I spend the night sleeping in the chair next to Sasuke's hospital bed. I wake up to a creaking sound as Sasuke opens the wardrobe across the room.
I look at the empty bed and panic thinking Sasuke's. Then I turn my head and realize Sasuke is just looking for his clothes. "Good morning," I say as I rub my eyes to wake myself up.
"Morning, did you sleep well?" Sasuke asked. " You didn't have to spend the night with me you know."
"Hey I smiled, what are sisters for?" In all honestly something just didn't feel right. Ever since I got to the hospital I had this feeling that something was seriously wrong. Sasuke walks over and hugs me.
"Thanks" he gives me one of his rare real smiles.
"And where do you think you're going?" I tease. "Didn't the hospital say you were on bed rest for the next three weeks?" I stand up stretching my arms out.
"Actually" I hear a voice behind me "he's going to be with me." I look and see Kakashi standing in the doorway.
"He stopped by earlier this while you were sleeping" Sasuke explains quickly changing out of his hospital clothes and into his regular ones. I not embarrassed or anything, we are always together. Now doing his laundry is a whole other thing. It always stinks. "I'm going to be spend the next month and a half with Kakashi training for the final rounds of the chunin exam."
"Wait what? But aren't you still healing?"
"That doesn't matter." Sasuke replies, "Getting stronger is the only thing that matters."
"Uhh no that's not the only things that matters," I look at him exasperated. "You're health matters, you're friends matter, our family matters, not power." Sasuke pushes himself too much too often. I always try to get him to take a break. Usually I'm subtler but I don't have a lot of time.
Sasuke's face becomes stoic. "What has gotten into you Nami?" Sasuke asks. "You're usually supportive of anything I do."
"Maybe I should leave" Kakashi interrupts.
"No," I raise my voice a little looking at Kakashi "I think you should hear this too. Look Sasuke, you're the only person that I can always depend on. When our parents passed away it was just us living in an apartment with a nanny that visited every other day. You always talked about getting revenge and stopping Itachi and I have always supported your desire to become stronger, but something isn't right. I have this feeling." I place my fisted hand on my heart. I think that you should stay out of this one."
"Nami, you know I have to do this and there is nothing you can do to change that," Sasuke stares at me. I stare back hoping he will eventually understand.
He doesn't "Kakashi, lets go." Sasuke walks out of the room. Kakashi looks between us for a moment then walks over and put a hand on my shoulder.
"It'll be ok, just let Sasuke cool down a little, he's going through a lot." With that he turns around and follows Sasuke.
Only when I'm sure no one was around that I let tears slide silently down my face.
The next week goes by quickly. I couldn't do anything but rest and when the week was up I went back to the hospital to get my injury drained.
The next few days I start practicing using my sharingan. It is very slow and tiring, but I'm starting to get the hang. When my leg is completely healed I'll have to test it in combat with Hiro or Isamu. As I settle down after practicing I hear banging on the front door.
"Sasuke are you in there." I heard a pleading voice, "If you are you should still be in the hospital." After a moment of silence I hear her mumble, "please be here."
I open the door to see Sakura standing there. Her eyes widen in surprise then close, tears running down her face. She's an extremely emotional person. Looking at her makes me a little jealous. To wear your emotions on your sleeve, it must be freeing. I know I could never be that way, but I am allowed to dream. After all your dreams are the most important part of you being.
"He's not here." I remember Kakashi asking that I keep Sasuke and his whereabouts a secret. "He hasn't been here for about two weeks."
"Oh" Sakura sniffles. "Do you know where he is? I'm really worried about him." She lifts her hands to wipe away her tears. I feel sorry for her.
"I don't know much, I just know that he's going to be gone for a while." I tilt my head. "Would you like to come inside and drink some tea?" I hope to calm her down. She looks a little surprised but nods anyway.
She sits down and I prepare the tea. She's very quiet. I eventually sit down and with two full cups of tea. We start drinking
"So", I ask, "how did you fair in the chunin exams. I haven't been able to get any details from Sasuke, although I did talk to Kakashi. He said that you guys had a pretty rough time."
Sakura looks down at her cup "you don't know the half of it," she mumbles. "At one point I didn't think we were going to get out of the forest of death." That caught my attention.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
Sakura makes a face. She looked very focused and confused at the same time. It was almost like she forgot I was in the room. "Well there was his guy, he was really strong and then Naruto disappeared and Sasuke . . ." she looks down at her cup again.
"Sasuke what?" I asked.
She only smiled a little "Sasuke saved our butts of course. What else would you expect from a Uchiha." I was flattered that she though so highly of my family but I knew she was lying. I smiled back.
"Is Naruto alright now?" I ask.
"Yeah he's fine, still the same old goofball." She giggles a little. "You wouldn't believe how he won in the preliminary to the third exam."
She talks about some of the battles with me. She talks about Sasuke and Yoroi, Tenten and Temari, Naruto and Kiba, and her and Ino. Her fight with Ino is the most interesting. I feel like I have a deeper connection with Sakura.
Time passes quickly and eventually I get up to clear the table.
"What happened to your leg?" Sakura asks noticing my slight limp.
"Oh just a rough mission. I guess we've both had a long few weeks."
"Do you want me to take a look at it? I mean I don't know a lot about medicine but I am pretty good with basic first aid." I looked down at my leg. It is now wrapped with simple bandages. Sakura wouldn't know that I had been to the hospital twice already to get it looked at.
"No I've been to the hospital twice about already. I should be fine" I smile. "Thank you for your concern though." Sakura's mood seemed to lighten. "Would you like to go for a walk?" I ask.
"I would like that" she responds. Who knows maybe I can get more information about what happened at the chunin exam.
Authors Notes: Another chapter done! As always thank you for reading, please review, enjoy the story, I hope to keep updating on a somewhat regular basis.