Summary: Pressure gets to you in strange ways. How it affects you depends on your strength. Hinata may not be the strongest, but she would try to for her friend's sake. AU SasuHina one-shot
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or its characters.
Pressure
When one is at war, they do not think about the questions that will forever wander their minds. They do not wonder about their families, nor do they pray every night to live long enough to see them again. They do not ask when one is to leave or if they're going to die tomorrow. Soldiers aren't supposed to be thinking about anything other than then what is at stake at the moment. One must always think about themselves before anyone else. They always told her this.
"Hyuuga, where is Sakura? There have been a few casualties during a recent mission and they need immediate attention." Piercing Obsidian colored eyes met Opal colored ones. Hinata was brought out of her slight daze and cleared her voice.
"Sakura-san is currently on a mission… S-Should I call for Ino-san instead?" Her voice was meek and nervous. She tried her best not stutter but it seemed to have slipped out. Sakura wasn't on a mission, but she was stressed out to the point where she was hyperventilating and Hinata, being the person she is, covered for her while she calmed down in the closet behind her.
"Yes, call her and tell her to come to the infirmary." He noticed how her voice was quieter than usual. Just by looking at her, he knew she was lying. Sakura wasn't on a mission. He knew she was here somewhere and the fact that she was ignoring her duties makes him angry.
"Hyuuga, tell Sakura that she and I are going to have a talk about her behavior when she returns." He turned away from her so he didn't notice how her eyes widened slightly. Before he started walking away, he added, "How many times must I tell you about that stutter?"
"Y-Yes, I'll tell her and I'm s-sorry—" He was already gone before she could say anything else.
No one really understood Sasuke, or why he was so cold all the time. Only two people truly know him but aren't as close to him as people would've thought, Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto. Sakura was close to him, but even when she was close to him, she was treated poorly by him. Hinata knew he wasn't going to talk to Sakura, more like he was going to threaten her or even hurt her. She vaguely wondered if the man was mentally stable. Then there was Naruto. Naruto knows him better of the two. The two have a one of the strongest bond in the entire Rookie 9 even if it doesn't look like it. Though, just like with Sakura, he treats him horribly.
Rookie 9 was just a rookie squad at first. They were all separated into teams of three, consisting of one girl and two boys. That's how the system worked in here in Konoha. Then, once they were old enough and had the skill for it, they moved from being in a training squad to a solider. From that, you can either go into medicine —as Hinata, Sakura, and Ino did— or stay in the front lines. The only other option was to become a general or a strategist, but you would need to be intelligent, cunning, and most importantly, you would need to be a natural-born leader.
Hinata sighed quietly in the vast emptiness of the office. Originally, she was aiming to be a strategist like her father wanted her to be, but she ended up becoming a nurse since it's easier and medicine has always been a hobby to her.
"Hinata-san… Was that Sasuke-kun?" A small door behind her opened slowly, creaking when it would open wider. Hinata didn't want to see Sakura. She knew Sakura looked like a mess and if she saw her, she didn't think she would be able to hide the fact that Sasuke seemed to be very angry towards her.
Without turning, Hinata replied quietly, "Y-Yes, he was here a while ago. He told me to let you know that he wanted to, um, s-speak to you."
Sakura, noticing Hinata didn't turn around to speak to her, lowered her head in shame. She overheard their conversation in the small closet and couldn't help but feel like crying all over again like she had done while she was in the closet. Being a nurse so long at such a young age did horrible things to your mentality. Since Sakura happens to be the best at medicine next to General Tsunade and her assistant Shizune, many people depend on her to the point where they would prefer her to any other doctor available. The attention was nice for a while but Sakura soon got tired of it and broke down in hysterics.
"I'll go to the infirmary and speak to him there." She briskly walked forward as quickly as she could and began to slightly jog when she reached the door.
"Thank you Hinata-san. I really owe you one, huh?" She smiled at her, trying to lift the mood but Hinata didn't feel the atmosphere become any lighter. It was probably because Sakura's eyes were swollen and red while her hair look disheveled as well as her medical uniform. The stress seemed to have really gotten to Sakura and it broke Hinata's heart to see a friend like that.
Without waiting for an answer, Sakura left the room, and just like that, Hinata began to feel the room become more vacant than it already was to begin with.
Annoyed and beyond furious, Sasuke walked inside the infirmary. Inside was Naruto lying on a small mattress while groaning loudly in pain. He was sweating and very pale as he held onto his stomach which held the wound he got during the mission. Sasuke blames himself that he got hurt since Naruto was wounded from trying to protect him.
"Damn it Naruto, stop touching the wound." His voice sounded harsher than he intended it to be. He was worried, angry, and scared but he pushed the other two emotions away and decided he'd rather be mad than anything.
He walked over to him and grabbed his wrist rather hard and moved it away from his stomach that continued to bleed profusely. Naruto's hands were a bright red color and the blood seemed to drip from his hand. He only seemed to chuckle weakly because of it. Sasuke, not finding this to be funny at all, growled angrily which caused Naruto to stop laughing.
