Familiar faces

Naruto was slowly coming around as he shifted in his bed, his tired mind could tell he wasn't alone in his room anymore as he heard voices as he awoke, they all sounded very familiar to him as he listened. "When is Naruto-kun going to wake up again? Kurenai-sensei said he had woken up yesterday and now he's going to sleep a whole day more?", a voice that sounded like his blond teammate asked before another voice cut in. "Maybe he just needs an incentive to wake up...". This time it was Tentens as he heard a whisper by his ear.

"Wake up, Naruro-kun.", Tenten said before he felt his lips covered by something soft. The feeling made Naruto's eyes open up as he realized it wasn't another dream and he found his bun-haired girlfriend give a slight moan as she kissed him on the lips. Breaking the kiss, Tenten grinned as she saw that Naruto was awake and alert now as she looked over her shoulder at the others and said " See? I told you, all he needed was a kiss to wake up.", Tenten giggled as Ino huffed "If that's all it was going to take. I would have done that in the first place!". It seemed like Ino was rather peeved about not being the one that had woken Naruto up.

"Hey now Ino-chan, I wouldn't have minded that at all.", Naruto grinned as he started to sit up, finding his body was a lot less sore now. Apparently his rest was paying off because he actually managed to sit up in the bed this time, unlike when Kurenai had been there the day before. "Naruto-kun, are you sure you are well enough to do that?", Hinata asked worriedly as she stood beside his bed, her hand touching his shoulder gently as he grinned. "Sure am, Hinata-chan. You know nothing keeps me down long!", he chuckled as she noddded a bit relieved.

"Naruto-kun, if you ever worry us like that again, I'm going to be the one who puts you in here.", Sakura joked as Naruto grinned nevertheless, despite how she said it, Naruto could tell his pink haired eammate was also glad he was okay. "Oh, and before we forget it, we got you a little something for your stay here, Naruto-kun.", Ayame smiled as she pointed around the room.

Naruto couldn't help but grin as he looked over the hospital room again as he spotted each of the tings that were new in the room. His girlfriends apparently decided to bring gifts to their recovering boyfriend. Ino and Sakura each had brought him a flower that were in the vase beside his bed, Hinata had brought brought him a few rice cakes and Ayame had brought him a hot bowl of his favorite ramen, but most surpriseing of all, Tenten had apparently decided to bring him a blanket that was covering the bed he was in. When he turned to her questioningly about it, she merely shrugged and replied "They don't let you bring weapons into the hospital.".

Naruto of course was enjoying his time with his girlfriends as he not only ate the food Hinata and Ayame gave him, but retold the story of his fight with Gaara to his girlfriends enjoyment, although they were not so happy he had taken so many risks and he made sure to keep away from any mention of his use of the Kyuubi out of his story.

"Naruto-kun, the doctors say you're going to be good enough to leave in a day or so, seeing how you are.", Tenten said with a smile as he finished his story and was finishing the last of his ramen with vigor " really Tenten-chan? thats great! then can get back to training and making myself even stronger!" naruto grinned as Ino smacked him lightly outside the head.

"Naruto-kun, do you want to end up back in here right after that? You have to take it easy, you know!", Ino said. Naruto could only rub his head sheepishly. "Hehe. ok ok, I'll keep it down for a little bit, Ino-chan.", Naruto replied happily. Being surrounded by his girlfriends like this as they spent time with him was one of the best things Naruto had ever expereinced and he could keep it going forever.

Or he would have, had they not been needed elsewhere. It seemed that everyone was doing their part to fix the village up after the attack and they were needed back to whatever jobs they could be given at the time, although they promised that they would try to check up on him again first chance they got. Naruto however made sure each of his girlfriends got a kiss, something each of them enjoyed greatly. "Rest up Naruto-kun, you're not going to get any slack even if you're in the hospital.", Tenten smiled as she was the last to leave the room.

Naruto chuckled and contented himself with enjoying his time off, either by just resting or reading one of the few magazines his room had. But soon, Naruto grew so bored, it seemed like every minute on the clock was an eternity. This was one of the reasons Naruto hated hospitals, time spent in them never seemed to end! "Gah! This is insane! How can they expect someone to just sit here and go out of their mind when they're fine!", Naruto yelled after a few hours of nothing but waiting.

"Because you're a patient, you troublesome blond.", a familiar voice called out from the door, getting Naruto's attention. "Shikamaru! Thank god, I thought I was going to go mad in here if something didn't happen!", Naruto smirked as Shikamaru shook his head and walked in, followed by Kiba, Shino, and Choji who were smirking just as much as Naruto himself was, except for the stoic Shino. "Naruto, you should calm down, you can be heard all the way down the hall.", Choji said as he munched a few chips.

"Hehe yeah, though looks like his girlfriend has already been here.", Kiba said as he pointed at all the things around the room "Actually, only the blankets are from Tenten-chan. The flowers were from my teammates and Hinata-chan and Ayame-chan brought me food.", Naruto said as Kiba looked at him funnily.

"Damn, if I had known get waited hand and foot in this place if you get hurt, I would have broken a foot or something.", Kiba joked as Naruto grinned. "You still wouldn't have any luck with the girls if you did that, Kiba.", Sasuke said as he walked into the room. "Hey there, Sasuke-bastard, good to see you.", Naruto grinned as Sasuke smirked. "Same to you, though at least I can walk out of here any time I want.".

"Oh, that's it, you bastard! Soon as I am out of here, I'm gonna kick your ass!", Naruto yelled as the others laughed. It seemed those two would never change. So Naruto spent the better part of the next two hours just talking with his old friends, and he was more then surprised how Sasuke and the others had taken care of protecting the village while he was fighting Gaara. Even more so when he heard how Sasuke and them had kept his girlfriends safe like he had asked.

'Man, this sucks! That means I owe Sasuke a favor', Naruto thought to himself with a chuckle, after all he never though he would end up oweing the last Uchiha anything close to this. "So Naruto, did you hear about the Hokage?", Shikamaru asked as Naruto nodded. "Yeah, the old man got hurt didn't he? How's he doing?" Naruto asked out of concern for his grandfather figure.

"He will live, but his days of being our leader are over. I would think we will be having a new one in a short time.", Shino said as he adjusted his glasses a bit and Kiba nodded. "It may look bad, but im sure we'll get through this. After all, if Naruto here can beat that Sand ninja, then we can do anything!", Kiba exclaimed. Naruto just laughed a bit more as his friends saw what time it was. "Hey Naruto, sorry to have to leave ya, but it's getting late, and for now the village has a curfew, you know, troublesome security.", Shikamaru said as they got up. "Yeah yeah, I'll probably hit the bed anyway, the sooner I do, the sooner I get out of here.", Naruto grinned.

After his friends said their farewells for the time being, Naruto found the hospital once again got that quietness that drove him up the walls. So to pass the time, he watched the village from his room and was surprised to see the day having passed so quickly.

Already the village was turning out its lights and the peeple having left the street bare. The village was illuminated by the night sky overhead and the light from the moon let Naruto see what was outside.

Just as Naruto was about to turn in and rest, he heard something from outside his room. "Um... hello, is anyone there?", Naruto called out as the door slowly opened to reveal...