When Hyuga Shin suddenly brought up branding Hinata with the Caged Bird Seal, Hyuga Satoru knew it couldn't be some casual, offhand remark.
He guessed that in the years he'd been away, Hinata's performance at the Academy had been outstanding, and word had started to spread inside the clan.
Satoru wasn't the least bit worried that Hinata might threaten his position. He'd never underestimated himself—but he also wasn't foolishly modest.
No matter how much Hinata had improved, there was simply no way she could have grown as fast as he had.
That wasn't blind pride. It came from a much clearer sense of his own strength after personally killing Sasori of the Red Sand and forcing Kakuzu to retreat. Those battles had given Satoru a realistic understanding of where he stood in the ninja world.
Even so, Hyuga Shin's words stirred his curiosity about Hinata's current situation.
By any measure, he'd been a lousy older brother these past years—paying far too little attention to the growth of his two younger sisters. He wasn't one of those doting "little-sister maniacs," but completely ignoring them wasn't what a responsible brother should do either.
Satoru's hopes for Hinata were very different from Hiashi's.
Hiashi's expectations were simple: that his daughter grow up healthy, find someone she truly liked, and marry happily.
Satoru's were more practical.
He didn't want Hinata to waste the Hyuga bloodline's innate gifts. When it was time to work, she should work hard. When it was time to fight, she should have the strength to protect herself.
Whether or not she ended up with Naruto wasn't the point. Satoru had seen how cruel the ninja world could be—relying on others was never as reliable as relying on yourself.
But it wasn't enough to focus only on her strength.
From Shin's attitude, Satoru could tell that Hinata's life trajectory had already shifted greatly since he'd been reborn into this world. That change could be seen as early as her childhood.
He now found himself wondering: how was this "new" Hinata getting along with her peers?
…
Hanako had gone out early to pick Hinata up from the Academy, but she had clearly forgotten one detail: classes had already been dismissed when Satoru rushed off to deal with the exchange-house attack.
The reason Hinata hadn't come home on time wasn't anything mysterious at all.
Satoru and Neji had asked her to stay at Konoha's training grounds for practice.
When Satoru left midway because of the exchange incident, he'd told the pair to pack up early and head back. But the two of them had clearly treated that as a suggestion, not an order.
Hinata had always been diligent. Even though her personality had changed dramatically since childhood, that inner core of kindness and hard work had never disappeared.
If the "old" Hinata had once been forced to work herself to the bone under the weight of clan expectations, the "current" Hinata was pushing herself out of her own will—driven by a simple fear:
Being left behind by Naruto.
At an age when most children were still muddling through the world, she already had a lifelong goal and was working toward it with single-minded resolve. Whether that was precociousness or simply a common trait among ninja children, her determination stood out.
By the time Hanako brought Hinata and Neji home, it was already evening. The setting sun had almost completely sunk below the horizon, leaving only the last thin smear of dusk.
Hyuga Satoru stood in the doorway waiting for them. One look at the dust all over their clothes told him they'd kept training long after he'd left.
"You're back?"
"Sorry, something came up out there," Satoru said, leaning against the doorframe with a light chuckle. "I handled it and came straight back. I thought you two would already be home. I forgot to come get you—that one's on me."
His teasing tone earned him a sharp glare from Hinata.
She shot him a small, annoyed look, then lifted her chin and hurried past him into the courtyard, heading straight for her room.
Neji, however, stopped and bowed slightly, his voice earnest.
"Big Brother, it was my fault," he said gravely. "I should have listened and brought Hinata back earlier. I shouldn't have let Aunt Hanako come pick us up in person."
Neji's relationship with the main family had always been close. Whenever the Academy had holidays, he often stayed at the main house for a few days.
Part of it was because Hiashi valued his talent and wanted to cultivate him as a future right-hand man for Satoru. Neji's visits were also opportunities for guidance and extra training; under Satoru's influence, Hiashi had even quietly passed down a few main-family secret techniques to Neji.
Another part was more practical: Neji's presence gave Hinata a reliable sparring partner, ensuring her days off weren't wasted chasing after the blond boy from the Hokage's house.
Hiashi had mixed feelings about that blond boy.
Not because Naruto had done anything wrong, or because there was anything inherently unpleasant about him. Hiashi just didn't want his daughter getting too attached to someone from another powerful household.
Not that any of those precautions had had the desired effect.
Hinata hadn't agreed to spar with Neji out of obedience or because she wanted to stay away from Naruto. She was training with Neji because fighting him made her stronger.
And getting stronger meant… more chances to stand proudly at Naruto's side in the future.
Hinata's goal was clearer than Hiashi might ever imagine.
Standing in the doorway, Satoru watched Hinata's retreating back and scratched his head in faint embarrassment. He reached out and patted Neji on the shoulder.
"You're thoughtful as always, Neji. Good kid," he said warmly. "Go wash up and come eat."
Neji hadn't changed much at his core—still composed and steady. He still carried a faint sense of distance, but Satoru didn't mind. That was how the branch family was raised: distance was part of their education.
Given time together, that distance would eventually fade.
That evening, Hiashi returned in time for dinner and asked Satoru about the exchange-house raid. With no outsiders at the table, Satoru gave him a straightforward account of what had happened.
Only then did Hinata and Neji learn that their big brother had, in the short time since leaving the training field, gone out of the village, fought, and killed a rogue from the Sand.
From Satoru's description, even the inexperienced Hinata and Neji could sense how dangerous the enemy had been.
