Hinata hadn't said much since she was brought back home, it wasn't making the other two at all at easy. Itachi did what he could to patch her up before hauling her home later joined by a roughed up Kisame. What was really scaring them both was how she moved like a doll. It was hard doing anything on her own so she was willing to allow them to just tug her her around.

Itachi sent word she was hurt and Kakuzu met them at her home, he did a better job of handling her medical care. Itachi asked he not used his stitching, knowing the sight of the large thread gave Hinata shivers. Kakuzu healed her back and did what he could for what was left of her eye socket, there hadn't been much left of it. Her struggle had ripped up eyelid and surrounding tissue. He healed the inside and cleaned up the eyelid for later, real healing. He left soon after doing all he could for immediate care, explaining Hidan was waiting in a bad mood.

Itachi sat by her side holding her hand thru the whole scene. She was in immense pain, but kept a rather flat dead look in her remaining eye and shivered like a puppy in the cold. He thumbed over the back of her hand to offer some comfort.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Itachi asked softly. Hinata opened her mouth for a second then closed it moving her remaining eye from him to the matt she was laying on. "You don't have to." She waited a while just staring at the matt making Itachi's stomach curl more. He hated to see the kind little woman in such of state. She still had blood in her hair despite his best efforts to clean her up while Kakuzu was working. She was dressed only in her uniform pants, the bandages that stretched to her back, what was left of her chest bindings, and bandages going everywhere on minor cuts that were not important enough to be healed yet. Her face was half covered in bandages that had light touches of blood on them but were mostly stained with tears.

He hated that she had been to reduced to her shivering miserable state. The genius he was, he still couldn't understand her. So pure he sometimes didn't know if it was fair for his tainted hands to touch her, yet, she flocked to him and other murders for comfort in her time of need. She baked cookies for sharks, displayed art of bombers, and made birthday cakes for puppets who no longer aged. She was the loving female role in their lives that most of them had never gotten as children. She was the mother, the sister, the wife, the friend they could come to for hot well-cooked meals, clean made beds, well needed and overdue scoldings, warm hugs, and sweet smiles. What had they ever done to deserve her, what had she ever done to deserve this? Nothing was the answer, he knew better than to think this was something that happened because it was deserved, it just did, it was life, life would go on and he hated that he had to accept it.

A whimper brought him out of his thoughts as she started to softly speak. "I-it was a trap, th-they knew we were tr-tracking the t-target and knew I-I would be used." She turned to her side curling up as much as her back would let her pulling their joined hand to her chest and closed her eye.

"It's not your fault." Itachi gave a crushed look over to Kisame who sat on the other side of the room trying to hide his writing emotions. Kisame had to look away from the broken little woman he couldn't watch her cry. He, like Itachi was going thru his head all the little things he took for granted from her, it was a natural thing to think about after almost losing someone. He thought about all the times he could have show appreciation to her and didn't. He thought about the first time they met and how horrible he had been to her when she was trying to help, with no hesitation despite him being who he was and looking the way he did, he had never thanked her. She had looked at the huge blue shark and didn't see a monster, but a lovable man who she could manipulate with sweets, soft touches, and adorable looks.

"I-I got pinned and… and th-they… th-they r-ripped my e-eye out." Itachi ran his other hand through her hair as she dissolved into sobs. "I-I couldn't l-let them have it. I-I destroyed the e-eye. Th-they multiplied, I-I was injured, I-I couldn't run ...I-I had to attack..." She remembered the number of people that she stricken deadly blows on she didn't dare look back at the mass of bodies that she had made when they stop coming and gave her a chance to run.

"You did the right thing, what matters is that you are alive." Itachi soothed. She fell quiet, Itachi waited until her sobs stopped and her breathing evened out. She was asleep. He slid his hand out and signaled Kisame to follow him out of the room. Itachi quietly closed the door behind him and turned to the taller male.

"They broke her..." Kisame growled baring his sharp teeth, he was feeling the urge to go back to the sound and sink them into a few people.

"She will recover physically, but to do so mentally you can not be so emotional around her." Itachi sat down rubbing his temples.

With another growl, he nodded. "You look like you're taking it harder than I am." Kisame looked over his terminal partner as he internally broke down. It was a rare sight to see Itachi look in pain. He had known him for a long time, his illness was painful and often, but he just took more medication and went on ignoring it. This was different, really, it was for both of them.

"I promised to protect her from having to kill, she hates ending life. Did you see the area we left her in." He hadn't been there, he should have been there. Why had they left her alone? It was supposed to be an easy mission, but that was no excuse. Itachi battered himself mentally.

