Recovery

AN: Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed my last chapter, and i'd like to take this time to address a question that has cropped up a lot in the last batch of reviews, worded either good or bad. I've recieved some criticism, one person even going so far as to tell me that the fight between Naruto and Sasuke spoilt my story, but I hope I'll be able to sort out that little foible now.

Sasuke (or Uke-chan as I've started to call him) won the fight, and it was a pretty short fight at that. Let me explain.

The Sharingan, even immature, increases your chances of winning a fight because it reads the body of your attacker/victim and helps you predict what their move is going to be. The downside is it makes you feel invulnerable because you can SEE the fight, but its weakness is that you can't necessarily avoid the blow that is coming at you. You could block, if you were faster than your opponent.

Naruto sees the future accurately to within two minutes of present time. He does so without thinking, and the only thing that stops this is when the Kyuubi within him either floods his system with Youki or if the Kyuubi heals him. After time, this wears off and he sees the future again. He is used to seeing what happens, and thus hasn't seen any real need so far to speed himself up because he hasn't fought against the Sharingan yet.

When they come to blows, the Sharingan predicts what is going to happen, while Naruto can only see what happens. Sasuke sees Naruto's attack, sees how to counter, but can't counter the blow because he isn't fast enough. Naruto gets the odd hit in because he makes Sasuke react, but not quickly enough. He's fighting a losing battle from the outset, because for all he can see the future and see what could work, Sasuke sees Naruto attacking in real-time and reacts to that, negating the Echo.

Naruto at no point begged. He did plead with his eyes, but I think i should have wrote this a little clearer. He pleaded for his friend to stop walking the path to corrupted power. Sasuke ignored him.

I probably haven't explained it as best I can, but it is a slightly confusing subject. Until Naruto trains harder and becomes faster, Sasuke will win through a fight of attrition. Naruto will be able to land a few blows, but not as many as Sasuke can. Hope you enjoy this chapter, and those of you who hate the story because of my supposed failure in writing ability are more than welcome to carry on reading and telling me what I've done wrong, I don't really mind. Constructive abuse, i think its called...

EDIT: Right, lets try again. Naruto sees what will work, or as close to it as possible and goes with that. Sasuke reacts with equal measure to all of Naruto's attacks and defences regardlessly as Naruto chooses one and acts. Thus, Sasuke's Sharingan negates the effects of the Echo UNTIL Naruto becomes faster than Sasuke, or much more powerful than him.

Anyhow! Enjoy Chapter 13 in the continuing story of Next; Recovery.

Hyuuga Hinata was shy. Unbelievably so, in fact. She was uncomfortable with her body, her words, even her habits and crush on Uzumaki Naruto.

Despite this, when she heard that the blonde boy was in a hospital room just down the hall from her own private room, she began worrying and set off immediately.

'Down the hall' turned out, much to the nurse who found the young heiress leaning heavily on a wall three floors down from her starting point, to be a bit of a stretch of her imagination. After being escorted back to her bed no less than four times within the first day, the duty nurse eventually got sick of the escape attempts and offered to take her to visit the next day. Hinata had agreed, but not before turning a shade of red that warranted a thermometer 'just in case'.

Upon arriving at Naruto's room, Hinata carefully rose from the wheelchair the nurse had provided, allowed the older woman to check the bandages she wore across her left shoulder, and padded into the room.

Hinata almost turned around and left immediately upon seeing the room was occupied, but the strange man with spiky white hair who was asleep in a chair and snoring softly didn't even stir at her stammered apology for intruding. She squared her shoulders though, when it was apparent the old man wasn't going to wake, and she wandered slowly to Naruto's bedside.

The blonde-haired boy was laid flat on his back, his head tilted towards his right shoulder. His arms lay on top of the white sheets at his sides, the right hand bandaged heavily. There were some small scabs on the back of his left hand, but it looked more like a small scratch than anything serious.

Hinata pulled the remaining chair in the room towards herself, wincing at the low moan the legs made as they moved over the marble-like floor tiles. She sat, tentatively reaching out her hand and placing it on Naruto's left forearm in comfort. She blushed heavily, but steadied her breathing and relaxed a little. She sighed in relief as she rested her left shoulder, the bandages wrapped there not feeling as tight as they had a moment ago. It was her own fault she was here again, she knew, much as it had been her fault when she had been admitted after the preliminary matches of the Chuunin Exam.

