"Hyuga Yu, why don't you dare to see me?"
Hearing Hyuga Natsu's words, tinged with a bit of ridicule, Hyuga Yu fell silent.
Why was that?
Yu thought to himself: Was it because he was too busy?
No.
Of course he was busy, but no matter how busy he got, he could have spared a few minutes to meet her, comfort her, placate her, speak a few empty yet sweet romantic words, or deliberately arrange some affairs for her to show that he needed her.
Ethetically, morally, from the logic of emotions, and through interpersonal communication techniques—it would have been effortlessly easy for Yu to accomplish these things.
People always wished to be needed.
No matter how busy things got, a few fragments of time could always be carved out.
Then, what was the real reason?
Yu suddenly recalled a month ago, in the Land of Waves, when he made the decision to save Rin Nohara.
What had been going through his mind back then was:
Using Rin Nohara to interfere with Obito Uchiha's actions;
Preventing Madara Uchiha from interfering in the situation of the Land of Rain;
To prevent the situation from falling into the worst possible outcome, Rin Nohara needs to live, even if she's half-dead.
All of these were rational, calm considerations that weighed benefits against drawbacks.
Yet he had never once considered Hyuga Natsu.
To be precise, he assumed Natsu would understand.
Because Natsu had always been the person who understood him best.
Ever since they joined forces to take the Main House's Byakugan from Hyuga Motomitsu, since he sent her back to the village to seek help from the high-ranking medical squad and Tsunade, and since he entrusted the Foundation to ask her to act as an intermediary to pass intelligence on the Land of Hot Water to Minato Namikaze—
She had always stood by his side.
Therefore, Yu took it for granted that:
It would be the same this time.
This time, when he encountered problems again and needed someone he could trust enough to manage the Hyūga clan members on his behalf—turning the clan into his strength to execute his subsequent plans—he naturally sought out Hyuga Natsu.
It was not to scold or complain about the unexpected occurrences during the surgery. Rather, it was perfectly natural for Yu to say words asking Natsu to help him next.
He was also certain that as long as he spoke up, Natsu would spare no cost to help him accomplish it.
Yet, until now—
Until he stood in front of Natsu, looking at this girl toward whom he couldn't help but cast a gaze of pity—Yu suddenly realized:
He found it difficult to open his mouth.
He was unable to use Hyuga Natsu, even though he knew she was the most reliable, trustworthy, understanding, and capable person to help him pull through the current dilemma.
"You really are still as dense as ever."
Natsu suddenly smiled.
With a cold, mocking gaze that seemed to freeze a layer of ice over her eyes—beneath which surged an undercurrent of intense emotion—she looked at Yu and mocked:
"You don't need to explain," she said. "I know you have your reasons. You are Konoha's Tennin, the leader of the Foundation, the Chief of the Technology Development Headquarters, and the future master of the Hyūga clan. You have so many grand affairs to consider, so many people to meet, so many games to layout—"
She paused, her voice soft like a falling leaf, self-deprecatingly adding:
"While I am merely a vase placed in the corner. What right do I have to be remembered by you?"
With that, Natsu gave Yu a cold glance and turned to leave.
Yu pressed his lips together in silence.
Every single word of Natsu's poked like a needle—distant, cold, as if they were complete strangers who had never met.
Yet Yu could vaguely feel that she wasn't angry because of Rin Nohara, but rather because a certain thought of his had touched her reverse scale, making her hate his lack of ambition and lament his misfortune.
However, Yu couldn't comprehend it. He had no idea what he had done wrong, and felt this sudden coldness even more intolerable!
"Hyuga Natsu!" He gritted his teeth, calling out her full name to halt her just as she was about to turn away!
At that moment, Natsu turned her head, looking straight at him. In those faint teal Byakugan, the layer of ice cracked completely, revealing the long-accumulated emotions underneath—
Anger!
Her face instantly turned as cold as frost. The light in her Byakugan dimmed, flashed suddenly, turned pitch-black, and then ignited with an uncontrollable rage.
"Hyuga Yu!"
Gritting her teeth even harder, she pointed at the clock on the wall displaying "13:10" and stated a fact:
"A full 5 months! Or rather, 143 days, 9 hours, 10 minutes, and 28 seconds!"
"In the Foundation, in the Headquarters, at the Daimyō's palace, in the Forest of Death—you met Danzō, you met the Third Hokage, you met Orochimaru, you met the Daimyō of the Land of Fire, you met Fugaku Uchiha, and you met the clan heads of every major and minor clan in Konoha—"
"You met everyone,"
"Except me!"
