Hello wonderful people! I'm so excited to be participating in my first SasuHina Month! This story will only have 22 chapters, so updates won't be every day, but will be consistent.

Also, if I am being perfectly honest, some of the chapters will only relate to the prompt very loosely. Please forgive me.

Story title inspired by lyrics from "The Glow" by Big Data and Kimbra. I consider the song "All That You Want" by Ibibio Sound Machine the theme song for this story.

Enjoy!

oOo

Day 1 Prompt: Aienkien (Japanese)

"A mysterious attraction that unites two people."

Another explosion sounded, painfully close by. Hinata ignored it. She could not feel her left leg from the knee down, and her crippling headache blinded her.

A wave of nausea pushed up from her stomach into the back of her throat. She leaned over, threw up, and fell to her back again on the cold, hard dirt. A moment passed. Or maybe an hour. When she returned to her body, two people crowded close.

"Uchiha!" Kiba growled from above her.

"Shut up, I just got here!" Another masculine voice responded.

A firm grip attempted to pry her hands off her face. She resisted before she registered the cooling effect of healing chakra on her burning hot skin. Her entire body went limp.

"There we go." The voice said again.

The chakra slid over her abused Byakugan pathways, soothing away the pain. She whimpered with relief. In fact, she felt so good that she took a moment to thank the universe that the med-nin was kneeing on the opposite side of her vomit.

That would have been embarrassing.

Sounds of fighting reached her ears.

"Kiba-kun?" Hinata gasped.

"He's fine." The medic groused. "Worry about yourself."

There was a feminine war cry, and then the ground quaked. Oh, they sent all of Team 7.

The chakra moved to her abdomen. She clapped a hand over her mouth as more nausea hit her. Prying her eyes open, she realized they were crossed. She blinked and tried again.

Dark, spiky hair came into view. The medic held a hand over her stomach. The other probed at her leg. Or so she assumed. She could feel his fingers on her lower thigh, then nothing.

He looked at her. A deep frown split his face and his eyebrows drew together harshly. His bright red eyes shone like rubies in the smoke surrounding them.

"Your leg is all fucked up." He pronounced grimly.

Hinata resisted a hysterical giggle. Med-nin were supposed to be soothing, right? Realization slipped slowly into her brain. Wait, this was Uchiha Sasuke. He only acted nice if he wanted something.

He continued. "It's gonna hurt like hell when I put it back. If you pass out, don't blame me."

Hinata tried to brace herself, but before she could, he reached down. A white hot stab of pain shot through her leg and hip, and then everything went black.

oOo

When Hinata stayed awake and coherent enough in the hospital, Tsunade came to visit. Kiba and Shino refused to vacate the room. They hardly left, staying only long enough to grab a bite to eat and shower. The nurses knew to work around the two.

Guilt ate at them for letting her stumble into that trap. In Hinata's opinion, if three sensors could not find the barrage of exploding tags, then no blame could be assigned. But they did not listen.

"Someone had to be targeting you three specifically." Tsunade announced. "Those flash tags were placed to temporarily blind someone with a Byakugan."

Hinata looked up at their most famous med-nin. But Tsunade was so close, Hinata only got a face full of breasts. She colored and looked down at her lap. Akamaru lay sprawled over it, uncaring that he was digging a sharp elbow into her still healing and previously shattered shin.

She sighed and burrowed her hands into his fur. In a way, it comforted her. If her rough and tumble boys started treating her like glass, that meant her injuries were severe. Or that she had her period. The two were indistinguishable to Kiba.

Tsunade continued. "This is the third attack on your team in as many months. I'm recalling you from the field until they figure this out."

Kiba grimaced and Shino ducked his chin deeper into his collar. Hinata resisted the urge to shift in place. No nin team wanted to hear that.

It made sense, but it still burned. It implied they could not take care of themselves. Even if Tsunade did not mean it that way.

Tsunade patted Hinata's shoulder. Hinata did not dare to look up.

"You just focus on getting better, okay? Take some time to let that leg finish healing."

"Thank you, Tsunade-sama." Hinata watched the woman walk out of the room.

She turned her attention to her friends. Her smile did not reach her eyes.

"Well…" Kiba said after a long pause. "That's probably for the best in your delicate state right now."

