Naruto was walking into Konoha with a smile on his face, knowing little about the agony he was about to go through.
(flashback, 3 years ago)
Naruto was about to leave the village he called home for training with Jiraiya. He was sad about having to go, he had finally built a life in Konoha. Things were just starting to turn around. He had just gotten a girlfriend last year and it felt too soon to depart.
"Hey Kid, we got to get going." Said Jiraiya, knowing what his student was going through. He had to do the same thing when he was his age, it wasn't easy to leave someone behind who you loved dearly.
Naruto reached into his pocket and pulled out a picture. He stared at the picture because it was the last he was going to see of his beloved Hina-chan for the long run.
Just as they were about to depart, he heard someone scream his name.
"NARUTO! Wait!" yelled a miserable Hyuuga princess. She had just seen him leaving his apartment and wanted, no, needed to talk to him.
Naruto turned around in time to get caught in embrace by Hinata. She started sobbing into his jacket, weeping tears of sorrow, they had been going out since last year and it had been the best one of both their lives; their home lives had been bad and seeing each other was a release they both needed. As she tried to look into her lover's cerulean eyes she saw that he didn't want to let go just as much as she did. They locked sight and looked deep into one-another, seeing each other's sorrows and woes.
She punctuated her voice with sobs of distress, "Please, don't go Naru-kun. I-I don't think that I could go on-"
Her sentence was cut off by a bitter-sweet kiss to her lips. Naruto didn't want to leave her alone, but he had to. There were greater things at play here.
They both fell into the kiss and tried to make it last an eternity. There they stood in loving embrace, trying to burn this image into their minds to not forget what they were to each other.
As they broke off the kiss, Naruto held onto his Hina-chan and tried to imagine when they would meet again.
Naruto tried to be strong for her sake, "Hina-chan, you have to be strong, please, I can't change what has already transpired. We'll see each other again, I swear by my nindo. When we meet again, I promise, I will never leave you."
As she heard Naruto say that, the mentality of the situation set in. Tears started to fall down her face, she never wanted to leave him, she wanted to be near him always, hold his hand, kiss him.
Her eyes were full of distress, the one person she had loved, was almost out of her reach. "Please," she pleaded.
It hurt Naruto to leave her. She was his first and only girlfriend. "Kami curse the council and anyone else who had to do with this."
Naruto pulled her closer to himself and tapped his forehead against hers, his voice full of angst, "Aishiteru Hina-chan, " he wished he could have done more, but he planted a chaste kiss on Hinata's lips, "Ja ne" he said as he pulled her tight once then let go.
Hinata felt the warmth leave her body. She tried to reach out to Naruto with her hand but Naruto was already moving forward.
"Someday Hina-chan, someday."
(end flashback)
Naruto was walking slowly to the Hokage's office to officially end his training with Jiraiya. He wanted to go to a few places before seeing Hinata. As Naruto and Jiraiya walked into the office they felt a great sense of relief that their trials were over.
As Tsunade watched the two of them walk into the room, "Welcome back Naruto" she said as the bit back tears and grabbed the boy she thought of as a grandson.
"Hey, Baa-chan, yo-'re sq-ishing me!" Naruto tried as Tsunade was squeezing.
She let Naruto go and returned to her desk. "How did it go, was it a success?" she asked Jiraiya.
"It was tough, but the baka got everything down. He is able to control six of the Kyuubi's tails and has created thirty or so Kaze ninjutsu."
"Great, now that that's done, I officially deem this training mission a success!" said Tsunade as she stamped a paper with a red "complete" stamp.
Naruto was overjoyed at this, "Tsunade, may I be dismissed? I have to go and meet someone."
Tsunade's look of joy turned into a look of sorrow, "Naruto, I-I have some bad news, follow me." "I guess the jig is up." She got up and motioned for Naruto to follow her.
"A lot of things have changed since you were gone." Said Tsunade as they walked down the hallways of the tower. "We were invaded by Oto last year; we sustained heavy losses."
