"Greetings, my name is Sai." Sai smiled at them, "You must be Uchiha Sasu-"

"Get lost." Sasuke interrupted, he was annoyed at having been foiled in his attempt to rid himself of Hinata.

Sai continued to smile, though it didn't reach his eyes, and then after a few seconds he said "Even when I force myself to smile it seems I end up being hated anyway. Naruto didn't seem to care for me much either…"

"N-Naruto?" Hinata asked, "How do you know him?"

Why do you care? Sasuke thought to himself irritably.

"I traveled here on a team with him for a mission for Kohona." Sai told her, "How do you know Naruto?"

Sasuke looked over at Hinata and noticed the slightest twitch of her lip which then turned into a down fallen expression he had a slight suspicion was fake.

"It... It doesn't matter." She told him. "If you all don't mind, I am going to excuse myself because I'm getting blood on the floor."

Sasuke couldn't stand for that "I'm not done with you yet!" He yelled at her. He felt a firm hand place on his shoulder and tighten, nails digging into his skin.

"I think you are." Orochimaru scowled. "Hinata you are free to go."

"Thank you sir," Hinata bowed to Orochimaru, she looked over at Sasuke and their eyes met. Sasuke looked away, absolutely livid, and Hinata left the room.

Hinata winced as she walked down the corridor at a brisk pace. Sasuke had done quite a lot of damage to her ribs when he kicked her, she was pretty sure a few of them were broken. She wasn't concerned about that at the moment, however, she was actually excited. There are Kohona shinobi nearby she thought to herself, suppressing a grin, and Naruto is among them.

Hinata was overwhelmed with glee. It was almost over, this nightmare was almost over, she could get out of here alive. All she had to do was steal her eyes back from Kabuto's lab and knock out Sasuke like she had originally planned to. Then it was just a matter of carrying him on her back until she caught up with the Kohona ninja.

She was currently heading towards Kabuto's lab for her eyes. She was sure that Kabuto would be busy with the newest addition to the Sound, so that would buy her some time. Her bigger worry would be finding the eyes. It was a big lab, and even with her byakugan to see through objects there was still a lot of ground to cover.

Hinata was right about the trouble with finding her eyes. It took her about a quarter of an hour to locate them, and another few minutes to pick the lock on the cupboard they were stored in. Hinata was afraid that Kabuto would return before she could them and get out, but to her surprise he didn't, she didn't even see him headed towards the lab as she made her way to her own room. It seemed odd, but Hinata had other things to worry about at the moment.

When she entered her room, Hinata was quick to pack, she only needed the essentials, that was- food and weapons. She slung her bow and quiver over her back and stuffed the pouch on her leg with jerky and other small snacks.

As she left her room she took in a deep breath. Now was the moment of truth, the part where Hinata had to knock out Sasuke and get him out of the compound without being caught. It was do or die. Sasuke's room was only a few hallways over, she just had to get there without being seen-

Hinata's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of an explosion coming from the direction of- Sasuke's room! Hinata broke out into a sprint, trying to ignore the pain as she ran.

Sai had been a thorn in Sakura's side the entire mission. The lies, the insults, the rude language, the apparent betrayal, then the switch back to their side, and now the actual betrayal. Not to become an informant between the sound and Danzo, but to carry out his true mission to assassinate Sasuke. Sakura ran at Sai from where he stood at the end of the crumbled hallway in the aftermath of the explosion and grabbed him by the collar.

"Sai!" She yelled, "What the hell are you playing at?!"

"Is that you, Sakura?" A familiar voice asked from out of her range of vision.

Sakura looked towards the person talking, knowing full well who it was in her heart, but unwilling to believe it was him until she had laid her eyes on him. It took a moment for her eyes to readjust to the sun, turning the silhouetted figure into-

"Sasuke." Sakura said. It was really him, he was here, standing on the ground above the fortress, looking over at her and Sai. Behind her, Sakura heard Naruto run into the clearing.

"Sasuke…" he said.

Sasuke furrowed his brow "Naruto? So does that mean that Kakashi's here too?"

"Unfortunately Kakashi couldn't be here." Sakura heard Yamato say from behind her, "But I am here in his place. We, Team Kakashi, are here to bring you back to Kohona."

"Team Kakashi, huh?" Sasuke said. Next to her, Sakura noticed Sai lift up his sword.

