Stage Door

I know I can't hide this fear inside
Still my friends understand
Things have worked out
Much as you had said
Ain't no mystery what I need
Is understanding and your sweet sympathy
A steel string guitar and a little weed
And someone to keep me company
Someone to keep me company

Blue Rodeo

Sakura sat at Naruto's bedside, watching his sleeping face. He had been awake earlier, for about an hour, but the effort of talking had completely worn him out and he had quickly fallen back asleep. It had been that way for most of the week, though he stayed awake longer each time and his color improved each day. She remembered the horror that she had felt the last time he'd been brought back like this, after his fight with Gaara. The waiting had seemed endless then, and it was no better this time.

It had been almost two weeks since that disastrous day in the Rain Country. Hoskigaki Kisame had surprised them, and in the fight it had been Naruto who had saved her, driving him away and then promptly collapsing, close to death. She had been so afraid he would die, until Kasumi had appeared.

She had hardly slept these last weeks, because when she did she saw the monster that Kasumi had become in her dreams, and it terrified her. The burning fire, those terrible eyes… thinking about it made her want to scream and cry and curl into a little ball away from the world. After the beast spoke to the demon, Naruto had improved; not much, but enough that he no longer teetered on the brink of death.

They had left immediately after, traveling as quickly as they could, and almost constantly. Kakashi had carried Kasumi the entire way, even though the heat of the black fire that continued to burn along her back made it hard to be near her for long. A constant stream of water had seemed to seep out of the kunoichi, stopping the fire from completely destroying her fragile body.

She and Sasuke-kun had taken it in turns to carry Naruto. She had tried to take their injured teammate for the greater amount of time, because the effort aggravated the horrible burns that Sasuke-kun had gained when the beast had carried him to them. He wouldn't let her, though, and took his turn carrying their comrade without once complaining.

They had made it back to Konoha in four days, and she had hardly left the hospital since. Though Sasuke-kun had collapsed at the very door of the hospital, he had still been strong enough to make an enormous fuss when they tried to separate him from Naruto, so the two have been given a shared room. She had hardly left that room for four days as she kept a constant vigil over her two teammates.

It hadn't been a very exciting time - though Sasuke-kun had been awake fairly often, he was not inclined to talk, and spent much of his time staring out the window. The boredom didn't stop her, though. She thought she would go crazy if she could not be with them as often as possible.

Sasuke-kun had recovered before the other two, and was now walking around just like normal, although Tsunade-sama had forbidden him from training just yet. He spent most of his time at the hospital still, sitting with either Naruto or Kasumi. His presence there eased Sakura's guilt a little when she had to go home to sleep.

He was there the first time Naruto had woken, and the two had fought, although not as viscously as they normally did. Of course, Naruto had hardly been awake five minutes that time, and unable to open his eyes, so that might have been the reason. But she strongly suspected that something - or someone - had changed Sasuke's opinion of their teammate.

That someone, she suspected, was the woman in the hospital room a few doors down. The black fires had disappeared a week ago, but Kasumi still had not woken up. Kakashi-sensei was at her side constantly, except when Hokage-sama came and threw him out so he could get some sleep. She had gone to sit with him a few times when she could tear herself away from the boys and she knew that, now that he was awake, Sasuke spent every moment that he wasn't with Naruto with Kasumi.

She worried about Sasuke-kun. He had hardly spoken since he woke - he'd told her and Kakashi-sensei what had happened between himself, Kasumi and Itachi, though she suspected he had left some parts out to tell the jonin instructor in private. And he spoke to Naruto when the other boy was awake, although they mostly fought. But aside from that, he would go days without saying a word to anyone. Tsunade-sama frowned at him from time to time, but she didn't seem worried, although Sakura knew the woman could probably have hidden it if she was.

Others came to visit Naruto as well, which helped ease her worry over him. Hinata visited almost every day, sometimes only for a few moments, sometime sitting with Sakura for hours. Kiba often came with her, and Akamaru snuggled in Naruto's lap, earning a few tired pats if he did it while the blond boy was awake. Iruka-sensei came often, and seemed content to sit beside the sleeping boy. Lee and Neji came, the former loudly proclaiming Naruto's greatness until Sakura shushed him while the latter stared at his opponent from the chuunin exam in silence. Shikamaru, Choji and Ino stopped by a few times while Sasuke-kun was still in bed. Sakura suspected it was mostly because Ino wanted Sasuke-kun to see that she cared about him, but Sakura was too worried about her teammates to care much about what the blond girl was trying to do.

Several of the village's jonin stopped by Kasumi's room, mostly to check on Kakashi, Sakura thought. Her teacher had taken Kasumi's injury very hard, and it took the combined efforts of Tsunade, Kurenai and Asuma to make sure he remembered to eat.

She heard from Tenten about the one time Maito Gai had stopped by. Sasuke-kun had been there, sitting with Kasumi and his teacher. Tenten hadn't been too clear about just what the man had said, but Sakura got the impression that he implied that Kakashi was not worthy of Kasumi, and that had he, Gai, been around, such a thing would not have happened to her. In his completely ignorant way, it seemed he had also said he would win Kasumi's love away from Kakashi, thereby defeating his rival once again. Kakashi-sensei hadn't seemed to hear, but Sasuke-kun, after giving Gai a glare that was, according to Tenten, 'worthy of that Sand kid,' had grabbed the jonin and thrown him bodily from the room so hard that he had made a gigantic hole in the opposite wall. Apparently Tsunade-sama, who had witnessed the scene as she was checking up on the silver-haired kunoichi (and probably the white-haired jonin who refused to leave her side), had banned Gai from the hospital and ordered him to pay for the repair of the wall. Not a word had been said to Sasuke-kun, although Sakura thought that the Hokage seemed a little warmer towards the Uchiha afterwards.

Saskue-kun came in, and silently handed her a sandwich. "Saskue-kun, you got this for me?" she asked, surprised by the gesture. He shook his head. She glanced out the door, and saw Shizune give a slight wave before heading off in the direction of Kasumi's room. So he was just being the messenger. Well, at least he wasn't mean about it. Although how he could be any meaner when he already refused to talk to her, she wasn't sure. He settled himself on the bed he had spent so many days in while he recovered from his burns.

Kakashi-sensei came in a few minutes later. What she could see of his face was even paler than normal, and there was a dark bruise under his visible eye. There was an uneaten sandwich in one hand. Apparently Sasuke-kun was willing to talk to his teacher, because he looked up from his own sandwich to ask, "Kasumi?"

"Gaara and Temari are with her," Kakashi-sensei replied quietly. Sakura hadn't realized that the Sand siblings were in Konoha. Somehow, though, she wasn't surprised that Gaara had come to visit Kasumi. If she had had as big an impact on him as she had on Team Seven, there really wasn't any question of whether he would come.

Sasuke-kun nodded and looked thoughtfully at Naruto. "I don't think he's ready to see Naruto yet," the jonin added. Sasuke-kun nodded.

More significant that the Sand ninjas' presence, to Sakura, was that Kakashi-sensei had finally left Kasumi's side. It told her, more than anything else, that everything was going to be alright.