As they left the tower Naruto was getting worried, "W-Was Hinata one of the casualties?" he asked with a tone of worry.
Tsunade sighed, "She was, we managed to bring her back, but…" her voice trailed off.
There was a moment of silence.
"Yeah, but what!" Naruto said with contempt. He could feel the air getting heavy with guilt. His eyes started to water for the first time since he left her. His heart yearning to see her again.
As they were coming upon the hospital, Tsunade's eye formed a tear, knowing that the information she was going to tell him was going to break his heart. It took all her self-control to not start to shed tears.
She bit back a sob and said, "She's in a coma, Naruto, for the past year. What's more is that she has had no brain activity for the past week." She wanted to pull the plug a while ago, but she knew that there was only one person Hinata would have wanted to make that call.
Naruto knew what she was saying meant, but one thing didn't add up, "You're lying Baa-chan, I have been sending letters to her for the past three years; I have always gotten a response, how can that be if she's been in a coma?" He was trying to convince himself more than her. He couldn't go on up the stairs they were taking.
Tsunade wanted to crawl into a hole and die. To tell her grandson that he had been lied to for the past year was hard, "Because-because I was the one writing back." Of all the blood she had seen shed, watching her grandson's reaction, she would have gladly watched it all over again to not see Naruto in this state.
Naruto stood still; his heart was shattered. He felt like a fish out of water, "W-Why?" he asked as he started to choke. Tears started to fall down his face.
"Ask that pervert of a master, he'll have an answer." She replied with angst and disgust.
Naruto was shocked. His own sensei had conspired against him to not tell him about the state of his girlfriend. His mind went dark as the last bit of hope was extinguished with vigor. He felt like the weight of the world was on his shoulders.
He looked at the toad sage who had been quiet for the duration of the conversation, "H-How could you?" he said as tears started to cloud his vision and bit back sobs.
Jiraiya took a deep breath. It wasn't like he had enjoyed lying to Naruto, but he had to. "It was for the village; if you had heard about it, you would have come back and if the Akatsuki found out; due to the instability of the village, that would have been the best time for them to grab you."
Naruto's mouth went dry. A promise broken, his mind blank. All he wanted to do was die. There was one thing he had to make peace with before he left.
Tsunade almost read his thoughts. "Naruto, I know this is hard, but please don't go just yet. There's still one thing you have to do." They had made it up to the floor of the hospital, and she pointed to a room in the far corner of the hallway. "Go, she's been waiting for you."
Naruto looked at the room in question and slowly started to walk towards it. He tried to compose himself, she would not want to see him like this over her. He had to do this.
As Naruto opened the door to her room, what he saw horrified him. Hinata was hooked up to every life support machine in Konohagakure it seemed. Naruto wanted to die when he saw her. The beautiful flower he left had wilted and become a scrawny skeleton. Naruto finally broke. He started to weep, to see her like she was had been too much. What's more is that he had broken his promise to her, he couldn't stay with her forever like he promised her last time.
Her face looked peaceful. Like the angel he made her out to be.
Naruto walked over to her and said with a forced smile, "Hi Hina-chan, it's been a long time hasn't it? I know you won't answer, but I just want to talk to you. Who am I kidding, I don't want to talk to you, I want to hold you, I want to kiss you, I want to make you happy. I-I-I can't see you like this Hinata, please forgive me Hina-hime. I will see you soon, my hime" Naruto got up and kissed her forehead. "Aishiteru Hina-chan, Aishiteru." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black box then placed it in her hands, clasping them shut around it, thinking about what he had wanted to do with it if she had been there. "Ja ne, Hina-chan" and a single tear fell onto Hinata's form.
Naruto turned around and left the room to see Tsunade standing outside.
With a sad look on her face, she outstretched her hand to give Naruto three things. A waiver to take Hinata off life support, a bottle of Duloxetine, and a bottle of Hydrocodone.
"Naruto, I need you to sign this." She took a pen out from her hand and gave it to Naruto, It pained her to do it, but it had to be done.
