[Elementia; Konoha Hospital (A Week Later)]
Tsunade took another swig from her saké bottle, letting out an audible sigh. Shizune, her loyal apprentice, was not too far behind her as they walked down the hospital hallway.
The staff members, both civilian and shinobi alike, saluted her as she walked by, but she barely acknowledged them, too busy worrying about a particular patient of hers.
It had not been a good week for the 5th Hokage, although to be fair, it hadn't been a good week for anyone in Konoha, especially not for the Shinobi teams involved with the latest incident.
It had been a week since Sasuke Uchiha had tried to defect to Orochimaru, with the help of his goons, The Sound Four. Initially, it was thought that he was kidnapped, and a team was set up by his former classmates to go and rescue him, but the mission quickly evolved into a retrieval one when it was discovered that Sasuke went with them willingly.
The Sound Four weren't Orochimaru's elites for nothing, as the Konoha team learned the hard way. That's why Tsunade called in the help of the Sand Village as reinforcements, which they were more than happy to accept, as an effort to help make up for the invasion that they participating in against them not too long ago.
Gaara and his siblings Temari and Kankuro were the only ones the Sand Village sent, but they proved to be enough, quickly helping out the injured Konoha teens.
However, even with the help of the Sand Village, the mission, while a success, still turned out to be rather disastrous.
"Shizune, status report."
"Oh! Um," Shizune grabbed a folder from her hands, and began reading off of it. "We've been monitoring their health for a good seven days, and we're clear to say that most of them are going for a good and steady recovery. Choji Akamichi has been out of critical condition after day two. Neji Hyuuga is already showing signs of progress, as he just woke up yesterday. Shikamaru Nara and Kiba Inuzuka were already discharged from the hospital, which just leaves us with the two remaining patients."
"What's his status?" Tsunade asked a little too quickly.
"Right." Shizune began reading it off. "After an operation going well, Sasuke Uchiha is-"
"I don't give a damn about him!" Tsunade snapped, making Shizune flinch in fear.
Tsunade stopped, and took a deep breathe. "I mean, how is his condition?"
Shizune knew exactly who she was talking about. "Oh, Naruto's…" She had a grim look, and sighed. "Still no change from his current status."
Tsunade stopped abruptly, and for a second, she thought that Tsunade was about to have another outburst, until she realized that they had made it to their destination.
Their destination was located in a special section of the hospital. This particular room was reserved for VIP patients, such as ones like the Hokage, or in this case, the village's jinchuriki.
Getting past the guards, who regarded the Hokage with a respectful nod, they opened the door, and found a grim sight. A singular bed was in the room, with the unfortunate patient being surrounded by lots of machinery. The machines monitored the patient's blood levels, breathing patterns, and his heart beats. The said patient was covered in bandages, with tubes stuck into his throat for food, water, and air.
That patient was Naruto Uzumaki, the boy who would normally hop out of bed in the morning with a happy grin on his whiskered face. Naruto Uzumaki, who was full of energy and determination just a week ago, was now breathing through a mask tube, with his face covered in serious burns and bruises, which was thankfully covered in bandages.
Despite them being trained shinobi, despite them being experienced medics, it still broke their heart to see their little troublemaker in this critical state.
"He's still recovering from his wounds." Shizune began to explain. "Even with the Kyuubi healing him, his lungs are still in critical condition, due to the two Chidori attacks Sasuke inflicted on him."
The dark look on Tsunade's face almost discouraged her from continuing, but the Hokage gave her a nod to continue.
"Upon arrival, we immediately operated on him for almost nine hours, compared to Sasuke's surgery, which only took three. He flatlined twice, but we were able to bring him back quickly, thank kami. But that's not the concerning part."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow at that.
"Naruto almost died twice so far, and that's not the concerning part?"
Shizune cleared her throat.
"Correction, that's the second most concerning part, aside from that. Anyways, what's concerning us is that according to our calculations, Naruto should've woken up by now. The problem is that he's still in a coma, which he shouldn't have been in in the first place."
"...Explain."
"Well, we know that it wasn't our drugs that did it. Believe me when I say that we thought about putting him into a medically induced coma, but we made good progress on him by the time that thought crossed our minds, and not to mention his incredible healing factor did 25% of the work for us, so we aborted that idea. We also know that it wasn't the Kyuubi's chakra either, since we scanned his brain cells for any chakra contamination."
"So what did cause his coma?" Tsunade asked, now more concerned than angry.
"Well, the thing is that we're not entirely sure. But, we suspect that it could be extreme mental fatigue - which, I suppose makes sense, due to everything he just went through."
"Mental fatigue? That's new."
"Like I said," Shizune scratched her head, obviously still baffled by their "explanation." "Not entirely sure. It's just a theory we're going by."
"When will he wake up?" Tsunade asked, not sure if she'll get a definite answer.
"Well, we believe that he should be awake within another week or so." Shizune said with a small smile. "Again, just going off of calculations, but you know Naruto. He'll surprise us the next day or something by getting up early in the morning!"
"That's good to know." Tsunade gave her a small smile, which felt like a victory for Shizune. That moment of smiles was abruptly ended when Tsunade asked her for Sasuke's condition.
"Well, he's certainly responsive and awake by now." Shizune said gingerly, knowing that just talking about the Uchiha could be enough to set her off. "He's been eating lately and been trying to walk, but aside from that, he's still avoiding any social interactions, and has been uncooperative so far with basic conversations."
"Sounds like him alright." Tsunade scoffed while staring at Naruto with a frown. "He's lucky the only thing I've done to him was have Kakashi seal off his chakra for his actions."
"Still, there are people asking for what happened precisely at the Valley of the End." Shizune mentioned. "People are wondering what could've happened to Naruto back there that caused him to fall into a coma, since Sasuke isn't speaking to anyone about it."
"Did he receive any visits? Letters?"
Shizune nodded with a smile. "Kakashi and Sakura makes it a habit to stop by at times, and recently, the other members of the Retrieval team are beginning to visit him as well. Shikamaru and Kiba have already visited him a few times, and so did their teams and masters. But that Hyuuga girl - Hinata, I think that's her name, - has especially been visiting everyday. We even got a get-well letter from the Sand Village support team. Then there's the Ichiraku family and his former instructor Iruka."
It warmed Tsunade's heart to see that there were many people who cared about the young boy's condition. It didn't help that she was one of the many people that was secretly hoping that he and that Hinata girl would get together, and would finally forget about the pink-haired girl. Her eyes then fell onto the necklace around Naruto's neck, and flinched, wondering if his condition was a sign of bad luck or a sign of good luck.
"Let's leave the gaki to rest. If he wakes up, I'll personally give him a bowl of ramen."
Shizune couldn't help but smile. "I think he'll like that, my lady."
Both women eventually turned to leave, leaving the boy alone to rest. With the lights left on, the only sound present in the room was the monitors and the beeps, proof that the young boy was still alive.