Author: You know, I feel that I should take a moment to send out a small message to anyone who is considering ending their own life. To let them know that there is always someone who will miss them, and that their deaths will always effect someone else in ways that cannot be predicted. To let everyone know to hang on because the pain can only last so long...but I'm fffffaaaaaaarrrrrrr too lazy to do that [turns to Shikamaru to high five, but realizes that that would take too much energy and lays down].

Oh, BTW, you guys can thank Avalon Hunter for the quick update, I heard about her puppy's untimely death, and I then made her cry more...so, yeah this is my apology...even though I'm afraid it may make things worse if this one turns out as sad as the rest.

Yeah, I'm glad to see that some of you liked the added music, I got no flames for it so I guess I'll leave it. Uh, I think I'll use less songs per chapter though, so you can enjoy more of the song before you have to change it.

Um...oh yeah...there are a lot of people who cry when they read this fic, lol. It makes me feel all warm, fuzzy, and evil at the same time.

Oh yeah Chels-Dawg there aren't any pairings for this fic, but in the sequel it will most definitely not be full of yaoi ones. They don't fit quite right with me, and I just don't think that...well, they make all that much sense...but that's just me.

Oh yeah...and I found out that the kid's name is Udon...hehe...yeah

Songs needed for this chapter:
"Evening", Soundtrack 1, Track 14
"Sakura's Theme", Soundtrack 1, Track 10
"Nervous", Soundtrack 1, Track 6
"Loneliness" Soundtrack 1, Track 9
"Sasuke's Theme", Soundtrack 2, Track 5
"Nine Tails Fox Demon", Soundtrack 1, Track 3

With all that finally done.

Chapter 6:

(cue "Evening")

Naruto's ghost floated amongst the clouds for quite some time, it wasn't until he noticed the golden hints that were covering them, that he noticed that the sun was now setting. He looked over the horizon to see the orange and red collide with the sun's natural golden sparkle forming what could only be known as a Konoha sunset.

All the while the same thoughts that had been running through his head for the past hour or so finally made it to his audible voice. It was too quiet in his head, he assumed that Kyubi was gone, and now he felt like a part of himself was simply missing. Thinking was far too quiet, a deep sigh brushed out of his lips before the voice only he could hear came out to greet the clouds.

"Sasuke...Sakura-chan...Kakashi-sensei...Konohamaru-san...Tsunade-sama...Iruka- sensei...Hinata-chan...did you really care all this time?"

Memories of the day so far flashed through his head, looks of misery and sorrow flowed like a river through each memory. All this for the village curse, the village menace, the village dobe.

Naruto shook his head, trying to push the memories from his head, spending eternity here would truly be hell, brooding over everything he saw would only make things worse. Besides, it's not like the people he saw would continue to mourn for him silently, he figured a week for most of them, save Iruka.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a large white building marked "Konoha Hospital" down below him.

"Maybe I'll go check up on Kiba, make sure he's alright..."

(end "Evening")

Desperately searching for something to take his mind off the people he witnessed earlier, he dove quickly toward the hospital. It wasn't long before he found himself at the door, he fazed right through to find himself in a nearly empty lobby.

There was white tile on the floor that rose up into white walls, contrasting against the blue chairs, and then went up to a white stucco ceiling.

The only ones in the room were the receptionist and the group that had went with him to retrieve Sasuke a few months back. He floated over to the group, hoping that he wouldn't regret this action.

"Can you tell me what room Inuzuka Kiba is staying in?"

Shikamaru's voice was the only one to come out, the boy was a born leader, even now he stood at the center of the group. As much as he hated the responsibility, it was becoming clearer and clearer to not just himself, but all the other genins why Shikamaru became a chuunin.

The receptionist flipped through a few pages without looking up to group before her.

"Room 715"

"Thank you"

As a unit, Neji, Lee, and Chouji followed at the sides along their leader, turning and heading towards the elevator.

"Oh, the elevator is broken so you'll have to take the stairs."

Without another word, the entire group shifted their direction and headed for the stairs, not so much as even a groan from either Chouji or Shikamaru.

"715 huh?"

Naruto smirked a bit as he took off as fast as possible straight through the ceiling, going upwards and watching the rooms pass him by without paying attention.

