A/N hello everyone who reads this story who I just absolutly adore every single one of you. Here's the fourth chapter. I suppose their really isn't that much to say, except that my dad discriminates blue men. I showed him a picture of Kisame and his exact words were "Now that is what you call UGLY!" I was so mad at him! I think Kisame is hot! Maybe not at first glance but... anyway...

Disclaimer: yeah... i don't own...whoopeee...

Now here we go!

CRASH!!!

I screamed in terror and sudden pain, as I was thrown backwards from the force of the impact. Planks and splinters of wood, as well as chunks and dust from the stone rained down on my head, forcing me to cover shielded myself with my arms, which took the brunt of the damage. I winced as bruises were compounded on the ones I already had. I felt my warm blood trickling and dripping down my arm.

My head had hit something hard and stars instantly flared up into my black vision. I blinked my sightless eyes vigorously, trying to dispel them. All the sounds were muted and fuzzy; as though I were wrapped up in a blanket during a war. I felt horribly detached from the world, but above that feeling was the knowledge of my intensified vulnerability. I shook my head violently, trying desperately to clear it. A ninja could not lose focus like this in battle.

"Hinata, run," I heard Deidara's voce break through the cloud in my mind, like a crack of lightening. Suddenly, everything became clear to me. The force of the sounds hit me like a punch in the gut. I gasped in unwelcome shock. I could hear more crashing and even some explosions; the explosions seemed rather close and I scurried away, afraid of being fried.

The noise was deafening and chaotic. I knew I was trembling from head to toe as I tried to make sense of and organize all the sounds outside of my black little world. Deidara's voice stood out among the other sounds somehow. Not because it was louder, but because it was familiar, and unique. He was yelling something at me, but I was having difficulty comprehending it.

The sounds of grunts and yells of fighting also met my ears. The mist ninja must have crashed through the wall. Suddenly I felt someone grab the back of my shirt and throw me. I yelped and struggled briefly against their grasp. I even tried to blindly bite then. My arms brushed the door frame as I was thrown through the door. I landed with a slightly painful thud on the floor. I let out a small gasp of hurt.

"Hinata! Go," Deidara yelled again. I managed to easily make out what he was saying this time. There was definitely an edge of urgent impatience as he yelled again. I wasn't sure how many times he had had to yell it before it got through to me. This time, I more than eagerly obliged. I sprang to my feet and sprinted down the hallway, trying to get as far away from the fighting as possible.

I continued dashing down the hallways at top speed. I didn't slow down, even though I knew that I was within inches of hitting a wall or something else. I just focused on running. I had no time to think clearly about why exactly I was running. Just that I was running. I think it was the adrenaline and sudden panic that was coursing through my veins.

The wind was whipping my hair against my face, and my finger nails were starting to get bloody from digging into the wall as I swung around the corners. I had no idea where I was going. I was just bracing myself for the inevitable run in with a hard wall. I set my jaw ad squeezed my eyes shut as I ran, preparing for the slam into an unforgiving wall.

But it wasn't a wall that I was going to run into. As I swung around a corner, I abruptly stopped running. I rebounded backwards away from the hard chest that had blocked my path. I gasped and clutched myself around my chest as the air was knocked from my lungs. My face reflexively shot up to meet the face of then person I had hit, even though I couldn't see them. I assumed it was a man, because their hard chest had really hurt.

"Eh? I didn't know little girls joined the Akatsuki," the man sneered, with a hint of surprise. It was a man. His voice was deep and malicious. I wondered briefly if I would think his voice malicious if I had met him under different circumstances. Perhaps he was really one of the good guys. After all, he was fighting the Akatsuki, how bad could he really be?

But this was not different circumstances. This man could bode only ill for me. I narrowed my eyes and tensed. Make this quick and painless, make this quick and painless, I chanted over and over again to myself as I crouched just slightly. I didn't focus on how horribly the odds were stacked against me. I just put on a calm façade, and set myself. The man continued in his gravelly voice, "Oh well, I ain't complaining."

I heard a slight grunt that I assumed meant that he had launched himself at me. Without another second's thought I dodged swiftly to my right. I felt the wind as he lunged past me. My hair tagged along in the wind. I whipped my left hand after him, and was shocked to feel it connect with the back of his head, exactly where it was supposed to. I heard the man groan as he collapsed unconscious to the ground.

