I do not own any anime or any video games….
Hidden Leaf Hospital; 11:00 pm
With Sai Saici….
The doctors quickly took Hinata to the ER on a stretcher as absolute panic erupt, Naruto, Kurenai, Kiba, Shino and I were following right behind to the ER.
"Hinata please stay with us," Naruto pleaded as he held Hinata's right hand, "Please stay awake."
Hinata was about to reply but she ended up coughing up blood, she was suffering internal bleeding from the looks of it.
"Yo, you guys go on ahead," I said as I came to a stop, "I'm gonna try to call Hiashi and the others."
They continued rushing down the hallway until they all disappeared behind the metal doors of the ER, I quickly took out my cellphone and called Hinata's father.
"Damn, it goes straight to voicemail!" I angrily hissed, "Shit maybe Neji, he's probably at the crib still."
After I dialed the numbers the first person to answer the phone was Tenten, "Tenten, is Neji at the house?" I asked her.
"No he stepped out for a minute, what's wrong?" she asked, noticing the tone in my voice.
"Tell him to get his ass down here to the Hidden Leaf Hospital ASAP; Hinata's been in a car wreck on top of Mt. Konoha and her injuries are severe!"
Suddenly I turned around after hearing the sound of a door being swung open, Kurenai came rushing out of the ER, "Sai Saici, the doctors need to talk to you." She said.
I quickly gave a nod and tried to finish talking to Ten-Ten who was still on the cell phone trying to call out to me, "Tenten look, there's no time to talk I got to go, just tell Neji and the rest of the Hyuga family to get down here!"
Meanwhile back home in America, Deangelo is asleep in his room as the snowstorms began to enter the city of Birmingham, after a long day of hanging out with family he completely cuts his cellphone off. Not realizing that his young brother Sai Saici is trying to contact him.
A new day emerges as the sun creeps over the horizon…..
Birmingham, AL.
Deangelo's apartment; 7:35 a.m.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007.
With Deangelo…..
*CRASH*
"Oh great…" I muttered sleepily, as I accidentally knocked over some of my tools that were lying on a table.
Trying to wipe the sleep from my eyes I got a closer look and saw my cellphone buried underneath the cluster of heavy tools, I sluggishly reached down, picked up the cellphone, and tried to make it cut on.
When it did the screen was messed up and cracked, "Well that's just fuckin' perfect." I said.
I turned around and took a quick glance out of the window and saw the snow covered city of Birmingham, the streets were completely empty and covered with snow, there were young children outside playing and there were a few vehicles that were driving slowly on the ice covered roads.
The sight alone was quite mesmerizing but at the same time shocking, the last time Birmingham had snow like this was back in 93,' I was only three years old back then (Naruto and Sai Saici were two years old) but I can still remember playing around in the snow like it was yesterday.
Beyond that we've been getting nothing but harsh and cold weather, every now and then we got just a sprinkle of frozen rain but it wasn't enough to stick to the ground, on other occasions we mostly got rain which was no big deal.
When snow is mentioned on the radar in places like New York, Detroit, Chicago and other areas it's nothing new to most of them. But for people like us who live in the southern part of the United States it's like the end of the world is coming, I would sit outside in a parking lot of a grocery store and see people come out with milk, eggs, water and bread. (Author side note: I'm very serious here people and I know some of you folks who live in the areas I mentioned are probably laughing right now, but it's new to us southern people because we hardly get any snow at all.)
Birmingham don't even have trucks to plow the snow off the roads around here, so if you got to go somewhere important, you're gonna have to wait until the snow has melted.
I reached over and got the house phone to call my mother and check up on her that is until I found out the phone line was out, "Shit man," I thought, "Looks like I'm gonna have to walk to Norwood."
Later on…..
Marconi Park; 8:17 a.m.
I walked past the old Powell Elementary School as I carefully went down the snow covered sidewalk trying not to fall; the whole city was quiet until I heard an airplane flying overhead, even though I was wearing heavy clothes I was still shivering like a leaf.
I quickly went across the street and took a shortcut through the apartment complexes, as I cut through the backyards I saw somebody trying to scrape the snow off of a vehicle.
