Lies of Love and Loathing
Ch. 1 A Sorrow Filled With Agony
Hinata's POV
Does it matter anymore? No, I don't think so. Everything is going cold, my body is going numb. It's getting increasingly hard to move my fingers and toes. Even the wound in my stomach is losing its pain, it's not getting better I just don't have the energy to continue to feel. But that's okay, I did what I needed, I think. The battle was brutal but at least Naruto is safe, or at least I think he's safe. It doesn't matter that he can't return my feelings, as long as he's okay everything will be fine.
"Hinata! Hinata!" I hear someone chanting through my numbing haze. "Hinata!" The voice sounds demanding and panicked, and it's a voice I know well.
Naruto. I think, trying to open my heavy, unwilling eyelids. It feels hopeless, my body won't allow me to respond to him. Although I can't feel much I can feel him shaking me as he continues to call out my name.
"Hinata please answer me!" he pleads shaking me harder.
"Naruto," I manage to get out, sounding a lot like I'm tired. It takes almost everything in me to get my eyes open.
A franic chuckle leaves him as he quickly clutches me to his chest, then pulls me back to examine me. "Hinata, everything will be alright. I promise."
I try to give him a smile as I reach my hand up to place three fingers on his sorrow filled face, the action taking an unbelievable amount of strength and will power. "As long as you're okay, I know it will be. I'm sorry I wasn't stronger. I wish I could be here to see your dreams come true. You'll make an amazing Hokage." My eyelids begin to droop again and my breathing catches. "Naruto Uzumaki."
"Don't talk like that, you will get to see me become Hokage. You just need to hang in there and keep fighting." Naruto shakes me again, trying to awaken me further.
"I wish it were that simple." The words will only come out as a whisper as my hands fall from his face. My body can no longer support my eyelids and they fall as well, allowing me to be swallowed by the lingering darkness.
Naruto's POV
"I wish it were that simple," she whispers just before her eyes close completely and her hand drops. Hinata's body then goes completely limp in my arms.
"No," is the only thought my mind and mouth can form. "Hinata!" I shout cradling her tightly against my chest, my right hand cupping the back of her head and hold the side of my face to hers. I expect to feel the nine tailed fox try to rise within me, but this isn't anger consuming my body. It's sorrow, a sorrow so horrible I can't bear it. There's a terrible clinching in my chest as I clutch her cut up body to myself even harder.
"Naruto!" someone yells from behind me. "Naruto! Oh no." Sakura says her face coming into view in front of me. "Is she?" She doesn't have to finish before I nod my head, unable to speak. Sakura places her fingers to Hinata's wrist and lets out a hysterical laugh. "Naruto she's not dead," the pink haired girl almost shouts.
"What?" is the only thing I can get out.
"She's not dead, but you have to lay her down." Sakura tugs at the vice grip I have on Hinata. Reluctantly, I set the precious body gently on the ground, delicately allowing her to rest upon the soil. "Unzip her jacket," Sakura orders.
"What?"
"Unzip her jacket! I need to heal the wound!" She already has out bandages and other medical toold I can't name. "Now Naruto!" she yells, laying out her supplies. When I do as she says she begins focusing her chakra into her hands and places them over the open wound in Hinata's stomach.
"Come on, come on, come on," I whisper repeatedly, holding tightly onto her hand. I feel my heart squeeze in my chest when I see the slight movement in Hinata's chest. "Come on Hinata, you can do this. I just need you fight."
"Naruto quiet," Sakura shushes. I need to concentrate." Her tone although forceful, isn't harsh.
It's almost painful to watch as Sakura works on Hinata and I swear the anticipation is so heavy it could crush my lungs. But I all I can do is watch and wait. "Please. Please. Please." That one word keeps falling silently off my lips.
