I don't own Naruto

Chapter 35

A slight beeping sound wakes me from the darkness. Slowly I crack an eye open, it instantly begins to water as a bright light seeps in. I turn my head into the pillow…wait pillow…?

I turn my head back and see that I'm lying on my stomach on a bed with white sheets. The room is equally as white and nondescript. The beeping noise is coming from right beside the bed where many machines with a tangle of wires are placed. A few of the wires snake up the bed and I guess connect to me somewhere.

I wiggle my fingers to find them, everything is a little numb. I feel entirely too groggy to fully understand what this means…

Deliberately I bend my arms to push myself up. I barely get my arms under me when pain lances across my back. It is so intense and unsuspected that my arms give out and a small scream forces its way out of my mouth.

Breathing harshly I bury my face into the pillow as aftershocks of pain dance across my skin. Involuntarily tears prick my eyes.

Memories come back all at once…

My fight at the finals of the exams…

The attack on the village…

Gaara's transformation…

Shukaku's rampage and defeat…

…

…

…

So I landed myself in the hospital after all that…

I guess it makes sense; I did do something pretty stupid back there. Kakashi-sensei even warned me about the wires being razor sharp. He's probably really pissed. But it was the only way to get rid of the Ichibi so I should get some credit, right?

Speaking of, how long have I been unconscious? What happened to Gaara and Naruto? What happened to the village?

Inner throw me a bone here…Inner? Oh come on I know that you usually know what goes on while we sleep you can't hide that from me anymore… Inner…Where are you?

I begin to panic slightly, where is she? She can't be gone…I can't even feel her…

Pulling on my slightly doped up chakra I feel around for her corner of my mind.

…Can't…too much…

What? I can't hear you. Are you okay?

Drugs…sleepy…

The pain medicine? It's actually messing with her? I finally locate her presence far in the back of my mind. She is very subdued, almost like she's asleep. I didn't know she could sleep when I wasn't… I didn't even know she could sleep period.

At least she's not gone. I don't know what I would do without her in my head.

Well I know how to get rid of her for a little while now…gotta remember that when she gets annoying.

Now that that mystery is solved, back to my other problems.

Okay so let's look at this logically…

I had almost no chakra when I passed out and my back hurt like hell. Now my chakra is at full capacity and my back still hurts like hell. So I had to be out at least a full day… but not long enough for my back to be healed.

Vaguely I remember passing out and…something…caught me. So someone must have finally reached us for backup. Even now I can faintly taste their chakra…an odd mixture if I've ever tasted one. I think….I think I remember being treated too. It hurt…and I remember a taste…orange…and another that…burns? Just thinking about it makes my eyes water and my throat burn a little. It's familiar, but I can't really place it at the moment… I blame drugs.

Mid-muse the door behind me opens and I try to turn to look at the intruder. My head can only turn a fraction before the pain stills me once more. I listen as the sound of high heels approach. The burn at the back of my throat starts up as she (I'm assuming it's a she, guys don't usually wear heels) gets closer. I guess she's the medic that treated me earlier.

"So, Haruno, finally awake are we?" She says this as if she, personally, has been waiting for me. The medic, I'm assuming, picks up my chart and makes her way over to the many machines by the bed.

She is a tall woman, wearing the white coat the higher ranked medics wear. Her hair is blonde and pulled back into two low ponytails. Her back is to me as she takes down reading from the machines so her hair color is about all I can get from her…that and that burning taste that is so familiar I can almost name it.

"How are you feeling?" Her sudden question throws me off and it takes a second to answer.

"My back hurts," my voice comes out a quiet croak. Quickly she gets me a glass of water and helps me to drink it.

"I'm not surprised your back hurts. You did a real number on it you idiot." I can finally see her face. Piercing amber eye drill into me in anger? Disappointment? I take in her entire face for a second. She looks to be in her mid-twenties, kinda pretty, there's a purple diamond shaped mark on her forehead…wait a minute.

I feel the color drain away from my face and my eyes widen. Standing before me is Lady Tsunade, one of the three Sanin and the greatest medic the village has ever had. I had thought she had left the village!

"Finally recognize me? Took you long enough, and here I was told you were highly intelligent." She scoffs at me as she begins to re-read through my chart.

"Multiple bruises and abrasions, several deep lacerations, a few broken or fractured ribs, burns, blood loss… did a real number to your body kid. You've been unconscious for three days-"

"Three days!"

"Yes three days and if you interrupt me again I'll add a few more days to it!" I quiet down after her outburst and accompanied glare.

"Now let's look at your back." Like a switch is flicked she sounds like a kindly medic and not the all-powerful Sanin she was a second ago. I can feel her pulling off the bandages and unveiling my back. The air stings a little but soon the sting is gone as I feel her hands begin to pump healing chakra into the wounds.

"I would like to know how you got these?" She asks it like a question, but I can feel the steel beneath her words. It's an order.

"My wires…I wrapped myself in them to save my teammate." It hits me all at once…the guys… I push past the pain and shoot up off the bed.

"Sasuke! Naruto! What happened to them? Are they okay? Tell Me—" A sharp slap to the face cuts off my words and silences me. Lady Tsunade bodily picks me up and slams me back into place on the bed, cursing all the while.

