Naruto stared at the bed as he smoothed Ran's hair back from her face. He kept telling himself that she was just sleeping. It was hard to swallow the hurtful truth. The facts over the last few weeks, now turning into a month, were that she didn't have brain activity in the functional part of the brain that controlled the conscious and that there was significant damage to one of her lungs. The initial injury had caused blood to seep into her right lung. They'd been able to clear it out but the near asphyxiation caused too much damage. It didn't inflate all the way like it should now. Even if she did wake up, she'd need oxygen every night while she slept. There was a burning anger starting in the center of his core. He suddenly felt like he truly understood Sasuke's pain for the first time. He understood what losing something you loved was like. He ground his teeth together and gripped the railing of the bed. Naruto knew the man responsible for Ran's attack was set for execution in a week's time. It wasn't good enough. He wanted to be the one to kill the man for what he'd taken from him.

Kakashi stared at Naruto through the hospital room window. Lately, he'd taken to watching the boy during the day. He was monitoring his stability for Tsunade to make sure he didn't lose control. The problem was that Kakashi was having a hard time seeing what was happening to Naruto. He watched as the boy cringed, gripping the bed, and tears formed in his eyes. Kakashi saw Minato laying on the ground. He saw the third clutching an infant. Naruto didn't deserve this pain. Minato and Kushina hadn't either. The problem was he couldn't think of a way to stop the pain for his student. It was the same as with Sasuke. He couldn't find a way to subside the wrongs done to him. The world was not fair. He knew that but these two boys didn't need this crap. He sighed rubbing the back of his neck and started to enter the room to relieve Naruto so that he could sleep for a little while. They had started taking rotating shifts to watch over Ran to ensure that no one came to finish the job. He stopped just inside the room hearing Naruto speak to Ran as she lay unresponsive.

"I will always be here for you…just…don't go ok? Please just wake up." he sat tiredly in the chair by the bed.

"Wake up." Ran yawned stretching her legs out from where she'd curled up on the couch. The words had been extremely close to her ear and accompanied by warmth. Her eyes shot open and she jerked upright. She was half twisted around staring down at the source of the words unable to put everything together. She ran through the events of last night in her head: She'd freaked out and lost control of her kekei genkai, she'd injured Genma mildly, and he'd promised to stay over that night to calm her down. She remembered crying. She remembered the stark horrible feeling of him finding out. Ran had realized that she'd betrayed the Hokage by letting someone find out.

"Why are you laying here?" she snapped rubbing her head. It was pounding.

"You fell asleep crying on my shoulder. I wasn't going to shove you off." She glared at him with pure death radiating from her eyes.

"What about personal space do you not understand?" she grumbled starting to get up.

"I understand that you were pretty screwed up last night. I understood that I wasn't leaving you like that." He said watching her slightly agitated.

"That doesn't mean you need to lay down with me." Ran sighed rubbing her temples moving away from him to put space in between them. She was not used to people being so close. The last time someone had been that close to someone had been when she was only three years old. She'd been just a toddler. She'd been cuddled up in her bed with her older brother. Bile rose in the back of her throat at the thought of her older sibling. She bit her lip staring wide eyed at the wall ahead of her.

"Are you ok?" Genma asked furrowing his brows. The far off look in her eyes read pure sadness and loss. He knew that look. A lot of people in this village understood lose now; after the nine-tails attack.

"Are you ok?" Kakashi asked Naruto putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. The whiskered man looked up at his teacher smiling sadly one hand still gripping Ran's on the bed. Kakashi had to swallow hard to bury the emotions swirling up seeing his teacher's son give him that hurt look. It was honestly like someone had stabbed him straight through the chest. He gripped Naruto's shoulder a little harder and took a breath.

"She's tough. She'll come back kid. Remember, she's not only an ANBU but she agreed to date you." He laughed gently trying to reassure Naruto.

"Ha. Ha." The kitsune rolled his eyes. "I'm not that bad." He looked back to Ran.

"Yeah well, she's gotta have something to her if she agreed to take you on. She loves you. She'll come back." Somehow he'd said something right. Naruto's body unwound just a bit, enough to show that he was trying to relax. It wasn't until he leaned his head forward that Kakashi saw the tears.

"What's wrong?" were the only words that Kakashi could find. He already knew the answer.

"What's wrong Ran?" Genma asked standing but this time he respected her request for space.

"I just…" it was like watching something collapse in on itself. He knew something that he had done had caused this reaction but he didn't know what.

"What?" he waited. The silence between them seemed to envelope her. She was so tiny as it wrapped around her shoulders hunching her inside her own mind. He saw tears forming again and he fought the urge to just hug her. She was still so young but it would be disrespectful to assume she needed a hug after she'd cried in front of him twice. He was afraid that would only make her mad. She was probably already embarrassed she had.

"You have to go. Please." She whispered but didn't meet his eyes.

"No. Explain to me why." She sniffled hugging her arms around her middle.

"I don't want too. Nobody knows ok?"

"Then why don't you tell someone. You'll feel better." Her face crumpled worse and her lips trembled.

"You don't get it." She turned to face him. He fought the urge to sigh.

"Tell me."

"I'm not allowed!" she snapped throwing an arm up in the air. "I swore that I wouldn't reveal anything about myself until the Hokage deems it's safe."

"Well then you probably need an ally here. Keeping something like that a secret probably won't go well in the long run." He quipped back. For a moment she was shocked. Was he really asking her to go against the Hokage?

"I…I wasn't born here." She said without thinking. It all had to come out. She had to let it out to someone. "I'm from another village just outside of this one. I was born into the Iwaii clan." Genma's eyes widened a fraction. The Iwaii were supposed to be dead.

"So that would supposedly make you the last…"

"The last one yeah." She wiped at her eyes. "I wouldn't have been. I shouldn't have. The night the attack happened my brother survived too…" her eyes cast downward.

"And…"

"He's the one who orchestrated the attack. That's how they got inside the village to begin with." She broke down sobbing so hard covering her face.

"So how did you survive?" he asked gently but he thought he knew where this was heading. This time he did cross the space and grip her shoulder gently. She didn't flinch away.

"I killed him. He started the attack and then came back for me in my room. I was the sacrifice they needed for the attack to work…the innocent child." Genma tried not to. He really tried not to do it but he couldn't help it. He grabbed her and pulled her into a hug as she finally broke down. This was the real turmoil inside Ran that she'd never let anyone see. A small part of him was glad she was letting him in.