Things have definitely changed, with Hidan gone. Lately, I think I've caught some sort of bug. I feel so nauseated and tired all the time. I could say that I'm pregnant, there's a high possibility for that, but the weird cravings and the urge to throw up haven't shown up yet. Naruto has pointed that out lately, even after prom, just a few nights ago.

"I'll just take that." Hinata grabbed something from the lunchroom and walked over to where she normally sat with Hidan. There was no one there, but then she looked over to where she used to sit with her former friends when she was still dating Hidan. She couldn't help but smile when she saw all of them there.

Ino continued flirting with Sai, Tenten chastised Lee on his being too enthusiastic, Kiba, Shino, and Shikamaru were talking about a class assignment, Sasuke, Kankuro, and Sakura were talking about Hidan and Sasori and what's happened the past week, and Choji and Naruto were challenging each other to different eating competitions. Naruto then caught her eye, smiled, and waved her over, "Hinata! Come over and sit with us!"

"It's been forever since you've sat with us like this." Kiba grinned.

"How've you been?" Shikamaru smiled.

"Doing alright." Hinata chuckled, "I've definitely been doing better."

"Oh yeah? That's good." Kiba sent her a strong thumbs up, "say, Hidan's gone... What are you doing with your love life lately?"

"Oh, stop nagging at her." Sakura called from the other end of the table, "if she doesn't want to say anything, she doesn't need to."

"It's fine." Hinata blushed, "I've moved on."

"Heh..." Naruto rubbed his neck.

"Naruto, right?" Shikamaru smirked, "saw that one coming."

"Of course you did..." Ino rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Hinata." Naruto got up and walked over to her, "Sasuke's inviting us over again. Wanna come?"

Hinata smiled, "of course."

It seemed that everything should go back to normal for her. Hidan was out of her life, no more distractions, nothing to get in her way. But then she yawned again.

"Tired again?"

"Haha, it's nothing." Hinata commented drowsily, "anyways, yeah. I'm all for it."

"Great. He said after school. I can drive you." Naruto smiled as he gave her a kiss on the cheek before sitting back down.

Yep. Back to normal. Hinata grinned before yawning once again.

_________________

"Come on, Hinata! Just because we're beating them by five points doesn't mean we can start slacking off!" Naruto laughed as the game of ultimate frisbee continued with Naruto and Hinata versus Sasuke and Sakura.

"Well, for the record, we're losing because Sasuke is too slow to react." Sakura chuckled.

"That's not true. Sakura doesn't know the meaning of teamwork, so she doesn't think to pass the frisbee to me." Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Maybe I'd pass the frisbee if you'd actually catch it!"

"Well how do you know if I'll catch it if you don't throw it to me?!"

Naruto laughed as the two bickered for a while, before passing the frisbee to Hinata, "let's take it home, Hinata!"

She smiled and nodded, "right."

The game dragged on for a while before Naruto did his victory dance in the middle of the backyard as Sakura continually slapped Sasuke for their ten-point difference.

"Hinata! We did it!" Naruto ran up to his girlfriend to whisk her away into a victory hug, but he stopped short, "whoa, Hinata, are you okay?"

"H-huh?"

"You're pale..."

"Yeah, I'm..." Hinata coughed, "I'm fine..." Suddenly, she collapsed. Before blacking out completely she heard their voices and saw their faces.

"Hinata!" Naruto was the first to run up and catch her before she hit the ground.

"Hinata?!" Sakura ran up next and felt her pulse, "it's slowing really fast."

"Hang in there, Hinata!" Sasuke joined them as he pulled out his phone.

And then everything went dark.

Huh... Funny. Is this how it feels to be dead? There's no pain... No hurting... I don't feel tired... It makes sense, if being dead just means eternal sleep... Huh. Weird. Can you be tired when you're asleep? Hold on, did I just yawn? Damn, I'm always yawning. Can you yawn in your sleep? Can you yawn with your mouth closed? How about your eyes? Can you yawn with your eyes open? Or can you sneeze with your eyes open? What the hell am I saying?!

"Hinata..."

Hinata finally woke from her trance and feeling of being dead, "am I... Dead?"

Naruto only smiled a sad smile, squeezed her hand which he hadn't let go of since they got to the hospital, and chuckled, "no, you're not."

"That's good." Hinata chuckled weakly as she let her head fall into her pillow.

"So."

"Hm?"

Naruto let go and brought something out from his pocket, "what are these?"

Hinata's face went a pale white, probably as white as the hospital room walls, "it's... Fentanyl."

Naruto swallowed hard as his voice cracked, "Hinata, you have dozens of these bottles in your drawer."

"W-where did you... How did you--"

"We were ordered by the paramedics to find any medications that you could be taking and bring them back to them for a diagnosis." Naruto looked at her seriously.

Hinata's eyes filled with tears, "Naruto I'm so sorry..."

"Sorry that you did it? Or sorry that you got caught?" Naruto clenched his fists to the point where the orange bottle fell from his hand and spilled onto the floor. He gritted his teeth as tears quickly cascaded down his face, "damnit, Hinata! You thought we wouldn't find out! You think we don't know what these are? When Sakura found them, she refused to believe it, even Sasuke was broken. Sakura's still crying! When were you going to tell us?! Damnit!!" Naruto yelled so loudly, the room shook.

Hinata felt her own tears fall as well, "N-Naruto..."

"Hinata..." Naruto cried as he clenched the plastic rail of her hospital bed, "Hinata! Those are cancer meds!!"

The room was silent except for the sound of Naruto's sobs. Hinata felt a pain in her chest. Not just a pain from the disease she's been diagnosed with for a few months now, but a pain from the fact that the man she loves had to find out.