Chapter Nine
Hinata
"H-how are you feeling?" I ask the young lady whom I just operated on. Doing the surgery wasn't that hard actually, my hands knew what to do, and I just had to instruct the other doctors for certain parts. Smiling at the lady, I walk out of the room into the giddily smile because Tsunade already ranked me to a director, I'm not as high as Sakura, but apparently, soon enough I will be according to the note Shizune had given me! Beaming, I'm about to turn the corner when I hear someone whispering.
"The new Hyuuga doctor! She's already almost as high ranked as Sakura-san and she's been here for less time than all of us!" One of the doctors who was working with me furiously whispers to the rest of our small team. "Who does she think she is with all her annoying 'please,' 'are you okay,' and stuttering nonsense?" I just stand there, my head hung in shame until one of the doctors finally notices me and nudges the one who was ranting about me. B-but I thought I w-was doing good. I-i thought I was making people feel better and helping them. The brown-haired doctor who thought it was okay to talk about me like that just stands there, her eyes wide but with no remorse. She doesn't even have the nerve to apologize. The other doctors she was talking to just stand there nervously and suddenly I'm angry.
"How dare you talk about one of your fellow doctors like that?" I scream and start walking towards her. "I'm trying to do my job to the best of my ability! Have you not realized that this is my first day ever working at a hospital! You don't know how hard it was to get here don't you? So stop!"
Now the bitch looks angry too and opens her mouth, "You didn't even attend school to learn any of this, you didn't spend countless hours studying!" she accuses.
"I learned all day, for seven full years! When I was in that coma my mind was hard at work learning so much!"
"Don't give me that!" she yells, "You didn't even have to study or take tests."
"I missed everything," I say, now having stopped yelling. "I missed my family, making new friends, training, studying, and even missed the chance to tell the people I love how I really feel. I missed everything! At least you got to live your life!" In the end, my voice rises, and I finish my little speech while yelling again. Now I've made my way up to her and am looking at her through my white eyes. At some point, I activated my byakugan, and I almost want to laugh at the thought of me, the shy Hyuuga Hinata standing up to a bitchy doctor. The lady gulps and doesn't say anything, obviously confused at what to do or say now. The other doctors just stand there, but no one goes to help her, instead, they all look at her, with some mix of disgust and pity on their faces.
"That was amazing Hinata-chan!" Turning around and deactivating my byakugan I see Naruto smiling and clapping. I wait for my heart to flutter like it normally does when I see the blond nin, but it doesn't. Why? Usually, whenever Naruto's near me I'm a stuttering red mess. I can only feel a slight tint of red across my face, putting a hand to my cheek in shock. I smile, proud of myself. Who knows, maybe standing up for myself will stop me from stuttering! I'm braver now! But then my thoughts drift to a certain black-haired Uchiha and I can feel myself turn red. I guess not.
"I always knew you could speak up for yourself!" He says putting an arm around me in a brotherly way and steering me through the halls of the hospital.
"N-naruto?" I ask quietly. He looks like he's trying to remember something because he took his arm off of me and now is putting both of his hands to his forehead and closing his eyes.
"Yea Hinata?" he asks, opening one eye. It looks so comical I can't help but laugh.
"Where are you taking me?" I ask, "I know my way around the hospital, if you don't know where to go I might be able to help."
"Oh yea!" he says, "I was going to go see Sasuke and figure you'd come with me, Sakura told me that he was in room…" After thinking for a while he shrugs and says, "I don't remember."
"I know where Sasuke is." I squeak.
"Really Hina? Let's go!" he says, running through the hallway.
"W-wrong way," I yell after him. He just runs back, smiles his goofy smile, and starts walking the right way, and this time instead of running he just walks beside me.
After a while I try to start a conversation, "H-how are you and Sakura-chan doing?"
