto but lifted her head up when she heard Naruto chuckle lightly, for the first time in their conversation Ino saw what she knew was a true smile on his face. It was small but it was genuine.

"I guess that's true, I've not been in the village in a long time…" Naruto began before finishing abruptly and looked to his lap. Ino wondered what could possibly have happened, she did not however wish to disturb him as it appeared something was deeply troubling him and she honestly did not know if she should or shouldn't say anything. "… I've not been here ever since the end of the Fourth Shinobi War" Naruto finished with a smile on his face. "Wow, I've almost definitely missed out on a lot of things happening haven't I?" Naruto asked slightly embarrassed by his cluelessness in the expanse of time.

"Yes, you really have missed out on a lot" Ino said as she yawned heavily, Naruto had really woke up with a fright at such a bad time, honestly, she was enjoying a very good dream when he woke her up. He may have been part of that dream, but that wasn't the point!

"I guess I gotta catch up now then huh? So long as the council don't try anything with me after this failure" Naruto finished with the slightest hints of doubt conquering his voice at the end, Ino heard it loud and clear, the change in his voice from confident to unsure. It was like a sting to her heart to think of him getting in trouble for failing whatever mission it was he was on. Naruto lay down and turned his back to her, facing towards the window and before long she heard the rhythmic breathing of Naruto as he slept.

Ino was thinking to herself of the man that lay in the bed next to her. She had not told him the worst of his condition because she worried about his response to such information. The true extent of his injuries included multiple fractured bones, many scars, some of which were infected and the many poisons within his blood stream. None of them showed up until he was unconscious when they all appeared as if they had been supressed as he was awake.

His scars were surprisingly easy to heal and the same for his fractured bones, it was as if he was stopping his very own body from healing naturally, which even Tsunade admitted to not understanding. The poisons within his bloodstream just as Tsunade said, should have killed him but in some lucky twist of fate the sheer amount of poisons and the variety of them meant that it was almost like they met and nullified each other, making them nothing more than harmless traces within his blood. Naruto essentially had the most potent poison within his blood, his blood being the poison now.

In all Naruto had definitely changed, but his genetic make-up and his psych were two completely different things, this was normal for everyone but on Naruto it was a shoe-in. he was definitely different in his head than he was genetically shown to be. His body may be poisoned but surely his mind couldn't be damaged. Could it?

After what Ino had not long ago just witnessed she was honestly not too sure.


Later that day

Ino was wide awake and had been for a long time now, it was midday and because of her usual Shinobi duties she was hardwired to get up much earlier than midday. Since she was stuck in the hospital for the next two days though it looked like she was going to have to get used to sitting around doing nothing. She would have preferred it if her team were at least able to wake up, but she had to admit that after what they had been through and what they had been so close to being subject to, she couldn't blame them. They were exhausted plain and simple.

That just meant that Ino was forced to sit in this boring hospital room all by herself and try to think of any tangible way that she could fight off the boredom. The ideas were not coming thick and fast. Then as her eyes had done so many times ever since she had woken up her eyes found their path being directed towards the blonde Shinobi to her right hand side. It was miraculous the condition he was in. with the added light of the midday sun Ino was able to see just what condition Naruto was in.

His entire body was covered in bandages even right across his head; he looked much like he did after his first attempt at retrieving Sasuke. There were also many different tubes running to and from him carrying varying fluids to try and help him. The man himself though seemed completely undisturbed, ever since he had fallen asleep the night before he had been completely silent. Ino would have thought him dead if she had not seen his chest rising and falling with his every breath. He was an amazing man, that he could withstand the sheer amount of injuries he had entered with astounded her and even gave Tsunade the fright of her life.

Ino was interrupted from her thoughts when the door to her room was opened. She turned to the ones who had entered to find a nice sight before her.

"Shika! Choji!" Ino called out happily as the two aforementioned men smiled in her direction before walking over to her bed. Both men had changed since the time of the Fourth Shinobi War. Shikamaru stood much taller now at about 6ft and his physical framed had stretched somewhat, he was still lazy as ever but his body was primed for anything. Choji stood about the same height as his best friend but where Shikamaru had bulked up slightly Choji had become slightly more round, even at that he was not overly large by any means. Both were wearing almost identical attire from their time in the Allied Shinobi Forces, the only difference being that they had the Konoha headband.

"Hey Ino" Choji said with a happy smile on his face at seeing his old teammate, it had definitely been a long time since they'd seen each other. Ever since becoming Jonin they all had their own teams to look after and help and honestly time was tight at times. "Why are you in here? I always thought that you were the one who said you could look after yourself" Choji said with a bit of a grin on his face towards Ino who pouted in answer.

