AN-

Thanks guys for being so patient in waiting for the next chapter to be posted. I have been really busy with the Fire Department, raising my family and getting ready for the new baby, all while trying to finish my degree. So finding time to write creatively has been very scarce. Anyhow, I have finally managed to garner some time to write a bit more, so without further delay, the next Chapter in my story.

Chapter 12: The Lazarus Effect

"Naruto!"

Sakura screamed for help. She looked in every direction and it seemed like the park had become a ghost town. She started to panic then looked across the street.

'The fire station! Someone will be there for sure.'

Her hopes faltered when she saw that none of the fire trucks usually in the bays were there.

'They must be out on an emergency call already.'

Sakura cursed her bad luck. She looked in her purse for her cell phone. Gone. She must have left it at the restaurant with Naruto's wallet. She had to think quickly. Naruto was losing a lot of blood and wouldn't survive much longer. She went to try and pick him up, but he was much larger than her and too heavy.

'Come on, this isn't really happening is it?' Terror was rising with each passing second. She had finally found a decent guy and now he was going die because she couldn't help him.

Sakura tried again, this time with a need; a need to save the life of a person she cared about. She felt that familiar strength flow into her entire body and she hefted him up and onto her shoulder. She quickly made a bee-line for her apartment complex. She knew what she had to do.

With no one at the fire station to help, no cell phone to call an ambulance, and no one else anywhere around to help, she came to the ultimate conclusion that she was going to have to operate on him herself, in her apartment, with little to no real medical equipment if she was going to save him.

She managed to get her apartment door open and quickly placed Naruto on the table in her dining room after clearing the items from it. With practiced ease, recalling her schooling on emergency wound management; she removed his shirt and inspected his wounds. He had one gunshot wound to the center of his chest and one in his abdomen. She ran to her bathroom and gathered hot water, towels and her medic kit she carried from med-school and quickly ran back to the table where he lay.

She pulled large bundles of gauze from her bag and set them aside. She palpated the area around the gunshot wounds. The bullets were in deep and luckily the one in the center of his chest just missed his heart.

She knew one thing for sure. Those bullets had to come out, but she had no tools.

'He is losing blood fast and the bleeding won't stop until the bullets are out.'

She thought back to the old man who had a stroke and how she found and removed his blood clot.

"I guess there is no other way."

She placed her hands over the wound and concentrated. She imagined the chest cavity, the location of the organs and saw them in her mind. She found the object that didn't belong and the damage that it had wrought. Somehow it had managed to ricochet off a rib bone and pierce his left lung. She saw the familiar green glow envelope the bullet and withdrew it from his chest.

Once the bullet was removed even more blood flowed from the wound. Apparently the bullet was pressed against an open artery and he was starting to bleed out fast. She was about to start applying her healing to the flesh and organs to try and knit them together when something pushed back.

It felt similar to the force that filled her with strength, but on an entirely different and larger scale altogether. She stepped back, watching as an orange glow surrounded Naruto's body. An unseen force lifted Naruto off the table and suspended him in the air. His whole body tilted forward until it was as if he were standing upright in mid-air. His eyes snapped open, but where blue irises once were, there was only orange light.

"It has been many ages since I have seen your face Sakura. It is good to see you again. Please do not be confused or scared. I am weakened from this unfamiliar wound and will need your help. Please come with me."

'It's been a while since he has seen me? What in the world is he talki-'

An orange appendage separated from the mass of orange glow and touched Sakura on the forehead. She promptly fell unconscious.

When she came to, she quickly realized she was not in her apartment anymore. Her head swiveled from side to side trying to discern where in fact she was right now.

"Hello?" She meekly queried.

She stood up and only then, realized she was actually standing in ankle deep water. She noticed walls on either side of her, lined with rusty pipes. The voice from before beckoned to her again.

"Come Sakura, there is much you must see."

Sakura only nodded and walked down the hallway toward a light. As she exited the hallway into a large room, she almost stumbled as the floor seemed to drop another foot, bringing the water up to her knees. This, however, was trivial to the view before her.

