Hinata: Well, Naruto-kun is in hard condition, so I'll be interviewing this time around...
Shang: Good... practically you're my last hope to get a normal interviewer for once... so, what does the readers wish to know?
Hinata: Well... ammm... one of the readers is annoyed with too many bushins in the last chapter... and too little emotions...
Shang: When it goes to emotions I think this chappie will make it up to you... as for bushins: I know there were many, but that's because I think shinobies does not care about the way they win, so they'd use any trick, even repeat it as much as they'd have to... plus, I thought the fight would be less predictable that way...
Hinata: Secondly, many readers are confused about me...
Shang: Oh yeah... well, I'll try to cover the 'Hinata-issue' here... those who prefer to find everything out from the story, I advise to skip this paragraph. First of all I'll make one thing clear: Hinata will not be the way you remember her from the manga/anime. Sorry for that, but it's just as Gandhara put it (btw, thanks for protecting my point of view). Now, for all those who like the 'new' Hinata and got scared by the statement in the preview interview: Hinata isn't exacly returning to her old self. Why is she going to be a bit more like the old-self? Well, you'll see... but it's only for this chappie.
Hinata: Dragon Man 180 aksed few questions... lets see...
Shang: I read them already. I think this chapter will answer all of your questions, so all you have to do is read it.
Hinata: I think that's that... I'm going to check on Naruto-kun now...
Shang: Okay... best of luck. And before I start, one last announcement:
RATHER IMPORTANT NOTE: One of the reviewers drew my attention that there are quite many grammar mistakes in my story. Well, I know that my english isn't perfect, coz I do everything instinctually. Personally I prefer to do things my own way, but if it bothers you, then let me know (best way is to note that in your review). If you guy (and girls) wish I'll look for a beta. Also, anyone who'd be interested in becoming a beta-reader for this story (and maybe my other fics as well) contact me (by e-mail, review etc.). With that said I await your reply.
And now, without any, more delays, here's the third chapter of "Love, Demons and Bloodlines". Hope you'll like it and please leave a review when you're done:
Chapter #3: With His Eyes Closed
Tsunade walked out of the hospital room just to see a certain, white-eyed girl sitting on a hair next to the door. She had a worried look on her face and as soon as the Godaime went through the door, she gave the slug sennin an asking glare.
"Tsunade-sama, will Naruto-kun be okay?"
"Well…" the Leaf's Hokage hesitated from a moment. "His condition has stabilized, but I don't think he'll be opening his eyes anytime soon. I'm afraid all we can do now is wait…"
"C-can I…?" she began, but Tsunade instantly figured out what she wanted to say:
"Of course, you can" she replied and before she even noticed, the Hyuuga heiress already entered the room in which the loudest ninja of Konoha was resting. The Godaime merely smiled and walked away. She still had other patients to check on.
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"So, you failed to get the Kyuubi…" Kisame and Itachi heard a voice coming from the bushes as they slowly walked through the forest. Without even stopping or looking around, the Sharingan user replied shortly:
"We did…"
"The master won't be pleased" the voice announced. "More over, you allowed the fox brat to wound you, Kisame… you're getting old…"
"If that was a joke, Zetsu, then it wasn't funny" responded the shark-face. "Besides, it's not like the brat defeated us… we decided to leave him behind…"
"You wounded the brat" reminded the one called Zetsu. "We need him alive. Remember that if he dies, because of that wound, you'll be punished. Greatly…"
"Why won't you worry about getting your own Jinchuuriki, eh?" the former mist-nin was getting a little pissed. "And show yourself, I hate talking to air…"
It was then that a mysterious figure appeared from under the ground. He was wearing the same cloak with red clouds as the other two. His face had two colors: the left side was white whereas the right one was black. His hair was green and his eyes were completely zombie-like. But what really drew attention in this person were huge jaws that surrounded his head.
"That's better…" announced Kisame. "Now, you came here for a reason or did you just wanted to piss me of?"
"HE is on the loose" replied Zetsu shortly.
"And you think HE has any business with the Kyuubi vessel?" asked Itachi.
"We're not sure…" responded the one called Zetsu. "But if HE does, then getting the nine-tail can prove difficult…"
"The Kyuubi will be ours" ensured the Sharingan user. "We waited three years… we can wait a bit longer…"
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Sakura quietly opened the door with her right hand. As she entered the room, she saw only one bed situated under the wall. The bed was quite big, especially since there was only one patient in it: a certain blonde gennin with whisker marks on his cheeks.
