Being blinded by her tears she ran as fast as she could, willing her legs to carry her further and for her chest to stop burning. She was tired. She was so incredibly tired. But no matter how badly her body wanted to, she couldn't stop moving.

Stumbling over a couple of rocks she fell onto all fours roughly, scraping her knees through her pants and rubbing her palms against the hard, rough ground. Wincing slightly at the pain her eyes widened at the sight of her hands; bright red glared back at her.

Standing herself back up abruptly she harshly wiped her hands on her vest, desperately trying to wipe of the blood.

Neji's blood.

But the action did her no good; the blood was already dried. It was under her fingernails, in between her fingers, even staining the sleeves of her shirt.

She couldn't save him. Starting to run again she attempted to blink back a new wave of tears but the attempt was futile. As she picked up her speed she yelled at herself mentally, angry with her inability to do anything, her inability to save him.

Obito's haunting voice still echoed through her head, taunting Naruto and torturing her heart with the words he'd spoken.

Byakugan activated she ran as fast as she could, her vision focused on one thing and one thing only; Naruto's weakened heart-rate.

Come on, she begged silently, hang in there Naruto-kun. Please, please hold on.

Sprinting through the battlefield over countless corpses and dodging kunai and shuriken with every step she took, she struggled hard to keep herself focused ahead of her. She didn't want to see the bodies beneath her feet; she was scared she might recognize some of their faces.

Before she could reach him, she felt his heart beat disappear, his heart stopping in its tracks completely.

"No," she whispered to herself, heart sinking, "no…"

Pushing her legs faster her tears only flowed harder, before she knew it she was sobbing. She wasn't going to reach him in time. She wasn't going to be able to save him.

Just like Neji, a voice in the back of her head taunted.

No. No, she wouldn't let him die. She couldn't let him die.

But as she stared intently, not taking her eyes off his chest across the battlefield, she began to feel sick to her stomach. His heart was hauntingly still.

She closed the gap between them within the next minute, skidding to a stop by his side. Placing one hand on his cheek and another on his chest she lit her hand up with chakra, trying hard to search for the problem. What had happened? One moment he was alright and the next his heart was failing. Looking around desperately confusion immediately took hold of her when she couldn't find Sakura. Scanning the area with her byakugan she searched for the medic; hadn't she been working over Naruto while Hinata was approaching, and suddenly she was—

"There's nothing you can do."

Eyes shooting up she froze when her byakugan met a pair of bright purple rinnegan.

"The kyuubi is now mine," Madara spoke, pulling a black bar out from his sleeve slowly. "No one can survive an extraction."

"No," she whispered, eyes widening, turning back toward Naruto, "that—that can't be."

"All of you will die if you keep fighting," gripping the black rod he pointed it toward her, the end of it only centimeters from her nose. "Give up. Or die."

"He—he can't die," she cried, in denial of what was happening, "I can… I need to save him."

Turning her back on Madara, not caring what happened to her, she placed her hands on his chest and began to press again and again. As she worked over him she couldn't hold in her tears as they fell on his bare, dirty chest.

She hadn't even been working for ten seconds when she was struck on the side of the head, cast aside like a rag doll. Skidding to a halt a few meters away from Naruto, her hand went directly to her head; pulling it back she inhaled sharply as she took note of the fresh blood covering up the old.

"You will not get that chance," the haunting voice spoke coldly.

Turning her head back toward him, her stomach sank as she watched Madara lift of the rod and point it directly at Naruto's head.

Before she could stand up, before she could shout out, the rod had been thrown faster than her byakugan could follow, sinking into Naruto's skull with ease.

Shooting up in bed she gasped immediately, clamping her hands down tightly over her mouth in an attempt to hold in her cries. She let out a muffled shout, her fear paralyzing her as tears flowed heavily down her face.

The logical side of her mind knew that it was a dream, but she was so terrified; it had felt so vivid, so real. Hinata's body shook harshly, her breathing erratic as she moved to get out of the bed and stand up.

Naruto was okay. Naruto had to be okay. He was fine… wasn't he?

Still trapped in her post-nightmare panic she shuffled around the room quickly, looking for her jacket and shoes. She needed to be sure that he was alright. She had to know.

Heart racing, she opened the window to Tenten's spare bedroom and wasted no time jumping out into the cold weather. She'd explain herself to her friend tomorrow, as for now, she had to make sure her dream had only been that—a dream.

She could feel her heartbeat reverberating through her head; it was all she could hear. As she ran through the village, she desperately hoped that no one would see or recognize her. She was sure that she looked like a complete wreck. In her alarm she activated her byakugan, looking ahead of her and scanning the area desperately. As her sight fell upon Naruto's apartment her stomach dropped when she noted his absence.

Still incoherent she came to an abrupt halt on a rooftop near his apartment complex. Gripping her head she let a cry slip through her clenched teeth.

As she began to hyperventilate, the rational side of her mind kicked in.

Just breathe, she told herself, you're overreacting. It was just a dream. Breathe.

"I think I hear something," she heard a voice speak from below the building she was on. As she turned her head toward the sound, she found herself stumbling backward when suddenly a dark figure stood before her.

Before her mind could register who it was she cried out, stumbling backward as she desperately tried to get away.

Falling onto her backside, she looked up at Sasuke, completely taken aback by his appearance. Seeing her reaction to his presence he frowned, taking a couple of steps backward toward the edge of the roof. Seeing the tired hesitance in his eye—his left being covered to hide his rinnegan from the judging eyes of the village—she immediately felt guilty. He couldn't help the family resemblance he held to Madara, but the fear upon sight of his dark, wild hair and eerie overwhelming presence was something she just couldn't control.

