Uchiha Sasuke must have crawled about one-fourth of a mile by now. At least he hoped so. While he crawled, he started to think critically about these past few weeks. The eighteen year-old Sharingan user wasn't one to over think things or look back to the past, but something about dragging your body through all sorts of terrain to find at least one place of sane civilization to rest at made him want to try it.

Well first, he was drafted into this ridiculous war. Sasuke was a person who liked to pick his battles before boldly jumping into them. This battlebetween countries for self-control did not give him the option of choice. If he had a choice, he probably would have chosen not to fight in it. It was pointless to fight, as it was only a fight over land and power, nothing like honor or rights. Any battle that does not offer moral benefit is not worth fighting. Well, at least that was what Sasuke thought.

War is just another smaller term for social malfunction. A natural occurrence in nature. A common subconscious thought in the mind of men. Et cetera. It is a necessary part of the flow of time and space. Without it, the balance of all living things would surely go out of whack. It is just as necessary as the air that is to be breathed, the heart that is designed to beat in a body.

This is why Sasuke did not mind war. He did not mind war in general because it was only natural. It was what's supposed to happen. But this war...there was something about it that did not sit right with him. And it wasn't because he now had to fight in one or because now he could not walk, but because something told him something was going to happen that has never happened in any war he had ever seen before. Something either punishing, or maybe even rewarding.

"Hm, I'm not making any sense to myself, am I?" he mumbles to himself now.

He was starting to wonder whether the loss of blood was contributing to the delirium he was feeling right at that moment. He needed to find some place to go. Fresh blood marked a path as he dragged his body further away from ally territory and closer to a civilization in which he was sure would not welcome him. But as his friend and life-long enemy had always said:

"I'm not going to give up now..."-feeling sentimental and possibly more delirious, Sasuke whispered his friend's famous words to himself-"believe it."

Nostalgic. Isn't it, Sasuke Uchiha?

Trudging on through the less familiar terrain, Sasuke continued to think about this past week. The young Uchiha was never the social type. At school, he spoke only when spoken to or asked to speak, he refrained from sitting with others at lunch, and never socialized much with the kids in his class. He liked it that way though. There was something beneficial about isolation. You thought a lot about things that you wouldn't normally think about with others around you. Sort of like what he was doing now. It gave him ample time to rethink the things he had done in his life.

Moving on, Sasuke remembered not much about this week. He had hit his head pretty hard in some accident that happened before this very event that he couldn't quite place. Maybe that's another contributing factor as to why he was contemplating more than he usually did in war. He, in truth, was desperately trying to figure out what had happened. Desperately trying to find out why he was feeling so...empty today. Uchiha Sasuke had lost very important pieces to the puzzle that he was putting together in his head and was at a loss as to how to get them back.

"What am I forgetting...?" he mumbled to himself as he continued to move forward.

Despite the fatigue he was feeling, the raven haired shinobi did not let himself give up. He could feel how close he was getting. The horizon was only a little bit further...
Only a little bit further.

Hinata wasn't expecting a letter. She wasn't expecting any more news. Her hands shook as she read the small note in her hand. Her knees felt weak as her eyes scrolled through the frail piece of paper. The Hyuuga's lilac colored eyes widened as she continued to mumble the contents of the note to herself. It wasn't a death. It was a hospitalization. But even then, the patient was in intensive care.

"What's wrong?" a voice spoke in the midst of silence. It made Hinata jump a little and sigh at the realization that it was only her little sister, Hanabi.

"H-h-he he he he..." Hinata stuttered over and over, unable to finish her sentence. The young woman sighed and breathed heavily, in and out, in and out. She tried to start over, "He is in intensive care."

"Who is?" Hanabi questioned her sobbing older sister, "Please don't say it's Neji! Not Neji...right?" now even the confident Hanabi Hyuuga was choking over her words.

"N-no, n-no, not him at all. It's Naruto; h-he might not make it."

Sasuke had finally arrived on the top of a large hill, well beyond the border. It was the dead of night, stars and the bright, glowing moon clearly visible. There were a few homes on the hillside, only three had lights on that were clearly visible from the window. The hard part was over. He had three homes to choose from. The hard part was deciding which home would possibly even consider taking in Sasuke for at least the night. He was enemy territory, so the chance of that happening was very,very, slim.

"Practically non-existant," he whispered to himself as he took one last look at the options.

