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Chapter Fourteen: Bedside Vigil

A heavy silence seemed to hang over the hospital as a lone figure made his way to the end of the hallway, and carefully craned his neck around the corner to scout down the length of the new corridor in either direction. Seeing no one, Kakashi Hatake painfully pushed his wheelchair back into motion and turned into the adjacent hallway to the right.

It had taken a lot to get his hands on this wheelchair. One would think they were precious commodities or something by the way the doctors and nurses hoarded them away. He'd had to spend more than forty-five minutes smooth talking one of the afternoon nurses into bringing him one - and even then, it was only after he promised that he wasn't going to use it to try and escape or anything that she'd actually brought him one.

Like he was actually going to get that far in it even if he wanted to… His entire chest was swaddled in bandages from his collar bone to his hip. He was lucky to even be able to be sitting up right now, let alone sneaking out of his room to search the hospital like this. Kyuubi had come closer to killing him than Kakashi cared to admit even to himself. Despite all the painkillers and medication he'd been given, his chest still felt like one massive throbbing wound where his possessed student had nearly sliced him in half. By all rights he should still be laying flat on his back in bed. But it would have been impossible for him not to overhear the rumors that had been spreading like wildfire through the hospital all day.

From what he could determine by the bits of secondhand information he'd managed to gather, Itachi Uchiha and Kisame Hoshigaki - two of the last known remaining inner members of the feared crime organization Akatsuki - were dead. And by the hands of his former students, Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki, no less.

And that was what had compelled Kakashi to ignore his own injuries and pain to commandeer a wheelchair to go on some wild goose chase through the hospital in search of his missing students. Because from what he'd been able to gather from the circulating rumors, the two boys hadn't escaped their fight with Itachi and Kisame unscathed. And depending on which rumors one happened to be listening to at the time or who was telling it, both were either teetering on the brink of death, or already laying dead somewhere in the hospital morgue.

Nobody seemed to know for sure which…

Kakashi came to the end of another hallway and paused to look around the corner to see if it was clear. The last thing he needed right now was to be caught wandering the halls by some nurse and taken back to his room. He still hadn't seen any sign of his students yet, and didn't like the idea of going back with no more information than what he'd originally set out with. He knew he wouldn't be able to rest until he found out what happened. Over the years Team Seven had become like a replacement family for him; Sasuke and Naruto both like sons. He had to find out where they were and if they were alright. Both boys had already suffered so much. If one of them died…

Kakashi quickly cut that line of thought off before it could go any farther. He didn't want to think about it. He didn't want to contemplate losing one of his students again. He'd already lost so many people through the years, including his number-one loudmouthed ninja once. Naruto's first death had been like having his heart ripped out and trampled on. He didn't know if he could go through that again. If he lost Naruto or Sasuke - or worse yet, both of them - he didn't know what he was going to do…

The wheelchair-bound ninja came to yet another intersection and took another right. He had no idea where he was going, but decided to follow his gut instinct. It had served him well in the past and kept him alive in more than a few close battles. He only hoped it could somehow lead him to his missing students now.

Up ahead, Kakashi suddenly caught sight of a small vending area. Several drink and snack machines lined one side of the corridor, the hum of their bright florescent bodies echoing through the silence of the hospital's sterilized white halls. As Kakashi wheeled his way towards them, another person suddenly appeared out of one of the adjacent hallways further down the hall, and stepped up to them, plunking several coins into the hot drink machine. It was a young woman, dressed in red medi-nin clothes. As Kakashi watched, the girl wearily punched the button for hot tea from the list of available drinks; and as a paper cup dropped down behind the machine's plastic window and a narrow stream of hot liquid began to fill it, the girl leaned her forehead against the vending machine and released a shuddering half-sob, half-sigh of exhaustion.

The copy ninja cautiously slowed, eyeing the medi-nin warily. Subconsciously, he reached up to readjust the edge of his mask and slouched headband which he'd managed to find before venturing out into the halls. He didn't need to be caught wandering the hallways by some nosey nurse now. He still had to find his students. But as he drew closer and was able to finally get a good look at the girl, recognition washed over him and he softly called out, "Sakura?"

