Hinata's POV:

"Hinata... there's been an accident... Hinata its Naruto."

*Phone falls to the floor*

No... it can't be... he can't be...

Time seemed to slow down and the world around me started to spin. I felt my heart ache like it was falling apart, my stomach twisted into knots, and my legs started to shake and I sunk to my knees. An agonizing cry escaped from my mouth and tears started pouring down my face.

Neji burst through the door with a worried expression on his face. I could tell he was trying to say something but I couldn't hear him. He came over to me and shook my shoulders violently.

"Hinata-sama what's the matter!? What's wrong!?" he shouted.

"N-N-Naruto-kun *sob* h-he's *sob* h-he w-was *sob*" I didn't have the strength to finish my sentence, I just pointed at my phone. He looked at my phone and seemed to understand, he picked it up and redialed Shikamaru's number.

The call only lasted a few seconds, and when he hung up he grabbed a pair of my Ugg boots and a sweat shirt and he picked me up and carried me to his car and drove me to the hospital.

In the ten minutes it took to get to the hospital I had gotten past the crying and instead was filled with adrenaline and as soon as the car stopped I jumped out of the car and sprinted inside to the front desk.

"Where is Naruto Uzumaki!?" I asked the front desk nurse once I got there, I also may have pushed a woman out of the way but I can't be sure.

"Hinata!" I heard a voice yell.

I followed the direction of the voice and saw Sakura and everyone else sitting in a waiting area.

I sprinted to them and when I tried to slow down I tripped over my feet but before I could hit the floor I was caught by Temari.

"How is he?" I asked through tears after Temari helped me up.

"We don't know... he's in surgery right now and from what we've been told they're not sure if he's going to be alright or not," Shikamaru said calmly, but I could tell he was struggling to keep it together.

His words became muffled and the world around me became blurry, like a flash grenade had gone off in my head. I sank to the floor and hugged my knees to my chest with my back leaning against the wall. Through my tears I saw Sasuke stand up from his seat and stomp off and then turn a corner with Sakura chasing after him.

I'm not a very religious person but in that moment I needed strength I didn't have and there wasn't anything else I could think to do except pray.

Kami please don't take him away. I can't live without his smile, or his laugh, or his kindness. I can't live without him. So please whatever you want I'll give it all, I'll do anything, just please, please don't take him from me...

I repeated my plea for I don't know how long when suddenly a voice pierced through the veil of silence.

"Excuse me, is this the family of Naruto Uzumaki?" a nurse asked.

"Yes we are," Shikamaru answered.

"He's out of surgery now, if you'll follow me I'll take you to his room," she said as she walked down the hallway with all of us following close behind her.

"So how is he?" Shikamaru asked.

"He's still unconscious, but he's stable and he should be out of any immediate danger. He suffered nine broken ribs, broken nose, a broken collar bone, a severe concussion, his right arm was broken in several places, his legs are badly scarred, and he's lost a lot of blood... I don't know how it's possible, but the medics that brought him said he was awake on the ride here. He's incredibly lucky none of his organs were damaged," the nurse explained, shaking her head in disbelief. "Like I said he's unconscious, but he should wake up in two to three days," she finished.

"Thank you ma'am," Ino said as we got to the room.

When I saw him my heart stopped and I felt like I was going to throw up. His face was badly bruised, his entire right arm was covered in bandages, as well as most of his chest and abdomen.

Kami...

I made my way to the chair next to his bed and I took his hand in mine and pressed it against my cheek. Despite how bruised his face was, he looked so peaceful and I couldn't help but smile a little, and when he didn't smile back tears started falling uncontrollably.

After a while everyone had to leave but thanks to a little pleading, a lot of threatening, and a phone call from my father, I was allowed to stay with him over night. Eventually I couldn't keep my eyes open so I fell asleep in the chair with my head resting on the bedside and my hand intertwined with his, dreaming of all the things I'd tell him when he woke up.

----------------------------------------------
I woke up to a pain in my side. I opened my eyes and realized I had tried to roll over while still sitting in the chair, and its arm was digging into my side. I was still holding Naruto's hand and I looked up at his face hoping to see his eyes open, but they were still closed. I frowned and put my head back down on the bed.

Suddenly I heard a strange grumble sound.

What was that?

I picked my head up wondering where the sound came from and when it happened again I realized his stomach was growling.

He's hungry... he almost died... and he's hungry... you baka.

His stomach growled again and I couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous he was even when he was unconscious.

I was still laughing when I felt him squeeze my hand. I stopped laughing and looked at our hands, then I heard him groan. I looked up at his face in shock and I saw his eye lids scrunch together before fluttering open.

Naruto-kun..... How is he awake?

His eyes opened and he started looked at our hands with a dazed and confused look on his face.

