Hinata POV

I watched as the rest of my friends got pulled into the dance floor. It looked so fun. I watched from the sidelines, waiting for Naruto. After he came back, we would dance all night. I watched Sasuke twirl Sakura, Sakura laughing and Sasuke smiling.

They're perfect together. 

I smiled to myself. Suddenly, I felt a hand close its tight grip on my arm. I spun around. "Hel-" I could not complete my sentence. The hand had white lace on its sleeves. My heart fell to the pit of my stomach. 

Shion. 

"Wait. Stop!" I protested as she silently dragged me down the stairs to the first level. No one was around. I tried wrenching my hand out of her grip, but she was too strong.

"What do you want from me?" I screamed, trying to pull back. I succeeded, only to slam into a wall and get myself cornered. Her hand grips were ingrained in my wrist. 

"YOU BITCH!" Shion screamed and punched my face. My face slammed against the wall, blood leaking from my nose. It dripped onto my green dress.

No, not the dress, please-

I sank to the ground.

"YOU BITCH! I TOLD YOU TO STAY AWAY FROM HIM!" Shion shrieked as she kicked me on the head. A searing pain hit my head, and i felt warm blood drip down my forehead. 

"I told you not to! You don't care about his safety? You pathetic woman! You don't deserve him! You will pay!" Shion kiched me hard in the stomach. I screamed as I coughed out blood. My whole dress was now covered. 

In my blood. 

I was pushed back hard against the wall as Shion repeatedly kicked and punched me. The only thing that worried me was not about my safety. A felling of dread sunk into my stomach, and I felt sick.

Had they gotten Naruto, too?

With Sakura and Sasuke~

"Hey, Naruto has not returned yet," Sakura abruptly said. Sasuke loosened the grip on ther shoulder and his eyes darted around. Suddenly, they noticsd something. 

Hinata was not there. Then they heard the scream. Naruto's scream. 

Sasuke knew the scream. It was the same pathetic scream Naruto had when he was younger. They used to play together all the time, and a time when he fell down and screamed seven-year-old Sasuke had laughed at him. 

But this cry was painful. 

"We have to go check," Sakura picked the sides of her dress to ease movement and pushed through the crowd. Sasuke followed her. The scream had come from the boy's toilets. 

Panic engulfed them as they smelled the horrible, sickly stench of blood. 

They slammed the door open. Looking at the sight, Sakura teared up. Saskur stood rooted to the ground. 

How? How could this happen?

Naruto's body lied in a pool of blood. His chest was torn. It looked like he had been stabbed and the knife had been turned. There was no one else. The culprit had left the knife behind and fled. Sakura immediately rushed to his side. 

Ugly sobs streamed down her face as she clung onto Sasuke' shoulder. 

"Call the ambulane. He's still breathing. Sasuke, help!" she cried," The bleeding won't stop!"

"Sakura-"

She placed Naruto's head on her lap and cried, "Sasuke, please, do something!"

Sasuke's hands shivered as he pressed the numbers.

"SASUKE PLEASE!"

Sasuke grabbed Sakura's shoulders tightly to stop her from screaming. "Calm down, Sakura. Go find Hinata. I have a feeling something happened to her too." Sasuke urged her out and she went running down the hallways.  He took some paper towels and placed it on the blood. Naruto was loosing blood fast. 

God, please come quickly, Sasuke prayed.

Sakura ran down the hallways, screaming Hinata's name. 

"You will pay!" Someone shrieked from the ground level. Sweat beaded on Sakura's head. Faster, Faster, I need to get there on time, she thought. The plucked off her heels and dumped them, increasing her speed. 

She reached the ground floor.

Then, she saw another sight she would not forget until she died. 

Hinata layed in the corner of a hallway, completely beaten up. She had bruises everywhere, and blook laked from her head, nose and mouth. Her bright mint green dress was now a mix of dried and fresh blood abd torn. She was unconcious. 

"HINATA!" Sakura screamed as she went to her best friend's side and tried to shake her to consciousness, but Hinata's head just rolled back and forth. Sakura checked her pulse. 

