Hanabi and Naruto walked one behind the other through the corridors of the Hyuga residence. An unusual silence spread between them, as if both were waiting for the other to speak first.
"Hey..."
In the end, the younger Hanabi was the first to stop. It was obvious that her emotions had reached a point where she could barely endure them. If the Hyuga Clan's strict rules had not been drilled into her since childhood, she might already have been screaming like a frightened little animal.
"What?"
Compared with her, Naruto's expression and tone were remarkably calm. A Hyuga medical shinobi had just carefully healed the burn on his stomach. Still, although that method of treatment was clearly much more advanced, Naruto knew he preferred the simple feeling of having ointment applied by hand.
"She... isn't my Onee-sama..."
Hanabi held the words in for a long time before finally forcing them through clenched teeth. Her small face had gone an unnaturally pale bluish color from the strain, making the turbulent emotions inside her easy to imagine.
"No... she is your Onee-sama..."
Naruto lowered his head and looked at Hanabi in front of him. The blond boy's blue eyes drooped slightly. In the shadowed light, a darkness appeared in them that had never been there before, an emotion almost impossible to imagine seeing in Naruto's gaze.
"What are you talking about?! Didn't we test her already?! She... she doesn't remember putting medicine on you at all... which means she isn't the same Onee-sama we met the first time! She... right! She has to be the person on that strange contract, that woman called Suigintou!"
Hanabi spun around. The Byakugan girl was almost incoherent. Without question, after accidentally seeing that strange Blood Contract, Hanabi had sensed some terrifying possibility. That was why, after saying goodbye to her sister, she had suddenly brought Naruto back again. And the "Hinata" who answered this second time had made it obvious through her behavior that she knew nothing about Hanabi and Naruto having already visited once before.
"Hanabi... has she done anything bad to you or to the Hyuga Clan?"
Naruto watched Hanabi quietly, his tone unexpectedly calm. The agitated look in the Byakugan girl's eyes froze for a moment. Then she stammered, "What are you talking about... Fine... no..."
"Then has she completely ignored the Hyuga Clan, or refused to support the clan she was born into?"
Naruto lowered the arms that had been resting behind his head, but his tone remained level. Hanabi shouted unwillingly, "What does any of that have to do with this? The important thing is... she..."
"Then what gives you the right to say she isn't your Onee-sama?!"
Unexpectedly, Naruto abruptly cut off Hanabi's argument. The sharp rhetorical question left the Byakugan girl frozen in place again.
The surroundings fell silent once more. Only the early cicadas in the branches continued their noisy cries.
"Hanabi, I'm an orphan. So I don't know exactly how blood relatives are supposed to be defined. But I know what family means. Family means the people willing to treat you well. As a daughter of the Hyuga Clan and as your older sister, Hinata has never failed to give what she owed. So in my eyes, she is your Onee-sama. That's why this childish joke of yours should end here."
Naruto walked straight past Hanabi and left the gates of the Hyuga Compound. With his back still facing her, he stopped, then turned his head to look at Hanabi where she remained standing. The blond boy's voice was filled with a rare low chill. "You know something? Compared with being mocked or humiliated, being rejected and denied hurts much more. And the stupidest thing anyone can do is deliberately use that kind of pain to hurt the people around them. If you want to prove you're not an idiot, then I think you know what you should do."
The blond boy's figure gradually disappeared from Hanabi's sight beneath the glow of the setting sun. Watching him leave, the Byakugan girl standing in place slowly clenched her little fists.
Yes. Even with the instinctive rebelliousness that came from being lectured by someone else, Hanabi was not the kind of stubborn fool who refused to accept reason. She knew Naruto's words were not without merit.
But...
"Is she really... my Onee-sama?"
Hanabi turned around. The small Byakugan girl resolutely retraced her path down the corridor. After turning several corners, she returned to the courtyard she had left earlier, the area where Hinata lived.
"Onee-sama, it's me, Hanabi."
Hearing the young girl's voice from outside the sliding door made Hinata frown. Hanabi had clearly seemed to give up on getting close to her before, so why was she suddenly acting unusually clingy today?
"It's getting late. What exactly do you want?"
Leaning against the cushion behind her, Hinata did not even raise her head as she continued writing the next script on the low table in front of her. The right to write the scripts was one of the Film Crew's most important powers, and she had always kept it firmly in her own hands. Since she had rarely decided to take a day off, she considered writing a relaxing way to rest her mind.
Slide~
To Hinata's surprise, Hanabi standing outside directly pulled open the sliding door to her room. Hinata looked up in surprise. A trace of displeasure appeared between her brows as she looked at the Byakugan girl in the doorway.
"What exactly is it? Have you even forgotten the manners of asking permission before entering someone else's room, Hanabi?!"
Hanabi did not immediately react to the scolding from the "Onee-sama" before her. The Byakugan girl only looked at the manuscript still being written in Hinata's hands with complicated eyes. Without question, it was one of the symbols of Hinata's effort and hard work. Those words written by Hinata had become the plot of Fox's Tale and then transformed into visible profit. They had not only fed a whole series of families throughout Konohagakure, but had raised the living standard of the entire Hyuga Clan by an entire level.
