"I told you for the last time. I'm. Not. Leaving!"

Temari shuddered and grabbed her older brother's arm as a warning to him. She knew that tone of voice and she didn't like it. It was pure murder. No sane person with the will to live would want to be around Gaara when his voice became dark as it had. The blonde sand-nin slowed backed out of the room tugging on Kankuro's black sleeve and keeping her eyes on her little brother's back.

"Check in later," was Kankuro's final comment.

Gaara sat like that for a while. He couldn't keep his eyes off the other demon vessel. The redhead knew that sooner or later the Hokage would come and find him. The tests would begin and he couldn't visit with Naruto because he would most likely be bed ridden after all the things the team of medical-nin did to him. For now, all that Gaara wanted to do was talk to Naruto in the few chances that he got. Naruto was waking up more often, which would have been good if the boy wasn't experiencing more and more pain and passing out faster each time.

Throughout the morning, Gaara noticed the door open behind him and shut again. He occasionally heard a voice or two lashing out at the nurses for not letting them visit with Naruto because he already had one visitor and could only have two at a time. The redhead figured that the nurses and Naruto's friends were too scared to try and kick him out, didn't want to sit in the room the psychotic Sand-nin alone, or both.

The nurses had attempted to throw him out over the night a few times but failed at even making Gaara budge an inch. He didn't even glance at them. One male nurse had threatened to get the Hokage, at which Gaara commented that she knew he was there. He never found out if the nurse checked with the scary blonde woman, but they hadn't tried anything after that. Gaara sat there all night, staring at the boy in front of him and making sure that he was comfortable as possible in a hospital bed.

Every time Naruto had woken up, which was only twice, Gaara was forced to call the nurses into the room. He calmed Naruto down in the only way that he knew how to, just talking to him a bit. Every time the nurses arrived, Naruto had already went back to sleep. So far, the only person to actually hear Naruto speak more than a few words was Gaara. The nurses wanted to keep a staff member in there watching him, but Gaara had scared the poor girl off when he threatened to silence her snoring with his Sabaku Kyuu.

Gaara was content to just sit there watching Naruto in silence.

hr

Four people sat outside of Naruto's room. They took turns peeking in to see if that murderer was gone yet and to make sure that he hadn't killed Naruto. They barely said a single word to each other. All four of them were content to sit that way. It let them reflect on a lot of things, like why Naruto—who was known to heal extra fast—was still in the hospital nearly a month after he was put in there. Only one of them had been able to figure it out so far, that's why he was made a Chuunin after all.

Shikamaru had seen Naruto fight more than a couple times now. He watched as Naruto had called upon a dark power that was not his own by talking to something within him. Shikamaru was a genius, but it still didn't take all that much to figure out exactly what the Yondaime Hokage had done with the Kyuubi no Kitsune instead of killing it. And that fact amazed Shikamaru, not the demon being inside his classmate, but the other thing that he had figured out… The Yondaime sealed a demon into his own fucking son. "What a father…"

Next to Shikamaru was the boy the Chuunin and his team had risked their lives for because of his stupidity. Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke sat there in silence for another reason. He hadn't been able to speak since Naruto slashed his throat with those claws that appeared when the dark chakra started leaking from the blond. The Godaime Hokage said that with therapy and additional cosmetic healing he should be able to speak again. She wasn't rushing to heal him and it was obvious that she showed no sympathy for what Naruto had done to him. Sasuke wanted his voice back for one reason. To apologize to Naruto. He wanted to do whatever he could to fix what had happened to his teammate. All of it was his fault. Naruto used that special power for too long and completely drained himself of everything he had to make Sasuke see sense in what he was doing. He only wanted to apologize to the boy who had become his brother.

Sakura was next to Sasuke. She was quiet because she had nothing to say to break that silence. She doubted that any of them would reply anyway. At first, when Sasuke had come back, she had experienced a level of joy that she couldn't even comprehend. The joy vanished when she saw his torn throat. She wanted to yell at Naruto for going that far. Sasuke had looked at her with such sad eyes as soon as she mentioned Naruto's name. He refused to look at her after that. Sakura ran to Naruto's room as quickly as she could. After Sasuke was released, she took him to Naruto's room before they went to eat lunch. Most of the time they ended up eating ramen and think about Naruto in silence. Yesterday, Sakura had a mission and found out that Sasuke hadn't left his bed the entire day. She decided to come early to visit with Sasuke and already found Shikamaru sitting outside the room. She threw a fit at the desk about i that /i evil guy who tried to kill her and Naruto and Sasuke sitting in her teammate's room. The nurses did nothing about any of it. So she sat there jumping between fuming mad at the nurses and worried sick about Naruto.

