Konoha Hospital. After lunch.
Naruto walked down the sterile white corridor, heading toward the intensive care wards. The smell of bleach and medicine was thicker here, awakening unpleasant memories of his own surgery.
"Naruto-kun?"
He turned around. Shizune was walking toward him with a stack of medical files. Seeing him, she frowned, instantly switching to "strict nurse" mode.
"Why aren't you in bed?" she asked sternly, adjusting her glasses. "Tsunade-sama ordered you to rest for at least another three days. Your stitches..."
"My stitches are fine, Shizune-san, you know that," he interrupted her gently, lowering his voice slightly. "I feel great. Nothing pulls, nothing hurts."
Shizune faltered. She remembered the surgery. Remembered the "invisible threads" and flesh that felt like tough rubber to the touch, not human tissue. Yes, normal rules didn't apply to this guy.
A flash of professional interest flickered in her gaze—a researcher seeing a unique phenomenon.
"I'm going to see Sasuke," the Uzumaki continued, nodding at the door at the end of the corridor. "Want to check on my teammate. By the way... do you have a minute?"
"For what?"
"I heard his bones were knit together and Tsunade-sama softened the mental aftereffects. But I'm still worried. They say... he's withdrawn. Could you take a look at him with your experienced eye? Not as an attending physician, but as an independent expert."
Shizune narrowed her eyes. She understood he was manipulating her, but doing so out of concern for a comrade. Plus, it was an opportunity.
"Alright," she shifted the files to her other hand. "I'll take a look at him. But I have a condition."
"Which is?"
"After this, you come to my office. I want to run a couple of tests on your... 'system.' Nothing serious. I need to understand the nature of your regeneration."
Naruto thought for a second, then nodded.
"Deal."
"Then let's go."
They approached the door. The blonde knocked, waited a couple of seconds for propriety, and entered. Shizune slipped in after him, staying by the entrance.
The contrast was striking.
After the sunlight of the street and the warmth Naruto felt at the training ground, Sasuke's room felt like a crypt. The curtains were tightly drawn, cutting off the world outside. Dust motes danced in the strip of light breaking through the fabric. On the bedside table stood a plate with sliced apples—they had already started to brown and shrivel. No one had touched them.
Sasuke sat on the edge of the bed, hunched over.
He was looking at his left hand. Clenching it into a fist and unclenching it. Again and again.
The movement was jerky. His fingers trembled slightly. It wasn't muscle weakness—the medical-nin had restored the tissues perfectly. It was the phantom memory of the body, which remembered complete helplessness before Itachi. His hand was healthy, but he felt it was alien and weak.
In his head, the image of his brother remained, grinding his tactics one by one, breaking his hand like a dry twig.
It's still not enough.
The door creaked.
Sasuke slowly raised his head. His eyes, rimmed with dark circles from insomnia, looked like voids into the abyss.
Naruto stood on the threshold.
Whole. Unharmed. Glowing with health.
And he was wearing the vest. Still new, green Chunin vest.
This piece of cloth acted on the Uchiha like a red rag to a bull.
"Come to mock me?" Sasuke's voice was hoarse, grating like broken glass.
He didn't even notice Shizune standing in the shadows by the door. His world narrowed to the figure of the rival who continued to tower over him.
"Show off your new rank?" Sasuke stood up; his knees also trembled slightly, but he forced himself to stand straight. "'Look at me, I'm a Chunin, I'm a Hero.' Isn't that what you're thinking?"
Shizune frowned, about to intervene—the Uchiha's tone was impermissible. But Naruto stopped her with a barely noticeable hand gesture.
"I came to check on my teammate," he answered calmly. "And asked Shizune-san to examine your condition."
"Get out," the Uchiha spat. "I don't need your pity. I don't need anything from you."
"I don't pity you, Sasuke."
"Shut up!" he screamed. The breakdown he had been holding back for weeks burst out like an avalanche. "Standing there, all righteous, in that vest! Think you're better than me?!"
Naruto saw his aura. It was torn, dark, poisoned by the influence of the Seal pulsing on the Uchiha's neck, reacting to anger.
"I see facts," Naruto continued coldly. "You met Itachi. You lost. It hurts. But sitting here in the dark while your muscles atrophy and feeling sorry for yourself is a road to nowhere."
"What do you understand?!" Sasuke stepped forward. His face twisted. "You have no one! You don't know what it's like to lose everything! You're just a lucky upstart! You got the demon's power on a platter! You didn't train like I did! You didn't suffer! You're just lucky!"
The Uzumaki looked at him with deep, adult weariness.
"I know what loneliness is. And I know the price of power. You're looking for it in the wrong place, Sasuke. You want it given to you—Cursed Seal, Orochimaru, Uchiha genes. But true strength comes from within. From refusing to give up when everything is against you."
These words hit the sorest spot. The ego of a genius accustomed to receiving everything by birthright.
"Shut up... Shut your mouth!!!"
In a fit of blind rage, Sasuke grabbed the water glass from the bedside table.
He threw it with all his might. Putting all his fury into the throw.
The projectile flew the meters separating them in an instant.
Naruto didn't flinch.
CLINK!
The glass smashed into his cheekbone.
Shizune, watching from the side, involuntarily tensed, expecting to see blood and a cut.
But the glass bounced off.
It shattered into smithereens, showering the floor with shards, as if it had hit a stone wall. Only a scratch remained on Naruto's cheek, which disappeared literally a second later.
Silence hung in the ward.
Shizune watched this with wide eyes.
He didn't use chakra for protection, flashed through her mind. I didn't feel anything. His skin... is it always that tough? That's not a technique. That's a property of the organism.
For a medic, this was a revelation.
Sasuke froze, looking at the shards at Naruto's feet. He was breathing heavily, realizing what he had just done.
"Sasuke-kun," a cold voice broke the silence.
Shizune stepped forward. Her face was stern.
"Calm down. You are behaving unworthy of a Konoha shinobi."
The Uchiha jerked as if slapped. He only now realized they weren't alone. He saw the Hokage's right hand. Witness to his tantrum. His face, pale with anger, now blotched red with shame and humiliation.
The Uzumaki sighed.
"Shizune-san," he said quietly. "I think an examination makes no sense right now. The patient isn't in the right state."
"Agreed," she nodded, casting a disappointed look at the Uchiha. "I will write in the report that he is physically healthy but emotionally unstable."
Naruto turned toward the exit. At the very door, he stopped and looked at his teammate over his shoulder.
"Rest, Sasuke. When you decide to stop whining and start working—find me."
They went out into the corridor, closing the door behind them.
The hospital noise washed over them again.
Naruto leaned his back against the wall next to the door and closed his eyes.
"Sorry about that," he said dully. "Didn't think he'd snap like that."
"You have nothing to apologize for," Shizune adjusted her robe, regaining her impassive appearance, although inside she was still replaying the moment of the glass impact. "Uchiha pride is well known, and trauma in battle only exacerbated it. He needs time."
She looked at Naruto.
"But a deal's a deal. I'll expect you in my office in half an hour. I'll get everything ready. Don't be late."
"Okay," he nodded.
Shizune walked away, her heels clicking on the tiles.
Naruto was left alone by the door. He felt Sasuke's aura behind the wall. Dark, compressed into a ball.
The Uchiha was left alone in the gloom of the ward. His hatred, finding no outlet, turned inward, burning the remnants of common sense. He looked at his trembling hand. At the shards of the glass that couldn't even scratch Naruto.
The Cursed Seal on his neck pulsed contentedly, sending hot waves of pain and promises of power.
You need power... And you already know where to get it.