"Byakugan, huh?"
Upon hearing the word "brother," Sasuke had already developed a strange competitive impulse.
"Hanabi's brother? Not a sister?"
Naruto remembered that Hanabi had an older sister, Hinata, but she'd never really mentioned any other siblings.
"Whoa—"
Then Naruto realized Neji's gaze had been fixed on him this whole time.
A creepy sensation crawled up his spine.
"Wh-why are you staring at me like that...?"
For some reason, Naruto felt inexplicably guilty.
"The Nine-Tails, huh..." Neji kept his eyes locked on Naruto.
Of course Neji had looked into anyone who kept hanging around his little sister.
The adults wouldn't say anything, but a little digging was all it took to find the truth.
Compared to that Sharingan user over there, this Naruto guy concerned Neji far more.
Meanwhile, Sasuke—the one being ignored—was getting antsy.
[Brother-in-law's hostility]
[Honestly, Naruto's with Hanabi all day every day—it'd be weird if brother-in-law DIDN'T have some hostility]
[Getting singled out is the main character's destiny]
[Sasuke got ignored and he's BIG mad lol]
"Oh, we're Hanabi's teammates," Sasuke stepped forward.
Only then did Neji turn to look at him. "Don't drag Hanabi down."
"Nani?!" Sasuke was not having it.
Neji hadn't given Sasuke a second thought.
Sasuke was the enhanced version.
But... Neji was the souped-up version.
One was DLC; the other was a full expansion pack plus DLC.
It wasn't merely that Neji had been spared the Caged Bird Seal. Hanabi had been tutoring Neji privately—teaching him main house Gentle Fist techniques that should have been restricted.
In canon, Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven was a technique exclusive to the Hyuga main house, yet the branch-house Neji had figured it out through sheer talent alone.
Hanabi had been far more generous. Forget Revolving Heaven—she'd practically packaged up the entire family's Gentle Fist repertoire and handed it over to Neji.
Never mind just Sasuke. Even if Naruto and Sasuke teamed up, the outcome would still be uncertain.
Beside them, Rock Lee's eyes went wide.
He'd been wanting to test himself against that Uchiha prodigy over there.
But Neji had beaten him to the punch?
Hey, that's not fair!
Hanabi's smile, meanwhile, only grew brighter.
She hadn't expected that her big bro was also a natural at stealing the scene.
The role that had originally been Rock Lee's in the "script" had been swiped wholesale by Neji, performed beat for beat.
"There's still some time before registration." Sasuke shoved his hands in his pockets. "I'd also like to see whether the legendary Hyuga clan really deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the Uchiha."
"Fine by me." Neji didn't care much about the Hyuga name.
But Sasuke's provocation? He'd take that.
"And you over there—" Neji turned to Naruto. "Show me what you two are made of!"
"Oooh! Bring it on—I'm not scared of you!"
Naruto was a little out of the loop.
But the moment he heard that his opponent was more interested in him than in Sasuke, Naruto's fighting spirit ignited.
Of course! He was the backbone of Team 7, ya know!
Challenge accepted.
Kushina: ...
She'd given up saying anything.
"So those are the brats Kakashi and Guy have been hiding."
"At any rate, they've passed the application-submission test."
Meanwhile, Kotetsu and Izumo had quietly slipped away from the crowd.
They'd moved to the other side of the corridor, away from the examinees.
The two proctors were fairly satisfied with the little test.
"How lovely to receive such praise from the examiners themselves." Hanabi's voice appeared out of nowhere.
"—!!!"
Both of them froze on the spot.
Just a second ago they'd been playing it cool. Now—instant composure shattered.
[Hanabi's all-seeing eye]
[I can't breathe]
[Trying to out-troll the queen of trolling—you're bringing an axe to a lumber convention]
[Hanabi: I am the king of chaos—you're nothing but cheap imitators!]
"Thank you both for your tireless service protecting the village all this time." Hanabi even made a show of bowing politely to the two of them.
Cold sweat broke out on both their faces.
How had she seen through even their Transformation Technique?
Luckily, Hanabi didn't drag out their embarrassment.
She delivered her line and made a clean exit.
"Well, well."
The two of them dropped their disguises.
"Looks like this year's rookies are pretty impressive."
"They even saw through us proctors."
[Grass, it's THOSE two]
[What the heck]
[Go watch the detail-obsessed content creators—in the Land of Waves departure episode, these two were the gate guards]
[So that's why she said 'thank you for protecting the village'?]
[Hanabi: Transformation Technique? Please—I don't even use my eyes to identify people]
[That's kinda dark-humor territory]
[But it does seem like chakra signatures work like fingerprints]
Hanabi used a shot card.
The card didn't contain much footage, but that hardly mattered.
Giving the audience a good laugh was a director's sacred duty!
After the segment wrapped, the audience started spamming "Gaia! Gaia!" in the chat.
Another episode's worth of content had concluded.
Hanabi, however, seamlessly transitioned into the "seven days later" content.
"Why is Neji picking a fight with them?"
By now, Team Guy and Team 7 had moved to a secluded area.
Rock Lee watched Neji squaring off against the other two, and felt the hollow ache of a loved one being stolen away.
"They're his little sister's teammates, after all." Tenten at least understood that much.
"Actually, I'm the one who asked big bro Neji to do this." Hanabi stepped out from the sidelines.
"Ooh! Hanabi!"
The instant Lee saw Hanabi, fire blazed in his eyes.
"Ugh, here we go again." Tenten covered her face.
"Hanabi, you should ditch that flashy ceremonial outfit of yours and put on our green spandex of youth!"
Lee had seen Hanabi's training before. In his eyes, that kind of burning-everything-you-have, all-out blaze of youth—that was the way of a true kindred spirit, a comrade in arms!
But Hanabi just smiled and said nothing.
[Grass, thought the bowl-cut was about to confess]
[They already know each other—if he was gonna confess, he would've done it ages ago]
[He sees Hanabi as a comrade in arms lol]
[Naruto and Sasuke are also comrades in arms]
[Honestly I kinda wanna see Hanabi in that jumpsuit]
[No but seriously, hear me out]
[Wait, if Hanabi wears the jumpsuit, wouldn't the rope marks be completely visible?]
[Grass, now I REALLY wanna see it]
[This feeling in my chest... what is this]
[Hanabi: ???]
The chat was dying of laughter.
But absurdly, this segment sent Hanabi's popularity points surging by a huge margin.
Were audiences in the year 4202 really this unhinged?
Meanwhile, on the other side, Sasuke and Neji had started fighting.
Sasuke, feeling pretty confident about himself, was ready to teach Neji a lesson.
"Bring it!"
Sasuke charged in!
"Sharingan, is it... In that case—Revolving Heaven, and then—Gentle Fist!"
Seal the chakra points first. Shut down the Sharingan before anything else!
Throw Sasuke off-balance, then instantly lock down his chakra.
Then Neji turned to Naruto. "All right—you're next."
Hanabi tilted her head.
Neji and Lee swapping scripts was one thing, but how had Naruto and Sasuke ended up with the wrong scripts too?