Caged Bird

Characters: Hinata, Naruto, Lee, Neji, Tenten

Pairings: One-sided Naruhina, Naruten

Warning: Crack pairing, coarse language, (lots of it) and angst

Summary: He is the Sun and she is the Earth, they were never meant to meet and they never will.

Author's Notes: I really do like the NarutoxHinata pairing but I kept wondering what would happen if it didn't come true. (Yes, I added Tenten because she gets absolutely no screen time)

Disclaimer: I'll never own Naruto, (or Sasori for that matter) no matter how much I want to.

If you ever asked anyone, they would say that Hinata would be a rose. Lovely, delicate, and to be treated with the upmost respect (because if you didn't treat her with only that, her cousin would get pissed and try to castrate you, gender didn't matter)

Hinata? they would ask, oh yeah, she's a real doll. beautiful, kind, smart, strong, really shy but that's cool.

Hinata herself would disagree, (as politely as she could of course) she would describe herself as a sunflower. Common, unimpressive, and always turned towards the sun. Though Naruto is better than any sun (better than any hot ball of gas, better than any star, better than anything) in her book. Pretty Naruto with his bright blond hair and stunning sky blue eyes. A sunflower needs the sun, for survival, for growth. Hinata needed Naruto to grow, to look up to, to love with all her heart. Naruto is kind and strong and confident and determined and everything Hinata isn't.

he is brash, headstrong, incompetent, foolish, and really fucking dense to not notice our feelings her vicious alter ego yelled, hush, hinata whispered, hush

Hinata loves Naruto so much it hurts so she waits and waits for Naruto to show the slightest weakness so she can swoop down and be his hero (she'll finally be able to be his hero like he's always been hers). When the day finally comes, (Naruto is nailed to the ground by Pein) she rushes down and confesses while saving him. Well she tries to at least, and in the end, he's once again the one who saves her. But at least he knows her feelings now.

Hinata doesn't think she's ever loved Naruto more than she does at this exact moment.

So she waits, (she's always waiting she notices). Days turn to months, months to years and Naruto (Shichidaime-sama her mind corrects) still doesn't talk to her.

Hinata doesn't let her heart break. She doesn't. She reaches inside her chest, puts the pieces back together, and smiles. Hinata won't let her heart break.

Hinata is strong, (and whoever says that Hinata should give the fight for Naruto's heart up are those that are idiots, they are those that don't know what love is, that don't know how much that she'd die for him and live for him and kill for him and do anything that'll make Naruto-kun happy) and she is clever enough and intelligent enough and desperate enough that she will not notice her heart breaking (her alter ego does though, and she's frantically trying to fix it). Years pass, the winters are harsh and the springs are hopeful. Naruto marries and his brown eyed, brown haired bride is more beautiful than Hinata will ever be.

(Naruto does not/will not notice her among the cheering crowds)

Tenten is happy and Naruto is grinning the same smile that made Hinata fall for him in the first place.

(Hinata thinks now is a good time to cry)

Neji-niisan is strangely blank faced throughout the ceremony, and Lee-san is sprouting things about Youth and Love though Hinata caught him (the all-seeing Byakugan is a curse within a blessing) frowning at Tenten's new husband.

Hinata knows she loves Naruto enough to let him go (no matter how much it hurts, no matter how much it hurts, it hurts, it hurts)

Naruto is so handsome and angelic that Hinata never notices Tenten's heated glare (and it is so very pretty, Hinata's weak alter ego can see clearly, without her Byakugan, why Naruto fell for her)

Hinata is a bird; a caged bird that will never learn to fly (and isn't it funny that Neji-niisan was right? isn't it funny darling? my darling, darling Hinata.)

(smile hinata-chan her inner naruto grins slyly)

And Hinata smiles for him.