summary: i've spent my whole life trying to put it into words. — naruhina month 2015
notes: "i'm just going to write this tomorrow" and then i got so addicted to my own fantasy world that i couldn't stop.


day 9:
lotr au


From the moment he first saw her, he was enchanted with her.

Along his journey, Naruto had seen many beautiful women. He had seen the fae, all lithe and fair, but they were harsh and behind their pretty smiles were rows of razor teeth. The mermaids had almost drawn him in once or twice — voluptuous and bare and glittering under the sun, before he had been pulled from the dock's edge by Sasuke and realized the spell he had been under. And he had seen the elves before; always regal, draped in elegant clothes of deep velvets and finely crafted leatherwork and crowns made of antlers dipped in silver.

The elvish, he thought, were a pretentious race. They stuck their noses in the air, looking down at dwarves and humans and basically everyone besides their own kind, with their long necks and smooth, immortal faces that never age. Naruto generally hated the elvish, just on principle.

But Hyuuga Hinata was an entirely different case.

He was required to visit the stronghold of the Hyuuga clan to negotiate how many archers the head, Hiashi, would be willing to lend the village of Konoha for their latest plan to search for the headquarters of a dangerous mercenary group. His eyes passed over, bored, over the clan head and his chosen warriors, all perfect and porcelain.

And then his blue eyes pass over her.

She stands the same as her brethren, feet shoulder width apart, bow and quiver strung across her back, hands clasped behind her. But she does not hold herself with arrogance, as her kinsmen do — it is with pride and confidence that can only come from experience. But she is also beauty incarnate, with soft eyes and a determined smile and long black hair as pure as silk.

He does not even know her name, but this is when it first starts.


Him and his party are escorting the Hyuuga back to Konoha, where all the allies in this search will be briefed and provided aid and sustenance before their long journey. While the other Hyuuga's make their own camp separate from him, Hinata wanders to their fire and nods at the space on the log next to him.

"May I sit?" she asks. She hadn't spoken before, but her voice is soft and dainty — not at all what he would expect from the daughter of a man like Hiashi.

"Uh, yeah," the blond answers, stumbling over his words. Sasuke and Sakura snicker at him from across the campfire and he shoots them a glare. "Of course, go ahead."

She takes a seat and serves herself a bowl of the wild game soup that Sakura had prepared, thanking them for sharing with her. While the eyes of her clansmen were often cold and gray, hers are warm and light. She curls into herself while she eats, making herself appear as small as possible.

"I'm sorry about my brethren," she says, after a few spoonfuls. "I attempted to convince them to join me, but…they are quite fixed in their ways."

Sakura snorts. "You can say that again."

Sasuke elbows her. Even if she was a dwarf, and he hadn't had a clan for a long time, he was still elvish, too. "If I can't talk bad about the dwarves, you can't say anything about the elves."

She rolls her jade eyes, but keeps quiet anyway.

But Hinata takes it in stride, with a elegant smile and a nod of her head. "It's very hard to stray from our traditions once we have them, but I believe all of us — not just the elvish — are making strides to break out of these detrimental habits."

They spend the rest of dinner discussing racial politics across the Five Lands, and she takes the criticism and questions from them all in stride. As the next-in-line to one of the Great Elvish clans, she was going to hold a lot of power within the land, and she seems to know what she was going to do with it.

That is the second moment.


Their party runs into a pack of wild elk beasts in the middle of the dense forest between the Vimur river and the Great Mountain, two almost impossibly maneuverable locations. While the elk were normally docile, harmless creatures, and even one of the ancestral Elvish creatures, elk in these parts had adapted to the harsh environment and developed a more violent nature. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke are already planning how to maneuver past them, and the Hyuuga clansmen have the arrows at the ready in case they decided to charge.

One clumsy apprentice accidentally lets his arrow fly, angering the entire herd.

"Shit," Naruto says, scrambling to figure out a plan to get them out of the eight foot tall rampage headed their way.

The Hyuuga's have their bows nocked and are already verbally preparing their flurry of arrows, before the heiress narrows her eyes and stands before them.

"Do not fire!" she commands with a strong tone that shocks Naruto.

She steps to meet the herd head on, and he's about to go grab her and tell the rest of them to scatter, what is she doing, she's going to kill herself—

Hinata places a hand in front of her, and as the beasts near they slow to a gentle walk, the injured animal of the pack coming to meet her. His white coat shines in the light as he nuzzles against her hand, and allows her to walk around to heal him. Carefully, she removes the offending arrow, and offers water from her own skin to clean the wound. It is her salve that coats the wound and her hands that soothe it.

"You're okay," she coos, hands gentle and soft. "We're not here to hurt you."

She shares a gentle smile with the animal before turning to her clansmen with a piercing stare.

"Who do you think you are?" she asks, her soft voice turning hard and angry. "These animals are part of the forest. Whose domain is the forest?"

Silence.

"Whose domain is the forest?"

"Ours," her brethren mumble, ashamed.

"That is correct," she says, her voice hard as she speaks to her clan, but her eyes soft when she turns to the elk beside her. "And we do not hurt those in our domain, because we are responsible for them. We will help them, and as we do, they help us."

This is how, single-handedly, with a gentle smile and a stern voice of reason and compassion, Hinata has the wild elk help them not only across the Vimur river, but up and through the Great Mountain.

This is the final strike.


"So," Naruto questions her, at the celebratory feast upon their party's arrival in Konoha. "What's it like being heiress? I'm sure you have so many responsibilities. Being a role model for your brethren — great job back in the Great Wood, by the way — and being engaged and all that."

Smooth, Naruto.

She gives him a quiet chuckle. "Oh, I'm not engaged."

A blonde eyebrow raises. "Really? Most girls like you are married off pretty quickly to whichever rich suitor her father fancies most. At least, that's how it is with humans."

Hinata smiles a pretty pink and her lavender eyes glint as she locks gazes with him. "Well, I'm not most girls, and I'm definitely not a human. My father…has allowed me to choose my own destiny. At least in love."

He fumbles for something to say for a minute, something charming, something smooth —

"Well, you could find out if your destiny happens to include me."

I blew it. Holy shit.

She laughs, with her heart and has to set her goblet down as he nervously takes a swig of his wine — I'm going to need it, he thinks. When she's recovered from her laughing fit, she gives him a shy smile and he notices a blush curling up her neck. Woah, what?

"I think," she says, pausing for a long moment, as if she is deliberating, "we could definitely try to see what the stars hold for us."

He blinks at her, astonished.

She motions to the orchestra at the west side of the Great Hall. "Would you care to dance?"

"Um, yeah! Yes, of course, let's go."

Her hands are soft in his and her smile is three times as beautiful when he can look at it up close.

She is absolutely intoxicating.


ending notes: i love confident hinata who is still shy but knows what she wants, damnit.