Kiba stared at the spot Naruto had been, water filling the impression his body had made in the mud.

"He's gone." He said quietly as he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. "Hinata, before we go after him, I need you to tell me something. I need you to tell me what happened to you before I found you."

Hinata shuddered at Kiba's request and began rocking back and forth, her arms holding her knees tightly.

"I-I can't." The sound barely escaping her lips.

Kiba turned around and looked at his best friend. Her skin was pale and her eyes were red. There wasn't a single scratch upon her body, but it was broken, inside and out. It pained Kiba to see her this way and yet there was nothing he could do. She had to be strong, she had to get through this herself.

"Hinata, look at me." Kiba demanded. "I just have to know one thing." Hinata turned her blood shot eyes to Kiba. Confusion on her face. "Whatever happened to you, did it involve Naruto?" Kiba stuck his hand inside his jacket pocket and clutched the picture in his hand.

Hinata didn't utter a word, she just stared at her friend and meekly nodded her head. Kiba understood, he didn't need Shino to shed light on the truth.

"Hinata, there is something you must understand." Kiba hastily said. "No matter what happened, you cannot stay here, you must follow after Naruto with me and Akamaru. We cannot leave him alone, I understand if you do not want to help him, but for now you're going to have to deal with your grief on your own and hopefully in time, you will realize that Naruto is the guy you thought he was. Until then, I will protect you and your heart." Kiba stared at Hinata waiting for a response as the rain loudly came down, but none came.

Kiba sighed, the rainwater running into his mouth. "Come on Hinata, Akamaru, let's move." Once more, they found themselves moving through the jungle of trees and plants, but this time Kiba knew exactly where they were headed as he followed the fresh footprints in the mud. He didn't need his nose to track his friend in the rain.

The three of them covered the forest at an uncanny speed and soon a giant cave rose into view surrounded by the most lively and beautiful foliage in the whole forest. Kiba stopped as he studied the tracks leading inside, while Hinata and Akamaru waited by his side. His face fell into a disconcerted frown, as Naruto's footprints vanished altogether and were replaced by large paw like tracks. Suddenly, an ear splitting growl erupted from deep within the cave and they all jumped.

"I think Naruto's in here and he may be in trouble." Kiba whispered as he leaped to his feet and lead the way through the mouth of the cave, his hand enclosed over Hinata's as Akamaru ran by his side. They ran for miles and miles, passing long drop offs, and underground lakes, until the path opened into a wide, open area in the heart of the cave. There they didn't find Naruto, but a large fox like creature, with four smokey red tails floating behind it.

Kiba swallowed hard as he watched the Fox Demon swat away one of the stone pillars scattered across the enclosed area. Then he pounced, as if someone was there and he began playing with the imaginary person in his hand. While Kiba examined the fiery beast, something small and brightly colored caught his eyes. It was caught between the toes of the creature, and on top of the flowery object dangled a long black string with a green stone. Kiba bit his lip as the knot in his stomach jumped to his heart.

"Hinata, we need to get out of here." Kiba ordered her, as Akamaru began to shove her back down the unseeing path, but Hinata resisted, watching the massive fox demon destroying his imaginary opponent, and the cave they were in.

"What is that?!" Hinata demanded. "What's wrong with it? Why is it acting funny?"

"I don't know Hinata, but judging from the amount of chakra seeping out of that thing, there's no way we could take it." Kiba replied, while trying to get Hinata to move back toward the entrance. She shoved him off and continued to stare at the four-tailed beast.

"What about Naruto?" Hinata pressed, as rocks began falling from the ceiling. "I thought you said he was in here."

Kiba felt an unfamiliar pain drive through his heart as he looked into Hinata's sweet face. He couldn't tell her the truth, no matter how upset she had been, no matter how much she hated Naruto, she would always care about him, she would always love him and Kiba could never be the one to destroy her, to take her strength away, to take Naruto away. Kiba swallowed hard as he instinctively protected her from the truth.

"He might be, but right now I need to get you out, then we'll send for back up and I'll go back in for him." Kiba closed his eyes as he finished his sentence, he knew there was no going back for Naruto. Hinata took a step forward and Kiba jumped onto Akamaru's back and forced Hinata on too. She let out a loud yell that caught the Fox's attention, as Kiba tried to restrain her.

"We can't stay here Hinata," he yelled, "there is nothing we can do for him right now. We don't know where he is and the cave is collapsing." Just then Akamaru let out a loud yelp, as the fiery, orange demon swatted the ledge they were standing on.

