"What do we do now?" asked the blunette's boyfriend very concerned as he watched her lying on the floor, unconscious.
"Hmph, we have to report this to the Hokage" the Uchiha answered.
"I'll go with you." stated the bug lover. Seconds later, Naruto, his cousin-in-law and Kiba were left in the apartment. You could almost touch the tension that filled in the room. Kiba sniffed again and frowned. Naruto and Hinata… she almost…
"What were you doing to her?" the Inuzuka teen asked, clenching his fists. The question made the blond blush furiously and look away.
"W-we were…" he gulped "making out…then she…"
"Shut up! I don't want to hear this!" Neji snapped, surprising his friends and blushing furiously. "Don't touch her, ever again."
"I-I-I haven't!" the jinchuuriki snapped.
"I know you did! If you didn't then, why did she faint? Huh?"
"She fainted because you-"
"Ng… I…" her soft voice was heard in the middle of the argument.
"Hinata!" The three teens exclaimed.
"W-what happened?" she asked softly while sitting.
"Don't you remember?" Naruto asked, not liking the idea of telling her that they were making out when the guys arrived. She stared at the floor and Neji coughed so she would notice they were still there since she didn't seem to notice them.
"N-now I remember" she said as she started to blush… she was almost there…
"Hinata, we need to talk to you." Kiba stated seriously, making Naruto realize what he was going to say. He brought his finger to his lips, gesturing the Inuzuka to shut up without Hinata noticing.
"No, Naruto. She needs to know it." He said not bothering to keep anything from his teammate.
"Wh-what?" she asked concerned. It bothered her, what was the thing that her boyfriend was keeping from her? The first though she had was 'he's been seeing another girl. He might be cheating on me because I'm not pretty enough, I'm not strong enough, I…'
"Hinata…" Naruto whispered. She turned to look at him and the look in her eyes broke his heart once again.
"Hinata… Cloud is after you"
Everyone was quiet. Neji was staring at her, sitting on the floor with her bangs covering her eyes. Behind Neji was Kiba was staring at the blond kneeling behind her, not being able to read his facial expression.
"Hinata…" he whispered again. He wanted -no, he needed to comfort her. He reached out her shoulder with his hand but she removed it with her own.
"Don't touch me" she whispered, her voice shaking. So that was what he was hiding, the cloud was after her… so what?! Wasn't she strong enough to face them? Was that the way that everyone saw her? Like a little and defenseless girl? Oh no, she was going to prove them wrong.
"Hinata-sama, we will-" his cousin started but was cut off by her, she knew what he was going to say.
"No," she started "no one will protect me. I'll fight them."
Naruto frowned "Are you crazy?! They want to-"
"Shut up!" she snapped, making the three ninja open their eyes widely. She slowly turned her head to look at her boyfriend in the eye, if she could call him that. Wasn't he supposed to be the one supporting her in everything? Weren't the couples supposed not to keep any secret from one another?! "I don't care" she broke the silence in the room. He opened his mouth to say something but she continued. "You out of all people were the one supposed to believe in me, in my strength." Her gaze turned colder, darker. "I can't believe that you were keeping this from me." She said as she got up, not taking her eyes off his.
"I-I…" he felt so ashamed of himself. She was right.
She turned to look at her teammate and cousin. They broke into sweat, they'd never in their lives seen her like that. "Same for you two" she said as coldly as before. None of them dared to say a thing, if they did, they thought she'd tear their heads apart. When she started walking to the door, Naruto trying to excuse himself, said something that irked her: "I didn't tell you because Tsunade told me not to, I'm so sorry". She stopped there, in front of the door, her anger boiling. Not even bothering to turn around, she asked rhetorically "Since when do you listen to what people say?" That hit him hard, she was right again. She went out of the apartment and closed the door silently, leaving the three of them completely stunned.
"I've never seen her like that." Said Kiba completely shocked. He's seen her determined to do something, even angry at an enemy but never being so cold. Damn, she was even mad at Naruto. This was bad.
"We have to go after her!" exclaimed Neji running out of the apartment.
"Wait, Neji!" Kiba yelled as he ran out of the apartment, following him.
Naruto stood up, her words resonated in his mind. He stared at the door, where she was standing just minutes ago and visualized the scene again: her back facing him, her harsh words, everything was drawing back to his mind, weighing him down. Never in his life had he thought his Hinata could talk in that cold tone until now.
"Naruto! Are you coming or what?!" yelled Kiba from outside.
"I'm coming!" he yelled in response.
