Chapter 11

I have to apologize about not putting this chapter up last week, a few things conflicted with it. I had a few papers for school(Which totally sucked) and a presentation(Which I totally aced). Also I ran into a bit of writers block, to be honest I don't know how I feel about this chapter, it was just…difficult to write.

Mangaka Shuzen: I'm glad you enjoyed it, I thought it was pretty risk to do.

XxAshishxX: Neither can I ;)

It was dark, murky.

'Where am I?' he thought.

…

There was no response.

He didn't understand, what happened?

'Did I mess up? Why is it is so cold?'

Another thought…a darker thought came to him then.

'Am I dead?'

….

Again there was no response, he was starting to get sc-.

'It'll be alright darling…'

'Wha-? That voice…' he started panicking now. 'Is it that damn fox?'

…..

'Am I just hearing things or.?.'

'It'll be alright…Naruto.'

She slouched into her chair, it had been another long day and the worst part hadn't even started yet. She still had to go see him.

-Flashback-

Tsunade strutted into her office slowly, the day's events had been even more taxing on her then they usually were.

"I swear if I have to hear those damned council members argue one more time over my drinking habits I will show them something they really need to argue over."

She smirked to herself as she smacked her biceps.

'I still got it' she thought to herself as she made her way to her desk.

Removing the Hokage robes and the hat she lowered herself into the wooden chair that had become a sort of second home to her.

"I spend way too much time here." She muttered to herself as she leaned forward, reaching underneath the desk to grab one of the few things that made her happy.

'Yeah right..' she thought as she pushed all of the papers that cluttered all over her desk onto the floor before kicking her shoes off and putting them on top of the desk. Something that always agitated her best friend and trusted assistant, Shizune.

'Tsunade please …argh don't put your bottle…eeek stop it! Let me have Tonton back please milady…'

She chuckled softly to herself as she remembered all the times she spent with her friend.

'Remember that one time..'

She was brought out of the thought as a knock resounded on her door. Not wanting to get up she just yelled at whoever it was.

"Who is it?"

There was a stalled silence afterwards almost making her think it was a prank. 'Those damn office workers are always fucking around, well I'll teach the-'.

Before she could think of any more devious ways to torture, erhm, she meant teach them some respect; the door to her office flew open. Standing in the doorway to her office was someone she didn't expect to see at least not so soon.

"Tsunade-shishou, we need your help." Said the pink-haired kunoichi, stress easily visible on her face. The fact that Sakura was back only meant one thing.

'He's back.'

But before she could relax she remembered Sakura's question.

"What is it? Does it have something to do with Naruto? What's happened?"

The barrage of questions and her high strained voice would have scared Sakura if she didn't know how much Tsunade cared for the little knucklehead.

"I…I don't know." Spoke Sakura, her voice cracking as she continued. "We were getting ready to go out and look for Naruto when Kiba and Shino told us they had caught scent of him, or actually his chakra."

When Tsunade heard that, her blood immediately turned cold. 'Did he use the nine-tailed fox's chakra? Damn it Naruto you reckless brat.'

"Be-Before we knew it we stumbled across him…the thing is Shishuo..we don't know what's happening to him." Tears flowed freely down Sakura's face as she finished her story and before she could even ask her sensei if she would help, Tsunade was gone.

-Flashback End-

Ever since that day she had been going to the hospital to work on Naruto. The first time she got there she nearly gagged. Seeing him on the hospital bed, hooked up to all those machines, tubes inserted into his arms and legs, was one of the worst things she'd ever seen.

'You're going to be Hokage you baka! Wake up, wake up! Call me baa-chan, anything that'll just let me know you're still there…please.' The grief stricken face of the hokage waited but when she was only greeted with the beep of the pacemaker and the gentle hum of the other machines in the room, she realized that just standing around wasn't going to get him back up on his feet.

She didn't need help, she was the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village and she would be damned if she was going to let one knucklehead die on her watch.

