Author's Note: Hi! This is my first Naruto story! No flames please! And I hope you enjoy! :)

NOTE ON EVENTS BEFORE BEGINNING OF THE STORY: As of writing this chapter 643 is out. I'm having this story take place in the future. It is assumed that Naruto, the Hokages, and Sasuke were able to remove the bijuu from Obito. This greatly weakened everyone involved.

Hinata dimly felt her bruised knees hit the rocky earth as she powerlessly gazed at the scene before her. As quickly as a hollow breath left her, she saw Naruto's body arch back at an unnatural angle as a liquid flash of crimson sprayed out in a long arc under the glow of the moon. She felt rather than heard the scream that erupted from her very marrow as she saw that Naruto's body had been vivisected, the force of the blade against his flesh and bone scattering parts of his body across the battlefield.

She was no Tsunade or Sakura, but even she knew there was no coming back from that.

No, another part of herself, the part that Naruto's unfading light had nurtured, objected. He can survive this—if anyone would be able to survive this, it would be Naruto.

Her bloody feet were racing across the uneven earth before her mind could fully assimilate the decision her heart had made, and then she was before Obito, or Tobi—or whoever her was—as she heard Sakura scream for her from the distance.

By now, the Team 7 member should have known that begging her would be useless.

Tobi tilted his head. "Why are you bothering to defend a dead man?"

No…No, I'm just buying him time! Sakura—Sakura can tend to him if I can distract Tobi.

Hinata surprised herself by jutting her chin at him, even if the miniscule movement of her neck could barely be counted as a show of defiance. "H-have you forgotten what I told Naruto?"

Obito chuckled. "And did you hear what I said? 'Your feeble words and principles are going to be proven wrong.'" He looked at Naruto's mangled body. "And they were."

Hinata felt heat rush to her ears, as it always had in the few times in her life when she had been furious. "Do you think I—or anyone—is going to give up now? Naruto was more than a body—his spirit will always drive us forward!"

Tobi's eyes narrowed, the purple and red clearly analyzing her for the first time. "Why don't you want to escape this hell? It is obvious to me that you loved the kyuubi. And now his blood runs cold into the ground. Could anything be more painful to live with than his loss? Or perhaps you didn't love him as much as your actions sugges—"

"Don't you dare say that, you son of a bitch," Hinata yelled, her words causing a blush to rise to her tear-soaked cheeks.

To Hinata's surprise, Tobi seemed suddenly confused. "Then why don't you want to escape this? What you will be living in now is a world full of shadow. It is a reality of pain, of suffering, of emptiness. Of loneliness. In the world I will create, you could be with Naruto. He would be alive and he would love you. You would be together."

Now it was her turn to be confused. "Why would you ever think that anyone would want that? It wouldn't be real! And it certainly wouldn't be what Naruto would wish for! I will never do anything that would go against everything he stood for!" Her eyes locked with his. "There can be no shadow without light, Tobi. And Naruto will always be a light for me. His words, his memory would always be the light in the shadows. And that is what I would live for—his light."

Before Tobi could object or her shock-ridden mind could, once again, follow her heart's actions, her Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists were activated and she was fighting the leader of the Akatsuki. Though he had been greatly weakened and he still seemed confused, and therefore distracted, by something she had said, his skill was still far superior to hers. He dodged her attacks and she sustained moderate injuries from his blows as the battle continued and continued. She could swiftly feel the precious chakra Naruto had loaned to her being drained, and she was starting to feel the cold burst of fear at her rapidly approaching defeat.

In a final attempt, she gathered what strength that remained and dived at him again, faking as if she were going for his stomach, hoping that it would force him to step back onto a slightly more uneven patch of earth and that it might put him even the slightest bit off balance.

It worked!

Hinata instantly deactivated her technique and shot her fingers towards his Rinnegan, blocking the chakra points that fed into his eye and blinding it.

Tobi grabbed her throat, hoisting her off the ground. Her weakened body could barely fight off the darkening around the edges of her eyes, but she was able to hit the chakra points that controlled the grip of his hand, forcing him to release her. In the brief second of his surprise at her resilience, Hinata went for his Sharingan as he dove for her heart.

Please, please just let me get the hit in in time—

She got one of the chakra points and the agony it caused made his hand miss its mark. The sharp pain of a kunai making a small cut just above her right breast broke through her adrenaline and shock fog, stilling her for a long moment—

Tobi took his opportunity and raised the instrument again, aiming for her stomach—

In a flash, Kakashi had pinned his arm, followed closely by Gai and then a swarm of others as they took their only chance at defeating him.

"Don't kill him," she heard Kakashi order as Temari made a particularly brutal hit. "We need him for information."

Numbness quickly dimmed the rest of their cries.

Though she could barely stand, Hinata made her way over to Naruto and Sakura, who had started to tend to him as the others had rushed to restrain Tobi. As she looked at the only female member of Team 7's face, her heart clenched painfully in her chest.

No….

Sakura shook her head hopelessly, her shaking body mirroring her own as teary green met tear overridden pale lavender.

"He's….He's dead."

Hinata felt Naruto's now cold blood as it hit her knees, the crimson seeping into the tattered remains of her pants. For a moment, nothing but the stilling numbness of heartbreak seized her brain. And then, dimly, she heard her own cries again, coupled with her erratic breaths and thundering heart.

He-he can't…. Naruto… was so strong….

Was….

Her tears fogged Sakura's form as the fellow medic-nin came over to hug her, the contact causing her to jolt.

Suddenly, the image of all that she had seen and all that could be heard became clear in Hinata's mind. The moon hanging over them, the sounds of Tobi being restrained, the cries of those around her… the parts of Naruto that were scattered about them, and, lastly and, with a haunting clarity that she knew would plague her dreams forever: the image of the expression on Naruto's bloody face.

Shock. And a deeper sadness than she had ever seen grace his features.

He hadn't met his vow to become Hokage.

He hadn't been able to keep his word.

The scream that broke from Hinata's lungs silenced everything around her, and as the reality of his passing finally ran like ice through her veins, she was glad that the sounds around her left, but one thing wouldn't.

His face.

His face.

She began to see her vision fade, felt her body turning slack. For the first time in years, she couldn't fight the onslaught of a fainting spell. As she fell backward, out of Sakura's shock-loosened grip, Naruto's face finally faded as shadow overtook her.

Author's Note:

I feel so bad having to kill off Naruto! He is one of my favorites, but it had to be done to make my plot work. Also, I felt that I should mention Sakura's place since she is included in this fic. I won't be bashing her, and I will be treating her as having platonically loved Naruto and as one of Hinata's friends.

Thanks for reading!