"Sai!" She shouted, "I knew it!"

"So he's my replacement, is he?" Sasuke said, "He was spouting some kind of nonsense about protecting the bonds between Naruto and me. Another weakling for the group, a great fit I'm sure."

Protecting the bonds? "Huh?" Sakura said, looking at Sai.

"It's true my mission was to assassinate Sasuke." Sai told them, his eyes still fixed up at Sasuke. "But those orders don't matter anymore. From now on I want to think and act for myself. Because of Naruto I feel-"

"Sasuke!" A girl's voice interrupted as she ran down the hallway towards them. She barged into the clearing and jumped up to the ledge Sasuke was standing on, "I heard the explosion, are you alright?!" The girl's long, dark blue hair covered her face, and her voice sounded familiar, but no, Sakura thought, it couldn't be...

"I'm fine," Sasuke growled harshly at the girl, "go awa- OUCH!" Sasuke flinched and recoiled from the girl, "What did you just dooooo-" Sasuke collapsed to the ground and without his body in the way, Sakura saw an empty syringe in the girl's hand.

"What the hell?!" Naruto yelled up at the girl as she crouched down to pick Sasuke up over her shoulder, "Who are you!?"

"We have to go, now, Sakura, Naruto." The girl said as she jumped down to the clearing with Sasuke, she winced as she landed though Sakura still could not see her face under her drooping hair. "Orochimaru is probably on his way right now."

"How do you know my name?" Sakura questioned, though she had a sneaking suspicion she knew the answer, as unlikely as it seemed. The girl turned to face her, and even though it was badly bruised, and her eyes were blue, the face unmistakably belonged to-

"Hinata!" Naruto shouted, he jumped up to her and pulled her into a somewhat awkward hug due to her holding up Sasuke, "You're alive!"

"W-we've really got to go." Hinata stammered, her face turning pink where it was not purple. "Can you help me carry Sasuke?"

"Sai, can you make a bird big enough for us to all fly on?" Yamato asked Sai, who pulled out a scroll and began to paint in response. Within seconds there was a large calligraphy bird in the clearing. "Everyone, hop on!" Yamato told them. They did, and the bird lifted them into the air, taking them away from the sound compound and towards safety.

Sakura looked over at Hinata, who was still holding Sasuke. "What did you do to him?"

"I sedated him, he should be out for a week." Hinata told her, she looked relieved.

"I can't believe Shikamaru was right!" Naruto exclaimed, giving Hinata a firm pat on the shoulder. She winced again.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"He told me that Hinata didn't really kill herself and that she was probably trying to do something important. I thought he was just trying to cheer me up!" He looked over at Hinata "You faked your suicide so you could infiltrate the sound?" He asked her.

Hinata nodded "I was trying to bring Sasuke back." She shifted her sitting position and winced in pain.

"How did you get all these injuries, Hinata?" Naruto asked. Sakura noticed Hinata very quickly, but distinctly, glance at Sasuke.

"O-oh, it was just from training." Hinata told them, giving what Sakura thought was a very Sai-like smile. "It's not as bad as it looks."

"And what about your-"

"Naruto, don't badger Hinata," Sakura interrupted in a purposefully loud tone, almost certain he was about to say 'eyes'. "She looks tired, let her rest."

"Oh, thank you." Hinata mumbled, her cheeks once again flushing pink. "I haven't slept in a few days actually."

"Well you should take a nap then." Sakura told her, "Naruto, hold onto Sasuke, Hinata, you can lean on me and rest."

"O-okay." Hinata placed her head on Sakura's shoulder and Sakura wrapped an arm around her to keep her steady. Within a few minutes Hinata fell asleep and began to snore.

The sun had begun to set by the time they landed and set up camp in another of the houses Yamato constructed with his wood jutsu. Sakura gently woke Hinata up, and Hinata asked her in a groggy voice how long she had been out. Sai was completely exhausted from having to keep a ink figure that big in flight for that long and went to sleep right after eating dinner. Naruto kept an eye on Sasuke, who was still passed out as Hinata said he would be.

Sakura and Hinata were given a room to share. Sakura was glad of this, thinking that without Naruto and the others around Hinata would be more open to questions. It's not something I can just jump into, Sakura told herself, I can't just ask with no pretense or-

"So how are Kiba and Shino?" Hinata asked, interrupting Sakura's thoughts.