I leaned against the wall breathing heavily. It wasn't like I had done anything strenuous, but it had just been a little scary. I had avoided at all costs the thought of getting hurt…or dying. But I had been so close right there and now that it was over I felt the fear set in. I shuddered, but found solace in the fact that nothing had happened. Nothing at all, I had gotten insanely lucky against this man.

"I guess blind doesn't mean defenseless," I muttered satisfactorily to myself. I was about to race off again, when I felt a firm hand on my elbow. My first thought was that I hadn't really knocked the man out. I flung my arm out wildly in a hard punch, but the person holding me caught my fist.

I yelped and tried to yank my hand back. The person was holding it firmly, and I wasn't getting it away. My mind filed immediately through all the possibilities of what I could do, and it arrived at fight back. If they were holding my fist with one hand then it meant that that was once less to fight with.

I drew back my other fist and launched it roughly towards where their face was. It was easily knocked aside, but at practically the same time, my foot was in a deadly upward arc. My eyes widened in fright as I felt the foot blocked. But it was blocked in a way I found slightly familiar, it was blocked with a foot.

"It's me, yeah." I recognized Deidara's voice and speech impediment instantly. I froze in relief, but Deidara was already dragging me swiftly down the hallways, turning sharp corners. "That's the second time you've tried to kick me there, yeah." I blushed just slightly, it was true. But at the moment I was also struggling to keep up.

He was setting a tough pace. I was banging against the walls clumsily as I went. But I wasn't complaining. I knew why he was in such a hurry. The sounds of fighting were not far behind. Even closer were the sounds of pursuers. I pushed myself faster, trying to run with him, but apparently he didn't think it was fast enough. "Hurry, yeah! We need to get to my rooms, yeah."

I was dragged through a doorframe and thrown onto something soft and squishy. I promptly identified it as a bed. The door was slammed shut and I heard scraping and groaning as heavy objects were pushed in front of the door. Deidara was barricading it, I realized instantly. He was really taking seriously his order to protect me. I felt a wave of gratitude towards him.

I stayed exactly where he had thrown me, because I didn't want to get in his way. I felt horrible waves of fear washing over me as there were sounds of banging from the other side of the door. If they broke through I didn't know if there was anyway to escape. I did know that there was no way I could fight them off. I didn't know the extent of Deidara's power though.

"You stay there, yeah," Deidara demanded. I nodded swiftly. I heard a faint puff, and then some shouting from the other side of the door. I gasped in surprise as I realized what Deidara had done. He must have done the same thing that Kakashi-san did. When he would poof into a cloud of smoke and reappear somewhere else.

"Deidara," I yelled without thinking. I was worried that he would get hurt. I didn't feel any attachment to the Akatsuki member, but I did worry. I was always the encumbrance to people I was around. I knew that it would be my fault if he was hurt. But I knew it wasn't just that. It was in my nature to care about people. Deidara hadn't done anything. If anything he had been nice, and I couldn't stand the thought of people I knew getting hurt, even if all I knew was their name and voice.

I yelped and cringed as I heard a thud against the door and the room shook. There were suddenly a couple of explosions and in an instant I found my way under the covers, blind of not. I curled up into a trembling ball there as the larger than life sounds reverberated through out the room. It was all dreadfully terrifying. I wrapped my arms around my head and ears. I tried to block out all the sounds.

I felt as though I was going deaf as well as blind as all the noises screamed into my ears. My heart was beating a million beats a minute as I heard wood splintering. Were they getting in? Had they beaten Deidara? Was he not enough to stop them? What would they do to me when they got in? IF, I told myself firmly, If, they got in. I screamed into the mattress. It was no use, I was still so scared, and there was nothing that was going to make that go away. The terror seemed to go on for ages, but it could only have been an hour since Kisame-san's wall broke.

Almost as abruptly as it began, there was silence. I froze as I listened hard. There were stirrings outside of the door. My heart stopped in panic as someone began forcing their way in. Who had won the fight, I thought frantically. I struggled to keep breathing, but I breathed silently and shallowly.

Suddenly, my heart began beating again as my fears were put to rest.

Are you still alright in here, Hinata, yeah," Deidara asked as he finally shoved his way back in. I took deep relieved breathes as I slowly crawled out from the under the covers. I turned my head towards where Deidara was. I perched innocently on the bed.

