Sasuke looked over Naruko's silent body. She had tubes connected to an oxygen machine helping her breathe and IVs hooked up to her bandaged arms. Her head was rapped up with bandages and she was hooked up to a heart monitor. Her usual tan skin was now a sickly pale because of blood loss. He took her hand in his and caressed it softy.

"Naruko, this is all my fault," he whispered softly bending his head down to kiss her fingers lightly.

Suddenly the door slammed open to reveal a panting woman with long blonde hair and large breasts. She was being followed by a boy with long red hair pulled into a low ponytail and a woman with long black hair. As soon as she saw Sasuke holding Naruko's hand her face turned red with anger and she glared at Sasuke.

"You…you…get away from my granddaughter! You did this to her!" screamed the blonde haired woman.

"What the heck are you talking about woman? I was the one who found her like this and brought her to the hospital! You should be thanking me. If I hadn't found her when I had she would probably have died!" Sasuke yelled back. He was standing and his hands were clenched at his sides.

"Oh, please, you expect me to believe that. You're just like your brother." Sasuke stomped up to the woman angrily.

"Don't you every say that I am anything like my brother. I will never be like him," Sasuke growled before shoving past the woman and walking out of the room. The black haired woman turned to the blonde haired woman.

"Tsunade-sama I think you went to far there." Tsunade just walked towards the bed that Naruko was on.

"Naruko, please wake up," she whispered softly holding Naruko's hand. She stroked it for a bit and then straightened up and wiped away the tears that had started spilling. She turned to Shizune.

"Shizune let's go, you too Kyuubi." She looked toward the red haired boy who was staring at Naruko with a lost look on his face. Tsunade sighed and walked out of the room with Shizune following closely behind.

Kyuubi walked up to the bed. He looked down at Naruko's peaceful face and held onto her hand softly. He sat down in the chair that Sasuke had been sitting on and just stared at Naruko letting tears slowly slip down his tan face.

- - -

Naruko slowly opened her eyes and blinked. The walls were white, the ceiling was white, even the sheets were white. There was an annoying beeping sound coming from a box to her right. She groaned as realization hit her. She was in a hospital.

"Ugh, what happened?" she whispered hoarsely as she looked around the room. She noticed a mound of red hair lying on the edge of her bed and the lax grip of a hand on her own.

"Kyu-nii, wake up," she called out her voice cracking from under use. Kyuubi shifted and lifted his head slowly. He looked at her and his deep brown eyes widened in surprise and happiness.

"Naruko…Naruko you're awake! Oh my god, you have no idea how worried we were about you. How are you feeling?" he asked anxiously.

"Well my head is pounding, I'm pretty sure I broke at least two of my ribs, and my arms feel like they were put through a shredder. But other than that I'm just peachy," she answered sarcastically. Kyuubi just pouted and folded his arms across his chest.

"Well I'm glad that your sense of humor wasn't injured as well." Naruko giggled a bit before breaking into a coughing fit. Kyuubi rushed to pour some water for her and helped her to drink it. Naruko sighed at the feel of the cool liquid slowly slipping down her parched throat.

"Thanks. So how's everybody and how long have I been out?" she asked.

"Well you've been out for about three days. Your friend -what's his name?- oh yeah, Kiba, kept asking for you and he came by yesterday. And Sasuke has come and stayed with me every single day." Naruko smiled at the mention of Sasuke's name. Then her face fell as she noticed the lack of her grandmother in the list of people who visited her.

"What about obaasan?" Kyuubi frowned.

"She was busy so she couldn't come. She complained that she had already missed a day to come see you when you got admitted into the hospital," Kyuubi answered anger clearly evident in his voice. Naruko looked down at her hands sadly. Kyuubi looked her sadly and smiled brightly.

"You know, that Sasuke kid, he's pretty cool and I think he really likes you." Naruko brightened up at this comment and sat up slowly wincing as she strained her arms.

"That's good. Now that I know that, I don't care what happens to me, I'm still gonna like him and I'll go after him," she said happily smiling brightly at Kyuubi who couldn't help but smile back. Then his smile faltered.

"You know, he blames himself for this," Kyuubi sad turning his head to look out the window at the setting sun.

"Nande?" she asked. Kyuubi looked down at his hands.

"He said that when he found you in the shed you were in really bad shape. He was cleaning blood off your face and when he wiped the blood off your forehead he saw what was carved into it." Naruko looked impatiently at her brother.

"What is carved into my forehead?" Kyuubi hesitated and stared at his hands finding them very interesting all of a sudden.

"Whoever did this carved 'stay away from Sasuke' onto your forehead." Naruko gasped and put her hands up to rest gingerly on the bandage now covering the threatening words carved into her forehead.

Sasuke sadly watched the scene displayed in the room through the window on the door. He guessed that Naruko had found out what was carved into her head and probably thought that it was his fault that she had gotten hurt. He slowly turned away from the door and walked to the elevator.

- - -

Three weeks had passed and Naruko was finally able to leave the hospital. She was glad to finally be out of the hospital since she had had to stay an extra week to recover from the surgery to remove the carved words on her forehead. She was happy that she could still go to school but the doctors had said that she should take it easy for at least another week.

As she walked into the building she was attacked by a very emotional Kiba, hugging and crying.

"You're all in one piece. I'm so glad you're alright. I was so worried. I came to see you but you were still out. Oh, I am so glad you're alright," Kiba yelled squeezing the life out of her. She grunted in pain as he squeezed and he looked at her and jumped back.

"Ah, gomen, gomen, I forgot. But I'm really glad you're ok." Chouji and Lee walked up to her and Naruko put a hand up pushing Lee away before she was crushed in one of his 'hugs of exuberant youth'.

"Ah, Naruko-chan, my youthful friend, you are out of the hospital. I am so glad. We should jog around the school campus 500 times to welcome you back," Lee said beginning to jog. Naruko sweatdropped and backed away slowly.

"Uh, no thanks Lee, uh, my doctor said not to overexert myself so I can't jog with you, gomen." Lee looked crestfallen.

"Then I shall add your 500 laps to my 500 laps and do 1000 laps in celebration of your return," he suddenly burst out before jogging away out the door. Chouji, Kiba, and Shikamaru, who had just joined the group, sweatdropped and watched Lee begin to jog around the school.

"Well, I've missed you guys tons, but I need to go find someone before homeroom, ja!" she yelled over her shoulder before running off to find Sasuke.