::Remember the Name::Chapter Three::

::Remember the Name::Chapter Three::

When Naruto somehow found the time to visit Hinata the next day, he almost stumbled upon something even he considered extremely private.

Her father.

He was sitting on the edge of Hinata’s bed, talking on the other side of soundproof windows, smiling. Hinata was, too. She was sitting up in bed now and enjoying every moment she could with her father, who--despite the way he treated her--she missed very much. It would be rude to barge in at such a time.

So he leaned against the wall and waited.

It was hot, in the hospital, he noticed. Weak air conditioning plus many sources of body heat never equated to anything good. Naruto sighed, looked at the clock. He was skipping out on a mission. Even Kakashi-sensei wouldn’t be this late. Then again--

“Hey, you! Naruto!”

Naruto looked up in time to see Team 8, probably here to see Hinata, too. Kiba was so excited he was even running on all fours, right along side Akamaru. He only stood when he got within inches of his fellow blonde Chuunin. “What’re you doing here?”

“Same as you. To see Hinata-chan.”

“Oh yeah? Then what’re you doing out here? Did she kick you out?”

“--Shut up, dog-boy!” Naruto shouted, eyes flaring.

Kiba growled. “Dog-boy? Who’re you callin’ a dog-boy--?”

“Kiba! Naruto!”

Kurenai finally managed to catch up to the two teens, followed by Shino.

After a quick, on-the-spot decision, she reprimanded Kiba first. “That’s enough! Naruto had enough respect not to intrude on Hinata’s family time, Kiba. Don’t think otherwise.” The Jounin turned to Naruto next. “And Naruto, you may not be on my team but I happen to know that you’re skipping out on a mission and I still have the power to throw you out of the hospital if need be. So stay quiet, and stay behaved!” She glared. “Both of you!”

“Hmph.” The two boys turned away from each other and began to sulk like only boys could.

“What is all this? All of you are coming to see Hinata?”

Hiashi Hyuuga stepped out of Hinata’s hospital room, stern gaze quieting all in his sight. Only when Kurenai stepped forward did the silence break.

“Hai, Hiashi-san. We have come to wish Hinata a speedy recovery.”

Hinata’s father branch bowed his head. “Well, don’t let me get in your way. She’s waiting for you.”

===

Hinata sighed, laid her head back on her pillow. Well that went better than expected. He didn’t yell, at least. She sat up in bed suddenly at the sound of her doorknob rattling. Oh! More visitors! Maybe it was Naruto…Hinata thought she heard some scuffling outside and tilted her head, trying to see out the window into the hallway.

She didn’t have to wait long, though--the door fell through with a huge CRASH which, when the dust cleared, revealed a grinning Naruto and an extremely disgruntled Kiba.

“Hi, Hinata-chan!” the blonde called happily, ignoring the scratch on his forehead from his scuffle with Kiba to get through the (now non-existent) door.

Shizune, who had entered through a staff entrance on the other side of the room, eyed the fallen door with surprise. Her gaze flicked from the two boys, then to the door on the floor, then to the boys again. The assistant’s eyes slowly narrowed.

Naruto, who had spent some time with the woman on one of his earlier missions, backed away with alarm. “Shi-Shizune-san! It’s alright! We’ll fix it--!”

“Tsunade-sama will hear about this, Naruto!” the woman said angrily. “Remember the last time, when almost all of the ceiling lamps in the lobby came crashing to the ground because you and Sakura were having an argument?”

The blonde teen gulped. He could still hear the tinkling of glass at the way back of his mind.

Kurenai had chosen that time to step in. “Kiba, Shino…wait outside. Shizune-san…must the Hokage really need to know about this? We can fix the door in no time at all. Tsunade-sama is probably busy with a whole bunch of other things--”

“I’m probably busy with what, exactly?”

Naruto cringed at a voice he knew all too well. Oh Gods, he was in for it now.

Tsunade stood in the broken doorway, tall and proud, with her green coat and double ponytails. One of her eyebrows was arched in puzzlement, her lips pursed. Shino and Kiba watched patiently from behind her. This was not a woman to be trifled with. “And why is something else in my hospital broken?”

“Lady Tsunade!” Shizune cried, thrusting out the clipboard she was holding, trying desperately to pull the Hokage’s attention away from the awkward scene. “Uh--err--Hinata’s latest test results. According to what I see, she should be out by tomorrow.”

The older woman took the papers and clicked her tongue impatiently. “Mmm. Alright.” She handed them back to her assistant. “Kurenai, please take your team outside.”

Kurenai nodded and left to join Kiba and Shino in the waiting room, followed by a tip-toeing Naruto.

“Naruto…you stay here.”

The blonde teen sighed and turned.

Tsunade stepped back so she could face her two subordinates. “Shizune, Naruto, what happened here?” She shook her head. “Nevermind. Don’t tell me. I can figure it out myself. Naruto, how many times have a told you not to destroy my hospi--”

Hinata watched the situation desperately, her eyes darting back and forth. “Err…umm…Tsunade-sama…?”

Tsunade offered her a cross between a surprised and a tired look. She had forgotten the girl was there. “Yes, Hinata?”

“It wasn’t Naruto’s fault…I heard them fighting outside so I used a Juukyen to open it…I guess I hit it too hard, and it fell through,” she stammered. “It was my fault the door broke.”

The Hokage looked her over carefully, eyes narrowed in concentration, before shrugging. “Alright. I suppose everything is in order, then. Hinata, you will be able to report to AnBU HQ tomorrow morning. Naruto, you have five minutes until I boot your sorry little ass back to your team.”

“Hai, Tsunade-sama.”

