After twenty minutes, all three of them were at the hospital completely out of breath, though Sasuke was the first to make it to the receptionist.
"How may I help you kiddos?" the young receptionist asked sweetly.
"Where is Mikoto Uchiha? She's my momma! An ANBU with silver hair brought her in," Sasuke said quickly while leaning heavily on the white desk, breathing hard from having just gone at top speed for twenty minutes. After typing for a few seconds, she found the file on her computer.
"She was entered into the emergency room about fifteen minutes ago and is being prepped for surgery as we speak. She should be out in an hour to an hour and a half at most. Until then, you can go to the waiting room for the second floor," she answered with a smile pointing a manicured finger towards the stairwell.
"Thank you miss," Hinata said as she watched Sasuke and Naruto race to the stairs. She was almost completely exhausted from using up so much energy to heal Mikoto and ran about three miles on high speed right after, but she knew that Sasuke needed all of his friends tonight.
And so, with determination, she began to go up the flight of stairs – the only thing keeping her awake was pure will power.
She slowly began to trudge up the stairs to get to her boys, 'What? Her boys? Where had that thought come from?' she thought before shaking her head, discarding the thought for another moment,
Getting to the top of the stairs she saw the waiting room. It was small, having only about ten chairs and a loveseat in it. She saw that Sasuke had already sat down on the couch while Naruto was sitting in the chair across from it.
She stepped quietly and sat down beside Sasuke since all the other chairs were occupied.
After about an hour or so, Hinata's eyes started to droop. It was around eleven by then. Soon after, her head lolled over to Sasuke's shoulder and she softly snored.
Hearing her shallow breathing, Sasuke let out the breath he hadn't known he was holding. He wasn't used to being so close to any girl other than his mom so this was kind of a new thing for him.
He looked over at the clock and saw that it was almost eleven-twenty. He couldn't believe how much time had passed. To think, only three hours ago he was happily training with the two people with him right now.
Sasuke looked over to Naruto to find him with his elbows resting on his knees, fingers interlocked and his chin placed on top of his hands.
"Sasuke, it's almost thirty minutes until midnight, and I'm sure that Hiashi is already going ballistic to see her not back yet. I'm going to take her home then head on to my own," he announced, beginning to get up and stretch.
Naruto headed towards to the couch his friends were sitting on and had Sasuke help him place Hinata onto his back.
"We'll visit in the morning," he said with a small smile before walking out of the waiting room, leaving Sasuke alone.
After another half hour Sasuke started to nod off, sinking into the fluffy couch until the intercom went off, calling him to room 184. He hopped up and rushed to go see his mom.
After two or three minutes of searching, he found her room and saw a nurse standing by the door with a clipboard doing paperwork.
"Hello. What's your name sweetie?" she asked, kneeling down to his level.
"Sasuke Uchiha. I was called to this room since it's my mom's," he said, crossing his arms defiantly. Inside though, all he really wanted to see his momma.
"Okay, you can go in and see her. She is still under anesthesia and won't wake up for another hour or so," the nurse explained with a smile, seeing the boy's cute antics.
He walked into the room and made a beeline for his mom, rushing to the side of her bed. He grabbed her hand and rested his head on her chest, feeling comfort from her steady pulse.
After five minutes, a doctor came in, causing Sasuke to lift his head to see what he was doing.
"Well hello there. Didn't expect someone to be here so quick," he said with a soft smile, pushing his glassed up onto the bridge of his nose. He then picked up the clipboard that the nurse had left on the bedside table.
"You are very lucky that she's still alive. We actually almost lost her a few times in the operation. We noticed that someone gave her basic healing when she came in and I think that's what kept her alive till we started the operation. She owes that person her life," he said, finishing whatever he was writing on the clipboard with a click of his pen.
Sasuke's eyes widened since he knew exactly who had healed his mom and she had been sleeping on him less than an hour ago. He watched as the doctor walked out the door, leaving him alone with his mom.
He placed his head back on to her chest after climbing in the bed next to her. He fell asleep as soon as he was settled down.