"You're mean to me Choji" Ino whined quietly while looking down to her lap, with her face still in a pouting position, Choji laughed slightly as Shikamaru looked around the room at the three girls that were in the beds next to Ino. He turned back to Ino as his gaze fell upon the sleeping form of Kyoki; slight concern was written on his face as he looked to Ino.

"Ino, is Kyoki alright?" Shikamaru asked and Ino could instantly tell that Shikamaru was concerned for the wellbeing of the young girl. He had promised that he would look after his sensei's child and become their sensei to make them a cool adult. While he had not become her sensei he still looked after her to the best of his abilities, almost becoming the father she had lost.

"Yes, she's fine Shika, just tired through chakra exhaustion" Ino answered back with a soft smile which did serve to calm Shikamaru down slightly, Choji watched as his best friend seemed to become less tense after Ino's assurance that Kyoki was fine.

"Speaking of which, how did you all get back if you were all exhausted from chakra exhaustion?" Choji asked as he looked to Ino and then surveyed all of the girls in the room who were all sleeping soundly at that moment and time.

"I would love to be able to say that it was me who was able to force myself onwards home while carrying all of them but it wasn't me" Ino answered back half ashamed and half embarrassed. Shikamaru and Choji looked to Ino in confusion, it wasn't like Ino to blush like this and after the events leading up to now, they couldn't understand why she was blushing.

"Then who was it that helped you, I mean after the Fourth Shinobi War it could be a wide variety of Shinobi, I cant remember how many of the other countries Shinobi you and Sakura healed" Choji said as Shikamaru nodded his head in agreement. Indeed Ino and Sakura after the fighting had ceased and Madara was gone, in a rather brutal way that is, there were still the sick and the wounded to tend to. Both of them with the help of Tsunade, Shizune and Hinata to name but a few, healed any and every Shinobi that came to them, gaining reputations as fair Shinobi the world over.

"It wasn't any Shinobi from another village, we were too far away from any of the other villages to get any help from them, it was one of Konoha's Shinobi that helped us" Ino answered as again Shikamaru and Choji looked to her both confused and surprised. They hadn't heard of any other Konoha Shinobi being with Ino and her squad, all they knew was that Ino and her squad were in hospital with chakra exhaustion.

"Who was it?" Shikamaru asked this time, prepared to go and thank whichever Shinobi it was that protected his old teammate and the girl who was more or less a daughter to him, despite many assurances that he was just a guardian. Ino smiled at her old teammates enthusiasm, Shikamaru really was an energetic individual if something really meant something to him.

Ino jerked her head towards the bed that currently housed the sleeping form of Naruto. "He did" Ino said as she too looked over to where Naruto lay. Shikamaru and Choji's jaws almost literally hit the floor, they could see that whoever this guy was he had definitely been through one hell of a lot. His entire body was covered in bandages and that was before they got to the amount of tubes running to and from his body.

"Who is that?" Shikamaru asked almost sounding shocked, and why wouldn't he? The state of the man occupying that bed looked horrible, it reminded him of a friends condition years ago after a failed retrieval mission. Choji was staring at the man too he couldn't believe what he was seeing; it was as if this man was literally walking the tightrope of life. It was as Choji stared at the face of the man that he caught a glimpse of who he might be. For the slightest f seconds he saw the eyes hidden behind the shadow of the bandages opening and could see the cerulean colour of them as they momentarily opened and then just as quickly, closed again.

"N-N-No way!" Choji almost yelled as he stared into the shadowed face of the man in the bed next to Ino. She was currently staring at Naruto's body which had resumed its rhythmic breathing. Shikamaru was however worried about the sudden reaction of his best friend and moved beside him to find out the problem.

"What's wrong Choji?" he asked quickly as he was now standing next to his best friend who was currently still staring at the man in the bed.

"Ino? That isn't who I think it is, is it?" Choji asked Ino as he looked to her, finding that she too was looking at the man in the other bed with warmth in her eyes and maybe a hint of concern?

"Yes, it's Naruto" Ino answered shortly as her gaze never once wavered from him at all, Choji and Shikamaru noticed this and once again looked to the form of Naruto, the last time they had been around Naruto it had not been on the most pleasant of terms.

