Prescript: Everyone one who knows me even in passing know that my one and true OTP...more like obsession in the Naruto fandom is Shika/Hina.

Consider this essay/rant/manifesto/whatever as my 'reasons' as to why I like this little known crack pairing. Now while I don't have cannon based proof- evidence from the anime/manga series- I would however like to express my reasons as to how I got hooked on this pairing, why I think it 'could' work out if given a chance- both in cannon and fanon- and while I'll support Shikamaru/Hinata even if Naruto/Hinata happens or another pairing occurs.

Warning: Ranting of a fan girl ahead, Shippuden spoilers, and options from a woman/fan fic writer/anime-manga fan who doesn't 'care' that Shikamaru/Hinata "can't be possible because they've never talked or interacted one-on-one in the series'

Read at your own risk:
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                                 Part One: How I got into the Naruto Fandom
                ((Optional Title: If you give a crack-pairing shipper a ninja anime...))

Before I launch right into my manifesto I have to first state my history with the fandom. I hopped onto the “ Naruto newbie bandwagon”, as I call it, two years ago.

At that time Cartoon Network was just airing the American edited/dubbed version of the anime. Before I learned about the wonder that is YouTube, I made the “mistake” of watching the first Naruto episode on CN…and turned off the tv after the first five minutes.

I HATED, and still do, Naruto’s dubbed voice, it grated on me so badly that I came within inches of writing off the entire series- what a tragedy that would have been!-

For five months I didn’t even think about giving the series a second chance: until my ex-boyfriend showed me a Naruto Anime Music Video (AMV). The AMV was a tribute to Hinata done to Crawling remix by Linkin Park. This music vid had clips from episodes 46-47 which is better known as the Neji-Hinata battle episodes.

I fell in love with the series at that instance, not that the AMV was all that wonderful, pretty mediocre actually;but without even seeing the subtitles or knowing what the heck was going on, or even the names of the characters well save for Naruto, I liked it.

It was Hinata, who at the time I call white-eyed chick. I liked her character design, and saw the scenes which she fought Neji only to get her butt kicked.

After that vid I barraged my ex with questions and he responded by “re-introducing” me to the Naruto series via YouTube; needless to say I’ve been hooked on the series ever since.
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Before Naruto: I was a anime fan and fan fiction writer long before I was introduced to the Naruto series. At age 12 I wrote my first Sailor Moon fan fiction. The pairing? Serena/Diamond...yeah even then I was a bit of a weirdo. After Sailor Moon, I moved on to Slayers, Fushigi Yuugi, Hellsing, Fruits Basket, so on and so on.

Save for the odd horror, psychological, or shounen title,I mostly stuck to the 'safety' of shoujo titles. However, a few years I started to become bored with the redundant: 'girl meets boy, boy and girl fall in love, being all lovey-dovey until the next monster of the day/rival in love/or both, comes along. But in the end canon couples were starting to become even more predictable.

So when I started writing fan fiction for my favorite anime series, I thought that it would be silly for me to just 'repeat' the same romantic situations and conflicts that I just saw on tv. So began my decent into crack pairings.   As with most of my anime firsts, it started with Sailor Moon with Kunzite/Ami fan fics. Sometimes I would waver and go back to canon: Fruit Basket- Hiro/Kisa, Thoru/Kyou, etc...but one 'crack' I loved at the time actually turned out to be canon later on in the series! The pairing: Ayame/Mine.

This shocked yet pleased me at the same time. It got me thinking that maybe my views that pairings shouldn't be so clean, cut, and dry made me wonder what else could be possible.
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After Naruto: I started out watching the series with a unexplainable love for Hinata. In the first few episodes and the Chuunin arc I was rooting for the shy girl to get Naruto's attention. Being a woman, I wanted to see a shy yet earnest girl character get the guy she wants.

But, as the series moved on, I noticed something. While I liked the 'concept' of NaruHina...something was...missing...

As I watched the anime right up to the Rescue Sasuke arc, I moved on to the manga, honestly looking for evidence that NaruHina was canon. There were a few instances of hope, but I was still left feeling that something about NaruHina didn't 'click' with me.

