Disclaimer: I don't Own Naruto.

Prologue

White.

That was the first thought to flow through his mind upon opening his eyes. The idea wasn't completely unfounded. White wall, white ceiling, even the fluorescent bulbs were a blinding white.

Despite his current state, it didn't take the boy long to wrap his mind around where he was - the Konoha hospital. When you're the single most hated existence within 100 miles, not to mention a defenseless child, the hospital becomes practically a second home.

What his foggy mind, Naruto could not figure out was how he got there, nor why. In a rush, it came flooding back to him…

RASENGAN!

CHIDORI!

Even channeling that much of Kyubi's chakra, Naruto maintained some control over both his actions and emotions. Enough, at least, that he recognized that he could never truly kill Sasuke, the teammate and friend he loved like a brother. All throughout his fight with Sasuke, he was pulling his punches. Every time their trump attacks met, he lowered the power he fed to the rasengan so that the attacks merely cancelled-their battle on the hospital rooftop proved the difference between the strength of the attacks.

However, in that last charge, between Orochimaru's cursed seal, the sharingan, and his own natural agility, Sasuke managed to prevent the attacks from colliding-apparently counting on his superior reach protecting him from Naruto's rasengan. In fact, it was only Naruto's last ditch movement that saved Sasuke from having his insides turned into liquid. The end result was merely a scratch on his forehead protector.

Unfortunately for Naruto, Sasuke had no such qualms about completing his attack, driving his arm completely through the boy's chest.

Before he could attempt to piece together what occurred between then and his arrival at his present location a shout of "He's awake! Get Shizune and inform the Hokage!" interrupted his thoughts. Turning his head ever so slightly, he managed to see something that was certainly different from his previous trips to the hospital-there were people there, waiting for him to wake up.

He managed to make out the faces of Hinata, Sakura, Gaara, and his siblings before the door to his room burst open and the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade and her apprentice, Shizune, were standing over him checking his vitals.

"Vitals looks strong. Naruto, how do you feel? Are you feeling any pain?" asked the concerned Hokage.

He moved his mouth, but no words actually came out, his throat dry from prolonged disuse. In seconds, Shizune had a cold glass of water to his lips and he relished the cool water soothing his throat and washing away the lingering copper taste of blood that persisted even after all this time…For that matter, how long had it been? Trying again, he managed to rasp out "I feel fine Baa-san, just tired. How long was I out?"

A vein appeared on Tsunade's forehead at the nickname, but Shizune calmly stepped between the two before the slug Sannin could kill her patient. "You've been out for nearly a week Naruto-kun."

A week?! That actually terrified Naruto. The one benefit he'd found up until this point in his life of being the container for the most powerful of the Biju was that it provided him amazing recovery ability-he could normally bounce back from anything after only a few hours. Hell, even when he was a kid and villagers and shinobi alike decided that his continued existence was an insult to their village and something they took into their own hands to correct (the worst of which was normally on the anniversary of Kyuubi's defeat at the hands of the Yondaime Hokage), he was always released from the hospital within 24 hours.

Just how close to death had he been?...

"What happened? How'd I get here? Are the others ok?" he asked in quick succession as his eyelids drooped and he quickly felt his strength leaving him.

Seeing his exhausted state, Tsunade simply replied "They're all fine, you just rest now." Sighing in relief, Naruto closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep.

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There was a reason that Naruto was out for so long. In addition to the life-threatening wounds he'd received, while not a lie, it was a gross exaggeration on the Hokage's part that everyone was fine. "The others" as Naruto referred to them, was referring to the Konoha Gennin sent on the mission to retrieve Uchiha Sasuke and return him safely to Konoha. At face value, it sounded simple, but the mission ended up being anything but. Sasuke, it turned out was being accompanied by the Sound Four, Orochimaru's elite guard. While individually the members weren't spectacular shinobi, each had been graced with Orochimaru's curse seal level 2, which provided them with a massive boost in strength and chakra-enough that the four of them were able to defeat two Jounin without sustaining any apparent wounds. Just to add icing to the cake, when the mission dragged out longer than expected, Kabuto sent Kaguya Kimmimaro, arguably sounds strongest ninja (Orochimaru excluded) despite his failing body.

Miraculously, the mission ended without any casualties on Konoha's part. However, three of the Gennin remain in stable condition, but not out of danger yet.