"Let me ask you, Hyuga Yu: during these 143 days, what were you doing, what were you thinking, what on earth do you view me as, and just how long are you going to stay so dishonest?!"
The hallway was deathly quiet.
Vague footsteps and chatter could be heard in the distance, but those sounds seemed to come from another world, hazy and indistinct.
At this corner, there were only Yu and Natsu, separated by a distance of three steps and a week of silence.
Yu finally spoke, his voice somewhat raspy:
"I... was too busy."
The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted them.
Yu suddenly realized that he had picked the single wrong answer out of all the correct choices.
Sure enough, Natsu immediately laughed—a laugh born of gritted teeth, her eyes almost spewing fire, wishing she could tear Yu apart alive and swallow him whole.
"I know, you're busy! You're a big shot with grand affairs to attend to!"
After saying that, Natsu took a deep breath, her facial expression gradually calming down.
Then, staring at Yu, she said flatly:
"In that case, do you still have business, Lord Tennin?"
"If not, I'll be taking my leave."
However, hearing this extremely distant "Lord Tennin" pop out of Natsu's mouth again, Yu felt a sharp pang in his heart like a needle prick, and his face instantly darkened.
"Stand right there!"
Yu ground his teeth until they creaked. His usual calm demeanor was completely shattered by Natsu's unbearably distant tone. His gaze quivered violently, like an enraged lion.
"Hyuga Natsu, what on earth do you mean?!"
"What do I mean?" Natsu let out a cold laugh, slightly raising her fair, delicate chin. Her calm gaze swept over Yu's expression, as if she had discovered something amusing.
"Look at that face of yours. Don't you already have the answer in your heart?"
"You're full of lies that can't even deceive yourself, yet you want to use them to deceive me?"
"Acting like a puppy about to lose its favorite toy. What, do you need me to show you some pity?"
Natsu raised a hand, making a "psst-psst" sound at Yu, and opened her arms:
"There's no need to feel ashamed. Come, I can give you a hug to make you feel a little better."
Boom!
In an instant, a gust of wild wind surged!
Yu moved. With a stroke of his palm past the strands of hair beside Natsu's face, he slammed into the wall behind her, directly punching a transparent hole with web-like cracks straight through the hospital wall!
His palm pierced through the wall, coming to a stop in the midair of an empty storeroom.
Sizzle~
The water pipes embedded inside the wall burst, spraying a fine mist of water toward the two in their wall-slam pose.
Yet, as if hitting an invisible barrier, the water mist slid down from above their heads in a semi-spherical arc without wetting a single corner of their clothes.
He had directly used Gale Style: Shinra Tensei.
He couldn't even bear to let a single drop of water harm Natsu.
Yu glared coldly at Natsu.
Meanwhile, under Yu's furious yet restrained blow, Natsu didn't even blink. She merely kept her head raised, staring back at him coldly.
Then, with an even more mocking tone, she taunted:
"Finally can't help displaying your martial force?"
"Do you think that as long as you have strong enough martial power, everything in this world will revolve according to your wishes?"
"Or does striking a pose straight out of a third-rate novel help relieve the anxiety in your heart even a little bit?"
"Or rather—"
Staring at Yu, Natsu suddenly grabbed his collar and said coldly:
"Do you think that I, who reached this point just to chase after your footsteps, lack this kind of power?"
In the next instant, she twisted the collar of Yu's white lab coat, pivoted her foot halfway, and turned her entire body like a nimble gazelle—pressing down and slamming him hard!
Yin Release: Tenseigan Chakra went wild in her palm, spinning and forming a transparent, sledgehammer-like force that smashed down furiously!
Boom—!!!
Dust and smoke billowed as the floor collapsed!
A faint teal line shot straight through floor after floor from the 10th floor of the inpatient department, smashing all the way down into the ground-floor administrative hall!
Whoosh!
A fierce wind blew across the entire first floor of the inpatient department, scattering documents like falling cherry blossoms.
The bewildered Konoha villagers couldn't help but raise their arms to shield themselves from the wind.
When the wind died down, the doctors, nurses, villagers waiting for admission, and even Might Duy and his son—who had come to buy medicine for training injuries—stared in utter astonishment at the scene in the center of the hall:
In a deep crater over two meters deep and five meters wide, Natsu was straddling Yu, clutching the collar of Yu—who hadn't expected Natsu to hit her own husband and seemed a bit dizzy from the impact—as she shouted angrily:
"What, is this the only way you can wake up?!"