Sasuke decided that there was no logical way of going about this. There was no probability formula that he could perform to see which home was the plausible option, there was no one with him to go for him to eliminate an option. All he could do is wing it and hope for the best. He ended up choosing the home on the far left. Only a few more yards to crawl and hopefully...he'd be home free.

Sasuke realized he was losing consciousness fast. Crawling all of that way losing, blood every inch of the trek, of course he'd feel a little woozy. He was finally at the door. The problem was, he couldn't stand and he was short enough as it was, so reaching the doorbell was pretty difficult. But, hey, he's a ninja. Enduring trying situations is all ninjas do. Using the doorhenge as support, he tried to lift himself up enough to at least give a good knock.

He had fallen back down plenty of times, but had gotten up an equal amount. He wasn't about to give up when he had basically made it! Lifting his body up one more time, he gave two forceful bangs on the door before collapsing to the ground again. His eyes were closing, feeling a heavy weight on them, and the Uchiha finally understood that just maybe another day of living just wasn't meant to be.

That was until he saw a little girl standing at the open door. Her shocked eyes studied his body a little, and realizing the extent of his injuries, she mumbled rushed words that Sasuke couldn't quite understand and ran back inside shouting the name...

"Hinata! Hinata! Hurry up! There's another one and he looks really, really bad!"

Oh wow, thanks, the injured Sharingan user said sarcastically to himself, I think they might actually take me in...do they realize that I am their enemy?

The little girl had left so quickly she might not have seen the band around his arm, the one with the symbol of Sound village symbol in red. It signified that he was indeed an enemy ninja to this territory he was in now. Everyone in his military had to wear one.

Soon enough, the same small girl came back. But this time, she was with a another girl who looked to be about Sasuke's age. She had long, navy blue-like hair, and friendly, lilac eyes, even though now they were widened in panic and shock. Her skin was pale and seemed fragile...she herself seemed very...breakable.

"A-ah, Hanabi..go draw a bath alright? H-hurry up!"

The little girl started to run back into the home but then the older of the two stopped her.

"W-wait! Help me get him in here first. He's an enemy so w-we have to hurry up before anyone can s-see him!" she yelled, but still maintaining a quiet tone.

"Alright," the young girl agreed and said that she could lift him by the feet.

Taking one look at her small, childish frame Sasuke thought to himself, Somehow I seriously doubt that.

Nonetheless, Hanabi stepped outside and started lifting both of Sasuke's limp, numb legs and Hinata began with holding his arms. All the while, Sasuke started to think of anything more degrading than this. He couldn't think of anything. The girl was surprisingly strong for her age, a strength usually only acquired by ninja.

As the two females lifted and walked the dozing Uchiha into their home, Sasuke couldn't help but feel very grateful for everything they were doing...and extremely lucky.

But, before the male ninja could thank them, he found himself in a closed bathroom with the one he knew now was named Hinata. The tub was filled with
warm water and that was all. He could feel himself going red as Hinata started to take off his vest and shirt.

"I-I'm sorry!" she apologized as if she could feel Sasuke's discomfort, "but you've got a lot of wounds so I-I think just cl-cleaning you and your wounds now would be best. Th-then I'll dress them and give you some other cl-clothes, okay?" Sasuke only nodded, calming himself a little.

After his shirt was carefully put to the side, the nervous young woman proceeded to take off his shoes, ninja gear bags, and bandages that were already in place on his legs and hands. Next came the thing that neither Sasuke nor the timid Hinata wanted. Hinata's hands shook nervously as she started to unbutton the injured ninja's pants. She looked up at the boy for what seemed like a millisecond and then asked him, "Do you think you can do this part?"

This was a very small shock to Sasuke's system. Usually girls would be dying to get into his pants but she...she seemed very reluctant to do any of this at all. He nodded and started to pull himself out of his pants, which was more difficult than he thought it would be. His legs were surely broken so manipulating them out of the garment was going to be very difficult. Plus, every time he moved his legs they ached in pain. This was humiliating. He could only imagine how he looked in front of her. Like an overly confident fool who can't admit when he needs help. But, she didn't seem phased. She didn't look like she was holding back laughter or feeling pity or sympathy for him. She just...waited patiently.

"Do you need help?" she asked finally. There was no mocking, no impatience in her voice. He nodded once, taking a major bruise to his ego.

He had gotten as far as his lower thigh, only sitting on it a little bit before he had asked for her assistance. He supposed he should be proud that he could at least do that. At least...he could do somethingfor himself. Hinata helped him get the pants off the rest of the way, lifting his legs to help, which made him wince a few times.

