Sakura awoke in a strange white room, her head spinning as she tried to figure out what happened, "Am I dead? Did Sasuke really do any of that? Was it all a dream? Is Sasuke back? Is Naruto really..." She heard the door open and looked over to see Tsunade. She realized she was in the hospital, and looked down at herself to see a small burn mark on her stomach. She quickly looked over to Tsunade, and beamed at her, "Wow! You really know how to heal, don't you?"

Tsunade stopped mid-step as she tried to figure out what Sakura was talking about, before she noticed that Sakura was inspecting her little scar. Realization hit her and she gave out a long, hearty sigh. She waited until Sakura was done looking over her scar and had turned her attention back to her before she decided to fill the young kunoichi in on what had happened, "Sakura... I didn't really do anything... You were barely hurt at all..." Tsunade regretted her chosing of words the very moment she stopped talking, as Sakura's eyes lit up.

"You mean Sasuke didn't hit me with a Chidori?! I knew it! I knew none of it was true! Sasuke was just messing with us, right!?" Sakura's words were filled with joy and hope as she asked Tsunade question after question, "Where's Sasuke?" "What happened?" "How long have I been out?"

Tsunade growled loudly to shut Sakura up, which it did. She glared at Sakura, "What happened, young lady, is that someone saved your sorry ass FROM the Chidori that Sasuke was about to plunge into your chest to kill ou with. That man put himself in the way of the Chidori, taking it as his own wound instead of yours." Tsunade was nearly yelling at Sakura by the time she finished.

Sakura was confused, "So... Sasuke's really gone then..?" Tsunade gave an aggravated nod, "And he really tried to... k... kill me?" Another, yet more kind, nod, "Wh...Who saved me?"

Tsunade's expression went from annoyed to understanding to downright mournful, "Well... It was Naruto... Don't ask me how, but he managed to get in Sasuke's way and took the Chidori to HIS abdomen, leaving a second hole in his chest..."

Sakura's mind raced as she went over what Tsunade was telling her. A burning question entered her mind, "I-Is Naruto still..." Sakura couldn't bring herself to say it, her voice dying in her throat, choking away her voice.

Tsunade was nearly in tears as she delivered the news to Sakura, "Just barely... There's really nothing I could do, he won't make it for much longer... He just doesn't have the will to fight it any more, no matter how quickly he heals, he's not letting his body heal for some reason now. I hate to say it but..." Tsunade began to choke up at this point, but managed to regain her composure, "He... won't make it through the night..."

Sakura didn't have a chance to say anything else, as she blacked out once again, her mind just not comprehending the fact that Naruto was going to die.

Several hours passed before Sakura woke up again. She found Shizune poised over her, her hands inside Sakura's hospital gown, green glow emanating from over Sakura's scar. Shizune noticed that Sakura had woken up, and she looked over at the distraught young kunoichi. Sakura's face contorted into worry and fear, and Shizune gave a soft sigh as she knew it was time to break the news.

"H-How long have I been out this time..." Sakura's feeble voice nearly gave way as she questioned.

"About four hours... Its now October 10th, although just barely." Shizune's voice clearly had a large amount of despair and grief about it, and Sakura could even see how upset Shizune was.

"So N..Naruto i-is..." Sakura struggled to even say his name.

"Well... He was attacked in his room by a mob of villagers... One of which was your mother... The room was ablaze when me and Tsunade-sama got there, we... we couldn't find him..." Sakura's heart finally hit rock bottom as she went over what Shizune just said.

"He... He's gone? How can he be gone? He's Naruto! He can't... He can't... He can't die... He just can't! I haven't told him that... that I..." Sakura's thoughts trailed off as Tsunade came into her room, and quickly realized that Shizune had delivered the news. Shizune gave both women a sad smile as she removed her hands from Sakura's gown, and the green glow faded. She silently made her way to the door, giving both of them one last sad smile before she made her way out and closed the door.

Sakura looked over to Tsunade, and realized for the umpteenth time just how badly she had utterly fucked over everyone's lives. Tsunade was a mess, even more of a mess than she usually was, being a drunkard. Her eyes were red and puffy, and it was very obvious that she had been crying. Sakura's eyes began to tear up, as she tried to get her thoughts out in the open, "Ts-Tsunade-sama... I-I... It's all my fault! Everything that happened is m-my fault! And now, because of how stupid and selfish I was, I got Naruto killed!" Tears were freely flowing down Sakura's face. Tsunade wanted to console her, to tell her it wasn't in any way her fault, but she just couldn't. She couldn't will herself to do that to Naruto. She was angry at Sakura, and she just wouldn't let that anger go. So she just sat there and let Sakura weep about her foolishness.

Sakura kept muttering, "Its all my fault... Its all my fault..." over and over for the next several hours, by which time Tsunade had left to attend other patients. She stopped saying it for a moment or two, and then opted to start weeping even harder as she cried, "I got him killed! It's all my fault Naruto's dead! I got him killed!" She continued to cry for a while, until she heard her door open. She figured it was Shizune or Tsunade checking in on her again, and didn't even bother to open her eyes to see who it was. She felt a presence by her, but somehow knew it wasn't Tsunade or Shizune. She slowly calmed herself down, before she opened her eyes, and looked up to see Naruto staring at her, a minimized Foxy Grin (TM) plastered on his face. Before she could do anything, he spoke, "No, you didn't. Those villagers have been after me for years. They just finally manged to get to me while I was in the hospital."

Sakura's mind was whirring once again, questions firing off like rounds in a Gattling, "Is this a dream? Is he a ghost? Or is it really him...?"

Naruto seemed to sense her turmoil, and gave her a hearty smile before he explained, "Don't be so tense! I'm fine, I'm me, and I'm alive. To be honest, what happened was I left a clone in the hospital so I could sneak out to Ichiraku's. I guess in my Ramen-starved state I accidentally made a... special... clone instead of a regular one. When the villager's raided my room and attacked it, it blew up, catching the room on fire and making the villager's scatter. I'm pretty sure no one was killed because I didn't put a lot of chakra into it. Either way, they probably just wanted to believe I was dead, and so they told everyone I was."

Naruto had been strolling around the room as he explained, and when he finished he had been looking out the window by Sakura's bed. He abruptly felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around his waist, and he felt a female form pressed against his back. His shoulder got wet pretty fast as he heard Sakura weeping. He looked over at her, and she lifted her head up too. She smiled at him, and said, "Baka... You and your damn ramen! You had me worried sick!" Naruto just looked at her, sheepishly and apologetic. He opened his mouth to start an apology, but Sakura captured his mouth with her own, giving him a passionate kiss that showed just how worried Sakura had truly been.

Tsunade quietly walked out after seeing the two shinobi start kissing. She smirked her ass off as she went to go find Shizune and tell her most of what had happened.