Explosions shook the ground, fires started filling the air with smoke, screams rang through the night, buildings cracked, and alarms sounded.

Onlookers watched their Kage rise to protect them in the air, attempting to pull the attention away from the village, though it was clear by the red clouds on the terrorist robes what he was there for.

Temari rushed through the village, pushing people that were standing and watching out of her way, ordering them to get out of range. Damage control and safety were all in the village nin's current objectives, but she couldn't help but stare up at her brother.

What if this was the time he wasn't strong enough?

What if this was the time that his beast failed him?

What if?

Screams rang again, this time in alarm, as a flash of dark hair started across rooftops. Heading directly for the fight. It leaped for a stray bomb heading for the ground, swiping at it. The bomb exploded harmlessly in the air.

The streak landed but was knocked back on a rooftop by a ball of sand, all before Temari could tell what it was.

Hinata.

Hinata stood up to argue with the patch of sand. Thrusting her finger at it, making her point. When it didn't move out of her way, her hands started their blue glow and swiped at the sand. It snatched away from her, pausing as she scowled at it, but then made her a platform.

She rode it up to the fight.

Temari now feared for them both.

Gaara flinched as he felt Hinata hop on the platform. 'What are you doing!?' Gaara barked at his beast. 'This is not protecting her!'

'She wants to protect you.' Shukaku growled back, but he didn't seem sure himself.

'You will protect her.' Gaara didn't care if he came out unscathed. Hinata needed to live. He could not watch her die.

Hinata was lifted next to him, and he pulled her in, and the sand encased them both, shielding them from another explosion.

"I don't want you here," Gaara growled at her.

"I didn't ask." Hinata snapped back.

"You are short-range. You are no help to me."

"I can see," Hinata demanded.

Gaara considered it with a huff. Shukaku could protect her. He would protect her over himself, he was sure. "Alright."

"This man's name is Deidara. He's a missing-nin from Iwagakure." Hinata flinched and told him they were about to be hit. Gaara felt the explosion fall over the ball, but it wasn't affected. It was warning him to come back out. His face scrunched. She was unsafe here. "He makes the explosives with his hands. He's got something there that makes them rapidly. I can see a concentration of chakra, though I don't know how it works. That's his weak…" Hinata jerked her head to the sand wall around them. "He is going to drop one on the city."

Gaara opened the ball to stop it where she indicated, and the Akatsuki-robed man grinned at him.

"The bombs are filled with chakra. I can tell exactly where they're going." Hinata explained as he grabbed her waist. She would fall if he started jerking the ball.

"Then this should be easier," Gaara agreed.

"Don't be so sure, yeah." Deidara opened his hand, revealing another bird.

Hinata squinted, trying to understand what she was seeing. Gaara closed the shield around them as the wounded bomber set to work again. The things in Deidara's hands added to the sand. It was no longer just Gaara and Shukaku's chakra she was seeing.

And it was spreading!

"No! Open it! He has his chakra in the sand!" Gaara didn't have time to react. Hinata was jerked out of the ball and tossed. A scream escaped her as the ball of sand imploded. Hinata fell hard, slamming through two floors. She got up, forcing herself to jump through the hole she created, only to watch him as he fell into the bird's tail. She could only watch as the one-armed bomber waved at her as he flew away.

"Hinata!" Hinata stumbled to her knees to hold the back of her head as she realized how much it hurt. She felt arms come around her as her 360 vision tunneled in around the last of what she could see of the bird.

Hinata mumbled the direction and speed he was going as her Byakugan deactivated and her vision fully closed in.

Hinata sat up, staring at the blankets of her hospital bed as she was reported to. She had no concussion, so she decided she could take on duties as soon as she woke up.

This was what Gaara wanted, after all, right? This is why they talked about it. Hinata was to take his place if he couldn't, but did it occur to him that she would be emotionally unable? Hinata pushed through it. She hadn't even cried yet. Her husband could be dead, and she couldn't even cry.

Hinata hadn't felt anything yet. She just felt sick.

Hinata understood now why he did it, why he kept so much work. It kept your mind off what was happening. She could hear about the team that was trying to track him, and somehow that distracted her from the fact he was the one missing.