Kisame thought back to the mangled bodies putting the scene with their adorable little medic in it, it really didn't fit together. "She did that!" Kisame nearly shouted Itachi shushed him.

"Yes, she did." Itachi sighed leaning back trying to regain his composer, he would have to go back in there before she woke up. He didn't want her waking up to him as stressed as she was.

"It looked like a people blender. I thought you did that." Kisame face ran thru stages of horror, impressed, and more horror. He tried to picture it, he really just couldn't, he had trained with her, she was mostly defensive. "I thought gentle fist just shut down chakra points."

"It does, she must not have used gentle fist." Itachi had noticed her she didn't train in the same stance when he would train with him as she would on her own. He assumed she was practicing more advanced forms of gentle first, but the position of her hands should have been a red flag. Gentle fist being mainly defensive yet she would practice in a very offensive stance. There were so many signs she had been working on something he didn't understand how he had looked over it.

"Poor kid's going to beat herself up over this." Kisame gave a pained look out the window at the rising sun. "Will she still be able to use her Hyuuga vision with only one eye?"

"She should, most likely not at well and as far, possibly not 360 degrees." Itachi had never heard of a Hyuuga with one eye he could only guess.

"You think she will ever be the same little ray of sunshine?" This was what Kisame worried about the most, he dreaded thinking she would turn into one of them, cold and heartless.

"She strong enough, she just needs some time to mourn. It will take a little time and she will need support, but I think she will go back to her old self." Itachi hope he was right, she was still rather innocent without much blood on her hands like the rest of the Akatsuki.

"How did she even end up here?" Kisame was more asking himself, he made fun of her for being a housewife, but that's truly what he saw. He looked at her and saw a mother with a few kids running around her ankles, not a pile of bloodied bodies.

"I-I would rather be here with one eye than br-branded by my clan." They both turned to Hinata she had quietly opened the door a slipped thru.

Itachi moved her side and braced her weak form. "Did we wake you?"

She shook her head. "Th-the pain did, I-I need into my office." Itachi walked her in and she dug thru bottles taking out a sludge in a jar and taking a small portion of it.

"What is that?" Kisame face scrunched at the red sludge.

"P-Painkiller, I-I usually try to give my patients less scary l-looking medications." She set the bottle back down and let Itachi sit her in the main room against the wall so she could lean back.

"How much did you hear?" Itachi asked as he covered her shoulders in a blanket. Kisame sat against the wall on the other side of her.

"E-enough." She paused. "I-I'll be fine… there is n-no need to worry about me. I-I will hand this." She raised a hand up to the edges of her bandages around her eye. "Wh-When I have the ch-chakra I will heal th-the eyelid. Th-there will probably be a lot of scarring." Her face twitched into a small smile. Itachi eyebrow furrowed, it pained him to watch her forced herself to be strong for them, she sounded like she was making a report, she was forcing herself to be strong.

"Stop that." Kisame growled making her flinch, Itachi turned to glare at his partner. "If you need to cry and lean on us that's fine, but I'm not watching you tear yourself up trying to be strong, kid. You're the only one who got hurt! You are the patient! You get to be needy for once!" Hinata stared at him eyebrows raised, eye tearing. "You take care of us all of the time without thank you's or any payback. Let us take care of you!" Her face scrunched up trying hold back her sobs. She launched forward to him, he let her curl into his chest cry. Kisame looked up at Itachi who look genuinely surprised and gave the fish man a nod.

Covering her up again letting her take comfort in Kisame's lap Itachi made them tea offering it to her shaky hand. She took it and sipped it as they told her stories to keep her mind off of her misery. She mostly listened, but little smiles and occasional giggles gave them hope she was going to be just fine.

***TheUnstableLiz***

**Quick cute story, since this one is pretty long.

*I do these all in my google docs and when I am done copy and paste them into fanfiction. I was writing code before proofreading this (I'm a Computer Scientist) and had copied a large chunk of code into my clipboard. When I pasted to fanfiction, I had pasted the code because my copy from my docs hadn't registered. Without seeing it or paying much attention I saved it, and I would have sent the chapter out if I hadn't noticed the word could wasn't way off. I had almost gave you all JavaFX code because I was tired and wasn't paying enough attention. That would have been an interesting chapter!

I appreciate CONSTRUCTIVE comments and reviews.

I can not answer questions of guests. I don't want this section a mile long and bloating the word count too much.

If you have a question please log in and PM me. I will answer any and all questions!

I will point out I am not sure of and will not be following the timeline of the show anything that seems out of place is a result of that.

I will also point out that anyone who is out of character by a lot is the fault of me not knowing the character well enough and I apologize for that.

I apologize for spelling and grammar, I am a computer scientist, not a writer.