The person was a male who was the same height as me; he was white and had on some solid black snow boots, blue jean pants, a white heavy coat and a pair of solid black snow gloves.
His name was Troy Wellington, one of my classmates who goes to Carver with me, Troy was in the 11th grade and was older than me.
Everybody in the school nicknamed him "Cowboy Troy" because he originally came from Austin, Texas; his parents own a huge farm growing all types of crops.
Plus most of the time Troy is usually seen walking around with a cowboy hat on, Troy has a huge love for street racing and his most favorite type of vehicle is muscle cars, he doesn't like choppers however because his father had a nasty accident on one a couple of years ago that left him temporarily paralyzed from the waist down.
"Ahh Dee, long time no hear man." Troy said in his Texan accent.
"Yeah man, it's been a while since we last talked," I replied, looking at the car that troy was trying to get the snow off of, "So this must be the car that you're gonna work on?"
"Oh yeah and man I can't wait, this baby's gonna fly down the road when I'm done with it!"
I reached over and took a portion of the snow off the trunk of the vehicle and saw that the car was a Chevy Camaro (I figured, because the way it was shaped), looks like it was a 1969 or a 1968 model, the vehicle was in very bad shape.
There were cracks in the paintjob and in certain areas the paint was chipping off, there were numerous of rust spots all over the car, the windows of the Camaro were cracked and had a few holes in them.
The interior was in more awful shape than the outside, there was a driver seat but no passenger seat and the driver seat was old, cracked, and torn. A portion of the dashboard was damaged and torn off and some of the gauges were missing, there was no carpeting on the floor just bare and rusted metal, the gear shift was missing and there were no seats in the back at all.
"So when are you planning on working on this ride?" I asked him.
Troy finished scraping the last bit of snow off the roof of the car, "Probably the summer of next year," he answered, "That way I'll have plenty of time to work on it, and while you're here I got to show you the engine that I managed to get also."
I followed Troy into the basement area, he flicked the light on which illuminated the whole room, in the corner was an engine that was covered with a white tarp.
"Catching a look at this baby is gonna put a smile on your face." He said as he walked over and grabbed the tarp.
He wasn't lying either with what he said, when he took the sheet off I had a huge grin on my face, "Dude you never cease to amaze do you?" I asked, Troy just chuckled.
The engine was a 5.7L supercharged V8 from a 2006 Corvette, "My dad is gonna help me install the engine once we're done with the outside." Troy informed.
We headed back outside into the cold and snowy weather, Troy open the driver side door and started to get some of the snow out of the vehicle, "What are you gonna do the rest of the day?" I asked him.
"Shit, once I'm done with gettin' the snow out, I'll probably stay inside and watch TV," He answered, "How's Naruto and Sai Saici doing anyway, have you talked to them?"
"Yeah, last night I did, I'll probably call them once I get to my mother's house."
Troy and I said our goodbyes and I continued on heading to Norwood.
Norwood.
Laura's House; 8:30 a.m.
"Deangelo, have you called Sai Saici at all?" my mother asked as she opened the front door for me.
"I can't, the phone line is down and my cellphone is broken, what's going on?" I asked, with a concern look on my face.
"I have no idea; he left a text message on my cellphone around 11:55 last night." She replied, as she got her phone off the living room sofa and gave it to me.
Scrolling through the messages I managed to come across the text Sai Saici sent: "Please contact Deangelo, he's not answering his cellphone or house phone, tell him it's an emergency."
I headed out on the front porch and called Sai Saici, "I wonder what's going on?" I thought.
After a few rings my brother managed to answer the phone, "Yo Sai Saici, what's up?" I asked him.
"Deangelo man…." was all that my brother said.
"Sai Saici what's wrong?"
"It's Hinata….she wrecked on Mt. Konoha." He answered.
I shook my head as complete and utter shock took over me, I sat down in a chair as I place my left hand on my forhead, "How's Hinata?" I asked him, "is she alright?"
There was absolute silence on the other side of the phone, for a minute I thought Sai Saici had a lost signal.
"Sai Saici? Hello?"
"Deangelo…man…she's dead."
Later that night…..
Deangelo's apartment; 8:45 p.m.