The two of them ran after Neji and stopped him. He seemed to be freaking out. "Calm down," said Kiba. "She wouldn't let us protect her plus she was completely mad at us" he tried to reason with them. Naruto wasn't doing well neither, all he wanted to do was find the cloud ninja, rip their heads apart for even trying to get Hinata away from him and have a happy ever after end alike.
"Please, Neji. Calm down and look for her with your byakugan." He paused and added "and don't try to stop her, we'll follow her and wait until they show up, Naruto will take her somewhere safe and we will take care of them. Understood?" he asked. Wow, he felt as intelligent as Shikamaru for planning all of that in just seconds even if it wasn't that elaborated he still felt smart.
The white eyed boy sighed "Alright" he agreed with his friend.
"What are we waiting for?" asked Naruto as he started to run to no direction. Neji scoffed and the orange dressed boy turned around "What?" he asked clueless. One of the Hyuga's eye twitched in annoyance and then yelled "How are you going to find her without me?!" The blond started to laugh nervously while rubbing the back of his head and then suddenly got serious "Then what are YOU waiting for?!"
In the training grounds sat Hinata staring at the grass. Why did everyone think of her as a weakling? Haven't she proven she wasn't? The memories of her bravest moments filled her mind.
The chuunin exams, the first time she was close to death in a fight. She had stood proudly in front of her cousin. "I don't go back on my word" she said determined to him.
"What are you doing here?!" shouted Naruto, not being able to move because of the rods preventing him from doing so. "Get out of here! You are no match-" those words… remembering those words just broke her heart. She could be a weakling but at least she tried, she tried to protect him.
"Why?" she whispered to herself, tightening her hold on her legs, pressing them to her chest.
Suddenly, someone jumped from between the bushes. Hinata sat up quickly and activated her byakugan being able to see two more people hiding on top of the trees, it was a black man and a blond woman. They all wore Thunder's country clothing. So they would try to capture her in daylight? That was unnusual but then again, she was alone. Easy to get.
She glanced the man that boldly showed himself to her. He had short blond hair and sky-blue eyes and had the word "hot" tattooed in Japanese writing on one of his shoulders. He took the sword that was hanging on his back and she prepared herself with the Hyuuga stance, observing every single movement the three of them made.
She saw him swinging his sword. What on earth was he doing? Maybe he was trying to confuse her because she couldn't see any changes in his chakra network. She decided to focus on the ones that were hiding, it was pointless for them to do that. Why were they doing that? If they've been sent to this mission then they knew that she could see them while her doujutsu was activated. Suddenly she heard the one that wasn't hiding yell "Kumo-ryuu: enzan!" while swinging his katana and a circle of fire surrounded both of them. Great! Now she was trapped.
The two that were hiding in the trees jumped inside of the fire circle. She analyzed her situation. The blond man was standing in front of her about three meters away from her, the black one was to her right 4 meters away and the blond woman was to her left, exactly the same distance from her as the latter.
'What should I do?' she asked herself mentally. She was all alone, and three Cloud ninja were surrounding her and she had no getaway. She saw the three of them kneeling down and unrolling a scroll, the three of them had the same seal on it. The kanji inside of it: 'mind'.
'Oh God please help me!' she thought to herself, her confidence decreasing. Suddenly, she saw three teens approaching the battlefield, the same ones who she was mad at. A glimpse of hope could be seen in her eyes, she was so relieved. She instantly regretted treating them like that.
The three Cloud ninja slammed their hands on it, putting their chakra into it. A big seal was formed on the ground. "Hinata!" yelled Naruto freaking out and started to run faster. They wouldn't take her so easily, he would not allow that. The seal started to reduce its size around her. She tried to run, jump, everything that came to her mind but couldn't, her legs didn't respond to her commands, she was stuck to the ground. When it was around her feet, her vision started to blur and couldn't hear well the shouting of her friends. The last thing she saw was an orange blur jumping into the fire circle.
"Hinata!" Naruto yelled once again. She was just standing there, staring to nothing at all. "Can you hear-?" he was cut off by a punch on his stomach and he fell to the floor.
"Naruto!" yelled Kiba as he approached the scene. That blond Kumo guy punched Naruto pretty hard. He had to do something, if he didn't they would lose her.
"Hinata-sama!" Neji gasped as he could see the seal on her forehead with his byakugan.
"What do we do now?" The Inuzuka asked almost panicking.
"You'll fight me!" yelled the same ninja that attacked Naruto.
"Atsui, we are leaving." Darui said while lifting Hinata up in his arms.
"No, you're not"