"Amazing! After Sasuke-teme left the village, Sakura and I both relied on each other, so I can't thank Sasuke enough. He's what brought us together. She still gets angry from time to time, but now she's matured and is even more beautiful than she was before." Naruto just gazes off with a lovesick expression on his face, and even though I'm so happy for him and Sakura-chan, I can't help but feel a small pang of jealousy. When will I find happiness? The only man I've ever loved is in a happy relationship with Sakura, and I don't even like Naruto in that way anymore. Their story is so beautiful, will mine be that way? I can only hope, or I might end up waiting for it my entire life. We stand together in front of Sasuke's door for a few seconds, both not wanting to go in.
"Was I not beautiful enough back then?" An upset voice says, and I snap back to attention to see a fuming Sakura in front of us.
"N-no Sakura! I just meant that you still look beautiful! I-in fact I think you look really good today!" Naruto says, his hands raised in the air.
Giggling I speak up, "How's Sasuke-Kun?" I ask.
"Oh, he's-" Sakura stops, and hangs her head. Naruto stops talking, and they both just look at me with pity in their eyes. "H-he'll be okay!" Sakura says trying to lighten the mood. "Naruto?" she asks, looking him in the eye. "Why don't you go ask Tsunade if we can see Sasuke?"
"Can't you just give us permission to?" he asks, Sakura whispers something in his ear, to faint for me to catch, but Naruto nods and speeds off.
Sakura and I sit down on two chairs in front of Sasuke's room, and she lets out a sigh before starting to talk. "Tsunade and I don't know what's wrong, Sasuke said he's been bothered ever since his fight with Marada, but only if he came earlier we might have been able to control the thing inside him. But now, we don't know if we can fix it." She stops to look me in the eyes, "H-he might die Hina." Sakura lets out a small strangled cry and I put my hand on her back. I feel sorry for Sakura, Sasuke only recently came back to the village, and she and Naruto might lose him again. Except permanently.
"P-please don't tell Naruto, he won't take it well," Sakura says, I nod and then we both sit in silence, thinking about what could happen to Sasuke.
"What's with the tears?" Naruto asks, squatting on the ground and looking up at Sakura's tear-filled face. "Tsunade said we could go in," he says, this time looking at me. Nodding I stand up, and while Naruto wraps Sakura in his arms, I go into the room to see Sasuke sitting on the hospital bed, the circles under his eyes are even darker, and he looks like he hasn't slept in days. Running up to him I throw my arms around his neck and smile, a smile so big my face hurts. He just brings his hand onto my back and rests it there. Pulling back out of the hug, I look around the room and drag a chair over to the side of his bed. I sit on it and hold one of his cold hands in mine and try to warm it up by rubbing it.
"H-how are you feeling?" I ask I can feel myself blushing, and try not to look away from Sasuke as he looks me over with his dark black eyes.
"Horrible." he scowls and I laugh. "Thank you Hina," he says then just closes his eyes and falls asleep, his hand in mine. Smiling, I lay my head on the bed and drift off.
Sakura
Naruto and I walk in and I can't help but smile at Hinata, she's asleep with her head on Sasuke's bed and her hand in his. Poking Naruto I divert his attention to them and he just laughs.
"Sasuke's found another friend." he laughs, I just smile and lean into his side.
"I'm glad Hinata's found another friend. I-i feel bad for her." At his confused expression, I sigh and then explain. "Hinata always liked you, like a lot. Probably more than you liked me." He blushes, I just laugh and then continue, "I wonder how she felt when she learned I was dating you."
"Yea." He says, looking down at her, "Hinata was always there for me when I was upset, down, or sad. But I never saw her that way, she was more like a really good friend, maybe even a sister."
"Yes and she understood that, which is so kind of her, she always was the kind caring person in our lives, and she never got mad at any of us." At that Naruto chuckles.
"She did speak up for herself today," I just cock my head to the side in confusion. "There was this brown-haired doctor who was talking bad about her and she stood up for herself. She also made me realize how much she missed during those seven years, she's really only lived for twelve years but she's already expected to do everything we do."