"I-I fine, D-Deidara," I replied. I heard his sigh. I carefully edged off the bed and stood as I felt my feet touch the cool floor. I bit my lip as I suddenly worried about Deidara. It had seemed brutal out there, and I didn't want anyone hurt because of me. Deidara may be Akatsuki, but he had been nice to me in the short time that I had known him. I asked tentatively, "A-are you h-hurt?"

"No, I'm fine, yeah," he assured me quickly. I smiled just slightly and nodded, but there was still a fear that he was only saying that to reassure me. I highly doubted that he could have gotten through all that without a scratch. I looked up at him a little dubiously, but not too much because I didn't want to offend him in any way. He seemed to notice my look. I was glad when his next answer seemed honest enough. "I have some cuts and gashes, and quite a few painful bruises and burns, but nothing serious."

"Kisame wasn't quite as lucky as you, Deidara," said a chillingly familiar voice. I whipped my head towards him in terror induced shock. Itachi's voice had the first impression on me, and then his words sunk in.

My blood ran cold as my throat suddenly made it difficult to breath and my eyes widened. This was exactly what I had feared. That Deidara and/or Kisame-san would get hurt because they had been protecting me. Sure they were Akatsuki and they were doing it in their own self interest, but I still felt so guilty. It was my own weakness that had allowed this all to happen. I bit my lip and 'looked' up at him timidly.

"What happened to him, yeah," Deidara asked. His voice held concern, but I didn't think it was near enough. In Konoha when one of your own was hurt you were immediately worried. Deidara was simply asking as though some acquaintance had been injured. It seemed as though he were only anxious because Kisame-san was another fighter and they didn't want to use a tool. Now that I thought of it, Itachi hadn't even sounded that concerned.

"He's been fatally wounded," Itachi replied. My breath caught horribly, and I was slightly afraid that I would asphyxiate myself. "I think with the proper care he could survive….but we have no healers here. The closest one is in a far village, and even if we managed to get the healer here in time, I doubt he would cooperate."

"So, what's him going to happen to him, yeah," Deidara inquired. I was pleased to note that there seemed to be just a shade more of alarm in his voice as he asked this question. I waited anxiously for Itachi's reply.

"I'm not entirely sure." I could almost hear the indifferent shrug in the Uchiha's voice, and it made my blood boil how these people seemed to care nothing for each other. I trembled again, but not from fear, but from anger. "He may survive, but he has more chance of dying seeing as we have no way to heal him."

"I-I w-will," I spoke up suddenly, surprising even myself. I had trained at the hospital a lot. Even Tsunade had taught me some things. I was really a medic-nin, and if my family hadn't been so adamant on thinking that all Hyuugas should cause pain instead of heal it I would have pursued medical jutsu more closely. However I was still a capable medic-nin, and I had to try at least to save Kisame-san.

"Don't be ridiculous," Itachi sniffed doubtfully. I couldn't tell if his skepticism stemmed from suspicion of my abilities, or mistrust as to whether I was truly trying to help rather than sabotage. It may have stemmed from both, I reasoned.

"R-really, I c-can," I persisted. I was scared stiff of Itachi, but I wasn't going to give up. It had always bee my personality to care about others, and my medical training had only enforced that. I couldn't let someone die knowing that I could have saved them. I may not be able to save Kisame-san, but I could certainly try. And I could never live with myself knowing that I not only had not saved them, but had been a cause of their injury in the first place. It didn't matter how indirect my fault may have been.

"How would someone like you save him," he sneered. I cringed, but didn't back down. I swore that I would not do that. I stood my ground. His next question was laced with suspicion and distrust. "Why would you want to save him anyway? He's your enemy as much as I am."

"I h-have medical t-training," I replied. I still stuttered, but I tried to keep my voice firm and steady. It took a little courage to say what I did then. I knew it was probably stupid to say anything to get on his nerves, but I don't think he would listen to anything else. "A-and I owe h-him for s-saving me f-from your i-inhumanity."

There was a pause. The silence was tense and thick. One of two things would happen. Itachi would either finally give in, or he would be mad at me and then….I didn't like to think about it. I hoped desperately that he would just give in. I bit my lip as I anxiously awaited his reply.

"My inhumanity," he chuckled sadistically. I let out a miniscule gasp at his unexpected response. I shivered at the sound of his laugh and felt like curling back up under the covers of Deidara's bed, but I didn't allow myself to hide. So I just took a deep breath and just stood in determination; even as the chilling waves of his laugh washed over me. "Do not make the mistake of thinking of Kisame as human."

