Kakashi felt conflicted. The hot liquid that seeped through his flak jacket seemed to be soaking into the skin on his back. The silver haired man did his best to make the least aggressive and most gentle movements that he could. He refused to aggravate the wounds that were scattered on the body that he carried on his back.

The man kept his eye focused in front of him, cursing to himself. The village seemed so far away, and he didn't have much time left on his hands. The man's hands gripped on the cold, lifeless legs around his waist as if his life depended on them.

"I should've never taught him the Chidori!" He spat the words out, his determined gaze burning the path towards the leaf village.

"How were you supposed to know this would happen?" A gruff voice broke through the tense air. Pakkun was by Kakashi's side and still hadn't dispersed since he found the boy on Kakashi's back.

Over the years, the Ninjen had grown to be fond of his summoner. He knew that the man felt that he held many lives in his hands.

After the deaths of his friends and comrades that he held most dear, Kakashi felt that he was cursed. It was moments like this that the ninja dog did his most grueling work as a summon. He never expected himself to be the consoling type, but Kakashi was a special case. Although Kakashi was strong, it didn't mean that he didn't have any feelings, and the most prominent feelings that Pakkun could sense off him was grief. Grief that he was not good enough to protect his precious people and grief getting over everyone he's ever lost. It's because of this that Pakkun kept his words short and allowed his question to penetrate his masters thoughts.

Kakashi nodded, understanding the notion that came with the question. Sasuke had made his own decision to leave. Sasuke had decidedly pierced a hole through his comrades chest, and it was not his own fault as to why the ravenette had tried to kill his teammate. Every time he pictured the scene, though, he felt electricity course through his left fist. The same fist that he used to shove a chidori through his own teammates chest. He killed Rin with the same technique that Sasuke tried to kill Naruto with, and the thought of this caused Kakashi to be riddled with guilt at the curse that surrounded him

He released a breath that he hadn't noticed he was holding and focused on getting back to the village. The most important thing was making sure he got his student safely to Konoha. He couldn't take more blood on his hands. He wanted to make sure Naruto was safe, alive, and well. He had to.

___________________________________________

Fluorescent lights. Naruto groaned as he struggled to sit up from his position on his back. His torso burnt as he tried to do so, and he flopped back onto the mattress that he was on.

The cold colored lights burnt his eyes, and he blinked several times to rid himself of the sensation.

Groaning, he turned his head to the side. It felt as if someone had shoved a hot iron rod down his throat and dragged it from side to side until he coughed up blood.

Naruto licked his chapped lips, trying to get any type of hydration that he could. It didn't help as he only began chewing on the flakes of skin that threatened to bleed if he wasn't careful.

He stared at the head of violet hair that lay beside him. He only knew one person with these shiny locks. Soft snores erupted from the person by his bedside he assumed she  had spent most of the time by the hospital to watch over him.

"Hinata." He croaked silently. It was the most he could manage. Her senses were heightened from years of training and the sound of Naruto's voice, albeit the most quiet it had ever been made her head shoot up to be at attention.

"N-naruto-kun." She held his hand and looked in his eyes. He had finally woken up, and the first thing he did was call her name.
He must need something. Hinata's face was riddled with worry. He didn't seem like he could say much, but his eyes looked helpless, and she didn't know what to do. Normally, she would, but seeing Naruto so weak and having him finally awake, she was stuck in her place.

The blonde shinobi sucked in a breath and released a torrent of coughs, his body racking along with the onslaught of violent heaving that was released from his throat. With every cough, he tasted blood being released from his lungs into his mouth. The taste of metal was not the best meal he could hope for.  His eyes were shut, but he could feel a tiny hand push him up from the bed ever so slightly, probably as best as she could. Hinata managed to rearrange the pillows underneath his head so he was sitting up.

The sudden fit of coughs gave his body a break, and he relaxed, heaving as the dryness wouldn't leave his throat.

Naruto opened his eyes to see a glass of water being pushed towards his mouth. He parted his lips and let the cool liquid soothe  his burning throat. He lapped up every last drop and felt his energy increase.

Clearing his throat, he looked up at his savior.

"Thank you so much, Hinata." He understood why she was here. It was surprising as the girl was never so forth coming, but he guessed that the fact that he could've been on his death bed was in play, it was definitely reason enough for her to be there.

He appreciated the love she had for him, and he would show up for her eventually, but life was a mess right now. He couldn't lead her to believing in a happy future if he wasn't sure he'd survive through the week.

Naruto had grown up with little to nothing in the leaf village, although the third hokage had given him a home after Naruto was kicked out of the orphanage. There were no protective figures that he could rely on. No one had in his formative years taught him how to fight properly and defend himself. He had become a ninja out of pure determination.

