Naruto and all the characters here are Kishimoto's. I dont own any of them.

WARNING SPOILER 438 ALERT!!

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Always.

Naruto open his eyes and looked around confused. Where was he? He was lying on a bed in what it seemed like a tent. The light that came from the outside was painful to his eyes. All his body was aching in pain.

Pain. PAIN!!

He forced himself to sit immediately just when he saw someone entering the tent.

"Naruto? Don't move!" he heard Sakura's voice say.

"Sakura!? Wha-...What happened?" he could barely talk too. His arms and legs felt completly numbed.

"Everything is ok now Naruto. You have to rest" she approached him and pushed him back to the bed.

"Pain... he..." he muttered.

"He's gone" Sakura said simply.

Naruto's vision was still blurry but was improving by the moment. He tried to remember what had happened.

"I... was on the ground. He... stabbed me" he raised his hands to see them. They were all bandaged up. "Shima... got hit and..." Naruto's eyes widened for a second. "Hinata..."

"..." Sakura looked at him with a sad look.

"where is she? She was... Pain..." Naruto couldn't bring himself to remember. Hinata had jumped between Pain and him to save him... then she told him she...

Naruto felt he was choking.

"Hey...Calm down, she's alive" Sakura assured him.

Naruto looked up in disbelief. "She... is? She's ok? But he... he hurt her" he said clenching his fist as much as he could.

Sakura smiled him. "yeah... you don't remember, right? You turned into 6 tails and you chased Pain out of the village"

"I... did?" that would explain why his body felt like that.

"Anyway..." Sakura tried to change the subject, if Naruto knew what happened after that, he wouldn't forgive himself. He had enough with Hinata's state right now. "I'll have to go out now... there are still other injured people so please, stay in bed. I think Shikamaru is going to pay you a visit"

She left almost without looking back. Naruto was left with a surprised look in his face. He still wanted to know other things! And stay in bed? How could he now?

He stood there staring at the 'ceiling' for a while, until he heard someone approaching. He turned his head to the entrance. It wasn't Shikamaru.

"You are awake" Neji said with that serious tone he always had.

Naruto gulped. Neji... what was Neji doing here? Was he upset about what happened to Hinata?

"H-hey..." Naruto raised a hand to salute him.

"..." Neji approached Naruto silently.

"How is...?" Naruto asked worried.

"She's fine... now" Neji answered and the blond ninja felt his chest hurt when Neji gave enfasis on the 'NOW'. "Still... She hasn't regained consciousness yet"

There was a weird silence between them.

"I don't know what to say..." Naruto confessed.

"Me neither. I should go now. I just wanted to know if you were awake..." Neji turned around.

"Wait!" Naruto tried to sit up. "I... want to... Could you help me to go and see her?"

Neji nodded "I'll bring someone who will be glad to take you there"

"Uh?" Naruto raised an eyebrow confused.

Neji went outside and a couple of minutes passed when Lee rushed to the tent.

"NARUTO!" Lee ran to his side. Tears of Youth running down his cheeks.

"WOAH!" Naruto raised his arms trying to cover his head.

"What happened back there...! Hinata was so brave!!" Lee clenched a fist in emotion and fire lighted up his eyes. "The ultimate act of love"

"I... I..." Naruto didn't know what to say.

"OF COURSE, I'LL TAKE YOU!" said Lee grabbing Naruto in one swift move and putting him in his back.

"MY-ARMS!" complained Naruto as Lee ran with him outside the tent.

Neji was standing there giving him a good bye wave. Was this Neji's revenge on what happened to Hinata?? The light blinded Naruto's eyes for a second, but when he managed to see around he realized the village was still in ruins. He had forgotten the amount of destruction Pain had caused.

In no time they arrived to another bigger tent. There were lots of injured people lying around, but in the back of the place, there was an area with curtains. Lee moved the curtains away just a little and they both looked inside.

Hinata was in the bed there, completely bandaged up. Her arms seemed broken.

Naruto had that choking feeling again. "Do you want a moment?" asked Lee, but Naruto could only nod. His voice was gone.

Lee brought a stool near the bed and Naruto managed to sit in there. Lee promptly left.

Akward silence filled the room. He just stared at her. In his mind, her

confession repeated again and again.

"How..." he finally said. "Im not... I couldn't even stop him. I couldn't save Konoha..."

"did you really... did you really meant all you said? All this time?" he looked away from her. "I just dont understand... I was weak. I remember... that time before I fought Neji. Yeah... you said, you looked up to me" he started to make a connection. "Yes, did you mean THAT? and before... when I fought Kiba, you gave me that remedy. Where you worried about me?... Me?"

He couldn't breath. All this time he thought no one else gave a shit about him... she was there. Wasn't she?

"nnh..." Hinata muttered.

Naruto raised his head immediately. "Hinata?" He forced himself to stand up and check her. "Hinata!?"

She opened her eyes slightly looking for his voice. She was soo weak, Naruto realized. Her skin was still pale for the blood loss and she had dark circles around her eyes. Still, she opened them.

"...you...ok?..." she said in faint voice, almost inaudible.

Naruto stared at her in disbelief. He felt his eyes wet and clenched his teeth trying not to give in to cry. He only managed to hold her hand. "Thank you..."

She, indeed, loved him. And not just like a friend. Someone loved him deeply... It was something he had longed for since he was small, but he never realized he already had it. "Don't you ever... EVER do that again, Hinata".

She gave him a faint warm slime, as she drifted back to the balckness.