"My name is Deangelo Manson, what's your name?"
"H-Hinata Hyūga."
"Don't worry about those punks, they won't be bothering you anymore, anyone who's a friend of Naruto is a friend of mine!"
Those are the exact words I said when I first met Hinata, I can still remember it like it was yesterday, it was during the summer of 1998 (we were little kids back then).
We were in the Hidden Leaf Park having fun on the playground, Choji came to Sai Saici and I telling us that some older kids were bullying and beating up Naruto, turn to find out Naruto was defending Hinata who was being picked on as well.
Me, Sai Saici, Kiba, and Neji cliqued up and came to their aid scaring the bullies off, the first time I saw Hinata she was timid, shy, and didn't really say much. Because of her personality I nicknamed her "Shy-Shy," over time she started to muster up a little bit of courage and began hanging out with us but mostly with Naruto.
As the years pass Hinata's feelings towards Naruto got stronger and stronger, finally during the mid-part of the 21st century she confessed her love to him, eventually the two finally became an item.
I spent all day mourning over Hinata's death, Sai Saici told me that Naruto is an emotional wreck right now, I can only imagine.
This is the third time Naruto has lost someone important to him, first his mother, then Minato, and now Hinata.
I poked my head out from underneath the covers and stared endlessly out the window, tears were streaming down the sides of my face as I looked at the dark cloudy skies, "Why god?" I thought, "Why Hinata? Sweet, innocent, fun-loving Hinata?"
My new cellphone (that I got from mom) started to vibrate in my pants pocket, I grabbed the phone and pressed the screen with my finger, I thought it was Sai Saici texting me.
"Are you coming to the funeral?-Neji," wiping the tears from my eyes I sat up and started to text back.
"Yes, I am coming, when and where will it be held?-Deelow," with a press of a button I sent the reply to Neji.
A few minutes later I got another text from Neji, "Funeral is being held at the Hidden Leaf Cathedral Church Saturday at 12:30 pm."
I started texting back, "I'll try to make it there, the Birmingham Airport is closed right now due to the snowstorm and the forecast says there's supposed to be more snow coming later on this week."
After I finished sending the reply back to Neji I used the cellphone to call the Birmingham Airport.
The next day…..
Birmingham Airport; 12:22 p.m.
Thursday, December 27th, 2007.
Waiting in the long lines, getting your bags checked, and getting pat down by the TSA was hell on earth in itself.
The airport was overcrowded with people who were trying to get back home or trying to go visit someone, I glanced up at the information board which showed all the flights that were either canceled or being put "on hold."
So far the flight to Konoha was being put on hold as of now, I sat nervously in a chair hoping and praying that the flight doesn't get canceled.
I've been here at this airport since 3:00 a.m. and I was tired and sleepy, I was trying to keep awake but it was hard, I covered my face with both hands and let out a sigh of both frustration and fatigue.
"Oh Deangelo, what are you doing here?" an unknown voice said.
I looked up and saw a dark-skinned girl who had green colored eyes and had light-grey colored hair that was pulled back into a bun with two bangs that fall on either side of her face.
She wore a black colored sweater, blue jean pants and black colored Chuck Taylor shoes; she also wore a pair of expensive diamond earrings.
"Oh hey Mabui," I said as she sat down next to me, "I'm waiting for my flight to Konoha."
Mabui is Killer Bees (and his older brother's) assistant; she too is Afro-Japanese and comes from Kumogakure, she came here to the USA to help Bee out with his rapping career.
At the Sheraton Hotel (where she works at) I usually help her out with certain task, mostly because I have a crush on her, she was 20 and I was 17. Man if I was just a little older I would certainly ask her out on a date.
"You about to head off somewhere too?" I asked her.
"Actually I'm waiting for 'A' to get here." She replied.
"Really, Bee's brother is coming down here?"
She nodded, "He's wants to start a chapter in Kumogakure, hopefully Yamamoto will give the green light."
Knowing Yamamoto like I know him, he probably wouldn't mind in the least bit, the Midnight Club needs to expand more.
Its real heavy in Konoha and of course in Tokyo, Japan (that's where it originated from anyway), and it's extremely active here in America the membership alone is through the roof.
