"Alright, don't cry anymore." Naruto crouched down and took a clean handkerchief from his pocket, handing it to her. "What's your name? I'll walk you home."
The little girl timidly took the handkerchief and gently wiped her red, swollen eyes. "M-Mhm... thank you... My name is Hinata Hyuga..."
Naruto stood up and gestured for Hinata to follow. The two small figures walked down the street, one behind the other. Naruto couldn't help but marvel at how strangely the timeline was converging. Except this time, it was the troublemakers who had been beaten to a pulp.
The esteemed heiress of the Hyuga main family, being bullied by commoner children?
Naruto was certain that there were Hyuga branch family ninja hiding nearby, responsible for protecting the main family's heir. But those people had turned a blind eye to Hinata being bullied. It was probably the Hyuga clan head's idea of "training the heir."
At that thought, Naruto couldn't help but shake his head. Hinata's personality, to put it nicely, was kind; to put it bluntly, it was weak. Neji's assessment in the original story was indeed correct; she really wasn't cut out to be a ninja.
She couldn't even put up the most basic resistance.
Naruto looked at Hinata's still-red eyes. She probably didn't know that for bullies, tears only made them more excited. With such a submissive attitude, she was lucky to have been born into a good family. Otherwise, in this dog-eat-dog ninja world, she was destined to suffer.
"You're from the Hyuga clan, right?" Naruto slowed his pace to walk alongside Hinata. "Dealing with untrained guys like them should have been easy."
Hinata's small hands clutched the hem of her clothes, her voice as quiet as a mosquito's buzz. "I... I was too scared..."
Naruto turned his head to look at the timid girl. "You can't be like that. Tears are useless against people like them. You know, a lot of people used to give me trouble too..."
He paused. The villagers of Konoha were still giving him the cold shoulder. The malicious gossip of the adults naturally influenced their children.
Those little punks, wanting to make their presence known, had made the "demon fox" their prime target for bullying. Under the subtle influence of the adults, they didn't even think it was wrong. Instead, they thought bullying this "universally hated guy" was a righteous act.
The result was...
"I beat them all up, one by one," Naruto shrugged, his tone light. "And now, no one dares to mess with me anymore."
Hinata looked up, a hint of admiration in her eyes. This was the first time she had met someone like him. He was about the same age as her, yet he was filled with the confidence and strength she lacked.
"That's amazing..."
"You need to learn to be a little braver," Naruto said as they walked. "Against guys like that, giving them a good beating is what they deserve..."
"Naruto?!"
A sudden call interrupted Naruto's words. That familiar voice was definitely not Hinata's.
Naruto's body went rigid. He slowly turned around. Not far behind him, at the corner of the street, a black-haired little girl was staring at him with an incredulous look.
"...Satsuki?"
They both called out each other's names at the same time, their faces filled with surprise. Satsuki hadn't shown up this afternoon as planned because she had gotten a rare opportunity to practice shuriken with her sister.
In the past, she would never have missed such precious time together. But for some reason, the decision to choose her sister over seeing Naruto had filled her with a strange sense of guilt today.
Sister isn't free every day like Naruto is...
Satsuki had convinced herself with that reason. After practice, she had gone out to buy some new training tools for herself, but then she had caught a glimpse of a familiar blond figure on the street, with an unfamiliar girl beside him.
At this moment, Satsuki's gaze darted back and forth between Naruto and Hinata. Looking at the strange girl with the white eyes curiously sizing her up, and then at the surprised expression on Naruto's face, a feeling of annoyance suddenly welled up inside her. It felt like a treasured possession of hers was being taken away.
The soft patter of three pairs of footsteps echoed on the stone path.
"So..." Satsuki's voice was deliberately nonchalant. "Naruto was the one who chased away those nasty guys for you?"
Hinata kept her head down. "M-Mhm... I'm really grateful to him..."
"Hmph!" Satsuki straightened up, lifting her chin like a proud little cat. "Of course! This guy has been training with me since way back."
She deliberately emphasized her words, her eyes secretly watching Hinata's reaction out of the corner of her eye. "He's the only one who can keep up with a genius of the Uchiha, you know!"
"Satsuki..." Naruto looked helplessly at the black-haired girl who was practically glued to his side. "Why did you follow us..."
"W-Well, that's obvious!" Satsuki's cheeks flushed slightly, and her voice unconsciously rose. "I was just heading in the same direction! It was just a coincidence!"
"...I see." Naruto looked down at Satsuki, who was practically stuck to his arm. The words he had been about to say—"Aren't you a little too close?"—were swallowed back down.
"Um..." Hinata's timid gaze shifted between the two. "Are you two always together like this?"
The next second, Satsuki's action startled Naruto. Satsuki had, with incredible naturalness, linked her arm with his, her movements so practiced it was as if she had done it many times before.
"Of course!" Satsuki's voice suddenly grew emphatic on a certain word. "This guy is the only rival I acknowledge! He's my exclusive."
Naruto finally understood. The girl clinging to him like a possessive little kitten was clearly... jealous?
However, Naruto had only understood the most superficial meaning. This wasn't simple jealousy; this was the Uchiha heiress's possessiveness flaring up.
"You're the heiress of the Hyuga clan, right? Why don't you call your clan's ninja to escort you?"
"Um... it would be too much trouble for them..."
"But Naruto is very busy too," she deliberately emphasized the words "very busy." "If you're going to just ask anyone for help, you should probably find some more reliable ninja."
After saying that, Satsuki herself was taken aback—wasn't that basically declaring "Naruto is mine"? The tips of her ears instantly turned crimson, but she stubbornly refused to let go of Naruto's arm.
"Right, Naruto," she suddenly turned her head, her eyes fixed on the blond boy beside her.
"Wh-What is it?" Naruto replied stiffly.
"Come to my house for dinner later. My mom accidentally made too much today."
This was a lie. Mikoto Uchiha would never make such a mistake.
"...I've already eaten," Naruto replied dryly.
This was also a lie. In fact, Naruto had been so absorbed in his training today that he hadn't eaten dinner yet. Usually, when he trained with Satsuki, he always ate on time. He refused because he really couldn't step into the Uchiha compound—not with his identity as the "jinchuriki."
"Then just have another meal," Satsuki persisted, even pressing her head against Naruto's shoulder. "We'll go home together later."
What are you saying, Emo Kid?!
Naruto was screaming internally, his expression on the verge of cracking. What was this bizarre situation? Why had the atmosphere become so unbearable? He didn't even have the mind to farm bond points anymore; he just wanted to escape this suffocating situation immediately.
-------
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