SweetStealer: Onward to Chapter 2! Thanks for all the support guys!

Kisame: What support, un?

Hinata: She gets lots of it from me, fish-boy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. All characters used in this fic are from the creative (and much coveted) imagination of Masashi Kishimoto. Blah. I wish I had his imagination...

Notes://This takes place half a year after Hinata makes her second escape and nearly dies in Konoha. I got the title from listening to the song 'Awakening' by Mae. It's very beautiful, and almost brought me to tears. Yeah, I'm a little bit of a sap. Ha ha. Enjoy!

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.Chapter 2.

TenTen's eyes welled up in tears as Gai bluntly told her and Lee the news. Lee stood, stock still, as his brow furrowed in anger and he bit his lip until it began to bleed. He held TenTen as she shivered and sobs racked her body. He suddenly felt cold.

"Was he...unhappy with us?" Lee questioned, softly.

Gai's own brow creased with worry, not anger. Lee had always regarded Neji as his greatest rival, and the step that Neji had taken had caught them all unawares.

"No Lee. I think he was unhappy with himself. He feels guilty about Hinata. He may be still be in denial. Neji might think she's still alive." Gai reasoned, almost talking to himself.

"A-And Sasuke-kun?" TenTen hiccuped, feeling the warmth of Lee's arm around her shoulders.

There was a silence.

"He's an avenger. He'll do as he sees fit." Lee whispered, looking at the ground, tears beginning to drip out of his own eyes.

Gai, a little touched at how his two loyal students were taking the news, rested a steady hand on Lee's shoulder. TenTen gave a long tired sigh, as the last of her liquid pain leaked down her pink cheeks. Lee was shaking in anger.

"Lee..." Gai began seriously, but drifted off.

The Green Beast of Konoha raised his head before crying out,

"How many more, Gai-sensei?! How many more...?"

TenTen looked up abruptly, as Lee's almost possessive grasp tightened on her shoulder. Gai stood, rigid, as Lee's words reached him. His favorite pupil was staring up at him, his eyes burning with a sadness and hurt that seemed to be unrivaled.

"How many more will we lose?" Lee murmured, wiping away his tears hurriedly.

TenTen waited, her breath baited. Gai gave Lee a pitying look before looking out over their old training grounds with a far away look on his face, contemplating his answer.

"I don't know...I honestly don't know."

---

Hanabi burst through doors, her breathing ragged and sharp. Panting, she looked in hastily, and then ran off to the next room, not even bothering to close the door she had just opened.

Her face held a panicked look. Icy cold shivers ran up and down her spine, sending her into deep worry. The Byakugan was pulsing with chakra and her lip was quivering with fear. Racing through the halls, opening doors...she was searching for someone.

Where are they?

Where was anyone? The Hyuuga complex was strangely silent. No one was moving, no one was talking...it was all silent. Hanabi had woken up to silence. It was painful.

"Where are you?!"

Nee-chan.

Neji-nii san.

"WHERE ARE YOU?!" she shrieked, open another door, only to find it empty like the others.

She listened to her heart, beating as if it would burst any second. Her hands clenched themselves into fists, as she felt the humiliating tears of loneliness run down her face. She grunted as she heaved open another door, finding it empty again.

Hanabi gave a wail of despair as she kept on searching for the ghosts of people who weren't there. Her black hair wound around her neck and face, the cold November air biting at her cheeks flushed in anger.

"No...no..." she whimpered as her small hands grasped the door handle and turning it.

Nothing.

They aren't here...they aren't anywhere!

Finally, sinking down onto the cold wooden floorboards, Hanabi began to cry. Hot, ugly tears of hate and fear rolled down her face, making her even more angry at herself. Hyuugas hardly cry.

"WHY?! P-Please..." she choked on her words. "Please don't leave me here..."

Her sobs echoed through the compounds, and what made her feel even worse was the fact no one came to comfort her. She felt so alone...so abandoned.

"Where did you go?! Take me with you..." she whispered to the cold silence.

The last of the colorful leaves started to fall in the Hyuuga courtyard. The brown dead leaves covered the mansion as the chilly morning ticked on through time. Yet, it seem to Hanabi that she was the one frozen in the same place and that she'd remain there forever.

"Don't leave me..."

---

Sasori stood impassively, watching Hinata spar against Deidara. He stood, unmoving, next to Itachi, whose eyes roamed the battle, predicting moves and silently grading his student.

"She's moving faster." Sasori noted, in a rather dull voice.

Itachi gave a 'hn' of indifference as he watched the indigo haired girl skid back and made ready to charge again at Deidara who had surprised her by planting a tiny clay insect on her shoulder. Hinata wiped blood and sweat away with the back of her hand, breathing heavily as Deidara swallowed more clay with his hands.

Blood stained the earthy training grounds. Cracks of light forced their way in from holes in the ceiling made by previous, more intense training. The air was stuffy and smelled damp an used. Itachi folded his arms and Sasori glanced at him. There was a glint in his black eyes. Sasori knew that look was never good.

"Hinata. That's enough." he said, listlessly.

