The moment the Character Inheritance registered, Hanabi felt an entire sequence of techniques flood into her mind.
"Interesting. The five-star cards give potential—but the four-star purple card delivers actual techniques directly."
Compared to [Jingliu] and [Sparkle], the [Shiranui Mai] card had handed her the complete Shiranui Style package, already assembled.
Windmill Crash, Yume Sakura, Kagero no Mai, Dragon Flame Airflow Slash, Dance of the Heat Haze, Super Deadly Ninja Bees—
Move after move unfurled in her mind.
The Shiranui Style came from Fatal Fury and had made its name in the King of Fighters series—but in the Naruto world, its practical combat applications were limited. Solid early on; increasingly outpaced as the story progressed. And the techniques themselves needed actual drilling before she could use them reliably. In simple terms: she had the theory, not yet the muscle memory.
Beyond that, the Shiranui Mai card came with its own bonuses:
[+5% Attention when role classification is shinobi-related]
And wearing the Shiranui combat suit would passively boost Fire Release power—worn underneath her regular clothes, it could function as a permanent layer.
She was a shinobi. It applied. And keeping the suit under her kimono meant the Fire Release boost was essentially always active.
"These flashy techniques are actually quite promising."
To any strength-focused analysis, the Shiranui Style might look like showboating—visually impressive, tactically marginal. But Hanabi's perspective was different.
What did the Dimensional Stage care about most?
Popularity.
Flashy wasn't practical—but it looked incredible.
And in this context, looking incredible was the point. The more over-the-top the moves, the better.
Besides, the Shiranui Style wasn't without substance. It had placed contestants in King of Fighters tournaments. It could hold its own.
And the [Quick-Change] function—that was genuinely brilliant.
As for [Attention] itself, Hanabi had started building a clearer picture of how it worked.
On one level, it was a kind of rating—a measure of how strongly the audience's eyes were pulled toward her. Higher Attention meant a stronger gravitational pull on the camera and the viewers. Think of it like a mock exam score that predicted the real thing.
On another level, it seemed directly tied to popularity point yield. With zero Attention, a scene might earn her 100 points. At 65% Attention, that same scene produced 165. If she ever pushed Attention to 1,000%, she'd be walking away with 1,100 points from every moment on screen.
So the answer was simple: stack Attention as high as it would go.
She kept her remaining points in reserve for now—no Camera Cards purchased yet. She still had some on hand, and the story hadn't reached any moment that demanded her presence.
She fitted the fox mask back into place and turned her attention to the road ahead.
As a secondary character, bending fate wasn't easy. It required laying groundwork early—planting seeds across the narrative before any single moment arrived—before she could actually shift the trajectory of "destiny." Hanabi hated following scripts. She thrived in the unknown. But she had to play the long game for now, one careful step at a time.
According to the "plot," what came next was the graduation exam—and then Naruto getting tricked by a traitor into stealing a sealed scroll.
For Hanabi, the scroll was irrelevant. What mattered was the scene. Scroll or no scroll, she was going to find a way onto that stage.
After the Transformation review, Iruka didn't resume formal instruction. Standard procedure before a major exam—classes wound down, students drifted.
The worst off was Naruto, who got pulled by Iruka to go clean the Hokage Rock.
"Hanabi—do you want to walk home together?" Hinata appeared at her side, voice tentative.
"Of course, Sister~"
The broadcast window had gone dark—no active scene. But that seemed like exactly the right moment to try something.
Hanabi activated a Daily Camera Card.
Sure enough: the broadcast window lit back up, but not as a live feed. It was replaying the moment—Hinata's invitation, Hanabi's response.
[BLACK HAIR LONG HAIR again, let's go!]
[Her eyes are white!]
[2D logic. Don't overthink it.]
[Can't argue with good looks. Also more long hair!]
[That "Sister" is going to be the death of me~]
The comment thread ran, and then the screen shifted to a clip of Hanabi and Hinata leaving the Academy grounds together.
Hanabi was in the [Performance Costume]—the red furisode, gorgeous on camera, but a nightmare to walk in. The narrow skirt restricted her stride to something resembling a hobble, each step small and deliberate.