Sakura gives me a slight glare when I hold Hinata's hand to my chest, but it's all I can do to keep from screaming for Hinata to stay with me. I have no idea how it's been before Sakura pulls her hands back. "What is it? What's wrong? Why did you stop?" My hands squeezed Hinata's tighter, as though if I held on hard enough she wouldn't be able to leave me.
Sakura reached up and wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand and sighs. "Nothing is wrong Naruto, Hinata should be okay but we have to get her to the hospital. Other than bandage her up, there's nothing else I can do for here."
"Then put the bandages on her and let's go."
"Give me a moment Naruto."
"She doesn't have a moment!" I shout, my body unable to contain the unwelcome fear and anxiousness any longer. She needs to be at the hospital now and I won't lose her just because you feel tired!" I could tell my sudden outburst had startled her, but somehow my mind couldn't care. Hinata has a small window of opportunity and I need to get her to it before it closes.
Without further argument, Sakura does as I asked and wrapped the wounded girl in white strips meant to keep her wounds from bleeding and safe from infection. The moment she's done I have Hinata on my back and am running full speed in the direction of the village.
Now I feel the nine tail's spirit rise from within me, giving me the burst of energy needed to get this precious girl to the doctors in time. I don't bother waiting for the pink haired girl, by the time she reaches the hospital Hinata will already be in the care of the village's specialist. A slight groan of protest emerges from behind me as I push off a tree branch awkwardly and I feel my heart's gently sigh of relief. "Hinata, just hang in there. We're almost there. I promise you'll be okay, but you have to fight a little longer," I encourage the unconscious body behind me.
Although I fully intend on bringing her to the hospital, my mind realizes that the doctors were not the ones she needs to be in the care of. "Grandma Tsunade, you have to help her quick!" I scream bursting through the Hokage's office door.
"Naruto!" she bellows at the intrusion. "What's going here?" Tsunade is now on her feet with her hands slammed into the top of her desk.
"Hinata's hurt and you have to help!" My voice is loud and demanding, and is similar to that of a desperate man. "Please! She's hurt real bad! You have to do something!"
It only takes moments of silence before Shizune had Hinata off my back and in front of Grandma Tsunade. "It looks like someone already healed her," notes the woman with the purple diamond on her forehead.
"Sakura did," I confirmed, taking a step closer to Hinata. "But she said she needed more help than what could be provided in the field. Which is why I brought her to you." I don't know why I felt so formal while explaining this to her.
"Why? There are many capable doctors at the hospital."
"Yeah, but none of them are you. Come on Grandma Tsunade, do your stuff."
The Hokage sighs deeply but is soon ordering me out of her office and lying Hinata on the ground. I caught the words, "she should be in a hospital for something like this" slipping breathlessly from her mouth, but I didn't put much thought into it as I sit on the hardwood floor outside her doorway. Before too long Tsunade emerges from the room with Hinata in her arms.
"Is there something wrong?" I'm on my feet instantly, trying to prepare myself for anything she might say.
"Nothing's wrong," she exasperates. "But she needs to go to the hospital. They have antibiotics and other medication she'll need." Stepping closer, I reach to take Hinata from her. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I'm going to take her to the hospital like you said." I gently pull against her hod on Hinata.
I can tell an argument was beginning to bubble out of her, but something made her stop and just nod to me. "Okay, go. Be quick about it."
When she places Hinata in my arms, I give her a brief nod and rush to the hospital. I'm not sure how long it is until the doctors come out to tell me everything that's going on with her -and in truth I didn't understand most of it- but there is one thing I do understand. "She's going to be alright."
It's incredible how those five words have the power to reaffirm the breathing pattern of my body. I'm in her room and by her bedside the moment her doctor gives me the okay. There's a faint bruise developing along the side of her jaw and small strips of white cloth taped to her right cheek. With my left hand, I stroke her knuckles with the pad of my thumb and with my right hand I use my fingertips to to glide across the base of her cheekbone. "Thank you for fighting," I whisper, resting my forehead against hers. "You did so great. I only need you to do one last thing for me... Wake up."