A new dawn in Konohagakure

The last thing Naruto could recall was that he saw Gaara fall ****. Just then, as he was sure that he had won and Gaara wouldn't get up and start killing his friends, then he allowed his fatigue to claim him. Then, there was only darkness... and the faint scent of Kurenai-sensei...

His eyes fluttered open and he yawned loudly. Naruto kept on laying in his bed, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Man, what a dream...", he mumbled to himself and attempted to sit up, only to hiss in pain as his back wouldn't allow that. He opened his eyes and looked up to the ceiling... wait, that wasn't his ceiling!

"For someone as energetic as you are, you sure slept a long time, Naruto...", he heard a familiar voice call out to him. Turning his head a bit, he saw that it was Kurenai who was sitting on the edge of the bed, just next to him.

That excited Naruto, naturally. "Kurenai-sensei! You're here! That means, I...", he sputtered the words out but didn't finish the sentence... had this all really just been a dream? Or was it reality?

A nod from Kurenai-sensei confirmed it. "Yes, you've won, Naruto. I'm very proud of you!", she said with a warm smile, one that showed how trust she had in her student.

Slowly, Narutos mouth curled up to a smile, and then up to a big, goofy grin. "Hehe, it was nothing...", Naruto said, rubbing his nose a bit in embarrassment. He still wasn't used to praise and was extremely flattered by it. It just felt so good.

"But... what happened?", he asked. He looked out of the window and the sun was just setting over Konoha. He spotted a few burned buildings, but overall, the city was still standing. He figured that he had just been asleep for a few hours, it had been the early afternoon when he had beaten Gaara after all...

And so, Kurenai began to recount the events that had transpired after Naruto had lured Gaara out of Konoha. Naruto nodded as she talked, his eyes widened as he heard how the Hokage was now injured as well and the future was still rather uncertain for Konoha now.

It took her a few minutes, but in the end, Naruto was happy to hear that there were only a few casualties among the ninja of Konoha and his friends were alright after all. "And after I've picked you up in the forest, I brought you here. You've been asleep for three days straight, you know that?", Kurenai asked him with a smile.

"Three days?", Naruto gasped, eyes wide open. Had he really been asleep that long?

"Well, you have fought Haku and Neji before going up against Gaara... that was quite the feat, you know?", she stated and again, the pride in her student showed on her face clearly. "But it's a shame that you weren't awake a bit earlier. Sakura and Ino and your other girlfriends were so worried about you, they made such a ruckus when I told them to finally go home a few hours ago. They've been at your side all the time since you were here...", she said and grinned a bit, remembering the noise the girls had made. Even the staff had told them to quiet down, but eventually, they conceeded and left.

"What about you, Kurenai-sensei?", Naruto asked.

Kurenai looked up, surprised that he would ask where she had been. "Me? Oh, I had duties to attend to, now that the village is in such a chaos. But I always made my way over to your side when I could.", she said, getting a bit defensive. A blush was on her face, something that Naruto hadn't really seen on his teachers face before. He thought it was pretty cute.

He tried to raise his hand and even though he partly suceeded, his muscles were all sore and the bruises on his arm hurt pretty much. And now that he was moving, his body protested, still being somewhat in pain. Naruto winced a bit. "Shouldn't I have healed up by now? What's this damn fox taking so long?", he mumbled to himself.

Since Kurenai was so close to him, she answered it for him. "I don't know, but I suppose you took so much chakra out of the Kyuubi that he has to rest for himself. Don't worry though, the doctor said that you should be fine enough to leave the hospital the day after tomorrow. But tomorrow, you should just lay down for a bit.", she advised him.

Naruto nodded. Now that the danger was over, he could relax a bit. "What about Temari-chan? And Gaara?", Naruto inquired. The last he had seen of the Suna kunoichi was when she was being slowly crushed by the sand of her brother. And Gaara... was he back to his old ways again?

"Well, we had to bring her to this hospital as well. She's doing pretty good, too. Although I haven't seen her in the last two days, she wasn't too injured by her brother. She's fine, you saved her just in time.", Kurenai said. "I suppose that's also why she wanted to see you so badly.", she added with a smirk.

Upon seeing Narutos questioningly raised eyebrow, she elaborated. "She was constantly asking the doctor when you'd wake up. Just like Sakura and Ino. And Tenten, Hinata and Ayame as well. Heh, your girls really stressed the staff out.", she recalled, the memory of one of them running for a doctor every few minutes still fresh in her memory.

"As for Gaara... I met Gaara's sensei, Baki, on my way to you and he took Gaara back to Konoha. He's in this hospital too.", she said. Naruto sat up, wincing in pain even more so than before, alarmed. He just hoped that nothing happened... "But he's nothing like he was during the Chunnin exam, I heard that from Hinata who had seen him a few times. Don't know what you did to him, but it seems you whacked him pretty good there, Naruto.", Kurenai calmed him down with that small joke.

Naruto breathed out in relief. "Glad to hear they're all okay...", he said, but then his head got dizzy a bit and he began to have troubles keeping his eyes open. "I'm... getting pretty tired... Kurenai-sensei.", he said slowly as he laid back down.

Kurenai too that her student still wasn't back to his energetic self. "That's okay. You need to rest up, Naruto. I'll see you tomorrow.", she said just as Naruto closed his eyes. A moment later, his soft snorring filled the room, and she knew she was asleep. She stood up from the bed and leaned over her beloved student.

"Good night, Naruto...", Kurenai whispered as she pressed her lips on his forehead and then left the room, letting the young Genin rest for the night. She knew, his girls wouldn't give him too much of a break tomorrow...