Most people would have been frustrated by it. Hinata walked at her pace without complaint.
Anyone who knew the situation would have found this remarkable for a different reason: Hanabi—with no functional vision—moved with the ease of a fully sighted person.
Because she wasn't blind. Not quite.
Jingliu's eye-concealing veil did enhance perception—but it also blocked normal sight entirely. So in daily life, Hanabi compensated by continuously releasing chakra in small, steady streams, letting it radiate outward and map her surroundings. Combined with the veil's amplified perception, this gave her something close to spatial awareness.
It was, incidentally, also chakra control and sensory training.
This only worked because of the veil. But the people of Konoha had no way of knowing that. To them, Hanabi—despite no longer having the Byakugan—demonstrated a talent that suggested she'd compensated in other ways. Her "blind girl manages fine" reputation had become part of her established character.
Her Byakugan training itself was ongoing—handled by a shadow clone out in the training ground called the Forest of Death.
[They seem like sisters in name only—more like a lady and her attendant.]
[The older one is pretty too. Just dressed a bit more simply.]
[Your standards are high, huh? Personally? I'm not picky at all. I'll take both.]
The two walked in comfortable silence for a stretch, comment section rolling merrily.
"Hanabi—are you really going to become a shinobi?" Hinata had been building up to it. The question finally came.
She'd been holding it back for a long time.
"Of course." Hanabi said.
"But your eyes—" Hinata's voice dropped.
"That doesn't matter. Honestly, because I don't have the Byakugan anymore, no one outside has any reason to come after me~"
Hinata's head dipped. "It's because of me…"
[Wait, what's going on?]
[Is Hanabi actually blind?! Like, actually?]
[Sounds like something happened between them.]
[So what? My girl 2B rocks an eyepatch and no one says a thing!]
[Wait, someone said—Byakugan? Like, a special power?]
[I just want Lady Hanabi to look at me with that eyepatch. Hehehe.]
[??? When I type out question marks, it means you're the weird one, not me.]
[Someone drag that guy out of here!!]
[Actually though—the dialogue. Can we focus? Something about the Byakugan being a special ability?]
[I just want Lady Hanabi to glare at me—]
The comment section was doing its thing. Every exchange seemed to generate a few hundred more popularity points.
Hanabi had noticed the pattern: more comments, more interaction, more points.
Time to add a little fuel.
"It isn't your fault, Sister~"
Hanabi caught Hinata's hand—fingers interlaced.
"Hanabi wanted to protect her sister~"
With her other hand, she slipped the fox mask aside and reached over to gently lift a strand of Hinata's hair.
"Sister has been growing her hair out because of me, hasn't she. Because Hanabi once said she liked Sister's long hair—and ever since then, you haven't cut it once~"
She let the lock brush her own cheek.
It still smelled like shampoo.
"Just like Sister is willing to do that for me—if it's for Sister, Hanabi can do anything too~"
[SISTERS CONTENT SISTERS CONTENT SISTERS CONTENT!]
[It's dōjinshi, not dōjinshi-i. Use it correctly.]
[Yuri fans incoming, unsolicited!]
[She's SO flirtatious—Lady Hanabi I love you!]
[I need Hyuga sisters fanart immediately. Someone get on that.]
[I am fine now.]
[I was already over it (fixed my outfit).]
Popularity points climbed. Hanabi decided to push a little further.
"Oh—?"
Hinata couldn't hold out.
Her face turned a shade of red that would have been medically concerning on a thermometer. She went completely rigid, eyes rolling back, and fainted dead away.
The Camera Card expired. The broadcast feed cut back to Naruto scrubbing paint off the Hokage Rock.
"Interesting—it feels like I generate more popularity when I'm around Naruto than I do in standalone scenes. Does being near the protagonist give a multiplier?"
That was worth factoring into her plans.
Either way, this run had netted her close to two thousand more popularity points, bringing her on-hand total to around 7,000.
"For now, I'll wait until the Sealed Scroll incident. That's where I make my real move~"
Hanabi scooped Hinata into a princess carry and headed home.