The scars from Neji's fingernails on her right cheek were as much a reminder as anything that she had failed. The three crescent-moon shaped scars were not a result of his nails being too long, or having broken the skin much, but the chakra that had infused them when he has struck out at her. She had been moments too slow in ducking, but it saved her right arm from being as damaged as her left had. Even now, her right leg twinged at the knee when she didn't stretch properly, another souvenir of Neji's rough handling.

Her left arm now, though, was an entirely different matter. She had been in the stand Naruto had come to first. He had simply appeared with a faint whooshing noise and had started attacking any enemy ninjas within reach. Hinata had been having trouble until he arrived, much like the four or five others who had remained at that particular area, and his presence had bolstered their defence slightly until, without warning, Naruto had burst into smoke.

Everyone had been surprised, the Kage Bunshin had been so realistic. That was, however, the point of the technique, but the level of detail had been staggering. It was in that moment of surprise that the Oto-nin she had been fighting had slammed a Kunai into her neck, thankfully aiming downwards rather than sideways. The blade had slid down into the relatively soft flesh between her trapezoid muscle and her collarbone, missing her trachea and voice box by the smallest of margins.

Hinata hung her head a little lower as she recalled the rage that had flashed through her then, and the slight pain she had felt as the veins around her eyes that were already swelled with chakra were sent a fresh burst, along with some adrenaline. She had screamed, no, roared almost at the enemy ninja. He had been so surprised at the noise he took a step back, and that had been all Hinata had needed. A tear rolled down her cheek as she recalled bunching her right fist up, not for a Jyuuken strike, but to simply cause as much pain to her attacker as possible. Were it not for the blast of chakra she had instinctively thrown from her hand at the point of impact, the Sound Ninja would have gotten away with a blackened eye instead of losing most of his face as his skull was fragmented and his eyeball burst in its socket.

She had talked about it, of course, to Kurenai-sensei when the kind Jounin had come to check on her recovery, and she had been very nice about it all by saying sometimes anger got the better of most people, and that if it hadn't been for that small loss of control Hinata may well have been fighting for longer and could, although not likely, be in a worse condition than she was. Kurenai had then given Hinata a quick hug, much to the young Hyuuga's embarrassment, before she had left with a wave to her student. Hinata had been bright red for almost an hour.

"You know, Hyuuga-hime," Jiraiya began, his eyes still closed and no change of expression visible on his face even as the young girl practically launched herself out of the chair she sat in and let go of Naruto's arm like it was coated in lava. "I'm glad Naruto has a friend like you, even if he doesn't know it exactly. You're the only person apart from Kakashi-baka to have come and seen him."

Hinata stammered, quickly turning pink. She settled for bowing to Jiraiya in the end, her attempts at speaking stopping for a moment as she gathered herself. "Gomen nasai, Ojiisan, I d-didn't mean to disturb you or Naru- ano, Uzumaki-kun."

Jiraiya opened one eye and grinned. "'Ojiisan'? Jiraiya will do, Hyuuga-sama."

From her bowed posture, Hinata's head shot up like a cork and levelled her now very-wide eyes at the old man. "Jiraiya-sama o-of the Sannin?"

The Sannin's grin grew wider, and he nodded once. Hinata's jaw went slack, her mouth hanging open in a rather unladylike manner, before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed in a dead faint.

"EH?!" Jiraiya yelled, jumping from his chair in concern and staring at the unconscious girl. "What did I do?!"

Hyuuga Hinata was taken back to her room soon after, and Jiraiya given a scolding for exciting the poor girl. He should, according to the nurses, know better than to shock young impressionable ninjas with his title. The Toad Hermit shook his head lightly as he returned to his chair, glancing sidelong at his new student. The boy was in good shape, really, apart from the severed spinal cord and lost finger. He had been incensed that the Uchiha boy was still living, until the two elderly ninja who acted as advisers to the Hokage before the old man's death, had visited and told him of their decision regarding the boy. Unless Jiraiya could permanently seal the Cursed Seal, or remove it, they would be forced to execute the boy. Jiraiya knew it wasn't exactly... correct, given that given a few months he could have worked out the seal's origins and stood a chance at stopping it from influencing the young Uchiha again, but he had refused citing the danger posed by the Mangekyou-wielding child. Thus had the execution been set for three weeks from now, plenty of time for the ANBU to try and rip secrets from the boy's mind.