"Go, Akamaru!" Kiba hollered. Akamaru made it through the opening just as the fiery paw of the fox demon came down again and the whole path shook , sending more rocks and rubble tumbling down.

Hinata watched as the creature began to destroy the entrance to the path trying to follow them. If he broke free they would never be able to out run it, or escape it. Hinata's hand went to her necklace. A heavy tug pulled on her heart as she realized her strength was gone, but her guardian was still there. She had to stop letting him protect her, he always protected her, even when shouldn't, when he didn't have to. Now it was her turn to return the favor to him and Akamaru.

"I have to go back." Hinata said, as she gazed back at the fox demon.

"You can't." Kiba ordered. "It's not safe, we can't do anything."

Hinata gazed back at the fox demon as it angrily clawed away at the entrance they had slipped through. Suddenly, the rocks gave way, and the demon took off in pursuit.

"His coming for us." Hinata yelled. "Someone needs to go back to hold him off!" Kiba held onto Hinata tighter, a worried expression on his face.

"Quick Akamaru." Kiba pulled out one of his brown pills and popped inside Akamaru's open mouth. Almost instantly, the pill began to work and Akamaru speed through the crumbling path, passing the underground lake and the long drop offs they had passed by earlier. As they began to approach the mouth of the cave, Hinata pushed herself off of Akamaru's furry back and made her way back inside the cave. "I want to protect you for once Kiba, I'm going back for Naruto and stopping the demon myself!" She hollered back at Kiba, as she was engulfed in darkness. "I'll be fine, just get out of the cave."

Kiba quickly turned Akamaru around and blindly headed back for Hinata when he was blinded by an enormous light of chakra and the cave collapsed in front of him. "NO, HINATA." He cried, his eyes wide in horror. In an instant he was upon the thick wall of rocks, desperately trying to dig through, his eyes more feral than they had been before and his mouth foaming in rage.

"Kiba, what's going on?" The calculating voice of Neji came from behind him.

Kiba turned on all fours to face his teamates, his eyes gleaming in the moonlight. "Hinata's in there." He growled between clenched teeth. "With a Fox Demon."

"I'll send for help." Shino said as a small swarm of insects took off in the direction of Konoha.

"Kiba, you should step back." Neji instructed his distraught teammate. Kiba did as he was told and Neji took his eight trigrams sixty four palms stance, but before he could execute the attack, there was another blinding light and the rocks blew out everywhere, sending Akamaru and the three ninja flying, knocking Shino and Neji unconscious. Kiba was blown outside the cave completely and before he lost consciousness, his eyes fell upon a bright purple flower, growing along the sides and top of the cave. With his last effort, he reached out for the beautiful flower and clasped his hand around it.

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The light from the window shone down on Naruto as he lay in the hospital bed. Images from the night before began swirling through his mind as he tried to make sense of the hazy confusion. He remembered walking away from Kiba and Hinata, and he had found a pretty flower. He picked it. He was going to give it to Hinata because Hinata had been...afraid of him...she had feared him, but then, then Sasuke had appeared again and this time he had Sakura.

Naruto remembered trying to get to her to save her, but Sasuke stopped him. Naruto remembered yelling out at him in the cave, wondering why he needed the fox demon's power if he was already so strong. Sasuke replied then that he wasn't, that he only had the power to make two people see and feel what he wanted using his special power and beyond that he was useless. The only way he could get stronger was through Naruto, but he didn't have the power to take it by force, Naruto would have to go to him, if he ever wanted to see Sakura again. Then Sasuke stabbed Sakura through the arm, causing her to writhe in pain and he made her disappear. Naruto remembered losing control then, but he couldn't remember anything after that. He had no idea how he had arrived back in Konoha or how he had come to be in a hospital bed.

Naruto opened his eyes and looked around. He was all alone, the visitor's chair next to his white bed was empty and the normal shuffle of nurses working couldn't be heard. Naruto sighed and turned his head toward the window sill. Instantly, a small smile spread across his face. There sat the purple flower he had picked the night before in a small clear vase. Naruto laid in bed staring up at the beautiful plant. Then a thought crossed his mind. Quickly, he jumped out of bed, grabbed the flower off the window sill and ran down the white hall to the receptionists desk.

The receptionist was a young girl, about Naruto's age and she had short auburn hair and wore a pair of black glasses. She gave Naruto a nervous look and quickly began to ruffle through the papers on her desk. "Y-you need to go back to you room and rest." She said in an unsure voice.