This had caused some problems in his life as a genin. He was unable to assist in fighting Orochimaru 3 times now. He needed to rely on the power of the 9 tailed fox. He knew for a long time that he housed the power, but he vowed never to use it.

He met Kurama in his dreams when he was 8, and although they weren't friends, they certainly had an agreement to be civil. That meant that Kyuubi would need to lay down on the death threats, and he would need to take care of Naruto in times of need, in case he was on the brink of death.

Naruto flinched at the thought of dying. He was unable to stop Sasuke from leaving, and his teammate had punched a hole through his chest with a chidori. Sasuke had wanted to kill him. His best friend was so far gone that he tried to kill him.

Naruto laid on the bed and sighed. He didn't know how he would get stronger now. He would still keep his promise to Sakura even if it didn't happen immediately he would make it happen eventually, but with Sasuke improving in leaps and bounds, this seemed impossible.

Hinata sat in the hospital room, staring at Naruto. He seemed to be going through some turmoil that disturbed him thoroughly. He had much to think about in regards to losing his friend, and Hinata could understand it all, but she wasn't certain how to approach him. She wanted to leave the moment he woke up, this was they could avoid all conversations and he wouldn't think she was weird. Unfortunately, she had to nurture the boy. She felt like he needed her by his side. The nurses weren't too active after he got bandaged up. She had been sitting with him for hours, making sure that his bandages were changed and that his heart was still beating. There would be times during the night when she'd need to brush his hair back and place cold towels on his forehead to cool down the growing fever that constantly hiked up. The injured blond was broken, beyond physically.  He needed as much tender care as anyone would give him, but Hinata was still shy, and this could possibly be so embarrassing.

"Hinata. I know you stayed with me all night. I don't know how to thank you. No one else would do this for me." Naruto's voice cut through her thoughts, and she looked on at him shock riddled within her irises.

"N-naruto-kun." Once again, that was all she managed to say.

Hinata mentally facepalmed. She always had so much to say to him, but the trauma that constantly rattled through her being prevented her from saying too much. Sometimes, she imagined that her father had placed the caged bird seal on her voice box. Shrinking down every vocalization that she tried to make around Naruto. Hinata just looked down to the floor, trying not to pass out from sheer embarrassment.

Naruto smirked and sat up in the squeaky hospital bed. Everything he got from this village was always dingy or crooked. They couldn't even respect his healing body as a shinobi. He expected Grandma Tsunade to help with this, but it was possible they had swapped out the beds without her authorisation and kept the nurse shifts to a minimum.

Still, Naruto felt energized. Seeing someone had actually taken the time to look after him made his heart swell. He was happy that Hinata was so kind to him, his smirk turned to a reassuring smile he didn't touch her but his glow made her look up at him and the way her eyes sparkled made his grin spread even wider. He looked closely at her as she brought up a fist to cover her mouth. She was hiding a smile that curved its way up her cheeks.

The couple both perked at the sound of the door sliding open wildly. The girls hair was disheveled as she stormed the room. The rage was radiating from her, but Naruto looked at her behavior, feeling absolutely bored with her. She had no right to storm into his room, looking like she was ready to beat him up.

It happened almost like clockwork when the thought became a reality. This time, though Naruto made to block the punch, he held her fist tightly in his hand and twisted her wrist so that she was brought to her knees. Fear and confusion filled her emerald colored eyes as she felt killer intent rolling off the blonde boy in front of her. He was supposed to be madly infatuated with her. Suddenly, he was defending himself?

The glint in Naruto's eyes showed the severity of the situation. If the pinkette made one more move to hurt him, she would get badly hurt.

Sakura steeled herself. She had been through worse, and the boy was in hospital. What could he do? She wouldn't physically do anything, but she could give him the verbal beating of his life.

Naruto let go, sensing that she wouldn't try to hit him anymore, Sakura stood up so she could look at her teammate who sat in bed. The pinkette was completely blind to the bandages and the ragged, exhausted look that the boy wore. She only saw that Sasuke wasn't around at all.

"Naruto! You were supposed to bring him back! You promised!" She yelled, tears brimming at her eyes.

Naruto only looked down at his hands.

"I don't know what I was thinking, sending you! You're nothing but a deadlast! There's no way you could bring Sasuke back! I could've done a better job!" She yelled, her tears gone, but during her onslaught, Naruto had gotten angrier by the second he let her go on until she hit the final nail in the coffin.

"You are useless!" Venom laced her words as she spat the phrase at him. She was huffing, and her chest raised so high that Naruto thought she was going to pop open. Blood would spray throughout the room, covering him and Hinata. Her guts would flop onto the floor with a squelch, and he would lick his lips, reveling in the flavor of her demise.