Jiraiya watched as Naruto slowly came around, a smirk on his face due to his student missing the dark-haired visitor who had been acting a little... forward for 'just acquaintances'. Naruto's eyes blinked slowly, his gaze weary, and he coughed a few times before he gained cohesiveness enough to know where he was.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Gaki. Here, have some water. Just a sip or two, mark you, just to get rid of that feeling that something is trying to eat your throat." Jiraiya said, proffering a plastic beaker with a straw hanging out of it. Naruto sucked the straw into his mouth, sucked a few times, and released the straw from between his lips with a sigh of satisfaction.

"Hey, Pervert" the young boy rasped, coughing gently as he tried to make his voice work again. "How long have I been out?"

"Two days." was the reply, concern in the simple statement.

"I can't feel my legs too good..." Naruto said, trying to wiggle his toes and sighing when nothing happened beneath the sheets. "Guess they haven't fixed that yet, huh?"

"Naruto... they're not sure they can."

Uchiha Sasuke sat upon the floor of his dark cell, the stone around him etched with deep seals that suppressed chakra and burnt with unnatural light, and the pitiful scratches of those who had inhabited the cell before him.

He stared at the wall, black eyes lifeless. His right cheek would, occasionally, twitch involuntarily, and his jaw clenched as his thoughts kept coming back to the same fact.

He had killed Naruto.

He hadn't been able to help himself. The power that had been flooding his veins from the moment he activated his Sharingan had been... exquisite, but his mind had descended into rage at Naruto still being able to score hits on him. He was better than that fool, damn it! And now, he was more alive too. That didn't mean he didn't regret it, though. Only a small amount, he told himself as the sickening light pulsed brighter for a moment, but he did.

The section of stone behind him that was unblemished with the almost unholy seals melted quickly, a figure stepping through and tying a blindfold about his head within an instant. Sasuke had had this happen three times in the last... however long he had been here, and knew what to expect. Interrogation, condemnation and scorn.

He rose to his feet as best he could, the unknown person who had blindfolded him grasping him by the arm and dragging him up, before being shoved hard towards the cell opening. Maybe he could bargain for a release?

"What do you mean, they can't do anything?" Naruto murmured in shock, his eyes wide as he stared at Jiraiya.
Jiraiya fixed the blonde with a hard gaze, and set his jaw. "Exactly that. It is mending, thanks to the Kyuubi within you, but very slowly." Jiraiya looked away for a moment, then with confusion written across his face, continued. "I thought you could see the future?"

"It takes a while to come back if the fox has been involved, I guess... he's healing me right? Guess he's just busy right now."

Jiraiya shook his head. He'd never understand this boy, he just knew it.

"What happened to Sasuke?"

The middle-aged ninja's head shot up and stared at Naruto in surprise. "Eh?"

It confused Haruno Sakura that many people throughout Konoha were grumbling darkly about Sasuke's betrayal of his home village and Naruto's survival equally. Surely it should be good news that the blonde was alive, even if he was an annoying pest? I mean, she thought to herself after avoiding a villager who was ranting about the 'last one' had turned bad, Naruto could be a pain, but his pranks and things weren't bad enough to earn death, were they?

The pink-haired girl wandered in a fugue as she thought about how close Naruto had come to death at the hands of her team-mate, no destination in mind.

Uzumaki Naruto listened half-heartedly as Jiraiya told him the fortune of his former team-mate. Halfway into the story, Naruto had heard the ending as his Echoes returned. The feeling in his lower extremities though, had not. He nodded in acceptance after hearing how the boy had been turned to Orochimaru, how there was no valid hope of removing the seal or containing it in some way, but still felt ill after hearing of Sasuke's impending execution.