"You love-addled idiot! Dummy! Fool!"
"Hyuga Yu, you didn't come to see me—"
"Was it really because you were busy?!"
At this moment, Yu—beaten in such a humiliating posture by Natsu—still talked back.
Gritting his teeth in a burning rage, he squeezed a line of rebuttal out from between his teeth:
"Otherwise what?!"
"Otherwise what?!"
"OTHERWISE WHAT?!"
"Hyuga Natsu, what more do you want?!"
"I've done so much for you, what more do you want?!"
"Heh." Natsu sneered, as if she had finally heard a decent answer, yet she continued to mock:
"You finally admit it—it was for me?"
"But was it really for me?"
"Didn't you look for me just so you could mobilize the Hyūga clan from my hands to fill the holes in your Headquarters and satisfy your ridiculous personal desires?"
"I stood in your way, became your obstacle, and got in the way of your grand career, didn't I?"
The moment Natsu's words landed, Yu's mind was instantly filled with shame and anger—not because of the unimportant career Natsu mentioned afterward, but because the truth that everything he did was for this woman had been exposed by her, only to be harshly denied by her right now.
He was flustered and exasperated, feeling as if the blood in his entire body was boiling and burning. The embarrassment made his nostrils and mouth feel as if they were filled with harsh, acrid smoke, and his head felt like it was about to burst from the rush of blood!
"Yeah! That's right!"
Yu barked angrily, "It was all for myself! Hyuga Natsu, what kind of thing are you to be worth me going this far for?!"
"I didn't do any of this for you!"
Natsu sneered: "Do you know what you look like right now?"
"Like an insincere dog who had its food bowl snatched away by force and doesn't even dare to bark out loud~!"
"You bitch!"
Yu was about to explode with rage, as if fire were spouting from the crown of his head. Under Natsu's relentless humiliation, he could no longer hold it in—
Slap!
He raised his palm, slapping away Natsu's arm that was firmly pressing down on his collar and chest. Exerting force with his waist, he sprang up in a spinning motion, reverse-clamping Natsu's shoulders while bracing his thigh against her waist. Stomping one foot onto the ground, he launched the two of them into the air like an arrow!
Boom—!!!
A teal light shot up from the first floor of the inpatient building, piercing through a large section of Konoha Hospital's walls along the way!
Only then did the witnessing Konoha villagers snap back to reality, scrambling frantically to find cover.
Healthcare workers scrambled in confusion, calling for personnel to maintain order at the scene.
Might Guy, completely bewildered, raised his head to ask his father:
"Dad, were those Yu and Natsu?"
"Aren't they a model couple? Why are they fighting..."
Might Duy fell silent for a moment. Finally, he blurted out out of nowhere:
"This... is probably what love is..."
"Love?" Guy was puzzled.
Duy shook his head, looking toward the teal beam of light that kept causing destruction, jumping up and down, and speeding away as the two beat each other—or rather, flirted with each other.
With a solemn expression, he explained with deep emotion:
"Love that bites and tears like a wild beast... This... this is precisely the meaning of youth!"
On the other side, below the Hokage Rock.
After a bout of mutual blows, Yu—who held four Tenseigan chakra nature transformations in his base form—ultimately gained a slight upper hand.
He slammed Natsu into the Hokage Rock, pinning her against the wall with a kabedon, his palm cracking a rift over ten meters long into the mountain face, before staring coldly at the unharmed woman in front of him!
At this moment, there was no one around, only the mountain wind blowing silently.
Yu remained silent for a moment. Finally, he turned his head away and spoke somewhat awkwardly:
"In the future... I'll see you more often."
However, having received this promise, Natsu didn't show the slightest hint of joy. Her face remained cold as frost as she stared darkly at Yu.
Finally, she sneered:
"Hyuga Yu—"
"Do you think this is charity?"
Yu was irritated beyond measure, gritting his back teeth. "What on earth do you want?! What are you even so angry about?!"
At this moment, Natsu pulled herself out of the crater in the Hokage Rock.
Then, she pushed aside the insincere Yu standing in front of her, as if tearing away his final fig leaf, and declared with absolute finality:
"Do I need to make it even more explicit?"
"The reason you won't see me, why you speak insincerely, and why you find it hard to even speak words asking for help, is because—"
"Hyuga Yu, you're afraid of me!"
Hearing those words, as if the deepest hidden string in his heart had been plucked, Yu's pupils shrank abruptly!
————
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