As one door closes, another opens. With this chapter, "Sea Serpent" closes, but who knows what the future could bring?

20. Hospital

The Konoha Hospital had leaked into the Hokage Tower, with every trained medical ninja, civilian physician, and trained healer with another specialization serving on active duty. Iruka had never been so glad that he had begun studying to be a medical ninja before deciding to specialize as a teacher instead, and Anko had never before been so grateful that Examiners were forced to study field medicine as part of their training.

Fortunately, though the number of injured was very high, higher than any time since the end of the last Shinobi War, the death toll was unbelievably low. The military strength of Konoha would be much depleted in coming years by the number of ninjas forced to take desk positions or retire all together due to injuries sustained in the attack, but few households would be in mourning.

The last couple ever to be married by the Third Hokage worked together as a team to heal the wounded, Iruka healing the most life-threatening injuries as best he could while discreetly guided by the Akuma-gan, as Anko treated those wounds that could be safely allowed to heal on their own.

When an injured but stable Naruto arrived at the hospital, they were the first to reach him. By this point, Anko was channeling her larger chakra reserves through Iruka so that he could continue without actually driving himself to chakra exhaustion.

Some hours after the fighting ended, the dead were being prepared for funeral, while the wounded were, depending upon condition, checked out and taken home by their families or officially checked into the hospital. Few beds were open, but everyone had been treated and the dead were few.

One of the largely unsung heroes of the day lay sleeping in a hospital bed, one of his teammates and friends passed out in the bed next to his, the other having been taken home by her family after treatment.

In the room next to that shared by Naruto and Sasuke, Iruka and Anko had collapsed onto an unoccupied bed, sweaty and dirty, covered in the blood of enemies and patients, fully clad for battle or healing save that their shoes had been kicked under the bed.

They slept peacefully despite the horrors that had befallen them and those they held dear once again, because they refused to give up.

The life of a shinobi was a difficult one, but they had each other, and they would persevere.

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Fin

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And that's all she wrote...for now.

Before bringing this story to a close, I'd like to first thank all of my readers, especially those who reviewed. I'd also like to thank Karura.Yukirin, who told me about the contest that inspired this story, as well as Sillymail, who created the contest.

At some point in the next several months, I hope to perhaps begin a sequel to this story, written in a more continuing rather than snapshot fashion and deviating more from canon. If or when I do so, I will PM all those who left a review for this story or added it to their favorite or alert lists.

Thank you for sticking through until the end, and I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it.