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"Is this true? Hinata... she actually defeated that kid Neji?! How could something like this happen? It's absurd!" Hiashi Hyuga, the head of the Hyuga clan, wore an expression of doubt and surprise. When a clan member brought him the news, his first reaction was... disbelief! This was absolutely impossible! After all, Hinata Hyuga was his daughter, and he had raised her himself. Didn't he know his own daughter's situation?! Although Hiashi Hyuga wasn't a qualified father, he paid close attention to the talents of the younger generation. Just three months ago, Hinata couldn't even defeat Hanabi, his second daughter, and Hinata's younger sister, who was about five years younger than Hinata. At that time, Hinata, as the older sister, lost to her five-year-younger sister. Hiashi Hyuga was disappointed in Hinata and openly expressed his disappointment. Hinata, hearing this, cried and ran away. And now, a clan member was actually saying: Hinata defeated Neji Hyuga of the branch family! This... this kind of news sounded fake!
Hiashi Hyuga frowned and demanded, "Where did you get this rumor from?! With Hinata's weak strength, let alone defeating Neji, whether she can even withstand ten of Neji's moves is still an unknown." The Hyuga clan member who conveyed the news respectfully replied, "This is a rumor I heard circulating among the common folk of Konoha." "Furthermore... I sent someone to check on Neji Hyuga of the branch family, and found that he seems to be recovering from a serious illness. It appears he did suffer a significant injury not long ago, but it's unclear if Lady Hinata was responsible." Upon hearing this explanation, Hiashi Hyuga's brows furrowed even deeper. Neji Hyuga was suddenly suspected of being injured?! This took him somewhat by surprise. Logically, given the Hyuga clan's standing in Konoha, even a branch family member wouldn't be easily attacked by someone without consequences. Connecting this with the news the clan member just told him, could this be true?!
No matter what... it felt somewhat unbelievable. If it was true, then Hinata Hyuga's transformation, wasn't it a bit too drastic? Didn't he know what his own daughter was like? How could such a huge change happen in a short period, and he, as her father, only just received a tiny bit of gossip?!
"...Everything will become clear when she returns from school." Ultimately, Hiashi Hyuga could only utter a dull sentence. If Hinata Hyuga truly displayed a genius side... he didn't know how he would face this daughter. After all, just a few days ago, two or three months ago, he had just reprimanded her, and she had cried and run out of the house because of her weakness. So, don't let Hiashi Hyuga's current composure fool you. In reality, he was feeling a bit troubled. However, something like this shouldn't be possible. Perhaps it was just a rumor. Perhaps Neji Hyuga was beaten by someone else? And it was also possible that he wasn't beaten by anyone, but was suffering from an illness or something. After all, this possibility wasn't non-existent, right?
"If this is true..." Hiashi Hyuga's lips twitched.
...
Hinata had no idea what her father was thinking. At this moment, she was already at school, having trained from 5:00 AM until 6:30 AM. By this time, quite a few students had already arrived at the Ninja Academy. Hinata wiped the fragrant sweat from her fair forehead. She let out a slight breath... An hour and a half of high-intensity training, although it left her body feeling a bit tired, hadn't pushed her to the breaking point. So now, apart from a hint of fatigue, her face showed no other expression. And the weighted equipment she wore was specially crafted for Hinata by Liu Chen. These weighted items didn't look particularly conspicuous. They simply made her body appear a bit bulkier. But in reality, the combined weight of these items reached over 500 jin (approx. 550 lbs)! It was incredibly exaggerated. One had to remember that during the review exam, those students carrying 200 jin of weight in a 1200-meter long-distance run, most of the Ninja Academy students... had to crawl the last lap. So, Hinata carrying over 500 jin of weight was not just exaggerated; it was extremely so. Even a Chunin wearing it would probably struggle after a long time.
Just as Hinata was about to return to class, a slightly staggering figure caught her attention. A faint pause appeared on Hinata's delicate face: "That's... that's Neji Nii-san?!" Neji Hyuga was leaning on a cane, limping towards them. His expression showed no discernible emotion, giving off the feeling of a kid trying to act cool...