In the center of the room, on a large Dias surrounded by four torches, was a large swirling red liquid mass. She soon realized the illumination of the room was provided by this mass hovering just a few feet above the Dias. She moved closer, curiosity overriding her fear.

"Don't be frightened Sakura. I will not harm you. In fact, at one time I had been forbidden to."

The booming voice chuckled at his personal joke.

"I am sure you have a lot of questions. 'Why am I here?' 'What is this place?' Am I correct?"

Sakura nodded dumbly.

"I brought you here because I believe you care a great deal for Naruto. I also brought you here to show you that Naruto is not exactly what he seems. I think it is easier this way to show you what and who he is than waiting on him to tell you, because if it were up to him, he would probably never tell you."

The voice laughed a throaty laugh.

Sakura nodded that she understood, although she was entirely sure that she was dreaming now. She decided to play along.

"You said you know me. How is this possible when we have never met?"

"We knew each other long ago, in another time and another place. The Naruto you see now is in fact a reincarnation of a great hero from hundreds of years ago; although, until recently, he had no idea that I was still with him. He has no recollection of his past; only what few images I have shown him. You Sakura are also a reincarnation. In that time you were someone very important to him. You were his greatest source of strength. The two of you helped end a very bad time in that age."

Sakura could only stare in wide eyed wonder as the voice told its tale.

"So I guess you have already answered why you brought me here, I guess I should ask where we are and how I was brought here."

"Ah, yes. That is a bit easier to explain. You see, when you were healing Naruto, your spirit intermingled with mine. That was how I was able to bring you here with me. As to the where… we are inside Naruto's mind."

Sakura flinched slightly at the last part.

"So you are saying we are in Naruto's head right now? How is that even possible?"

"We are not exactly 'in his head' as you say. It is more that I have invited a sort of physical manifestation of Naruto's consciousness. You are kind of like a visitor in his mind." After a slight pause in the description he continued. "Your friend, the Yamanaka, should be able to explain it better."

'Ino? How does he know Ino, and what would she know about entering minds?'

The voice answered her unspoken question.

"She knows quite a bit more than she would like to tell you, or perhaps, that ability has not manifested itself just yet. In either case, I want to give you a warning. The Uchiha man is dangerous, and more evil than you can imagine. Don't turn your back on him for a second."

Sakura understood that much. She only had one more question on her mind and it was burning a hole in her head to get out.

"Who are you exactly?"

After a long silence the voice spoke.

"I was once this boy's enemy in another life. He pitted his will against mine, the strongest demon of the elemental nations, and he won. He actually won, and eventually, over time, he won me over completely with his genuine care for others and his ability to make a friend with anyone he met, even if they were an enemy. I owe him much, so much that I feel a thousand life times would not be enough time to pay him back. I am his companion through time, one of his best friends and the entity of power that resides inside of him. I am the Kyuubi, Nine-Tailed Demon Fox."

The mass swirled about until it took the form of a gigantic red fox with nine large swishing tails.

"It is time for you to go now. He will be awake soon I will begin to heal his body from here. Goodbye for now Sakura. We shall meet again I'm sure."

With that Sakura felt like she was falling and everything went black.

She came to lying on her side on the floor. Naruto was still hovering in the air, just as he had been. She noticed the orange tendrils surround his body and the wounds immediately started closing at such a rapid rate that it left her baffled.

'There is no way it is humanly possible that someone could heal their body that fast. I guess I wasn't dreaming after all.'

After the last wound closed Naruto's body gently alighted on the table and started to slump forward. Sakura was quickly there to catch him. She carried him over to the couch to let him recuperate from the ordeal. No doubt healing that fast used almost all the stored energy in his body. Once she was satisfied that he was in fact ok and not in mortal danger, she pulled a chair over to his side and fell fast asleep, completely exhausted from the ordeal herself. Her last thoughts before slipping completely unconscious…

'We have a lot to talk about Naruto.'