"Sasuke-kun, move away from Naruto!" Sakura yelled as she walked towards Naruto while putting on some rubber gloves. She never thought it'd be Naruto who was hurt. When she found out, she rushed to the infirmary so she would be the one to heal him and no one else. She had to make sure the job was done right and who better else then her, right?
She glanced at Sasuke as she began to clean Naruto's wound and she felt like having a panic attack. Sasuke was looking at her with a glare full of venom and she couldn't help but feel claustrophobic because of it. She loved Sasuke dearly, but lately, he's been mentally unstable. Even to the point where he's actually been hitting her roughly often. He made it some sort of ritual to do that every time she messed up something. Judging by those glares, she knew she was going to be hit again.
Sasuke moved away from Naruto and continued to glare at Sakura, deciding that he'd deal with her later. He walked out, not wanting to distract Sakura from healing Naruto. When he went outside though, he bumped into someone and knocked that person down. Grunting he looked down to see the last person he was thinking of at the moment; Hyuuga Hinata.
Noticing that she was still on the floor, Sasuke held out his hand and lifted her up to her feet without really using any force. He thought the girl felt rather light for someone he assumed to be heavier than he expected seeing as she wears heavy clothing meant for winter or fall even though it was spring. It's not like it mattered though. Personally, he thought the girls here wore rather exposing clothes for someone who might go into the front lines but he doesn't think he's ever seen Hinata without that thick purple sweater. He liked that kind of modesty.
As he continued his thoughts, he didn't notice that there was a dust of pink on her cheeks. He thought it was weird, but then again understandable since she must have been embarrassed by his help. As the time went by, however, her face was became a deeper hue of pink to the point where her entire face was red and Hinata was starting to feel uncomfortable.
"Uchiha-san, would y-you please let go?" She managed to squeak out. Sasuke, finally noticing how embarrassed the girl looked, moved his vision downward where she was looking to notice he was still holding on to her hand. Twitching a little while also wearing a slight blush, he ripped his hand out of hers and grunted. He walked away from her without another word, leaving her confused.
Sasuke cooled down and yelled at himself inwardly for actually liking the contact he made with her. Normally, he would've scowled and yelled, or even go as far as hitting but seeing as he was the one at fault, he decided to just leave without saying anything. Besides, he shouldn't even be thinking about silly things like that. He needed to focus on training. With that said, he walked over to the training grounds.
Hinata stood there for a good five minutes before she shook her head and entered the infirmary. Inside was Sakura who was stitching up Naruto, who was wearing a painful expression. Hinata's eyes glossed over seeing one of her precious people injured so she quickly walked over to Sakura, but before she could get any closer, Sakura yelled.
"Hinata-san, don't come any closer!" Hinata stopped in her tracks and watched as Naruto's painful expression turned into a sad one.
She ignored what Sakura said and got closer. Sakura was just finishing up and noticed how close Hinata was to her and the patient. A growl was threatening to escape her mouth and she turned to look at Hinata with a crazed look in her eye. Couldn't she see that Naruto was her patient? She began to inhale and exhale faster as if there wasn't enough air in the room.
Hinata's eyes glossed even further with tears to the point where they were a squint away from falling. She couldn't believe the state her friend was in. Sakura was hyperventilating. She considered Sakura to be a close friend of hers as well and to have her yell at her and look at her with such fiery, angry eyes made her feel like she needed to ease her pain. She extended her arm towards Sakura's shoulder, to try and calm her down, but before she could, Sakura roughly pushed her down to the floor. Her breathing was even more labored than before and she was starting to sweat.
"Sakura-san, I only want to help." Hinata stood up and hugged her friend quickly while having a powerful grip on her body so she wouldn't move. Sakura yelled and thrashed in her hold, but she realized she couldn't escape her grasp and began to cry in frustration. Soon, the cries turned into hiccups and were quickly becoming sobs. The sobs erupted from her mouth after a while and she held onto Hinata while shaking uncontrollably.
Naruto, watching the scene with pain filled eyes, hung his head low in sadness. His long life crush was in front of him, breaking down in hysterics and here he was, completely useless. He felt like he was back in the mission with Sasuke yelling at him. The only reason he got the wound in the first place was because he couldn't take down one of the men. With his injury, he had to be taken to a medic immediately and they all abandoned the mission for his sake.
He felt something wet roll down his cheek and noticed uninterestedly that it was a tear. He wasn't just crying because he was frustrated though, he was crying for Sakura who couldn't handle the pressure anymore. He knew it was only a matter of time before Sakura would finally snap. Out of all of Rookie 9, she was the one with the weakest emotional strength. During the years she toughened up, but it didn't seem like enough.
Another tear fell down, this time though, for Hinata. Hinata wasn't physically a strong girl nor emotionally but she was one of the most determined and it seemed to him that it was hardly any fair that she had to pretend to be the strong one of the two girls even though she too feels the same pain.
