Hatake Naruto

63.

The first thing that Naruto noticed was the white ceiling. It was kind of odd as he felt he should know it, it was kind of familiar. As his mind started to clear up he noticed other things, like he was in a bed now and he was no longer in the arena. He sat up as he looked around to see where he was. He was in the hospital that was why it seemed familiar. He hadn't been here in a long time, he also noticed that he wasn't alone. There laying on his bed was Hinata, she was fast asleep while sitting on a chair but her head was resting close to his leg. He had to smile seeing her there, for a moment he was wondering what happened.

"She's been there the entire time you know," Kakashi's voice was heard and Naruto looked to his left to see his father sitting against the wall and he could tell the man was smiling at the scene. "Good to see you finally up."

"What happened?" Naruto asked him. "The last thing I remember was blowing up part of the arena."

"Yeah, next time try to find a less expensive way to deal with a barrier," Kakashi said scratching the back of his head. The stadium would take months to fix up, kind of like certain other parts of the village. "I'm not sure about everything but here's what I do know. When you brought down the building the barrier went with it. The ANBU were able to help fight with the Hokage."

"So the old man is okay?" Naruto asked hopefully.

Kakashi paused a moment, "Well he's alive, he took a nasty sword wound to his chest Naruto. He was about to do something drastic when you brought the place down. In a way you did save his life as the ANBU were able to help and drove off Orochimaru. I heard that Sakura was helping to keep the Hokage stable long enough for the medics to get to him. Sasuke was helping deal with one of Orochimaru's four guards with the ANBU."

"Hinata stayed by your side when the medics took you. After you were put into recovery she's been here ever since." Kakashi chuckled at that. Her father had come to check up on her from time to time as well. In fact everyone came to check on Naruto so far.

Naruto smiled down at Hinata sleeping there and then he frowned. "Dad...something happened in the arena while I was fighting Gaara."

"Yeah I heard," Kakashi sighed. "Looks like you'll have to come clean or lie to everyone."

"I don't want to lie..."

"Well that settles that then," Kakashi shrugged, there was really nothing more you could do in this kind of situation. It was Naruto's secret to tell and he would have to tell them at some point. Although given Naruto's friends, Kakashi had a feeling that things would be okay. They had known Naruto for years after all and accepted him as he was. He just wished that he and Gai could have caught Kabuto. With all the chaos of the invasion, the young man had managed to slip away.

So far Kabuto's place had been turned upside down, and his adopted father's death was being looked into again. The man had died a few years back by what was originally thought as a complicated heart attack. They would have to take another look at the body at this point. But Kakashi knew they wouldn't find anything, the boy had been a mole for Orochimaru for who knew how long. He had lived here and no one even suspected him. He knew a few people in security that would be sour over that oversight for awhile now. That was the only thing odd that had happened either.

The Mist team had vanished, they were looking for the bodies but there were a few dead chunin that had been looking after evacuating those injured. Maybe the genin had been taken by Oto as hostages but so far nothing was turning up. Suna of course after realizing that they had been manipulated by Orochimaru weren't happy. There was a total cease fire while everyone tried to make sense of things. Only a few hours ago word had come that the body of their leader had been found in the desert, and he had been dead for some time it would seem.