Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and am making no profit out of this fanfiction. It was written purely for pleasure.

Dear reader, I apologise in advance for the tremendous plot holes and lack of coherence within this fanfiction. It was written on a whim, and although I have enjoyed writing it, I must admit that it may in fact make no sense whatsoever to you. However, if you could look past the glaring flaws in the plot, I hope that you enjoy this fanfiction as much as I enjoyed writing it. You should be warned that there are spoilers, and if you want to be safe, you should have read or watched up until the end of the Rescue Gaara arc (this fanfiction will also make no sense whatsoever if you do not know the characters from that arc).

Thank you.

The carriage clock on the table counted out each second with a solemn tick.

A young woman was perched on the divan in the middle of the room with a large book opened out on her lap. Pressed neatly onto a page was an array of colourful flowers, each one laid out with great care. But on this occasion, not even flower pressing could engage her interest.

She shut the book gently and placed it back on the shelf. She then commenced to pace around the room.

Sakura-san had said the organisation was called Akatsuki and that they were after Naruto-kun. She had also explained that they were prepared to use any means necessary to get Naruto-kun. This had made Hinata turn pale. This criminal group intended to abduct Naruto-kun, and do goodness knows what to him.

So of course Naruto-kun had to go into hiding, and of course there was no way Hinata could help, and of course they would just have to wait… wait in agonising helplessness… as Jiraiya-san and Kakashi-san did all they could…

But it was just so hard.

Hinata had considered phoning Sakura or Ino or Tenten-san, but she didn't want to burden any of the others. They must be finding it just as difficult to bear, especially Sakura-san, who Hinata knew cared for Naruto-kun deeply. Even if she happened to express it with her fists.

Sighing deeply, Hinata wandered through into the kitchen. Her own precious sanctum. A tiny thing that was barely big enough to accommodate herself and a friend over for tea, and yet it offered more comfort than any family member could provide. To Hinata, kitchens offered warmth and solacement and distant, blurry memories of a kind figure who smiled down at Hinata and taught her how to cook and could soothe away her father's ever-present frown just by laughing.

With a faint smile, Hinata set to work. First she lifted a big pot into the kitchen sink and began to fill it with water from the hot tap. When she judged it to be half full, she lifted it off and put it on the stove. A packet of dried rotini pasta was retrieved from the cupboard and half of it was poured into the pot. A little fiddling with the oven was required before Hinata was satisfied with the temperature, and she left the pasta to simmer.

She fetched a frying pan from underneath the sink and set it on top of the stove. Then she whisked several cloves of garlic and an onion out of a cupboard and began to dice them with deft, confident movements. A little olive oil was drizzled onto the pan and the chopped garlic and onion were sprinkled in, eliciting violent sizzles.

Hinata was just chopping up the tomatoes and feeling a lot better, wondering whether to add oregano or thyme, when there was a noise from the backyard.

Now, a noise from the backyard was not uncommon. The neighbourhood kept a lot of cats, indeed Hinata had a cat of her own, and cats had no scruples whatsoever when it came to scavenging in your dustbin or using your garden as a lavatory. The house next to Hinata's had two little children, both still in primary school, and it was also not uncommon for them to accidentally kick a ball into her garden and come across to fetch it back. In fact, there were a thousand and one reasons for Hinata just to ignore it and carry on with her cooking.

But it only took one reason, the memory of Kakashi-san with his queer mannerisms and half-covered face, turning to look at her and saying very seriously,"Once Naruto is hidden, Akatsuki might very well come after his friends. This means that you could be in danger Hinata. Understand?"

So Hinata set down the knife and tomatoes for a moment and went to lock the front door with trembling fingers. The back door was already locked, it was always locked. The utility room, where the back door was, was also the only room in the house that didn't have windows and it was here that Hinata hid, afraid that whoever had been sent by Akatsuki would be looking in, looking for the friend of Naruto they were to take.

There was silence. Hinata stood, hand over thudding heart, and waited.

There was an ever so slight movement in her peripheral vision.

Hinata turned her head to look and felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

By her right hand, the handle of the back door was being turned.

Someone was trying to get in through the back door.

Time seemed to stretch, each second taking an age to pass. Hinata was hyperaware of every hair tickling her face, every breath she took, how the blood pounded in her ears…

The handle stopped turning. The door creaked as it was given an experimental pull. It refused to open. The handle, ever so slowly, was turned back to its starting position.

Hinata sprinted through to the living room. Snatching up her mobile, she made to run back into the back room, froze for a moment of terrible indecision, then raced upstairs to her bedroom. They might be able to pick locks. Here, she might be able to hide somewhere. Hinata stabbed 999 into her phone and waited.

What would they do when they found the back door locked? Would they try a window? What were they here for? Did they really… really…

"Once Naruto is hidden, Akatsuki might very well come after his friends. This means that you could be in danger Hinata."

"Hallo, 999 operator, what is your emergency?"

"Police!" Hinata gasped. "P-please, there's a burglar!"

Hinata strained her ears, listening for telltale signs of them having got in when a familiar voice spoke.

"Hallo?" The voice suggested a young man.

Hinata almost fainted in relief and had to put out a hand to steady herself. "Sasuke-san!"

"Hinata?"