The girl's head shot up, her pink hair flying around her face as she spun around to face him. "Kakashi-sensei?" she gasped.

Now able to properly see her, Kakashi saw that there were tears in the young kunoichi's eyes, her bright green orbs swimming in a sea of barely contained anguish. Dark circles ringed red-rimmed eyes, exhaustion etched into every corner of her visage as if she hadn't gotten any sleep in the last several days. As if aware of Kakashi's scrutiny, Sakura self-consciously scrubbed the back of one hand across her face and visibly tried to regain her composure.

"Kakashi-sensei," she stammered in a suspiciously tight voice, fighting back a wet sniffle, "what are you doing up? You should still be in bed. You're in no shape to be up like this. You were almost killed last night. You could tear your stitches open sneaking around like this."

Kakashi waved her worries aside as if shooing away a fly. "I'm fine," he said in his most reassuring, offhanded tone. Growing serious though, he speared his student with a troubled look. "But I am worried about Sasuke and Naruto. I heard some disturbing rumors floating around the hospital. Something about them getting into a battle with Itachi and Kisame? No one's come around to tell me anything yet."

Sakura's expression became strained, as if struggling to hold back another wave of tears. Her lips slowly curled away from her teeth in a pained grimace.

Kakashi instantly noticed and leaned forward in his seat. The smoldering sense of worry in the pit of his stomach flared into full fledge panic. "Sakura, what is it? What happened? Where's Naruto and Sasuke? Don't tell me Akatsuki came after Naruto again-"

"No," Sakura said, fighting to keep her voice from breaking as a rush of strained emotions threatened to break past her defenses. The watery shine of tears in her eyes became impossibly bright. "Akatsuki didn't try to attack the village again. But Naruto was afraid of Kyuubi getting out again. After what happened with you and Gai-sensei he was afraid he might hurt someone else if his seal broke, so he tried to run away. We… we think he was going to try and commit suicide…"

Kakashi stared at his former student, his one eye growing wide with horror.

Sakura looked away from her former teacher to the floor, a choked off sob breaking somewhere in the back of her throat. "Sasuke went after him," she forced herself to go on. "I don't know exactly what happened but it looks like Itachi and Kisame were still near Konoha and attacked them in the forest. They… it looks like there was some kind of battle. Itachi and Kisame were killed, but…" Sakura trailed off with an unsteady sob.

Kakashi leaned forward, grasping both of Sakura's hands in his own. "Sakura, where's Sasuke and Naruto?" he demanded, his usually calm and composed voice taking on a frightened, desperate tone. "What happened to them? Are they alright? Tell me where they are."

"The other search teams that followed Sasuke into the forest found them a couple of miles outside of the eastern wall of the village. They-" Sakura broke off with another sob. "They were both badly injured… Naruto was suffering from extreme chakra exhaustion. He somehow managed to break your curse seal and I guess tried to help Sasuke fight. He'd already gone into full body convulsions and final chakra coil shutdown when they found him. And Sasuke… h- he…" For a moment Sakura couldn't seem to bring herself to finish the sentence. But pulling herself together she stammered on, "Itachi almost took his arm off at the shoulder. There was so much blood, for awhile rescue teams couldn't tell who was really bleeding…"

Kakashi sat there frozen, dread washing over him like an icy wave. His grip on Sakura's hands tightened. "Naruto and Sasuke, where are they? Are they alright?" Despite his desperate demand for answers, Kakashi couldn't help but note that deep down, he really didn't want to know. He was afraid of what the kunoichi's answer might be.

"When Shikamaru, Neji and the others found them, Sasuke and Naruto were almost dead… Neji and Kiba both had to give Naruto chakra transfusions to keep his chakra coils from shutting down. Hinata was the only one with them that had any actual medical training and managed to stave off the worst of Sasuke's bleeding until ANBU teams could arrive and help them transport Naruto and Sasuke back to the village…"

Kakashi stared at Sakura, his heart hammering against the inside of his chest. "So," he hesitantly said, almost afraid to hope, "they're both still alive?"