"H-Hinata-chan..... What are you doing up, come back to bed," he said sleepily before closing his eyes again and I immediately blushed a thousand shades of red.

What!? Come back to bed!? What is he saying!?

With his eyes still closed he sleepily mumbled, "Oh and before you leave for work can you make pancakes?"

Work? Pancakes? What the.... He must think he's dreaming or something.

I was still blushing but now it was because this meant he was dreaming about me.

Should I wake him up? No I'll just let him think this is just a dream.

"S-sure N-Naruto-kun, I'll make y-you pancakes," I whispered with a small smile.

"Mmmm thanks Hinata-chan, you're the best," he mumbled with a grin on his face and his eyes still closed. I blushed and smiled at his words and soon he was fast asleep and snoring a little bit. I looked at the time and realized it was still the middle of the night, so I laid my head back down on the bed and closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

A few hours later I felt someone squeeze my hand. And then I heard a voice.

"Hinata," the voice said.

"Mmmmm five more minutes," I whined. Then I heard the voice chuckle.

Wait I know that chuckle...

I slowly opened my eyes to check out my surroundings.

Wait where am I? Oh right I'm in the hospital.

Then I closed my eyes again.

Wait. That means... that voice was Naruto... I asked Naruto-kun for five more minutes!

My eyes flew open and I felt my face heat up with embarrassment. I sat up and saw Naruto looking at me with those sparkling blue eyes and a small grin on his face.

"Morning sunshine, nice hair by the way," he said weakly with a smirk.

I couldn't say anything, I felt tears of joy build up in my eyes and my bottom lip start to quiver. I tackled him in a hug and started crying.

"I th-thought y-you w-were d-dead. I th-thought I w-was g-going t-to l-lose y-you," I said between sobs.

"Shh it's ok, it's ok, I'm alright, everything's ok," he said calmly as he stroked my hair with his good hand. We stayed like that for a few moments when he pulled away and brushed the tears away from my face with his thumb.

"Common Hinata-chan please don't cry.... Let me see you smile, you always look so beautiful when you smile," he said weakly as he somehow managed to give me a big smile. I gave him the fakest smile I could possibly make, but it quickly turned into a real one when I saw him frown at my fake smile.

He chuckled and then winced in pain which made me lose my smile and switch to a look of worry.

He squeezed my hand tighter and said, "Don't worry Hinata-chan, the pain just lets me know I'm alive."

I looked at him in wonder and amazement at his strength.

He's unbelievable... he almost died and he's here telling me not to worry.

Then suddenly a thought crossed my mind.

"Naruto-kun, the n-nurse said you w-wouldn't wake up for at l-least two days, b-but it hasn't even b-been twenty-four hours y-yet and y-you're already awake?" I said curiously.

"Oh, well I just heal fast," he said as he looked at me.

I was waiting for something more but when I realized that was it I started laughing at how ridiculous he is.

"N-Naruto-kun, "healing fast" only ap-plies to c-cuts and bruises, n-not trauma-induced c-comas," I said giggling.

He just shrugged his shoulders and gave me a smile.

The others.

I realized I had forgotten about everyone else.

"I should c-call the others, they w-were all worried s-sick about y-you. Even Shika-kun w-was struggling t-to k-keep his c-composure. They'll w-want to know y-you're awake," I said as I let go of his hand and started to get up to leave the room so I could call everyone.

"Wait," he said as he grabbed my wrist to stop me. "Could you... could you wait to call everyone? I don't want them to see me like this," he said with sadness in his voice.

"O-ok, b-but at least l-let me c-call Sakura-chan and Sasuke-kun," I said. He thought about it for a moment and then he nodded his agreement and let go of my wrist, which immediately felt cold from the lack of contact.

I went out into the hallway and called Sakura and told her that Naruto was awake but she could only tell Sasuke. She didn't like the idea of not telling everyone but she agreed and then I hung up and went back into the room.

Fifteen minutes later we heard a knock at the door and in came Sakura and Sasuke.

"Hey guys, why the long faces?" Naruto asked as he gave a weak smile.

Tears started building up in Sakura's eyes and she rushed over and gave him a big hug and cried quietly into his shoulder. When she backed away from the hug she wiped her eyes and became Scary Sakura.

"You stupid baka, you scared us to death," she yelled angrily and punched Sasuke on the head.

What the crap?

Sasuke seemed to be asking the same question as he stared daggers at her and rubbed the bump already growing on his head.

"Well I can't hit him, he's already half dead," she said matter-of-factly.

Well that kind of makes sense I suppose.

"Hn," was Sasuke's only response.

I saw Naruto and Sasuke looking at each other like they wanted to say something but they were both too macho to do it.

These two I swear.