Hinata took reports and made orders before Kankuro and Temari were able to see her. They looked exhausted and ruined.

Temari looked at her, surrounded by paper, and her face scrunched in anger. "How can you do it?" Temari growled. "How can you sit there and not bat an eyelash."

Hinata didn't have an answer. Had it just not hit her yet? Was it because she wasn't sure he was dead? Temari crossed the room, only to be stopped short by Kankuro snagging her wrist.

Temari faltered as she broke. "He loved you! He doesn't love anything, but he loved you! And you're working!"

"Temari." Kankuro struggled with her. "Hinata's coping. You have worked, too. We don't have the luxury to stop when we lose a nin."

"You were everything to him!" Temari barked, not listening to her brother.

"Isn't this what he would do?" Hinata still couldn't muster a tear. Why couldn't she cry? It was like being so sick but not being able to throw up.

Temari's lip trembled. She stopped fighting and went limp. Her face scrunched as she dissolved into tears. Kankuro let her go, and she fell forward onto the bed to cry. Hinata laid her hand on her head and pet her hair down. Her hands shook with the stress.

Kankuro shrank to sit next to his sister, miserably laying a hand on her back. Both strong, focused nin were reduced to miserable shards. They mourned their brother. They didn't know if Gaara was dead, but Hinata still couldn't even cry.

"The team looking for him from Konoha. Is Naruto on it?" Kankuro asked. Hinata nodded. "They will find him even if they have to rip the countryside apart then, you Leaf, if anything at all, you are loyal."

"What happens if we can't get him back," Hinata whispered, not wanting to think about that possibility, as real as it might be.

"Then you are Kazekage until Matsuri is ready. That was the agreement. The council doesn't have a choice. That paper is the only word they have to go by, signed, and sealed." Kankuro explained.

Hinata wished that horrible paperwork never found its use.

Temari resolved to sniffle and wipe her face. Hinata couldn't smile at her to make her feel better, but she could give her a look of sympathy.

Hinata felt rotten.

Hinata still hadn't cried.

The moment she was allowed out of the hospital, she was in his office. Her work was given to Matsuri and Temari. Kankuro got her up to date with everything her husband was working on that she hadn't already been a part of, then went to run the clean-up. Hinata buried herself in her work. She finally understood Gaara's obsession. She could duck her head into papers for hours, forget what time it was, and miss dinner.

Matsuri checked in on her after the first missed meal. She took her next meal in her office. She didn't want to be around others right now as much as she would like to be supportive of her small family. How could she when she was yet to even shed a tear over her husband? Why couldn't she cry?

Hinata rubbed her eyes and looked at the clock. It was late. There was still no word on Gaara's location or his status. She yawned. She was healing and tired, but the last place she wanted to go to was an empty bed. She glanced over to the couch. She didn't want to sleep there either, but she would be in the office if there were a change.

It would have to do.

Temari knocked on Hinata and Gaara's room. When Temari got no answer, she unlocked it and found it empty. She felt uncomfortable looking into the room, completely untouched. It was like they were both gone. The bed was made. Hinata's decorations and Gaara's books all lay untouched and cold.

Temari closed the door with a click and rested against it, forcing herself not to tear up. She never really thought that losing her little brother was a possibility. Gaara was always too strong, too dangerous. She grew close to him since he started opening up. Hinata was so good for him. It finally felt like they were a normal family. She could trust him. Temari finally didn't feel like he might turn on her when she became inconvenient. She never once thought about how she would feel losing him. A few years ago, it would have been a relief, but now? It was heartbreaking in a stomach-wrenching way that she never felt so violently before.

Temari took a breath, but heavy nausea didn't leave her. Gaara had to be alive for now. They wanted the beast, so they needed him alive, but the question was, would he survive, or would they kill him after? This is not helping.

She pushed off the door to head up to Kazekage's office. That would be the only other place she could think of for her to be.

Temari found Hinata curled up on the couch with a single-throw blanket. Papers neatly lined the floor where she was working, still in her clothes from the day before, her hair pulled up messily, and despite the fact she was sleeping, she still looked tired.

