04/06/2016 - Heavily edited. Hopefully, it is easier to read now.

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-2-

There were only three lights in the long corridor. The light bulbs did a rather poor job, painting the walls in dark greenish shadows, which would have turned even the bravest person claustrophobic.

Hinata wrapped herself tight in her Eskimo jacket, hunched, and moved forwards, counting anxiously the doors on her left. The patient name plates flitted past her eyes. Tanaka Noriko, Lockon Stratos, Matsumoto Rangiku, Sugihara Kai… Hinata came to a halt. "Uchiha Sasuke." She stood in front of a greyish door and stared at the old paint that was beginning to flake off.

As she had bid her goodbyes to Sakura next to her superior's office and moved on to the 4th floor, Hinata felt like a calf going to the butcher's without any resistance. She found it weird she wasn't even trying to ask herself why on earth she was doing this. Why she agreed to fulfil Sakura's request. She had an inert personality, and once Hinata would fall out of her usual rhythm, she would feel at a loss and out of the loop. Any kind of change in her plans would throw her out of balance; even if that change was a person she met on a street or a dog that ran into her yard.

Of course, sometimes such surprises were pleasant, sometimes not so much, but they all had one thing in common: they all could make Hinata flounder immediately. She'd felt at a loss when Neji bought her some rare medical herb seeds she'd been hankering after for ages, although she had never mentioned that to anyone. She felt at a loss when a foreigner stopped her in a street of Konoha and asked her for directions in a foreign language she knew very well, but that exact moment her tongue just couldn't move. She felt at a loss when one day her hairdresser accidentally snipped off a good chunk of her fringe, and now she wore her long hair parted on the left, with her slanting fringe falling on her right eyebrow, the corner of her right eye and, eventually, her cheekbone.

She was at a loss. Because she considered it rude to barge into somebody's personal space out of the blue, even if that person was ill and absolutely alone. Hinata was one of those people who knew how to treasure solitude. On the other hand, she was also one of those who kept their word; therefore, try all you want, she would still have to trample upon at least one of her principles. And since there was nobody waiting for her at home, Hinata decided it wouldn't hurt to sit quietly for a few minutes in a ward of a sleeping person.

When she reached for the handle, she regretted coming without any gift or something like that. She could've at least stopped by the vending machines in the hall and bought some drinks or cookies. Hinata pulled a sad smile: her mind was tardy as usual. So she turned the handle and opened the door.

Absolute darkness didn't surprise her, but the stuffy air was depressing. She heard the air-con, but it seemed like the equipment wasn't working properly. Just like the light-bulbs in the corridor. Perhaps even the electric devices had no wish to work in winter. So there was no use trying to find the light switch in this ward, too.

Miniature blood-vessels seamed Hinata's cheeks when she activated her byakugan. The view of the room turned into a negative, but now she could clearly see everything. She walked in timidly and peeped left at the patient's bed. Sasuke was lying on his back with his eyes closed, breathing calmly. He's sleeping, Hinata thought moving towards the window.

She didn't work at the hospital and she wasn't as good at healing as Sakura, but even a person with no experience knew that a breath of fresh air was better than fusty atmosphere, so, as she approached the windowsill, she reached out and opened the window quietly. Just by a few inches. And even so, a fresh and rather chilly puff of winter air wafted inside.

Hinata walked back to the door and checked if it was closed properly. She was worried she might've left an open gateway for the draught. She could feel the warmth coming from the heated floor even through her thick shoes, but even the smallest kind of draught could've been perilous to a seriously ill person. Well, Sasuke's problem wasn't in his lungs, but, nevertheless. Hinata didn't want his condition to get worse while she was there.

It was getting warmer and Hinata took off her jacket and hung it on a chair that stood close to the patient's night stand. She now stood in a comfy turtle-neck, and she looked around, taking in the poor interior of the ward. Eventually, she sat down on the edge of the very same chair and put her hands on her knees.

She sat there quietly for a few minutes looking at the window, concentrating on the snow falling behind the glass. It was really calm in the ward. Even Sasuke's breathing was barely noticeable. As if he wasn't even there. Hinata turned around reluctantly and eyed him from head to toes. Byakugan distorted the view alright, but she was still able to dot the i's (figuratively speaking). She angled her head, trying to take a closer look at his features.

There was one thing that hadn't changed throughout all these years: Uchiha Sasuke's hair. Minus the absent parting in the middle and the overgrown fringe, of course. The rest was… the only clear image of Uchiha Sasuke that Hinata still had in her memory was that from the Ninja Academy days, when he was still a mysterious yet positive character. The boy genius, who would receive love letters every day. Basically, Hinata knew of all that because he was in the same team with Naruto. As for Sasuke himself, she considered him a gloomy and morose person. And she had no reason to try and peel off his layers. Sasuke was… of no interest to Hinata. He simply didn't intrigue her.

And now she was sitting close to the person she almost knew nothing about. Technically, she had to stay next to him for a while, so he would feel human presence, feel her company, but Hinata had no idea what she was actually supposed to do. On the other hand, it was also a good thing that there was not a single emotion for Sasuke in that complicated mechanism of hers, called brain, because she couldn't feel any pity, which Sakura was so scared of.

Her eyes travelled down his protruding cheekbones and a strict jaw-line. He was covered up to his chest, and only his pale rigid arms were on top of a white blanket. The blood-vessels on Hinata's cheeks spread out even more, when she began checking his chakra channels. One glance was enough to find the clamped sight nerve and a new circuit that the chakra had found after bypassing the obstacle. Hinata couldn't find any other anomaly and she blinked, losing concentration. Weird.

She looked down. The basic structure of sharingan should've been something like that of a byakugan. Perhaps she should've spent more time analysing, but even at the first glance the puzzled Hinata had to admit that, essentially, there was nothing wrong with his eyes. As if the illness had been a hoax. Unless… unless he had no wish to recover.

Hinata sighed and checked her watch. She's been there for seven minutes already. She couldn't believe she'd been examining Uchiha Sasuke with her byakugan for such a long time. Perhaps she was simply trying to memorize as much as possible, so that she could search for some info on blood limits and eye diseases in her family's library later. One thing for sure though, she wasn't concerned too much about Sasuke's fate. Well, she certainly was a merciful person, and she wished no harm or pain to anyone; however, Naruto was highly worried about Sasuke (although he was really trying to pretend he didn't care at all), and Hinata was ready to try her best on this one for Naruto. Silently, calmly, and persistently. The way only Hyuuga Hinata could.

The minute-hand on her watch moved over another step, announcing it's been exactly the ten minutes she had promised. Hinata stood up and walked closer to the bed. She looked down at Sasuke's calm face and secretly decided to help him. So that Sakura wouldn't worry that much any more. And Naruto. So that Naruto could grin from ear to ear again.

Hinata nodded insensibly and turned to leave. She could barely hold back a yelp, when her right wrist was grasped by a firm grip.

"You're not Sakura," she heard. It was a sleepy and husky voice that certainly wasn't used to talking.

Hinata turned around. Sasuke was basically hovering above his bed. His long and strong fingers were gripping her wrist, and Uchiha's black sightless eyes were on her.

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To be continued...