Lies of Love and Loathing

Ch. 2 Thank You For Fighting

Hinata's POV

"Come on Hinata, you can do this," I hear faintly when the aching in my body slowly warms. The sounds around me are hard to understand, but the less I feel my injuries the easier it is o make them out. I try my best to reply to the voice that seems to appear the most, but I can only get bit and pieces of the world outside the body that is so unwilling to open its eyes. "She doesn't have a moment!" the voice cries more loudly, making it easier to hear. " She needs to be at the hospital now and I won't lose her because you feel tired!"

I can feel myself being lifted, but am still unable to take any control of my own limbs. The most I'm able to accomplish is a soft grunt when my body feels something it doesn't like, even though I have no idea what. "Hinata, hang in there. We're almost there. I promise you'll be okay, but you have to fight a little bit longer," the voice comforts.

I wish I could describe the feeling as floating, but that isn't like that at all. It's more like being trapped, I can feel and sense everything around me but I'm not allowed the liberty of reacting to it in any way. "What's going on here?" a new voice shouts.

There's more speaking but my ears are unable to catch it all, only picking up fractions. "Please! She's hurt real bad! You have to do something!" the familiar voice demands. Soon there's more comforting warmth until my incompetent body finds such relief my mind drifts into a deeper stupor before stopping all together.

I don't know how long it's been, but I'm slightly awakened -not enough to move anything, including my eyelids- but enough to interpret the noises and touches around me. There's a bed and pillow beneath the weight of my body, a needle in my arm, bandages scattered randomly from my face down to my legs, and a pair of hands lightly skimming the skin pf one of my hands and the cheek without a bandage on it. Something warm and soft, resembling a lot like skin, is pressed against the crown of my head, soon followed by a forehead leaning against my own. "Thank you for fighting," a voice whispers, a voice I'm able recognize as Naruto's. "You did so great. I only need you to do one last thing for me." He pauses for a brief moment before making his request. "Wake up."

I try my hardest to respond; open my eyes, make a noise, twitch my finger, anything. But it's no use, each attempt I make to move is useless. After countless, futile attempt at movement it finally crosses my mind, this is all probably just a dream. Naruto wouldn't be by my side in the hospital, he's be at Ichiraku's Ramen, celebrating our village's victory with Choji, Shikamaru, Lee, and many others. It would be logical for him to be here right now. However it is a nice fantasy. Naruto by my bedside, anxious for me to wake up so he can take me into his arms.

Many voices come and go throughout an unknown period of time, however one seems to be constant in the room. My imagination is almost cruel, I can hear his voice and feel his touch; imagining both senses so vividly I can almost convince myself that it's real. Many would find this to be a wonderful dream -which it was at first- however the effectively my mind can conjure this, the worse it will be when I wake up and had to accept it was nothing more than my brain's attempt to soothe the desires of my heart.

"Grandma Tsunade, why hasn't she woke up yet?" Naruto asks. "It's been almost eighteen hours, shouldn't she be awake by now?"

"Naruto, she has a lot of medication in her system, one of them being heavy pain killers," says a voice I assumed to be the Hokage's.

"Yeah but still, she hasn't moved unless someone's moved her." Anxiousness seemed to weave itself into his tone and even if he was only a figment of my imagination, my heart still longs to comfort him. I do everything I can to muster up all the energy inside myself to force my way out of my drug induced stupor.

"Naruto," I'm able to squeak out quietly, basically doing nothing more than exhaling the word.

There's a quick shuffling of feet then someone grips my hand with both of theirs. "Hinata?"

I have no idea how, but I'm somehow able to find enough strength to open my eyes a fraction; my eyelids still drooped heavily but now I'm able to make out the silhouette of a boy dressed in a red jacket. "Naruto," I murmur once again.

If I squinted my eyes just right I could see a smile on the boy's face. "Hinata, you're awake," he announces with a small laugh of -what sounded like- relief. "That's grea-"

"Shh," I shush because I'm too weak to lift my index finger to his lips to silence him. "Don't talk, I might wake up and I don't wanna wake up. This is a good dream," I mumble out stupidly.

"What are you talkin about? You are awake."

A breathy chuckle huffs its way out of me. "No, I'm not."

Naruto's face scrunches up and he turns to Lady Tsunade. "What's wrong with her Grandma?"

"I've already been over this with you, Hinata has suffered a blow to the head and the doctors gave her heavy painkillers," Lady Hokage explains pensively. "Just be happy she's awake, other have been known to be in comas for days after injuries such as hers."

The blonde haired boy groans, but swivels in his seat to look at me once more. "So why do you think this is a dream?" he asks, his voice soft and sweet.