A shuddery exhale of air from Sakura. Then a shaky, timid smile. "Yes," she nodded. But before Kakashi could appreciate the younger ninja's words of hope, the smile disappeared and was replaced with a pensive look of lingering apprehension. "But they're both still in really bad shape. They're not completely out of the woods yet. Tsunade-sama and at least three teams of medics spent more than half the day working on them, and Tsunade says they could still easily relapse. She's not sure if either of them are ever going to fully recover either. Sasuke's arm and Naruto's chakra reserves… The amount of damage both of them sustained was enormous. Neither one of them might be able to be ninja any more…"

Kakashi digested this for a moment, then nodded. "I see," he murmured.

"Sasuke and Naruto are lucky to even be alive," Sakura went on, tears still shining in the corners of her eyes. "The other teams only managed to find them in time because of the amount of chakra they were putting out right before it disappeared. It was a really close call. I saw them when the ANBU teams brought them in… If they had been even a few more minutes getting them here, I don't know if-"

"Sakura," Kakashi's gentle voice cut her off.

The young medi-nin looked down at him with haunted, watery green eyes.

"Don't think about those kind of things," he said. "It doesn't do any good to dwell on what might have been or what could have happened. Just be thankful that they were able to be found in time and brought here. I have total faith in the Hokage's medical skills. With her looking over them, I have no doubt Sasuke and Naruto will make it through this. We just need to give them time to heal."

Sakura nodded. "But…" she softly murmured, "it was still such a close call…"

Kakashi nodded again, but said nothing else to try and dispel the girl's unspoken alternate outcomes and frightening could-have-beens. He knew what kind of possibilities were going through the young girl's mind because the same ones were going through his. They had come so close to losing their teammates. So very, very close… Sakura had grown as both a person and a ninja since her early years as an immature, doey-eyed fan girl; and for her to be reduced to such an emotional state like the one she was in now… Well, that in and of itself spoke of how badly Sasuke and Naruto must have been hurt. The lingering uncertainty of their recovery could not be helping matters much either. Sakura always had been rather protective of her teammates…

Giving his student's hands one last reassuring squeeze, Kakashi released them and looked up into her worry-shadowed face. "Can you tell me where Naruto and Sasuke are?" he asked. "I'd like to see them."

Using the back of her hand, Sakura wiped the last remnants of tears from her eyes and took a deep breath. "I can take you to them," she said, her voice now composed and strong. "They're both in the intensive care unit. Even though Akatsuki's gone, Tsunade put several ANBU guards on them. She's not taking any more chances, especially after the last couple times with Naruto when we thought he was safe."

Kakashi nodded and leaned back in his wheelchair as Sakura stepped around the back and took hold of the handles. Glancing at the vending machine, he asked, "Don't you want your tea anymore?"

Sakura shook her head with a disgusted grimace and pushed the wheelchair into motion. "Forget about it. That stuff's worse than toxic waste. I only came down here to get something hot to drink to help me stay awake. I've been helping Tsunade-sama in the hospital ever since Kyuubi broke through Naruto's curse seal. We've been so busy I haven't even gotten a chance to take a break. And then when Naruto and Sasuke came in…" She trailed off with a noticeable waver, the rest of her sentence left hanging unspoken in the air. "Let's just say it's been a long day…" she murmured.

The two quickly made their way through the halls, Sakura knowing exactly where she was going. Kakashi was glad he'd managed to come across Sakura; he wasn't sure he would have been able to navigate the hospital's confusing network of hallways himself. He was also glad the girl was there to push the chair for him now. His chest had been starting to throb fiercely from trying to wheel it himself.

After a few minutes - and several identical hallways later - the two suddenly came within sight of a set of automatic doors. The words 'Intensive Care Unit' were written across the wall above them. On either side of the doors stood two ANBU guards with painted porcelain masks.