He counted the floors until he reached the 7th one, and exited the empty hospital room he was in. Once through the door and in the hallway, he turned to see the sign on the door to find out where he was.

"721" He read aloud, completely oblivious to the fact that he was talking out loud now.

He turned and moved a few doors down until he reached room 715, with a bit of a sigh, he fazed through it, eyes shut.

He heard the blipping of the heart monitoring machine as he entered, he opened his eyes to see Kiba laying in the hospital bed, asleep or unconscious, he couldn't tell. On the side of the bed was Hinata, from behind, her head was turned to see Kiba laying peacefully on the bed.

The ghost ventured a bit closer to examine the battered and bruised boy. The thin white sheet was brought all the way up to his shoulders, covering any wounds his body may have had. As for his face, there were a few bandages for wounds that had probably been in the process of healing from his nurse's chakra.

The boy on the bed stirred, drawing the attention of the night-blue haired girl.

There was a slight shift and groan as his eyes slowly opened.

(cue "Sakura's Theme")

"How are you feeling Kiba-kun?"

The nervous tone of her voice that Naruto normally heard was gone, and replaced by a raspier, more raw counterpart. It wasn't until then that Naruto actually took a look at the girl's face. It was a bit puffed around the eyes and red, definitely red. She had been crying...for how long, Naruto couldn't tell. But after seeing that same face on himself in the mirror when he was much younger so many times...he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that it had been for a while.

Kiba, on the other hand, hadn't quite fully come to, and missed the change in Hinata's voice.

He groaned again, and winced a bit.

"The nurse wanted me to tell you not to use any chakra until you get a bit better or it'll make the healing process take longer. So you can't use any, even for your nose."

The boy laughed a bit at the comment before looking dazedly around the room.

"Where's Akamaru?"

"Your mom and sister left a little while ago to get him from the vet."

He relaxed his head back into the pillow.

"You know, you'd probably have more luck if you talked to Naruto-kun so calmly too."

The ghost was very confused at this point.

Kiba shut his eyes and a wide smile crossed his face. He envisioned the blush that took over Hinata's face whenever he mentioned the blond in front of her. Injured or not, he was still going to hassle her about him.

(end "Sakura's Theme") (A/N: Yeah, I know it was short. Sry)

(cue "Loneliness")

His smile disappeared when he heard a low yelp and then a few sobs. His eyes immediately opened as he focused his attention on the girl. It was then that he too realized that the girl had been crying; unlike the phantom visitor in the room, he could not tell how long.

He turned his body and bit back a grimace, worry painted all over his face.

"Hinata-chan...what's wrong?"

She broke into open sobbing again, her hands covering over her eyes.

Two sets of male eyes looked over her in confusion, neither knowing what to do completely, only one had the liberty to try.

"I-it's Na-Naruto-k-kun..." She managed to choke out.

Kiba sat up, and this time was unable to hold back the pained groan or expression that took hold of his face for a few moments.

"What did he do to you Hinata-chan?"

"H-h-he..."

"He what?"

"H-h..."

Kiba's face tensed, Naruto could see that the boy was imagining countless horrible things that could have been done to the girl.

"H-he k-killed himself Kiba-kun..."

What was open sobs became frantic crying, her wails were only slightly muffled when she pressed her face into the chest of one of her closest friends.

Naruto had heard a cry like this once before...

"Back on the bridge...Sakura-chan cried like that when she thought Sasuke was dead...This girl..."

He turned to see the shaking shoulders of the wailing girl.

"...has she been crying like this all day...?"

Kiba's face initially went pale at the shock of what had been told to him, that face was now covered with a look of pain as his teammate's face was pressed against his injured chest. If there were any words he could find that were appropriate for the moment, he was unable to speak them due to the pain in his chest.

After a moment, Hinata pulled back on her own accord, her puffed, pale eyes stared back into the recovering black ones, before her head bowed back to lightly put her forehead on his chest.

"Y-yesterday..."

Her voice was hardly above a whisper.

"H-he was attacked...by a chuunin who was angry at him..."

Naruto listened in as Hinata began to re-tell the story in a way to alleviate Kiba's sister of involvement.

Kiba stayed silent, not willing to risk missing a piece of the puzzle surrounding the odd death of the only boy known to be louder and more annoying than himself.

