Chapter 25

"Naruto..."

The voice sounded so strange. It was as if it came from a CD player that was put to slow motion. Other unknown noises in the background were sometimes amplified, yet sometimes faint. There was the voice again. Naruto couldn't place why it sounded so familiar. He tried to reply, but it seemed as though his mouth was a desert, all dry and like cotton was stuffed in his mouth.

"You hear me?" the voice asked again.

"Sh-shizune...?"

"Yup."

Shizune must have felt his discomfort as he continued to shift and turn in the bed in what was probably the recovery room.

"I know you feel really uncomfortable. It's just the anesthesia. In about two hours you should feel fine. Then we can take the bandages off your eyes."

The woman wasn't done with her sentence yet, but Naruto suddenly shot up from the bed as if he had awoken from a very bad dream. The said blonde regretted his sudden move as he immediately felt dizzy and sick to his stomach. He fumbled a moment before lying back down queasily.

"Sasuke!" he gasped.

"Naruto. Naruto," Shizune said calmly as she helped the blonde return to his previous comfortable position, "Listen to me."

"Where's Sasuke?!" Naruto demanded. He began to sob hysterically as he said "oh no...he's gone!" like a chant. Then he attempted to get off the bed. The IV drip connected to him swayed dangerously and a pinching pain seared through the hand where it was attached. But he paid no notice.

Shizune sighed, "I don't wanna do this right after you got operated on but it seems like you'll never listen if I won't..."

And with that she slapped the blonde painfully back to reality.

"Ow..." he mumbled as he rubbed his burning cheek.

"I said listen, dammit."

"Is Sasuke...?"

"You can't go visit him yet. He's downstairs..."

Naruto wailed loudly and began to cry. Shizune was shocked. It took her a moment to realize why the blonde was crying. She quickly rephrased what she said.

"Uwah! No, not at the morgue downstairs!"

The wailing stopped abruptly and Shizune could almost hear the wheels and bolts clanking in Naruto's mind.

"He's fine and he should be awake in a couple of hours, too..."

"WHAT?!" Naruto screamed, or at least he thought he screamed, because everything turned black right after what Shizune had said. The said woman sighed and proceeded to assist the fainted blonde on the recovery bed.

Darn. I was about to tell him the bad news...

-

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"Huh-what...?" Sasuke mumbled as he felt a warm, wet something on his arm. His mind was still a bit fuzzy and he couldn't seem to comprehend anything at the moment. He felt weird. He felt somewhat awake, but somewhat asleep. There were dark rims around his field of vision when he opened his eyes and

WHAT?!

As if doused by cold water, he realized that something was definitely not right. Why the hell can I still see?? He remembered the warm, wet something on his arm so he turned to see what it was.

He felt the strangest feeling as he saw the familiar mop of blonde hair slumbering on his arm, which was used as a pillow. Towering over the small, thin body was an IV post. Apparently, Naruto had dragged himself all the way to his room and fallen asleep there as the steady stream of saliva already soaked the raven's arm.

Is this heaven...? he thought for a second.

"Sasuke! You're awake!" came Shizune's voice from the door.

I am...

TCD: I can't bear the thought of Sasuke dying! I just can't! Besides...if he died, then there'd be no story right? hahahahaha okay...goodnight people.

-yawns,
-TCD-