I am alive! Whooo! And, another chapter! By the waaaay~, I need Beta. Don't need, just want. Ehehe. I thought I did a pretty good job on this chapter, tell me what you think alright? Ah, and there are some parts of the war in this! If you haven't realized it's after the war yet, you'll know now. So, about Sasuke: He is not back. I don't wanna go and make conclusions. None of us know. Oh, and since it's just been confirmed in manga 669 Naruto will live, this story isn't for nothing. Yay!

Chapter 3: Conclusions about him.

Paperwork.

The nightmare of every Kage. It makes her think about why she even took the job- Ah yes, because of Naruto. The boy had somehow managed to convince her by almost killing himself. It did get her over her fear, though.

Now, as she was just about to get working on the other pile of work, she silently prayed she would by saved by someone. Anyone!

The door opened and Shizune came running in. From the looks of it, she was panicked. Maybe there was another pile of paperwork again?

"L-lady Tsunade!" Shizune breathed out, "We-we need you in the hospital."

Said woman sighed and got out of her chair, "What is it now?" there was a little bit of annoyance in her voice. She wasn't really in the mood for the hospital, but everything is better than paperwork she assumed.

Right?

Shizune calmed down a little when she spoke next, wouldn't do any good if she panicked too. She didn't even wanna know how Tsunade would react.

"It's.. It's Naruto," she hesitantly began, though she could see Tsunade's eyes widen when she'd said the boys' name. "He's been brought into the hospital by Sakura and Kakashi, he needs expert medical treatment as soon as possible."

"Lead the way." There was coldness in Tsunade's voice. Was she supressing her feelings again? Though in truth, she was really worried about the boy. Since he wasn't one to get into the hospital. There were two options: One, it is just a really bad prank. Two, he really needs medical treatment.

Shizune nodded and walked out of the door, followed by the Hokage. Tsunade didn't want Naruto to leave her as well, after what happened to Nawaki and Dan, the kid had helped her get over fear for blood, and brought her back to become the Hokage too. She had become attached to the blonde.

As the two entered the hospital, their pace began to increase. "Shizune, which room is he in?"

Said girl seemed to be thinking for a moment before answering, "141."

Tsunade nodded, and headed for the staircase. Which she climbed as fast as possible. Shizune, unable to climb it as fast, fell behind a little.

They ran down the hall, dodging other patients on the way. '140..' Tsunade stopped once she saw the numbers '241'. She hesitated, being a little scared of what she would see inside. Though know that the boy was in a critical state, she quickly opened the door and stormed inside with all the determination she has; Though, her eyes widened at what she saw.

There were 3 people in the room, excluding herself. Two of them she recognized as Hatake Kakashi and Haruno Sakura. They were currently standing to the side of the bed.

The boy laying on the bed was limp and pale, his harsh breathing and the chest moving up and down the only signal of him being alive. Frail beads of sweat lingered on his head and every 5 seconds you would be able to see him shiver and grit his teeth in pain.

Tsunade got over to the boy – Of which she now identified him being Naruto, seeing the blond hair – and pushed the two shinobi out of her way, quickly starting to apply medical jutsu.

"What happened to him?" she wondered out loud.

"We were waiting on the training field for him to show up. He.. was even later than Kakashi-sensei." Tsunade snorted at this; who would've thought that could actually be possible? "When he got there, he just smiled and collapsed… I… don't think he was even aware of it himself."

Tsunade nodded. "Have you done a check-up on him yet?"

"Yes, but there was nothing I could find. An the next thing, he started coughing up blood." Sakura eyed Naruto: She really felt useless again, there wasn't anything she could do except hoping he would be alright. With the fight with Orochimaru, she felt the same like this, unable to do anything. She was able to heal him at that moment, though, but now… Nothing.

Tsunade pressed her hands on Naruto's stomach, a luminous green glow formed around her hands as she made an attempt to heal the blonde. Though the only response they got was some weird noise coming out of the patient's mouth.

Tsunade pulled her hands back in shock, 'He shouldn't even be conscious in this state,' she leaned closer to him with the side of her head, her ear now being near Naruto's mouth to listen for another noise.

After a while of only hearing the harsh breathing, the noise came again. But straight after that it had become quiet again. The blonde had probably sank into unconsciousness.

"He was still conscious for a moment…" she spoke to the other ninja in the room, now actually including Shizune as she had caught up to them while Tsunade was already examining Naruto.

Sakura flashed a look of confusion to the Hokage, "But how's that possible? He should've been unconscious when he fell down an hour ago!"

Tsunade just shook her head and looked at the boy on the bed for a moment.

"Well?" her apprentice asked again.

"I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with his chakra network – no, I would've felt that… It could be the kyu- Kurama, too. I just can't be sure."

A few minutes of silence passed them, and Tsunade's mind got back to think about solutions and causes. Was it poison? No, she would've felt that as well. Fever? No, it's too bad for that or a cold. Some weird sickness? Could be possible… let's keep that one in mind… His mind? Wait a minute – is that even possible?