"We...all of us...the genin and Shikamaru...we saw it happen...but we didn't do anything...she said she would kill us too if we got involved...so we just stood back and watched."

She started sobbing again, and Kiba started to rub her back lightly, the girl was obviously distressed if she forgot to add the title to someone's name. There was almost no one that the girl wouldn't address with a title, even Neji and Gaara were given one. He gulped, then continued to goad her to continue.

"They fought for a little while...and then...the chuunin said something about...Naruto-kun...and...the K-Ky..."

"The what?"

(end "Loneliness")

(cue "Nervous")

"The Kyubi..."

Hinata looked back up to her teammate.

"She said that he was the Kyubi..."

Confusion and awe crossed Kiba's face. Naruto tried to hold back a scowl at the mention of the beast that had ruined his life, he was happy knowing that Kiba didn't know, because then the Inuzuka couldn't hate him.

"Th-the Kyubi!? B-but how is that possible?"

"S-Shikamaru explained afterwards...he said that it was probably sealed inside of Naruto instead of being destroyed..."

A disturbing calm fell over Kiba's face, realization and fear surged through his body.

"ANBU came and took the chuunin away...but after everyone left...Naruto-kun spoke to us...but we were so shocked that...we...didn't say much back...he left...and he looked so...angry with us..."

Hinata pulled back and sat back against the back of the seat, allowing Kiba to lay back down. Her gaze at the floor, his at the window across the room.

"...This morning...I found out that he...he..."

"So...Naruto-san's gone then?"

Shock from the moment nullified anything else in his voice. Hinata remained silent.

"I wonder why no one ever told us...after all, as dangerous as he..."

"Naruto-kun wasn't dangerous!" The girl broke in, the sobs stopped as an unknown anger came to the surface. She glared at the boy, feeling the strain of a slightly activated Byakugan.

"I know that Hinata-chan...but I'm pretty sure there were a lot of people who didn't. Like our parents for example."

Hinata's outburst faded away, back into the recesses of her mind where she locked away all feelings of jealousy, anger, hate, etc. Her eyes went back to the ground, the few grown veins near her ears disappeared.

(end "Nervous")

"...I just want to know why..."

She was no longer stuttering, but she was clearly depressed.

"Why he would do something like that...didn't he know that there were people who cared for him? People that would be effected by his death...people that would miss him?"

Kiba opened his mouth to speak, but thought against it. By the dazed look in Hinata's eyes, it was obvious that she wasn't listening to what he would say anyway.

"Didn't he understand that there were people who admired him...people that liked him...cared about him? People that loved him?"

Naruto was taken aback at the comment, his eyes went wide.

'Loved...me?'

"...People like...m"

"Hinata!"

The girl was pulled out of her trance by the harsh and slightly shrilled voice behind her. She and Kiba turned to the door to be met with the same Byakugan eyes, except form a smaller vessel.

"Father sent me to come get you, it's time to go home."

The tone was cruel. Hinata shut her eyes, and turned to Kiba, bowed, called out a muffled good-bye, and left with her sister.

The room was silent again except for the constant blipping of the machinery.

"Naruto..."

(cue "Sasuke's Theme")

"Hey Kiba-san."

Kiba turned to see Shikamaru, Lee, Chouji, and Neji enter the room all at once. A grin crossed his face at the new arrivals.

'Hey, those guys finally showed up. I never would have figured taking the stairs would have taken so long.'

"No titles guys, I'm not in the mood to be formal."

Shikamaru smirked. The formation broke as each boy went to grab a chair. After a moment they were all sitting around the bed, two to each side. Shikamaru and Chouji to his right, Lee and Neji to his left.

Chouji pulled out a small Tupperware and a pair of chopsticks before handing them to Kiba.

"Here, I know the food here is horrible so I brought you some of what was left of the steak my mom made yesterday."

Kiba took the dish and smiled a bit. He sat up and scooted back to that he was leaning against the head board.

"Thanks man"

He opened the Tupperware and took a whiff, instantly missing his increased sense of smell.

"But, aren't you trying to gain your weight back?"

He passed a glance to Chouji who smiled widely in return.

"Yeah, but my full appetite isn't back yet, so I'm still working on it."

"Sometimes Chouji, I can't tell."