They both looked up at Kakashi and Sakura's approach, their hands straying to the hilts of their katana. But then with a respectful nod to Sakura, one of them silently reached out to push a button on the wall beside him. The double doors behind them swung open with a metallic whirl, and the ANBU guards stoically turned to face forward again with hardly a second glance.

"I guess being the Hokage's apprentice has its perks, right?" Kakashi chuckled over his shoulder as the two moved past the guards and doors swung shut behind them.

Sakura said nothing, but the tiny smirk playing at the corners of her mouth said everything.

There was a noticeable difference on the other side of the doors. It was almost like they'd just stepped into a completely different building. A heavy silence pervaded the air. It reminded Kakashi of a library where making even the slightest sound somehow felt sacrilegious. The squeak of his wheelchair on the polished floor and the soft tread of Sakura's footsteps seemed to echo forever down the sterile white hallways. Kakashi shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He didn't like places like this. It felt like there was some kind of ominous, unspoken presence in the air - as if Death itself was waiting just around the corner to take the souls of the ones whose lives still hung so tentatively in the balance here.

Sakura gently wheeled her injured teacher towards one of the identical doors lining the hallway, and pulled the chair to a stop. "This is it," she whispered. Her muffled voice echoed loudly through the ward's oppressive silence. "Tsunade had Naruto and Sasuke put in the same room. After everything that happened, it didn't seem right to separate them…"

Kakashi said nothing, his one eye shadowed with unspoken apprehension.

Leaning around the quiet copy ninja, Sakura softly opened the door and pushed him through the doorway.

Kakashi wasn't that surprised to find the hospital room already filled with people. The first to gain his attention was the Fifth Hokage herself standing at the foot of the bed nearest the door. She was reading a report scroll, her face drawn and etched with exhaustion as her eyes sluggishly moved up and down the lines of text. Her usually immaculate hair hung limp around her face and gave her a frazzled, distressed look.

Behind her in the far corner of the room, Jiraiya sat in the only available chair. The Sannin was dressed in hospital scrubs with his right arm heavily bandaged at the shoulder and held against his chest in a sling. (Kakashi got a small sense of satisfaction knowing that he wasn't the only one that had ventured out of bed despite his injuries to search for his injured students.) Jiraiya's usually ruddy face was unnaturally pale - the Toad Sage still obviously suffering from some form of blood loss from Akatsuki's attack the day before. Despite this, however, Kakashi could still feel an underlying aura of power radiating off the man as he stared at the frail occupant of the bed farthest inside the room, his eyes filled with some emotion Kakashi couldn't exactly name but likened to heartache or quiet despair.

Near the door along the wall stood several younger ninja, all of them whom Kakashi instantly recognized. Making up their ranks were Shikamaru Nara, Kiba Inuzuka, Neji Hyuuga, and his younger cousin Hinata. All of them stood at informal attention, their eyes shifting restlessly between Tsunade and the report she was reading and the two figures laying motionless in the beds. The soft beeping of machines was the only sound to break up the otherwise intense silence of the room.

At Sakura and Kakashi's entrance, Tsunade glanced up at the wheelchair-bound ninja in surprise. "Kakashi?" she said, lowering the scroll she'd been reading and setting it on the bed beside her. Kakashi tried to see who its occupant was, but could only make out a mound of blankets, tubes and wires from the angle he was sitting at.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, stepping towards him with a stern look on her face. "You could tear your stitches open being up like this. Don't tell me you snuck out of your room like Jiraiya did. I swear you two are bound and determined to wind up in intensive care or back in surgery."

Kakashi glanced at the Sannin on the other side of the room, and shared a brief look of silent camaraderie with him. "I heard that my students were injured," he replied, looking back at Tsunade and meeting her gaze undaunted. "No one came to tell me about their condition, or even about their run-in with Itachi and Kisame in the woods. I only heard about it from rumors going around the nurses' station. Needless to say I was concerned and went to find out if they were alright."

