The Outer Self
Hello once again and I feel as though we are settling into a nice rhythm with this story now. So, let's get started.
The six people in the room sat at the kotatsu, Naruto with his parents on one side and Hinata and her parents on the other.
Hinata donned a purple kimono that matched her midnight blue hair colour. On top of it she wore a cloak with the symbol of the Hyuga clan, a blue flame, engraved on the back. Her hands were also covered by black fingerless fabric gauntlets, atop which was the symbol of another clan.
Naruto's eyes were affixed on Hinata. No matter how much he tried he just couldn't take them off her for more than a few seconds, having them being drawn back at the mesmerising sight. She looked just like a princess, even more so now than what he remembered her as. He couldn't help but think that if this girl ended up becoming his wife, he would certainly be one of the "winners" in life, if looks were the only thing that mattered.
Hinata on the other hand was fidgeting around under Naruto's gaze, connecting her two index fingers together. It was her way of getting rid of her nervousness as she knew that her childhood love was currently looking at her intently. She only hoped that he liked what he was seeing. To her though Naruto remained the splitting image of the gallant knight she remembered him as, one who would go to any extent to protect her.
Minato cleared his throat somewhat loudly to get everyone's attention, in particular the two young ones present. "There is quite a lot we need to talk about, but since this is at least somewhat of a formal meeting, I suggest we start off with some introductions. I suppose I'll start. I'm Minato Uzumaki, the Uzumaki clan head and also the Kazekage, the leader of Uzushiogakure."
"My name is Kushina Namikaze, the youngest daughter of the Namikaze clan leader. Glad to meet you all." Kushina informed in a formal tone before poking her son with her elbow to make him continue, who was still too busy stealing glances at Hinata.
"Ah oh yeah…I'm Naruto Uzumaki, a member of both the Uzumaki and Namikaze clans of Uzushiogakure." He quickly ended his introduction and went back to secretly staring at Hinata, leaving his parents feeling a bit silly.
Hiashi decided to start off their side of introductions. "I am Hiashi Hyuga, the leader of both the Hyuga clan and Kirigakure. In other words I'm the Mizukage."
Hinata's mother was next in cue and she did not hesitate to pick up after her husband. Just by looking at her one could tell where Hinata got her appearance from, having a fair complexion and midnight blue hair.
"My name is Harumi Terumi…rhymes, I know!" She said jokingly with an infectious smile. "My affiliation lies with Kirigakure's Terumi clan, which I'm a prominent member of. Pleased to make all of your acquaintance."
Finally it was Hinata's turn and now Naruto was paying full attention. All the eyes in the room were also upon her, making her more nervous than ever.
"I-I-I'm Hinata H-Hyuga and due to m-my parents l-lineage, I'm a m-member of Kirigakure's two m-most prominent clans…the Terumi and Hyuga c-clans." She barely managed to stutter out before coiling back up out of shyness.
She was so cute, Naruto thought. The way she tried her best despite her shyness was just charming in its own way. But she was a Hyuga, one of the Uzumaki's greatest enemies. Those combined thoughts made for some conflicting emotions.
"So it has been a long time, Hyuga-san." Minato addressed Hiashi with a smile. "It is nice that we get to talk this time not as enemies, but as potential allies. I always thought such a feat would be possible with you, despite our clans' relationships."
"Indeed, much time has passed since we last met. Nearly 20 years if I recall correctly." Hiashi reminisced. "I still remember the "Battle of the Storm", when our clans collided for the very first time under our command as leaders. It was during that battle that you became famously known as Uzushiogakure's "Yellow Flash". It was said that if one saw the yellow flash left behind by your space-time teleportation, the battle would be over in the blink of an eye."
"You make it sound like I was the only one who achieved such feats during that battle." Minato continued. "You stopped an entire battalion singlehandedly, holding down the key strategic position of the battlefield just by yourself. Because of it everyone called you the "Iron Wall" Hiashi, one whose defence could not be penetrated."
"Then the two of us came face to face in battle, and I must admit, it was certainly the toughest ordeal I have ever faced. I was truly put to the test during that standoff."
"Same here." Minato answered back to his once fierce rival. "I'm just glad we both managed to get out of that in one piece, or else we wouldn't be sitting here today."
"That much we can certainly agree upon." Hiashi nodded in agreement.
Both Naruto and Hinata looked at their fathers with a sense of awe. They knew them as relatively normal people who spent most of their time in the office, but both of them had a storied past that earned them the reputation that they had amongst their people. It made them look at their parents in a different light.
"I suppose we could sit here and reminisce all day, but I really would like to cut straight to the chase." Minato had a rather serious tone as he addressed both his son and his prospective bride. "How do you two know each other?"
