83 Land of River (6)

Trepidation filled my heart, and my head went to the worst case scenario, like Hinata pointing an accusatory finger at me in front of the team and demanding to know why I could use the Sharingan.

However, that did not come to be. Instead, she calmly deactivated her Byakuugan and proceeded to shyly congratulate me on winning against a legitimately strong, chuunin-level opponent. She, along with Shino and Asuma, praised my fighting ability and that was that. No accusations, no suspicious glances, nothing.

I had considered the possibility that she only activated her Byakuugan after I turned off my Sharingan, or she simply missed it somehow. But those theories were only grasping at straws.

Hinata knew. She had to know. But she didn't confront me or anything. Why? Was it just her subdued personality that held her back from asking questions? Or something more sinister? I had to find out.

So as we collected the bodies of the missing-nin, Asuma used a storage sealing scroll to keep the corpses, I turned an eye towards Hinata and used [Observe] on her. The results… were shocking to say the least.

[Hyuuga Hinata Lv 25]

HP: 5238/5238

CP: 6125/6125

Hinata is a kunoichi of Konohagakure as well as the heiress of the Hyuuga Clan. She is a soft-spoken and polite child when she is outside the realm of her professional duties. However, when push comes to shove, she exhibits a competency in the ninja arts as is expected of an heiress of a prestigious clan. Although her self-confidence has been slowly building over the years, she still lacks an assertiveness and decisiveness that is required for Hinata to truly flourish as a kunoichi. This is mainly due to her waiting for the recognition and true acknowledgement of her beloved.

She is in the early stages of an obsessive devotion to you.

What. The. Fuck.

For some time I thought the system was broken, or it was pranking me, or a dozen other reasons why it would show me something that was just simply so absurd. Because it just didn't make sense. 'Obsessive devotion', the system reported.

First off, both the words 'obsessive' and 'devotion' connotated a strong, nearly fanatical, love for someone. And that just didn't track with what I knew of Hinata's personality through the anime. I mean sure, she would occasionally watch Naruto from afar for many years silently and secretly and… okay I guess it does sort of track.

But how in the world would the target of her affections shift towards me instead of Naruto!? If I remembered it correctly, wasn't he the one who went to her defence when she was being bullied by some kids when she was younger? Why and how did that change?

Even if I thought back to our years in the Academy, and the months we have spent together as a team, Hinata never exhibited any signs of an affection that resembled a 'obsessive devotion' towards me… right?

Wait, now that I think about it… The long looks, the stolen glances, crimson flushes whenever we spoke and that one time she fainted when I held her wrist to show how to properly throw shuriken- Oh god, how could I have missed this, especially with my [Observe] skill!? I didn't have a habit of using [Observe] on my friends and teammates since I was confident I already knew all I needed to know about them, but… oh god, the conceit and hubris was too much for me to bear!

Hold on, could it even be considered love when the System specifically labelled it as a 'devotion'? I mean, it could lean more towards loyalty than any sort of a romantic affection, right? And just because the system reports it that way, doesn't mean it was the sole truth. Humans and emotions are complicated. Things change. Especially hormonal teenage girls who have fleeting attention spans…

Damn it, who am I kidding? If Hinata was a hormonal teenage girl who had a fleeting attention span, the object of her fancy would have long shifted to someone else when Naruto was on his three year training trip. No, if anything, the term 'devotion' sounds rather fitting for someone like her.

So I can only come to the conclusion that Hyuuga Hinata is… in love with me. This is just too much to handle. I'm not the one she is supposed to be in love with, it's Naruto! They are the ones who are supposed to be together; she was supposed to throw herself in harm's way to save Naruto from Pein, and then subsequently confess her love and they were supposed to get married- OH GOD HOW IS THIS HAPPENING!??

I had to concede that I have committed an irreversible error in changing so much of the canon timeline... Damn you butterfly!

And now she even knows the secret of my Sharingan and an easily deduced Uchiha ancestry. But strangely enough, she showed no visible reaction to learning of my doujutsu. To which I could only come to the conclusion that she must have known it for some time.