The next visitor had arrived only a few minutes beforehand. He said nothing to anyone as he sat down. However, he had kept rummaging through the piles of letters and gifts he had brought with him. He looked rather embarrassed to be holding it all but would never admit it. Lee had given him some of the stuff to bring, Tenten had written a letter to Naruto, Hinata-sama had given him the thickest envelope and the largest package to bring with him. Neji himself had actually written a letter to Naruto and told him that he'd buy him as many bowls of ramen he wanted just so long as he was out of the hospital soon. The Hyuuga boy was rather fidgety sitting there. He didn't know the others well enough to talk to them and he wouldn't know how to hold up the conversation well anyway. Lee couldn't come with him because of his injuries fighting Gaara and that bone guy while trying to rescue Sasuke. "What was that guy's name? Never mind." Tenten had been training so much that she was lying in bed at home. Her mother forced her to stay there. Hinata-sama was too shy to come. She probably would have fainted at seeing the bandages anyway. Neji tried to think of everything except the boy lying in the room behind him. His attempt failed as he started seeing those strong eyes in his mind and then remembering when he was told that Naruto was in the hospital and he probably wasn't going to make it. Neji barely made it himself. He figured that if he could recover so fast, Fate would have been much kinder to Naruto and the younger boy would already be sneaking out of the hospital to eat ramen. Neji was honestly worried.

Everyone looked up immediately as a woman with short dark hair entered Naruto's room. They heard muffled talking between the woman and Gaara. Shikamaru was grateful for Naruto's sake that the other's weren't close enough to hear them talking about healing Naruto's demon. He didn't know how the other's would react if they knew about the Kyuubi. The two walked out and the conversation was then heard by all.

"First, Tsunade-sama wishes to run blood tests on the both of you. Then she hopes that you'll agree to be examined using chakra. Will you?"

"Yes, Shizune-san. As I've said before. I agree to anything you wish to do to me."

"You realized that the blood work will be the painless part. Everything past that will be more and more painful. If you ever wish for us to stop, all you have to do is say so and both the Hokage and I will understand."

"Yes, Shizune-san. I agree to everything. No matter how much pain. I only wish to save his life. He's already saved me so much."

"As you wish."

And the two disappeared around the corner towards the laboratory leaving behind four very confused friends.

Shikamaru, being the least confused, rose to his feet and entered Naruto's room. He sat and talked to his sleeping friend. He wished him well and told him that Ino was working on a very special flower arrangement for his room, as if she hadn't made enough. He ordered Naruto to stop being so troublesome and just wake up. He told him that he accepted the demon within him even though the Kyuubi was troublesome too.

Sasuke and Sakura were next. Sasuke sat and touched his friend's hand and talked to him in his mind about how sorry he was. Sakura rambled off what happened on her mission to him and told Naruto all about what he was missing out on. How she was taking lessons from Tsunade-sama now. She said that he had to get better fast so that he could train with her to see how good she's gotten. Naruto lie there, as still as death while Sakura tried to smile while talking to him. Sasuke wished for a miracle to put things back to the way they used to be before the whole mess with Orochimaru.

Lastly, Neji was allowed to enter. He said nothing and only looked on sadly as Naruto lay still on his bed. He set the letters and gifts down on the table next to Naruto's bed. He didn't spend any time talking to Naruto. He didn't waste time cursing the Fate that he knew didn't exist. Naruto proved that. He just smiled at the boy and left. Naruto was strong. Stronger than anyone or anything he had ever faced before. Neji knew that he'd be better in no time. It was guaranteed.

After everyone had left, Naruto had woken up to find no one there. He couldn't reach the button. He couldn't move because of pain. But he did see all of the new gifts and flowers in the room. Naruto's last thought before falling back asleep was about being happy that he wasn't alone and forgotten.