Tsunade's features softened and once again took on a tired, haggard appearance. "I'm sorry I didn't send anyone to tell you what happened," she sighed. "But I've been too busy trying to stabilize their conditions all day that I haven't even been able to read the rescue teams' reports until now." She motioned with her chin towards the chuunin standing on the one side of the room. "It's been total chaos around here since they were brought in. I'm sure Sakura's filled you in on what happened?"

"She did," Kakashi nodded.

Tsunade gave another sigh and glanced at the occupant of the bed closest to her. "It was so close…" she murmured. "We almost lost both of them. I don't know what Naruto was thinking sneaking off like that, or what Sasuke was thinking going after him and getting into a battle with two S-class ninja. Both those brats almost got themselves killed."

"Trouble does seem to follow them wherever they go," Kakashi conceded.

"If we hadn't felt their chakra signals flare, we probably wouldn't have found them until it was too late," Shikamaru spoke up from the side of the room. "We were so far away we were only able to get a general direction of where they were when Sasuke started fighting. It was only when we felt Naruto's chakra signal that we were able to pin point their exact location and find them."

"But how did Naruto break past my Five Point Seal?" Kakashi asked. "He shouldn't have been able to manipulate any chakra."

"We've just learned to never put anything past Naruto," Kiba said with a shrug. "I mean, first he comes back from the dead, then becomes the living incarnation of the nine-tailed fox demon, and then manages to help kill two Akatsuki ninja when he's already half dead… I mean, after all that what's breaking a chakra seal to him?"

"He's proven on several different occasions capable of things I never would have thought anyone possible of," Neji added. "I have no doubt there came a moment when they were fighting that he no longer cared about what he was suppose to be able to do or not, and just ignored his proposed limitations."

Despite himself, Kakashi chuckled under his breath. "Yeah, that sounds exactly like something Naruto would do…" Growing sober though, the famed copy ninja glanced at the hospital beds lining the side of the room. Waving Sakura away from the back of his chair, Kakashi reached down on either side of him and began to wheel himself towards the nearest bed. Tsunade quietly stepped aside to give him room to see its sleeping occupant.

What Kakashi saw when he came up beside the bed and looked over its railing momentarily made the seasoned ninja forget about the others around him and softly gasp under his mask.

The one in the bed was none other than his own prodigal student Sasuke Uchiha. But the boy he remembered training as a rookie gennin was not the same boy he saw laying before him now.

Sasuke's complexion was deathly pale, almost the same shade of white as the very sheets he lay on. The dark half-circles of his eyelashes contrasted sharply with the ashen hue of his cheeks like two brushstrokes of the ink against pure white paper. His entire chest and left shoulder was wound in bandages, his left arm partially wrapped down against his chest. Kakashi assumed it was to keep him from moving it and ripping his wounded shoulder open again. Countless tubes, wires, IVs and heart monitor patches trailed off his arms and chest to the numerous machines surrounding his bed. An oxygen line had been fitted underneath his nose and wrapped around either side of his face behind his ears. Except for the barely perceptible rise and fall of his chest, the boy lay unnaturally still, as if he were caught in the grips of some death-like sleep.

For a moment, Kakashi couldn't bring himself to comprehend the sight of his ex-student laying there so still and lifeless. Never had he seen Sasuke look so frail or weak before. It just didn't seem right.

"Dear gods…" he unconsciously murmured.

"From what we could tell, Sasuke tried to give his own chakra to Naruto," Hinata's timid voice spoke up. "He barely had any chakra inside him when we found them, but I could sense a small line of connection still running between them even though he'd already lost consciousness. I had to cut it before Sasuke could go into full chakra exhaustion himself. If it hadn't been for him, Naruto probably would have died before we even got there…"

Kakashi stared at his unconscious student, a storm of emotions and thoughts swirling around his head. He'd been prepared to see his students injured, ready to see what had become such a common sight to him over the years as a ninja. But somehow seeing Sasuke laid out like this - near dead, crippled and hurt almost beyond recognition - it shook him to the very core of his being. Just how close had they come to losing them?

Suddenly remembering something, Kakashi whirled around in his seat towards the other bed. He'd almost forgotten about Naruto. If Sasuke had suffered so much damage, how bad was Naruto? The blond had already been in such bad shape before he'd tried to run away. How much more abuse could he have possibly suffered and not been killed?