Suddenly the announcer over the intercom came on and was about to deliver some very dark and terrible news, "Attention passengers, flight 113 has been canceled I repeat, flight 113 has been canceled."
Everyone in the airport groaned and cursed in frustration including me.
"All this for nothing man." I groaned.
Inside I was extremely upset, by the time I get to Konoha it'll be after the funeral or a day after the funeral.
"Hey Mabui, you have time to get a drink or something?" I asked her as I took out my cellphone and started to text.
Mabui looked at her watch, "Yeah…I have little time before 'A' shows up."
Saturday finally arrives and the funeral is going to start real soon, the church is starting to fill up gradually. Most of the Hyuga family has showed up along with those who are close friends with Hinata, the only ones that haven't showed yet is Hinata's father, mother, younger sister, Neji and Naruto…..
Saturday, December 29th, 2007.
Hidden Leaf Cathedral Church; 11:59 a.m.
With Sai Saici, Kiba, and Shino….
I poked my head through the door to see the upper balcony completely full of people, the majority of which are the Konoha street racers; I saw Ino and Sakura placing roses inside the casket I could tell that they were trying to keep it together but it was hard.
The main floor consist members of the Hyuga family, the Hyugas were a big and wealthy family living near Little New York, they were labeled as being the second most biggest and wealthiest family in the city so far.
"Yo Sai Saici, any news on Deangelo?" Kiba asked, as he tried to straighten his tie.
"He says that he'll be here after the funeral," I answered shutting the door behind me, "He was supposed to arrive at the Konoha Airport yesterday, but the snowstorm hit Birmingham so hard the air officials had to cancel his flight."
While Kiba and I were still talking Shino was outside looking out for Naruto and the others, I'm surprised that they haven't showed up yet, really I'm surprised they're not the first ones to show at the church.
Out of everyone Naruto is really the most upset, to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if Naruto didn't show up to the funeral today, Naruto is in such a depressed state I'm afraid he might end up taking his own life.
Naruto doesn't have anybody now; I mean he still got his friends, me, Deangelo, and Deangelo's family but he doesn't have anyone to love.
Hinata was the first and only person that understood Naruto, deep down Naruto could trust Hinata with a lot of things.
Suddenly Shino came walking in through the front door, "Hey guys, they're here." He informed.
Outside I could see Naruto getting out of a black colored stretched limo along with Neji, Hiashi, Hanabi, and Hiashi's wife.
Hiashi looked just like his brother Hizashi Hyuga; he had long dark brown hair and featureless white eyes like all members of the Hyuga family.
Hanabi had dark brown hair with long bangs and white eyes; she looked like a younger version of Neji.
Hiashi's wife had long black hair and also had white eyes; she looked like an extremely older version of Hinata.
"I'll go inform the others that they're here." I said as I headed into the main floor area.
Later on that day…..
Konoha Airport; 3:00 p.m.
With Deangelo…..
As I stood outside of the airport, I was about to hail a taxi, that is until I saw Neji's Lamborghini sitting in the parking lot area.
I quickly jogged across the street and knocked on the passenger side window of the exotic sports car, Neji reached over and unlocked the door for me, "Hey man." I said as i placed my suitcase on the floor and got inside of the vehicle.
"Hey Dee, glad you came man." He replied as he started the vehicle.
I placed a bouquet of flowers on the dashboard, "Yeah, I had to, sorry I couldn't come earlier," I said, "The snowstorm hit Birmingham hard."
"Its okay man, as long as you showed up, that's all that matters."
Taking a quicker route to the Hidden Leaf Cemetery Neji drove through a neighborhood that I knew all too well, the area had a lot of apartments and a few houses, across the street from the apartments was the Hidden Leaf Elementary School where Shikamaru and the others used to attend.
Down the street from the school was the old corner store that Naruto, Sai Saici, and I would go to buy candy (and steal a few adult magazines).
Next to the store was a small ramen noodles restaurant where Naruto, Hinata, and the others chilled out at all the time.
In between the store and the restaurant was an alleyway, when Naruto, Sai Saici, and I were younger we would take a shortcut through the alley which lead to the playground.
