Dear Stranger, Make Me Remember

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Chapter 1:

Porcelain Doll

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The dark corridor narrowed to the last cell of the high-security dungeon in the ANBU Department of Konoha. Shinobi sandals slapped against the cold cement-base floor, echoing directly to the dweller of the guarded room.

Heavy-lidded eyes glanced at the sealed door, features sporting not the slightest of interest. Nonchalantly, he watched as the Fuinjutsu runes glowed a soft green in the lackluster empty space.

The sound of the locks pulling back with a protesting hiss made Uchiha Sasuke return his attention to the bland ceiling he'd been observing for almost three years.

Web-like cracks were memorized, uneven values of white and gray labeled, and the measurements long ago taken. There was nothing new for him to find and yet...he never failed to look at up, as if expecting something new to appear; nothing ever did.

As it was custom, he couldn't find it in him to feel disappointed. As a matter of fact, he felt nothing and that was okay.

Lacking emotions wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. The numbness was something he would prefer over hatred any day. It was better not to know grief, or suppress remorse. After all, tasting guilt or impotence was the worst, a sickening tart that lasted for stretched periods of time.

He preferred the quiet simplicity of ignorance.

"Oi, teme!" came the ever cheerful voice of Uzumaki Naruto, his always on time visitor.

Hm. So it was noon already... "Dobe."

Not waiting for an invitation, the blond-haired shinobi flopped down on the floor beside the one and only occupied cot in the locked cell. Placing his hands behind his head, he grinned so widely Sasuke wondered why his face hadn't split in half already. "Aww, don't give me that look! Aren't you happy you're getting released tomorrow?"

Sasuke said nothing, as expected, and thus began the one-sided daily conversation.

"It's the end of September now, and the heat still won't go away. Though," blue eyes narrowed comically and he shivered. "The mornings are getting cooold."

Sasuke didn't comment that his room –cell– never ceased to be cold.

"I'm getting my own Genin team tomorrow, too!" he informed and his smile stretched to impossible levels. "Kiba and TenTen are also going to be senseis this year. I just hope I don't get any undisciplined brats. "

He frowned thoughtfully only to brighten up like he always did.

"Shikamaru thought it was a hassle when he first started, but he trained his team anyway. Right now, I think he has them warming up for the Chunnin Exams. Eh, that Shikamru thinks of everything. I mean, the Exams are still months away!"

And so on.

And so forth.

The usuratonkachi really didn't know when, or how, to shut up, but in a way, Sasuke welcomed his annoying ruckus every time he showed up. It was better than Kakashi's light-hearted jokes or Sakura's mournful and awkward silences.

Yeah, Naruto was good company.

Sometimes.

"Tomorrow's going to be a good day," Naruto sighed happily and closed his eyes, tilting his head back.

Sasuke sometimes thought that Naruto lied too much.

He seemed content, but he wasn't. There was a slight frown between his eyebrows, his cerulean eyes held exhaustion, and his natural tan looked sickly beneath a layer of pale skin, despite being the end of summer.

"Naruto."

The blond snapped his head to look at him instantly (it wasn't often that the teme used his first name), and there it was – pain, regret, sorrow before he could hide them. All the emotions Sasuke wished not to know.

The raven-haired ex-criminal didn't bother to hold the other man's gaze for long. Instead, he turned back to the unchanging ceiling and sighed to himself.

"Stop it. Stop acting like you're fine."

A smile. "What are you – "

"She's dead."

A sharp intake of breath.

"She's gone."

A heartbeat slowed down and clear eyes lost their gleam, turning dull and flat.

"Wherever she is, she's not coming back," Sasuke finished.

He was blunt, but he faced reality as it came. He was no longer the young boy that ran freely through the Uchiha's compound. Not the little kid who wanted to surpass his older brother and gain his father's respect.

He was a man. He was twenty now. He knew when it was necessary to stop pretending.

"You're wrong," Naruto whispered, his voice thick.

Black eyes glanced at cobalt blue.

"No," Sasuke replied easily. "I'm not."

"She's strong; there's no way she won't come back to m – to us!" Although the slip was hastily corrected, Sasuke caught it.

There's no way she won't come back to me.

"It's been years, Naruto. Years," he made sure to put an emphasis.

"She'll come back," his best friend, after all this time, counterattacked, an aura of strong determination encasing him. "She never gives up; it's part of our nindo."

Sasuke opened his mouth to say something else but decided against it in the end. Naruto was stubborn, very, very stubborn, and the girl was a delicate matter to discuss with him.