Three weeks. Naruto almost baulked a few times while Jiraiya prattled on about how he was going to train him at the thought of knowing the date of his friend's death. Okay, so on reflection Sasuke probably wasn't the greatest of friends, but even so. Naruto was used to avoiding bad things, and helping others avoid them when he could, but this was... not so great.

The blonde sat on his bed, head hung low, and wondered how Sakura was going to take all of this.

Two Weeks Later

Uzumaki Naruto grinned widely as he finally felt the hot sunshine on his face again. It had taken just under a fortnight, but he finally had the use of his legs again. True, every now and again he had to deal with terrible pins and needles, and he still couldn't feel all of his left foot, but he could at last do any number of things he had spent thinking about in that damned hospital bed.

Top of the agenda; Ramen.

The boy ran off, stumbling once or twice but not falling, and arrived at the stand in almost record time. With a yell that hadn't been heard in almost three weeks, he ordered a meal fit for a Daimyo. In his opinion, anyway.

The baleful light, almost dirty in its unnatural glow, lit the rather haggard features of Uchiha Sasuke. His heavily-lidded eyes, black and empty, stared at the lines hewn into the rock walls of his prison and reflected little of his previous fire. His clothes hung limply around his slightly thinner frame, and his hair fell lank and greasy about his face.

How many more times, he wondered, would the ANBU come and ask those same questions?

Why had he killed Naruto.

When had Orochimaru come to claim him.

Why had Orochimaru attacked.

The questions were worded differently each time, but they boiled down to the same three queries. It was soul-destroying. He didn't know the answers to two of the three, and the last he had explained countless times despite how obvious it was. Power. Power to kill Uchiha Itachi.

And look where it had gotten him.

He continued staring into space as the stone behind him once more seemed to dissolve, and he allowed the ANBU to slip the blindfold over his eyes and drag him up.

Once more into the interrogation cell, my friends. Once more.

Jiraiya wandered towards the small Ramen stand near the centre of Konoha. He'd been over by the stream just outside the walls of the village for research, but had found the location devoid of subjects and so had resolved instead to explain why he wouldn't be training Naruto immediately. He'd give the boy the basics of what he was going to make him learn once he returned, of course, but still...

He found the blonde ninja perched atop a high stool, three empty bowls in front of him and a pair of fresh bowls just being placed. Jiraiya sat down on the stool next to his slurping pupil, only to have the second bowl pushed towards him in between inhalations of noodles.

"Hm? Beef with Roast Pork? But this-" Jiraiya started, only to be prodded in the side with a fresh pair of unbroken chopsticks by Naruto.

"Is your favourite, I know. Eat."

The Sannin shrugged and snapped the utensils apart with a petulantly mumbled 'Itadekimasu' and dug in. The two of them ate in relative silence, paid, and set off after thanking Teuchi without a word. A few minutes later, and the pair were sat in Naruto's kitchen. Jiraiya took in the surroundings, a little thrown by the appearance. Despite the young ninja's absence, the apartment was spotless and there wasn't a smell of rotten foodstuffs. There was fresh bread on the counter, still wrapped in the paper it came in, and the washing up was done.

A longer look around revealed a shuriken target next to the door that led to Naruto's bedroom, most of the nicks in the hard material in and around the bullseye. Small plants, albeit looking a little under-watered, sat on top of the refrigerator and the window-sill to add a bit of colour to the room despite the pale yellow paint upon the walls and the gleaming white tiles that reflected the sunlight that streamed past the light-blue shade.

"Eh, Naruto-"

"Kage Bunshin while we were at Ichiraku's. I hate the place being in a mess... Never knew when Jii-Jii was going to come around and say 'hi'." Naruto interrupted. His eyes were glazed, a far-off stare in them as he spoke of the dead man. He shrugged a moment later, a smirk on his face, and looked sidelong at Jiraiya. "Ne, Ero-Sennin, you think they'll ask you to take the job?"

The white-haired man snorted and rolled his eyes, grimacing in pain. "If they did I'd have to kick those damned Advisor's old asses. I wouldn't take the job if you paid me! All that paperwork... Sarutobi-sensei knew Kage Bunshin and even HE couldn't cope with it!"

The pair chuckled between themselves for a few moments before Naruto hopped down from his perch on the work-top and opened a cupboard. He pulled out a plastic bag filled with coloured objects and tore it open with his teeth before spilling the contents in front of Jiraiya, who sat at the table.

