Hinata woke up to the sound of loud snoring. She was warm, and upright. She also couldn't move, she blinked her good eye and looked around noticing how much harder it was with only one eye. Large blue arms held her firmly in place on Kisame's lap. Itachi had fallen asleep against the wall not far off. She tried to wiggle her way out.

"Hmm? Where you going, kid?" Kisame mumbled rubbing his eyes.

"I-I going to go clean up, I-I'll make breakfast after go, back to sleep." She wiggled out of his grip cover him up with the blanket the feel of her shoulders. Kisame nodded and let himself fall back asleep as she went to the shower. She peeled away the bloody clothes she had slept in and bandages and got in. She realized as she scrubbed away the last of the blood, Itachi had done a pretty good job working around Kakuzu to get it off her face and arms, but she still had it on her legs and stomach. It made her cringe as the water turned red. She tried not to break down into sobs again. She had fought for her life and her Byakugan. She knew, though she was no longer part of the Hyuuga and no longer required to protect the secrets of the Hyuuga, it would not benefit anyone for it to be in the hands of the sound village.

Once she had scrubbed her skin raw she got out and wrapped herself in a towel, she was scared to look in the mirror. She wiped away the steam to look at her face. It was worse than she had thought, her eyelid was loosely held together by what chakra Kakuzu out into it just so it didn't heal apart, he had done a rushed job on the outer eye and focus most of his effort on the inside where they eye had been removed. She wasn't upset the last thing she wanted was to see Hidan in the state she was last night.

She would have defined jagged scarring from the middle of the eyelid up to the base of her eyebrow, another stretching on either side where they had torn her eyelid back when she struggled. She activated her blood limit noticing the change in the wideness of her blind spot and raised a glowing hand to the section doing the best she could to heal the open cuts before the had a chance to get an infection.

She looked over the tissue that she had weaved together, it was a nasty scar, maybe she should get an eyepatch, keeping it shut was difficult and the lack of eyeball gave the lid a sunk in look it was creepy. She had cloth medical eye patches somewhere, she finished healing small scratches and cuts before getting dressed and she went on a search for them. Digging to medical supplies she found on at the bottom of a drawer. Just a simple white patch with two string bands coming from it, she places the two bands into place around her head and slid the patch over her eyelid feeling more comfortable keeping the eye shut with the patch. She could make breakfast now.

After her fumbling around in the kitchen, Itachi was soon awake studying her from the counter. "What happened to your skin?" He asked she looked down at her arms, the scrubbing really had made her normally pale skin red, raw, and irritated.

"I-I took a shower..." She shrunk slightly at the sharp look Itachi gave her. She hadn't felt clean, she hadn't noticed the pain until she was done, she hoped he was too angry with her. She set breakfast in front of him, stumbling over to wake Kisame to tell him she had made his breakfast. With a groggy shark now at the table with food, she too ate.

Sasori was sitting at her counter having his nightly cup of tea, Deidara and he had burst into the house earlier in the day Deidara making a fuss and Sasori being genuinely angry at Itachi. It seemed that Itachi sent his report with Kakuzu and leader-sama had told Deidara and Sasori about her condition.

Now with all four boys in her house, she scooted three who required sleep off to bed confirming to them Sasori would make sure she got to bed in one piece. Now they were all in bed and hopefully asleep, she worried what this stress would do to Itachi's condition.

"Why were you left alone." Sasori started, he had glared daggers at Itachi since arriving but sat in silence waiting for the time to ask her. It actually touched Hinata heart that he choose to ask her instead of starting a fight with Itachi.

"I-I was on lookout, th-there was no reason to suspect this mission would turn l-like it had or else Leader-sama would not have sent me." Sasori looked away in attempt to hold down his temper. "I-I'm really okay, I-I'll have some nightmares, m-my sight will be a bit narrower, b-but it won't hurt my work as a medic."

"Do you really think that is what everyone is concerned about?" Hinata bit her lip and looked down. "The concern is that you almost die on one of our watches, you where target and cornered. You aren't like us Hinata, you're not a murder, you don't have ambitions to kill. We rely on you heavily for our health and our humanity. We have failed to keep promises and we have failed you." Hinata cringed, he said we but he was looking at the boarding room door. He met Itachi, Itachi's promise to protect her from killing.

"I-It's okay, I-I knew that it wasn't always an option to have him save me. I-I'm a ninja, I should know better." It was a stupid deal, she had wanted an excuse to join the Akatsuki and be guilt free.

"You are a doctor. Though I am impressed with what you are capable of," Hinata flinched at the thought. "I do not think we should put you in a position to use it again." Sasori's voice grew soft as he looked into his tea. "I don't believe I ever thanked you."

"F-For what?" Hinata had never seen Sasori look so… old.

"Saving me, I didn't think it was possible for me to be beaten, let alone die. You spent your time and energy when leaving me for dead or as a broken puppet would have been simpler."

"Y-You don't deserve to left." Hinata defended. She hated that they thought so little of themselves and had so little value of life, especially their own. Sometimes she wondered if they wanted to be saved. There was a silence as Sasori processed her words.

He decided to change the subject "Do you wish to leave us?" He looked at her as if he was trying to gauge whether or not she was going to lie.

Leave why on earth would she want to leave? "N-No, wh-why would I."

"Your reason to stay way protection, we have failed." Sasori seemed genuinely curious, yet worried.

"I have my research here, It-Itachi still need treatment. Wh-what will you do if you get hurt again, I-I'm the only one who can heal you? Th-the others can be held to-together with stitches for everything." She rambled off in a panic, she couldn't just leave, she needed this. Her work, her purpose, her family.

Sasori nodded seeming oddly satisfied with her answer, he set his cup empty down.

***TheUnstableLiz***

I appreciate CONSTRUCTIVE comments and reviews.

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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.

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