Gathering all of her equipment she was about to check over his body to figure out what exactly was affecting him but she was interrupted as the door to the operating room opened, followed by the voice of the one person she expected the most.

"Shishuo"

…..

Again

"Shishuo"

….

"Tsunade!"

"Damn it Sakura what do you want?" It came out as a shout; she meant for it to, she didn't have time to play games with Sakura.

"I want to help shishou." Meeting Tsunade's eyes, a silent understanding passed between the two and after a few moments Sakura stepped towards the operating table, moving her hands over Naruto's body to get a read on what is plaguing him. Tsunade just stood there, slightly awestruck at what her apprentice had just done.

'Sakura…you've become so strong..' She smiled asshe looked on, Sakura wasn't the same helpless girl that she had been when she had first started teaching her.

'No, she's changed so much, it's like..'

"You just going to stand there…baa-chan?" Sakura said, her tone playful but the look on her face was serious. She was already done with her scans.

The sound of her apprentices voice brought her out of the thought and she realized now wasn't the time to be standing around gawking.

'We'll save you Naruto…it's a promise.' She nodded her head.

With that last thought the legendary sannin stood next to her apprentice and started working.

Just like old times, eh shishou?

She swiveled around in her chair so she was facing the window, a glass of sake in hand. Days like today really pissed her off, meetings, meetings, and more meetings, she didn't understand how her grandpa could have dealt with the council, they were just a whiny bunch of old people. More importantly she didn't understand why she dealt with them. It was for him really. 'Naruto.'

Her thoughts turned to the boy in question. It had been a month since he had been brought back, a month where he had been operated on nonstop to remove the poison that had rooted itself within him.

She didn't even understand what had caused him to receive this poison, or where it was from. That was until she was able to extract a sample, that's when that son of a bitch's name reentered her mouth.

'Orochimaru'

That sick bastard had done this to Naruto, meaning one thing, they fought.

Why would Naruto fight him? Did he not understand how strong Orochimaru was?

'That baka'

Once she figured out who caused the poison she realized just how much harder her job had just become, Orochimaru was a genius at creating deadly weapons, a posion would be child's play for him.

She was ready to work long hours to save him, Sakura was too, but then they received a surprise. Two weeks in and the poison was completely gone from his body, they had been able to safely extract all of it, Naruto however still hadn't woken up, and that worried her.

Finishing her glass of sake she placed the glass underneath her desk before getting up and leaving her office.

Making her way through the streets of Konoha she noticed the changing color of the leaves that lay scattered across the ground. It was becoming cooler, fall was approaching.

As she finally reached the hospital she looked up, she knew where his room was like the back of her hand, it was on the top floor. Only people who were either extremely important or those who were very wounded stayed there, he was both.

Waving to the receptionists she made her way up the long winding stairs to his room. She really didn't like visiting this place, it reminded her too much of blood, death, she shivered.

Knocking on his door she was surprised to see the door slowly open, as if inviting her in.

'Why was his door open? Did one of those nurses forget to lock it?'

Slowly she took a step inside the room and then immediately felt sick. The machines weren't beeping; the bed sheets were thrown aside, and a sandal, most likely his, was laying upside down on the floor.

Naruto was gone.

She ran out of the building as fast as she could.

LINE BREAK

He sat on the top of the Hokage's Tower, just like he had done so with The Third, admiring the village he had come to love, no matter how much the people hated him.

Sighing, he was about to get up but stopped as he heard something, a pitter patter.

'Oh no…' he bit the inside of his cheek, preparing for the worst.

"Baka…" she said softly, tears rolling down her face.

He turned around to face her, scratching the back of his head he gave a nervous smile before speaking.

"H-Hey Sakura-chan." He stuttered as he spoke, turning around to face her he held his breath as he finally saw her, she was still as beautiful as he remembered.

"N-Naruto…"

A/N: Hope you enjoyed it, this chapter and the next will of course focus primarily on the meeting between the two. Also I must once again apologize for the wait for this chapter, I hope you guys understand. Hope you guys have a great day c: