Fresh start I guess,

Title and rating subject to change...alot.

The moon, having risen just a few hours ago, shed light on the three figures standing at Konoha's gate. Although they were shinobi, only two of them cared to attempt to hide their emotions.

Sakura stood with her fists balled up at her sides, jade eyes flashing, tensed as if for a fight.

"You are not. Leaving. Again," she told the stoic man in front of her. She had gotten him back. He came back to her, he finally came back to her, and now he was leaving again. It was enough to make her want to throw up. She was beyond crying now; her face set in an angry scowl.

"Have Tsunade send a team to get him, anyone but you. She could-"

"You know that I'm the only one who can go after him." Sasuke rubbed his face with his hand and sighed. "And if I stay it's not fair to her." He nodded his head in the direction of the other person standing with them.

Hinata, who seemed watched the other to calmly though she was bleeding on the inside. She looked as detached as the Uchiha, but her white eyes told another story. They held unending waves of pain, but also determination.

"Let me come with you." She looked at him with those eyes and he almost yielded, but then he studied her. She was unstable, so she was likely to make a mistake. It was his opinion- no, it's a fact- that the last two years were harder on her than anyone else, but he couldn't afford that, not going up against that man.

"Sorry," he told her and she understood. She looked at him again seeming to keep her calm, but he saw something break in her. She wasn't Sakura; she didn't want to send someone else in her steed. She wanted to go herself. He saw something crack in her as it had cracked when he came back, and told everyone what had happened. It wouldn't be long before she broke, and it was his fault, the last two years were his fault, and he was going to remedy that. That's why no one but him could go, no matter what.

He really didn't want her to go, because this was not a mission approved by the Hokage. He was setting himself up to be a rouge shinobi… again. And that was another reason she couldn't come, she had to think of her title of heiress. Whether or not the circumstances of their departure were made common knowledge, she would be considered just as missing as he was, Princess or not. The chances of them being caught before they completed their mission would be much higher, as the Hyuuga clan would demand hoards of the best tracker ninja to be deployed to drag back their heiress, if only to publicly strip her of her title. He on the other hand had already inherited his title, whether he wanted it or not. He was the only one left. Not saying that Hinata wouldn't be an asset. She was small, but he'd seen her fight. She's not up to par with him, but he'd think twice before getting into a serious battle with her. Especially if she had a grudge against him, which she probably already does. That's why they're all standing here in the middle of the night.

Sakura knew he needed to go, but she wished he at least would have let Hinata go with him. She was good medic, and a vicious fighter. Sakura would have had at least a little peace of mind, but he had decided to go alone, again. She didn't want him to go, but… She glanced at Hinata. She was trying to keep a brave face, but Sakura remembered her own despair when Sasuke first left. She remembered the anger, hate, and love she had felt simultaneously for the boy who abandoned her on a cold bench. She also remembered being on guard duty when he came back, half dead, dragging himself towards Konoha. Hinata herself was the one who saw him first with her byakugan.

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"Hey, Hinata, I think it's time for your check."

The Hokage was enforcing a new rule; every guard duty shift had to have a Hyuuga on it. There weren't many Hyuuga ninja, so all of them took multiple shifts at a time. Hinata was on her third in a row and was dead tired. Sakura insisted she rest and only get up to do the routine checks with her byakugan, but Hinata declined. She wasn't going to leave her comrades, no matter how capable they were. She activated her byakugan, and scanned the area. Hinata gasped and scanned it again, then she focused on a single spot. She grasped Sakura's arm, her nails digging into her shoulder. Then she jumped out of the post and hit the ground running.

"C'mon!" she yelled in the other girls direction, and all Sakura could do was follow.

Hinata didn't know whether to smile with joy, or cry bitterly into her hands. Sasuke, she recognized that chakra anywhere from the innumerable battles they'd fought against his team, was dragging himself towards the gates. He wasn't a threat, though. She could see his injuries as clearly as if he were right in front of her and not a mile away. He had so many broken bones, she thought it was probably willpower alone that had brought him this far. With internal bleeding and a spinal cord concussion, he shouldn't even be able to feel anything!

Sakura was following, but not keeping up; Hinata had gone off in such a hurry, and not with much explanation. She didn't know if she was heading into a rescue or a fight. She stopped and readied herself for an ambush, should there be one. She ran on hoping that Hinata hadn't gotten herself into trouble. Rushing into action without even notifying her comrades of the situation, Hinata wasn't some genin, so it must have been really serious, they didn't even raise the alarm! When Sakura made it to the scene, she didn't see Hinata heavily outnumbered, which is what she thought was going to be the there. She saw her kneeling over a body, one that she would recognize anywhere.

