I really shouldn't be writing another fanfiction with how horribly behind I am on updating my others, but this has been sitting around for a long time just waiting to be published. My apologies!

Sfiorire

Chapter Song: Daughter - Love (Synkro Remix)

Hinata felt nothing.

Her body had fallen limp, the feeling of numbness consumed her very being.

All sound had become faded and distant, except for the insufferable ringing in her head, until even that stopped.

She could see nothing. She had been plunged into darkness; there was no light. There nothing to go towards

Hinata Hyuga truly felt nothing.

Was this what dying felt like?

Hinata was not someone who wanted to die. In fact, the opposite if anything. She wanted to live more than anything. But she was driven to wanting nothing more than to cease from existence in her last few moments of life.

She couldn't live in the state she was in.

She had gone far beyond her limits, and the pain she experienced was, quite frankly, utterly excruciating. What she was subject to at the hands of Pain's assault didn't even compare to this.

She had imagined there was far worse physical pain that existed than that she experienced during Pain's assault, but actually experiencing it was something she hadn't planned for.

It was hard to focus on anything other than the pain. Other than the soreness and discomfort that pulsed through her very being. That made her feel as if every single one of her limbs was on fire; burning from the inside out.

The last other thing she felt was her body falling to the ground—the impact. The last thing she heard was people calling out to her. Screams of her name. Kiba and Naruto were the most prominent ones, but, in the end, they merely sounded like background noise. It all faded, to the point where they only became an irrelevant and almost annoying buzzing compared to the horrendous ringing in her ears. She couldn't bare it. All other senses seemed to cancel out, and all her body could focus on was the ache.

She could only feel pain.

Even if she had possessed the will to try and stay alive, her efforts would've been in vain. Her bones were completely shattered in multiple places. If not, they were dislocated or broken. Even if they hadn't been, however, she most probably would've died from blood loss. The laceration that ran across her abdomen was too deep, and, even if she didn't have that wound, the blood that poured from her empty eye sockets was plentiful.

Madara had been deprived of one of his rinnegan, courtesy of Naruto and Sasuke, and, due to the lack of easily accessible sharingan, he had decided to go for the next best thing. The byakugan. Even half blind, that man was something else. Something she'd never even dream of comparing herself to.

He let out an annoyed groan before proceeding to rip her eyeballs out, and then slicing across her stomach with a weapon she hadn't been able to see. She assumed the annoyed groan he let out before doing so stemmed from the fact that he had to resort to using the Hyuga Clan's eyes rather than an Uchiha's. That left little-to-no explanation on why he took them both, however. Perhaps he just wanted extra. Then again, it didn't make sense why he sliced her stomach open.

He was a killer. He was simply killing. He had no consideration for who she was—his goal was to win. It didn't need to make sense to her, she concluded.

What seemed like moments later, an explosion went off near where she stood, and her body, and she presumed many others, was thrown backwards and slammed against a hard rock. The sheer force of the collision caused multiple bones to fall out of place, and break. The force then became stronger, and she felt parts of the jagged stone dig into her neck, back, and head. Then she fell to the floor.

Eventually, everything just seemed to 'turn off'.

Thus, she found herself in a pit of inky blackness. Or, blankness. She couldn't describe it, since she didn't even know if what she was seeing black, or just the emptiness of whatever ethereal place this was. Her mind, even?

Maybe there just wasn't any visual.

Hinata wondered if this was death.

The lack of the ability to feel anything was driving her crazy. She imagined it was cold, but there was no way of knowing. The Hyuga princess didn't know whether she was dead. She didn't know where she was. Or, rather, where her consciousness was. Or soul?

Maybe that was death? A never ending blackness, in which you're left within your thoughts for an eternity? How long had it even been since she had died?

That aggravated her also. She had no perception of time in this place. Everything was blurry.

Hinata wasn't sure whether she was supposed to scream mentally, or something. She didn't know how she was supposed to express her agitation. Not when she didn't even have control over thoughts, if that's what these were. There was nothing to grasp.

There was nothing to see. Nothing to hear. Nothing to feel. Nothing to taste. Nothing to smell.

There was nothing.

Some used to say you had a few minutes of brain activity left before you die. Could that be what this is? It couldn't be. She felt like she had been here forever.

At the same time, it felt like seconds.

She had probably hit her head too hard to have any functional brain activity anyway. If this could even be described as functional, that is.

Everything felt—seemed hazy. She simply couldn't make sense of anything. She couldn't bring up images in her 'mind'. She didn't know whether she was panicking, nor if she was calm—but she didn't think she was. At the same time, she wasn't rejecting whatever this was. She wasn't exactly welcoming it, but she didn't know how to reject it, or whether she wanted to. She simply didn't know how to comprehend this limbo like state or place.

Slowly, her thoughts began to fade more.

She was certain of one thing. There was one thing she was able to keep repeating to herself, since she had full grasp over this emotion. It was the only thing keeping her seemingly grounded.

She was very scared. No, in fact, she was completely terrified. She was terrified of whatever was to come next.

Neji had given his life up not so much earlier on in the war for her survival. So that she could keep on living. He had thrown away his future for hers. And she would have to apologise to him so soon. As much as she wanted her beloved cousin back, she didn't want to have to see him like this. She didn't want to see him so soon.

She couldn't help but feel pathetic.

She was completely useless. She had never had a chance to prove her father wrong about that. Turns out he was right all along. She was nothing but a nuisance who couldn't even use her last minute to protect someone. She was merely used as a pawn, a disposable piece that just so happened to play straight into the enemy's hand and was used to benefit him.

She was so weak.

Hinata, leading the Hyuga clan? She laughed at such a prospect. The position would've been handed down to her little sister regardless of whether she was dead or not. She was too weak and feeble. She had known that her whole life.

How did she ever think someone like Naruto would even notice her, let alone date her or hold any type of romantic affection towards her! She was so…so…

Trapped. She was trapped. What kind of purgatory was this?

Every thought in her mind was toxic. Perhaps this wasn't a void, and perhaps hell isn't where all the evil people went but rather being left alone with your thoughts for an inconceivable amount of time. She couldn't be in this state forever. She simply couldn't.

Was this the afterlife?

Would she be stuck like this for the rest of time?

Was everyone else sad over her death? Had it hindered them at all in battle? While she knew deep in her heart she hoped people cared, she hoped the grieving could be saved until after the war, if there was any at all. She hoped Naruto and his team defeated the tyrant that was Madara.

She hoped he was happy.

She hoped everyone else got out of that war alive and happy.

…She wished she would've been able to live on with them, like Neji had wished for.

What seemed like moments later—or a lifetime later, she wasn't sure—something finally happened. Light began to flood whatever realm this was. The darkness seemed to become engulfed. She still wasn't sure, but she thought it to be almost blinding.

Was she finally being taken away from this oblivion?

Is this death?

©Hiro Mashima and Masashi Kishimoto