A/N: So I've decided to do another SasuHina, I think this one will make it through until the end. I've been thinking an awful lot about those 'abandoned' fics, I might actually continue them.
Summary: A part of Mint Pizza Queen's 1000 Theme Challenge. If you've killed as many people as him you'd have some issues too.
Disclaimer: Really?
Stained Red
By: kitsunekitsunebi
Chapter 1: Seeing Red
Hinata Hyuuga heaved a sigh as she walked through the large double doors of the grand hospital that sat right in the middle of the Leaf Village. She received a few good mornings and pitying looks as she walked through the near empty lobby, after all it was barely 5am and she already had her work cut out for her. Usually she was happy to see the bleach white walls and to smell the crisp, clung clean equipment, but today it was different.
For the first time in a long time, Hinata didn't want to help.
Just a few weeks ago she had been, along with several other nins, assigned the tasks of staffing the hospital while the war began to slow to a stop. She had been more than happy to help when Tsunade had summoned her to the tower.
While she wanted to rejoin the heat of battle besides her fellow ninja, Hinata couldn't bring herself to say no when the devastated look crossed the Sanin's features. Her eyes had glazed over as she remembered the terrors she had witnessed firsthand, so when the question escaped her lips, Hinata could not refuse.
So here she was, standing in the elevator, stalling.
Not because she didn't want to help the Hokage.
No, it was all because she did not want to go see Sasuke Uchiha.
That's right. The Sasuke Uchiha was currently inside the walls, or what's left of them, of the Village Hidden in the Leaf.
His awaited encounter with Naruto had ended with both boys in hospital beds. Only difference, however, was the fact that Sasuke was still here.
Naruto's fast healing ability had allowed him to leave the hospital in a matter of days whereas any normal person would have been in this place for months. It was that and the fact that no one seemed to be able to want to attend to so much as go to the same floor as the young man. His lack of cooperation and bouts of insanity have kept even the strong-willed Sakura at bay. And what did Hinata do?
She volunteered.
Why had she volunteered?
To this day, she does not know.
Maybe it had been the look in Sakura's eyes when she had said Sasuke demanded he stay as far away from as possible. Perhaps it had been the heart wrenching pleads that had been present in Naruto's voice when he asked if she could help.
Or maybe it had been the manifestation of misery that lay strapped to the hospital bed with cuffs that sucked the chakra, his life source, from his very body.
Whichever it had been that had swayed her from the first instinct of denying the request was not coming to mind as she got off the elevator on the top floor.
The peace and quiet that Hinata had experienced in the main lobby of the building was no longer present as she approached the opposite end of the hall. Hinata heaved another sigh as she put her long, dark hair into a bun; she didn't want it to catch fire.
For the sounds of it Sasuke had been allowed some free movement, again.
Oh what a mistake that was.
The last time he had been allowed free movement Naruto and Sakura were present. And let's just say he had been serious when he said he didn't want to see her again. Feelings were hurt but Hinata knew that it was better for Sakura not to see him.
When Hinata reached the end of the hall she noticed that the Anbu who were usually stationed just outside the door where the last Uchiha was to rest were currently missing. Which meant one of two things; either they abandoned their posts (unlikely) or they were attempting to keep Sasuke in check.
The sight of a body flying across the corridor answered Hinata's question.
The young woman took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She would have to knock him out.
With the Byakugan at the ready, Hinata dashed into the room completely unprepared for what she was about to see.
She had expected broken equipment, charred walls, the smell of smoke, or at least a shattered window, but instead she saw in the far corner of the spacious private room sat the Sasuke Uchiha curled into a ball. Everything was seemingly in place besides himself and the unconscious Anbu member just a few feet away from him.
The man was still breathing so she would worry about him later and the psychopath in front of her now. Hinata would have missed him had the rising and falling of his shoulders been more subtle and less hungry for air. He was facing the wall so it was hard to tell what exactly he was doing in his hunched over position.
"Sasuke?" Hinata asked, voice wary taking a few steps toward him.
When he didn't answer she called out again.
Still no response.
Hinata held her breath as she reached to touch the silent boy. Before she could lightly place her delicate fingers on his shoulder he whipped his head around and Hinata had to stifle a scream.
Sasuke's face was drenched in blood. The bright red liquid was pouring from his eyes and face, trailing down his pale cheeks and dripping down his chin, and staining the once white gown. Hinata finally tore her eyes away from the growing pool on his gown she was able speak.
"Sasuke, what have you done?" she asked, horrified as she came to the sickening conclusion that he had been attempting to claw his own eyes out. The young man that had once been a major threat to the five great nations now looked like a child as he reached one of his bloodied hands out blindly toward her, grasping the leg of her white uniform. He clutched her tightly as his eyes stared unseeingly into her eyes and said something she would never forget.
"I can see them." he said, his faced scrunched up and distressed like that of a small child that had just seen a ghost.
"See who?" she asked, she began to regret asking as the pale young man began to stand. He used the arm she had left dangling in the air to pull himself to his full height. He towered over her grasping her shoulders as he shook her.
"All of the people! The men, women, and children. I can see them screaming and shouting; pleading. I didn't let them go and now they won't leave me alone. They are everywhere!" He said as his grip tightened around her small shoulders. Hinata was speechless as she stared into his bleeding face, droplets of blood splattering across her own pale cheeks as she opened her mouth repeatedly in an attempt to calm Sasuke and make sense of the situation before her.
Before she could come up with a sensible response he began to look around the room franticly.
"They're here again. Why won't they go away?" He asked as he bowed his head, his eyes squeezed shut and his reddened hands over his ears.
This was it. This was what Sasuke Uchiha had become as a result of the many crimes of the village he had once loved. He was no better than a sniveling child of no more than four years of age as he began to cower in fear of the things only he could see. When he used to see red it had been his rage. Now with his eyes stained red the only rage he felt was that of the people he had killed.
Hinata did what a person is supposed to do with a frightened child; she comforted him.
She slowly wrapped her arms around Sasuke as he began to weep. He stiffened at the contact at first and then, like any kid would, buried his face into her chest pulling her and himself into a kneeling position. He removed his hands from his ears and wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her as close as possible.
"I'm so, so sorry." He said in between sobs, his voice thick.
As he sobbed into her shirt, Hinata could feel the blood beginning to seep through. She would have to treat those wounds.
She sighed and squeezed Sasuke reassuringly as his sobs became muffled cries.
Then, before he could protest or come to his senses, she jabbed him in the back of the neck, allowing him to fall into a dreamless sleep.
Now she remembers; this is why she volunteered.
A/N: So what do you think? I was sitting in psychology when I thought of this.