He looked over his shoulder to Hinata, thinking about what could have been. Naruto had seen what happens to ninja, and knew that Hinata would not want him to dwell too long on freeing her. Tsunade gave him a motherly smile and put a hand on his shoulder to encourage him.
Naruto signed the release and took the pills. He then followed Tsunade back into the room and watched as she unhooked Hinata from the machines one by one, until there was only the breathing tube. Naruto offered a prayer to Kami, asking for safe passage for Hinata. As Tsunade unclasped the tube from her head, Naruto reached and put his hand over her shoulder. He watched as Tsunade pulled the tube out from Hinata's throat, then heard as the hear monitor's beeps were getting farther and farther apart; he hoped that his Hina-chan was not in any distress as, finally, the beeps gave way to one long continuous 'beeeeeeeeep' until Tsunade pulled the plug of the heart monitor out. Naruto stoically walked out of the room with the pills in his pocket. Naruto walked down the stairs without a sound and across the hospital to the exit.
The world had conspired against him, he could not feel the cool wind in his face, or hear the children playing in the playground. As he walked into his apartment, the only thing he wanted to do was sleep, sleep until Kami came for him.
Team Gai had been training hard and were walking into town when they saw Naruto enter his old apartment. They felt like they had seen a ghost.
Ten-Ten's voice quivered as she stated what was on everybody's mind, "Was that…?"
Lee replied in awe, "Indeed"
"Do you think he knows?" Asked Neji as he hoped not.
Ten-Ten looked at Neji and nodded her head in agreement. "How could he not, he's never like this. Something's really got him shook up."
"God, he's worse than you Lee when Sakura died." said Neji to his friend and teammate
"Even I have to agree on that." Replied Lee.
"Do you think we should go and help?" asked a worried weapons mistress.
Neji shot down that idea, "No, we should let him sort it out himself, or…"
"Or what?"
"Or we may never see Naruto come out of that apartment alive." Neji said in a neutral tone.
Naruto entered the apartment he called home. There were many memories in this place, both happy and sad. Naruto took off his jacket leaving only a black undershirt. He walked into his bedroom, going for the one thing he had left.
He entered his room, everything was covered with dust. Naruto sneezed as he kneeled down to get something from under his bed. As he reached for what he yearned for, he searched his mind for what to do. Should he go to Ichiraku and get some ramen, or should he just get started. He couldn't ponder much more as he found what he was looking for. A picture album, he took it to his den and opened the radio to a smooth jazz channel; he lit a match and set ablaze the few logs that were left in his hearth. Finally, he cast a sealing jutsu in his apartment so that he was not disturbed.
"Only one thing left to do", he took out the pills he got from Tsunade. He ate half the bottle of each of them. He knew he had about three hours before he would be dead; he wanted to be reminiscing about the good days in that time.
He grabbed the album then sat down in a easy-chair in front of the fireplace, and began to remember the good days.
-Author's Note-
Okay, I know I owe you an apology of why I have been on hiatus for such a long time. I have gotten enrolled into AP Language Arts (and just about AP everything else) in my school and it's a hell of a lot a work, so I neglected to post for a while. Also I got into C/C++ programming and that has been taking up a lot of my time. The last thing is that my bleeding disorder has gotten worse, I was getting bleeds every week and until recently was extremely depressed, I got chemo (yes, chemo is used to treat more than just cancer) and it has helped me get back onto my feet. I must warn you though, even though I'm back, I will still be erratic on posting (but I promise at least 2 chapters a month). About my other story, Kitsune's Kiss, I may repost the entire damned thing because it is apparently WAY too rushed, or I may just delete it. This story is just something I came up with after a long night of studying and reading Naruto vs. Sasuke: The Aftermath by KingKakashi, I hope you will like it; If you don't get it, shoot me a comment and I will explain it to you.
The-Unsung-Writer
School time:
Duloxetine: Anti-Depressant (Cymbalta)
Hydrocodone: Opiate Pain Reliever
Both are commonly prescribed for depression, as for the reason I put them in, you decide