So I turned to fan fiction, which is where things turned sour. Now I know there are a lot of good NaruHina fan fics and authors who support the pairing. I even have some of the better NaruHina fan fiction filed away as my faves.

But, as with most pairings, I found a wealth of fan fics that did a poor if not awful job with Naruto and Hinata personalities: Hinata suddenly kissing Naruto in front of everyone despite her shy nature, Naruto suddenly noticing Hinata out of the blue and forgetting about Sakura. Some fan fics even bashed Naruto's teammates:Sasuke and Sakura just to make NaruHina work.

Needless to say fandom...killed NaruHina for me. Again, I know there are some good NaruHina fan fics and I've read a few of those, but I still have a distaste for the pairing itself. I hold no grudge against NaruHina fans and no I won't throw myself off a bridge of Naru/Hina does become canon.


So, with the one of the more popular pairings in Naruto fandom shot down, I started rooting around for others to get hooked on.

My first Hinata crack of choice became Sasuke/Hinata. I don't know what it was about the pairing, but I liked the idea of the dark avenger and the shy quiet girl. While it wasn't practical canon-wise since Sasuke and Hinata never spoke or interacted with one another from what we saw in the manga anime; I plunged headlong into the pairing with a passion. My very first fan fic  in the Naruto was in fact SasuHina: 'Victor's Spoils' but after only two chapters I removed it since I just wasn't into the fan fic as I thought I should be.


Over time my love for SasuHina fadded in favor of NejiHina. This pairing, I believe has more detractors than SasuHina ever had. In American culture marriages between cousins is frowned upon and viewed as disgusting, but when I read NejiHina I honestly don't think: Hmm so they're cousins...' rather I read and enjoy the fan fic without such pretenses.

Then I fell back into semi-canon, namely Kiba/Hinata, Shino/Hinata and Team 8 shipping. However the more I read and wrote Team 8 fan fiction I felt that I could write Team 8 better as 'friends' or family type unit than I could with Hinata being with one boy or the other.

Finally, I just started reading random pairings, thinking that maybe I had outgrown the 'Only True Pairing' phase of my Naruto fan girl-ing, I read fan fics with any pairing, as long as Hinata was in it, it was written well, the characters were mostly IC- or humorously OOC- I was okay with it.

But, thanks to one peculiar chapter of 'Good Karma, Bad Karma' by Juliagulia1017(pst: read her fan fics...NOW!) I found a home with Shika/Hina.

Chapter Nine: Hot and Bothersome: The story of 'Good Karma, Bad Karma' itself is pretty strange: quick summary: Hinata has two personalities-think Hatsuharu from Fruits Baskets- and one day she switches into Black Hinata. Black Hinata is outgoing, wears revealing, tight leather clothes, and generally she was the exact opposite of the shy, sweet, timid girl Naruto fans know.

Chapter Nine amused me to no end because 'Black' Hinata walks up to Asuma and Shikamaru while they're playing chess. Hinata takes Asuma's place and beats Shikamaru once. Not willing to take the defeat lying down, Shikamaru challenges Hinata to a rematch. What ensues is a genius pieces of fan fiction...while the characters- namely Hinata- are out of OOC I couldn't stop laughing, smiling, and thinking 'wow' as Shikamaru and Hinata...flirted with one another over a chess board.

The situation was odd, the character interaction was odd and far-fetched at best, not to mention the OCC-ness.

But all that aside...

It was...brilliant. And...I liked it...I liked it lot.


After 'Good Karma, Bad Karma' I went in search of Shikamaru/Hinata fan fics, only to find that the fandom was sadly lacking in fan fiction, let alone ones worth reading.

So...I decided to write some Shika/Hina fan fiction of my own. At first I thought it would be difficult since again Shikamaru and Hinata have yet to interact in the canon events of the series. But it honestly wasn't difficult at all, though some OOC-ness here and there was required, I soon found myself addicted to Shika/Hina in a way that no other pairing could.
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Well enough about the past: On to the future! ...Or rather the next part of the manifesto- My impressions about Hinata!