The girl looked up, and her heart shaped face showed several nasty cuts and a long red scratch along her cheek. Her Byakugan burned with intensity, and she withdrew it in favor of the Sharingan. Her frosty eyes turned scarlet with anger and Itachi could feel her resistance to shout at him.

"Hai." she whispered and began to walk over to him.

"Aww...I was just about to have some fun, un!" Deidara frowned, a little miffed.

"Come on, let's go before Tobi shows up." Sasori muttered, beckoning for Deidara to follow.

"Fine, un."

Just as Hinata was two steps away from Itachi, a sharp, stabbing pain streaked across her head, making her wince. It last a few seconds then faded dully, and Itachi, not turning around, sensed something was wrong.

"What?" he asked, sighing.

"It's nothing." she whispered, and withdrew the Sharingan too.

Her eyes faded to a creamy white and Itachi turned and walked out with her scurrying behind him, shivering with apprehension. Clenching her hands into fists, she bit back a cry of pain as another flash echoed in her head.

"Itai..." she hissed, shutting her eyes tightly, willing it to go away again.

This time, Itachi turned, and watched as Hinata unclenched her fists and staggered the rest to the way to him, shielding her eyes. Deidara and Sasori also turned, interested.

"What's wrong with you, un?" Deidara asked, raising and eyebrow.

"N-nothing!" Hinata snapped, as another streak of pain echoed in her temple.

"...Get some sleep." Itachi said, finally.

Hinata looked up, furiously. Itachi never told her to sleep unless he wanted to get rid of her or if it really was time for sleep. She knew that he only wanted to ditch her.

"I said, I'm fine." Hinata said through grit teeth.

"Go, Hinata." Itachi said, sharply.

A little humiliated, Hinata stormed off to their room, slamming the door behind her. Itachi's eyes narrowed a fraction and Sasori shot him a look. Deidara crossed his arms and said quickly,

"I'll be in the kitchen."

The weasel and the scorpion said nothing in response, causing Deidara to pull a Hinata and slam the door more violently then the girl. The silence in the room was heavy and still.

"What is it?" Sasori asked finally.

Itachi said nothing, but glared, and walked over to the door and began to walk out. Sasori, more then a little pissed at his comrade's icy behavior, shouted,

"Itachi!"

The boy murderer turned, and then whispered,

"She may be going blind."

---

It was cold in late November. The trees were already brown. The color had fled from the leaves and everything was almost, or already, dead. The fire the two stoic teens had lit did nothing to ease the coolness of the autumn morning. With two navy blankets wrapped around them both, they sat in silence, their concentration erratic.

Sasuke eyed the Hyuuga next to him curiously. Neji was busy checking a map that was conveniently located in his weapon's pouch. Sasuke, a little pissed at the amount of silence, asked the burning question that kept racing through his mind.

"Why?" he asked, looking away, "Why did you come with me?"

Neji looked up, his white opal eyes staring off into the distance. Neji was getting harder to read.

"She's alive." he said, dully, folding up the map and tossing it in with the two knapsacks and a hastily folded green blanket.

Sasuke did a double take. He blinked, then lowered his black eyes to the metal canteen in his lap. Neji looked at him, and folded his arms. Sasuke raised his eyes and then snapped,

"Are you sure? You aren't just being delusional are you?"

Instead of taking offense to the blunt comment, Neji replied simply,

"I'm sure."

"How?" Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"I saw her body turn to wood and burst into flames. She had been replaced. She had left a note for me." Neji added, almost as an afterthought.

"What did it say?"

Silently, Neji went into a pocket inside his shirt and drew out a piece of yellowing paper. It was her letter to him, the one in the coffin that supposedly housed her 'body'. Sasuke hesitantly took the piece of paper and read it through, his eyebrows raising ever so slightly.

Suddenly, there was a snapping of tree branches that made them both look up. The sunlight broke through the dying leaves and there was a gust of icy wind. Sasuke tossed Neji the note back and had a slight feeling of paranoia. Neji activated his Byakugan.

"It's nothing." the Hyuuga replied to the unstated question.

"Sure." Sasuke said, in an off hand way.

"We need to move. Where do you think the Akatsuki hideout is?" Neji asked, placing the kunai he had taken out in his lap.

Sasuke, still looking around, replied,

"Who said we're going there first?"

Neji flashed him a glare. Sasuke rolled his eyes, and put his blanket away .

"What do you mean?"

Sasuke finally looked at him with a skeptical stare and said,

"Do really think we can take on the whole Akatsuki by ourselves? We need more supplies...and possibly more people."

The Hyuuga prodigy narrowed his ivory eyes and hissed,

"We better not take too long then. It'll be winter soon."

Sasuke nodded. The black haired need stretched, got up, and grabbed his backpack. Neji followed suit. The two dashed back into the bare trees and ran north.

What Neji didn't know was that the place where Sasuke decided to pick up the supplies and people.

Orochimaru.

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Sweets: Too short?

Hinata: Just right!

Deidara: I should've had a bigger part, un!

Hidan: I wasn't in it at all, bitch! C'mon put me in there!

Sweets: Chill. You'll be in the next chapter. At the very beginning!

Reviews are nice.

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