Sasuke opened his eyes slowly and found himself in a dimly lit hospital room, he looked at the window which was open and the gentle breeze brushed the curtains. He looked across the room and found that there was another bed in the room, occupied by his loud mouthed companion Suigetsu. He pushed himself into a sitting position and stared at his bandaged hands. He felt odd; he no longer cared about the Taka, or the Akatsuki. Now all he wanted to do was train, train and train some more, because his last battle had opened his eyes. Naruto was powerful. Not just powerful but more powerful than HIM. And this was something he could not cope with.

Sasuke heard a shuffling across the room and looked over to see Suigetsu awaken, he was less bandaged than Sasuke but had a headache the likes of which could only be achieved by a hangover from nearly poisoning yourself with alcohol. Suigetsu looked over and now he could see the full extent of Sasuke's injuries, and it was quite astounding. His friend looked almost mummified and he looked at his own body and found he too bore some injuries from his attempt to help his friend.

"Hmph, I just keep sticking my own neck out for you Sasuke, you owe me one this time." Suigetsu smirked but found Sasuke looked less than amused by his friends comment. "Shut up Suigetsu. I didn't need your help." Sasuke said bitterly.

"Oh really?" laughed Suigetsu "Look at yourself, if I hadn't slowed you down you'd be 6 feet under by now, you should be thanking me not glaring at me." Sasuke looked across at his friend and couldn't help let out a small smile, which Suigetsu had learned was the equivalent to fits of laughter to Sasuke. Suigetsu smiled back.

"So now wh…" Suigetsu was interrupted abruptly by the entrance of Tsunade. This was the first time Sasuke had met the lady, and he was amazed by the old lady's looks. She was followed by Shizune and Kakashi Hatake, much to Sasuke's surprise.

"Good morning you two, how are you feeling?" Asked Tsunade "You guys were pretty beat up when you got here, hell Sasuke we thought you weren't going to make it but Naruto's determination got you here intact, almost, and Suigetsu, you weren't in any good shape yourself, you could've died too if Kakashi hadn't imparted some kindness to you." Suigetsu looked up at the masked man who looked distantly across the room, as if the nothingness meant something to him.

Tsunade, looking kindly at the two injured ninja, now asked exactly what Suigetsu was going to. "So now what?" They looked at each other, deep down they knew what they wanted, it was an amazingly simple decision to them both. Sasuke only wanted to train, and be stronger than Naruto, he was done with running around, fight Akatsuki and causing mayhem as a rouge nin. And Suigetsu felt he had a debt to repay, these people had saved his life, and besides, as a Leaf Ninja he would finally be able to stay in one place some of the time, and actually have a night's sleep where he didn't drift off wondering whether he would wake up the next day or not.

Sasuke could tell just by Suigetsu's eyes just what he wanted and he turned back to Tsunade. "Lady Hokage, we wish to remain here in Konohagakure, as Hidden Leaf Ninja."

Naruto had finally been discharged from hospital, and with his discharge, the news was also broken to the village that Naruto had brought Sasuke home. Of course he found he had constant visits from the teenage girls of the village. In fact he had been visited almost immediately when he got home by Temari, Ino and Hinata. Ino had pretty much rugby tackled him when he answered the door and for some reason Hinata looked at him weirdly, he had never seen it before now, he had always been so busy, thinking about getting Sasuke home, but now, it was like he could finally see straight.

He spent the rest of the day sleeping; he had been informed the Sasuke and his friend were still in hospital and that nobody was to visit them, under threat of facing the wrath of a pissed off Hokage. He was finally at ease, he was home for good, and things could go back to the way they should be, and they had a new comrade in the form of Suigetsu. Things seemed good for Naruto right now.

One day later Sasuke had been released, he and Suigetsu were told they could either buy themselves an apartment, or Tsunade told them she could pull some strings to get the placed in the old Uchiha compound, this, however, did not appeal to Sasuke, for understandable reasons, so the two went out and, with a little help from Tsunade, bought an apartment for the two of them, due to the fact that their lack of funds meant that sharing was the only option. When they had finally got settled in, Tsunade and Kakashi took Suigetsu off on a tour of the village, so he could know his way around, whilst Sasuke was left to do as he pleased.

Sasuke was about to go to training, when a knock at the door came, and he opened it to find Sakura. She jumped at him and hugged him, he was shocked – slightly – and pushed Sakura away from him, his cold eyes staring at her.

"Sasuke I'm so glad you're home!" She exclaimed excitedly. "Finally everything can be the way it should be." She beamed at him but he still gave her the cold look he always did. "Sakura, my return changes nothing between us," she looked at him, sadden. "What?" she said, hurt by his words. "This changes nothing." He replied. "I still find you annoying, and after my defeat to Naruto I have one goal, to beat him. You are only a team mate to me." He said this as coldly as ever yet, suddenly Sakura smiled at him. "It's good to have you back Sasuke." She turned and left the room, a tear rolled gently down her cheek, but Sasuke couldn't see that, and that was all that mattered right then.

Hey guys, you know what I just did. I sat my ass down, drank some apple juice, and wrote chapter 3 at 1:57 in the AM. I am pleased with myself for this because I could just not get my head around what to do with this chapter, but I finally did :D so I hope you enjoyed chapter 3 and I will have 4 up in way less time if I stay in this mood :D - N