Chapter 2
Sakura, Tsunade and Shizune were literally doing everything within their power to save Naruto while Hinata was frozen with fear. Naruto was steadily dying in front of her and there was literally nothing she could but watch. Her fear and regrets was solidifying around her and it was too much.
Meanwhile inside Naruto…
"The walls are getting darker and closer" thought Naruto while Kyuubi sensed his host's concern
"We're dying then" said Kyuubi realizing that maybe this is why he was reluctant to tell his story
"I see..." said Naruto not really afraid of dying... just regretting somethings he never asked or said
"I'm impressed... at the lack of fear of death your best friend has caused you." mocked Kyuubi
"I will get to see ero-sennin, dad and mom again so it ain't so bad" laughed Naruto.
"YOU! You really do want to die! RELEASE ME" Kyuubi felt fear for the 1st time for a host... not one with a fear of death but one whelp welcomes it with open arms
"If I can't welcome death, how am I to welcome all of your hate?" and those words was all Kyuubi needed to fear his host completely especially after seeing a genuine smile on Naruto
"..."
"Goodbye everyone... Hinata... maybe in the next life" thought Naruto one last time before darkness swallowed him
"..."
Silence...
-with Naruto-
It felt like forever, but he didn't like lying down. Before he realized it, he was lying on something and therefore must exist. Not knowing if he was dead or alive, he merely opened his eyes.
He was on a simple bed. White sheets, white pillows and even white blankets. Looking around, he was in a simple room. No paint, no furniture, no books… nothing. Feeling something missing, he stood up and stepped outside the room. It was a corridor, he felt like going there and without any real reason to he went towards the end of it.
He saw people all wearing shirts, pants and slippers but what made each individual different is the color. Some were white, others red, a few yellow and a lot black. He looked at his own and noticed it was a yellow color surprised not noticing what clothing he was wearing before leaving the strange corridor. On the horizon, he saw a vast ocean just staring at him beautifully. Looking around, the people looked as if they were disturbed by something recently until heard his name being called.
"OI! GAKI! Come here you brat! You were almost late!" yelled Jiraiya
"…"
Naruto was in shock, he was seeing his sensei a bit younger and better looking than he was when he died. He slowly moved towards him, gaining in speed until he hugged him with a force of a small disaster.
"I thought you died!" replied Naruto sobbing at his sensei's chest noticing a yellow shirt on him.
"I am" said Jiraiya calmly and plainly
"Then that means?" yelled Naruto panicking.
"Oh hohoho not yet! But come here you! I am amazed at everything you did up to this point. I and your parents are so proud of you… makes me wonder why both of them are late…" wondered Jiraiya.
"bubut! If I can see you here, how the heck am I not dead…" retorted Naruto almost tearing up seeing his mom in a yellow shirt suddenly hugging him and closely followed by his father and old man Sarutobi both wearing a dark blue shirt.
"Naruto…I know your life was a hard one… and I don't deserve to be a father despite how proud I feel" started Minato while Kushina was hugging the life(er… afterlife?) out of her son.
"I dealt with it… I am your son… you and mom's" replied Naruto not wishing to leave this place. Kushina looked at his face with a kind of hunger, like she could never get enough of his face.
"Look at him! He's all grown up so fast. Where did my baby go?" wailed Kushina while Minato and Jiraiya merely smiled allowing her to be childish.
"I thought… dad was eaten by the shinigami? So why is he here?" asked Naruto.
"Too early for us to explain… and not yet time for you to know how death works… let's chat instead on what you'll do with your life now." Said Sarutobi while gesturing them at the nearest table.
"So… I heard you got some girls after you, you stud!" started Jiraiya earning him a fist from his mom
"I dunno about that… I think dying might have killed my chances" said Naruto being calm despite weirdly talking to his dead family.
"You have any regrets?" asked Kushina softly while Minato, he and Jiraiya just looked at each other with a message silently passing among them.