"Sakura-chan I n-need to g-get something to eat, w-will you come with m-me? I'd h-hate to get lost b-by myself," I said making an excuse to leave the boys alone.

"Yeah sure, Sasuke-kun do you want me to bring some coffee or something for you?" she asked.

"Sure, coffee's good," he said not looking at her.

"Ok we'll be back in a little while," she said as we walked out the door.

Before the door closed I heard Sasuke say, "You look terrible dobe." I couldn't see his face but it sounded like he might've been trying to hold back tears.

Are they really that close?

Sakura and I walked to the cafeteria where I got a coffee and some cereal, and Sakura got herself a coffee and bagel.

"Sakura-chan, c-can I ask y-you something?" I asked once we sat down.

"Yeah of course," she said taking a sip of her coffee.

"Why are y-you, Naruto-kun, and Sasuke-kun so c-close?" I asked.

She smirked a bit before answering.

"Well we've known each other since preschool for one thing. Our parents were really close too. But the big thing that ties the three of us together is their competitiveness with each other. Well mainly Naruto's competitiveness with Sasuke-kun," she explained.

"H-how do you mean?"

"Well from the day they met, Sasuke has always been the best at everything he did and Naruto was always the worst. Naruto saw Sasuke as a rival, but he never thought he was inferior to him, so whenever Sasuke did something, Naruto would try to do it better. Then when we were five, Naruto had kind of a crush on me, which in normal circumstances wouldn't last more than a few years at best. The problem was he found out that I liked Sasuke-kun so he convinced himself that his crush was something more. So he spent all of his time trying to be close to me, and I spent all of my time trying to be close to Sasuke-kun, and it just kind of stuck. Luckily though he got over his crush a few years ago," she explained, pausing to take a bite of her bagel.

I didn't know Naruto-kun had a crush on her.

"So that's how the three of us are so close, but the two of them are on a whole other level," she continued.

"Why? W-what happened?" I asked.

"Well Naruto never knew his parents so he was always sort of an outcast and he didn't really have any friends. Then when we were seven, Sasuke-kun's parents died in a car crash... Naruto was the only one who knew the loneliness and pain that Sasuke-kun was going through and because of that they became like brothers. They still act like they hate each other and Naruto is still always working to beat Sasuke-kun, but there's nothing that they wouldn't do for each other," she said with a tone to her voice that sounded like envy.

"I n-never realized how c-close they were," I said understanding how she envied their bond.

"We should probably get back before they try to kill each other," she suggested with a small smile.

"I thought y-you said they only act l-like they hate each other?" I asked.

Last week I would've completely understood her comment but after what she just told me I couldn't see them actually getting violent with each other.

"That might have been the wrong word to use... you ever hear the phrase "thin line between love and hate"? Well their line is microscopic it's so thin. It's true they'd do anything for each other, but they're still total polar opposites and neither of them are afraid to throw a punch or two," she said chuckling.

"O-oh... yeah we should p-probably get b-back," I agreed.

Sakura bought Sasuke his coffee and then we went back to the room. When we got back we saw they were both smiling. Well Naruto was smiling, Sasuke was just grinning a bit, but it was the closest I've ever seen so I guess it counts as a smile.

Phew they're both still alive.

"We came back cause we were afraid you two might try to kill each other if we left you alone too long," Sakura said handing Sasuke his coffee. "So what are you guys talking about?" she asked.

"Nothing," Naruto answered a little too quickly, but he recovered and added, "I was just asking teme about the shape my Jeep was in."

"And h-how is it?" I asked.

"Well luckily the insurance is paying for most of the repairs and teme's using his friends and family discount at the dealership he works at to help cover the rest," he explained. "It'll be in the shop for a few months so until then I'll have to get rides from him or someone else," he finished.

"W-well that's good," I said returning to my seat beside his bed.

We sat and talked for about an hour before the nurse came in and almost had a heart attack. When she saw Naruto was awake her exact words were "That's impossible" which I giggled at, remembering what Tenten told me at the first game. Of course Naruto took her words as some kind of achievement or badge of honor or something. Then after she checked his vitals and ran her tests and asked her questions, she left and the four of us continued to talk until it was around lunch time.

After we all ate lunch I convinced Naruto that it was time to tell everyone else that he was awake. So Sakura called Ino, who of course told everyone else, and I called Neji and asked him to bring me a change of clothes since I was still wearing my pj's from the night before. Within twenty minutes everyone was here and I was in some actual clothes.

When it was getting late people started to leave. I was planning on staying the night again but Naruto insisted that I went home and got some sleep. I begrudgingly surrendered (he used his puppy dog eyes, which so wasn't fair) and Neji took me home. After I showered and got dressed into my pj's, I climbed into bed and fell asleep with a small smile on my face.

He's safe.

-Chapter End-