As Naruto expected, this was clearly going to be the obvious question. After all he had never told his parents about his meeting with Hinata. Therefore he decided to answer. "It happened 10 years ago during that one trip where dad took me with him to Konoha in the land of fire."
"Oh yeah I remember that trip. I was going to have a meeting with Hiruzen of the Sarutobi clan and I took you with me so that you could get to know the Sarutobi, given that they are one of our greatest allies." Minato recalled. "If I remember correctly that was also the trip in which you went missing Naruto."
Naruto nodded in response.
"Naruto went missing during a trip when he was 9 years old?" Kushina was stunned by this revelation. "You let our son go missing and didn't even bother informing me about it?"
"C-Calm down Kushina." Minato replied nervously. "There are reasons behind this."
"There better be some GOOD reasons indeed." Kushina said in an almost threatening tone.
"Seriously mom it wasn't dad's fault." Naruto came to his father's defence. "I just got bored of all the formal meetings and decided to run away into the hidden leaf forest to play. I think I must have gotten carried away like usual and ended up venturing far in, making it difficult for dad to find me. So he really isn't to blame."
"You've always been like that Naruto, playing pranks and up to all sorts of mischief. But your father letting you out of his sight and then subsequently not telling me about this blunder is unbelievable to me."
Minato coiled up slightly, knowing what he was about to say would not go too well with his wife. "I ended up using the fact that Naruto didn't want you to know about the incident to scare him into doing chores for a good while, all the way from mowing the courtyard to tying my shoelaces…stuff he'd never do as a kid."
"MINATO!" His wife was now visibly angry.
"FORGIVE ME!" Minato closed his eyes and put his hands in front of himself in his own defence.
"Mom, dad, you're embarrassing yourselves in front of our guests." Naruto tried to whisper to his parents, but everyone could hear him.
Hinata and her mother couldn't help but giggle lightly at the exchange between the Uzumaki family members.
"You have quite the eccentric family, Uzumaki-san." Hiashi said in his usual stoic tone.
"I don't know if you mean that as a compliment or not." Minato replied with a sigh.
"I think that's a compliment, coming from him." Harumi responded, finding her husband's comment to be an amusing one given his usual uptight nature.
"In any case, let's get back to the discussion at hand." Minato resumed. "So what happened after you went into the hidden leaf forest?"
"I was playing around in the forest until I explored too far in and I couldn't quite find my way back anymore. I was lost. As I was walking around searching for an exit, I miraculously stumbled across a girl about the same age as me. That girl was Hinata." Naruto pointed at the grownup version of the 9 year old girl that he had met back then.
Kushina was a bit perplexed by the scenario concerning Hinata. "If you don't mind me asking, what were you doing in the hidden leaf forest?"
"I was l-lost too." She replied meekly. "I was travelling with some of the other clan members through the hidden leaf forest until I got separated from them and ended up lost. It was during that time I met N-Naruto-kun."
Hinata's father now diverted his attention to Naruto and decided to speak directly to him. "I understand that I should have done this a long time ago, but circumstances did not permit it. Even though my words will never be enough, I hope you will accept my sincerest gratitude for what you did for our daughter back then."
Hinata's mother also chimed in at the same time. "I feel exactly the same way. If not for you, our child may not even be with us today. So truly, thank you!"
Naruto was completely caught off guard by the Hyuga's kind words. This went completely against what he knew them as, who he was told as ruthless and unforgiving. He didn't know what he was meant to do in this scenario. "P-Please, you don't need to thank me. I did what was the right thing to do, and I'm just glad I was able to help her out back then."
"You are too kind." Harumi said with a wry smile. "To be completely honest, we weren't the ones who came up with the idea behind this marriage proposal. It was Hinata herself who suggested it to us because she has harboured feelings towards you since that day. I don't think I could blame her for it either given what you did for her. Women's hearts can be quite dedicated to their first love, especially when it is founded on strong grounds."
"We are told by Hinata that you at least to some degree had mutual feelings back then. I understand much time has elapsed since that event and you may no longer feel the same way. After all childhood words can be fickle sometimes. But in case you still do, I hope you will consider my daughter as a candidate for your potential bride despite the history between our clans. You are special to her and I do not think after all these years she could imagine anyone else but yourself as her husband. I also wanted to iterate that despite its appearance this marriage proposal wasn't made as a strictly political one. However I believe it will have some greatly beneficial effects for both parties if it went through, as I am sure you can image given that you are both the children of the Uzumaki and Hyuga clan leaders." Hiashi explained in the sincerest of tones.
As he took a took a quick glance at the shy girl who was still twiddling her fingers, Naruto understood that despite all this time she hadn't forgotten about him just as he hadn't forgotten about her. She even went as far as to arrange this meeting despite her reserved nature. All of this brought an inexplicable sense of relief and joy to his heart, knowing that those feelings always remained mutual.