"I have to go back now do I?" asked Naruto seeing his father and master's face.
"It's up to you" said Sarutobi.
"I have a choice?" asked Naruto.
"Yes you do" suddenly said a different foreign voice. The source was a black coated man, with long red hair accompanied with what looked like his twin except with a white coat.
"Oh… you" gestured Minato earning a questioning look from Naruto.
"Who is they dad?" asked Naruto
"Kyuubi" simply replied his father while Naruto was looking at Kyuubi or rather Kyuubis
"Uh… why two?" asked Naruto
"The white one is trapped here with me, while the other is your Kyuubi" explained Minato while Naruto looked at both the Kyuubis and realized how non-threatening they are.
"Uhm… Kyuubi? Why do I have a choice?" asked Naruto not really afraid of him.
"You die, I will come back. Bijuus are forces of nature severed from one another… we will continue to exist so long as one of us remains bound on the impure plane. Your choice is to stay here away with your happiness or leave with me and go back to your pitiful excuse of a body." Explained Kyuubi in the black coat.
"Er… why my body?" asked Naruto
"You stole my chakras whelp, therefore your body will act as medium for me to return and form a new body. Bear in mind that your body will transform into my liking in front of your so called precious ones and I will devour them." Replied Kyuubi while the other white Kyuubi just look wistfully at his other self possibly jealous of him. Naruto smiled a bit when he saw how jealous you can be to yourself.
"What's so funny gaki?" asked Jiraiya.
"I can't believe dad's Kyuubi is jealous of my kyuubi, that's all" said Naruto surprising both Kyuubis
"Can you blame me? Kami prevents me from going rampage in this plane while I get to observe my other half have all the fun. It's my worst nightmare." Said the white Kyuubi getting a laugh from everyone.
"I have to go back then… can't let Kyuubi have my body… yet" smirked Naruto getting a pissed off look from the white Kyuubi while an amused expression from black Kyuubi.
"Just remember us all the time, and pick a woman like your mom." Said Minato.
"And definitely work on your sage mode. Could use an upgrade" said Jiraiya slowly being engulfed in light
"Learn some ninjutsu for Kami's sake and stop relying too much on your Rasengan variations" said Sarutobi
"And be a gentleman through and through alright?" said Kushina.
"Tell me one last thing… is this all just happening in my head or real?" asked Naruto
"Of course it's just happening in your head, why shouldn't it mean it isn't real?" they all replied before fading.
-Back in the hospital room-
The unmistakable sound of death... a flatline...
The sound reverberating around the room for the past 10 minutes and all 4 women wouldn't believe it... after everything they had seen from Naruto, they couldn't accept the horrible truth. Their faces pale, whitened from both exhaustion and dread. Hinata wouldn't accept the horrible truth in front of her.
Hinata slowly walked towards him... Tsunade couldn't even find the strength to stop her... Sakura was equally if not more shocked than anything that Naruto died... everyone else truly believed he would be fine after a day's rest especially seeing everything her teammate and friend has ever done.
"I HATE YOU!" screamed Hinata at Naruto while using every chakra she had into that particular jyuuken blow. The other 3 women looked at her in surprise.
"I HATE YOU FOR LEAVING ME, FOR NOT ANSWERING ME, FOR NOT NOTICING ME... FOR... FOR... NOT EVEN SAYING GOODBYE..." said Hinata throwing one punch with every word and finally collapsing after the last word crying on top of him...
"..."
Tsunade was shocked at her behavior but listening to her made her unable to move; tears silently falling on her face. Tsunade was yet again forced to witness someone who promised her the title of Hokage dying in front of her. Sakura started to cry, Hinata was sobbing uncontrolably over his chest and Shizune just hugged Tonton at a loss of what to do. None of them could bear the emptiness and the despair
*BEEP*
"..."
Hinata stopped crying... She felt it... A heartbeat in him... when he was dead for 10 mins... She prayed.