'Made it!' Naruto thought as he walked to the Hyuuga gates, Hinata still sound asleep on his back, snoring softly. He walked up to the gate and whistled the tune he had seen Hinata do many times. The gate glowed a pale white before opening to show Hiashi Hyuuga, Naruto closed his eyes. The only person he had wanted to avoid was before him, rage in his eyes and a sneer on his lips.
"What have you done to her?" he questioned harshly taking quick strides over to him lifting the sleeping girl from Naruto's back.
"I was bringing her home; she fell asleep at the hospital."
"Why was she at the hospital?" he spat out, venom dripping from his words. He held the girl at arm's length as though she had a disease.
"We were walking Sasuke home and found his family slain by his brother, Itachi. We found his mother half alive so Hinata healed her before an ANBU found us and took her to the hospital. We ran to the hospital and waited with Sasuke until midnight when I decided to take Hinata home since she was already asleep," he answered calmly to the vivid adult trying to hold his temper and his tongue.
"Lying demon!" Hiashi replied, slapping Naruto across the face sending him flying a few feet. With all the noise and movement Hinata woke up, she opened her eyes sleepily and found Naruto in the dirt, a red handprint on his face. She struggled out of her father's arms looking at him with contempt. She rushed over to him to help him stand and brushed off his pants and shirt for him.
"Why did you do that father? He is my friend he took me home, what did he do to you?" she spoke loudly without a single stutter, surprising Hiashi.
"Get away from that demon this instant! Who knows what he could do to you, sounds like he has already began poisoning your brain."
"No," she called back, standing her ground, using the confidence her friends had help her build over the last few months to stand up to the terror that was her father.
"Hinata if you do not obey me you shall be dismissed from the clan," he growled back.
"I will not abandon my friend, he cares about me; I will not let you harm him," she spoke, standing in front of Naruto to protect him if she needed to.
"Fine, what do I care, you were always weak and pathetic anyway," he said coldly, walking back to the compound.
"You shall never be accepted by the Hyuuga, I will make sure of that," he spat out coldly, watching the corners of her lips tremble before closing the pristine white gates behind him.
"Wow, Hinata-chan, you were amazing!" Naruto praised as the girl slid into his arms, her wobbly legs not able to support her without the adrenaline.
"Thank you Naruto-kun, but where will I go? I have no home or family." She said, her tears softly pricking the corners of her eyes.
"You can stay at my house and we can be a family. You will be my sister, Sasuke will be our brother and Mikoto will be our Mom," he answered simply smiling down at her sweetly, as if it were the easiest and obvious solution.
"O-Okay N-Naruto-kun," she answered, her stutter returning full force. They both began walking to his apartment, Naruto leading the way. Neither Hinata nor Sasuke had been to his house, he made sure of that because he never knew what condition it would be in when he returned. It was vandalized once or twice every week, the next day it was good as new. He had never seen the people who fixed it but he was almost certain that it was the work of ninjas that jiji sent.
When they got home, he let out a sigh of relief, there was no vandalism. 'Thank kami,' he thought. Unlocking his door, he let her in; she was surprised at how clean it was. There was a trash can overflowing with ramen cups but that was about it, the small one room apartment was fairly clean for a boy. She walked in and took off her shoes and shivered, it was cold in there, as cold as outside. She was used to the warmth of the walls and floors of the Hyuuga mansion.
"Here you go Hinata, you can take my bed and I'll make a pallet on the floor," He offered.
"N-No, I can't t-take your b-bed away from you, I will s-sleep on the f-floor," she declined.
"No, really, it's okay," he said pulling a sheet from his closet and lying it on the ground before retrieving his extra pillow and lying that atop the sheet.
"Won't y-you be c-cold?" she asked.
"No, I'll be fine," he said rubbing the back of his head.
