Chapter 20

According to those around me, my eyes had turned completely black before slowly starting to fade back into their usual lavender, but my pupils truly had disappeared. Heeding Obito's advice, I asked them to help me put bandaging back over them so I wouldn't be tempted to open them while they healed.

With no lessons to distract us, all we could do was sit around and talk about what had happened to us until dinner came. Sakura said they only gave her a few injections that made her feel tired, but the more time that passed, the more it seemed like maybe she wasn't telling the truth about the side effects. The girl seemed to be in some sort of pain but wasn't admitting it to anyone.

Sasuke wouldn't talk to anyone, even his brother, so it was anyone's guess what they'd done to his eyes.

Kiba and Hidan said they did the same thing to them as they did to Sakura, but Kiba admitted that breathing through his nose was getting more and more painful. We all worried that he was having an allergic reaction to something, but Sakura checked him over and ruled that out, so people took turns watching over the Inuzuka boy to make sure he was breathing throughout the day and night.

On the other hand, Hidan said his muscles were a bit sore, but he wasn't worried about it. Unlike Sakura, he seemed to be telling the truth. Gaara also wouldn't talk to anyone, but we never expected that he would, so it didn't come as a surprise.

What did, though, was the fact that Deidara and Kisame didn't come back with us. No one knew why they were left at that terrifying facility or if they were still alive at all. Even if Kisame terrifies me and I'm not close with Deidara, I still wouldn't wish what I'd gone through on my worst enemy, so I shared in everyone's worries.

Matsuri helped me eat during dinner since my vision still hadn't returned. The room was quieter than usual, so when the sound of someone nearby shooting out of their chair and rushing away met my ears, I squeezed her hand, "What was that?"

Someone else got up and followed the first person, raising my concern.

"It's Sakura. I think something's-"

Naruto was cut off by the sound of pained screams coming from the direction of the bunks. My fingers started to tremble, and I felt a cold-sweat dust on my skin. She continued for nearly an hour before fainting, leaving Ino to sit with her to make sure she, too, didn't stop breathing.

In the time between dinner and lights out, both Gaara and Hidan also collapsed.

Somehow, I managed to fall asleep, most likely too exhausted from panicking the entire day. A sharp pain shot through my eyes in the middle of the night, and I awoke with a start. It was silent around me because everyone else was either sleeping or quietly watching over one of our downed comrades.

The pain came again, stronger this time, and I grit my teeth as I turned onto my side to hold my head between my shaking hands. It felt like someone was slowly taking a knife and slicing it repeatedly across my eyes and into my head in waves. Despite my efforts to stay quiet, a whimper rose in my chest, and soon I felt a hand atop mine.

"Hinata! Are you okay? What's happening?" It was Naruto. He spoke in a panicked yet still hushed voice. I sensed he'd knelt in front of me between our two beds.

I couldn't possibly form a response with the amount of pain jolting through my head, so I focused on holding my head together with my hands so it wouldn't split apart. He tried talking to me a few more times before he surprised me by climbing onto the bed beside me and wrapping his arms around my trembling body.

The pain was too intense for me to feel embarrassed, and I reacted naturally by pressing my forehead against his chest. One of his hands came up to gently hold the back of my head, and I sensed him saying something to me, but my ears were ringing too loudly to hear. My eyes felt like a flame inside my head was melting them.

I don't know how long I suffered before passing out, but I was alone in bed again when morning came. My eyes and head felt a million times better, which surprised me. It wouldn't have been a shock if I'd woken up and my eyes had been completely destroyed by the pain last night.

Sakura was still unconscious and didn't stir when Ino shook her but was still breathing. Kabuto advised us to leave her be when he came downstairs to serve breakfast. Everyone else also made it through the night, and those who'd been struggling awoke as though nothing had happened in the first place. Kiba and Hidan both claimed to feel completely back to normal, while Sasuke and Gaara didn't offer any information. Apparently, the Uchiha's brother was taking care of him in a similar way Matsuri and Naruto have to me.

After some deliberation, I decided to wait until after our mental training session to try and remove my bandages. If I removed them before and my sight still hadn't returned, I'd be in too much panic to handle training.

So, after breakfast, we were led behind the door and sent to our standard rooms. When we entered cerebral reverie, Naruto wordlessly requested that I share what I'd experienced yesterday. Surely he could tell how much I hesitated but still insisted. Uncomfortably, I replayed the day for him.

When it was finished, he was exhausted and concerned. "I knew it had to be bad. Even Gaara passed out."

Words scrolled across our vision before I could respond, "Repeat the steps from your last session."

We simultaneously got uncomfortable, but he still appeared before me, albeit with a frown on his handsome face. I was glad my eyes weren't injured in this state so I could see him, but the situation was still tense. He wordlessly reached into my chest until I felt the familiar wave of heaviness come over me, and then I mirrored his actions.

I immediately wanted to run away when I found myself suddenly in his place, like last time, but for a completely different reason. Naruto, or I, I don't know, was in the process of hooking up with a girl.

She looked about sixteen or seventeen, and I could tell Naruto liked her. Her hair was light blond and almost white, and her eyes were pretty dark green. I desperately tried to look away or close my eyes, for both his sake and mine, but couldn't control my body, or his body, like last time. So I had to endure it for who knows how long until, finally, the act was finished, and the two were in the process of redressing.

Feeling all the sensations, he could feel was different, to say the least. I've never been overly sexual, so the entire situation was completely foreign, and I didn't know how to process what I'd just experienced. It felt really good, of course, but that made me feel guilty. Either way, I had to push those thoughts back mentally, or they'd greatly affect me.