"Idiot! You're just like them! They are fine, you were beat up much worse than them!" I give out a sigh of relief at her words and another when she begins the healing again…That really hurt, remind me to never sit up again.

"Stupid genin giving me a headache…" I can barely hear her mumbles but they sound like Naruto has met her. Everyone mumbles like that after meeting him. "So you said you did this to yourself? Don't you know that wires are sharp? And how did you cauterize your back like this?"

"Cauterize? Oh it must have been the chakra I was pumping through them." I think back to the fight. The wires were glowing…

"Chakra…You put that much chakra into them? Is that where the other burns came from as well?"

"No Sasuke did that with some lightening…" Why am I telling her all this…I should be telling Kakashi-sensei, he sent me on that mission.

"Your teammate electrocuted you?" She sounds like she doesn't believe me.

"Yes, it was the only way to free me from the sand I was trapped in." All is quiet as she takes in the information. I'm sure she thinks I'm delusional.

I finally break the silence with a question of my own. "Lady Tsunade? What happened to the village?"

She only signs and continues to heal my back. Eventually she speaks, "The village was attacked by Suna and Oto with Orochimaru as the general. Only a few blocks of the village were damaged and the stadium was destroyed, but it was all minor compared to what it could have been. Konoha quickly defeated the armies and Orochimaru fled after being wounded by the Hokage…" Here she pauses, taking her hands off my back and retrieving more bandages. I dread the next words out of her mouth.

"The Hokage was also wounded, so much so that he has been hospitalized for the foreseeable futures and has decided to step down. I am temporarily acting as Hokage along with Jiraiya…" I gasp in both pain and surprise. The Hokage, granted a temporary one, is wrapping my wounds… "Besides the old man's fight yours was probably the hardest. I mean the ANBU took care of the armies in no time at all and then went to help your team." She has quickly changed the subject back to me.

"…so that's who caught me…" I whisper this and she jerks my bandages tight in surprise. I give out a yelp just as she does.

"Dammit Haruno! Shock me one more time and I'll knock you into next week." She yells this out as she knocks me on the head.

"What?" What is she talking about?

"You idiot! You don't even know?" At my lack of a response she huffs angrily. "You've been causing trouble ever since you got here you know. None of the medics could get near you because you kept lashing out with chakra. Even while completely unconscious you lashed out at anybody that came near you…dammit girl I thought I had good control over my chakra but yours must be absolutely perfect to be able to defend yourself like that." Here she pauses once again and I can feel the look she gives me, it's a mixture of disbelief, awe, and irritation.

"Even the person who brought you here had some small burns from you chakra. Luckily you didn't have much chakra or he wouldn't have been able to carry you. One of the medics had to put on chakra proof gloves and administer a strong sedative so he could at least wrap your wounds. They had to wait two days on me to get here before anybody could even think about healing you. I had to do remote healing until your body decided I wasn't a threat and let me near. Even then I could feel your chakra permeating the room and keeping guard."

No. Freaking. Way.

I was actually defending myself while unconscious… Shisui is going to have a field day with that one. I guess that explains the faint impression I have of Tsunade's chakra and that orange chakra. It even explains that spicy minty mess I tasted as I passed out.

Wait! Inner, did you do it?

…

Oh yeah you're still out from the drugs…

So that means that I really did it…

"That's right you did all that," it's like she can read my mind… "I can't read your mind, you're just obvious."

… That's creepy…

"Even when I walked in a few minutes ago your chakra was filling the room and picking up my every step…tell me, can you actually taste the chakra like they said you could?"

I think for a moment and realize my chakra is spread out… I can feel every corner of the room, and I could feel every step she takes. On another important note: Who are 'they'?

"Uh…yes?"

"Is that so… I can taste it also but I have to be close…and it took me many years to develop…you are a strange girl…" She muses quietly for a few moments. "What does my chakra taste like…I've never been able to taste my own…?"

"Um…it's hard to explain…kinda sharp? And…um…it burns at the back of my throat…?"

Suddenly she bursts out laughing. "Sake? My chakra tastes like Sake?" She keeps laughing.

I guess that is what it tastes like…no wonder it was familiar but I couldn't place it, I don't drink. Tsunade-Sama quiets down and seems to sober up.

"Because of the fight you put up no one could heal you in time to stop the scarring…You're going to have some nasty ones on your back." She sounds regretful. Well I guess a medic would be sad if her patient ended up with scars…and if Tsunade-Sama, a medic who has seen it all, says their nasty…I shudder.

Involuntarily I feel tears prick at the corners of my eyes as it all finally hits.

The village was attacked…

The Hokage was wounded…

My body was scarred enough to earn the word 'nasty'…

The tear fall silently as Tsunade continues to check on my other wounds. All good humor in the room evaporates. I'm sure she knows that I'm crying, but she just ignores it. I couldn't thank her enough for that.

Eventually she walks into my range of sight. She holds herself like a true Hokage, head high and eyes unflinching.

"You're going to be here a few more days; I'll send your sensei in to get a full report of what happened. Later on me and you will also have a nice long talk about this Mark you have. I believe it was a gift from an old friend of mine." She looks pointedly at my shoulder a few times to make her point. After I nod once she sweeps out of the room and leaves me with a wealth of new knowledge.

I bury into the pillow and let the pain medicine that had been pulling at my consciousness take me away.