Hey, people! Sorry for the late update! I… was just about to give you another excuse as to why this is so late, but then I realized that excuses always come across as stupid lies people tell to cover their laziness. Anyway, so that I do not waste any more of your precious fanfiction time, (and mine as well) here's the story.
Disclaimer: 1 d0 n07 pwn N412u70 (leet for: I do not own Naruto).
Chapter Eleven: From Three to One
The silent yet resonating creak of a door closing somewhere not too far away caused one very suspicious blonde girl to awake. Footsteps were heard becoming farther and farther away with little time, followed by the ever-so familiar scent of strawberries.
Ino opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling, hoping that the footsteps and the scent would return soon, for she knew exactly who they belonged to: her best friend since childhood, Sakura. What seemed like ten minutes had passed and still no return of her pink-haired friend. Ino began to wonder if she was alright. She sat up from her cot and brought her feet over to the side, so they just barely swept over the dusty floor.
Checking the other occupied cots in the room to see if anybody else had awoken, she let out a sigh of relief when she heard the pleasing sound of snoring from both of them, one louder than the other. Never in her life had she thought that she would feel so relaxed by the obnoxious reverberation of snoring. Slowly and quietly, she stood from her cot, avoiding the loud squeak she would most likely receive from the rusty, old springs. Thankfully, said squeak was not heard, and she shyly crept to the door.
Upon opening the door, she heard a rather unpleasing noise: the sound of her teammate, Chouji, snorting loudly, as one would if they were just about to wake up. Ino froze in her position, hoping she hadn't accidentally woken him up. Oh, how badly that would ruin her plan to go find and help Sakura. Though, she had to let out a sigh of relief and a short, silent chuckle when the snort was followed with, "no… not the last… (snort) chip… no!"
Silently, Ino closed the door behind her and walked down the corridor in the direction of the sound of footsteps she had heard before. Soon she reached the door she and her fellow ninja had entered the corridor through the previous day. I hope you're alright, Sakura… she thought, setting her hand on the ladder. Just as she began to pull her body up onto the ladder, the door above her swung violently open and she fell off of the ladder, looking up.
Upon looking into the eyes of the person who forcefully opened the door, she realized who it was. "Shizune-san, what are you doing he-" she began as Shizune jumped into the corridor, sealing the door closed.
Jumping down, Shizune interrupted Ino. "I wouldn't go out there if I were you." The tone in her voice was very serious. "However, I need you to help me with something." Ino knew that it was important for her to listen.
"O- of course, what is it?" she asked her, disregarding the fact that Sakura was outside and Shizune sounded concerned.
"If you will, I need you to help me wake up your friends. You wake up your own teammates and I'll deal with the rest. I need to speak to you all. Got it?" she asked.
Ino nodded. "Yes." She replied and started quickly back down in the opposite direction, Shizune following her just inches behind. Ino stopped to walk when she reached the point just before her team's room. She quickly opened the door and turned on the light. She ran over to her still mumbling teammate, Chouji. She placed her hands on his shoulder as he lay on his side, back facing her, and shook him lightly. The only thing she got in reply was a grunt.
"Chouji…" she said quietly. He grunted in reply again. "Chouji!" this time she shouted. She felt his body twitch in a way that expressed that he was awake. "You need to get up. It's late, I know, but something's happened." He grunted again, but this time he seemed livelier than before.
Ino then walked over to Shikamaru. Placing a hand gently on his shoulder and lightly shaking him, she said, "Hey, Shikamaru, wake up."
Shikamaru opened his eyes. "Hai, hai, I know." He mumbled. Then, just as an afterthought, he subconsciously added, "troublesome woman…"
Ino walked toward the door of their room. "Okay, now get up you two! Shizune-san has something important to say to all of us!" she shouted at them, almost as an order. Slowly yet surely, the two stood up and followed her to the door. "Oh, come on! You guys can't be that tired, can you?" she said while the other two rubbed their eyes tiredly.
Shikamaru groaned under his breath and stumbled his way across the cold cement floor. When the three ninja made it out into the corridor, they noticed that Shizune had already awoken the others and was standing there waiting for them.
"Sorry, Shizune-san, these two were having a hard time getting up." Ino apologized. Shizune nodded and gestured a "don't worry about it". Ino and her team finally made it just to the group who waited patiently.
"I apologize for the interruption, all of you, but something rather important has come up and Tsunade-sama ordered me to inform you all of it." She paused to make sure that the half-asleep ninja were still listening. "You may have already noticed... that three of your comrades are absent at this time." She paused again, watching everybody look around to see who was gone.
"Two of them have been sent to the hospital, having major injuries, and the third one is discussing the matter with the Fifth." Everybody surrounding Shizune was now entirely awake when they heard the surprising news. They all widened their eyes.
"What happened!" Kiba shouted.
"Who got hurt? Team Kakashi isn't here… which of them are injured?" Tenten asked, seemingly concerned.
"I am sorry; I cannot say very much. As far as I am concerned, none of you are to leave unless Tsunade herself needs something from one of you. In that case she will most-likely come here to get what she needs." She paused again and waited for a reply.
"What do we do when we need to use the bathroom?" Shikamaru mumbled.
"There's a bathroom on the next floor underneath this one. Over where the door is to get inside here, there is another door on the floor where you would normally step right over it, unknowingly. That door does not specifically need my chakra to open, but it does need chakra. That's the secret of the other doors in this area. The first one cannot be opened unless my chakra is used to open it, but after you get passed that one, anybody who can generate chakra into their hands can reach the next floors."
"What about food?" Chouji asked from behind Shikamaru.