We were in what looked like a broom closet or something. The girl got dressed more quickly and turned to give me a look of warning, "If you tell anyone about this…."

I spoke in Naruto's voice, more akin to his current one than the last memory, "Yeah, yeah. I know."

She frowned before turning and leaving the room. I caught a glimpse outside the room when she did and was shocked to the core when it looked like a school hallway. Students passed, and I could see before the door closed again.

Naruto felt incredibly sad once she was gone. He was thinking about stopping meeting with her because she won't acknowledge him in public, but he liked her too much to do it.

Suddenly, the memory disappeared, and we were back to seeing black. Naruto's voice was hesitant and surprised, "Hinata, you're-!"

The sharp pain burnt the back of my neck, and suddenly I was back to being alone in my mind and awake. I took the helmet off and sat it on the ground by memory. My hands rose to cup my cheeks and confirmed what I'd feared: my face was burning hot.

"What exactly did you see that made you feel like that!"

I turned my face toward Naruto's anxious voice, and dread sank into the pit of my stomach. He'd obviously picked up on the emotions forced upon me. They hadn't left me quickly enough when the memory ended, and he noticed. The boy seemed worried that I'd seen something akin to what I really did see, and I felt bad that I couldn't deny it.

"Y-You were with…a girl."

The room was silent momentarily before he laughed awkwardly, "How embarrassing…."

I put my hands up in defense, reassuring him, "I tried not to look, I swear!" If I were in his place, I'd be distraught.

"It's not your fault."

He still sounded bashful but attempted to change the subject, "I saw your dad telling you about the cancer cure. I didn't know that it was your dad! He's incredible!"

My heart panged with grief, and I felt him frantically grab my hands and pull me gently to my feet, his voice much softer than before, "I meant he was incredible. I'm sorry."

"It's alright, Naruto, " I assured him, but I still felt a bit sad at the mention of my late father. After M.A.T., Sakura finally woke up but had a pretty bad fever and had to stay in bed in hopes of recovering by the time we were to relocate to the secondary location Madara had mentioned.

I was sitting on the edge of my bed as Matsuri unwrapped the bandage from my eyes. Once it was out of the way, I hesitated to open them but eventually did so and let out a sigh of relief when my vision was completely normal.

Matsuri's mouth clamped shut when I lay eyes on her, making me feel bad for some reason.

"Can you see?"

My gaze danced over at Naruto, and I nodded, face warming again at the memory of what I'd seen during training. I looked around, taking in the room. It looked so different than the last time I'd seen it. Beds were pushed out of the way in some places, whereas others were pushed together. Blankets and pillows were strewn about haphazardly. It was the opposite of the tidy room I was used to.

"What happened in here?"

Matsuri spoke again, her voice in a whisper as she leaned closer, "We didn't want to stress you out while you were recovering, so we didn't tell you, but after you fell asleep last night, Gaara went crazy."

I chanced a peek across the room to see the redhead in question was sitting against the wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest and a dangerous glare on his face. Despite his strong facade, I understood he was afraid and didn't know how to handle it.

"Went crazy how?"

She and Naruto glanced at one another, "He woke up and just started fighting everyone. A bunch of the guys ended up having to restrain him."

Matsuri and her M.A.T. partner seemed to have a rocky relationship if you could call it that. Almost all of the other pairs had become at least acquaintances, minus maybe Sasuke and Sakura, but those two seemed at odds.

On the one hand, Matsuri likely tried multiple times to befriend him because she was nice. Doing that would probably be hard for her because she's shy like me, but she did it anyway. On the other hand, Gaara most likely bluntly shut her down each time, which probably hurt her feelings quite a bit. For example, she'd pulled him to safety so he wouldn't get hurt further during the war game training, but he still got back up and attacked her again afterward. Even after all that, the brunette still seemed worried when she talked about him.

I moved my eyes to see Ino dabbing Sakura's red face with a wet towel as the girl lay in bed. Both of them looked completely exhausted. Someone suddenly blocked my view, and I looked up to see someone I didn't expect: Neji. Tenten stood behind him with an uncomfortable expression on her tanned face.

"Do you still have your vision?" His voice was deep and almost monotone.

I answered quickly, more out of surprise than anything else, "Yes."

He knelt to meet my eye line, and I felt like he seemed familiar again, but he rose to his feet again before I could think about it. "You look like you're blind." He turned and walked calmly back to his bed, Tenten in tow.

A wave of mild anger shot through me, but it wasn't mine, and it made my eyes shoot to Naruto in shock. He looked annoyed as his eyes followed them as they left. Was it maybe his emotions popping up every so often?

I shook my head and forced the thought from my mind. That's impossible. The M.A.T. gear didn't connect us, so there was no way anyone else's emotions were coming to me. It must be my mind reacting to the intense stress I've been under lately. Maybe I've developed bipolar disorder or something.

After dinner, and once it was late enough that the sun had to have set, we were taken upstairs one small group at a time. When it was my turn to go, I was with Neji, Ino, and Gaara. The blond girl held my hand as we were guided into a windowless van identical to the one I'd been in yesterday. She'd protested being separated from Sakura, who still hadn't recovered from her fever, but Masumi threatened to punish her if she didn't quiet down.

I whispered to the others once we'd been seated, "They're probably going to knock us out, don't panic."

Gaara ignored me, as he'd experienced it with me yesterday, but the other two looked at me like I'd grown a second head. Just as I expected, a pinkish smoke started emitting from the air ducts once the door was closed, and soon we were all unconscious.