A moment later the pink-haired kunoichi noticed a chair situated near the bed and a little pale girl with white eyes sitting in it. The girl looked at her and greeted the guest with a weak smile.
"Is that jonquil for Naruto-kun?" she asked Tsunade's apprentice.
"Yes, it is" replied Sakura as she placed the flower in a vase that stood on a small table. "So, how is he doing?" she asked after a short silence.
"Tsunade-sama said that his condition has stabilized… unfortunately it seems Naruto-kun can not come back to us too soon…" and with that she lowered her head.
The pink-haired kunoichi walked closer and put her hand on the girl's shoulder. Hinata looked into her green eyes as Sakura announced: "Naruto is strong… one of the strongest people I know… he'll be fine, you can trust me on that…" and with that last statement she smiled at the Hyuuga heiress. "I have to check few patients today, but I'll be back in an hour or two…"
Hinata only nodded as Sakura walked out the door. Once she entered the hallway, she spotted Kiba walking in her direction. It wasn't hard to figure he was here to see how the blonde shinobi was doing.
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"You saw that too, didn't you Neji?" Lee asked in excitement as he walked around the training area. The three of them were meeting their sensei here, but surprisingly, Green Beast's idol was late. "Those red eyes, sharp teeth… what was that?"
"How should I know?" replied the Hyuuga genius simply. He decided to keep the fact that he already saw Naruto in a similar condition earlier to himself. "I can't answer your question… and making assumptions will only complicate things… I suggest waiting for Naruto to wake up… if he'll feel like it, he'll tell us…"
"And you're not even a bit curious, Neji-kun?" asked Tenten.
"It's only natural that I am…" responded the white-eyed boy, turning towards his teammate. "But as I said: there's no point in making assumptions…" and with those words he went into silence. A moment later, Gai appeared on the area.
"Greetings me faithful students!" yelled Kakashi's rival. "How are you on this beautiful evening? How does it feel to be the ones who saved their Leaf comrades from S-class criminals?"
"Gai-sensei!" Lee yelled back, raising his hands to the sky. "Tell us why we're meeting at such a late hour! Do we have a new mission so that our youthful spirits could shine again?"
"No…" replied Gai with a little sadness in his voice. "Tsunade-sama just ordered me to give you few days of as a reward for a job well done! As I said: you saved fellow, Leaf shinobies from certain death! If it weren't for you, Naruto and Hinata would probably both be dead right now! Well done my children!" at hearing those words his team exchanged glances and after a moment of silence, Neji stood up:
"Since we're free today, I have something I should take care of…" he announced. "Excuse me…" and with that he was gone.
"I'll go and train then!" stated the Green Beast. "First, hundred laps around Konoha!"
"I just remembered that… I forgot to turn of the gas… goodnight, Gai-sensei" and so even Tenten left the area, leaving Gai alone.
"Seems that you were right, Tsunade-sama…" he thought to himself as he began walking away. "They are suspecting something…"
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Kiba knocked and the door and without waiting for a reply, he entered. As he walked into the room and closed the door behind him, Hinata raised her head to see who the new arrival was. Seeing her teammate, she felt a bit relieved.
None of them said anything. Kiba just stood right next to his teammate and stared at the blonde who was laying motionless on the bed. Hinata was also looking at Konoha's loudest ninja, but her head was down.
The silence wasn't broken by anything until the Hyuuga heiress finally decided to speak: "I couldn't do anything, Kiba-kun…" she announced as tears started to gather in her eyes. "He was fighting a powerful enemy and I-I didn't really do anything that'd help him…" at those words tears started to fall from her face. "All I did… this whole time… did I… did I really changed during those three years?" and with that she openly started crying.
Kiba kneeled in front of his teammate and embraced her. She sobbed into his shoulder, repeating that she could do anything to help. And he listen without saying a word. Even Akamaru kept quite.
As she finally calmed herself down a bit, the dog ninja pulled her away slowly and looked deep into her eyes, saying: "Hinata, you did change… and don't you even dare thinking you haven't… I heard it from Neji… you saved Naruto's life… don't say you didn't do anything… coz you did… you did everything that was in your power to help!"
"Still, it was not enough…" she continued sobbing.
"You tried your best…" reminded her Kiba. "No-one could expect more… you didn't disappointed anyone… and I'm sure Naruto would say the exact same thing if he was conscious…" at that point Akamaru barked loudly, showing his agreement.
Hinata looked into dog ninja's eyes and slowly a weak smile began appearing on her face. "Thank you, Kiba-kun…" she finally said as her teammate smiled back at her.