*BEEP*
A hand suddenly touched Hinata's head. She wanted to believe it was Naruto's... She hoped with every fiber of her being it was Naruto...Looking up, she saw Naruto looking at her... Eyes barely open, an expression of utmost pain but still miraculously alive.
"Next time, I prefer an alarm clock Hinata..." whispered Naruto weakly.
Color flooded into everyone's faces, Hinata hugged him so fiercely crying on top of his head not even caring she was pressing his head on her breasts.
"Your alive! Your alive!" whispered Hinata weakly smiling for the first time in hours after going through so much emotions, her body literally shaking from it. Tightly holding his scalp, Naruto winced at the additional pain but felt slightly embarrassed and happy being in his current position.
"Hinata, let go of him for a bit before you suffocate him... and do rest after this." suggested Tsunade checking up Naruto
"Hai.. Tsunade-sama... *sniff*" said Hinata weakly while Naruto looked around.
"Where's everybody else?" asked Naruto weakly.
"Nobody really wanted to come in while Hinata was here, except us medic nins." replied Shizune quietly.
Chakra was slowly being pushed within him. Naruto felt it was Kyuubi's and they narrowly escaped death. He could already feel Kyuubi fixing him from within while Tsunade was giving him a thorough checkup making sure she didn't miss anything. He noticed the tear lines in their faces and realized what he had put them through.
"I'm glad your back among us again Naruto, you had us really worried... baka... scaring us like that." said Sakura weakly.
"You got us all worried... especially... " said Shizune before silencing from the glare Sakura was giving her
"I... wasn't that worried...that much" blushed Hinata while remembering everything she said hoping Naruto never heard any of it.
"He's going need exercise, a lot of food and definitely rest but he's stable and alive." announced Tsunade after one last check while Shizune went out to inform the people apparently outside.
"Anything serious we should know?" asked Sakura while Hinata was just glad Naruto is fine.
"We're lucky Hinata used Jyuuken... Kyuubi probably reacted to the sensation and immediately restarted its own automated way of defending itself kick starting Naruto" reasoned Tsunade shaking her head in his pseudo-son's dumb luck.
"... Water..." said Naruto weakly Hinata forgetting her embarrassment and just handing him a glass of water not caring how he lived but appreciating every bit of him. Her utmost look of concern was enough to silence the other women and leave them alone.
"Sakura, Shizune, I need you in my office for a bit" said Tsunade gesturing her out of the room.
"Hai Tsunade-sama" said the both of them before leaving Hinata and Naruto quite alone.
Hinata noticing this quickly considered her options. One, she could tend to his every need which she will gladly do or ask if he was fine alone and leave as she was still embarrassed on how she reacted. However, before she could even consider what to do Naruto had already set down the glass and tried to get up.
"Naruto-kun! Stay still! Tsunade-sama said you need lots of rest" said Hinata immediately after watching him try to get up a bit, slip and nearly fall sideways before catching him while Naruto merely grunted. He then gestured her to come nearer for him to whisper something
"Help me, I need to sit upright... being inclined... hard to breathe" wheezed Naruto. Hinata propping up some pillows and then helped Naruto position himself better
"Arigato..." said Naruto weakly while watching Hinata's expressions from curious, happy then worried all within the same second.
"If you need anything Naruto-kun, I'll be more than happy to help" said Hinata shyly but looking at him all the same. Seeing Naruto gesture for the second time for her to come closer, she put herself near him so near in fact, he could smell her. He smelled the aftermath of war on her, he thought she hasn't left his side since the war and saw the tear streaks on her slightly pale face.