Deactivating her byakugan she thought quickly, desperately trying to think of a way to explain her ridiculous reaction to his appearance, but before she could utter some sort of excuse of her behavior, he'd turned his back slightly.

"You'd better come up here," he spoke loudly, talking down toward someone who was still on the ground, Hinata presumed.

"Why? What's going on?"

The familiar voice immediately alleviated her panic. Jumping onto the roof and landing directly beside Sasuke, Naruto's eyes immediately found her.

"Hinata? What're you doing out—" his words stopped suddenly after he'd taken a couple of steps toward her. Eyes widening he rushed to her side within seconds. "What's wrong? What happened?"

At the sight of him so close to her—eyes wide, breathing, alive—she exhaled a shaky breath. "I was—I had a nightmare—and you," she hiccupped, "and you were…"

Images of him from her dream, cold, unmoving, and lifeless, flashed through her mind. Unable to speak any further through her overwhelming relief she simply raised a shaky hand and held it against his chest.

"Hey," wrapping her in a tight hug Naruto held her closely, "hey, it's alright. You're alright."

As his warmth spread through her, she let out a relieved cry, returning the hug with ferocity, clinging to him with all her might. She tried hard to hold in her tears, but she couldn't stop the emotions that were rushing through her.

"You're okay. You're really okay," she whimpered, her face pressed against the front of his jacket.

"Yeah, I'm okay. And so are you," he whispered, rubbing her back.

For several minutes they remained like that. Naruto stayed at her side, kneeling down with his arms wrapped around her. She whimpered as she clung to him tightly; her fingers started to hurt after a little while, but she was too afraid to let go. She couldn't exactly recall what Naruto had said to Sasuke or when Sasuke had left, but after she'd calmed down enough to stand up she'd noted his absence immediately.

"See? There we go, just breathe. Good," smiling down at her, he kept his arms around her even as they stood on the rooftop. "You're alright. We're both alright."

"I'm sorry," she mumbled, moving her hands up to cover her face out of shame, "I'm so sorry, Naruto-kun. I don't know what came over me I just—I'm so embarrassed."

"It's okay Hinata, I understand," slowly he began to release his hold on her, letting his arms fall to his sides, but not before taking her hand in his own. "It's late though. I can walk you home if you want?"

At the offer, her stomach sank. She'd already started shaking her head before she'd given him a verbal reply.

"No," she said sternly, "I… I mean, no thank you. I just," she bit her lip nervously, "I don't really want to go home."

"You want to stay at my place again?" he offered without hesitation. "I actually did some cleaning today, so the place won't be too messy," he joked lightly, squeezing her hand slightly in an attempt to lighten the mood.

At first she paused, thinking it over. She felt bad—really, really bad—about invading his space for another night and burdening him with her over-emotional presence. But truthfully she was too afraid to go back to Tenten's with the nightmare still fresh in her mind.

"I don't want to intrude again…"

Naruto let out a quick laugh, "Please, you're not 'intruding'. I like having you around! It's so much better than just sitting alone by myself."

She suddenly felt light as she took in his words. With his admission that he liked having her around, she fought back a small, gentle smile. "Thank you," averting her eyes she lifted her hand back to her face, trying hard to cover the emotions that were threatening to appear in the form of more tears.

"Hey," removing her hand from her face he smiled gently, "let's get going, okay?"

Unlike the night before, instead of running from rooftop to rooftop, rushing to get out of the rain and under some cover, they walked at a leisurely pace to his apartment complex.

He didn't once let go of her hand.

"You can take my bed again," he spoke as they walked through his apartment. As Hinata looked around she could only notice a very slight difference in that there were no longer old ramen cups lying around. The piles of laundry though were still present. At that fact Hinata couldn't help but smile.

"And…" turning to look at her, he smiled, "I see you're already in your pajamas."

For a moment Hinata took a good look at herself and felt herself cringe. She must've looked ridiculous to Sasuke and Naruto, sitting on a rooftop in her pajamas, having a panic attack, all because of some stupid nightmare.

"So I guess you're all set," he spoke after a moment, holding an arm out as if he were presenting his bed to her, "here you go!"

Hinata didn't move right away, simply looking at the bed with a hesitant look. Still shaken up by her nightmare, she wasn't so sure falling back asleep was something she wanted to do at that moment.

Thankfully Naruto sensed her aversion and dropped his arm back to his side. "So I uh, take it you're not exactly tired, huh?"

She forced a smile onto her face, feeling slightly guilty for burdening him with her presence. He, just like everyone else, must have had a lot on their mind; he was probably as stressed out, if not more so, than she was.

"Not really."

Naruto shrugged nonchalantly, "Well, that's okay! What do you want to do?"

She took a moment to herself, looking around his room slowly. "Um, we can just… hang out?"

For a moment she braced herself for some type of hesitance or even a rejection, silently panicking over asking such a straight-forward, bold question.

"Sure!"

But his enthusiastic reply immediately caused her anxiety to dissipate. The smile that broke across his face caused Hinata's chest to flutter; she couldn't help but smile back at him shyly.

"Come on." As he spoke he walked toward her with a kick in his step, grabbing her hand once more as he passed. "I'll make us some ramen."

Staring at his smile she followed closely behind as he pulled her out of his bedroom and toward his kitchen. Eyes shifting toward their interlocked hands, she held on a little tighter, heart still racing at the intimate contact.

If she had it her way, she'd never let go.