It was best to leave the issue alone.

"Baa-chan said she reacted two days ago, when I was out on mission," Naruto confided quietly. Sensing his friend's skepticism, his mouth tightened, his eyes downcast. "She'll be okay...one day."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted in reply. It really was no use to fight the idiot.

Before the Uzumaki could support his claims, the door opened and both males were surprised to see Nara Shikamaru standing at the door, his body shaking, his typically disinterested eyes fully extended.

"Na-Naruto – "

By the time he caught his breath, the two men in the room were on their feet.

"Shikamaru, what's wrong?" Naruto quickly inquired for both of them.

"Hinata," was all he said, as if his discomposed state could be explained by uttering a single name.

To the ones present, it did.

Naruto went still, his eyes similar to the Nara's, his face pasty white. It was obvious he expected a negative report.

"W-what?" he managed to choke out.

But Shikamaru said the unthinkable: "She's finally awake."

Shikamaru smiled but Naruto stayed rigid as a statue, his eyes reflecting everything he wanted to do but was too hit by the impression to accomplish.

Sasuke, the less affected by the news, pushed him to the door. When met with a questioning stare, he repeated the action, this time more roughly. "Go."

"Sasuke," Naruto gasped.

Sasuke made a face of indescribable disgust. "Don't look at me like that and leave, you moron," he snarled and shoved him again.

Momentarily out of his shock, the blond smiled. This time, it wasn't forced. "Thank you, teme."

The Uchiha rolled his eyes. This was getting sappy way too fast, and he wasn't appreciating it. "Get the hell out."

That was all the encouragement Naruto needed. "Thanks!"

"Stupid dobe," the brunet murmured to himself when the Nara and the Uzumaki were gone, his door once again tightly closed.

With nothing else to do but throw himself in bed, Sasuke lifted the covers and made himself comfortable.

Hmph.

"Hyuuga Hinata," he tasted her name on his lips, the silent H's rolling smoothly on his tongue.

He huffed in disbelief, closing his eyes.

What a strange girl. He could have sworn she would never survive, not after what happened to her.

But she was awake now.

"Hn."

She was the young woman who was in love with the dobe.

The heiress of the prestigious and ancient Hyuuga clan.

The kunoichi with the peculiar indigo colored hair, the cousin of the deceased prodigy, Hyuuga Neji.

The kunoichi who risked everything just to save the life of the person she admired.

Hyuuga Hinata, the girl who had spent the last two years, eleven months, and three weeks in coma.

.. .*. ..

When Naruto saw her next, the way she reacted was the last thing he expected.

She was sitting on the bed, on the one her father had bought specially for her stay in the Konoha hospital, staring blankly at her small hands, inspecting long fingernails that had grown yet again. They always kept on growing, no matter how many times Ino, Tenten or Sakura clipped them. Due to the nutrients and vitamins she received through artificial feeding, Ino had explained to him one day.

It had been years since he'd seen her awake. Since the war.

That era felt so far away.

His chest tightened at the sight of her without his permission.

Her long hair was casually thrown to the side, long tendrils of indigo curling at the tips and slightly mussed. Her eyes were drowsy and lazy with fatigue despite her long slumber; despite that, the lavender orbs marking her as a Hyuuga darkened shone like crystals flickering light.

Dark bangs were parted in the middle and noticeably longer than before, reaching down to her chin, exposing her forehead, something he'd scarcely seen before. They cupped her white-porcelain face, the same face that wielded high cheekbones and a button nose. Her paleness was pronounced by the black lashes that brushed against her slightly flushed cheeks as she blinked.

Her attention was on Kiba, who sat on the chair next to her bed, telling her some of his adventures with Akamaru and Shino. Stories and tales she had been oblivious to while lost in her own little world.

Naruto heard Kiba chide her mockingly for ignoring him and the girl looked embarrassed for getting caught.

That was Hinata, always blushing, forever shy.

Once the Inuzuka had her attention, she listened intently to every word that came out of his mouth, but her elegant brows were knitted in incomprehension, her nose wrinkled cutely as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing.

She was breathtaking.

Why hadn't he seen it before?

Ino and Kiba were right...hell, all of the ninja world was on target; he was the biggest idiot.

The blond didn't think. He simply acted, as it was often his mistake. His unthoughtful actions had placed the petite, sweet girl who had sincerely loved him for the longest time on that bed, in coma, for years. It had been his fault, all of it.

He didn't care at the moment, though. The murderous guilt vanished and only she mattered. She was all he could see.