And the part that Hinata had spent time bracing herself for. Sasuke could see he young woman blush as she apologized again and told him that she wasn't going to look at "him" when she proceeded to take off his underwear. He could feel himself going hot as well. But, she indeed did not look. She did not look when she helped him into the tub. Sasuke couldn't look at her. It was all just too humiliating.

She washed all of the dirt off of his body and then continued to wipe the
wounds a little. She spoke as she did so, "I-I'm just cleaning off all the dirt that could be near your wounds so that their will be no risk of infection when I b-bandage t-them, al-alright?"-Sasuke nodded-"What's y-your name?" she asked the enemy ninja as she washed him.

"Uchiha Sasuke," he said to her quietly, as if he were ashamed of that name. The young man looked down into the water he was sitting in. It was getting murky with dirt and blood. Red swam around with green and brown and only then did Sasuke realize how dirty he really was.

Hinata wrung out the towel and put it aside, grabbed another one, and started to wash his face with it with water from the sink. She sat shocked at the amount of grime in his hair and told herself to be sure to wash it later. As she moved and maneuvered through his dark, matted locks, she started seeing signs of a big wound on Sasuke's forehead. Moving to the left temple,she saw it. There was a huge gash on the side of the ninja's head.

"S-Sasuke!" she yelped, but then covered her mouth and apologized for the outburst.

"H-h-how did you hit your head...l-like this?" she stuttered, examining the large wound.

Sasuke hissed at her touch; the wounds all stung mercilessly. He tried hard to remember how that happened. In fact, he didn't even know he had a gash on his head. The injured ninja told Hinata that he didn't know how he had gotten that injury or many of the others that were all over his now scared body.

"That's alright," she said and smiled, "I-I'm not surprised. I ha-have to get that covered up quickly b-before any in-infection gets to it."

Hinata helped him out of the dirty tub, still not looking at him, and helped him dry off. Then, Hanabi had come back with a pair of underwear which Hinata helped the young soldier into before applying disinfectant to the numerous amount of wounds on his body. He held back shouts of pain from the alcohol seeping into his open flesh. He had to hold onto some sort of masculinity. And men don't cry, or whine like little girls...right?

"I'm sorry about this, I kn-know it hurts," the indigo haired girl apologized sympathetically, "b-but I don-don't want you to get infected. Some-sometimes it helps to distract yourself. Tell m-me about your-yourself. I-I mean, i-if you want..."

Sasuke was getting irritated with her constant stuttering. She was a nice girl, but she was way too timid. No guy likes a girl with no confidence. He was about to call her out on it, but he guessed if he did she would start crying or something. So he held his tongue.

"There's not much ah...to tell-ow-about me. I got drafted into this war-ah-and it's only been a week and I'm already seriously injured."

"Wh-what are your interests?" she asked him as she finished disinfecting the wound on his head.

"I'm not really interested in much. Being a ninja is all I'm really good at-god damn it!"

He cringed as she applied the last of the medicine to his forehead. It stung like hell.

"I am sorry!" Hinata aplogized strongly, "I might have put a little too much th-that t-time."

"You think?" Sasuke shouted. He realized how ungrateful he was sounding and apologized for his outburst. He thanked her for everything she was doing. He expected to look at the girl's face and see anger, regret even. But, when he glanced over at her, he saw a smile. It was timid and small but yes, it was a smile.

"It's o-okay and you're welcome," she said, "I-I-I'm glad to h-have you."

This girl, Sasuke wasn't so sure about her. He thought he had already figured her out like he had so many other girls. But, this girl...she's different. He had only known her for about an hour, but it felt like he had just met her...that they hadn't even said hello yet, it felt like he was just now learning her name.

"I'm Hyuuga Hinata, by t-the way," she had said once he was bandaged in a nice pair of clean clothes, "Nice to meet you. O-oh, and you're going to-to need st-stitches on your arm and head."

Okay...I'm going to start trolling for reviews now. It's just, really want to know what you think so that I can make sure I'm on the right track. Apparently, free will is not going to get me the results I'm looking for so...REVIEW! NOW! (Please? :)

Does it really matter what I listened to? I didn't keep track anyway.

A little advice: DO NOT view the draft of your story on a PSP if you wrote it in Gmail in the draft! It craps up your formatting...So: Gmail+draft-PSP= -formatting

Yup. See ya next time!

~M.o.t.C