"Mmm…" Hinata mumbled, waking early and instinctively hugging her pillow. Overwhelmed by shyness, she rolled back and forth in her bed like a little silkworm.
"How could I have such an embarrassing dream? Fantasizing about Ying…"
It was bad enough he'd called her "baby" and complimented her eyes, but then he'd taken off her clothes and…touched her chest…
He'd even…licked the sweat from her skin…
"Aaaaaah!" Hinata flung the pillow aside and stumbled out of bed, mortified. Her bare feet, as white and tender as lotus roots, carried her to the full-length mirror as if by habit. She slipped off her camisole-style nightgown and stared blankly at her reflection, then, as if compelled by an unseen force, placed her hand…there…where the delicate pink met the snowy white of her breasts.
Had Ying really liked it…like that…in the dream? Innocent Hinata replayed his actions in her mind.
"Mmm…" she whimpered involuntarily.
"Big Sister!" The door flew open, revealing Hanabi, also an early riser. She froze, staring at her sister standing in front of the mirror, touching…herself.
"H-Hanabi!?" Hinata nearly shrieked, snatching up her nightgown and whirling around. Thank goodness it was only her sister. If one of the household staff had seen her… Hinata shuddered. She probably wouldn't leave the house for weeks.
"Is Big Sister thinking about boys?" Hanabi, though not yet ten, seemed to possess wisdom beyond her years.
"No!" Hinata quickly pulled on her clothes, her cheeks burning. What a precocious little sister.
"And don't use grown-up talk!" she added, trying to regain some semblance of authority. Thinking about boys? She'd just had a silly dream, that was all. Although…Ying had been so strong in the dream, even able to counter her father's techniques.
"Big Sister *is* thinking about boys," Hanabi declared, even more certain of her deduction as she watched Hinata's face flush crimson. She wondered which lucky boy had managed to elicit such a…cute reaction from her usually timid sister.
*Big Sister is so cute! I love her so much!*
---
---
"That toad is a total fraud!" Naruto burst out the moment he saw Uchiha Ying, not even waiting for a greeting. He was still fuming about his dream, where not only had he failed to learn any senjutsu, but he'd also been forced to eat bugs thanks to that smelly toad.
"Ying, do you think that toad was lying too?" Sasuke asked, still fixated on the senjutsu he hadn't learned.
"First, whether it was lying or not, we wouldn't have been able to learn senjutsu in such a short time," Ying countered, dashing Sasuke's hopes. "Second, that toad is likely working with the enemy. It was deliberately stalling us."
"I see…" Sasuke reluctantly abandoned the idea of learning senjutsu for now.
"Also, I found information about those people, including the toad, in some ancient scrolls today," Ying continued, producing a book filled with archaic characters. Since Naruto and Sasuke couldn't read it, he could make up whatever he wanted. Of course, most of what he said was still based in truth.
"What? Those people actually existed?" Sasuke's interest was piqued.
"Yes." Ying pretended to read from the ancient scroll, then recounted a carefully edited version of the story of the Sage of Six Paths and his mother. "According to this, Kaguya was the name of the Sage of Six Paths' mother. The Sage and his brother were named Hagoromo and Hamura. It's said that a thousand years ago, the Sage had a falling out with his mother and, along with his brother, sealed her away."
"The Sage of Six Paths!?" Sasuke had heard legends of the Sage, the figure who founded the ninja world a millennium ago.
"What kind of sage gangs up with his brother against his own mother? He's a villain!" Naruto, oblivious to the nuances of the story, simply declared the Sage to be evil. "If I dream of that place again tonight, I'm gonna give that Six Paths guy a piece of my mind!"
"If it really is the Sage of Six Paths, then our experience…" Sasuke trailed off, lost in thought. Had they traveled a thousand years into the past in their dreams?
"It's possible an Uchiha ancestor sent us there," Ying said, blurring the lines between truth and fabrication.
"Naruto, you can't tell anyone about this, understand?" Sasuke's eyes lit up at the mention of an Uchiha ancestor. *Yes, that must be it. Our ancestor must disapprove of what Itachi did, so he sent us… Well, except for Naruto.*
"Yeah, yeah, it's our secret," Naruto agreed. He wasn't stupid. He wouldn't tell anyone something like this. Besides, who would believe him anyway?
"We'll discuss our strategy for tonight after school. We can't waste another opportunity," Ying said. Time was of the essence. He needed to absorb Naruto and Sasuke's chakra fragments to continue his development. He hoped tonight wouldn't be a repeat of last night. Although, last night…
---
---
*"I never would have guessed that Hinata's sweat…is sweet…"* And compared to Tsunade's ample softness, Hinata offered a different kind of delightful, springy sweetness.
Uchiha Ying arrived at the Ninja Academy, lost in thought as usual, gazing out the window. That was, until a certain girl with Byakugan sat beside him.
*Huh?* Hinata seemed even more sensitive than usual today. Normally, it took at least five seconds of eye contact to make her shy, but today, it was instantaneous. Every time their eyes met, she'd quickly avert her gaze, as if she'd been shocked.
*What's going on?* Ying tilted his head, curious about her exaggerated reaction. While Hinata wasn't as mature as she'd been in his dream, this smaller version was also quite cute. And so easily flustered. He bet she'd cry for ages if he so much as poked her.
"Y-Ying… I… I…" *Is there something on my face?* Hinata wanted to ask, but before she could, a certain blonde girl interrupted.
"Ying! Good morning!" With a burst of speed that rivaled a hundred-meter dash, Ino Yamanaka, who had just entered the classroom, leaped onto Ying's back, hugging him from behind.
"What were you saying?" Ying asked, resignedly supporting the clingy blonde, then turning back to Hinata.
"Nothing," Hinata mumbled, biting her lip and clenching her hands in her lap as she watched the two of them. Her cute face puffed up slightly, and a bubbling cauldron of jealousy brewed within her.
But she quickly suppressed these unwelcome feelings. *It was me who had those shameless fantasies about Ying in my dream. It's not like he actually…did anything to me.* In reality, he probably disliked her. She had no reason to be jealous or angry.
Yet, the more she realized this, the more the bubbles of jealousy seemed to multiply within her.