Loving a Monster

Ever held someone tightly afraid that the second you let go, you'll lose them forever?

"You have too beautiful of eyes to cover them up with red."

Fiery red eyes fell on blank violet ones. The red receeded, leaving only blue in its wake. Tears formed in his eyes, no longer feeling the all consuming rage swelling in himself. Without that rage, he was left with a hollow ache in his chest. He pulled the onyx haired girl into his arms, ignoring the blond locks that fell in his eyes. Her wet hair stuck to her face and he moved to push it behind her ear.

"Hinata," he whispered, afraid that the gentlest of whispers would break her already breaking body. Pale violet eyes held his and a smile formed on her bloodied face.

"Your smile saved me," she said as she lifted a shaking hand to cup the side of his face. Naruto felt a sob tear through him when her eyes closed shut, never to open again. Her hand dropped to the ground. Never would he be able to hold her frale body against himself. Never again would he be able to kiss her soft cherry kissed lips. Never again would she smile her soft smile or trace small fires across his skin.

The ground shook, lightning striking in the distance. He kept her close to his chest, kissing her forehead, nose, cheeks, and lips. Never again would she snuggle into his chest when she was cold. He could already feel the heat leaving her body. He lifted her into his arms and draped his cloak over her broken form. He couldn't give up hope. It was against his ninja way!

He sprinted across the wet ground at an inhuman pace. If anyone had been walking by they would have seen the specks of red in his eyes that were still left over from the Kyuubi. He pushed chakra into his feet and with one finaly jump, landed in the room of the Hokage's office. Amber eyes met blue and the woman was quickly shoving her paperwork off of her lap.

"We must run to the hospital!"

"No time," Naruto said as he pushed the paperwork off of her desk, placing a paling Hyuuga down in its wake.

"Is there any hope?" He whispered as the green chakra appeared in her hands.

"There's always hope." She turned her immediate attention to the wound right beside the girl's heart, searching to see if it had been nicked. It had been. "Shit. Get Shizune!"

"I...I can't-" He was frozen in his spot watching as the life left the dark haired girl. He was helpless to save her. She had been so close and yet so far. Within arms reach, but out of his protective embrace.

"Sakura!"

"Hai!" A new voice rushed into the office. A quick intake of air when realizing the situation. "Notify Shizune and have assistance sent immediately!"

"Hai!" In another second, the pink haired girl was gone. Naruto grabbed onto the Hyuuga's hand. It was the only thing he could do. He held her small hand in his much larger one, so tightly that his nuckles turned white. If he let go...if he gave up now...

The Hokage forced more chakra into her hands, refusing to let the girl die. Tsunade could not let her when she had finally found a reason to live. She had watched from the sidelines her entire life and finally, finally decided to walk into the spot light. That light was Naruto Uzumaki. She walked into his life with such sudden force that he was nearly knocked off of his feet. She became the anchor that held him down while the world tried to tear him away. When Nagato attacked the Hidden Leaf Village as Pein, she had jumped out of the shadows and risked her very life to save him.

"I love you."

When the Fourth Ninja War comenced, she was the hope in his chest that kept him going. When it finally ended, she was the healer that mended all of his physical and emotional wounds. When he was forced to fight Sasuke for the last time, she was the strength that made him fight even as he was on the brink of death. When he was healing, she was the perfect caretaker, tending to his every want and need. When he was announced to become the next Hokage after Tsunade, she had been his joy that jumped up and down, pulling him close in an excited kiss only to blush a deep red at her actions. Finally, when he summoned up the courage to ask her, she became the perfect fiance.

Perfect. That was the only word that could describe her. Maybe not perfect in others' eyes...in her father's, in her clan's, or in the village's...but she was perfect for him.

"Hinata." He lent in toward her, his lips only inches from her ears. "I need you. You're the laughter in my chest and the light to my eyes." A sudden gasp tore through the painful silence. Hinata breethed in like a person finally getting oxygen. Her head fell back down and Naruto caught it before it could smack against the desk. He put his hands underneath her as if he were her pillow. Her heart hammered painfully in her chest, her pulpitations unrythmatic and stressed.

