Aoi was close to breaking through. In fact, it seemed that one more touch would open the hole enough to easily walk right in. Reaching out, he touched the edge of the hole. A star lit up, flashing brighter than all the others before, drowning out even the colored light that spilled from the hole. Sheilding his eyes, Aoi blinked a couple times to clear the spots from his vision. When he lowered his arm, he was shocked by what he saw.

Unlike all the other scenes, this one was a complete area around him, not a simple moving 2-D picture. He was in a forest, and when he tried to take a step forward, he found he couldn't. The forest was dead silent, Aoi realized. A sign that a battle was going on. If there hadn't been a battle, Aoi reasoned that the animals of the forest would be scurrying or chirping. The other reason he knew this was because every scene now had some form of fighting in it, and he didn't see a reason for a change now.

Looking over his shoulder, Aoi saw a cottage. It was small, but it seemed warm and inviting. Smoke curled from the chimney, and suddenly Aoi was facing the cottage completely. There was a snap of a twig from Aoi's left, and then two girls appeared, giggling like mad. They seemed to be sisters, the elder no more than 8, while the younger was about 5. Their hair was long down their backs, and they shared the same glistening auburn hair.

A woman appeared in the doorway the instant the twig snapped. She seemed tense, but when she noticed it was just the two girls, she relaxed slightly. The woman had the same hair as the girls, and her eyes were a light brown. The similarities between the three were undeniable, and it was obvious the woman was the mother of the two girls. For the first time, the scene had sound, and Aoi heard the mother's words clearly.

"There you two are! I was so worried!" The mother descended the steps and swept the two in a hug, shaking slightly. "You should know better than to wander out of sight, Michi. Not to mention taking Migota with you, what would have happened if you had run into them?" The mother held the two at arms length, and they looked down.

"Sorry Momma, I was going after Migota. She had seen a bunny and went after it."

"Michi, promise that if that happens again you'll come let me know before anything else." The girl nodded, and the mother pulled them into a tight hug again. "Let's get inside then, your father should be back soon. He went to look for you."

When the door had closed, there was the faintest rustle of leaves in the trees. A soft thud announced the arrival of a person, and turning Aoi saw it was a shinobi. There was no headband to identify the man, but he smiled sadistically, in a way that would make many shiver in fear. Aoi remained expressionless though as the man walked to the side of the house. He stood under a window, then pulled out a paper bomb.

The man backed of a few paces, out of the range of the explosion. An ear shattering explosion rang across the small clearing that Aoi was in. Aoi tried to take a step forward, but all efforts were useless. It was nothing but a memory, and Aoi was forced to stand and watch it. After the noise of the explosion had died down, a screaming cry could be heard emminating from the house. Smoke rose from the hole, and flames continued to lick at the dry wood that was the wall. A flash of movement came from the shinobi as he entered through the hole.

Suddenly Aoi was inside the small cottage. The woman stood with a kitchen knife held out in defense. Michi, the older of the two girls, took her younger sister's, Migota's, hand. Migota was crying, tears and snot mixing into a disgusting mess. The two ran out of the room. A door slammed, but the mother didn't even glance in that direction. She continued to glare at the man threateningly as the knife shook in her grip.

Scoffing the man pulled out a sword that hung on his back. The woman blanched. In a blind throw, she launched the knife at the man before following her daughters deeper into the small cottage. Not expecting the action, the knife managed to cut the man's arm slightly as he let it flash by him. Touching the worthless wound, the man's hand came back slightly bloody. A smile crept over his lips, and he licked the blood before following after the trio of a family.

Aoi was there just long enough to see another shadow enter the house. The scene ended, but the story obviously went on. It was the first time the story had ended without the completion of the fight. Back in the field of pillars, Aoi noticed that the stars etched into the fabric of the sky had dimmed and no longer shimmered as brightly. The hole he had made glowed brighter, a multitude of colors on the sides mixing together to form a near blinding white light at the center. Aoi looked behind him at the sea of pillars and stars. Did all hold tales as tragic as the ones he had witnessed?

Pushing the thought from his mind, Aoi took a step towards the light. When he did, the field began to blow away into dust, just as the fabric had done each time he had made the hole bigger. Without hesitation, Aoi continued on. He glanced back once to see the crumbling area, and was surprised to see a woman standing and waving from the center of it. Almost taking a step back, he was too late. Darkness overtook him.

_+_

Murmurs filled the air, overlapping with a steady beeping of machines. Aoi gave no indication of having come to his senses. He lay there not moving, still breathing deeply. A bright light shone from beyond his eyelids, causing Aoi to not want to open his eyes. He searched the chakra signitures, but none of them seemed hostile. Relaxing slightly, Aoi realized he was tired. Sure he had been in a coma for three days, but something about that was taxing in a way he didn't quite understand.