"The brown-haired doctor?" I ask fuming. I should've known that Meliana would've said something to Hinata. " I will murder her! She's the bitchiest doctor on my team, and I had told her not to say or do anything to Hinata! I really should deal with her. I start fuming and Naruto puts a hand on my shoulder.
"Calm down, plus I think you're waking up Sasuke with all your fuming." He says, looking over at the pale boy who's slowly sitting up straight.
"Sure did," Sasuke says, shooting me a glare. Hinata stirs and Sasuke just gently pulls his hand out of her grasp and puts it on her head. "Now you're waking up Hina too."
"Since when did you call her Hina?" I ask with a teasing smile. Sasuke just glares, but I can see the slight tint of pink spread across his cheeks.
"G-good morning," Hinata says as she slowly sits up.
"More like good evening." Sasuke snorts. Hinata looks outside and my gaze follows hers. Outside it's dark and the lights in the village look like stars spread across the dark shadowed buildings. Looking over the dark city, I remember how I cried about Sasuke to Hinata. Now I realize I shouldn't have done that, she's now emotionally attached to him, and is a medic-nin who is supposed to be working. I do care about Hinata's feelings, but what if she endangers someone because she's worrying about Sasuke? She'd never forgive herself, and I'd never forgive myself for telling her about what could happen to our friend.
"Sakura." Sasuke's cold voice says, bringing me back to attention. "What is wrong with me?" I probably have a confused look on my face because Sasuke lets out an exasperated sigh and continues. "What did you and Tsunade find when you guys looked me over?"
"Oh, that! Hinata, Naruto will you excuse us for a moment?" I ask.
"Of course!" Hinata says, dragging Naruto by the arm and rushing out of the room. I'm glad she's here, I mean she is a doctor so she understands patient privacy, if Hinata wasn't here, then Naruto would've argued and argued until I would've had to kick him out.
"So?" Sasuke says looking at me with his arms crossed.
"Well, the thing is. Tsunade and I don't exactly know what's wrong. It's something we've never seen before. We know it's from your battle with Marada, because who else would've been able to put something as dangerous as that in you?"
"..." Sasuke sits there, but he looks like he wants to say something else. "Remember how Marada had grabbed me and Naruto, right before Kaguya came?" I nod remembering how scary it had been and how Kakashi-sensei had held me back from even attempting to go towards them. "I think it happened sometime then, I mean his grip was tight and I was already hurting everywhere, so even if was horrible pain I wouldn't have noticed from my chakra use and other injuries." Nodding I mentally note it down, sitting down on the bed next to Sasuke I start to explain everything that Tsunade and I did.
"When Tsunade and I experimented by sending our chakra towards it, it reacted differently to each of our chakra, it devoured Tsunade's but didn't even interact with mine. I tried sending my chakra into it because I thought I would be safe, but I could feel it suck up all of my chakra, even my chakra reserve that I've been storing. It was scary Sasuke. I don't understand how you could even deal with it inside you." I put my face in my hands and slightly shake remembering how scary it was when I could feel all the chakra slipping out from inside me. Sasuke puts a hand on my shoulder and I start to continue.
"T-tsunade said it's eating you from the inside. She's c-calculating how long you h-have." At that, I start crying and Sasuke's soft but firm grip on my shoulder goes limp.
"Don't tell anyone," he says coldly. Nodding, I can't help but start crying again, and when I glance at Sasuke through the corner of my eye, there's regret flashing in his cold dark eyes.
Regret? From Uchiha Sasuke? Ahh I'm kind of proud of myself, I know it's not that great of a chapter but I mean I do like it, and I had fun writing it. Ah, like always, reviews are always appreciated, positive or negative. Your guys' criticism is something that helps me as a writer and I appreciate it! Also, I typed two chapters today! So chapter ten will be up in maybe thirty minutes, just normally I review everything before I publish it on here so that's why it takes time.
Adios!