"Sasuke-san, please help! They're here!"

There was no mistaking in her tone who exactly "they" were. Sasuke wasted no time in his response.

"Right, I'm going to send round two officers. They'll be there in maybe ten minutes at most. Will you be okay until then?"

She'd have to be. "Y-yes!"

Sasuke hung up and Hinata was left alone.

And for lack of better hiding place, Hinata hid under the bed.

Ten minutes, she only had to last ten minutes…

She lay, muscles tensed for flight, in what seemed an endless, agonising wait for help…

Just ten minutes…

How long had she been lying there? Three minutes? Four minutes? It seemed like forever. And where had the criminal gone, the person who had tried to get in?

The doorbell rang.

Hinata almost hit her head off the bed frame. It couldn't be the criminal. Criminals didn't use doorbells. Were they trying to trick her???

The doorbell rang again and someone rapped on the door. "Miss Hyuuga? It's the police!"

Scrabbling out from underneath the bed, and feeling too relieved to feel foolish, Hinata stumbled down the stairs to the door, fumbled with the lock and threw the door open.

Two young men in officer uniforms were standing in the doorway. One had long blonde hair and had a nametag that read Hitoshi Sato and the other, who was smiling cheerfully at her had a nametag that read Madoka Takahashi. Hitoshi smiled at her,"Everything alright ma'am?" He was being patently polite, Hinata reckoned, because she must have looked a mess.

"Ye---well, no. S-someone tried to get in." Hinata took a step back,"Please come in, I'm so glad you got here so quickly."

"That's okay!" Madoka piped up,"We were nearby on patrol."

Hitoshi shot his partner an annoyed look and was about to open his mouth to snap something when he caught Hinata looking. He sniffed the air,"Is something burning?"

"Oh no!" Hinata clapped a hand to her mouth and ran through to the kitchen to rescue her dinner, which by now, was looking and smelling quite poorly. She turned the stove off and looked at it sadly.

"That looks like what senpai likes to cook!" chirped Madoka, who had followed her through.

"Madoka, stay focused!" Hitoshi called through from the living room. He poked his head through into the kitchen,"Miss, would you like to explain to us what happened?"

Hinata nodded, and having regained a measure of composure from the presence of policemen, found some of her shyness returning. "Y-yes. Uhm, if you would like to sit down in the living room, I'll bring us through some tea."

"Senpai and I can look around the house, in case the intruders are still here!" Madoka practically danced up the stairs, with Hitoshi giving Hinata an apologetic grimace and following.

Hinata returned to the kitchen and attempted to make tea without spilling hot water over herself, a task that would have been easier if she hadn't been shaking so much.

When she carried the tray through to the living room, both officers had returned and reported that no one seemed to be in or around the house. Hinata let the last vestiges of tension bleed out of her body and slumped onto the divan.

While Madoka happily spooned copious amounts of sugar into his tea, Hitoshi eyed her from the pouffee. "So someone tried to get in through the back door?"

"Uhm, yes," Hinata confirmed. "You see… that is… I don't know whether Sasuke-san explained, but it's possible that I… and several other people are being targeted…"

"Oh yes, we know," Hitoshi nodded, his eye glinting.

Momentarily perturbed, Hinata shifted around in her seat and thankfully excused herself when the house phone rang. Leaving Madoka and Hitoshi to their tea, she walked through into the hallway and picked it up,"Hallo?"

"Hinata?"

"Sasuke-san! Thank you! The officers got here!"

"They did?" Hinata didn't know Sasuke as well as Sakura-san or Naruto-kun, and he was a very stoic young man, but she thought she heard his tone relax. "That's good. Did they find whoever tried to get in?"

"Uhm, no, they seemed to have gone."

"I see." There was a pause. "Hinata, I don't think you're safe there anymore. Madoka may be capable enough, but Hitoshi's rather new and I don't think he could handle an attack from any member of Akatsuki. You'd better come along to the station."

"A-alright," Hinata hesitated then added,"Do you mean Madoka rather than Hitoshi? He is rather excitable."

"Who? Madoka?"

"Y-yes."

"Madoka… isn't excitable."

Hinata peered into the living room where Madoka was balancing sugar cubes on top of one another,"Uhm, well…"

Suddenly, Sasuke spoke urgently,"Hinata, describe Madoka to me."

"W-what?"

"Do it!"

Hinata blushed,"W-well, he's got black hair and he's, uhm, cheerful, he looks to be in his twenties and---"

"Madoka is in his forties."

It was quietly said, and sent a thrill of fear up Hinata's spine for a reason she couldn't quite place.

"But he couldn't be that old! Definitely!"

"Hinata, I think you'd better get out of the house," Sasuke said hoarsely.

With a growing sense of confusion and fear, and underneath it all, an intense thread of terror, Hinata placed the phone back on its cradle and dared to look back at the officers.

Across from her, smiling pleasantly, Hitoshi swept back his long golden hair from an eye the colour of ice,"Something wrong, un?"


So, who figured it out before the ending hmmm? And who has absolutely no idea on why the ending is meant to be so "dramatic"?

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this fanfiction. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you feel like taking the time to critique my writing technique, it would be greatly appreciated. ;)

Thanks again for reading!