We created our own little route that took us to the playground even quicker by jumping from tree to tree, that's how we managed to learn parkour and free-running.
"Takes you back some huh Deangelo?" Neji asked as he noticed me looking around.
"Yeah it does," I answered, "Had some fun times here, it won't be the same without….Hinata hanging around. God I'm gonna miss her man."
"We all are Deangelo, we all are."
Hidden leaf Cemetery; 3:25 p.m.
There were still a handful of people left when Neji and I arrived at the cemetery; among them were Hiashi, his wife, and Hanabi.
I looked around the area for my brothers but they were nowhere to be found, "They must've gone back to the crib." I thought.
Neji and I walked past Minato and his wife's (Kushina Uzumaki) tombstones, both of which had bouquet of flowers lying on top of them. Every Christmas and on birthdays Naruto would come out here and leave flowers on his parent's graves and say a prayer.
Neji and I slowly walked up towards the light blue colored casket that had Hinata inside, Hiashi and the others were quiet as they noticed me get down on my knees and prayed silently, after a few minutes I got up and placed the flowers on top of the casket.
"You were a good friend Hinata, I loved you like a sister," I whispered as a tear went running down my left cheek, "You may be gone physically but you will always be here with us in our hearts. Requiescat in pace Hinata, we will truly miss you."
"Thank you for showing up Deangelo, it means a lot to us." Hiashi's wife said as she gave me a hug.
"Sorry I didn't show up before the funeral."
"It's quite alright Deangelo." Hiashi replied.
Sometime later…..
Naruto's house; 4:13 p.m.
With Sai Saici…
*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*
"That's probably Deangelo." I thought as I got off the couch, not too long ago he sent me a text saying that he was here in Konoha.
After the funeral Kiba and a few others decided to hang around here for a minute or two, I asked Kurenai if the team was gonna split up or bring in another street racer to take Hinata's place, so far Kurenai, Kiba, and Shino haven't decided on anything for now.
I opened the front door expecting to see Deangelo but instead it was Nagato, "Hey Sai Saici, is Naruto in?" he asked.
"He's upstairs, but he doesn't want any visitors right now." I answered.
"I see, well tell Naruto that he has my condolences, I heard about Hinata's death from a friend. Tell Naruto that if he needs somebody to talk to, tell him that he's always welcome to come over to my house. I know what it is like to lose loved ones, it's not easy man, it's not easy at all, and I feel his pain."
I gave a small nod, "Thanks Nagato, I'll tell him that."
Suddenly Neji's Lamborghini pulled up into the driveway in the passenger seat was Deangelo, "So that's Deangelo huh?" Nagato asked as he started to leave.
"Yeah that's him." I answered back.
Deangelo emerged from the Lamborghini and was given a short meet and greet by Nagato who eventually got back into his Toyota Aristo and left, with the honk of the horn Neji backed the Lamborghini out of the driveway and headed off back to the Hyuga residence.
"So who's the guy driving in the Aristo?" Deangelo asked me out of curiosity.
"That was Nagato, he was Hinata's opponent on Mt. Konoha last night." I replied.
"Oh ok, I stopped by the graveyard and had a long chat with the Hyugas, they're taking it pretty hard…..how's Naruto?"
I didn't answer him, the expression on my face was all that he needed to know, "I see." Was all that came out of Deangelo's mouth.
"Since Hinata's death, he hasn't talked to anybody, and he hasn't eaten," I said, "He's upstairs in bed buried underneath the covers."
Deangelo came inside the house and placed his suitcase on the living room floor and headed upstairs.
With Deangelo…..
*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*
"Naruto, it's me." I said hoping my brother would answer back.
I got no response at all; I reached down and twisted the doorknob as I slowly walked into the bedroom.
All the shades inside the room were down and the room was somewhat cold, and just like Sai Saici said Naruto was lying in the bed completely buried underneath the covers.
"Naruto?" I said calling out to him, but again I didn't get a response.
I let out a soft sigh, "He's really taking this hard," I thought, "I feel so bad for him right now it ain't even funny."
Reaching into my pants pocket I pulled out a small object and placed it on the table next to the bed, "Hanabi told me to give that to you," I said as I headed back out the door, "If you need anything let me know, I'll be downstairs."
