The Perfect Shinobi (Part 3)

Affection.

The next day Sasuke was in the Leaf's hospital. His injuries weren't life threatening, but they were still severe. A sword through the gut usually puts you down for a little bit. Not to mention his skull was fractured from Madara's fist.

Naruto waited for him to wake up in his hospital room. He needed to know what happened.

It took a while for Sasuke to wake up, but eventually his eyes opened, and he stared at the white ceiling.

"What happened?" Sasuke thinks out loud. His head was wrapped in bandages. His chest was bare, and he was wrapped in bandages there as well. 

"That's what I would like to know." Naruto says as he stands up and walks over to Sasuke. "How is it that a village full of three thousand shinobi was wiped off the map in a matter of minutes." Naruto says.

Sasuke puts his hand to his temple. "My head hurts. I can't remember."

Naruto grabs a pill bottle of the table and gives Sasuke two. After Sasuke downs the pills, he places a glowing green hand against his forehead.

"Just try to remember." Naruto says.

Sasuke sighs the pain was dulling. "I... I was in the Grass... Sakura and I were eating food when an explosion destroyed the East wall... We went to check it out and he was just sitting there."

"Madara?" Naruto asks.

"Yeah... He was sitting on the debris like it was nothing... He started talking so Sakura and I tried sneaking up on him... When Kankuro gave the order to attack we tried to attack him from behind."

"And he was ready for it." Naruto said.

"He froze us. While still in the air we stopped... I have never experienced anything like it." Sasuke's eyes were wide. "Then he pushed Sakura back to the others and kept me at his side. The ground under him moved and he made a large ledge... The other's tried to get close, but they couldn't. It was like an invisible force stopped them..."

"What did he do Sasuke?"

"I don't... know..." Sasuke's eyes glazed over. "Chakra burst around him... and a meteor appeared in the sky. It came out of nowhere, and they couldn't stop it. It crushed everyone... I don't even know how I survived the blast."

Naruto sighed. "I saw the destruction... No one besides you survived."

"...Sakura..."

"I'm sorry Sasuke." Naruto takes his hand off Sasuke's head. He turns and starts to walk out the room. "Itachi said he will be here soon."

The Hokage left the room and found Kakashi in the hallway.

"He will be fine Kakashi." Naruto says.

"Physically maybe." Kakashi says. "But you don't come out of something like that without mental scars."

Naruto studies him for a second. "You can't possibly blame yourself for this."

Kakashi sighs. "I was their Sensei Naruto. It was my job to train them, and now Sakura is dead."

"You are not to blame for this." Naruto says. "No matter how much you trained them there was no way for you to prepare them for someone like Madara... Besides if anyone is to blame it is me."

Kakashi looks at him weirdly. "How do you figure?"

"I wasn't fast enough Kakashi." Naruto starts. "I am probably the only person alive who could fight Madara and have a chance at winning, yet I wasn't fast enough to stop him from killing three thousand of our shinobi. Not to mention the 2,500 shinobi from the Grass, and the 10,000 civilians buried under rubble."