"Hinata... " began Naruto
Meanwhile outside the room…
"10 days Naruto asks her out" bets Sakura
"4 days" said Ino
"9 days" said Neji
"1 week" said Tsunade confident of the time allotment
"13 days" said Chouji
"5 days" said Kiba
"... 2 " said Shino
"1 day 8 hours from now" said Shikamaru finally after considering all options
"EH?" was everyone's else reaction while Gaara simply shook his head making a mental note of 3days and 5hrs seeing as that was his time frame before he got his 1st date after the Ichibi being extracted.
"...Gomen" said Naruto
"There's... nothing to be sorry about." replied Hinata not knowing what he was talking about.
"For making you worry... and... for almost not saying goodbye..." said Naruto quietly while Hinata went completely red but having a pained expression on her face
"I..." Hinata began before sitting down next to Naruto "wanted to become strong. You... inspire me, encourage me when we were just fresh graduates and those feelings started to build up... I wanted to express them. I fell for you..." said Hinata quietly but with as much confidence as she could muster while her emotions were still unstable
"Why me?... There's a lot of great guys out there... better than me." said Naruto quietly.
"NO THERE ISN'T!" yelled Hinata anger etched in her beautiful face
"..."
"You're confident in yourself! You act as if nothing can faze you and that's with a Kyuubi inside you! You can wake up every day believing that every next day is better than yesterday and that was when we were kids!" reasoned Hinata tears falling from her
"..." Naruto quietly watched wanting Hinata to go on... He was certain there were a lot of things she wanted to tell him and truthfully he wanted to find out more.
"I... am a coward, I can only watch you, spy at you, hope to be put on missions with you, I hated Sakura for having your heart hoping that you'll eventually notice my affections and exchange her for me but even when I wanted to show them, all I did was feint. I was completely miserable when you left, I spent time becoming stronger, tried going out on dates, hoping to forget you or lessen my love for you!"
"..."
"But when you came back, I was happy and you looked so confident, so thrilled to be home, unhurt and your smile was brilliant. I felt happy seeing your growth so…perfect to my liking even more and even then I fell even more in love with you and while I did date some, I thought I wouldn't be able to confess. I lacked the confidence despite dating actually improving my so called reputation amongst the guys and the girls…" continued Hinata misery etched on her face.
"..."
"Please... say something... Naruto...I… want you to at least say something… anything…" said Hinata weakly silently looking at Naruto straight in the eye
"... I don't know how to love..." was all Naruto could reply
"Eh..." Hinata stared at Naruto waiting for him to continue.
"You're jealous of Sakura because you think I love her. Maybe I do, maybe I don't. I realized what it was when I was traveling with Jiraiya. He pointed out that it's either love or a childhood crush and that maybe it was something that I had to get out of my system." continued Naruto
"He doesn't love her! He doesn't love her!" was all that Hinata was processing.
"I love no one in this village... as another woman... all the love I had was from a need... a desire to call someone my family... my precious few." continued Naruto watching Hinata for any change. He noticed both misery and happiness radiate at the same time. Girls are weird.
"Don't get me wrong Hinata, I love you as a comrade, I love Sakura probably as a teammate and as the closest thing to a sister and everybody I love them in their own special way... but... I don't know... how to love another woman" finished Naruto not looking at Hinata.
"..." Hinata slowly got up, got nearer to Naruto...
"What are you…" Naruto never finished the sentence as Hinata kissed him, it was a slow kiss. While being repaired by Kyuubi, he was in tuned to everyone else's feelings, he could read Hinata's and what he saw was wonderful.
Warm, gentle, kind… hunger, desperation, sadness, understanding…He remembered theses feeling as he felt it through the kiss. Then different emotions showed… concern, faith, trust, lust, envy, pride and yearning.
Hinata poured everything she couldn't say and after doing so, she stopped. She stood suddenly and gave Naruto the most brilliant smile he'd ever seen then she did something even more surprising or rather intriguing, she feinted.
"HINATA!" yelled Naruto as Neji peeked using his Byakugan after hearing his cousin's name.
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AN: you notice the reference to HP7. DAMN... can't believe no more HP T_T ah well