Chapter 8 - Chapter 8 : Episode One, End

[She answered the literature question with a math proof and still got full marks.]

[The prompt: "Explain the significance of the two jujube trees." Hanabi's answer: "Let x =..."]

[Wait, did Hanabi just insult everyone at once?]

[Hanabi: I'm an egalitarian. I hold each of you in equal contempt. lmao]

[Below maggots 💀]

[She ate that line with zero hesitation]

[Bratty little menace, and we love her for it]

[Ignorant. Ignorant is the word. Perfectly chosen.]

[Naruto: I don't know who I am, where I am, or what I'm doing here.]

[Naruto's eyes radiating pure, crystalline stupidity]

[Naruto: Lady Hanabi is obviously right! I have no idea what she said, but that's beside the point!]

"DAMN YOU—!!"

A rattled Mizuki hurled his second giant windmill shuriken.

Hanabi dissolved again. The figure on the branch had never been real.

"True to form, Mizuki-sensei—below maggots as always. The branch you were staring at hasn't bent at all under any weight—did you not notice that either? And you just threw away both your heaviest weapons so easily under a bit of taunting. You really are... delightful."

Her voice drifted from somewhere new.

Now Mizuki saw it clearly.

He'd brought plenty of kunai and smaller shuriken, but the two giant windmill shuriken on his back were his real firepower. Both were gone—discarded in a fit of temper, at the precise moment Hanabi had wanted them discarded.

"Naruto."

Hanabi stopped paying attention to Mizuki entirely and turned to Naruto instead.

"Hanabi?"

Naruto looked up.

"Do what makes you happy. No one has the right to judge you for it. If you think something's wrong, go change it. The people who called you a demon fox and bullied you—they all know you're not actually the so-called demon fox. Because they would never dare to provoke the real thing."

Naruto didn't fully understand what she meant—but his "killer instinct" seemed to grasp it anyway. "So—as long as I get stronger, as long as I become Hokage, I can change all of it?!"

Hanabi smiled faintly. "What you want to do is your decision to make. You can choose to forgive. You can choose not to forgive. Both are your right to choose."

The light came back into Naruto's eyes all at once.

It was as if the world had suddenly clarified.

Hanabi only smiled.

There was never any Kotoamatsukami conspiracy lurking behind Naruto. No hidden manipulation bending his will.

It was simpler: compared to hatred, Naruto feared loneliness far more. The desperate need for connection, for bonds—it had always outweighed his resentment.

Whether it was Hanabi standing before him now, or Iruka-sensei at his side... they'd always been there, hadn't they?

The broadcast chose this moment to bring in a gentle BGM, working on the audience's emotions.

"Stop acting like I don't EXIST!" Mizuki had lost all reason. His shout shattered the music. He lunged at Hanabi again.

"Mizuki-sensei, your best move right now is to retreat immediately. Being blinded by anger is rather pitiable, isn't it?"

Hanabi didn't move. She just kept talking.

But this time, Mizuki didn't even make it to her. Something hit him mid-charge and sent him flying.

— Naruto. He'd burst forward and landed a clean elbow strike.

"It's because of you—you demon fox!" Mizuki's face twisted with rage.

Iruka was one thing. But this wretched fox—this kid—had dared to provoke him?

"I. Am not. A demon fox."

Naruto looked at Mizuki steadily. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto. And I'm going to be Hokage."

"You?! The dead last who couldn't even graduate?!"

Mizuki hauled himself upright. He couldn't touch Hanabi or Iruka—but this little dropout? He could handle.

"Naruto!" Iruka moved to step in—but Hanabi appeared in front of him, hand raised.

"Iruka-sensei. Leave it to Naruto."

Iruka stopped, blinked—and then he remembered: Naruto had mentioned learning something in there. "Wait. Don't tell me—"

Naruto's hands were already flying through seals. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu. Hundreds, thousands of Narutos materialized across the forest, packed solid between the trees.

Not illusions. Every single one was real.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!!"