"It's going to be alright Sakura… Please don't cry." She said as motherly and quiet as she could. Even though she felt like crying as well, she had to be strong for Sakura's sake. Sakura nodded and held on tighter.
Hinata grabbed Sakura's hand gently and moved her towards a chair and sat her down there. It seemed like Hinata was to finish what Sakura couldn't finish so she moved to where Naruto was, trying to not think about him being in pain, and finished stitching him up. She looked up at him when she was finished. The look on his face was devastating. He was crying silently with guilty and regretful eyes and looked up at her as well. It hurt her to see the usually beautiful sky blue eyes always filled with happiness be filled with such painful expressions.
"Na-Naruto-kun, I-I advise you stay here and rest for the night. Don't move a lot and try to rest up as much as p-possible." Fortunately, her voice didn't crack when she spoke to him. With that, and a shaky smile to the two of them, she ran outside to get away from the constricting feeling in her chest.
His raven black hair was shining with the sweat from his training. He's been there for a couple of hours, waiting until Sakura would speak to him so she would get her punishment. She never showed up though, so he went ahead and trained for a while. He sat down for a moment and stretched his legs. He was trying to focus on what Sakura's punishment should be, but he couldn't help but also think of the wallflower from earlier. He wondered vaguely what she would do in his position. Would she too punish Sakura for being a useless teammate?
A twig snapped in the distance and brought Sasuke out of his thoughts. He moved towards the sound, thinking it's Sakura who finally came but it turned out to be the girl Sasuke was thinking about. He didn't really know what he was thinking as he got closer to her. Suddenly, he saw tears flowing from her eyes and the feeling to get closer to her increased rapidly.
He didn't know why, but he felt like walking over there and beating her until she stopped crying or at least for making him feel so strange. Another part of him, however, felt like comforting her until the tears stopped flowing. As he got closer, he contemplated which of the two he should do. Hinata, finally noticing him, looked up with tear filled eyes. Sasuke smiled crookedly at her.
Slap!
She gasped out loud and fell down to the floor with a dull thud. Hinata immediately stopped crying and shrunk in fear. She thought Sasuke was going to somehow comfort her, but she should've known better than to believe he would soften up drastically in only a couple of hours. She stood up shakily and tried to speak to him but only at the cost of him punching her in the stomach. Doubling over and coughing up blood, Hinata began to try to run away from him, but he grabbed her hair and pulled her close to him.
"Why are you crying Hinata?" He tried using her first name as some sort of hint to know he was trying to help but Hinata only shivered in fear. Scowling, he yanked her hair upward harshly, causing her to bite her lip from yelling from the sudden pain.
"I asked you a question." He said between his grit teeth. Here he was, trying to help the girl and all she does is cry and look scared of him. He never did anything bad; all of those attacks were to get her attention not hurt her. Though, it seems like she was too weak to even comprehend what he was doing. Either way, Sasuke was getting impatient.
"I-I… Sakura-san h-hyperventilated and lost her self-control for a while to the point where she tried to h-hurt me and N-Naruto-kun is crying too. I-I don't know what to do to h-help them! I need to h-help them but I can't!" Fat tears rolled down her cheeks again while she blushed in embarrassment.
Sasuke smiled at her and let go of her hair while chuckling softly. Hinata's tears stopped as she heard him laugh quietly. She looked up at him with a bewildered look in her eyes. His usual dark and cold eyes were warm and comforting. He extended his arms wide as if inviting her to a hug. Hinata, still confused, didn't know what to do. Sasuke was a cold person; he always made rude comments about her and didn't give a damn about anyone, even his own teammates! Then why did his eyes feel warm instead of cold like earlier? She didn't understand. Why her? Why?
Sasuke saw how puzzled she looked, so he decided to initiate the hug. As soon as his arms made contact with her waist, she stiffened. Thinking she was just nervous about the hug, he bent down to her ear and told her, "I just want to help Hinata. Won't you let me help you?"
He said that so sweetly and caring that Hinata didn't believe it was him but someone else. Idly, she couldn't help but wonder if Sasuke was slightly bi-polar as well seeing that he went from cold, to angry, and to comforting. She was so confused at the moment; she didn't want to think about it. If she tried to block him out though, she would hear Sakura's sob and Naruto's silent cries echo in her memories.
So, she gave up trying to be strong. She relaxed in his arms and cried silently, making sure that he couldn't hear her at all. Once she relaxed, Sasuke bent down and told her sweet nothings to try and comfort her. Maybe in his arms, she can try to forget everything.
A/N: Sorry if the characters might seem too OOC. I needed them to be like that for my idea to work out. I hope you enjoyed the story! I would really like to hear what you think about my story so please review. If you think my story was bad or something was off, don't hesitate to give me some constructive criticism. I really want to make you guys enjoy my stories to the fullest so tell me what you think or how I should improve. Thanks!