"Hinata!"
Her heart thudded in her chest. It was a stratchy, gravelly voice, far too loud yet immensely comforting all the same.
She caught a glimpse of orange and then her heart went from thudding frantically to almost stopping.
Blonde hair and blue eyes and big, bright smile.
If this were real life instead of a dream, she would not dared to have given him more than a shy, quiet smile. Even that tiny gesture would have turned her cheeks a flaming rose the color of the morning sun. But since none of this was actually happening, Hinata felt as though she could take some liberties.
She tackled Naruto in a huge, grateful hug, letting all the stress from the past few months melt away from her arms and shoulders.
If this were real life, she wouldn't have been able to squeak out more than a few "hellos" or "goodbyes" in his presence, but this was only a dream, so it was all right for her to talk.
"Naruto-kun, you wouldn't believe what's been happening lately..." she mumbled.
He stilled, craning his ear so that he could hear her better.
Her heart warmed. She didn't have to raise her voice around Naruto or take care not to show any weakness. Around him, it was okay to be a shy, dark weirdo, because he liked shy, dark weirdos like her. She felt compelled to speak more now than she had in several years.
"People think I have samurai armies – "
To her surprise, Naruto didn't push her away. He patted her on the head, just like Tsunade-sama had. "Yeah? What else happened?"
"They run away when they see me, and some people made body pillows and they want my autograph and...and they think I have a harem – "
Naruto stilled again, and Hinata looked up to see him frowning in confusion.
"Naruto-kun, what's wrong?"
"Weeeell, I always thought you wanted a harem, Hinata." He scratched his head and stared at her quizzically.
And there it was. The mortification.
This time, her cheeks really did turn the color of the morning sun. Hinata choked just like she had earlier and flailed her limbs around like a little lion cub learning to walk.
"Wha – no! I don't! Why would you say something like that?!"
Naruto pouted at her. "Awww, but that's my specialty," he complained. "With my Reverse Harem Jutsu, you can have Menma, Nori, Wakame, Kikurage, Tamanegi, Aonegi, Shiraganegi, Takana, Benishoga, Mitsuba – "
Her heart deflated. Hinata supposed that he would list every ramen topping in existence before this dream came to an end. She had hoped that dream-Naruto would help her figure out what to do about the insane situation she was in, but just her luck, he wanted to create a ramen topping harem for her.
Numerous concubines, the daimyo thought she had.
She sighed and glanced at the ground. Then her heart almost stopped beating again.
Broth. She was standing knee-deep in ramen broth. She pinched herself to snap out of the bizarre dream, but then a bright white and pink whirlpool fishcake swam past her ankles. She decided that looking down was a bad idea.
So she looked up. That was a bad idea too, because Naruto suddenly sprouted cat ears, just like on that creepy body pillow of herself and "Nori."
" – Shijimi, Kamoboko, Wonton, Yuzukosho, and of course, the future Hokage, Naruto, ya know!" he finished, grinning at her proudly. "So are you ready, Hinata? For the Reverse Harem Jutsu?"
Hinata finally screamed.
"Hinata? Are you okay?" asked Kiba's voice from far away.
Bright moonlight streamed in through the window. Hinata blinked down at her futon and rubbed her eyes fully awake. Her heart calmed. She was staying overnight at Kiba's house, not knee-deep in ramen broth, listening to Naruto list all the toppings he would use for Reverse Harem Jutsu.
She forced herself to smile. "Yes, I'm fine, Kiba-kun."
"You are not," Shino said calmly. "Has something distressed you, Hinata? You were shouting something about ramen topping harems before you woke up."
She was too tired to even blush. Instead, she bunched up her blankets around her knees and watched the moonlight pool on her pale arms.
Kiba and Shino exchanged a cautious look. Hinata knew that look. She'd seen it all the time for the past few months.
"Hinata," Kiba began. "Ever since we ran into that bandit guy a while back, you've been..."
"Not yourself," Shino said. "I understand that your newfound fame has made you confused and upset."
Akamaru nudged her with his nose reassuringly. She wrapped an arm around his neck and sighed.
"It's just...one day," she said, "I'm the disgraced ex-heiress, and the next, people want me to rule over Noodle Country."
"Bet Naruto would like that," Kiba commented. Shino elbowed him to shut up.
"Please continue, Hinata."
"And...and I don't even know why. It's all so out of nowhere. Like I told Tsunade-sama, I'm – "
"Completely and totally awesome?" Kiba cut in.
"No, I – "
"Doubt yourself too much," Shino said. "The reasons for your fame are clear. Why? Because you are Hinata, member of the best tracking team in Konoha. Of course outsiders are impressed."
"Yeah!" Kiba said, pumping his fist in the air just like Naruto. "So get out there and get all the ramen toppings for your harem! Including Na – "
"Kiba-kun!"
A pillow struck him in the face, and he yelped and fell over. Hinata pursed her lips, but she knew that her teammates could make out the barest traces of a smile.
"Oh, it's on! Three-way pillow fight!" Kiba declared, hefting his own pillow and taking aim.
Hinata deftly dodged and the pillow hit Shino instead, knocking his sunglasses askew, and the fight began for real.
It was a bloodbath that Hinata was on the verge of winning decisively, but then Akamaru howled loudly as a pillow hit him, waking up Kiba's mother and causing another bloodbath (Shino would later claim that Kiba's screams could be heard all the way in Otogakure).
When the moonlight lulled her back to sleep, she was grateful that at least on Team 8, she was just Hinata, member of the best tracking team in Konoha, winner of pillow fights, secretly everyone's favorite teammate.
She didn't have to be anything else.
A/N: Hope you liked this! I wanted to compensate for the lack of Team 8 in the past few chapters. :)
Btw, since someone asked me about my Naruto preferences, obviously my favorite characters are the ones who appear in this fic, I don't have a least favorite, and the most tragic death for me was Neji.
Iwik suggested Naruto using Shadow Clones to make a one-man harem for Hinata, hahaha. I touched on that here.
Things that will definitely happen in the future chapters:
- Naruto and Hinata being tailed by paparazzi and Sai making annoying comments (yeah...combining a bunch of ideas in one...but this is going to happen a bit later)
- People watching Hinata eat 46 bowls of ramen and thinking she suffers from childhood trauma when she actually just gets tired after training
- Samurai army actually appears and swears loyalty to Hinata
- Jiraiya writing a new Icha Icha book about the Hinata debacle
I'm going to stop taking requests now...I love all your feedback and amazing ideas, but if I take any more, I'll get overwhelmed. So readers whose ideas I've made into chapters already...thanks!