Something deep in the back of my mind is trying to stop the words from coming out, but the filter between my brain and moth is malfunctioning. "Because you're here."

Naruto begins to open his mouth, but Lady Tsunade places a hand on his shoulder, stopping him from whatever it was he wished to say. "Hinata, what do you remember?" she asks her tone gentle but serious.

I try to figure out what part of my past she wanted me to inform her about, but come up empty handed. "It was dark, and then it was quiet, then louder. And she couldn't do anything else." My mind is far too fuzzy and muddled to make sense of what I was trying to explain, and I have a feeling my words are short and somewhat gurgled.

When I have neither the strength, stamina, nor mind function any longer, I stop the hopeless battle with my eyelids and allow myself to slip back into the blissful state out blankness.

Naruto's POV

"Because you're here." Her words echo endlessly through my head. Why would me being here automatically equal a dream? It's not that far of a stretch that I would be here. Is it? Even she drifts back into her sleep, I stay by her side.

Her father drops by, but only for a minute before he's off to something else. Kiba and Shino check in on her as well, they invite me to celebrate our victory with them, but I stay. She should have someone here when she wakes up again. "What do you mean it was a dream because I was here?" I ponder quietly aloud, gently smoothing her hair.

Occasionally I lightly brush my fingers over the features of her face; her forehead, her eyelids, her cheekbones, her lips. I never realized before just how soft Hinata is; her skin, her hair, her heart. I knew her heart was kind but everything else is new to me.

"Naruto," a voice says from behind me, my back towards the door. When I turn, I see Sakura standing there, arms behind her back. "How's she doing?"

"The doctors said she's gonna be fine."

"That's good news." The pink haired girl glances towards Hinata but only for a moment. "Lady Tsunade said she couldn't get any information on what happened out of her."

How she said it, I couldn't decipher whether it was a question or a statement of fact because her uncertain tone could mean either one. "Yeah, she said it's because she's on a lot of pain medicine."

"Naruto." She pauses, looking guilty as she fiddles with her hands that are still behind her back. "I'm sorry I couldn't do more in the field."

I don't know what, but something inside me wanted to roll my eyes. "It's fine Sakura, besides I was still able to get her to the hospital."

Sakura nods and brings her hands in front of her. "That's good."

Her saddened tone makes me groan internally. "Look Sakura, you did as much as you could and that probably saved er life." I don't want to feed into her need for approval but do anyways.

Automatically a smile emerges on her face. "So do you want to go to Ichiraku's? My treat." An overly expectant smile gleam is in her eyes as she rushes a few steps forward toward me.

I simply shake my head and look to the girl whose hand I'm holding. "Nah, I'm gonna stay here with Hinata."

"Well, you know she's gonna be fine. The doctors have already taken really good care of her."

Looking back to Sakura, her face had fallen dramatically at my rejection. "Yeah I know, but the last time she woke up she was really out of it. I'd hate for her to wake up and be all alone without anyone to help explain things to her."

"Right. Um, okay, well do you want some company?"

"No, I'm fine. But thanks."

"Are you sure?"

Why is she trying so hard to be around me right now? "Yep, I'm sure. I just want to make sure Hinata is alright when she wakes up." When Sakura opens her mouth to state that the doctor said she'll be fine, I jump in to stop her. "You know, emotionally speaking."

This seemed to puzzle her. "Since when do you care?"

This sparks something deep inside of me that forces me to drop Hinata's hand and my own hand to ball into a fist without my mind giving the order. "Since Hinata is one of my comrades who has almost died for me before."

My outburst makes her jaw drop a fraction. "Naruto, I didn't mean it like that. I only meant that usually you'll only stay for about ten minutes at most, and then you're odd to something else.

I clamp my teeth together tightly before responding, attempting to stop my mouth from saying something I might regret later. "Usually Hinata isn't the one in here. And usually she's not unconscious this long or beaten up this bad."

Sakura nods and, without another word, turns away and walks out of the room. Why does everybody find it so hard to believe I would stay here with her? I think still standing with my hand clinched tightly. A quiet whimper from behind me catches my attention. When I look back to the bed Hinata's face is slightly scrunched and her delicate fingers are gripping the blanket covering her.

In a flash I'm back over to her. "Hinata?" I scan her face, trying to see if she's awake but it's hard to tell. "Hinata, what's wrong? Are you okay?"

It takes a while but eventually she opens her eyes. "N- Naruto."

"Yeah, I'm right here." I carefully uncurl her grasp on the blanket and caress her hand between both of mine.

"You, you really are here aren't you?" she whispers as she searches my face intently with half closed eyelids.

"Of course I'm here. Why wouldn't I be?" Although she still looks slightly out of it, she seems a little more focused than before; meaning now would a good time to get the answers to my question.