Shikamaru's calm, collected voice had a hint of a chuckle in it.

Laughter arose among the group, even Neji had donned his confident smile as a pleasant replacement for a normal one. When the laughter died down a bit, Kiba started to eat.

There was a moment of silence in the room, Kiba could tell without looking that they were probably trying to decide who was going to tell him about Naruto.

He swallowed what was in his mouth and then proceeded to alleviate them of their dilemma.

"I heard about what happened to Naruto, and about the whole Kyubi thing."

The silence didn't end, it was only emphasized by light sighs that could be heard all around.

Kiba ventured again to speak.

"Who would have thought that Naruto of all people would have such power."

"Power?" Chouji was the first one of the visitors to speak again.

"Yeah, I fought him yesterday. It was odd though, I felt a presence within him, a primal mind, and I used one of my family's jutsus to try and control it, but it lashed out. Next thing I knew, Naruto was standing there, his eyes had changed, and he was blaring this odd kind of chakra. That's how I ended up here."

"Well, that explains why your sister tried to kill him then..."

Kiba looked over at Shikamaru. His face showed his confusion.

"My sister was the chuunin that attacked him?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was her. She had too dogs...I think they were named..."

"Ginmaru and Chimaru. Great..."

"His chakra changed during the chuunin exams too, when I fought him in the tournament..." Neji spoke, everyone turned to him.

"It's a shame that he was born with such a fate...to be given such a great power, only to die believing he was alone..."

'Believing I was alone? It was more than believing Neji...' Naruto's ghost was getting down again.

"But that's the thing though" Lee's voice rang out, not as loud or energetic as usual.

"He wasn't alone." He turned to look up at Shikamaru. "You never told me why you stopped me back there when I could have helped him out."

Shikamaru sighed, he could feel Kiba's gaze on him too.

"She threatened to kill any one of us that interfered shortly before you arrived. I don't know if she would have followed through, but I didn't want to find out the hard way."

Kiba's gaze went down to his legs.

"Nira...why would you do something like that..."

"But if we all would have helped, we could have done something." Lee chimed back in.

"But what would be the cost? If we would have interfered, then she probably would've not held back what she did."

"Held back?"

"Yeah" Kiba added in. "My sister is nearly ready to become a jounin in skill, she must have been holding back."

"I agree" Shikamaru spoke up again. "Waiting like we did made her think she had time, she wasn't focused enough to just kill Naruto quickly like that, so we had to wait on the ANBU to come, otherwise, I'm sure that a few of us would have been killed."

'So that's why they didn't jump in...'

"Besides, I'm pretty sure Naruto wouldn't have wanted anyone to get hurt unnecessarily for his sake."

'Your right Shikamaru...'

"But then again...we didn't need to act like we thought he was a monster as soon as it was all over..." Chouji's voice was the next heard.

"Well, that was a lot to take in so suddenly" Neji's voice was emotionless as usual.

"Still, of all the people there, save Sasuke and Sakura, we should've better than to think that we should have been afraid of him."

"Maybe" Neji sighed. "But some people are born with a fate they can't change...for a while, I thought that Naruto had proven that wrong when he beat me in the exam...but I didn't realize that fate isn't something that can be so easily predicted. You don't know until it's already happened, now we know, his fate was to perish in the way that he did...our actions were bound by the strings of fate...we could do nothing else."

"That sounds to me like your just making an excuse, blaming fate for something because you don't want to take responsibility for your actions Neji." There was a hint of anger rising up in Chouji's voice.

"We are still responsible for our actions Neji, fate or no fate. We have to face the fact that we contributed to the death of one of our own, a fellow shinobi, our friend. We acted just as bad, if not worse than the girl who attacked him, because we weren't there for him when he needed us."

"Your right." Lee passed a glance to Shikamaru before continuing. "Naruto would have jumped in to save any one of us, but we didn't return such a thing. If anything, we didn't deserve him as a friend."

"No Lee, we didn't. I could count on my hands the times I've complimented him when he did something worth acknowledgement." Shikamaru heaved a sigh before turning his glance at the window.

Four other sighs told him the other's felt the same.

"Even without the Kyubi's power, he still was a great shinobi, he proved that to me painfully in the preliminaries..."

