Disclaimer: Naruto and it's characters belong to Kishimoto Masashi. I make no profit of writing this.

A/N: Oh yeah, I forgot. The title is based on the Sonata Arctica's song called Shy. Except maybe for the prologue, the fic and the song have very little do with each other, so I can't really say this is a songfic. It's a cute song though, and created the right atmosphere. :D

On with the show.

Perfect Wife Material

Hinata stared at the paper in her hands, trying to recall when and where she had heard this address before. Not only did the street sound familiar, she was sure she had heard this very same address before. Maybe she had visited the person earlier, just couldn't recall it? She had forgotten to ask who the owner of this house was. Suddenly, she felt nervous. What if it was someone she didn't know? Hinata was a bit awkward in social situation, and she wasn't keen on strangers.

With a shrug of her shoulders she returned the piece of paper to the plastic bag she was holding. After leaving her house she had gone a grocery store and bought ingredients to chicken soup. The address Kiba had given her wasn't that far away, so she had decided to walk instead of taking a buss or taxi. She hoped that whoever she was visiting wouldn't mind if she arrived a bit late.

Finally she reached a high apartment building that had a sloppy frontage and a small parking lot filled with thrash and a few very old looking and rusty cars. Hinata wondered, whether the feeling of familiarity in the address had been just her imagination.

In order to get in the apartment she was supposed to, Hinata had to climb all the way up to the seventh floor. Unfortunately, the building possessed no elevator. The girl had started to wonder, who might live in this kind of place. Her arms were getting tired of carrying the groceries, and she started to have second thoughts whether she should have come at all.

When she reached the seventh floor, she stopped there for a while to catch her breath and regain her composure. Checking the letters printed on every door, she pressed the doorbell of the apartment E.

It didn't take long for the door to burst open, revealing the young man standing behind it. Hinata gasped and almost dropped her bag.

"Na-naruto-kun!"

The boy was a serious mess. He was still wearing his pajamas even though it was close to six in the evening. His hair that even in it's usual form was defying the laws of gravity was sprawled in every possible direction and he was wobbling, as it would be difficult for him to stay upright. He blinked a few times, looking at Hinata with unfocused eyes.

"Oh, Hinata-chan. I thought that it was Kiba whom I called. I would have dressed more properly if I knew you were coming." In this point Naruto was already leaning heavily to the door, looking as if he could fall over at any second.

"Don't worry about that, Naruto-kun! You should be resting!" Losing her usual shyness in a fit of extreme concern, she grapped one of Naruto's hands. "Lets take you back to the bed, I will support you."

The girl didn't have to ask for directions, because the bed was already visible on the other side of the room. There were only one bigger room, that seemed to hold the most of Naruto's posessions and also acted as a bedroom. Close the entrance there was a halfopen door to bathroom and a small kitchenette with no door at all. It was also very messy.

Hinata tucked Naruto in, and made sure he was as comfortable as possible. She leaned over and touched is forehead. "It doesn't seem like you have a fever. Stay there and rest if you can, I make you something to eat."

The girl retrieved the bag she had left to the door and carried it into the kitchenette, immediately starting to unpack its contents to the table. She had to hurry. If Naruto was in that condition, there was no way he could have been able to cook recently. Hinata was starting to feel guilty that she had left a sick person alone and hungry for a whole afternoon just that she could save some money. She wasn't having that hard time financially.

She was already mixing a deliciously smelling, bubbling pot when it really dawned her. She was at Naruto's house, cooking chicken soup for Naruto.

With Naruto. For Naruto.

A burning blush made its way onto her face. She had to hold her hand on top of her mouth to prevent a loud 'kyaa!' escaping.

This was bad. Hinata looked down, checking her wardrobe quickly with her eyes. She was wearing her regular clothes, a thick white coat and blue pants, not shaggy but not skin-tight either. As inconspicuously as possible, she straightened the hem of her shirt, suddenly much more nervous than before. Hopefully her cooking skills hadn't gotten rusty. She hadn't cooked for anyone except for herself and her family for a while.

In the other room Naruto was peeping from under the blanket, trying to look like being asleep. Hinata was indeed a lovely thing to look at, even her covering clothes couldn't completely hide her bouncy breasts and round backside. It was such a shame she wore those same things all year round... when she would become Naruto's girlfriend that wouldn't do.

In this point that level of confidence was ridiculous, but Naruto wasn't ready to abandon his fantasy of Hinata in a miniskirt and strapless top. Nope, one hundred years too early for that. She would look awesome in swimsuit as well...

Naruto had to really fall asleep at some point, because someone was gently shaking his shoulder, asking for him to wake up. "I'm sorry to wake you up, Naruto-kun, but are you hungry? I made you some chicken soup, hopefully you'll like it."

Hinata put a plate full of something very taste smelling carefully beside his bedside, and Naruto realised he was very hungry. "Thank you", he said, took a tentative sip at the hot liquid and smiled. "It's delicious! You are really good cook, Hinata-chan."