Akimichi Chouji used all three of the Akimichi pills, which granted him the strength to defeat his opponent, but had the unfortunate side effect of causing such fast metabolism that the body literally began to break down. It was only thanks to Tsunade's status as the world's greatest medic that managed to halt the affects. Even so, Chouji's body remained terribly weak and would take some time to reverse the damage.

Hyuuga Neji got speared clean through by an arrow by the six-armed Kidomaru. Thanks to his byakugan, he managed to dodge just enough to prevent a killing blow, but the wound was dangerously close to his heart and he had nearly bled out by the time ANBU managed to get him to safety. It took a whole team of medics and a complex healing seal to repair the damage, although the boy had yet to wake up.

Inuzuka Kiba's only major damage was a deep kuani wound in his abdomen, from which he was rapidly losing blood. Ironically, this was self-inflicted despite his opponent far outclassing him. His wound had been healed, but the boy remained bedridden as any excessive movement could cause the wound to begin to bleed internally again.

By the time Hatake Kakashi managed to carry Naruto back from the valley of the end, the majority of the medic nins Konoha employed, along with the Hokage and Shizune themselves were exhausted mentally and physically, and had nearly exhausted their chakra. In truth, despite the boy's unnatural healing, it was truly a miracle that he survived, the Hokage having just enough chakra to augment Kyuubi's natural healing ability to get him out of the danger zone. After that it was entirely up to the fox to repair Naruto's battered body.

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The next time Naruto awoke, he was feeling much better: rested and recovered. In fact, he felt he was back to 100 percent. Chancing a glance to his right where the group of people had been the last time he was cognizant, he was both elated, and disappointed. While his disappointment stemmed from the fact that a group no longer resided there, he was grateful to see that one had remained. Looking closer, he was surprised to see who it was: Yamanaka Ino lay curled up in a chair, fast asleep in the far corner of the room. The girl who always took such pride in her appearance looked like a complete mess. It was clear that she hadn't showered or groomed herself in several day and she had dark circles under her eyes.

Like any good ninja, when Naruto attempted to sit up, the movement alerted Ino and her blue eyes snapped open to stare into Naruto's own. After taking about a tenth of a second to recognize what was going on, she launched herself out of the chair to get the nurse. Returning not a minute later with Shizune in tow, Ino hung back while Shizune checked Naruto over and announced him as having a clean bill of health, but absolutely forbade him from getting out of bed until at least the next morning. Giving a nod to Ino, she left to finish her duties.

Once she was gone, Ino looked up and asked, "Are you really alright?"

"Yeah, I feel fine." Noticing through the window that it was now dark he asked "What time is it anyways?"

"It's a little after midnight I believe."

"Ah. Er…Ino? Not that I don't appreciate the company, but…what're you doing here so late?"

"Well, if you recall, several of us were here when you woke up earlier. All of the rookie nine, team Gai, and Gaara's team have actually been camping out at the hospital waiting for you and the others to wake up. Well, once you did, Tsunade-sama hurried us all out of the room saying that you needed your rest and the commotion wouldn't be good. She did allow you to have one visitor at a time though, so here we are."

Choosing his words carefully, Naruto continued "That makes sense I guess, but why are you here. I mean, we've never been what anyone could consider close. I guess I just would've expected Sakura-chan or Kakashi-sensei or someone."

"Oh, well, Sakura was in here. She was the first person that the Hokage allowed to stay, but I relieved her about two hours ago. As I'm sure you can guess, she's had an emotional time for the last week, she hadn't left this room and has hardly slept at all. Heck, she was admitted for a day when the lack of sleep caught up with her. The Hokage had me send her home to get some rest." Ino chewed her lip for a moment before continuing. "I…I was the one who was here when Kakashi brought you in. You…I could barely even recognize you, your hair was dyed red from the blood." She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. "I…I guess I just needed to assure myself that you really were okay." She paused. "What actually happened to you?"

Naruto sighed and look down. "What do you know about the mission?" he asked in a quiet voice.

Over the next hour, Ino summarized everything she learned from Shikamaru, Kiba, Lee, the sand siblings, Kakashi, the hospital staff, and even the random ANBU who brought in the injured. It was impossible to know all of the details of what had occurred as two of the participants were still unconscious, but based on the damage to the areas, Kakashi and the ANBU were able to gleam a general idea of what had occurred.

Though he was upset to hear of the condition that Neji, Kiba, and Chouji found themselves, Naruto silently thanked the gods that they would pull through. His thoughts came crashing back to the conversation at hand when Ino asked "Did Sasuke really go to Orochimaru by his own free will?"