Temari bent over her and touched her shoulder. Hinata bolted upright and blinked at her before calming.

"Why didn't you go to bed?" Temari picked up the papers she left on the floor.

"The bed is made for two people," Hinata looked up at the time. She was up late, but Gaara was what woke her up usually. "I'll go clean up." She wouldn't have wanted to train today with the shape she was in.

Temari looked tired and upset. It was weakening to see such a strong spirit so beaten emotionally. Suna mourned their leader. You could feel it without going outside. She wanted to ask how Suna handled deaths or funerals, but she didn't want to discuss it right now. They weren't even sure if he was dead.

"I'll get breakfast." Temari rubbed her face and opened the door for her.

Hinata's second day went much like the one before. If she hadn't changed clothes, she might have run them together in her head. With little word on the search for her husband, she forced herself to work on anything she laid her hands on. She wanted to be alone to forget that this shouldn't be her job, but the council felt the need to remind her that she was, in fact, Kazekage.

"You should have robes made." Hinata gave the old man in his official robes a cold frown.

"We have no word on the status of the Kazekage. I am only temporary. There is no need. It has only been eighty hours." Hinata was more than annoyed with any amount of pushing right now.

Baki stepped in with the man, frowning rather deeply. "As much as I agree with you, Hinata, it is custom. Temari and Kankuro were never officially made Kage, which is why they never had their own. This is different. We are without our Kage. You have stepped into that place, and when and if he returns, he may reclaim his place, but until then, we need to follow customs thoroughly. Suna is scared and cracked. We need to assure the people we will not fall."

Hinata averted her eyes, not wanting to glare at the kind old man. He was right. They were attacked, and something was taken from them. Their walls were breached, and their homes were destroyed.

Hinata sighed. "Fine, have one made. I will do the proper ceremonies but understand that we should not be planning for this to be long-term. I have no desire to be Kage. I'm simply convenient." Hinata expressed. The old councilman smiled like he had done something and left.

Baki closed the door behind him. "I would like nothing more than to hide you away and allow you to mourn, but we must think of the people. Despite your short time here and home lineage, you have made an extremely positive image to the people. You've brought in knowledge from your homeland but welcomed our culture. The people see that and will be proud to have you lead them."

"I am sure not all," Hinata added.

"No, there will always be those who will think that you should have no place in our government, but we learn nothing by isolating ourselves." Baki countered.

There was no sense in arguing their options were low. Matsuri wasn't ready, and she was having a hard time as it was with Gaara's kidnapping, as was Temari. Kankuro hadn't made a joke. It was surreal and uncomfortable being in a room with him being so quiet.

"Why are you not an option?" Hinata wondered.

"If he had simply fallen ill, I believe I would be an option, but falling back on old face during times of crisis causes cowering." Hinata didn't quite understand what he meant. "You will ensure hope. I will show that we have had to take a step back."

Hinata nodded, not agreeing.

"Would you like me to take the responsibility from you?" Baki asked seriously.

Hinata was not meant to be in this chair. It was wrong, but this was what she agreed to. Gaara prepared for her to take his place in case he fell. This was where he wanted her until Matsuri could. "No, I will serve Suna with all that I can. This is what he wanted."

"We can only hope that there will be little need for your services," Baki showed age and pain in his eyes.

"How are you?" Hinata tilted her head.

"I should be asking you that." Baki smiled faintly. "I am very proud of having such a loyal man as my student. He protected his village. He protected you. Despite how he grew up and what weights were put on him, he managed to become a good man that I am proud of."

Hinata frowned. "You didn't answer the question."

"Neither would you if I asked." Baki countered.

Hinata closed her eyes, feeling her pain bubble up. Still, no tears came.

"You remind me of him. You are so used to internalizing your pains that it's become a defense. The difference is his internalization overflowed, and it made him lash out. You just let it eat you." He was right. "Don't let it eat you till nothing is left. Maybe it's best to lash out sometimes." Baki bowed his head and left her be.

Hinata would rather let it eat her away. Maybe then the pain would stop.