The light and noise faded into the background, and Aoi began to drift off to sleep. The voices raised slightly in volume, but Aoi ignored it and continued to drift deeper into sleep. Around him, both his team, along with Ibiki, and team seven were gathered. The Hokage stood in the corner with two anbu at his side. Four other anbu stood near the windows of the room, one of them being Michi who had just woken up from sleep.

A nurse walked in, took a look around at the tense faces, and smiled to herself. "Don't worry, he should be waking up any minute now." A few among the group started and turned to face the woman. "He might be slightly groggy when he does, but that should be no problem and will wear off."

Heads nodded and everyone glanced back at Aoi who still lay there. The nurse sighed as her efforts to calm them were ineffective, and left. Murasaki tilted his head as he stared at Aoi.

"You know," Murasaki began. All eyes turned to him. "His fingers haven't twitched recently, do you think that maybe he stopped trying to get out?"

Realization appeared on Kakashi's and Ibiki's faces, but the rest of team seven didn't seem to understand. "What do you mean? Of course he's still trying to get out!" Naruto raised his voice. Murasaki held up a calming hand.

"That's not what I meant. What if he's already out of his coma?" At that, everyone's faces except Naruto's showed understanding.

"If he was already out of his coma, wouldn't he have opened his eyes or something?" Naruto seemed confused by now.

Kakashi spoke then. "This is Aoi we're talking about. He has always been slightly... uncaring in matters like this. It probably didn't occur to him to open his eyes to stop our worrying..." Several heads nodded in agreement. 

Naruto seemed to understand this finally. "Well then let's try and wake him up! I want to get back to training soon!" So saying, and before anyone could stop him, Naruto began to poke Aoi's cheek.

He only got two pokes in before he was face down on the ground. His arm was twisted painfully between his shoulderblades. Naruto felt a pressure on his head from a hand and one in the small of his back from what he assumed was a knee. A moment later there was a crash as the wires and tubes that had been hooked up to Aoi pulled the instruments they were attached to down.

"Seems like you were right for once Murasaki." Migota's voice was quiet and teasing.

Murasaki balked at that. "For once? I'm almost always right for your information!" A snort came from Migota and a mumbled 'right' was heard.

Aoi stood after realizing it was only Naruto beneath him. He stared at the various impliments attatched to his arms and began to rip them out uncaringly. Soon Aoi was tackled from a flying hug. He took a slight step from the force, but other than that didn't react. Sakura began to squeez Aoi so tightly that his face began to match his hair.

"Sakura, you don't want him to faint. Let Aoi breathe." Kakashi's voice was lazy as he said this, but a smile could be heard in his voice. Sakura immediately released him. Aoi stood and faced the group that surrounded him. Many faces were smiling, even a faint grin could be seen on Ibiki's face.

Everyone present spoke at the same time, chorusing, "Welcome back!" Naruto grinned goofily and Kakashi offered a close eyed smile. Sasuke tilted his nose up and looked away, but the corner of his mouth twitched. Sakura looked so happy she could explode. Migota and Murasaki flashed him grins before getting back to bickering. The Hokage stepped forward with a gentle smile on his face.

"I'm glad you woke up Aoi. You were only out for three days, but how are you feeling?" Aoi looked at the Hokage.

"I am feeling fine," Looking at everyone else, he tried to smile. The corners of his mouth lifted, but the smile didn't reach his eyes.

The Hokage examined him for a while, but eventually nodded. "Take some time off of training and missions until after the chunnin exams." Aoi nodded. "I'll speak to you later Aoi." The Hokage walked out, two of the anbu following after him. The door shut.

Only moments later, a nurse bustled into the room. Seeing everyone staring at her, she blushed shyly. "Um... Hi..." She coughed a little. "I heard the patient was awake, but I guess that's obvious." She looked at Aoi who stood there calm and uncaring. "I'm going to examine him now, so if you wouldn't mind stepping into the hallway a moment?" Both teams nodded and filed out the room.

_+_

Err... yeah... Hmm... How ya'll doin'? I guess this is chapter 17, so I hope you love it? That sounds confident -_-' Anywho, I just wanted to get Aoi out of that coma, so here's the chapter for ya. It is probably boring as all anything, buuuu~t, I'm starting in on the third round next chapter! *claps* Not much to say, I've already ranted a lot in past chapters... So question time!

If you had to chose, would you rather change genders everytime you sneeze, or not be able to tell the difference between a baby and a muffin?

I love that question, such randomness... ^-^ Anywhore, vote and comment. I like feedback or just talking with you people. I'm a lonely shut-in... Yeah... Hope you stick around for next chapter!

-Nicky~