Sasori could transform people into human puppets—and had even used the Third Kazekage as a puppet. Just picturing that made their scalps tingle.
Yet both that monster and his partner, a terrifying rogue from Takigakure, had been forced to retreat or die by Satoru's hand.
The ease and precision of it left an indelible impression.
"Sasori of the Red Sand, huh…"
"And he turned the Third Kazekage into a human puppet…"
"If your intel is accurate, using the Kazekage's disappearance as a pretext to start a ninja war is… rather ridiculous."
"To think the one who killed the Kazekage was their own rogue ninja. What a farce."
Hiashi sighed.
He was proud of his son's strength, but he also felt a strange, faint pity for Sunagakure.
Throwing away countless lives chasing revenge—only to discover it had all been for nothing—was a tragedy and a farce all at once.
"Satoru, what do you plan to do about this?" Hiashi asked after a pause. "Should we have the clan spread the news?"
From a clan-head perspective, it was a tempting idea.
Killing a rogue who had assassinated the Kazekage—the very spark that "justified" the Third Great Ninja War—was an achievement that could massively boost Satoru's reputation.
Over the years of Satoru's absence, the Uchiha's star had risen. Their fame sometimes overshadowed Satoru and Shisui's. Hiashi wasn't blind to that.
He knew how much potential his son held—retrieving Ao's stolen Byakugan, slaying a Sand rogue of this caliber—and yet, these feats weren't widely known.
That imbalance gnawed at him.
"Have the clan spread it?"
Satoru thought for a moment, then shook his head.
"No. That's a bit too… un-shinobi."
Fame sounded nice—but did it really help a shinobi who walked the tightrope between life and death?
Aside from making enemies more cautious, what else did it bring?
Look at Kakashi—the "Copy Ninja." The title sounded impressive, but everyone familiar with his reputation also knew far too many details.
And an enemy armed with details was always trouble.
Satoru didn't know exactly how much information might leak through Kakuzu, but he knew one thing:
Anything that escaped the confines of Akatsuki itself had to be minimized.
Akatsuki wasn't the only threat in the world.
"The more people who know my specifics, the worse," he said quietly. "I don't need my achievements stamped on my forehead."
"What I want is substance, not glory."
He was destined to become the Hyuga clan head. And as titles went, "Head of the Hyuga Main Family" had more weight than any battlefield nickname.
"Father, I don't need empty fame," Satoru said. "That's why I erase my battle traces as much as possible."
"Let the clan know the truth. Tomorrow I'll report this organization to the Hokage."
"He should be on guard. I have a feeling they'll make more trouble—bigger trouble. The village should be ready."
Some information could be shared. Some couldn't.
If he tried to explain too much, too many questions would follow.
Now that Satoru had come into direct contact with Akatsuki, he could use that to push Minato into taking them seriously. If that reduced casualties and chaos in the future, all the better.
The night passed peacefully.
The next morning, as a small apology for getting swallowed up by work, Satoru rose early and personally walked Hinata to the Academy.
It was a rare sight. Aside from her entrance ceremony, he'd never accompanied her to school before.
Normally, that duty went to Hanako or a maid.
Hinata seemed to have forgiven him. She didn't pout or sulk this time. After breakfast, she quietly let Satoru take her hand as they walked toward the Academy together.
What Satoru didn't know was that Hinata had become something of a "celebrity" at school.
Among the first-years, she was an admired big-sister figure—strong enough to dominate her own grade and even give the sixth-years a headache.
Her only real "flaw," in the eyes of the students, was that while most kids walked to and from school on their own, she always had someone picking her up or dropping her off.
Many classmates nursed private complaints about that and teased her from time to time.
Some had already been "convinced" with their own bruises. Some, inexplicably, still hadn't learned.
As they neared the Academy, Hinata's steps grew a little reluctant.
Two streets away from the gate, she suddenly stopped and glanced up at Satoru.
"Brother, you can head back now," she said carefully. "I'll walk the rest of the way myself."
Satoru had planned to swing by the Hokage's Office on his way out to make his report, so he simply shook his head.
"We're already this close. I'll walk you all the way to class. It's on the way."
Hinata's excuse crumbled instantly.
She puffed out her cheeks in a tiny sulk and trudged toward the Academy with a reluctant little frown.
Satoru didn't think much of it.
At the Academy gate, the pair drew a fair bit of attention. Some students called out greetings to Hinata, but their eyes kept flicking toward Satoru.
The young man in loose training clothes had striking features and a quiet, calm aura. He wasn't wearing a Konoha forehead protector, but absolutely nothing about him felt like a simple escort or branch-family guard.
The students were instantly curious about the unfamiliar "big brother" at Hinata's side.
Standing there watching her walk in, Satoru suddenly felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
For a moment, it reminded him of the life before this one—an ordinary, peaceful life where walking a child to school was just part of the day.
He found himself… missing that a little.
At the entrance, Iruka stood as always, smiling as he greeted each student. When he spotted Hinata arriving with an unfamiliar young man, he blinked.
"Huh? Hinata—your mother usually brings you to school, doesn't she?" he asked, smiling. "Who's this? I don't think I've seen him before."
Iruka cared not only about his students' grades, but also about their family situations.
At his question, Hinata glanced back at Satoru, who stood there with a relaxed smile.
Her expression softened.
"That's my brother," she said, her voice clear. "My real older brother—Hyuga Satoru. He's been away from the clan on a classified mission for a long time. He just returned."
…
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