"Sakura," She broke the silence, "I want you to get me Yamanaka Ino for me, Asap."

The pinkette nodded and left the room, leaving the 3 others behind.

As soon as Sakura left the hospital, she headed for the Yamanaka-clan grounds, bumping into a few civilians in her way, and, apologizing with a short and monotone "Sorry".

Soon, the grounds came into her line of sight. She turned right, soon after that left, and left again. Now she was standing in front of a big, new house. In which Ino recently moved into, after the village had been fully repaired. Which actually took a while, with all the Shinobi out there fighting, the reparations had begun to slow down. They lost a lot of man-power with everyone gone.

Once all the shinobi had come back, a lot of them were run to the hospital. Leaving everyone – not only the medic-nin – busy. Some of them had to treat the patients, while the others had to gather herbs. She herself was taken into the hospital for 2 weeks with chakra depletion, afterwards she had taken on the role of medic again, tending to all the injured. Naruto had been taken into the hospital as well, after he had been brought back to Konohagakure with hundreds of sedatives injected into him – he claimed he could walk on his own, but the others didn't agree with that – and all the while lying on a stretcher muttering a lot of nonsense due to the injections. When they had finally entered the village, however, they were surrounded by hundreds of civilians, retired shinobi and all the genin. Like the Konohamaru corps. Which, of course, hurried over to Naruto's stretcher to see if he was okay. Naruto had mumbled something like "come here, my ramen…" and promptly passed out. Konohamaru and his friends had panicked, and started shouting to Naruto asking if he was alright. Sakura had to inform them it was because of the sedatives, and they luckily calmed down. So after that, the Shinobi had excused themselves and ran off to the hospital with the injured. After a quick examination, it seemed Naruto had a concussion, 4 broken ribs of which one almost pierced through his left lung. He also had his right arm broken very badly, and was completely depleted of all his chakra, even with the fox's reserves. All the other Shinobi, who were still healthy enough, , left to their homes to reunite with their families. Though there were very little who actually could. They had also suffered a lot of casualties. Many say there were too much, and all blamed the death of their loved ones on their village and the Shinobi. Though all in all, after most of the Shinobi got out of the hospital, thing went pretty well. The reparations visibly got faster, and with the help of a few hundred kage-bunshin – guess who – the village was as new as an infant in 3 months. Now that's what one would call 'a speedy recovery'. The people – of which most of them were, of course, Shinobi - who had been living in tents until then, were able to move into their new houses and the clans to their new grounds. Naruto had been offered an house for free by many people, since he was supposedly 'the war hero', but he refused: "I feel bad if I don't have to pay anything," he had said. Though eventually he did get a bigger house than he had wanted, and for lesser money too. Most of the rookie nine at this point had decided to go and live on their own, Ino and Sakura being among them. So this is why Sakura was now standing in front of the door to her friend's new house. She silently cursed Ino, nothing that the blonde's house was way bigger than hers. Anyhow, back to why she was here: Naruto.

Sakura knocked on the wooden door three times. Thought after realizing she was in an hurry, she continued knocking until the door would be opened. After a minute of 6, the door was opened revealing Ino; in her pajamas. Sakura mentally face-palmed after noticing the weird blue pigs on her clothes. "What is it, Sakura?" Ino sleepily asked, while yawning.

Sakura frowned. It was around 12 A.M, and Ino just now left her bed? Maybe it's getting a little too peaceful. "You're needed at the hospital." The pinkette stated bluntly.

Sakura received another yawn from the blonde in front of her, causing a vein to pop up on her head out of annoyance. "Can't you do it or something? You're a better medic, anyway."

Sakura snapped. Of course she realized Ino didn't know about Naruto yet, but she shouldn't take her job this lightly! Even with peace, she is still a Shinobi! The pinkette grabbed Ino by the neck of her shirt, even lifting her up a slightly, causing the blonde's eyes to widen. Not of fear, but seeing how serious Sakura actually is. "This isn't about who is the best medic. This is about needing someone to invade a patients mind! And 'Who is this patient?' you asked? Let me tell you! He's blond, sky blue eyes, and a knucklehead! Does that ring any bells?!"

Sakura put Ino back down onto the ground. She noted the blonde was trembling. Maybe she was a little too hard? …Nah. "You're coming to the hospital with me."

Sakura grabbed Ino's arm, ignoring the shrieks of: "Wait! I'm still in my pajamas!" and jumped onto the roofs, Ino being right behind her.

Aaand, done! My longest chapter yet! Isn't it awesome? Oh, and if you didn't realize this was after the war yet, I hope you do now! I also hope you've liked the part about that :3. Ehm, I actually wanna continue writing chapter 4 for this first, but I need to work on my other story…. Why did I do this again? Anywaaaay, R&R please! Give me advice!

Word count: 2057.

Proud of myself!