As if hearing the name was a beacon, the form of Naruto began to shift and move in the current position on the bed. After a few moments he regained his bearings and looked to his left only to see Ino staring at him but also he saw Choji and Shikamaru staring at him in almost fear? Right enough, the last time they had talked, Naruto had been somewhat worked up. He sat up on his bed and looked over to the trio who were currently staring at him.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Naruto asked slowly as he looked to each of three individually, Ino was first surprised due to his cold voice and due to the fact that her two teammates had tensed up ever since Naruto had awoken. Naruto's gaze became a cold glare as he looked at all of them. Ino could not understand why the atmosphere had become so dark and scary so suddenly, Naruto had seemed alright during the night but now it was like he had changed overnight.

When Naruto never received a reply from the two men he lifted himself from his bed. Pulling out tubes from all over his body, he did not wince once as he moved and caused tubed of liquid to forcibly exit his body. He pulled on his clothes that lay on the chair next to his bed and turned back around to the three who looked at him in horror. Through the black undershirt he wore they could see multiple lines of blood seeping out of his body and onto the bandages, after moving around it had no doubt opened up the scars.

"Naruto! You shouldn't be moving around!" Ino screamed as Naruto basically ignored her and reached over to where his white chest armour and shoulder plates were. He managed to get the armour on but when he reached for his cloak he found that the place it should have been was bare of anything except air. Naruto grunted in annoyance and when he looked over he could see his cloak was in the hands of Shikamaru as he looked at Naruto now without fear, but with concern. The blood was beginning to drip down his arm in torrents for god sake!

"Naruto, please listen to me, if you don't stop you might die!" Ino pleaded as Naruto slowly made his way over to where Shikamaru and Choji were standing. Both got into a subtle defensive stance. Naruto did not hear or did not listen to her as he moved over to where all three were. Naruto's breathing became heavier and laborious as he moved forward, he made to take his cloak from Shikamaru but two things happened.

First of all was that as Naruto made to take his cloak he feebly shot his hand forward to grab it only to touch nothing, after that through and due to the momentum he had gathered Naruto ended up in a heap on the floor. His breathing was getting worse and his body began to shake, it was then that Ino realized to her shock that Naruto was going into shock.

"Shika! Choji! Get a medic-nin in here now, Naruto is in trouble!" Ino screamed to her two teammates who didn't need to be told twice, Ino never yelled at them like that in such fear, it was clear that Naruto saving her had definitely brought her around to worrying about him a great deal. Shikamaru and Choji ran out of the room and split directions, hoping that one of them would find a medic –nin.


Ino could not just sit in her bed while a man who had saved her life was slowly losing his own. She lifted herself out of her bed, lucky that she did not have anything in her veins or body at all for that matter and stood up above Naruto. She leaned down and laced her arms around Naruto's shoulders and tried to lift him off the ground. Needless to say it failed miserably.

Not wanting to eave Naruto at all Ino sat down on the cold floor and with Naruto's shoulders already raised, she rested his entire body against her own. In the end his head lay on her lap, his own weight had forced him to slide down her body. She tried to remain calm despite his head being in a rather uncomfortable place. She could not dwell on that right now though because she had to keep Naruto awake and let him know that she was there.

"Naruto, it's alright, you're alright, someone will be here to help you soon" Ino cooed to the man who was shaking on her lap. This situation scared Ino out of her wits. She had seen this before of course, and she had seen it on Shinobi before too, it was just the man who currently was in this state scared her. Naruto had never been one to get so ill in the past, he had sustained many injuries in his life and had managed to soldier on through them, but right now he seemed so vulnerable and she was scared now for the man's life.

Naruto seemed to calm down after a few moments, his body stopped shaking. Ino panicked when she thought that Naruto might actually have finally lost his fight, but when she felt his rhythmic breathing return she felt relief. Her hands that had been absently stroking his cheeks in reassurance of his safety were feeling slightly sticky and as Ino lifted her hand she saw that there was blood coating her hands and fingers.


It was at that moment when Ino inspected her hand that the door to their room was suddenly blown off its hinges and sent into the wall opposite it. Ino looked up when she saw and heard high heels rushing over to their current position. Suddenly standing over them was a very worried looking Tsunade. She looked to the form of Naruto laying on the form of Ino and ran her eyes all over Naruto's body.

"What happened?" Tsunade barked, not in the mood to be nice right now, her favourite knucklehead ninja was on the floor in what seemed like mortal peril. And if the way that Choji had run into her was any indication, this was definitely serious. Ino looked up to the eyes of the older woman and could see the raw worry on her face.

"I don't know Hokage-Sama, he just woke up and started to get dressed, trying to leave, then Shikamaru took his cloak so he couldn't finish, when he went to take it from Shikamaru he collapsed here" Ino answered quickly and precisely to Tsunade, she could see the look in the Hokage's eyes, it was a 'get to the point or this won't be pretty' kind of look.

