Hinata paced back and forth nervously as she considered the upcoming day. Naruko was going to be in town, back from her latest tour and information-gathering duties. There'd be a concert as well so that she could cover her reporting of information to Ibiki and the Hokage.
The world saw Nauko Uzumaki as a goofy mediocre chunin who'd given up the ninja life in favor for being a wandering performer. The fact that she was publicly known to have been raised by the author of the Icha-Icha books added to the image.
Certain elements of Konoha and Suna knew Naruko as a jonin most specialized in information gathering.
Hinata knew Naruko as the girl that had saved her life in more ways than one and encouraged her to live and try hard. And also as the girl whom she frequently had dreams that had started out confusing but which she was starting to come to grips with.
She wanted Naruko. Wanted to hold her and feel that soft flesh and taste her lips and breasts and...do things to and with.
Her skin flushed just thinking about it and she bit her lip, revealing a pair of sharp kitty teeth as she wrung her hands.
Would Naruko even want her? Maybe she didn't like other girls that way. Maybe she only thought of Hinata as a friend. Also, she was a famous singer who was surrounded by beautiful people all the time and a ninja spy. She'd probably been trained in all sorts of special seduction techniques.
Hinata shivered at the thought.
How could she compete with that. She'd spent lots of time with the other girl when they were still both genin and acting with her occasionally until she became a jinchuriki, at which point the Village had felt it was unwise to have both jinchuriki doing the same mission. Aside from that, and the frequent hugs she received, she had no romantic history with Naruko, did she?
"How am I going to ask her?" Hinata asked. "How can I possibly ask her?"
She sat down a moment and felt the presence in the back of her head that was the successfully "tamed" Two-Tails. Naruko, Hinata and both Biiju had objected to the term, but it was what they were stuck with for now.
You really don't need a complicated plan, Little One, the Niibi said. I'm certain the fox-girl is just as interested in you. All you would need is to just ask and you'll be making kittens in no time.
"No, no, no," Hinata protested. "I c..c..can't just ask Naruko-chan i...if she likes girls...that way. And I w...won't be able to do the...other thing anyway."
True, the cat noted. The amount of chakra necessary to bend reality enough to either carry her child or impregnate her would be monstrous. You'd draw peeking ninja from miles around seeing what was up, and probably break both your and Naruko's covers.
Hinata paused and considered what the cat had just said, a strong blush working up over her face.
Unless you can work a barrier up first, the Niibi noted.
"Are you saying I CAN have children with Naruko-chan?" Hinata gasped aloud.
"Who's there?" someone demanded before a pink-haired young woman burst into the clearing Hinata was in. "Oh, Hinata. I didn't think anybody used this training ground anymore."
"That was why I had come up here," Hinata said nervously, wondering what Sakura had heard.
"Yeah, but I came up here to do massive damage to the terrain in practicing my strength," Sakura said. "You came up here apparently to moon over Naruko."
Hinata's flush renewed and she poked her fingers togehter, glancing away.
"I...I am trying to decide how to ask Naruko...to be my...uh...partner," Hinata said in a whisper. "The Niibi thinks I should just walk up and....kiss her..."
She clapped her hands to her flaming cheeks then.
"Just like that?" Sakura said. "No way girl, we've got this for you."
"We?" Hinata said.
"Right, I'll get you to....the best experts I know of in relationship matters," Sakura said determinedly.
"All right," Tenten thought. "This is the best way to get Neji-kun over his...issues with Hinata. One less obstacle out of my way."
"If this works," Ino thought. "Then Chouji might just give up on Naruko and we can get somewhere."
"Gaara-sama will be mine," Matsuri considered quickly. "As soon as these two distractions are out of the way."
"So I screwed up with Sasuke," Sakura said. "I'm not letting another girl's love die without a fight."
Temari Nara sighed and looked over the lot of unmarried girls who lacked a current boyfriend and who were currently billing themselves as experts in romance.
Tenten's suggestion.
"And it doesn't matter whether you pin her or she pins you, because then you can have Nej...I mean Naruko right where you want her!"
Hinata waited for Naruko to come into town and seek out Hinata's own house off the Hyuga, compound. All the better to keep her status as a jinchuriki hidden even from them. It didn't take long before the blonde was at her door knocking in a cheerful manner.
"Hey, Hina-Hime!" Naruko called out as the door opened and Hinata invited her in.
Immediately, the blonde was hugging her. A friendly friend-hug that was careful not to be much else.
"Uhh...uhh...Naruko...do you want to spar?" Hinata asked.
"Huh?" Naruko said, a bit surprised at the suddenness of the request. "Sure! That sounds like fun...where do you want to have the spar?"
An hour later, Naruko watched as the purple-haired girl underneath her vanished into smoke, another clone. Meanwhile, across the village at another place that the "spar" had drifted to, Hinata tried to resist the urge she felt at having Naruko immobilized and at her mercy, When that Naruko vanished into a clone.
"But..." Hinata muttered weakly before hanging her head.
Ino's suggestion.
"Flowers. Every girl loves flowers. Look I know just the write flowers to really get her open and ready to talk about just about everything."
Hinata was walking nervously up to the inn where Naruko was staying while in town and getting ready for her Council-nose tweaking concert.
Ban her albums would they?
She held in her hand and behind her back a bouquet of "special flowers" that Ino had helped her put together. It certainly smelled wonderful and calming. Hinata found her thoughts drifting quietly towards what was coming later and a vague, dreamy smile filtered in over her face as she reached up to knock on the door.