"It's getting late…" announced the young Inuzuka. "I should get going… but I'll be back in the morning… guess you're staying, aren't you?" the Hyuuga heiress only nodded. "Goodnight then…" and with that the dog ninja walked out of the room, followed by his canine companion.
But this time it didn't even took a minute for new guests to enter the room. This time around there were two of them. The first was a boy with black hair, clipped in a ponytail, wearing a black fishnet and a green waistcoat on it. Hinata also spotted three, golden earrings in his left ear.
The other visitor was a boy her age with spiky, brown hair, wearing a white scarf around his neck and a grey t-shirt. He was quite chubby and was carrying potato chips bag in his hands.
"We…" began the thinner one. "We heard from Ino that Naruto was here so we figure we drop by… how is he doing?"
"Well… he's fine now…" replied the Hyuuga heiress. "All we have to do is wait for him to wake up… and I'm sure he would get up as soon as possible if he'd knew how many people came to visit him…" at that she manage to smile widely, for the first time since her fight with Kisame. It was also then that all three heard a loud 'burk' coming from her stomach.
"Have you eaten anything?" asked Shikamaru with a concerned look.
"Well… you see…" she began, starting to blush.
"Figures…" sighed the lazy chuunin. "I have nothing to do today anyway, so I might as well go fetch you some dinner. What would you like?"
The Hyuuga heiress was about to answer when Chouji cut in, announcing: "Get some pizza while you're at it, will ya?"
Shikamaru's eye twitched as he gave his teammate an evil glare, but after a moment he just said his favorite quote and exited the room, leaving the hungry, white-eyed girl and a chubby ninja to themselves.
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The hour was late. Both Shikamaru and Chouji had to leave for home. The only one that stayed in the room was Hinata. During this whole time Naruto didn't even moved. The only thing that was the prove he was still alive was the fact that he was breathing.
The Hyuuga heiress didn't left his side all that time. She only left the room to visit the girl's room. A bit earlier Sakura dropped by to check up on the blonde gennin, but she had to leave soon after as her medical duties called for her.
Finally midnight felt. The moon above the Hidden Leaf village brighten the area with the help of many stars. It was then that the white-eyed girl began to feel tired. She shook her head in hope that would stop her eyelids from falling down. Probably because of that she didn't sensed another presence in the room.
"It's getting late…" she heard a voice coming from behind. As the Hyuuga heiress turned around, she noticed her cousin who saved her the other day. "Hinata-sama, your father send me to bring you home for the night…"
"I'm not going…" replied the girl quietly.
"Hinata-sama, I know how much he means to you, but…" Neji tried to oppose, but was immediately interrupted by the young heiress:
"I said I'm not going" she announced in more confident tone this time. "You can tell my father that I won't be coming home until Naruto-kun wakes up… and that's final" she turned around to look at the blonde laying on the bed. The Hyuuga genius just stared at the girl without saying a word.
Finally, after a longer silence, Hinata spoken: "Neji-niisan… I hope you understand…"
"Hiashi-sama won't be happy about this…" announced the white-eyed boy. "But I'll think of something…" he added short after with a smile on his face.
Hinata returned the smile and after saying 'thank you' she return to holding Konoha's loudest ninja hand, waiting for him to wake up. Neji slowly walked out of the room and headed towards the Hyuuga estate. He still had to think of an excuse for not bringing the young heiress with him. An excuse that will stop Hiashi from sending someone else to the hospital.
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The hour was early. Sun was slowly rising, making the sky red, when Tsunade walked into the hospital for her everyday 'patrol'. It was one of the few things that the slug sennin actually did without Shizune reminding her that it was 'her duty'.
After she checked all her patients, she decided to see how Naruto was doing. The Godaime slowly walked through the white halls of Konoha's hospital and stopped at the room number 122. The room where the Leaf's loudest ninja was placed.
"It sure is quiet…" she thought to herself. "Maybe Naruto should get beaten up more often?" she manage to smile at the forced joke, but it didn't really made her feel better. The slug sennin pressed the door handle and slowly walked into the room.
As she entered, she noticed a certain, black haired girl sitting on a chair placed near the bed. Her head was laying on the edge of the bed. She was obviously sleeping.
"She stayed here the whole night?" wondered Tsunade. Then she heard somebody coming her way. She looked out the door just to see Kiba (along with Akamaru, of course) and Shino heading towards the room. The Aburame heir was carrying some food. "What are you doing here at such an early hour?" she asked quietly.
