Chapter 42: The Awkward Situation
"There, stop crying." Naruto crouched down, pulling out a clean handkerchief from his pocket and handing it over. "What's your name? I'll walk you home."
The little girl timidly accepted the handkerchief, gently wiping her reddened eyes. "Um... thank you... I'm Hyuga Hinata..."
Naruto stood up, gesturing for Hinata to follow. Two small figures walked down the street one after the other. Naruto couldn't help but marvel at how strangely fate worked in this world. Only this time, it was those bullies who got beaten to a pulp.
The eldest daughter of the main Hyuga family, actually being bullied by civilian children?
Naruto was certain there were branch family ninja lurking nearby, responsible for protecting the heir to the main family. Yet those people had turned a blind eye to Hinata's bullying—probably because the Hyuga clan head had the mindset of "toughening up the heir."
Thinking of this, Naruto couldn't help but shake his head inwardly. With Hinata's personality, to put it nicely she was kind, but to put it bluntly she was weak. Neji's assessment in the original story was indeed correct—she really wasn't suited to be a ninja.
She didn't even know how to fight back at the most basic level.
Naruto looked at Hinata's still-reddened eyes. She probably didn't realize that to bullies, tears only made them more excited. This submissive attitude would be fine if she had a good background, but otherwise in this dog-eat-dog ninja world, she was destined for major losses.
"You're from the Hyuga family, right?" Naruto slowed his pace to walk alongside Hinata. "Dealing with untrained guys like that should be pretty easy."
Hinata's small hands clutched tightly at the corners of her clothes, her voice barely a whisper. "I... I was scared..."
Naruto glanced sideways at this timid girl. "That won't work. Tears have no effect on people like that. You know, plenty of people used to give me trouble too..."
At this point, Naruto paused. The villagers of Konoha were still subjecting him to cold violence in secret—the adults' malicious gossip would naturally influence their children.
Those brats wanting to show their presence had made the "demon fox" their best bullying target—under the subtle influence of adults, they didn't even think this was wrong, instead believing that bullying this "guy everyone hates" was righteous.
The result was...
"I beat them all into submission," Naruto shrugged, his tone casual. "From then on, no one dared to mess with me anymore."
Hinata looked up, her eyes holding a trace of longing. This was the first time she'd met someone like this—about the same age as her, yet radiating the confidence and strength she so lacked.
"So amazing..."
"You need to learn to be braver," Naruto said to Hinata as they walked. "With guys like that, giving them a good beating is what they're asking for..."
"Naruto?!"
A sudden call interrupted Naruto's words. That familiar voice definitely didn't come from Hinata.
Naruto's body went rigid as he slowly turned around. At a street corner not far behind them, a black-haired little girl was staring at him with disbelief in her eyes.
"...Satsuki?"
They called out each other's names in unison, their faces full of surprise. Satsuki hadn't appeared for their appointment this afternoon because she'd gotten a rare chance to practice shuriken with her sister.
In the past, she would never have missed such precious time together. But today, for some reason, choosing to accompany her sister instead of seeing Naruto filled her with an inexplicable sense of guilt.
Sister isn't available every day like Naruto is...
Sasuke had convinced herself with this reasoning. After practice ended, she went out to buy some new training tools, but caught sight of a familiar blonde figure on the street, with a strange girl walking beside him.
At this moment, Sasuke's gaze swept back and forth between Naruto and Hinata. Seeing this white-eyed stranger girl looking at her curiously, then looking at the surprised expression on Naruto's face, a wave of irritation suddenly surged through her. It felt like someone had stolen away her treasured possession.
---
The stone path echoed with the light footsteps of three people.
"So..." Satsuki's voice carried deliberate nonchalance, "Naruto helped you chase away those annoying guys?"
Hinata kept her head down. "Yes... I'm really grateful to him..."
"Hmph!" Satsuki straightened her back, lifting her chin like a proud little cat. "Of course! This guy has been training with me since way back."
She deliberately emphasized her tone, stealing glances at Hinata's reaction from the corner of her eye. "He's the only one who can keep up with an Uchiha genius!"
"Satsuki..." Naruto looked helplessly at the black-haired girl who was practically glued to his side. "Why did you follow us anyway..."
"Th-that should be obvious!" Satsuki's cheeks flushed with a light blush as her voice unconsciously rose. "I'm going the same way! Just happened to be going the same direction, that's all!"
"...I see." Naruto looked down at Satsuki, who was almost attached to his arm, swallowing the words "aren't you standing a bit too close" that he'd been about to say.
"Um..." Hinata's gaze timidly shifted between the two, "do you always spend time together like this?"
The next second, Satsuki's action startled Naruto. She naturally linked her arm through his, the movement so practiced it was as if she'd done it many times before.
"Of course!" Satsuki's voice suddenly emphasized certain words, "This guy is the only rival I acknowledge! He's mine exclusively."
Naruto finally understood. This girl clinging to him like a cat guarding its food was clearly... jealous?
However, Naruto only grasped the surface meaning. This wasn't simple jealousy at all—it was the second Uchiha daughter's possessiveness exploding full force.
"You're the eldest daughter of the Hyuga family, right? Why don't you have your family's ninja come pick you up?"
"Um... I don't want to trouble them too much..."
"But Naruto is quite busy too." She deliberately emphasized the words "quite busy." "If you're just casually asking people for help like this, you should probably find more reliable ninja instead."
After saying this, even Satsuki was stunned—wasn't this basically declaring "Naruto is mine"? Her ears instantly turned crimson, yet she stubbornly refused to let go of Naruto's arm.
"By the way, Naruto." She suddenly turned her head, staring straight at the blonde boy beside her.
"Wh-what?" Naruto replied stiffly.
"Come eat dinner at my house later. Mom accidentally made too much food today."
This was a lie. Uchiha Mikoto would never make such a mistake.
"...I already ate." Naruto responded dryly.
This was also a lie. Actually, Naruto had been so absorbed in training today that he hadn't eaten dinner yet. When training with Satsuki normally, he always ate on schedule. He was refusing because he simply couldn't enter Uchiha territory—not with his status as a jinchuriki.
"Then have another meal." Satsuki persisted, even pushing further by resting her head on Naruto's shoulder. "We'll go home together."
What are you saying, Satsuki?!
Naruto was screaming internally, his facial expression barely holding together. What kind of bizarre situation was this? Why had the atmosphere become so unbearable? He didn't even have the mind to think about bond points anymore—he just wanted to immediately escape from this suffocating scenario.
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