"What is his condition?" Tsunade barked as she still stood over the pair. She was not going to touch the boy until she knew exactly what was going on, lest she cause even more problems for the man.

"All I know is that he is bleeding heavily and that he had gone into shock not too long ago" Ino answered again just as quickly as she had before. Tsunade nodded her head in understanding before she quickly lifted Naruto off the ground and put him back onto his bed.

Tsunade stripped him of all the clothes he had tried to put on and removed the now soaked bandages revealing the harrowing sight of Naruto's chest. It was covered in scars of all sizes and colours almost. There was also much blood beginning to pour from the scars. Tsunade had to fight back her hemophobia at the sight of all the blood, and placed her hands over the areas that his body seemed the worst affected. Namely two large scars crossing over his entire chest and stomach and a large scar that seemed suspiciously like one Tsunade had seen before.

She pumped chakra to her hands and they suddenly glowed with a green aura over the scars. Ino was standing by Naruto's bedside when she felt a presence coming up behind her and saw Choji out of breath running towards them.

"Sorry I'm late Ino, I got Hokage-Sama and she ran off faster than I expected and she got away from me" Choji explained while Ino absent mindedly nodded her head to her teammate who then focused his own attention on the form of Naruto. Seeing the scars that were covered by the bandages Choji almost felt sick. To see a body in that condition was just too harrowing.

What was slightly worrying for him too was the fact that despite her greatest level of skill in the field Tsunade was sweating now and the wounds on Naruto were not subsiding in the slightest. Both he and Ino could see the look of concentration on Tsunade's face disappear and a look of desperation take over.

"No! Don't do this to me! Naruto! Don't die on me!" Tsunade screamed at the boy who was slowly dying under her own healing skills, it was the worst kind of fate to be the one to watch as someone dies due to your inability to save them. Ino brought her hand up to her mouth as she heard the way Tsunade's voice changed, it was sheer desperation now. Choji was also lost in confusion and fear, for Tsunade to act in such a way was not often heard of and to witness it was worrying.

"Naruto…" Ino said softly as she reached out towards the man who had saved hers and her team's life, she felt a hand resting on her shoulder and knew instinctively that it was Choji's. Though it may have calmed her down marginally it did not diffuse her fear and she looked on through almost hazy vision as Naruto slowly lost his fight with the death God.

"Tsunade-Sama"

"Tsunade-Shiso" came two different voices that were like the best sound that Ino or Tsunade had ever heard. There in the doorway were three figures. There were two women and a man. One of the women had on the long Kimono that she would often be found wearing and with longish black hair the first woman, Shizune entered the room and moved over to Tsunade's side.

The second woman was Sakura. She had on form fitting shorts that were black along with black sandals, she had on special medical issue Jonin vest that was cream in colour with a red cross on the left breast. Her hair was also longer now, reaching down to her shoulders and a bit more. She ran into the room and stood next to Ino and Choji, opposite Tsunade and Shizune.

Finally the male of the group came into the room, much quicker than he was known to move in the past. Kakashi entered the room with swiftness. He had changed drastically, he was once again garbed in the uniform of the ANBU and his mask was laying at his side. Another notable thing about him was that his hair had completely changed, it had turned pure white, just like his father's before him.

"Tsunade-Sama what happened to him!" Shizune almost yelled to her sensei who barely turned to her before barking an order.

"That doesn't matter Shizune, we have to save him or else he is dead!" Tsunade yelled and caused many of those around her to flinch at the way she had spoken and what she had said. Ino felt herself losing hope. Sakura and Shizune however dived into applying their healing chakra. They definitely had questions surrounding why Naruto was there and why he was in such a condition, but right now those questions could not be addressed.

Kakashi slipped his eye patch from his Sharingan eye and looked to Naruto's body when he noticed that there were no visible changes despite the amount of healing he was being subject to. Tsunade was almost completely exhausted already and Sakura and Shizune were slowly but surely depleting their own chakra. When he found out the cause he closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh.

"Hokage-Sama, it's useless, his own chakra is fighting back all of your healing chakra, his body is rejecting your healing" Kakashi said to the three women who all looked to him with shocked faces. Ino and Choji looked to him too Choji was shocked and Ino looked destroyed. They all looked to Naruto again to see his body sweating heavily, Kakashi hated to say it but he knew someone had to.

"I think it looks like its up to him if he wakes up or not" Kakashi said as softly as he could, trying his hardest to ignore the crushed looks of those around him.


Well here is the next chapter, I hope you guys enjoy it as I am starting to really get into this story, aanyway enjoy, red and review if you could and I shall see you guys later in the next instalment of whatever I decide to write =] - Varrukh