Team 8

Chapter 15: A Wretched Recovery

Hinata awoke in a haze of pain. Her chest ached so much it took an act of will just to inhale. The air she inhaled was redolent of medicinal smells. She almost choked on the cloying odors, but just imagining how much coughing would hurt made her throat relax.

She cracked open sleep-gummed eyes to see a hand wreathed in glowing blue-green chakra rest lightly on the blanket over her sternum. As the glow flared the pain eased, just a little. After a moment, she realized she was in a hospital.

Then she remembered the fight with Neji. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how determined she was, she still couldn't defeat her cousin.

She'd been so hopeful going into that fight. She'd trained so hard, learned so many new things. This was her chance to prove that she had changed, just a little. But in the end, her father was right. She was nothing but a stain on the main family. Better that she'd died and left no reminder of her legacy of failures.

For that matter, she was honestly surprised she'd survived. Her last memory was Neji charging at her in response to her final words. She'd already recognized the signs of internal injuries and known that her hard work had been for nothing, just like the rest of her meaningless life. But she'd wanted to leave her cousin with... something besides the bitterness that she could see was consuming him. It wasn't his fault she was a weakling born into his proper place within the clan.

Trying to remember was so hard, but she thought there might have been a familiar surge of chakra and a sense of... motion? Everything else was blackness.

Hinata tried to shift a little under the starchy hospital bedding, but a renewed surge of pain demonstrated the folly of that. She hadn't even managed to die with honor... after publicly demonstrating that the Hyuuga branch family was stronger than the main family. It didn't matter that Neji was a year older; her father's daughter should have prevailed. Instead, she had publicly humiliated him.

Hinata let her eyes fall closed and wished for the death she'd been denied.

OoOoO

Naruto didn't know which was worse, waiting at the hospital or waiting at home. He supposed he should be grateful that Kurenai-sensei made the decision for him. She sent him home under orders after three days of waiting for Hinata to wake up. He supposed he was getting a little ripe, but she'd also ordered him to stay out of the hospital until she sent for him.

He and Shino were excused from missions to prepare for the Chuunin exam finals. His teammate was planning to spend most of his time working with his parents in their specialties, but for once Naruto didn't really feel like training.

He'd become so used to practicing with Hinata that it felt... wrong... somehow to train without her.

Maybe it was a good thing that Gai wasn't really giving him any choice in the matter. He and Lee were waiting for him outside his apartment when he woke up the next morning.

For once, Gai wasn't his normal, completely over the top self. Instead, he somewhat somberly informed Naruto that Kurenai wished to be on hand when Hinata woke up. Naruto nodded when he heard that – she'd assured him that she or Iruka-sensei would be there for her. But then Gai went on to say that Naruto's warning about Sabaku no Gaara prevented Lee from being seriously injured during their match. Thus, they owed Naruto a debt of honor and would discharge this obligation by helping him fan the fires of his youth in preparation for the finals.

Naruto noticed that neither of them mentioned Neji. He wasn't about to bring up the bastard either.

But if he thought early mornings with the Gai and Lee show were strenuous, adding noon and evening sparring sessions was downright insane. And even if he managed to tire Lee out, Gai would have him do cool-downs while he 'tested Naruto's power of youth' himself. The first time this happened, Naruto realized what a pachinko ball felt like.