"Sasuke." She breathed his name, and it made it seem all the more real. She dropped down next to Hinata, who had already started healing. She sucked in her breath and added her green chakra to Hinata's, but they both cut off a second later. They both just sat there crying. Sakura couldn't understand why Hinata had been crying, but she was probably happy that Sasuke had finally come back. Hinata had seen Sakura in her fits of depression, when almost nothing could bring her out except the thought that people at the hospital needed her. Hinata was probably happy that Sakura could finally be happy again- And then it hit her half a second before Hinata spoke, and the breathy, almost sob that went with it almost broke Sakura's heart.

"Where's Naruto?"

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Sakura didn't blame Sasuke, but Hinata probably did. Sakura herself had blamed Naruto for a while after he failed to bring Sasuke back. In time, though, she saw that it wasn't his fault at all. Nothing short of death would have stopped Sasuke then. She was just glad it hadn't come to that.

Hinata had taken the hardest hit from his disappearance. She had listened to the story, and immediately afterwards, started working herself into the ground. She took the lowest paying, highest ranked, most dangerous missions, back to back. She didn't, and wouldn't talk to anyone anymore. After a mission she would only let herself recuperate a few hours, a day at most, before signing on for another one. The only times she even considered staying longer were when she had serious injuries. Immediately after her discharge though, she'd ignore the Hokage's recommended time period of rest, and she'd be out of the village before the day was over to assassinate a crime lord, whose security was half that of Konoha's ninja population by herself. Three weeks later she'd drag herself, half-dead through the village gates, be rushed to the hospital, and then be gone again by sundown.

She told anyone that told her she needed to stop that it kept her mind off of things. She would never admit though, that she took increasingly dangerous missions because worrying about her own life kept her from worrying about his. She was self-destructing, and it had gotten so bad, that she had collapsed upon leaving the hospital for another mission from exhaustion, severe charka-depletion, and lack of sleep. The Hokage herself had to suspend Hinata from missions until further notice.

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"Hokage-sama, you wanted to see me?"

Tsunade wasn't the first person to be taken aback by Hinata's new appearance. It was enough to make one cringe, even if you hadn't seen the girl happy and healthy before. Her hair was a tangled mess down her back, her eyes were haunted and hallow, her cheeks had sunken in, and the bags beneath her eyelids seemed to cover her entire face. She had lost an alarming amount of natural weight, even though it looked as if she gained at least ten pounds in muscle, and the contrast made her body look disproportionate and like it was suffering a serious case of malnutrition. "Which was a definite possibility," Tsunade thought dryly.

Not only that, the girl swayed on her feet as if she was about to collapse. But resolve and dignity kept her balance. This girl had been running on nothing but fumes for a long time now, and even those were failing her. Tsunade glanced at the file in front of her, and had to take a second look. Then she sighed and looked up at the wreck in front of her.

"Your file says that you've taken twenty-three A-class missions in the last three weeks," Tsunade told the girl. Hinata nodded. "Your file is also telling me that you've been in the hospital eight times between those missions with serious, life-threatening injuries." The girl nodded again. "That isn't possible. Each of the injuries I have listed here have at least a two week recommended recovery period and it says here you didn't even eat before leaving for another one."

"The recovery period is recommended, Hokage-sama," Hinata retorted calmly. "It has never been forced upon a shinobi, unless they were not fully recovered from the injuries that they were sent to the hospital for." Tsunade sighed again, glanced at the file, and glared up at the culprit.

"Your file is telling me that upon leaving the hospital you collapsed from a number of small cuts that were never treated and become infected, severe charka-depletion, lack of sleep… the list goes on. Hinata you're killing yourself and I won't let you do that. Have you seriously looked at yourself in that last couple of months?" The old woman smiled sadly. "You need to have faith that he'll come back. It hasn't been easy for any of us, but you can't destroy your life just because he may have destroyed his."

The girl looked at her as if she wasn't seeing anything. "I assure you that I am fine and that I am taking care of myself Hokage-sama, and I would appreciate it if you would give me another mission so I could be on my way-"

"No more missions, Hinata." Tsunade interrupted. "As of right now you are suspended from taking any missions until further notice. Doing so would be traitorous to the village, and you would be there-by incarcerated until we tried you and decided a suitable punishment. Dismissed."

Hinata stayed rooted to that spot, and Tsunade didn't think she had heard her, until the girl dropped to the floor and Tsunade realized the young woman was no longer conscious. She got up quickly to have her taken back to the hospital.

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Both Sakura and Hinata watched Sasuke leave the village, and kept watching long after he was out of sight. Hinata's face was set, and her fists were balled at her sides. Then she exploded.

"How the hell could Naruto do this to me?! Didn't he know I was waiting for him?! He knew I was waiting for him! He told me he would be back, he told me he would! Why would he leave?! Why?! He promised…" Hinata continued screaming, until her voice gave out and all she could do was sob.