"S-Sakura-chan?" Naruto muttered, squinting up at her. "What happened?" Sakura's eyes widened and she pulled him up by his arms, then wrapped hers around him in a tight hug.

"Naruto! You're awake!" Sakura cried, pulling away after a moment and grinning at him.

"Uh...yeah. But..." Naruto looked around the room. "Am I in a hospital? And what are you doing here? And..." He looked down at his stomach. "...and why is my chest wrapped in...that bastard." His eyes narrowed mid-sentence. "What happened to Sasuke? I thought he was dead. The last thing I remember was you leaving to go tell Tsunade-baa-chan that I killed him."

"Um..." Sakura looked at him nervously, biting her lip. "...Sasuke's..."

"He's awake!" came a voice from the doorway. Both Sakura and Naruto turned to see a nurse ushering three more nurses into the room, and immediately they pulled Sakura away from Naruto and began examining him. Sakura glared at the nurses.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted angrily. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Let me talk to my girlfriend!"

"We have to make sure you're okay," one nurse commented, unwrapping his bandages and shoving him down onto the bed so she could examine the wound.

"I'm the Hokage's apprentice. Let me do it," Sakura told them, shoving past them with another glare. "You can leave now."

The nurses looked at her doubtfully, before a rolling sound came from outside and another nurse ran by with an old woman on a stretcher. "This woman needs medical attention!" the nurse called out. "She had a heart attack!"

The nurses looked from Sakura to the doorway, before running after the other nurse quickly.

Sakura turned back to Naruto, who was lying on the bed, looking up at her. "I really hate this hospital," Naruto commented. Sakura nodded in agreement.

"Alright, I need to check your chest to see if it's healed properly, okay?"

"Okay. I'll just lay still. But what about Sasuke? What happened to him? Do you know?" He shivered as Sakura's fingers danced across his bare chest, pressing down on different points occassionally.

"Ino filled me in on what happened. Does this hurt?" She pressed down lightly on the place where Sasuke had stabbed him.

Naruto hissed in pain and grabbed her hand. "Yes! Now will you please tell me what happened, and how Ino knows ANYTHING about this?"

"Oh, sorry." She avoided his eyes, but kept her hand beneath his. "Well...Sasuke was hurt too, so of course he came here. He got the room right across from this one. Last night, he tried to...to kill you again." She took a shaky breath and tried to hold back tears. She would NOT cry.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked, noticing her discomfort. "I'm okay now, you know that, right?"

Sakura shrugged uncomfortably. "I know. It's just that...I couldn't stop him this time. If it weren't for Tsunade-sama and the others, you'd be dead."

Naruto's eyes softened. "It's not your job to protect me, Sakura."

Sakura sniffed and rubbed her eyes. "I know. But it doesn't help to know that I wasn't strong enough to protect you."

"But that doesn't matter anymore. I'm okay, you're okay, everyone's fine, right?" Naruto sat up and looked at her. Sakura shook her head.

"Neji and Tenten are injured, and they're in another room right now. And Sasuke's...he's...well, Ino told me that Gaara killed him." She looked at him nervously.

Naruto stared down at the floor without a word. After a moment, he looked back up at her. "Gaara, really? Well, better Gaara than me, I suppose..." he commented thoughtfully.

"You're really okay with it?" Sakura asked, raising her eyebrows.

"He's with his parents now," Naruto replied with a shrug. "Maybe this was the best thing for him, anyway. He's probably happier now, right?"

"Well, I guess you can think of it that way. But I don't really want to talk about it right now, okay? We should be more worried about Neji and Tenten, and if they're going to be alright. They're our friends, after all."

"Yeah. You're right." Naruto started to stand up. "Wait, will they let me out of here?"

"If I say so they will," Sakura told him.

Naruto nodded his understanding, looking around the room. "Where are my clothes?"

"Oh. They're in here." Sakura moved to a cabinet and opened it, pulling out his newly washed outfit.

"Thanks. I...um, I'm already in just my boxers, so I'll just...yeah." He looked at her nervously, and she watched with a smirk as he pulled his clothes on quickly.

"Well, should we go see Neji and Tenten, then?" Sakura asked, moving past him to leave the room.

"Wait!" Naruto called, grabbing her arm. "You never even told me what happened."

