Shanan woke up in the hospital and both of the boys were there. Sasuke had fallen asleep holding her hand while his head was resting on the side of her bed, but Naruto was still awake.

"Shanan! You're awake," he whispered as he moved to sit on the opposite side of her bed from Sasuke. "Do you feel ok?"

Shanan took a few deep breaths to try and see if anything hurt, but nothing did. "I feel alright... What happened? Do I still get to do the Chunin exams?" she asked tentatively, even though she was sure she knew the answer was going to be "no".

Naruto looked down and shook his head. "No. Shanan... You were out for two whole weeks."

She couldn't believe that when she felt so normal, except for having a headache.

Sasuke sat up suddenly when he realized he hadn't been dreaming and that Shanan was actually awake. He sat next to her where he had been resting his head and took her hand into both of his hands as he brought it to his lips.

The feeling was... familiar. And it sent chills all over her body.

He must've kissed her hands a thousand times while she was out. She didn't hit the ground, but it was still a bad fall and she had actually broken her back in two places and cracked at least three of her ribs. Not to mention her broken left leg and collar bone and her dislocated shoulder.

"You're finally awake," he said thankfully. He kissed her hand again as if it belonged to him now and he wasn't wrong.

"Sasuke..." She was really happy to see him. To see both of them. But she could tell something was different about Sasuke. "What happened at the Chunin exams?" she directed the question at whichever one of them wanted to answer her first. She slowly looked back and forth between the two of them.

"Sas-" Naruto had started to say.

"We don't need to talk about that right now, Naruto," Sasuke snapped at him.

"Sasuke, she needs to know," he pleaded.

Sasuke kept her hand pressed against his lips as he considered his next words.

"Please tell me, I know something is wrong. What happened to you?" she asked as she tried not to panic.

Sasuke kept his eyes closed and stayed quiet as tears formed in his eyes.

"Sasuke..." Naruto begged him again.

He remained silent.

"Please," Shanan whispered. "Please, Sasuke..."

Sasuke opened his eyes and looked at Naruto, still holding Shanan's hand. He couldn't say it himself and wasn't sure he even wanted to. "Tell her," he told Naruto.

Naruto nodded at Sasuke and looked at Shanan, before looking down again. "Well... long story short, Sasuke got cursed."

Shanan audibly gasped as she turned quickly to look at Sasuke and then back to Naruto. "Wha- How?" She could feel Sasuke's tears on her hand and turned back to look at him as she frowned.

"Kakashi Sensei sealed it," Naruto quickly added. "So it should be fine. It was just scary. So much happened. But a man named Orochimaru bit Sasuke on his neck, which made him kinda crazy for a bit. He dislocated an opponent's shoulders when he didn't have to..."

Shanan looked back at Sasuke and could tell he felt really guilty for having lost control like that. Tears were still rolling down his cheeks. His eyes were still closed as he let Naruto tell Shanan about everything.

"Sasuke," she whispered as she put her other hand on his and kissed his hands.

He opened his eyes and looked at her apologetically.

Shanan teared up. "I should've been there. I'm so sorry, this is all my fault," she cried.

Sasuke put his arms around Shanan and pulled her in close to him.

"You guys are killing me, here," Naruto said as he rolled his eyes and went back to his chair. "Just tell her it's not her fault already, would ya?"

Sasuke shot Naruto a look. He'd been a bit on edge ever since he received the curse mark. Even after it had been sealed away, he couldn't help but be short with Naruto, especially.

He leaned back and looked at Shanan. "He's right. I let him get too close to me. I was scared." He looked so ashamed when he said it.

Shanan hated that she let herself get hurt. She remembered how it had all happened and she knew she shouldn't have gone up.

She also couldn't shake the feeling that all of this was her fault and there was nothing that anyone could say to her to convince her otherwise.