“Come on, Shizune. You have to check on Room 127 for me…Kaye came back in for her check up and I’m busy at a Council Meeting.”

Shizune cast a grateful glance at Hinata before rushing after her superior. “Coming, Lady Tsunade!”

Hinata smiled at they two women as they exited, then turned back to Naruto. “Naruto-kun…you came to see me? Sakura mentioned last night that…that you had a mission today…”

Naruto scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. “Err…yeah. About that. I do, but I had to come see if you were okay today. You were a little out of it when I visited yesterday.”

The pale girl blinked. “You…you visited me yesterday?”

“It’s okay if you don’t remember!” Naruto exclaimed. “Sakura-chan told me not to bother you for a few hours but I did anyway. I had to get home.”

--pale, luminescent wings--

“Hmm…thank you, Naruto.” She wrung her sheets fervently, her old shyness resurfacing. “For always check--”

“Hinata, what’s that on your arm?”

--fluttering incessantly, following the bright light--

Naruto spied a tip of red extending under the sleeve of her hospital gown--he pushed up the cloth, fingers brushing her skin, goose bumps crawling up her arm. A bright red spiral tattoo curled around her left bicep; Hinata grit her teeth with pain.

--a needle, dragging down, looping along her left arm--

The tattoo throbbed angrily, a reminder of the agony of yesterday.

“That…that’s an AnBU tattoo! Kakashi-sensei’s got one on his arm, too, Hinata-chan!” the blonde chattered. “That’s so awesome! I want one!”

Hinata blushed madly. “I-I guess…”

“I was wondering why you didn’t get one the other day, when they gave you your uniform…” He trailed off. “What’cha do, Hinata-chan? Why’d they give it to you? Do you do something special?”

“I don’t think so--”

Tsunade peeked her head into the room. “Hey! Naruto! Get over to the Main Gate--Kakashi and Sakura have been waiting for the past hour!”

“Sorry, sorry--jeez,” Naruto muttered, scooping his mission pack from off the floor. “Bye Hinata-chan! Feel better!”

Hinata cast wistful glance in his wake. “Bye, Naruto.”

===

That night her soundproof-ed room was winter silent, and just as cold. Hinata still lay awake under the icy sheets, half-expecting her breath to freeze before her eyes, trying to control her shivering. The temperature gauge that sat on the window sill proudly proclaimed that the temperature was 72 degrees Fahrenheit in bright, pulsing crimson, but the girl felt as if it were at least 32. She didn’t know why; call it a bad feeling, but something was wrong. Something was terribly, horribly wrong.

Dread blanketed her like the curtains hung limply over the window, thick enough to be suffocating and opaque.

The curtains.

Out of pure instinct and desire Hinata swung out of the bed, dropping the sheets onto the tiled floor and stepping over them. The floor was cold against the skin of her delicate feet, but she ignored it. The covered window drew her like a fish to a lure. It was an irresistible urge to see outside, a fear of what she might find if she did look. With a single sweep of her already pale hands, the girl pushed both of the curtains to the side…

…and stared in horror.

Hinata would remember that night for weeks on end, each time she closed her eyes to sleep. Though it was near midnight the sky seemed to shine as bright and scarlet as pure blood, and felt, when she opened the window itself, that the air was so heavy she could scarcely breathe. On the other side of the village, smoke rose from buildings burning to ashes taking everyone inside with them.

And in the center of it all: a beast that burned brighter than the fire around it; eyes glowing with rage and malice from being locked behind untouchable bars; tails--she counted nine--flaring, whipping, destroying all in their unfortunate path. Her breath caught.

“The Kyuubi.”

As if it could hear her, the demon whipped its head around to face her with its smoldering eyes. Hinata stumbled back, frightened of what it might do--it had caused enough destruction from what she had seen, and that was only half the village. Instead, it spoke to her in a flaming voice that reached her ears with the volume of thunder.

“What? Not happy to see me, Hinata-chan…?”

Hinata’s lip trembled--she took another step back.

“Are you…afraid of me?”

Another step. This time, instead of air, her fingers clutched the covers of the hospital bed.

“Why, Hinata-chan? What did I ever do to you?”

The voice seemed to be laughing, mocking her.

“…Come here, Hinata-chan.”

She began to step back again; her foot brushed something on the floor. It was a moth, the same moth she had seen yesterday, the one that had fluttered so desperately and happily above her.

It was dead.

Whether it had been crushed under someone’s foot or had just…died…Hinata didn’t know. All she knew from the way her heart beat and her hands trembled was that it was never going to fly again. She bent down, intent on picking it up; only to slip on the bed covers she had dropped onto the floor earlier.

The girl fell backwards, slammed her head on the bedside table--

===

--and awoke the next morning, sitting straight up in bed, cold sweat flowing down her back. What a déjà vu from a couple of nights before. She shut her eyes and but her lip, hard.

A dream.

It was all just a dream.

Another nitemare, to add on to her ongoing list.

Hinata looked for more evidence. Her curtains were shut the way they were when she went to sleep; tight, letting in only the tiniest shaft of sunlight. Her sheets didn’t seem dirty in any way. She peeked over the bed rail.

No moth.

She breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing. It was a dream. And then she began to laugh, laugh so hard that her side hurt. How gullible, how stupid was she? Hinata swung her legs out of bed, still laughing but much softer now, padded over to the window. Judging from the small shaft of sun, it was a beautiful day. A beautiful way to start her first AnBU mission. She threw open the curtains. A beautiful--

“…No.”

Words could not describe the horror that surged down her spine as soon as she saw the curls of thick black smoke rising from the burning cinders of non-existent buildings into the clear blue sky.