If Hinata was anything like her canon self, even though my existence has assuredly changed much of the future, she might have followed me one day and just like today, saw my Sharingan with her own doujutsu. That meant she must have known about it for some time now. If so, judging by how I have not yet been questioned by any of the village executives, she must have not told anyone else about it either.

But for me to truly be sure… I had to speak with the girl. Which would also mean confronting Hinata about her supposed 'obsessive devotion' to me, and that was not a conversation I was looking forward to. Not here nor now, obviously. When we get back to the village, I will have to find a time and private place to have a chat with her.

---------

We returned to the village soon after, though we did stop by a bounty station before heading back to Konoha. Asuma had on him a bingo book, and after looking through it, we found the entries of the two Tanigakure missing-nin within. So he made the decision to bring us to the bounty station, to show us the ropes and process involved in capturing wanted targets or turning in their corpses for money.

There, we collected the bounties that were placed on the two. They weren't worth much; the sum of their bounties totalled a measly 55,000 ryo. The one named Kenta was worth 35,000 by himself, while the other, the woman named Miki, was worth 20,000.

Asuma had suggested that I take the entire sum; his reasoning being that since I was the one who dealt the killing blow on both of them, it rightfully belonged to me. However, I rejected his suggestion and opted to share it with everyone equally. I reasoned that I would not have been able to do it alone, so everyone deserved the reward for taking the two missing nin down as well.

We arrived at the village slightly after noon. Asuma dismissed us and gave us the next day off for some rest and recuperation before he headed off to submit the mission report. Us genin also broke up to go back to our own homes respectively, though I stopped Hinata before she left.

"Hinata, since we have the day off, do you want to meet up later in the evening for dinner? I have something I want to talk to you about." I asked, carefully monitoring her expression.

She immediately turned red as a tomato, and sputtered out, "L-l-later? Me and S-Shinji-kun? M-Meet up? Talk? Like a d-d-date…?"

How was I so blind to have not seen this…? Hindsight really was 20/20. I prided myself as someone who was perceptive enough to see through others as easily as reading a book. But the fact that I had not noticed such an obvious crush, meant that I truly was conceited. I was so caught up on what was supposed to happen in canon and relied so heavily on my knowledge of future events that ironically I became completely blind to the changes that have happened as a result of my intervention. Truly, I was a conceited fool.

I waited for her answer. She really was taking her own sweet time; between the mumbling, blushing and an obviously overactive imagination as the girl seemingly played out what might possibly happen tomorrow over and over in her head.

"O-of course, Shinji-kun! I would love to m-meet you! But what do you want to t-talk about?" She replied, looking excited beyond measure but also a tinge of nervousness, uncertainty and expectation.

I smiled, trying to be as gentle and unassuming as I could so as to not divulge my motivations for wanting to speak with her, "Great! I'll see you later then. Just come on over to my place, I'll cook for you. You know where I live, right? As for what I want to talk about, well, you'll know later."

She eagerly nodded, "Mmhmm! I-I can't wait, Shinji-kun!"

I bid her goodbye as she positively bounced home in exuberance. And as I watched her leave, I did not forget to maintain the smile on my face. Now that I knew she could be watching me at any time, betraying my inner thoughts through my facial expressions was not a luxury I could continue having. Her Byakuugan made her both an excellent tracker and an excellent spy as well.

I wasn't sure if she was just flustered or caught up in the moment, but she had fallen for a verbal trap just a moment ago when I asked if she knew where I lived. Sure, she should probably be aware that my current living arrangements, after graduating from the academy, was in a shinobi-only apartment complex. But as far as I knew, I had never told her or shown her which apartment I was in.

Yet she confidently answered that she knew where I lived, without following up on just which apartment I was in. Even the most dull-witted person could figure out how she could have known this without me explicitly telling her before, especially with her habit of following and watching the object of her affections. This girl… is dangerous!

And as I headed to the nearest grocery store to stock up on the ingredients I was going to use, I started thinking about how I was going to go about dealing with her.