"Nani?"

"Water Balloons. You were going to tell me we needed Water Balloons. I've been saving these for Kakashi-sensei, but you know..."

Jiraiya grinned as he stood and filled a few of the Balloons at Naruto's kitchen sink. He sat down, a few of the water-filled ones sat in front of him as he motioned for Naruto to fill the rest.

"This was the Yondaime's signature technique, aside from the one that earned him the name of Yellow Flash. Are you familiar with it?"

Naruto nodded as he tied the end of his third balloon. "Rasengan. There were a few things on it in the books at the library, but nothing on how it worked or if anyone else could do it."

Jiraiya smirked. "Yep, others can, but you need pretty good control over your chakra. Can you water-walk? Climb trees?"

"No and yes. I've got tree-climbing down, but it still takes a fair bit of effort for water-walking. It might just be Him screwing with my control though..."

"Practice while I'm away, and also try this. Its just the first step in learning the Rasengan, but I think you'll get it down fairly well." Naruto sat down, eight water balloons in front of him, and he watched intently despite his foreknowledge. "You gather Chakra in your hand, spin it, and make the balloon burst. You'll get a bit wet if you succeed, but that doesn't matter really. You're going to do this every day for the next month while I'm-"

At that, Jiraiya stopped and flinched as a blast of water hit him in the face. He opened his eyes, plucked a piece of rubber from his cheek, and glared hard at the blonde boy who sat, likewise soaked, and grinned like a Cheshire cat at him. "You-"

"Did it. Thanks, Ero-sensei!" Naruto chirped, grabbing another balloon and spinning the water in it until it flattened almost completely. "This is kinda fun..."

Jiraiya leant across the table to swat the Genin across the back of the head, only to get a face-full of cold water again. "DAMN IT, NARUTO!!"

Time meant nothing any more. Sasuke laid on his back on the floor of his cell lifelessly. Only the steady rise and fall of his chest gave away the boy was still alive. He had committed the lines in the stone to memory. Each wall. It was hard to follow the lines as they seemed to waver and move even as he moved his eyes along them, as if they didn't want to be read. He had fought the lines and won. One last victory for the soon-to-be-dead Uchiha.

Just like he had won his battle for power to help him kill his errant brother. He had gained the Mangekyou, but now laid in a prison hundreds of metres below the hard bedrock of Konoha awaiting his death. He wouldn't ever see sunlight again, nor have the chance to hunt his brother. Nor would he have chance to sneer at Naruto again.

What price victory...

The featureless stone dissolved behind him and he sat up straight, facing away immediately. He had learnt quickly that you did not try to resist the faceless ANBU interrogators unless you wanted it to hurt much more later on. He rocked slightly, awaiting the blindfold that would wrap about his eyes to stop him from using his Sharingan, Mangekyou or otherwise, and his cheek twitched involuntarily.

He waited.

And waited.

He grew more uncomfortable as time passed slowly, each heartbeat dragging on like an age. Still he waited, even as he heard no footsteps behind him that signalled the imminent darkness. He fidgeted a little, feeling as if spiders were wandering up his spine, and eventually dared to turn his head a little.

No reprimand came. He turned more, more and more until he faced the entrance to his cell. A single ANBU member stood, the mask displaying blue-ish whisker marks and the dark, round eye-pieces. Sasuke cocked his head in confusion, as still no words were spoken.

"Uchiha-dono." The words rang out from all around Sasuke, and he shrank back in on himself. The ANBU bowed low to him. "Would you come with me please, Uchiha-dono?"

Sasuke stood shakily, his knees weak. He opened his mouth and tried to question his escort, only to have his voice croak pathetically and earn himself a coughing fit. He fell forward, and the ANBU lunged. Instead of feeling the cold floor smash into his face, or the bite of steel in his gut, Uchiha Sasuke felt strong arms slide under his own and keep him upright. He raised his head, eyes wide in query, only to have the ANBU push him completely upright and brush dirt from the boy's shoulder.

"Orochimaru-sama sends his regards, and asks that you accompany me to Otogakure, Uchiha-dono."