Though that was not possible. Naruto scoffed, "I heard that you already tried to bring him back, but you failed! I've been on so many missions where you stood on the side and watched Sasuke and I fight to survive! Sasuke walked off in the middle of the night to get power from Orochimaru! He left willingly! He wasn't coming back in the first place! He's feeding off of hatred Sakura! Don't blame me!"

Sakura was taken aback by the boys' words. He had never seemed so wise before. It clearly affected him that Sasuke left. She wanted to argue back at him, but every time she opened her mouth to say something, nothing came out, but a sputter.

He was right about everything.

She was the useless one. She didn't help much on missions and Sasuke... Sasuke left the village on his own accord.

Then she finally managed to get a phrase out of her quivering thin lips.

"You're demon scum." With that, she felt the wind being knocked out of her, passing out instantly. Hinata had stood there and watched the scene. How could this girl blame Naruto for someone else's bad actions. When she heard Sakura say the word demon, she had felt the raging fire within her roar. For years, she had been watching Naruto get torn to shreds by that word and for his own teammate to use it against him? Sakura had to get punished for her actions. So she airpalmed the pinkette in the center of her chakra pathways, completely blocking her use of chakra.

"That was awesome, Hinata!" Naruto was giddy. She had moved in a flash to get Sakura down. He felt very wounded by her words, but seeing that someone cared enough to beat someone else up was more than enough to make the lonely boy happy.

Hinata blushed, and they shared a quick glance at each other. Luckily, it didn't escalate to becoming awkward as Tsunade and Jiraya stepped into the quaint hospital room.

"Well, I have to agree. I thought she would never shut up! Sasuke! Sasuke! Sasuke!" Tsunade mocked the girl as she came into the room. She didn't hate Sakura, but the girl deserved what was coming to her calling Naruto a demon and everything.

"Now, Tsunade, that behavior is unbecoming of a Hokage." Even though Jirayas' words were berating Tsunade to a certain extent, the sound of sarcasm was evident. Of course, he thought Sakura deserved to get her chakra cut off. She didn't even know the origin of the words she just spoke it was most likely that she'd only heard the other villagers say it and she was repeating after them because she hasn't a thought in her head that wasn't already preordained.

Tsunade and Jiraya made sure they were consoling their godson. They sat by him and said he did a great job. They told him how the power that Sasuke used was fueled by hatred, and he was willing to fight dirtier than Naruto was in order to reach his goal. That path was unbecoming, and Naruto had fought with honor and loyalty to his best friend. Naruto had no intention of killing the other boy, but to Sasuke, it was quite the opposite. He was almost too willing to punch a hole through Narutos chest to gain power, and that was not a great quality to have.

"Naruto, we have to leave the village." Jiraya spoke up in all seriousness. Hinata gasped at the statement. Naruto was going to leave?

Tsunade turned to look at Hinata and began to finish Jirayas' statement.

"It will only be for 3 years. Orochimaru will be needing a new body by the time, and we can't let him get ahold of the Sharingan. He'll be too powerful." As she said that, she noticed Hinatas shoulders sag at the news. She wanted to chuckle at the Hyuugas antics, but she kept the laughter at a minimum.

"The akatsuki will be coming after you soon, too. So, keeping on the move will throw them off course. Of course you'll get training, from the best!" Jiraya boasted as he puffed out his chest and knocked his fist against it to create a hollow sound.

Naruto smirked! This was great it was everything he needed! He could keep himself safe. In fact, he could keep Hinata safe too if he left the village.

"I'm in!" He agreed with them, then glanced over at the girl whose face was turned to the ground. He had to leave her here it was for the best, and he would be back anyway. Hinata could feel his gaze fall on her, and before things got too awkward in the room, Tsunade hurriedly ushered Jiraya out of the room with a quick goodbye. Not that the teens had heard them say goodbye. They just managed to slip out when Naruto gently took Hinata's hand in his.

Her pale eyes shot up to look at him, and she stared deeply into his soul, trying to figure out what he was going to say.

"Stay safe while I'm gone and when I come back, and I'm going to be strong enough to protect you." He was forthcoming, and Hinata was shocked at his words. This seemed out of character for him, but it also seemed like he had only matured. There were hints of the happiness  he always carried, but he was mostly serious.

Hinata nodded and jumped onto him so she could wrap him in a hug.
He did the same.

"I'll wait for you." She said, and they both nuzzled into each other's necks. Enjoying the warmth and comfort while they still had it. 3 years was a long time, and they wouldn't know how much this hug would help them through it.