"Oh, hey Hina-Hime," Naruko said with a smile before looking down at the bouquet and immediately covering her mouth. "Oh hell! Hina-Hime, you didn't breathe any of this did you?"
Hinata blinked as her lovely bouquet was taken out of her hands and quickly stuff into a bag which Naruko was closing tight.
"Huh, but...it's for you?" Hinata tried to say coming closer.
"Yeah, I know," Naruko said tersely. "I've had a few fans send those flowers before. They're horrible about making female pheromones go crazy."
"They what...?" Hinata said in a bit of a cloudy voice.
"Oh man, they did get you," Naruko said. "Just a minute, I'll get you right to the hospital. Shizune made an antidote for me a couple times and I need refills anyway."
"But..." Hinata protested as she was dragged away through the hallway and out of the inn.
Matsuri's suggestion.
"Well, you could try loving her in secret and hoping that she'll realize your love for her in time."
Hinata blinked and stared at Matsuri.
"I'm just as bad as you, aren't I?"
Sakura's suggestion.
"Okay! So now we go with the love letter! Perfect way to get your thoughts on the page and say exactly what you mean and judge her reaction without revealing who are!"
Hinata watched Naruko going over her mail at the table they were sharing in the restaurant. Slowly, the pile of fan letters shrank and those that had been read grew. And yet, nothing stand-out had come to Naruko's face.
...until now when a disturbed look just bordering on anger came over her.
"I...is something wrong?" Hinata asked.
"And this was going so well too," Naruko said irritably. "And I just had to get one of those letters, bleh."
"What letters?" Hinata asked weakly.
"This sort of thing almost amounts to porn really!" Naruko said. "I mean, there's stuff here that I'd only ever want to hear from someone I'm dating! Having some stranger fantasize about this stuff...ewww."
Hinata watched her hold out the carefully written letter and summon a brief wind chakra to tear it into pieces as Hinata caught sight of some of the disguised handwriting...and felt her heart-sank.
Perhaps you should have signed it after all, the Niibi suggested with a sarcastic purr. "Her main complaint is that it is a 'stranger' writing it.
"All right," Temari said to Hinata in a gruff tone of voice. "Follow me."
Hinata nodded briefly, following the former Suna...or was she still Suna, sometimes the nature of their alliance got confusing. In any case, she followed Temari to a small, dark room lit comfortably by candlelight and with a small table sat in the middle and a large bed with a pile of blankets and pillows was laid out in one portion of the room. Elsewhere was what looked like a small fridge and a hot water heater.
"All right," Temari said. "Now we wait."
"Excuse me, Temari-san," Hinata said quietly. "Wh...what are we waiting for?"
Temari only smiled at her briefly and then looked away, arms crossed.
It was only a few minutes before Hinata's father came in ahead of Naruko herself.
"Please sit, Uzumaki," Hiashi said firmly, provoking Naruko to do so with a rather irritated air about her.
"So they brought you on this mystery thing too, Hina-hime?" Naruko asked. "Your father said something about a possible way for you and Hanabi both to escape the caged bird. What's up?"
"Well..." Hinata started to talk when Temari put a quieting hand down on her shoulder.
"All right," Temari said. "You two have some things to work out."
"Ehh?" Naruko asked, glancing up towards Hiashi.
"Now, we have provided sustenance," Hiashi said, "as well as..." and he frowned as if saying something unpleasant "...other amenities."
"Uhh, Temari-sempai," Hinata said. "What's going on?"
"What's going on is that we are locking the two of you in this room until you've both told the other what's on your mind," Temari said. "And if things go in expected routes..."
She gestured toward the bed.
Naruko's face started to fluster then as the older two married ninja went to either door.
"Uzumaki," Hiashi said coldly. "Whatever happens, you shall treat my daughter with respect."
And then the two doors closed on them and they felt the chakra of barrier techniques washing over the doors and walls.
Hinata gulped and looked across the table at Naruko.
"Well," Hiashi said grumbling, "this worked better than it should have."
"I am surprised you let this happen," Temari said. "Can't see you approving of that lifestyle."
"Ordinarily I wouldn't, but as I told Uzumaki," Hiashi said. "This lets Hanabi take the position she is most suited for of my daughters, while letting my elder daughter escape Neji's fate."
"Still, I was worried," Temari said. "For a while there it looked like they were trying to escape."
"Indeed," Hiashi said. "There was an incredibly massive amount of chakra in use for an extended time. I could feel it in the way the barrier strained."
"Thank goodness it held," Temari muttered. "The last thing we'd need is for either of them to get revealed because they tried to escape an enforced omiai. Still, would have thought they'd be able to break that barrier if they really were aiming at it."
"What else could they have been using that much chakra for?" Hiashi asked.
"And you are now officially Hinata Uzumaki," Tsunade said with a twinkle in her eye. "Which technically makes you cousins or siblings...though I suppose we all know better."
"Ye...yes, Hokage-sama," Hinata said flushing as Naruko hugged tightly on to her as ever.
There was a green-mark over her forehead, similar too but visibly different from the caged-bird. Similarly, it would seal away and destroy the byakugan in the case of Hinata's death, but it did not allow for anyone using it to give her pain. A "marriage" mark that had been used for Hyuga that would marry outside the Village for some reason.
"Right," the blonde said cheerfully. "Hinata's my princess, and I guess I'm her girl!"
"I...I don't think we really 'own' each other..." Hinata said quietly.
"Just get on with the kiss and the honeymoon!" Sakura shouted. "Before you fry all the men's brains with imagining things."
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(Posted Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:02)
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