Her timid air only made Naruto smile as he thought of the flower in his hand. "I will, but first, I was wondering if Hinata Hyuga had been here to see me?" Naruto asked, his insides feeling as nervous as the girl had sounded.

"No, she hasn't." The girl answered quietly.

"Oh." Naruto sighed, his chipper mood swiftly dampened.

"But," the girl quickly added. "I'm not supppose to tell you this, but there is a Hinata Hyuga in room 308 on this floor."

Naruto turned around to thank the girl, but she quickly looked down and began ruffling through her papers again. Naruto hurried down the hall once more, counting the numbers as he went. When he finally came to room 308 he turned to go through the door and quickly stopped. Kiba, Neji, and Shino were all circled around her and her eyes weren't open. Naruto could clearly see the burn marks running up and down her arms and upon her cheeks.

Naruto pressed himself up against the wall and stared at the flower in his hand, his heart overcome with grief. He wished he could remember what had happened, but he couldn't. As Naruto stood outside Hinata's room, he could hear Kiba, Shino and Neji whispering. He strained his ears so he could make out what the were saying.

"How long will she be in a coma?" Kiba asked, the emotion in his voice causing it to crack.

"Tsunade didn't know." Shino clinically replied.

"This is all my fault." Neji's voice interrupted the others. "I knew she wasn't ready to use that technique, I shouldn't have trained her, but I was the one that convinced Hiashi in the beginning. After I had trained with her for awhile, I tried to tell him that she wasn't ready that she was too weak still, but he wouldn't listen, he wanted to believe his daughter was strong after all. I put his pride before her well being."

"There was no way you could know this would happen." Shino advised Neji. "The chances of her running into a Fox Demon were slim to begin with. Even you Neji couldn't see that coming."

"No, it was my fault, I should have done a better job of protecting her, I had been the one with her." Kiba chimed in. Naruto could hear the tears in words.

Naruto closed his eyes and allowed a tear to slip away, as he pushed himself away from the wall and headed back down the hall, his footsteps heavy and burdened. He knew it wasn't any of their faults, only his own.

Naruto made it back to his room and set the flower back on the window sill and fell asleep. His thoughts haunting his mind.

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Naruto opened his eyes, the shadows of the night decorating his hospital room. Everything that had happened had been a nightmare. Nothing had gone right, Sakura had been kidnapped, Sasuke was after Naruto and Hinata...Hinata...

At the thought of her name Naruto instantly looked for the flower sitting on the window. He knew he shouldn't, that he had no right to, but he had to do it anyway. He grabbed the flower once more and crept down the long dark hall of the hospital until he reached the room he was looking for. He hesitated outside the door for a moment and then quietly let himself in.

Naruto sat down in the chair next to the hospital bed and forced himself to look at Hinata's maimed face. Tears began to form in his eyes as he examined every burn and every scratch that matched his own. Even though she was so mutilated, she was still Hinata. She was still beautiful, she was still peaceful, she still felt like the place he belonged.

Naruto gently caressed Hinata's cheek as he cried openly.

"Hinata," he whispered, "I know I don't belong here, but I came to say I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I never meant for you to get hurt, but you I hurt you anyway." Naruto paused, as the tears he had suppressed earlier poured down his cheeks. Blindly, he searched for Hinata's hand and took it in his own.

"I-I f-feel so a-alone Hinata." Naruto continued. "Sasuke's made off with Sakura and the only way I can get her back is if I freely give him the Kyuubi's power. I wish you were here so that I could talk to you. A-after your words in the woods, I-I felt weak. I-I wanted to make you believe in me, I wanted to make you happy. I-instead, a-all I've done is hurt you even more. I-I'm so sorry Hinata. I-I'm s-sorry th-that I didn't know what I want, th-that I'm so confused, b-but I k-know this definitely isn't what I want." Naruto looked down at the flower in his hand and placed it on the window next to Hinata. "I-I picked this for you, I-I know it doesn't make anything better, b-but I hope it's good for something. Y-you have no idea how alone I am, how weak. I-I need a friend. Please w-wake up s-soon."

Naruto continued to hold Hinata's hand long after he had finished speaking and sleep had taken over his mind. It wasn't until the sky began to lighten that he finally broke his hand away and snuck back down the hall to his own room, but not before he promised to visit her again the following night.

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A/N: Sorry this took so long to post, please review the NaruHina one shot I did called changes and let me know what you think. Oh and I appreciate reviews. Thanks.