A/N:

Hinata !!

Yayness

Crushed for a Crush

Hinata-sama, Neji calls me. Because I am the heir to the Hyuuga clan. Neji is my cousin, part of the Branch house, though he is a true Hyuuga prodigy. He used to resent me because he thought I was too weak to be the future leader.

And he was right. I was weak, and I still don’t have the talent that Neji-niisan has.

But both his views and my weakness were changed by the same boy. Him. Blond haired, blue-eyed, determined… and beauti—uh… hyper.

I am a chuunin now, and I acknowledge that I could never have done it without Naruto-kun’s help.

I was quiet and shy; weak and virtually powerless; aimless. I had no goal; I thought myself too weak to try to reach for one… and I had a huge crush on the so-called worst shinobi-in-training during our academy years.

Some things never change. I still have a huge crush on the same person – except he isn’t weak. And in my eyes, Naruto-kun was never weak. He was strong in spirit, if not in talent. He never gave up, never stopped trying, and went to the extremes to protect anyone and everyone he loved.

Everyone gave him reason to be dejected, depressed… to be shy and quiet, timid and weak. But Naruto-kun never gave in to those people. He remained bright and cheerful, never dropped out of the academy as many obviously hoped he would.

Naruto-kun was strong. He was true to himself. He was inspiring.

I fell in love with Naruto-kun’s strength and spirit, but lacked those qualities myself. I was never able to tell him; never able to comfort him because I was too weak… I was intimidated by his hidden potential and his (as Neji-niisan calls it) ‘annoyingly optimistic outlook’ on life.

… and yet, it was that hidden potential and outlook that helped me find the resolve to change.

As I watched Naruto-kun fight Kiba-kun, I couldn’t help but marvel at his strength, his determination, his fighting spirit that refused to back down. And I couldn’t help but self-analyze myself, to see if I matched that fiery spirit… but I already knew that I fell extremely short of Naruto-kun.

And thus, I finally had a goal that I thought was worth fighting for. A challenge I would never back down from. I wanted to be like Naruto-kun; I wanted to be strong enough to protect those I care for. I wanted to be confident in my abilities. And I was determined to make this happen.

The challenges, the goals I had before held no meaning in my eyes, and all the meaning in the world to my clan’s eyes. They needed a strong heir, but I lacked the determination to become that heir for them.

But in that moment when Naruto-kun defeated Kiba-kun, showing his true intelligence and power, I decided I would make myself stronger than I was. I decided I would never back down from a challenge ever again… and I knew I wasn’t doing it to become the Hyuuga clan’s ideal heir – I knew no matter how I tried, Neji-niisan would always outshine me.

No, I wanted to be stronger for myself… and for Naruto-kun.

So when Kuranei-sensei told me to forfeit the preliminary match against Neji-niisan, I refused. I refused to back down from the first challenged posed since I made my vow. I knew Neji-niisan wasn’t going to go easy on me – I knew he could kill me…

I was crushed by Neji-niisan… but I fought on still. For myself, for my crush, and for everyone else who thought I was a weak Hyuuga girl with no spine. I wanted to prove them wrong. I think I did.

Some things never change. I am still quiet and shy… but weak? I do not think so. I hope not. I believe that I have changed myself because I fought to change. I worked on changing every waking moment of the day, and then some.

Neji-niisan helps me train the Juken (1) style. He commented, once, how much I had improved since the first Chuunin exams. He helped me develop and perfect my Shugohakke Rokujuyon Sho (2).

Even my father has acknowledged me now. I am not weak. I refuse to be called weak. I refuse to back down from a challenge. I refuse to be the shy, defenseless genin that I was.

And I owe it all to Naruto-kun.

I am Hyuuga Hinata. I was weak, once, but not anymore. I am a determined chuunin because I was touched a sweet, strong angel by the name of Uzumaki Naruto.

A/N:

(1) Gentle Fist Style

(2) Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms Style

Weeellll…

-coughs- That was kind of challenging. And not very good. Sorry –

- Aes Sedai