"He defeated Gaara of the Sand, something that I couldn't do..."

"He beat me in the exam, and still kept control of such incredible power..."

"He managed to bring Sasuke back, something I could only dream of..."

"He never gave up, even when things became more than just troublesome..."

A heavy sigh rang out from each boy in the room.

"Naruto, we truly didn't deserve the friendship of a great shinobi like you..." The words were spoken in unison before the room delved back into silence.

(end "Sasuke's Theme")

"Um...excuse me. Visiting hours are over so if your not family, I'll have to ask you to leave."

The nurse left as quickly as she came, undoubtedly to inform any other visitors on the floor.

"Well I guess that's our cue to leave then."

Shikamaru stood up, the rest followed, each offering a muffled good-bye.

"See ya Kiba"

"Thanks for stopping by guys."

With that the group left the room, leaving Kiba in the still annoyingly bright room. Even though the sun had clearly set outside, the white walls, ceiling, and floor harbored what little light was in the room and magnified it greatly.

He was in the middle of grumbling about it when he felt a familiar presence. A smile crossed his face as he turned to the door, just in time to see his mom walk in, Akamaru in her arms. The pup had some bandages on him, but other than that, he was okay.

"Akamaru!!!" Kiba greeted his nin-dog anxiously. The dog struggled in his mom's arms for a moment before she relented and let him jump the short distance to the bed, landing right on the boy.

Nira walked in next, following the three dogs that made their way in after the woman.

Naruto's face went to a scowl, Kiba's look of joy disappeared when he saw his sister.

His hand unconsciously continued to pet his dog as his attention was focused on her. His mom noticed the growing tension, and opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off when a doctor came in and requested her presence outside. She nodded in agreement, and soundlessly left her children in the room with the dogs. Naruto made his way to the door, not wanting to stay in the same room as the girl, but on his way out, he heard Kiba speak.

"Nira...did you really attack Naruto yesterday?"

His tone was cold, Naruto heard a slight whimper from Akamaru in reaction to Kiba's out of character behavior.

He fazed through the door, not hearing or caring about the answer.

(cue "Nine Tail Demon Fox")

"I have good news and bad news Inuzuka-san."

Naruto turned to see a spectacled doctor in a white coat, his brown hair was combed neatly, and he stood completely straight. The glare from the hall lights on his glasses blocked any sight of his eyes from the ghost's angle.

"Most of the wounds are already healing due to the help of a medic-nin that examined your son. The only serious wound he received was in his stomach. We have done all we can for it but it is completely ruined, if we leave it in there, your son will die."

Kirara stood there, still as stone, urging the doctor to continue.

"A transplant surgery can be done immediately because we already have a donated stomach that matches your son's requirements."

A sigh of relief passed through the mother's lips.

"The bad news though, is that in order to do such a transplant, we will have to cut away part of his chakra circulatory system..."

Kirara's eyes went a bit wider.

"And with our current technology...we can't repair it..."

"Then you mean..."

"Once the surgery is completed...about 90% of the chakra he tries to mold will become wasted...there is a chance that he'll never be able to become an adequate shinobi. I'm sorry...but we have to do this."

"I...I understand..."

With that, the doctor turned and left, leaving Kirara in the hallway. She turned and entered back into the hospital room, shutting the door behind her.

Naruto lowered himself to the ground as if he were standing on it, he lowered his hands into his ethereal pockets.

"Kiba-kun..."

(end "Nine Tail Demon Fox")

He looked down the hallway, deciding that it was about time he left for now. He was still trying to decide where to go when his vision suddenly blurred and went black.

Author: Hehe, well that's all for now. I'd say this one was much longer. I hope you guys like...I think that it was kinda weak...but I've thought that about a few of my chapters and you guys seem to think otherwise. Oh well, lemme know what you think.

Argh!! I tried to use less songs, but there was more writing, as you can tell, you don't have music playing the whole time, and most the songs lasted longer...like Sasuke's Theme which you probably had to play 2-3 times while it was cued...sorry about that. Heh heh...Oh and sorry about some of the songs being recycled so soon, really, some of the songs just fit, so I had to use them. Waiting so patiently for a chance to use Orochimaru's fight scene though...such juicy awesomeness in that song...[drool] why did he get such cool music?