Her hand hung loosely on the door knob. She slowly contemplated with herself, whether or not she would find the courage to open it and step through. She was slightly afraid and slightly anxious, waiting. Her hand gripped the knob subconsiously, the bouquet of blue, orange, purple and white flowers slowing drooping. She had stood outside the door for a long while. Thinking. Wondering what would happen. Praying, almost. Praying he would'nt hate her, or flinch away. Question her. But she felt it like a cold wind blowing up from the splashing waves of the ocean, feeling it, yet not quite seeing it.
"Exuse me, Miss, are you going to go in?", a nurse with black hair and a clipboard asked her. She had on a regular nurse uniform and a glass of water in her hand.
"O-o-oh, yes. I-I am.", she stuttered in reply. Her hands almost reached up immediatly to twiddle her fingers gently, but her bouquet of flowers got in the way, so she settled with tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Alright, then. Visiting hours end soon.", the nurse replyed and then departed down the hall. She dissapeared behind a table at the nurse's station in the next hallway.
She turned back to the door. Her hands shook slightly.
FLASHBACK
"He's been in the hospital for a while."
"Yeah, I heard Sakura could'nt even go in the room. She said she was afraid she would'nt be able to look at him."Her friend Shino adjusted his glasses, pushing them up his nose with his index finger."She thinks the reason that happened to him is her fault. She thinks she made him push himself too far. So she stayed away."
"He's probably pretty lonely.", Kiba replyed. She just twiddled her fingers and looked at the ground. "Nobody coming to visit exept the occasional nurse. I can't even bring myself to go. I don't really know why." He sighed, seeming all of a sudden, tired and exhausted. "I feel like he'll be different. I don' think I can imagine him different after all that we have been through together."Kiba looked up."Hinata, what about you? How do you feel about this?"
Instead of responding, she turned away. She found herself walking away from them...to the darkness to rescue him from his huge hollow heart...
END OF FLASHBACK
She grabbed the knob firmly, breathed in, turned, breathed out, and pushed. The door sqeaked open and she saw him.
Sitting up in the bed, blond locks falling all over his head and into his face. His blue eyes were no longer vibrant. They had a smoky tint to them and stitches under his eyes and to the sides. One huge thing of stitches curled up his face, some dry blood seeping off one of the lower ones. It remained untouched. He was dressed in standard hospital clothes. His skin was a sickening pale. He looked older than he was, and it scared her. She winced back, and felt a pink tint cover her cheeks. She almost ran right out the door, but she stopped herself.
Slowly, she walked towards him, flowers gripped in her hand. His face pulled upwards and she heard a sickening crack, a pop of some sorts. His face popped, he had'nt moved from his spot in so long.
"Who's there?", his voice called out. It sounded hoarse and he keeled back and coughed into his inner elbow. She shuddered.
She did not reply to him.
"Who is that? Who are you?", he called out again. She felt tears drop from her face and the flowers fall from her hot, clammy hands. She ran out of the room, tears flowing off her cheeks and crashing to the sanitized tile floor. She was scared. Scared becuase of his frightening reaction.
He could'nt see her.
Once she got to her house, she fell on her bed immeadiatly. Falling back into the vanilla-lavender bed sheets and pillows, she soaked her bed with her hot tears.
It was just a simple mission. Nothing hard at all.
She had been called to Tsuande's office a month ago, for a mission concerning herself, Naruto and Sakura. Reports of Sasuke's were-a-bouts and the new Akatsuki hideout had been found. The were to go on a simple information-gathering mission, no fights or endangerment. Just a simple C-ranked mission that two chunins and a genin could surely take on easily.
They had been ambushed. The Akatsuki leader, who's name was supposedly Pain, had attacked. Hinata was about to get hit with one of his justu's, when Naruto myseriously appeared in front of her. He stood in front of her, and got hit in the stomach and flew back into a tree. Pain approached him and againest Hinata's screams, took out a kunai and-
Hinata gulped loudly. She swallowed back a gag as she remembered the sickening images of Pain nearly tearing Naruto in half. Making a verticle cut down his face and stabbed his eyes, and the area around his abdomen. Hinata could'nt stop staring as Pain continued to torture her love, and finally could'nt take it. She ran towards them, flung herself on top of Pain and stabbed him all over in his chest and back.
He flung her off.
The entire time that happened, Sakura called in reinforcments-via-radio. In a few minutes, some of Konoha's strongest shinobi were there. Tsunade was there herself. Pain fled, a trail of blood behind him no one dared to follow.
Hinata woke up a few days later in the hospital, with minor wounds. Naruto went into surgery a few hours after she woke up. It was his third surgery since their arrival back in Konoha. The third surgery to try and save his eyes. It only repaired them slightly, so all he could do was use them for appearance, yet when it came to seeing, all he saw was black.
Once everyone heard what happened to him, they stayed away. They figured he suffered from trauma. Some of his most precious people came. Iruka and Kakashi. Tsunade came. She told Naruto he'd get better in no time. Yet, Naruto did'nt utter a word. For a few weeks, he did'nt speak. Until last week, when he decided it was about time he started talking. And he did. But only for a little while. Then his voice would start to crack and he had to rest.
Naruto was strictly on bed-rest. He was fed soft food and water only. There were no objections when he found out he could'nt have ramen. A nurse came and fed him three times daily. He still could'nt coordinate where his food was. So, like a in-a-bad-shape person, he was fed like a baby.
Hinata sighed and turned over. She did'nt know if she could bring herself to see him. He was crippled and hurt and lonely. He had no one exept a few weekly visits and the nurses.
Yet, through all that, she loved him still.
Because he saved her life.