Tension filled the corridors of Konoha's hospital

Tension filled the corridors of Konoha's hospital. In the waiting room, nurses walked from one side to another, barely noticing a small group of leaf shinobi sitting there.

Kakashi sat next to Sasuke, who had recently regained consciousness after fainting under the pain of several punches delivered at him by Tsunade.

Sakura stared thoughtfully at the white walls surrounding them, while Ino used her hand as something to crush due to her nervousness. The memories of some moments before were still fresh in her mind.

FLASHBACK

"What…You…How?" She lifted her hand to touch his face. "Is it really…you?"

"Yes." She remembered this coldness from their days of Team 7. "I was…brought back." He said, reluctantly pushing away his pride.

Sakura's face was suddenly brightened with joy. "So he kept his promise to me!" She looked at Sasuke, unable to keep herself from smiling, and hugged him slightly. " I'm just so glad you're back!" Everything was finally coming back to place.

Sasuke's heart was filled with guilty. She would hate him when she knew what had happened to her blond teammate.

"I have to go find Naruto. Do you know where he is?" Sakura said, as though as she had read his thoughts. She was surely planning to thank him for bringing Sasuke back, but it had something more to it.

He sighed. He had to tell her, anyways, or else he would have to deal with a very angry Kakashi. We don't want dear Sasuke-kun to die yet, do we? (A/N.: Well, just maybe…)

"Am…yeah, I know…but you can't see him right now." He stated, using whatever way he had to have her not set punches all over him. He couldn't just spit it out on her face, as weird as it seems, he wasn't that cold hearted. Sasuke still cared about her happiness. He my have ignored her every chance he got in the past, but deep inside he really cared.

"What? Why?" She asked, all the glee now gone from her face, as realization sunk in her mind. "Sasuke…Where.Is.Naruto?" She asked firmly.

"In the hospital." He closed her eyes, for he didn't want to see the accusatory expression he knew there would be in her face. He waited for yells, kicks, punches, and all sorts of torture, but it never came. When he took in his surroundings, he found no bubblegum pink hair, nor deep green eyes. Sakura was already gone.

FLASHBACK END

"Sakura?"

A sweet voice took her out of her memories. Sakura found herself facing two pale pupil-less eyes. Hinata had been working in the hospital as a Medic Nin for some time, since she had decided that she was too pure and pacific to be a shinobi.

"What are all of you doing here?" She asked. "You look a little…down. What happen-" Her eyes narrowed at the sight of Sasuke. When she recovered from the shock, she looked as angry as anyone had ever seen her. "Why are you here?" People had to admit that the shy and quiet Hinata had developed to a confident and intelligent Miss. Hyuuga.

"Naruto was injured. Tsunade's already taking care of him." Kakashi muttered. The 'Sasuke' subject was better left aside until it could be discussed with the Hokage. And besides, none in there, including the jounin himself, wanted to talk about that under the circumstances.

Hinata glares at Sasuke for some seconds, and then walked away, just as Neji walked in and sat on a chair near the group, as quiet as one can be. He too glared at Sasuke.

Kakashi noticed the killer intent emanating from the Hyuuga genius and sighed. 'I guess that we'll have to settle things up sooner than I thought.' He decided that this subject just couldn't wait. He grabbed Sasuke's arm and took a few steps away from the group.

"Tell me what happened between you and Naruto. And you'd better not 'forget' to mention anything." The jounin said, failing miserably to hide his own amount of killer intent. Not wanting to test out Kakashi's fury, Sasuke did just what he had been told to.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

What was that? Some kind of sound…No, it felt more like something pounding. A heart. His own heart.

He could feel his blood running trough his body each time his heart beated. He remembered the time when he had almost had it crushed by Kabuto. Since then, he had valued this pounding feeling way more than he used to.

Then, he could feel the oxygen enter his lungs. This simple fact spread some kind of warmth trough his chest, and he started to hear a few voices around him. His nose picked up the sickening scent of medicine in the air. He liked the feeling.

However, as soon as it all came to him, it was replaced by an annoying throbbing on his head, creating a painful headache. He gasped. Wait…he gasped? If so, it meant that he was conscious again and could…

"Ugh…"

'Bad idea.' He had opened his eyes a little, but soon regretted doing so. His blue orbs had met too much light at once, and he winced from the blinding brightness of the room he was in.

In the back of his mind, Naruto thought he had heard the sound of footsteps walking away and the door of where he was being carefully closed.

Well, the fact that he was in the hospital was obvious to him. He knew this place all too well.