The girl turned away quickly to hide her blush, but not quickly enough for Naruto to not notice it. He chuckled.

Very cute as well.

"W-well, I s-start cleaning up now, if that is okay with you." She kept her back turned to Naruto, even though she wasn't able to escape from his line of sight in such a tiny apartment. With slightly shaking hands, she started to pick up dirty socks, instant ramen cups and various other kinds of trash and dirty clothing on the floor and deliver the to their rightful places.

"Ah, yeah." Naruto managed to say, his mouth full. He wasn't kidding when he said that Hinata was a good cook. The soup was awesome. "Sorry about the mess. It has piled up for a while... I mean, every time when I try to get myself up and cleaning, I start to get dizzy. I'm just an useless guy like that."

Hinata shook her head furiously. "No, not at all! It's no trouble for me at all, and you should rest and try to get better! That's what I'm here for."

Naruto gave her a gentle smile, making her heart do a small somersault inside of her ribcage. " Thanks, Hinata. "

"N-no problem."

It didn't took long from Hinata to give Naruto's apartment a somewhat representative look. It actually looked much more messy than it was due to lack of space. Naruto who wasn't too much of a cleaner person could only watch in awe how neatly and in good order everything progressed. And not only that, Hinata seemed to like it, preventing the chaos. She was in a good mood, humming happily while sweeping up the corners or taking out the trash.

She is perfect wife material.

Even though Naruto felt little bad about lying to her, he was happy to notice Hinata to be exactly the kind of woman he had hoped her to be. Even as shy and silent as she was, she had a strong and caring spirit and a humble, maybe even submissive nature. Those kinds of girls ended up easily to bad guys because they couldn't defend themselves, neither physically or mentally. Naruto wasn't that kind of guy, though. He intended to take very good care of Hinata, pampering and spoiling her to excess.

"Naruto-kun, there seems to be a picture which frame is broken. Do you have another one? I could change it for you while I'm at it."

Looking up, Naruto saw Hinata holding a badly shattered frame with an old and all too familiar picture in it. In the picture there was himself as a twelve-year-old, grinning like a clumsy idiot he was. Beside him were his best and pretty much only buddies, Sasuke and Sakura. Behind them stood their teacher and mentor in life, Hatake Kakashi. He knew that picture by heart, even if it was barely recognisable

"Nah, it's good as it is." He fell silent and looked at the picture, deep in thought. "It has a story behind it, kinda. You know these people? I'm sure you have seen Sasuke, at least." He chuckled. "He is the emo guy with issues."

Hinata didn't dare to say that he recognized the boy from the description. Naruto didn't except an answer, and kept going.

"We were very good friends when we were kids. Sakura was my first crush, hadn't seen her for a while though. That photo, anyway, got broken when Sasuke smashed it to the wall while deciding to leave us and anything else for good. He did, but in the end he came back. During the time he was away... well, that picture was pretty much everything there was left of him for us. For me and Sakura, I mean." He scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed. "It doesn't sound too dramatic being told like that, but when it was going on it was a big deal for us. So please don't laugh."

Hinata sure wasn't laughing, quite the opposite. Oh god, now you did it, you loud mouthed dead last. "Hinata-chan... are you crying?"

A pair of wet drops had indeed escaped from the corners of Hinata's eyes and were now rolling down her cheeks. Inwardly, Naruto panicked. "It wasn't that bad, I swear! So don't cry Hinata, everything is okay." Naruto was about to leap up from the bed and grasp her into a big hug, but remembered at the last second that he was supposed to be sick.

Hinata wiped the tears away from her ways. "Sorry. It sounds like you three have been through a lot together." She felt suddenly really sad. There were so many people who knew Naruto way better than she did. Suddenly she felt like an intruder in his life, a creepy stalker who just charged in without asking.

Sakura was still around even if he wasn't seeing Naruto. Hinata knew that because they saw each other almost weekly in volleyball practice. Who knew she had such a history with Naruto-kun... maybe they had even been in love, once upon a time. They had been friends since they were children, after all.

How could a newcomer like Hinata ever even start to compare?

"Well, you have food for a couple of days now and your apartment is all cleaned up. I'll come again on Friday." She said cheerily, trying to banish the heavy feeling of depression off her shoulders.

Naruto blinked. "Yeah... thanks again."

"No problem at all." She closed the door behind her, locking the both of them into their own silence.

Tomorrow, Hinata would talk to Sakura.

On the other side of the door, Naruto felt like offloading his heart to somebody. Against his better judgement he called Kiba.

"Kiba here."

"Hey, it's Naruto. Hinata just left. You know that she makes good chicken soup? And she cleaned this place all up, like, formula speed! She is just pure awesomeness."

"Did you say anything to her? The lovey-dovey things?"

"...Oops."

"You fail, man. You fail big time."

"You take that back, bastard!"