A low growl escaped Naruto's throat. It was only Naruto's mind wrapping around the word 'Sasuke' that kept Naruto from exploding at Ino. As one of the founding members of the Uchiha's fanclub, Ino had never referred to the brooding avenger without the '-kun' suffix as long as he'd known her. Naruto was so shocked with this that it held his anger below the breaking point. It was truly amazing how betrayal can change a person's view on another.

Through gritted teeth he replied, "Sasuke didn't just choose to desert Konoha…he was an active participant in his escape. As your account of the mission suggested, by the time I caught up Sasuke at the Valley of the End, he was traveling alone. You saw the condition I was in when I was brought back in. Use your mind to fill in the blanks….When I confronted him directly, he attacked me with lethal force, even going as far as to shove our teacher's prized assassination technique through my chest and leave me for dead." Even without raising his voice, his pain and anger were clear.

Anger deflated, Naruto turned away from her, fully intending to ignore the blond. Unnoticed by Naruto, his words cut through Ino like physical blows. As pitiful as she looked before, she shrank even further into herself with Naruto's pronouncement. A prolonged, uncomfortable silence ensued only broken when Ino suddenly broke down and began to cry.

Not being a heartless bastard, Naruto couldn't just ignore her in such a state. Turning back, he asked "Hey, are you alright?"

Shaking her head slightly, she murmured something so quietly that even straining to hear Naruto was unable to pick up. "I didn't catch that, what?" he asked gently. Not having practice consoling girls, Naruto was completely at a loss as to what to do.

"What am I supposed to do now? Sasuke was the whole reason that I became a shinobi. I thought it would give me a chance to get closer to him and get him to like me. But, just look at me! I'm nothing! Even in comparison to the other rookie Gennin. I was not prepared for the Chuunin exam, but reasoned with myself that if I was ever in trouble, he would come save me. Hell, I welcomed that notion. Had I been sent on the retrieval mission, I would have been killed in seconds."

"Listen Ino," Naruto spoke softly "doing anything with your life for someone else and not for yourself is just asking to be miserable. Entering a profession as dangerous as being a shinobi is just suicidal if you're not serious about it. You really need to take a hard look at your life and decide if this is something you really want to do. If it is, get back out there and take it seriously-Apply yourself in your training, expand your skills, learn your strengths and embrace them, learn your weaknesses and minimize them. If this life isn't what you want, get out now before you pointlessly get yourself killed.

Pondering what he had said, Ino nodded, surprised to hear something so profound from the normally hyperactive, goofy blond. She had a lot of soul searching in front of her, but Naruto's speech actually did make her feel better.

"Hey Gaki."

The voice surprised the two, neither had sensed anyone approaching. Fortunately, he was not an enemy, as Ino was in no shape to move at the moment. Turning towards the window and the source, they found a man leaning against the frame with his eyes closed and arms crossed.

"Ero-Sannin!" Naruto called out with the first hint of his former enthusiasm.

Ignoring the hated nickname, he opened his eyes and smiled "Good to see you're doing alright." His face grew serious. "I just spoke with the Hokage. Our spies tell us that neither Akatsuki nor Orochimaru will be able to continue their plans for at least three years. I'm taking it upon myself to ensure that you're ready when their threat presents itself again. Get up and get your things, we have to leave immediately for an extended training mission. The Hokage has agreed, you are now officially my apprentice."

Nodding, Naruto pulled himself out of bed and headed to the bathroom to change out of his hospital gown.

Turning to Ino, Jiraiya said "You really should head that advice, I couldn't have said it better myself. The life of a ninja is tough, you'll have to deal with death of all kinds: your enemies and your friends. If you're not prepared for it, you're just going to die young." Acknowledging his words, Ino nodded but remained silent.

When Naruto emerged from the bathroom in his trademark orange jumpsuit, Jiraiya glanced at him and said "Get anything you may need and meet me at the front gate as soon as possible." Seeing Naruto's nod, he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Stepping through the open window, Naruto addressed Ino one last time. "Tell everyone goodbye for me. When I come back I'll be a lot stronger. And…good luck, with whatever you decide to do." With that, he pushed off and was gone.

A/N: Having gotten fed up with the actual manga, I decided to try my own hand here. This is my first attempt at a fanfic, so I welcome any criticism. I know this chapter is relatively standard, but trust me, I've got some big plans for this story. Bare with me for a few chapters until I'm able to get through necessary setup that's mostly in-cannon.

Jutsu Library:

Rasengan-Spiral sphere

Chidori-Thousand birds