"Hinata, HINATA! Please, wake up. Oh, god."

Still breathing. But the injuries were bad. Very bad. She had a broken arm from defending herself.

She turned and saw two figures running towards the school gate. Both of their hands were bloodied. Not from injuries, though.

By causing them.

"Stop! You will never get away with this!" Sakura yelled, hugging Hinata close to her. Suddenly, she heard the sounds of an ambulance approaching. Sakura heaved a sigh of relief. Everything would be fine. Both would get better. 

Everything next happened in a whirr. Naruto and HInata were taken away in stretchers to the hospital. Neji was worried sick, so Sakura, Sasuke and Neji went with them to the hospital. 

Hinata POV

I woke up to the stinging scent of sanitiser. My eyes were greeted by white walls. I'm in the hospital, I thought to myself. As my vision cleared, I saw that my hand had been wrapped. I remembered everything that happened that day. I tried to get up, but my back ached. I got up anyways.

"Hinata!" Neji nii-san rushed into the ward. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah. I don't feel as bad as I look. Can I visit one place before we leave?"

Neji nodded grimly. I made my way to Naruto's ward. He was lying there with an IV strapped. Bandaged wrapped his whole waist and chest. 

I stared at him, tears running down my cheeks. I slid a not on his bedside table.

I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..

Naruto POV

I got up. My blurry vision could make out two figures sitting on chairs beside my bed. Sasuke and Sakura. 

I tried to sit, but fell back down. Sasuke helped me up and leaned me on the support of the bed. They looked very grim. Sakura's eyes were bloodshot.

"Naruto, how are you?" Sakura asked. 

"Ok, but where's Hinata?"

Sasuke's lips tightened. Sakura clenched the seams of her dress. I stared at them. 

"Hey, guys, where's Hinata? You're scaring me!"

Sasuke was the first one to speak up. 

"Hinata left for America."

Those words shot at my like bullets. It felt as if my soul was ripped out of my body. No, it cant be. 

"Sakura, tell me Sasuke is lying," I looked desperately towards Sakura, who just sat there in silence. 

"WHY? WHY DIDN'T YOU STOP HER?" I screamed as the news sunk in. 

Sakura flinched at my tone. "It was her own free decision. She also got beaten up. Shion had told her to stay away from you or else she would hurt you. That's why she was ignoring you for the whole year. But in the end when she decided to speak to you, Shion got Toneri to stab you, and she beat up Hinata. Hina thinks that this whole mess is her fault, and so she left."

"Where is the bracelet I had on my right wrist?" I asked with tears in my eyes. I frantically searched my wrist for the thin purple bracelet with Hinata's initial on it. 

"Here," Sakura pulled out a small drawstring bag and handed it to me. I pulled the edges and was relieved to see that it was in good shape.

"We couldn't stop Hinata. We are so sorry," Sakura said. 

"But-" I was cut short when Sasuke placed a small piece of paper in my hand.

"Read it," he ordered.

When I unfolded it, tears dripped down my cheeks. The short sentence mad my heart  smash into millions of pieces. The floodgates opened as tears rolled down my cheeks. Sakura came up and patted my back, tears of her own spilling from her eyes.

No. Hinata was my entire world. After losing her for so long, I had finally gotten her back, just to be pulled away from me? 

The note read:

Dear Naruto,

 Take care of Sasuke and Sakura for me, okay? I am sorry I had to leave, but I had my reasons. I really enjoyed my time with you. I would never had spent it with anyone else. I'm sorry our time had to be cut short.

Thank you so much. For everything.

And remember, that I will always love you.

I hope we meet in the future. 

Love, Hinata

That was the day the spark faded from Naruto's eyes.

~~~

Love is an emotion.

A feeling that pushes people to do their best, knowing that they had something--or someone--to come home to. It fills their hearts with joy and satisfaction, knowing that they have found their missing piece. However, some refuse. Some insist that love means nothing, and is just a word in the dictionary. They believe that love is not necessary, and they can do perfectly fine without it.

But if love is just a word, why does it hurt so much when it is gone?