She was always in the background. In the past she had watched him in admiration, wanting to tell him how brave he was and how watching him try so hard made her stronger. But of course she couldn't, she herself wasn't brave enough to say such things and she new her place in his life was nothing more than a friend, silently cheering him on from the sidelines.
Once she plucked up the courage to tell him how she thought he was strong, not for his physical abilities but for how he kept picking himself up even when he failed and even when others told him he had no hope. She didn't say these words to make him see her, or to make him have a change of heart, she said these words because she believed them to be true and she wanted to help him. She knew her place was in the background. So when he said that he liked people like her it was more than she could've hoped for.
Years past by and she became stronger. Her teacher and her team-mates helped her improve, and her confidence rouse. Missions went well; she was no longer a burden but a vital part of the team, and even her cousin and her father had come to acknowledge her improvements. When he came back she was happy to see him again, still shy and nervous in his presence but none the less happy knowing he was safe and back in the village they called home. Of course she never confronted him about her feelings, she was still happy in the background. She helped him on a mission to find his friend and save him from the darkness, but she did not expect anything to come of it, she merely wanted to help him, try and do something for him, like how he, without knowing it, had helped her.
Then that day came where she put herself in the spotlight right in front of him. She didn't do it to make him see her or her feelings, to make him praise her or love her. She did it because she would have never forgiven herself if she stood by and watched whilst the person she cared about was hurting in front of her. She had confessed, but not for him, not for an answer, but to make herself stronger. Her love and admiration for him made her stronger, made her brave, and in front of the opponent that had killed so many and was able to take down the person she cared about she needed to be brave. She put her life on the line but she knew her place was in the background. When he returned victorious from the battle and the village accepted him she was so happy for him. She did not expect praise for her actions or expect him to ask her about her feelings, she was just happy that he was alive and well. She didn't get jealous or upset when the girl he had liked for years hugged him, her feelings went beyond that. She was fine staying in the background.
Then the war started and people were lost. Loved ones gone, never to return but she stayed strong. It was her turn to protect him once more and she would. She loved him so much and this time she would protect him without fail.
All her life she had watched him, admired him, cared for him but she had never expected anything to come of it. Not because she was weak or because she lacked confidence, but rather because the things she did for him she did not do for a reward, or to gain his favour, she did them because she loved him, nothing more nothing less. And if the day came one day that he saw her more clearly in his life, that all of a sudden she was no longer in the background but in the spotlight in his eyes, well...she would consider herself the luckiest and happiest person in the world and she would do everything she could to make him feel the same.
Because Hyuuga Hinata loved him, she loved Uzumaki Naruto, and nothing else mattered to her.