Part 4- Kyuubi

Naruto woke to find himself in a clean hospital bed; he looked up to see Sakura and Kakashi standing over him.

"W-what happened yesterday?" he raised a bandaged and shaky hand to his head; it ached and hurt a lot, 'Damn fox' he cursed mentally.

Kakashi said nothing but merely turned to look at the figure lying in the bed next to him.

"Kaka-sensei? W-who is that?"

"It's Sasuke. You attacked him when he went after you to apologise, he may be cold and withdrawn but he has a kind heart, Naruto… Look at me. You nearly killed him; you only suffered minor wounds since he did not wish to hurt you."

Sakura was crying silently, Naruto bolted up right.

"SASUKE!"

"Shh. Naruto, he is fine now, he needs rest and so do you,"

"Sensei… Why is your arm in a sling?"

"Because when I arrived in time to pull you off Sasuke you managed to break my wrist in three places and this was my writing and eating hand…"

"Oh… gomenasai Kakashi-sensei" Naruto apologised sheepishly.

Naruto closed his eyes and lay back into the soft pillows with a thump and inhaled the clean scent of linen and disinfectant. The door opened and a nurse came in with Iruka to check up on them.

"Kakashi. Uchiha Sasuke seems fine, his blood pressure and heart rate are back to normal and his wounds are healing well, but his neck wound will need stitches later and no hard training for at least two days." The nurse smiled,

"That's good; can he still go on missions?"

"Don't push him, but yes he can,"

The nurse smiled again and came over to Naruto and took his temperature,

"Uzumaki Naruto seems in good health too, I'm amazed that your students heal very well and quickly, they should be out of here in a day or two, and Iruka here wants to talk to you," she waved and walked out of the room.

"Kakashi, the Sandaime has asked for you because he needs to talk about… matters about… y'know"

"It's ok Iruka, Sakura you come too; do you want to come or no?" Kakashi asked his head popping around the door, Iruka nodded and said goodbye to Naruto who smiled back.

Naruto sat up once more and sat down next to Sasuke, he cringed when he saw the wounds on his neck, they were an angry red undoubtedly infected, 'did I really do this?' he thought as he watched the screen of Sasuke's IV drip as it transferred antibiotics and blood into his veins. He watched as Sasuke's chest rose with each breath and the screen showing his heart rate was even.

Sasuke opened his eyes and the first thing he saw was bright blue eyes staring at him, his own widened in alarm but he then calmed down as he realised he was in no immediate danger.

"I'm really sorry Sasuke…I didn't mean to attack you like that yesterday, it was because I was really mad and I was a little emotional then and I let Kyuubi take over… and yeah…"

Sasuke sat up and removed the oxygen mask from his face,

"Sasuke I think you should keep that on." Kakashi had returned with Sakura who looked relieved that both her team mates were ok. Sasuke shrugged and muttered something. 'That was fast…' thought Naruto, he gazed down at the pale boy.

"What was that Sasuke?" Kakashi put a hand up to his ear,

"I said, I'm fine…" Sasuke's voice came out rough and grating,

"Here drink this" Naruto placed a glass of water in his friend's hands,

"What did Hokage-sama want?" Naruto asked looking up at his Sensei.

"About the Kyuubi" Naruto's face fell and he began tracing his palm willing this conversation to go on with out him.

"Kyuubi?" Sasuke coughed,

"The Sandaime said since you are emotionally unstable your inner mind or mentality is disrupted from its normal view of thinking, so the Kyuubi takes this as an opportunity to try and break free, via using Naruto's body to rampage."

"What happens if this gets out of control?" Sasuke enquired fearing the worst.

"Then we will have to kill him. No saving him then, he'd be the same bloody demon who spattered blood across the pages of Ninja history, the creature is a legend…"

Naruto stiffened visibly, Sasuke clenched the glass so hard it shattered his eyes showed an unreadable expression of anger and something else and Sakura covered her mouth to stop herself from crying out, tears silently pouring down her face once more.

"I personally don't want Naruto to die, so we need to be very careful now."

"I hate the Kyuubi; I hate it for what it makes me…" Naruto muttered his face wrinkled up in disgust,

"You two should get some rest now, and Sasuke put that back on we will be back later" Kakashi left the room,

"Bye, I hope you two get better quickly" Sakura whispered as closed the door behind her.