Hinata shrunk back against the pillow. Akamaru looked at his owner and grumbled.

Kiba immediately panicked, waving his hands in the air. "I didn't mean it like that! I didn't! Shino, what's a better word than delicate?"

Shino raised his chin high enough so his smirk could be seen above his collar. "Literally any other word. Why? Because you would not be implying that Hinata is weak."

Kiba groaned. "Hinata, please you know I didn't mean it like that!" He grabbed at his hair. "I'm just talking about everything that's been happening these past few months. I swear!"

Hinata mustered up a tiny smile. Her leg hurt. So did her eyes, reminding her of the strain they had been under for so long. And her mouth.

She cast around for something to say that had not already been discussed between the three of them. Before she could, a shinobi strode to the door. He casually picked up the chart hanging on the doorframe. Flipping through it, he walked in.

Team 8 exchanged surprised looks.

What is he doing here? Kiba asked with his eyes.

I dunno! Hinata minutely shook her head.

Shino's nose wrinkle said: He'll be a problem.

I hate self-righteous Uchihas. Kiba's tiny strip of bared fangs said. He better not bother Hinata.

Akamaru grumbled at the interruption to his nap.

This happened in a matter of seconds.

Sasuke lifted his gaze to meet Hinata's. His white coat with the medical-nin symbol was unzipped, revealing his tight navy undershirt. His scrub cap was tied tightly, and his waist-length hair lay in a long straight tail in the back. He looked relaxed and completely comfortable in the hospital. She thought it strange, especially when being in the building made her feel claustrophobic.

"How are you feeling?" Sasuke asked.

Not surprisingly, his voice deepened since their Academy days. Now it resonated in a low and raspy timber. That, combined with his complete attention, made Hinata want to hide.

She clenched her fingers until Akamaru shifted in discomfort. Letting go, she smoothed down his abused fur in apology.

"I feel okay, Uchiha-san." she said quietly. "Thank you for helping me."

"Hn." He looked at her chart again, then sucked at his teeth. "Tsk. Looks like your leg will take a while to finish healing, considering how low your chakra levels still are."

He looked at her again.

Hinata nodded. "They said to keep off of it until the bone finishes growing."

"Crutches." He frowned. Then he shifted, his free hand resting on his cocked hip. "I had a question. When I was healing your eyes, I saw a lot of inflammation around your Byakugan pathway-"

Akamaru snarled and lunged at Sasuke.

He reeled back with a gasp. Akamaru sat back, panting in amusement. Hinata tried to bite her lip and keep in the sound of pain as the jostling jarred her leg. Despite her efforts, a whimper escaped.

Akamaru jumped off like he had been electrocuted. Kiba jumped to his feet. A rattle of insect wings filled the room. Akamaru let out a high-pitched whine and slunk into a corner next to Kiba.

"I-It's okay." Hinata said. It did not convince anyone when her face twisted in pain.

Sasuke held out the clipboard, shielding Hinata and himself from Akamaru. He watched the dog warily as he gently clasped her bad leg in his free hand. His palm glowed green, and the stabbing pain melted away.

"Thank you, Uchiha-san," she said into the ringing quiet.

"Uh-huh." He nodded, backing up with his eyes still locked on a quivering Akamaru. Once past the threshold of the door and safe, he thrust an accusing finger at the nin-dog. "That's not a dog. That's a demon," he spat.

Kiba snapped his teeth in warning. Sasuke's irises glowed red for a second. When he focused on Hinata, his eyes returned to black.

"Don't let them undo everyone's hard work." With that order, he spun away and stalked off.

"He smells like cat." Kiba hissed.

A shout came from down the hall. "Oh, come on!"

A second later, a bug flew into the room. It wriggled its way into Shino's collar. He made sure his smile was visible.

"The Uchiha is gone." Shino clarified unnecessarily.

Hinata bit down a laugh and turned her attention to the cowering animal. "Akamaru, you didn't do anything wrong." She soothed. "You were just trying to help, I know."

The dog crept up, with his belly towards the ground. Once in reach, he licked her hand mournfully. It took another hour for her to coax him onto her lap. He avoided her leg. An impressive feat for such a large dog in such a small bed.

oOo

Coming up: Sasuke is curious. Mikoto is doting.