So caught up was he in what his eyes showed him that he forgot where he was and what had caused him to find this strange creature in a hospital attached to machines and fighting for her life for long months.

He moved, and then she was in his arms, her gasp of surprise swallowed as the heart monitor beeped loudly in protest.

He hugged her small frame close to his chest, feeling the softness of her body and the heat that strongly clung to her figure. The smell that was uniquely hers was addicting despite the medicine that sought to overpower it. He tucked her into his embrace, fearing that if he didn't touch her, didn't hold her near him, he would choke in the alien and overwhelming emotion taking over him and then drown. Or worse, he feared she'd disappear and vanish like vapor in the sky and he'd never see her again.

"Hinata..." he whispered in despair and could do no more but squeeze her close. His parted lips released an unstable breath that kissed her skin.

Thank God, thank God..!

His relief was short-lived. Because in the next moment, he felt it: the feeble attempt of tiny hands trying to push herself away from him. The monitor attached to her started to go wild and the girl began to hyperventilate.

"Hinata?!"

Naruto let go of her when the insane beep pierced the room like cannon-fire and Hinata was pale from lack of oxygen.

Had he hugged her too tightly...?

"Hinata!" both boys in the room cried, Naruto in panic and Kiba in concern.

Kiba, who could've been one of the walls surrounding the room for all Naruto cared, got up from his seat so quickly the plastic chair crashed sharply to the floor.

The room's door banged open and Ino and another nurse appeared, pushing the boys away.

"Wait out in the hall!" Ino commanded, her eyes hard and narrowed in concentration as the other nurse tried to placate the Hyuuga.

"But –" Naruto began but Ino's voice carried an iciness that left no place for arguments.

"Out, Naruto!"

Kiba grabbed the blond by the arm and dragged him out, making sure to close the door after them.

"What did you do to her?" he demanded once they were in the hall.

Naruto blinked at the sudden accusation and he scowled. "I didn't do anything, I swear!"

Kiba's lips lifted into a snarl and he glowered at the blond in front of him before punching the wall beside him with his fist.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" Naruto exclaimed, wide-eyed.

"You wouldn't understand, Naruto," Kiba growled, his forehead touching the abused wall.

At hearing his name without an insult, Naruto settled down and asked seriously, "Kiba, why did Hinata...why was she so scared?"

Kiba eyed him from the corner of his eye, mouth in a flat line of expressionless. He closed them after a second, and a muscle on his jaw twitched. "What would you do if a random guy came out of nowhere and hugged you? You would push them away from you, that's what."

The pit of his stomach suddenly felt bottomless. "Why would she do that?" His smile came out unsure and false. "Hinata knows me."

"No, she doesn't...She doesn't know anyone."

Naruto wasn't sure if he was hearing right. "What are you – " His face filled with puzzlement. "What are you talking about!" he finally cried.

"Don't you get it?!" Kiba growled in exasperation, whirling on the Jinchuuriki. "She doesn't remember you or me, she doesn't even know who she is!"

The more Kiba spoke, the harder it was for Naruto to think straight. "B-but...but how?!"

Kiba's fist colliding with his cheek was his answer.

"You idiot! It was you! It was your fault! She loved you, she loved someone like you! She sacrificed herself for you! And she paid for it," he snarled, trying to land a kick but Shikamaru and TenTen were already there, holding him back. "It was you!"

"It'd be best for you to leave," commented Shino as he helped Naruto to his feet.

Naruto said nothing, the blood running from his mouth forgotten as he stared numbly at the struggling brunet being dragged down the hall by a stern Shikamaru and a pained TenTen.

Distantly, he felt Shino placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Is...is it true, Shino?" he mumbled, unable to speak louder. When had the oxygen escaped his blood? "Hinata doesn't..."

"Naruto." The Aburame's voice came from far away, the grip on his shoulder faint. "I'm sorry."

With those two indirect words of confirmation, his world shifted and changed. Naruto knew, then, that things would never be the same again.

He wished to be wrong. He wished hard on it to no avail.

The future that awaited him was far from the one he prayed for.

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A/N: I've been wanting to make a one-sided NaruHina since forever.

-SasuHina interaction in the next chapter, yay!

-Dear Stranger, Make Me Remember is such a silly title. What do you think?

P.S: This story will be a short one. 10 chapters? We'll see. It's just that I can't get this plot out of my head! So I apologize in advance to the readers of Nightmares. Chapter 9: Winter was published on Feb. 10. That story will be updated in two weeks! As for this one, if I get good feedback soon, then soon.

-02.12.14.