Chapter 11: Recovery

Sasuke awoke in the hospital, though this time it wasn't his fault, and he knew that he wasn't to blame. He immediately turned his head to the side to see Naruto and a nurse standing in the doorway talking about something or another, probably his care during his stay. When she saw that he was awake the nurse tore out of the conversation with Naruto to run fetch a doctor. Sasuke opened his mouth to ask what was wrong.

"Don't say anything." Naruto ordered, "They're still afraid your right lung could collapse." Sasuke tried to talk back but Naruto beat him to it.

"I know, you want to know what happened…" Naruto took a seat by Sasuke's hospital bed and wiggled his hand into Sasuke's, "It's been about three weeks. Itachi survived the bullet and was convicted of three hundred and twenty six counts of first degree murder last weekend. He was sentenced to life imprisonment but the second they tried to take him to the maximum security prison he threw himself in front of the transport, it killed him instantly." Sasuke grunted approval while wiping a single tear from his eye as acknowledgement of his final fallen family member.

"He was such a good… brother when we were… little…" he choked out between silent sobs and the pain in his chest. Naruto shot him a dirty look for speaking when he wasn't supposed to. Sasuke shut his mouth and waved his hand in the air as though to say "what else?"

"Graduation's coming up soon; you're walking with us since you've been 'doing your homework diligently' this whole time." Naruto winked since he'd been doing both Sasuke's and his own assignments, "And then there's the most important activity on the agenda: rest and recuperation."

Sasuke's brows furrowed as he acted out with his hands a question he'd been thinking about for a while.

"After we fell?" Naruto paused to think for a moment, "Are you sure you want to hear it?" Sasuke nodded erratically. Naruto sighed and removed the conspicuously placed scarf from his neck revealing a large, still healing, jagged scar from the very back of his neck to right next to his adam's apple.

"Simply put, I was left behind to die. I only survived because Sakura and Ino noticed we didn't show up to the bus and had Mr. Hatake and the park rangers looking for us." Naruto stopped speaking when Sasuke's heart rate shot through the roof causing the monitor to constantly beep which sounded like a flat line. The doctor who responded was grumpy at Naruto for upsetting his patient.

"When… can I go home?" Sasuke asked the doctor before he had the chance to leave. He checked the clipboard in his hand before nodding once.

"Since all your major injuries have set you can go home any time you like so long as you rest and do nothing strenuous. Minimal schooling and absolutely no stress."

"What do you think about this one?" Naruto shoved another college brochure in Sasuke's face as they lay on the floor of the living room with hundreds of papers laid out in front of them. After getting home and having a serious talk with both Tsunade and Sarutobi the two figured out that with their grades and scholarships for being first generation college students as well as orphans they could go wherever they wanted for school. The problem, though, was picking one that they both liked.

Sasuke shook his head and shoved it away.

"I don't like any of the majors they have, nothing really seems interesting to me… I guess I never really thought of it before, what I want to do in the future…"

"Well, I've always wanted to be a psychologist." Said Naruto, "The trick to figuring out what you want to do is to take a bunch of things you really care about and choose a career based on that." Sasuke thought a moment.

"I want to be a police officer, more than anything, and help people like us." He looked at Naruto, "there's nothing else I would like to have as a career."

"Then this one would be perfect." Naruto smiled as he handed Sasuke a brochure covered in rolling green hills and shady trees. The hook, though, was that it was far away from home, so far away in fact that they could completely escape the events of the past.

Kind of a rushed snippet of this chapter but what-can-ya-do, huh? Be back with the finale soon!