"They're good." Sakura answered, "I was actually your replacement on team 8, buuuut... they took your death..." Terribly, devastatingly, emphatically bad, "... Poorly."

Sakura noticed Hinata's expression change ever so slightly. She looked regretful. "Yeah, I suppose they would've, huh." Hinata muttered in a hoarse whisper clearly more to herself than to Sakura.

"Oh, but they've been really good otherwise!" Sakura tried to assure her, "You should see how big Akamaru's gotten! Kiba can ride on him now!" The edges of Hinata's lips curled up ever so slightly. Reassured, Sakura continued, "and Shino is still... as Shino as ever!" Hinata chuckled at this, which quickly turned into a harsh cough and a grimace of pain. She kept coughing and Sakura reached over and held onto Hinata's shoulder with one hand and patted her back gently with the other. Bloody spit dribbled from Hinata's mouth as her coughing ceased.

"I'm... I'm okay," Hinata tried to convince Sakura while wiping away the blood.

"No, you're not." Sakura told her, her hand still firmly on Hinata's shoulder "Please... could you show me the damage?" she asked gingerly.

Hinata sighed and hesitantly lifted up her shirt, revealing fresh bruises across her belly. Sakura could see the imprint of a shoe in one of them. She slid a gentle hand over the areas that were bruised, Hinata let out a small noise of discomfort, and could feel broken ribs. "Hinata, I'm going to need you to lie down." Sakura told her. Hinata nodded and lay on her back. Healing broken ribs without any medical resources other than her jutsus wasn't an easy task, as Sakura finished up she told Hinata "I've managed to set your ribs back in place, but it's only really a patch-up job without any medical equipment. You'll have to go to the hospital when we return for complete care."

Hinata sat up "I didn't know you knew medical jutsus."

"Oh, yeah, I started training with Tsunade shorty after Sasuke left the village." Sakura told her.

Hinata reached into the pouch on the side of her leg and pulled out a small glass cylinder. Sakura stared at it, it was filled with a thick, translucent liquid, but she could see floating inside it was two eyes.

Hinata's eyes.

"D-do you think you could-"

"-Oh!, Um, yeah, of course!" Sakura interrupted, trying not to make it obvious she was shocked by Hinata's eyes being in a jar. She took the jar, and then took a deep breath. I can't let my emotions get in the way of my healing right now, she thought to herself. Sakura had Hinata lay down again, and then with another deep breath, she began.

It took less than half an hour for Sakura to replace Hinata's eyes. For such a delicate area it was a pretty simple procedure. What bothered Sakura though was that upon removing the eyes Hinata had in, she noticed a lot of scar tissue in Hinata's eye sockets with varying levels of healings. Sakura didn't want to ask to confirm her suspicions, in case it was a sensitive subject, but if she were to guess, Hinata had had eyes removed and replaced multiple times.

Hinata sat up and activated her byakugan, she turned her head a bit to each side, and seeming satisfied, deactivated it.

"Thank you, Sakura." she said.

"I was no problem, Hinata." Sakura answered, she reached in to place her hand on Hinata's shoulder again, but paused with the sudden worry that it might be too intrusive. She placed her hand back in her lap with a tinge of embarrassment.

"Sakura, I was wondering…" Hinata looked Sakura in the eyes, "Could you… not tell anyone about my eyes? Especially Kiba and Shino? I… I don't want them to worry."

It's a bit late for worrying, Sakura thought to herself, "Of course I won't, Hinata."

Hinata smiled, "Thank you, Sakura. I'm going to go to bed now, goodnight."

Sakura smiled back, though she felt rather forced, "Goodnight."

"Akamaru, catch!" Kiba yelled, throwing a frisbee high into the air. Akamaru ran after it, jumping up many nearby trees until he was high enough to catch it in the air. "Good boy!" Kiba encouraged as Akamaru bounded back. It had been over a week since Sakura had left on her mission with her old team, Kiba and Shino had left for a mission around the same time too with Kurenai, but they had finished it and returned two days ago. Shino looked a bit like he was sulking as he collected bugs.

"Shino, are you still miffed that you couldn't go in the mission with Sakura and Naruto?" Kiba asked as he pulled the slobbery frisbee from Akamaru's mouth and threw it again.