"O-Okay Naruto," she said doubtfully. After ten minutes of lying on his bed under the drafty blankets, Hinata began to notice Naruto's teeth chattering as he slept. She carefully slid out of the hard bed and onto the floor next to him; she covered herself and him with the blanket, snuggling close to his warmth. Soon his teeth stopped chattering and she gave a small smile to herself before falling asleep to next to the warm blonde.
After he dropped Mikoto off at the hospital, he shot off like an arrow to the Hokage's tower to tell the third what he witnessed and heard about tonight. He jumped through the open window and stood with an air of confidence in front of the hokage.
"Lord Hokage, I have distressing news," he said, removing his ANBU mask only to reveal another mask. This one, though, only covered the lower half of his face.
"What's happened, Kakashi?" The elder of the two inquired, thankful for a distraction from his mountain of paperwork.
"The Uchiha clan was massacred about forty minutes ago by Itachi Uchiha," he reported, showing no emotion for the only Uchiha he ever cared for was long dead.
"Are there any survivors other than Itachi?" he asked after he overcame the shock.
"Mikoto Uchiha and Sasuke Uchiha are the only survivors that I know of though since I found three children carrying an injured Mikoto. I took her to the hospital then came directly here," he answered.
"How did you come to find this? It's almost ten and you live on the other side of town?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"I was filling in for Gemna since he has the flu and I was on my way back from guard duty when I felt the Kyuubi's chakra. I feared the seal had broken so I went in the direction the pulse came from, and found myself at the Uchiha compound. It was there that I saw the Hyuga heiress, Naruto and Sasuke carrying Mikoto to take her to the hospital."
"Well, alert the ANBU immediately. Go to the headquarters and inform all the captains to gather their teammates and head to the Uchiha compound immediately to check for anyone alive. Bring the bodies in for autopsy just to confirm what you've already told me," he ordered while walking from behind his desk.
"Hai," he complied, disappearing in a puff of smoke.
"Hika, send a speed ninja to inform the Aburame, Inuzuka, and Hyuga clan heads that they need to be told to come to my office immediately," he told his secretary before lighting his pipe muttering, "This is going to be a long and hard night." He then disappeared in a puff of smoke in the same fashion the silver haired ANB did only minutes before.
Walking around, Sarutobi saw blood splattered on almost every surface. He hadn't seen this much blood and death since the last great ninja war.
He watched as ANBU ran around trying to make sure they took every precaution tape around each body. The bodies were carefully sealed into individual scrolls so that they would be delivered to the autopsy team in the morning.
One of the top captains came up to Sarutobi to inform him of the status of the situation, "We have a third of the bodies sealed and it should be another two and a half hours before we finish. We also have double-checked and found no others alive with the exception of Sasuke and Mikoto. I have three ANBU watching them at the moment as well as a precaution in case whoever did this comes back to finish the job."
"Thank you leopard. I request that you send an ANBU to watch over Hinata Hyuga and Naruto Uzumaki for the night as well. Both of them witnessed the last part of the Massacre."
"Consider it done sir," she replied before rushing back into the havoc to deliver new orders to her comrades.
As he continued to walk through the compound, Sarutobi glanced at the police headquarters stationed there. It was then that he realized more than two thirds of his police forces were dead. He would have to find a jonin to head that depart tomorrow, along with finding three jonin to be the guardians of the three kids who witnessed the massacre themselves.
He groaned, knowing no shinobi in their right mind liked to stay in Konoha having guard duty. The choice would be extremely difficult for all four now open positions. He checked with the ANBU captain over and telling him to finish the job before he disappeared in a swirl of wind and reappearing in his office.
"Hika, I need you to send me the files of every jonin in this village," the hokage requested, taking a sip from the drink of life, or as most would call it: coffee. After a few minutes of rummaging she gathered about fifty or sixty files in her slender arms.
Sighing, he began to rub his temples and watched in sorrow as she brought a pile of files about the same size as the first and plopped them onto his desk as well. There were about 100 to 120 files that he had to look through, leading him to the conclusion that it wasn't going to be as easy as he had expected.
'Man, this is really going to be a hard decision,' he thought as he picked up the first one.