Wheeling his way towards the other bedside, Kakashi looked over the railing and felt his heart clench.

Naruto lay in much the same state as Sasuke. Wires, tubes, and patches covered him in a web of mechanical life support. His breathing was shallow and short, his skin almost translucent. Several blankets covered his frail form, but seemed to do nothing to stop the violent tremors racking his bone-thin body. Naruto's entire body shook as if he'd been plunged in a vat of ice water and left out in the cold.

Concerned, Kakashi snaked his hand through the bed's railing and gently took his student's twitching, tube-infested hand in his own. Despite what he was expecting, Naruto's hand wasn't cold but surprisingly warm to the touch.

"He's shaking because of the chakra transfusions," Tsunade explained, as if reading the copy ninja's thoughts. "It's the different chakra types. They aren't meshing well inside his chakra coils. Naruto seems to have an affinity for Wind chakra, and the other ones are overloading his system. I know for a fact that Sasuke has an affinity for Fire, so the chakra he gave Naruto - and the chakra other rescue team members gave him - is making him react like this."

"Will he be okay?" Kakashi asked.

Tsunade nodded. "Once his chakra coils begin to recover and produce more of his own chakra, the tremors should stop. The chakra transfusions might have had some adverse side effects but they managed to keep him alive, which in the long run is the most important thing. Naruto and Sasuke both have a long recovery ahead of them, but at least they still have the opportunity to make one…"

Kakashi mutely nodded, unable to find any words to reply. He gently cradled Naruto's hand in his own, as if it were really a spun piece of glass. It'd been close… so very, very close. Any closer and they could have very well lost them both…

Kakashi sat there in a numb sort of daze, trying to digest everything he'd just heard. The other ninja filling the room were quiet, the same unsettling thought going through their own minds. The rhythmic beeping of machines was the only thing to break the suffocating silence of the room; when suddenly, a murmured groan - barely loudly than a whisper - sounded from Sasuke's bed.

Everyone's head snapped towards it. The stitches across Kakashi's stomach pulled and almost tore he spun around in his seat so fast.

Another moan - this time a little louder - and Kakashi was almost instantaneously at his other student's bedside. Tsunade, Sakura, and several of the others were not far behind.

"Sasuke?" he called, anxiously scooting to the edge of his seat so he could peer over the side of the bed. He slipped his hand through the railing and grasped the boy's hand in his own.

Sasuke groggily rolled his head towards Kakashi, his eyelids weakly fluttering. Slowly, his eyes slid apart to reveal two pain-filled black orbs. He blankly stared ahead at some point just over Kakashi's left shoulder, as though not even conscious enough to know what he was looking at.

"Sasuke?" Kakashi said, leaning closer. "Can you hear me?"

The only thing to answer him was a barely audible groan of pain. Kakashi gently squeezed the boy's hand, hoping to give him something tangible to focus his sedative-clouded mind on.

"Sasuke, do you know who I am? Do you know where you are?" Kakashi asked, his voice gentle but insistent. After seeing his students so hurt and near-death, all he wanted was to hear Sasuke's voice to reassure himself once and for all that he was truly and honestly still alive.

Sasuke didn't immediately answer. He just laid there and continued to blankly stare ahead into nothing. It was like he was trapped in some hazy state of awareness in between full consciousness and sleep. Kakashi wondered if it wasn't because of all the painkillers the boy was on.

"Sasuke?" Kakashi called, desperate to hear his student speak. "Can you-?"

"Naru…to… w- where?" a raspy whisper cut Kakashi off. It was Sasuke. The boy shifted in his nest of blankets, rolling his head across the pillow to hazily look around the room. "Naruto…" he called again with a bit more strength. A panicked look suddenly entered Sasuke's half-lidded eyes. His breath began to come faster and hitched. "Naruto… where...?" he called, desperation now coloring his voice.