"The food should be on the same floor, just in a different room." Shizune replied. She waited as the people around her mumbled about the current situation they were all unfortunate to be in. Finally when the mumbling stopped, she finished, "I should head back. Tsunade-sama needs me for something." She said walking away. Everybody that watched her walk away saw the puff of white smoke that followed her disappearing body.
oO. Konoha Hospital .Oo
"Follow me," Naruto heard from behind him as he sat impatiently in the waiting room of Konoha's local hospital. He stood up and turned around to follow Tsunade through the many hallways that would lead him to their destination.
Just about a minute had passed and Tsunade reached a door. Placing her hand on the doorknob, she turned her head to wait for Naruto to come. Shortly after, the short blond reached her and she opened the door, allowing him to walk inside first. He reluctantly walked into the hospital room and slowly approached his sleeping comrade.
Naruto crept up to Sasuke's bedside, as to not wake him up, and stared down at his peaceful face. He really is beautiful… Naruto caught himself thinking. He lifted a hand slowly and lightly brushed the back of his fingers across Sasuke's soft, yet strangely cold cheek. He unwillingly removed his hand away from his friend's face and turned his body slightly to look up at Tsunade who was now standing beside him. In his eyes he held a questioning, concerned expression.
"Probably for only about a day or two. After that he'll be back to normal." Tsunade informed the concerned blond. Naruto nodded and averted his gaze back to Sasuke's sound face.
I'm glad… he thought. I'm glad that they didn't kill you before I got there. I honestly don't know what I would have done... Naruto grew a weak smile while he still stared at his friend. It was nice for him to see Sasuke so calm for once.
"Come on. There's not much we can really do in a room with your sleeping friend. We don't want to wake him up." Tsunade said quietly.
Naruto nodded and turned around, hanging his head, and walked back out the door. Tsunade caught the boy's gesture and followed quickly behind him. As he turned the corner to walk away from the room, Tsunade caught up with him and gently rested a hand on his shoulder. He stopped walking but didn't turn around or say anything. He only sat and waited for Tsunade to say something.
"There's something else I want to show you." She said calmly, hoping he would follow her again. Naruto lifted his hand and softly pushed Tsunade's hand away from his shoulder, turning around. Tsunade smiled and walked the opposite direction, Naruto following her, eyes still focused on the floor.
Just moments later, they approached another door to which Tsunade opened and let Naruto walk through. He did so and as soon as he noticed who exactly was lying upon the hospital bed in the room, he ran over to her bedside.
"This time, it'll probably be for another eight or nine weeks," Tsunade said reluctantly to the blond, walking slowly up behind him, "until she can fully recover."
Naruto gazed at the pink-haired Kunoichi who lay silently with her eyes shut on the hospital bed. He smiled weakly. "Well at least she'll heal." He replied, his eyes gliding up and down her injured body.
"No joke." Tsunade replied. Her disposition was uncomfortably serious looking. Naruto raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to continue. "She's lucky." She added.
Naruto tilted his head slightly to one side. "Why?"
"Well, if it hadn't been for the ANBU finding her, she would have…" she paused, closing her eyes, "died."
Naruto's eyes widened and he looked back at Sakura. The clear plastic cup covering her nose and mouth to control her breathing finally registered in Naruto's brain. He then closed his eyes and hung his head. "I see." He waited for a good wholesome minute before he continued. "What happened?"
"Well, according to ANBU, they were wandering around on a mission when they came across Sakura lying bloodied and bruised on the ground. We only assume that the ones responsible for this are the ones who attacked your other teammate. She was unconscious when they found her so they immediately took her here. Just after they told us, I sent Shizune to tell the others about what happened with you and your teammates." She replied.
"Eight or nine weeks…" Naruto mused. "Is it safe for her to be here while the enemy is freely wandering around the village?" he asked.
"No. It isn't safe. Actually, no body is safe in this village anymore. The only people who are are the people who have been evacuated into confined underground areas like the one you and your friends are staying in. That's pretty much everybody in the village, besides me, a few Jounin, and some highly trained ANBU members."
Naruto clenched his fists angrily. "By the time this is all over…" he said, voice slightly shaking. "A lot of people will be dead…" Tsunade and Naruto both sat quietly for another minute.
"You are going to have to take it from me, huh?" he asked her, his voice seemingly depressed.
"I- yeah…" Tsunade reluctantly replied.
"You are going to have to kill me…" he rephrased the statement.
Tsunade didn't know how to answer. Yes. The answer was yes, but she couldn't say it to him. Him of all people. Though, she knew she couldn't lie, either.
"You should get back to your corridor and get some rest. I can tell that you haven't slept much recently."
"I'd like to stay with my teammates…"
"Kid, you have to go back. Those are direct orders from your Hokage."
Naruto groaned and turned around, heading for the door.
"Oi, Tsunade-obaachan… how am I going to get in?" he asked.
"Grab Shizune-san on your way there. She should be coming back right now so just ask her to let you in." she replied, watching him walk out the door.
"Hey, Naruto-kun!" she shouted. He stopped and waited for her to continue. Suddenly he felt something hit his head extremely hard and he fell flat on his face. In struggling to stand back up, he heard Tsunade shout from behind him, "Don't call me that!"
Naruto fixed a triumphant smile upon his face, attempting to rid the images of his teammates from his mind, and walked away. Just a moment had passed and he reached a door with the number one-hundred twelve etched into the wood. He stopped walking all together when he reached that door: the door that closed him away from his teammate; away from his comrade; away from his friend. He closed his eyes, set a hand gently on the door, and hung his head.
Sasuke. I hope you'll be alright… he thought, just before he opened his eyes and walked out of the hospital.
A/N: Sorry again for the late update. I hope you don't all hate me for it. -