"WAIT!" Kushina nearly shouted out in confusion. "Anyone care to fill us in on what exactly happened between these two?"
"I would like to know as well." Minato joined in, looking just as confused. "I'm not sure I followed anything thus far."
Although much time had passed, Hinata could never forget her encounter with Naruto. Thus she decided to explain. "The r-reason I got separated from my clan at that time was because we were attacked by Kumogakure shinobi. E-Even though I managed to get away for a bit, I was eventually found. It was then that N-Naruto-kun fought those shinobi to protect me."
"It was your son's courageous act to protect my daughter even though he knew full well he could have died that kept her from being kidnapped by Kumogakure and have her eyes extracted. In the worst case she may not even be alive right now." Hiashi added.
"WHOA this is crazy!" Kushina exclaimed in shock as she looked at her son. "You actually fought fully fledged Kumogakure ninja at the age of 9? Although I'm glad that you weren't harmed, how did you manage to win?"
"I didn't do it by myself mom." Naruto quickly clarified. "Both Hinata and I fought together. If not for her I wouldn't have managed to push those guys back. My memories don't serve me too well anymore, but I think we also had some kind of help. But ultimately it was our combined effort back then that allowed us to win."
"Well in that case how did you not figure out that Hinata was a Hyuga if you fought alongside each other?" Minato asked curiously. "Her eyes should have been a dead giveaway."
"Back then I didn't know about the Hyuga at all. You guys told me about the Hyuga and our conflict with them much later when I was older. I hadn't seen a Hyuga before either, so there was no way for me to tell she was one. Also, by the time you guys did tell me about the Hyuga, my exact memories of Hinata had already faded quite a bit and I didn't remember much of her features, or a whole lot of our encounter. In fact it was only her smile and the way she referred to me as Naruto-kun earlier that made me recognise her as the girl from my childhood."
"I see…that kind of makes sense. People generally don't remember details about individuals they met when they were kids." Minato nodded in agreement. "But then surely you must have at least remembered her name being Hinata Hyuga right?"
"Ah yeah…about that." Naruto scratched his head feeling silly. "When I first saw her she looked like a princess to me, so I kept calling her "Hime". I ended up forgetting to ask for her name."
"Oh Naruto…" Kushina facepalmed at her son's stupidity.
Hinata on the other hand blushed lightly from Naruto calling her a princess, even if that compliment was directed at her younger self.
"Well, at least they managed to meet again since Hinata remembered Naruto. I guess it worked out in the end." Minato replied as positively as he could. "So, what about this marriage? I wasn't previously aware that our children had known each other for so long, let alone having feelings. This certainly changes the overall outlook of things, since initially I assumed that this meeting would just be an opportunity for us to sit down and talk about some of the current issues we are facing. My hopes were that we could possibly start to put an end to the animosity shared between our clans…not that I felt much in the first place personally."
"I do agree with that sentiment." Hiashi concurred. "Although the Hyuga elders have always tried to drill the fact that the Uzumaki are our sworn enemies into every single clan member, ever since I became a clan leader I really have been questioning more and more our reason for fighting apart from the cycle of revenge, which we don't even remember the start of. Knowing you from our previous encounters, I had a feeling you would agree with me in wanting to put an end to our clans' terrible long standing history of aggression. Therefore when I found out about Hinata meeting your son and her insistence on making this proposal, I thought this would be perfect. If our children were to indeed get married then that would most definitely be the first big step towards a union between out clans. But of course when word got out about this potential marriage, there was an outrage within the clan. The concept of a Hyuga marrying an Uzumaki was inconceivable to most, especially the elders."
"I can certainly understand that. I don't think a lot of the Uzumaki are happy with this either, but luckily they all trust Naruto. So they're willing to let him decide." Minato elaborated. "How did you get the rest of your clan to agree?"
"I didn't…" Hiashi stated with a serious look on his face. "Hinata did."
Minato was confused by what he heard. From what he saw Hinata didn't appear the bold type of person. "How?" He asked.
Hinata looked like she had seen a ghost after hearing Minato's question. Her mother looked similarly distressed.
Hiashi seemed somewhat hesitant in explaining the matter as well, but he knew he had to say something. "She-"
But before he could finish, they heard a sudden crashing noise of something breaking outside, followed by a chorus of loud shouting.
"We better go take a look." Kushina suggested to the rest.
"Yeah…it seems like trouble is brewing." Minato replied in agreement.
I hope you liked the chapter.
Interestingly enough the title of this chapter is referring to Hinata. I've made her character a bit different than what you may expect as you will see next chapter, which is aptly called "The Inner Self".
I suppose it would be interesting to see if anyone figured out the last question about how Hinata managed to get the Hyuga to agree with her idea regarding this marriage. This will also become clear next chapter.
So, I will see you all next time, which will hopefully be soon.