Sakura sighed. "Alright. I'll just tell you what Ino told me. Tsunade-sama got Team 8, Team 10, the three Sand-nin, Team Gai, and Karin to come defend you."

Naruto raised his eyebrows. "Wow, she really cares about me, huh?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Sasuke got rid of two ANBU, and...me, and went to go kill you. That's when they all showed up. Sasuke fled to the training grounds, where they all followed him. Karin got lost somewhere on the way and nobody's seen her since." She tried to keep a straight face as she said the last sentence. Naruto cracked a grin. "Sasuke then used the shadow clone jutsu, most likely copying it from you with his Sharingan, and each ninja took a Sasuke. When each of them defeated a clone, they returned to a certain field and met there. Eventually it got down to Tenten and Shikamaru. Ino and Neji each went to help. Then they all found out that Tenten had the real one, so Gaara and Rock Lee went to go find Tenten and Neji. When they got there, both Neji and Tenten were unconscious. Rock Lee took his teammates back to the others, and Gaara fought Sasuke. You know the rest."

Naruto gave her a thoughtful look. "So...Gaara's positive he killed Sasuke?"

Sakura nodded. "I haven't talked to him, but Sasuke was able to take down both Neji and Tenten, so I'm pretty sure he was the real one."

Naruto shrugged. "Alright. Well...I'm really glad you're okay. I can't imagine how Neji must have felt. Out of all the Sasukes, when he found out Tenten had the real one..." He shivered. "That must have been horrible." He wrapped an arm around Sakura and pulled her against him. "If that had been me and you..."

Sakura shot him a look. "Oh, stop thinking about things like that. Everything's fine now. And I'm sure Tsunade-sama can fix Neji and Tenten up in no time. Ino told me the others have gone to get her. Alright?" She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Yeah. You're right I guess." He grinned at her mischeviously. "But what shall we do while we're waiting for her to get here?"

"Aw, there's the old Naruto," Sakura said with a smile, wrapping her arms around him.

"Is that a yes or a no?"

"Mmm...that would be a no."

"What? Why not!?"

"Because you have a chest injury," she replied, prodding the place where the kunai had gone through. Naruto grunted. "...and it wouldn't be healthy for you to have a fast heart rate until you're completely healed."

Naruto glared down at her. "And what makes you think that kissing you will speed up my heart rate?"

Sakura looked up at him disbelievingly. "Are you serious?"

Naruto crossed his arms and looked at her smugly, choosing not to reply. She met his smirk with one of her own, and Naruto felt her hand grab his and squeeze it.

Naruto's expression changed immediately. "S-Sakura?"

Her face came closer. "This was what you wanted, right?"

He could feel her breath on his face. "Wha...what are you doing?"

Sakura's other hand moved to his chest so that it was directly over his heart. She could feel his pulse quickening. "Proving you wrong." She leaned in closer so their lips were almost touching. Naruto's eyes slid shut and he leaned forward slightly...but then he felt Sakura move away. His eyes shot open to see her across the room, grabbing a few napkins from inside one of the cabinets.

"Hey, Sakura, why did you..." His eyes widened and he opened his mouth, feeling his throat start to tingle. He leaned over quickly so he was staring at the floor, quickly coughing up a few tiny droplets of blood. Sakura hurried over with the napkins, dabbing at his mouth with them.

"Told you," she said, putting a hand on his cheek to hold his face steady. Naruto looked at her quickly, and his cheeks heated up, more coughs racking his body. Sakura tried to keep from laughing, realizing what she had done and quickly removing her hand from his cheek. Naruto leaned over, facing the floor again, while Sakura rubbed his back softly, murmuring, "Gai in a thong, Gai in a thong..."

Naruto's eyes widened even more and he collapsed on the floor, his coughing turning into gagging. Finally, Sakura managed to calm him down, and she helped him up quickly. Naruto glared at her. "What the hell did you do that for?"

"Hey, you're the one who said I couldn't speed up...

"Not that! Why on earth would you give me a mental image like that?"

"Oh. Heh...sorry, I thought it would calm you down." She gave him a guilty look.

Naruto sighed. "Okay, since we can't kiss or anything, let's just go check on Neji and Tenten, okay?"

Sakura grinned at him and nodded. "Okay."