My brow furrowed in confusion at his reply. There was something in his voice that told me that there was a very big secret that I was not aware of. That he knew something that I didn't. The thought made me incredibly uneasy and shifted on my feet from side to side. But I would not let a veiled threat deter me. I had to be strong.

"L-let me h-heal him."

"Itachi, let her heal him, yeah." Deidara had stayed silent through out Itachi's and my debate, but he stepped in now, fortunately in my favor. I smiled my thanks at him, and then turned to Itachi. I must admit that I wasn't sure if I was facing them in either instance. I just tried my best to pinpoint them using their voices. And even if I got the general direction correct, I doubted if I was still facing exactly toward them as I would have wished.

"Fine, fine," Itachi gave in wearily. The tone pf his voice suggested his disgust at both myself, and, I thought, Deidara as well. "I will take you to see him." I did not miss the emphasize on the word 'see.' I bit my lip with indignation. It was a cruel thing to bring up. It made me hate him all the more for doing this to me, and then bringing it up like that was just vindictive.

"I would rather I take her, yeah," Deidara cut in. I felt his presence move to my side. His voice seemed to have a slight edge of protectiveness, though I was probably just imagining it. Mostly I detected a lot of open loathing. I wondered what made Deidara hate Itachi so much.

"No Deidara," Itachi replied harshly. I felt Deidara's hate rolling in waves. Itachi's voice was firm and commanding. It left no room for argument. It made me gulp nervously. "You will go help Tobi to repair the lair. Kisame's wall has already been fixed as we needed to put him on his bed. I will come and assist you after I take our dear Hinata to Kisame." Once again a shiver ran up and down my spine as my name slivered from his tongue.

If I thought I shivered when he said my name, it was nothing compared to when grabbed my wrist. I violent tremor ran through my body as I fought valiantly against the urge to jerk away from him. His skin was cold and flawlessly smooth against mine. I hadn't even realized he was so close, I had thought that he were somewhere farther away. He must have slipped over silently.

"Hmm," Deidara growled angrily. But he seemed to have obliged to Itachi's demands, because I heard him stomp swiftly out of the room and down the hall. His footsteps slowly faded away.

"It's been awhile since it's been just you and me hasn't it," Itachi hissed in my ear. I gave a diminutive whimper and recoiled. I hoped so much that he wouldn't do anything to me. I had to get to Kisame-san and there was no way that he was any shape to protect me now.

"T-take me t-to Kisame-san," I whispered. My resolve was slowly fading away. I heard Itachi chuckle and I was terrified that he had no interest in taking me to Kisame-san. But then he started dragging me to where I was sure the door was. His grip was like hard ice on my wrist.

There was no talking as he tugged me along. I tried hard to keep up as I followed obediently behind. I stumbled and hit my head and sides against the walls a lot. I bit back my soft sounds of protest. I just tried my best to keep up. I think he was trying to be difficult though, because every time I managed to finally keep pace, he would speed up.

Fortunately though, all that speeding up brought us to what I was sure was Kisame-san's room. I don't know how I knew it was his, but somehow I knew. Maybe it was the way it made me feel, or maybe it was the smell. It was masculine and strong, not particularly clean smelling or fresh, but I was keen on it. It was the same smell of the shirt I was wearing.

I suddenly paled. I had been running around in this long shirt this whole time, with only a pair of panties underneath. I felt my face grow hot, and I tugged down on the hem of the shirt. My face heated up to a rather high temperature and I was sure that I was turning red. Itachi snickered. His fingers brushed my thigh as he pushed me roughly forward. I collided softly with the bed.

"I'll be back to collect his corpse later," Itachi sneered cruelly. I had to fight back tears that threatened to spring to my eyes as he implied the possibility of my failure. I held my tongue though. Itachi left, shutting the door behind him, with that ominous statement hanging in the air. I took in deep calm breathes. Itachi's very presence did horrible things to me.

With him gone, I turned my full attention to the man lying on the bed. I could hear his ragged breathing, which was distressing to listen to, rather than calming. I could also hear his moans of pain.

"K-Kisame-san," I asked tentatively. When he did not reply I bit my lip nervously. I reached out my finger to touch, I think, his shoulder. There was no response. "K-Kisame-san…are y-you a-awake?"