"It's just that I was left out of the last mission to retrieve Sasuke too." Shino told Kiba, for what was long past the first time, "And I would have been much better on the mission than Sai. Why? Because I have experience working with Sakura, and Naruto knows me."

"Not well enough, apparently, I can't believe he didn't recognize you." Akamaru was rushing back with the frisbee again. "And anyway, they're just on a information gathering mission. There's no way they're gonna come back with Sasuke."

Shino let out an incomprehensible grumble and gently picked up a beetle that he had been eyeing. If Kiba were to guess, Shino was probably thinking that if he was on the mission they'd be returning with Sasuke.

Akamaru dropped the frisbee at Kiba's feet and whined. It was the sort of whine Akamaru would make when he was excited to go on a walk and Kiba was taking to long, which confused Kiba because they were already outside. "What is it, Akamaru?" he asked. Akamaru whined again and turned away from Kiba, he looked like he wanted to go somewhere, but wouldn't leave without Kiba.

Kiba wondered what was going on when he smelled it. It was an oh so familiar scent he hadn't smelt in a long time. It wafted to him and it reminded him of home, of comfort. It can't be, he thought to himself, there's no way.

"What is it, Kiba?" Shino asked.

"Follow me!" Kiba told him, running off towards the scent's source with Akamaru leading, now excitedly barking.

"What's going on?" Shino questioned as he followed.

Kiba felt his eyes well up with tears, he wasn't sure it was was he thought it was, who he thought it was, but the hope was too much to bear. "You'll know when I do." He told Shino, wiping a tear from his cheeks as he ran.

It was a sunny but brisk morning. Hinata noticed some frost in the shadows of the trees as she and the others walked in wavering silence. The previous morning, Hinata had used a jutsu to make her eyes look like the ones that she had had before, and then made a show of "remembering" she was using the jutsu and breaking it, making the others none the wiser to the fact that she really had had her eyes removed. Hinata had the feeling that Sakura hadn't approved of this, but she didn't tell the others about it either, so Hinata was optimistic that Sakura wouldn't betray her trust.

Sasuke was still out. Naruto was carrying him gently on his back as they walked. He was happy, everything had worked out well for him, it seemed. He was getting Sasuke back, and apparently her as well. It hadn't really occurred to Hinata that her supposed death would have an impact on others, that they would miss her. Sakura had told her that Naruto only found out about her death a week and a half prior, and had been crushed about it. But now he was cheery as could be. For Hinata, it was mission accomplished.

So why did she still feel so miserable?

Naruto's smile had always been something she depended on for strength, for encouragement. If he can smile, I can too! Now, it just made her stomach turn with a wave of regret.

I went through all that for this?

Hinata's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a dog barking in the distance. Everyone took notice.

"Everyone keep your guard up," Yamato commanded, bringing his hands together in preparation to use jutsu.

Hinata activated her byakugan, but what she saw wasn't a threat, but three figures running through the trees towards them in the distance, three very familiar figures. She deactivated it as Akamaru, Kiba, and Shino popped out onto the path ahead of them in plain view. Kiba looked over at them, his face filled with tears.

"HINATA!" He yelled, rushing towards her.

Hinata felt her eyes become wet and her vision began to blur, "K-Kiba! Shino!" She began to run towards them.

"Hinata!?" Shino yelled. He ran towards her too.

Hinata and Kiba met each other in the middle of the path first, Kiba wrapping Hinata up in a tight hug. Snot was running out of his nose and his cheeks were moist with tears. Hinata felt Shino's arms wrap around her as well. Akamaru's nose tickled at her legs.

"You're alive!" Shino said in a cracking voice on the verge of tears.

"I… I'm sorry!" Hinata sobbed, blinking away tears. Kiba and Shino were so much taller than her now, she felt protected in their arms. She hadn't felt safe in a long time. "I'm… I'm home... I'm home."

Sorry it's been so long since my last update. The first thing that made this chapter take so long was that after I published the last chapter of this, I started another fanfic called "Between Two Wars" which, if you like Harry Potter/Naruto crossovers and platonic Sasuhina interactions, you should check out. Especially since I'm going to update that next. The other reason this took me so long was just that this was a hard chapter to write, especially since, as you might've noticed, some of the scenes are based in canon and that can be tedious to write.

Thank you guys for your patience, and as always reviews are appreciated!