The boy slowly disentangled his hand from Kakashi's grasp and weakly gripped the railing beside him. And as all those present watched in stunned silence, the bandaged, half-dead boy tried to pull himself up into a sitting position.

"Uchiha, what are you doing?" Naji demanded, stepping up to the other side of the bed across from Kakashi. "You're going to hurt yourself. Lay still." He put his hand in the center of Sasuke's chest and tried to push him back down on the bed, but the boy resisted.

"No…" he groaned, barely half-conscious. "Where's Naruto..? Where is he…?"

"He's fine," Kakashi interjected. Sasuke sluggishly turned his head towards him, as if that simple motion was almost too much for him to manage. His eyes were glazed with pain and sedatives and ringed by dark shadows. A faint sheen of sweat had broken across his skin and glistened on his bloodless brow. Kakashi reached out and took Sasuke's hand again, squeezing it reassuringly. "Naruto's right here," he said. "He's just on the other side of the room. He's going to be alright."

"Lemme see…" Sasuke slurred, still stubbornly trying to rise despite Neji's hand still holding him down.

Neji glanced at Tsunade, uncertain whether to honor the Uchiha's request or not. Tsunade just shrugged her shoulders as if to say: 'if he really wants to so badly.' Glancing at Kiba, she motioned with her chin for him to go help Neji.

The dog-ninja did as he was ordered and stepped up to the bed on the same side as Kakashi. Together he and Neji snaked their arms under Sasuke's shoulders and gently lifted the other boy into a sitting position. Sasuke gasped as he was shifted, visibly gritting his teeth against the pain that shot through his wounded shoulder and side. His free hand shot up to grip the mass of bandages wrapped around the junction of his shoulder and arm. Tears beaded along the lashes of his clenched eyes.

Taking a moment to catch his breath and to wait for the pain to subside to a more manageable level, Sasuke finally opened his eyes and leaned forward to look around Kiba - Neji and Kiba still supporting the majority of his weight in their arms. For several minutes, Sasuke just stared at the other bed, his eyes locked on the frail blond figure ensconced there.

"He's… alright?" he finally stuttered, his voice nothing more than a shuddery whisper.

"Yes," Tsunade said, stepping closer. "He's going to be alright."

Sasuke seemed to digest this for a moment. Then, as if finally satisfied by what he saw and what he'd been told, he released a shaky breath of air. His eyes rolled up into the back of his head - and he promptly collapsed backwards into Neji and Kiba's arms. Unconscious.

"Whoa!" Kiba yelled, just barely able to catch him in time before he could slip out of his grasp and fall back to the bed. Neji also had to jump to keep hold of the unconscious boy.

"Let him back down slowly," Tsunade said, quickly pushing Neji out of the way and taking his place at Sasuke's side. "He'll tear his shoulder open if he's moved too roughly and he can't risk losing any more blood." Together she and Kiba lowered Sasuke back to the bed and settled him against the pillow. Motioning Kiba away, Tsunade held her hands over Sasuke's shoulder and ran a quick diagnostic jutsu. Bright green light encased the boy before Tsunade finally leaned back with a satisfied nod and reached down to gently smooth the bangs from her patient's pale face.

"Gods you brats are annoying," she said as she readjusted the sheets and blankets over Sasuke. Despite her put-upon tone, a tiny smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "I hate to see what kind of trouble you and Naruto are going to get yourselves into when you're both up and active again. Kami-sama have mercy on Konoha when that day comes…"

While Tsunade continued to loudly fuss and rant over her unconscious patient, Kakashi quietly sat by himself off to the side, secretly looking forward to the day chaos and disaster once again followed in his students' wake. Because that would be the day he finally had Naruto and Sasuke truly back…

To Be Concluded…

This was suppose to be the last chapter, but once again it had to be cut in half because it was getting too long, and I wanted to wrap up all loose ends. The final chapter plus an epilogue will be next time. I know this chapter was kind of anti-climatic after everything else that's happened, but not everything can be life-or-death struggles and dramatic cliffhangers. There has to be quiet moments and times of reflection too. Hope it was enjoyable.

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