There was no reply. I assumed that he was unconscious. On one hand I was thankful for this. I could work with much less distraction and much less discomfort. I was a bit embarrassed about helping him. I wasn't at a hospital doing my job, I was purposely helping him; somehow that seemed unnecessarily intimate. But on the other hand, what with me being blind, it would be very hard to diagnose, not to mention treat, him if he couldn't describe the wound to me, or tell me where it hurt. I was torn between wishing and not wishing that Itachi was still here.

I abruptly cut off my thoughts there. This was leading me now where; if ifs and buts were fruits and nuts we'd all be happy jolly, I quoted in my mind of what Kiba used to say. I didn't know if he had the wording exactly right, and it sounded completely ridiculous, but it made sense to me all the same. So I pushed all other thoughts to the back of my mind and focused on my task.

I reached out my hands, probing towards him. I felt around patiently. I did not allow myself to get frustrated or irritated. I quickly established that the wound must be in the torso, because that's where the blood was. I got myself into a better position to treat him.

I crawled closer and perched next to him on the bed. I carefully and persistently began to unbutton his cloak. I found he wore the Akatsuki cloak just as Itachi did. When I thought about it, I think they all did. With a bit of struggling I finally managed to discard the cloak onto the ground and out of my way. My hand traced observantly down his chest. He had a netting shirt on. This presented a problem.

I didn't want to move him around too much, afraid of disturbing an unknown wound. I still had no idea as to the nature of the injury. So pulling the shirt over his head was not an option. My hands traced over his person until by stroke of luck I found the weapon's pouch strapped around his thigh.

I took out a kunai and with utmost precision I cut the garment in half. I was terrified that I might cut him. I managed to do it though without harming him. I carefully peeled the blood soaked shirt off of his chest. I feathered my fingers as light as possible down his chest. It was bare now, and I could feel the gore. I shuddered. I found my mind wondering to what could have caused it, but I quickly grounded it again.

I knew what I was going to do to asses the damage. It was the same thing that ninja surgeons did. It would take a lot of my chakra, but I figured it was my only hope. So I took a deep breath and pressed my palm flat in the middle of his powerfully built chest.

With my resolve set, I carefully poured out chakra. It probed everywhere passing on the data to me. It was kind of like having a whole bunch of flexible fingers. My probing chakra went all through out his torso, relaying what it found out to me. Once satisfied, I withdrew my hand.

I was panting with the chakra loss, but I had found out what was wrong. I assumed that he had been slashed with a sword or something of the like. Whatever had happened, it had been a perfect shot. There was a horrible gash across his chest that was oozing blood, but that was practically superficial in comparison with the more internal wounds. The blade had cut his stomach, which was now bleeding. It was also spilling his stomach acid into his body. The blade had even clipped his lung. Breathing must be horrible for him, which would explain the horribly irregular breaths. I frowned and reached my finger tips to where I thought his lips were. They touched a liquid and I drew them back, sniffing them. Blood. There was blood leaking from Kisame-san's mouth.

I bit my lip worriedly. This was going to be difficult, but I was sure I could do it. First I reached a probing hand down into his chest. I sent out tendrils of chakra that knit the holes in Kisame-san's stomach closed. I felt like I was about to pass out from chakra exhaustion, but the dizziness quickly left me.

I took a shuddering breath and did the same to his lung. The lung too healed with out objection. Finally, I pressed my hand just below his ribcage and focused on taking out all the stomach acid.

I bit my lip to try, unsuccessfully, to stop the whimper from escaping my lips. My hand was covered in thick layers of blood. In fact if I looked in a mirror, I was sure that my whole body would be bloody, with Kisame-san's blood. In addition to that, my fingertips were charred from over using my chakra. Said chakra was practically nonexistent now. The world seemed to spin around me, even though I couldn't see it.

With my last remaining strength, I dug around in his bag until I emerged victorious. I had a fistful of bandages in my hands. I felt like I would lose consciousness any second as I struggled to wrap the bandages around his muscular chest to staunch the gash in his chest. I hadn't had enough chakra to heal that. Finally, I was complete.

I collapsed beside Kisame-san on the bed, closing my eyes instantly. I didn't care that the sheets were blood stained, or that I was covered in my blood; the smell of it was clogging my nose. I was too exhausted to care.

But I had done it. I was sure that Kisame-san would live now. So with a feeling of proud satisfaction, I let my body fall limp, and allowed myself to fall out of reality.

A/N okay, so there was the fourth chapter. I hope you all like it. I had fun writing this one. Anyway, please please please review (they really do help, I swear) and umm... see you all next time. : D