Mizuki's brain gave up. An uncountable tide of Narutos descended on him in waves.

[STAY AWAY FROM ME!! This meme followed me all the way here!]

[I'm screaming, why can't you post images in the comments, my reaction folder is RIGHT THERE.]

[Naruto: I don't know who I am, where I am, or what I need to do. But I know punching you into the dirt is correct.]

[Textbook boomerang arc.]

[Wait, Hanabi's genjutsu earlier was also a boomerang. lmao]

[You can tell Mizuki is genuinely cooked. Naruto learned a forbidden technique in one night, and then Hanabi said Mizuki couldn't even READ it. 💀]

[Worse than a dead last. Truly below maggots. No notes.]

[Mizuki: ARE WE STILL ON THIS.]

The audience was delighted. Hanabi was delighted too.

That one sequence alone had netted her ten thousand popularity points—second only to her debut scene.

First appearances carry a bonus multiplier. Good to know.

She couldn't use that exact trick twice in the same venue—but the lesson was transferable. A striking entrance was worth more than any other single moment.

After Mizuki was thoroughly beaten into the ground, Naruto received Iruka's acknowledgment—and Iruka's headband. He had finally graduated.

Episode one of the show was over.

[IT'S DONE!]

[I just got here and it's already over?!]

[Why is it only streaming live?!]

[Did anyone record it?]

[You can't—there's some kind of special encryption, like it was banknote-level secure. Screenshots need a premium membership, screen recording just comes out black, and even filming the screen with a phone doesn't work. Apparently it's a new format. The VOD version will come later.]

[I got an annual premium specifically to screenshot Hanabi and now there's no replay. Absolutely unhinged.]

[That explains why there's no OP.]

[Probably no OP at all. The first episode was insanely long—I bet they did the same thing as Re:Zero and had no room for one.]

[If it weren't live, we'd lose all these amazing comments in real time. That'd be a shame.]

[Check the announcement—apparently the comments are being carried over to the VOD.]

[Ugh, I forgot to post "first" at the start. I'm devastated.]

— So that's how it works.

Hanabi pieced it together. Ninja's Path was airing as a live broadcast first, with the VOD release and full OP/ED to follow.

The night passed without incident. No statements to give, no investigations—the Third Hokage had been watching through his Telescope Jutsu the entire time, with better coverage than any broadcast camera. He'd seen everything from every angle.

After returning home, Hanabi didn't say much either. The matter was quietly sealed away by the Third Hokage—Naruto graduated, Mizuki was arrested and under investigation, and beyond that, nothing more was said.

The only thing that happened was Natsu the maid scolding Hanabi at length for coming home so late.

"Haaah."

Hanabi sank into the bath and let herself relax.

[Episode One broadcast complete]

[Comments section now open]

[Calculating first-broadcast compensation—please wait]

After everything settled, the Stage notified Hanabi that the first episode had finished airing.

"Now—the Scroll of Seals."

The scroll was densely packed. Jutsu of every kind, most of them half-baked—Hanabi suspected the Second Hokage had developed them on a whim, and the First Hokage had simply sealed them away for safekeeping.

Impure World Reincarnation was there, as expected. But the version in the scroll was incomplete; Orochimaru's improved version three years from now would be far more useful. She filed it as reference only.

She'd already copied the Four Symbols Seal, Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags, and Summoning Jutsu before handing the scroll off. She'd also grabbed Inner Lotus on the way out, more out of habit than anything else.

The one she was most interested in was the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags. A technique only the wealthy could realistically use—and as it happened, her family was reasonably well-off. Art is an explosion. Hanabi believed this sincerely.

The Four Symbols Seal could be used to undo Naruto's seal, though it was more broadly useful as a sealing technique. Technical knowledge to keep on file.

As for Summoning Jutsu—formally a forbidden technique, practically speaking, basically everybody and their dog knows it. Not a few clans have their own variations.

"I wonder what other rewards are coming."

(Author's Note: The attached image is one of the candidate cover illustrations.)