"We came to check on Hinata…" replied Shino simply. "And we also heard from Shikamaru about last evening, so we figure bringing her something to eat won't hurt…"
"I see…" nodded Tsunade with a smile. "Well, I have Hokage stuff to do, so I'm leaving those two under your care…" and with that she slowly walked away.
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Days gone by and Naruto still wasn't waking up. Hinata didn't left his side even for a day. Sakura, Shikamaru and others were dropping by regular. Kiba and the lazy chuunin were always bringing some food with them, knowing that the Hyuuga heiress didn't wanted to move even to grab a snack.
Neji had a difficult time in his clan's estate as Hiashi was slowly beginning to grow impatient of the white-eyed genius excuses for not bringing his daughter back. But he decided that this time he'll help his cousin and kept the head of the Hyuuga away from the hospital.
Finally, one, sunny morning, as the first sunrays were slowly making their way into the room where Konoha's loudest shinobi was resting, the blonde gennin moved his fingers. Next on the list were his eyes, which he opened after a little while. His whole body was completely numb, so it's only natural that it'd take him some time to move it again.
He was slowly getting into a sitting position when he felt something holding his left hand. As he looked in that direction, he noticed a girl wearing yellow with short, black hair. She was sleeping but even so she was still holding his arm tightly.
"So, you're finally awake…" he heard a voice coming from the right. He slowly turned his head, making the less moves as possible, so to not wake the young Hyuuga and noticed Tsunade standing next to the bed with her arms crossed. "You slept over a week… and I thought that it was Shikamaru who was lazy…" and with that she gave him a wide smile.
"Tsunade-baachan!" Naruto almost yelled, happy to see the young-looking woman. "What are you doing here? Don't you have some Hokage business to take care of…?"
"I do…" nodded the slug sennin. "But I thought I'll keep this girl's company…" with that she pointed her head towards Hinata. "She didn't left your side even for a minute… Guess she was too exhausted to stay awake though…"
"She… didn't left my side?" Naruto gave the sleeping heiress a puzzled look.
"It's not just her…" continued Tsunade. "All of us… were worried…"
At hearing that the blonde gennin began looking around the room and it was only then that he spotted more people sleeping on the chairs placed against the wall in front of him. First was Shikamaru who was snoring. His head was lying on Chouji's stomach, which was going up and down as the chubby ninja was breathing. More to the left were Ino, a girl with long, blonde hair, clipped in a ponytail, dressing purple and Sakura. They were sleeping as well, one propped by the others head.
As Naruto kept moving his head to the right he noticed Kiba stretched on his chair, drooling a little. Next to his feet lay Akamaru, also sleeping. Then there was Shino who sat on the chair with his arms crossed. Due to the sunglasses the blonde couldn't really tell whether the Aburame heir was asleep or not.
Another one, who Naruto spotted, was Lee, talking in his sleep and right next to him Tenten, who settled her head on his shoulder. After that the blonde noticed Neji standing right next to Hinata. The Hyuuga genius smiled slightly and announced:
"It's good that you came back to us, Naruto…"
The loudmouth returned the smile and then placed his gaze on the white-eyed girl who was still sleeping peacefully, holding his left hand. She didn't moved even an inch. Naruto smiled and slowly placed his free arm on her head, saying 'thank you' in his head.
As soon as his hand touched her hair, the young heiress raised her head slowly and seeing the whisker-marks boy she almost jumped to the ceiling. She embraced him tightly, announcing in a cheerful voice: "Naruto-kun, you're awake! How do you feel?" she asked as she let go of the blonde gennin and smiling widely.
"Well.." began Naruto as he placed his hand on his stomach. "Hungry… do you think Ichiraku is open at this time?"
Hinata only smiled at that right before she began laughing and soon after everyone that was awake in the room joined the white-eyed girl.
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"So, he's finally awake…" noticed Gai as him and Kakashi were sitting on the roof of Konoha's hospital. "Good to know he's alright…"
"Yeah…" nodded his eternal rival. "But I'm afraid the greatest challenge he has to face… is still in front of him…"
At that the Leaf's taijutsu specialist looked at the sky and without turning to the silver-haired shinobi, he asked: "You think he'll manage?"
"Hard to say…" replied the Copy ninja. "But he cannot avoid it…"
Well, this chappie came out a bit shorten then I expected... but I still hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review with your opinion, because I really wish to improve.
No jutsus were used, so there's only one thing left for me to do before ending this chapter. I wish you all:
HAPPY HALLOWEEN AND SUCCESSFUL HUNTING (for sweets).
Take care and hopefully till the next chapter.