What I left on the table was the necklace that Naruto gave to Hinata on Christmas day, it still had a picture of him and Hinata inside the heart shaped locket, as I closed the door behind me I could hear a small jingle being played from the locket as Naruto opened it and looked at the photo.
It's been two weeks since the accident and nobody has heard or seen Naruto, many start to worry about him, among those are Ino and Sakura. As the two head over to Naruto's house the girls managed to bump into Sai Saici.
Sunday, January 13th, 2008.
North Konoha; 12:23 p.m.
With Sai Saici…..
"Thanks for the lift Sai Saici we appreciate it." Sakura said.
"No problem, I know ya'll been extremely worried about Naruto." I said as I put the RX-7 in third gear.
"How is Naruto doing?" Ino asked.
"He's been doing okay; he's a lot better than he was two weeks ago."
Sakura sighed in relief, "I'm glad to hear that."
"Oh yeah, Deangelo and Naruto have been talking to each other for a good minute, you know how Deangelo gets when he gets to preaching the gospel." I said.
"A few people told me that some of Deangelo's speeches are a real eye opener." Stated Ino.
"Yeah, through the good times and the bad, Deangelo has always been there to lend a helping hand. I guess you can say that's why a lot of people like Deangelo and a lot of people look up to Deangelo because he's always been the voice of reason guy."
Finally arriving at the apartment I drove into the driveway and shut the car off, Ino and Sakura got out of the RX-7 along with me, "After two weeks I'm sure Naruto will be glad to see you, of course you two will get a chance to meet Deangelo as well." I said as we walked up towards the front door.
Suddenly I noticed a white envelope taped on the front door and it had the Uzumaki family symbol on it, "What's this?" Sakura said as she took the letter off the door.
The front of the envelope had the words "To all of my friends" written on the front, Sakura reached into the envelope and took out a letter that was written by Naruto.
All three of us started to read what was on the paper: "To all of my friends I have to say thank you for attending Hinata's funeral, thank you for sticking by me and not making me lose faith and hope, if it wasn't for all of you I would've probably committed suicide by now. For those of you who come across this letter, I have left Konoha and I am returning back to America, as for Team 7 I am officially done with the team. As for street racing in general I am no longer going to race anymore and as for me coming back down here to Konoha, this will be my last time coming down here again, I wish you all the best of luck and good fortune….yours truly, Naruto Uzumaki."
"W-what!" all of us said simultaneously with shock written on our face, we all rushed inside the apartment and started to call out for Naruto, but the whole place was empty there was no sign of Naruto and no sign of Deangelo either.
"He's….gone…he's actually gone." Sakura said as she sat down on the sofa with the letter still in her hand.
Ino and I just stood there with disbelief our faces, Naruto and Deangelo didn't call and tell me anything about this at all.
A few hours earlier…
Hidden Leaf Cemetery; 10:00 a.m.
With Deangelo…
"I'm done Deangelo," Naruto said as he and I stood near Hinata's tombstone, "I'm giving up on street racing and I'm quitting the team."
Under normal circumstances I would have told Naruto that he was insane, but after losing a loved one in street racing I can't really blame him, "Well, if that's what you want to do, I'm not gonna stop you," I said as I let out a sigh, "You want to round up all your friends so you can tell them about your decision?"
Naruto reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a white envelope, "Nah this letter will do, knowing Sai Saici he'll probably be the first person to see the letter on the front door and tell everyone about the bad news." He stated.
I took out my cellphone and looked at the time, "Well the plane won't get here until later on this evening, you still have time to buy some tickets." I said.
"I know but before I do anything, there's one thing I need to do and I'm gonna need your help Deangelo." Naruto said.
"What do you need help with?"
"Hinata's S14, it's at the junkyard and I want to take the car back to America with me, I want to repair it back to the way it was." Naruto answered.
I placed my hand on Naruto's shoulder and gave him a smile, "Okay man, if that's what you want to do than I'm willing to help, and I'll help repair the car as well."
A tear came rolling down Naruto's cheek as he smiled, "Thanks bro, we'll repair the car in memory of Hinata-Chan."
Next chapter coming up.