"She's got an arythmia, Sakura!" The Hokage called as soon as Sakura was back in the room, running to her side. "Take my place working on her heart. It tore on the left lobe from the hypertension. I'm going to see what I can do about her head injury." Tsunade's glowing hands left only to be replaced with Sakura's. Hinata was breathing, but Naruto refused to rest so soon. She still had such a low chance of surviving. If she didn't survive...what would he do? He refused to think about it and turned his full attention to the girl below him that was struggling so desperately to survive.

"Don't stop trying, Hinata. You've worked too hard to give up now."

The blond haired boy didn't leave her side. They moved her to the hospital as soon as she was more stable. Tsunade didn't stop treating the girl until she reached physical exhaustion and was forced to stop. Sakura didn't stop healing the girl until she passed out from lack of chakra. Through the whole night, Naruto sat beside her. His larger hand held her pale one with such vigor that it was a miracle in itself that her hand was not injured.

He felt tears stinging at his eyes. He hadn't cried in so long, the gesture felt foreign to him. He had long thought his tear ducts had dried up. He listened to her heart beat ring loudly on the cardiac monitor. The sound soothed his tense muscles, drawing him into a semi-peaceful sleep beside her. It wasn't until that monitor flatlined that he awoke with a start. Ino rushed in among other med nins. They rushed to Hinata and Ino skillfuly injected the proper amount of adrenaline to kickstart it again. The whole room sighed in relief when the beeping sound continued as if it had never stopped.

That night was the longest night of Naruto's life. Her shallow forced breaths, the tiny thumping of her heart, and the warmth of her hand were what pulled him through. He didn't fall asleep a second time. He didn't leave for coffee or a snack. No, he was far too afraid of having her taken from him in a blink of an eye. He wasn't ready for her to die. No, he hadn't even told the little Hyuuga a proper good bye. He couldn't let her leave with that kind of ending. He swore to himself that night that if she were to survive this, that he would love her unconditionally for the rest of his life. Never would he look at another the way he looked at her. If she would have him, he would protect her from the entire world, never letting her ebony hair out of his sight.

When the sun was just rising above the horizon, a loud sound resonated from the hallway. Naruto turned around just in time to see an untidy Hyuuga barge in the door. His breething was labored and he rushed to her other side, scanning her with his Byakugan just to make sure it was actually her laying in that bed. Neji fell to his knees beside her. He did not sob or cry. He simply knelt, head hidden in the mattress beside her. He had failed to save her. His translusent eyes slowly met the ones of the man across from him.

A sudden intake of breath caused both men to turn to the woman between them. Large crystalline eyes darted from one to the other. "Hinata!" The eyes focused on the blond that had spoken her name. Something about him felt so warm and familiar. Blue eyes set on a well-sculpted face, three whisker-like hairs on each cheek, high cheek bones, straight nose, sturdy jaw. She studied the man with her eyes brows crunched tightly together. Surely she knew him because she felt deep down that she should. She looked down at the way his hand held hers. Surely she must...but...

"W-who are you?"

"She has Retrograde Amnesia. That means she doesn't know who she is," Sakura warned the group of shinobi waiting in front of her. "And she most likely won't know who you are either."

"Ano, can't we just tell her?" Tenten suggested while watching her teammate warily. She had never seen Neji so worked up over something, and she worried that he was blaming this whole incident on himself.

"No, that would be what we call reminder affect. We can tell her about past experiences and who she is all we want, but that cannot reverse Retrograde Amnesia. What we really need to hope for is called Spontaneous Recovery. That is her remembering bits of her past through new experiences. We're uncertain to how exactly it works, but we do know it has to do with muscle memory."

"So you're saying all we can do is wait?"

"We walk her through scenarios similar to the ones she's been in before. Naruto, you must have taken her to get ramen a thousand times. Neji, try training her in the gentle fist technique. We do not know how extensive her amnesia is or how far it goes back, but it is reversible."

"Naruto," the old rookie nine turned to the Hokage. They had not noticed her until she spoke. "In two days Hinata will be checked out of the hospital. Take her home, care for her just as you always have, and hope to see a difference. If someone can help her remember, its you."

A/N: I started this story a long, long time ago. Long before The Vow ever came out. I didn't post it earlier because I make so many stories that I never finish and don't bother to post haha.