Yet behind all of it was something that could not be denied: the shoulders and body of this older sister looked even slimmer and more fragile than those of an ordinary girl. Hinata's height was unquestionably among the shortest of her age group. She was almost half a head shorter than both Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino. Yet despite standing below others in physical height, she remained someone those same people had to look up to.
That strength came from her resilience and persistence. Every accomplishment had been built on the blood, sweat, and effort she had paid behind the scenes. That was why her strength felt completely deserved.
It was as though the older sister who used to hide to one side and cry had licked every trace of weakness and cowardice out of her heart, turning all of it into pride and strength.
With an Onee-sama like this before her, Hanabi could practically feel the strength and confidence radiating from Hinata.
Then surely Hanabi herself could learn to be braver than she had been before...
"Onee-sama..."
Hanabi slowly walked to Hinata's side and clenched her teeth. Before Hinata could react, the Byakugan girl suddenly threw herself into her arms. Her small body wrapped tightly around Hinata's back as if hugging the thing she loved most. That tiny weight carried all the courage and sincerity of a little girl.
"Wh-what... what are you doing?"
Hinata's expression truly froze. Even as she struggled to keep her tone calm, she could feel her body trembling.
It was a kind of instinctive rejection that appeared whenever someone else initiated physical contact with her, almost like a reflexive act of self-protection.
"Onee-sama, I'm sorry... all this time... I'm sorry..."
Hanabi buried her cheek against Hinata's chest. Her broken words were not difficult to understand. Hinata's raised fingers stiffened for a moment, but then landed on the back of Hanabi's clothes as she tried to grab the Byakugan girl and pull her off.
"Don't be foolish, Hanabi. You are you, and I am me. Your apology has no meaning to me."
Hinata gripped Hanabi by the back of her collar and put some strength into her arm. The Byakugan girl's behavior had indeed made her tremble slightly, but that did not mean Hinata's thinking had changed. For someone with no practical value, the most she was willing to do was keep them fed and set them aside somewhere.
Because people who could do nothing but endure misfortune when it arrived were useless as companions. They would only add unnecessary grief.
"I won't let go! Onee-sama is my Onee-sama! I... I want to become someone like Onee-sama too!"
Hanabi clung desperately to Hinata's waist. The tearful cry finally made the hand behind her stop moving.
"Hanabi, what did you say?"
Hinata lowered her head and looked at the Byakugan girl in her arms. A truly unusual expression appeared in her pale eyes, entirely because of the meaning behind those words.
"I want to become someone like Onee-sama. As strong as Onee-sama, as intelligent as Onee-sama, able to independently carry even greater burdens! Able to stand together with Onee-sama!!"
Hanabi raised her head and looked directly at Hinata. Their pale eyes met perfectly, and the determination in Hanabi's gaze made Hinata's brows slowly relax.
"I see. So that's how it is... I originally thought everyone in the Hyuga Clan was nothing more than a rule-bound traditionalist who ought to be kept in a cage until death. But now it seems there may still be one person who's different?"
Hinata stopped trying to throw Hanabi away. She understood what the slight stirring in her heart meant.
Yes, even as someone who stood at the top, Hinata was different from most people. She understood clearly that everything which existed would eventually reach its end, and she even considered that development natural. That was exactly why her actions were more measured yet more decisive than those of most people in power. She had never fixed her eyes on the empty illusion of immortality or permanence, so she could see more clearly the natural law that no flower blooms for a hundred days and no person prospers forever. As a result, she would never waste time on needless personal pursuits.
Only someone who understood that they were not immortal could view their world and their own existence more rationally, without becoming lost in the fog of immediate power.
Therefore, even this early, she needed to cultivate a successor who truly belonged to her.
That person would not merely ensure the sustainable continuation of her ideas and policies, but could also serve as an acting ruler when necessary.
Descendants were obviously impossible in the near future, and even if she had them, there was no guarantee they would possess qualities that satisfied her.
But Hanabi... in the Byakugan girl's eyes, Hinata saw a competitiveness and refusal to admit defeat very similar to her own.
Leaving everything else aside, that unwillingness to lose would at least drive Hanabi to put in more effort and persistence than others her age.
"Hanabi, what you're saying is that you want to become my successor. Is that right?"
Hinata raised a hand beneath Hanabi's delicate chin. Her eyes stared directly and sternly into the Byakugan girl's face. She needed a clear and unwavering answer.
"Yes! Onee-sama! I want to become someone like you, just as strong and intelligent!"
Although Hanabi felt tremendous pressure beneath her sister's gaze, she still answered with courage. Yes, that was exactly it! Since she had already acknowledged that Onee-sama was far stronger than she was, then what Hanabi needed to do was learn from her older sister, not retreat and sink into the mire of so-called Hyuga orthodoxy.
"Very good. That's a beautiful answer. I like it."
Hinata released Hanabi's chin and tilted her head slightly. A faint, almost imperceptible smile entered her voice.
"Then starting tomorrow, we'll see whether you truly have what it takes to become my successor."
"I'll look forward to it."
Those words made Hanabi shift uneasily in Hinata's arms. The Byakugan girl's voice became slightly bashful. "Onee-sama... there's one more thing..."
"What is it? Say it. If you want to be my successor, you should learn my decisiveness."
"Hai!! Then! Let's sleep together tonight!!"
"..."