The air inside the ninja tool shop seemed to freeze solid in an instant.
The scrape of teeth grinding together was painfully clear in the silence. Neji's eyes had ignited with savage fury the moment the words left her mouth. The boy's refined features twisted into something ugly.
"What... did you say?"
Beneath that near-eruption of emotion, his voice had taken on a hollow, unhinged quality. The surrounding air seethed with killing intent so dense it was almost physical—a poison brewed from hatred and rage, and lethal in its own right.
"Is it your eyes that don't work, or are your ears going bad too?"
Hinata smirked. She was thoroughly enjoying the provocation—and her right hand had already drifted to her side, fingers curling into a fist. The gauntlet's surface flushed faintly red as chakra gathered beneath the metal, primed and ready to strike.
"Neji!! What do you think you're doing?!"
But Tenten's reflexes kicked in. She snapped back to herself, threw herself between Hinata and the doorway, and plunged her hand into the tool pouch at her back. As a genin, she could feel Neji's killing intent, and the math was simple: this was her shop, Hinata was her customer, and a host protects her guest. That was universal etiquette in the shinobi world. Add the fact that they were both girls and Hinata was still an ungraduated Academy student, and Tenten felt a natural responsibility toward her.
"Get out of my way!"
Neji fought to rein in his emotions, his voice trembling with barely contained wrath. But this only deepened Hinata's contempt.
She understood perfectly well that Neji's hatred of the main house stemmed from his father's death. But to Hinata, his behavior was textbook—preying on the weak while cowering before the strong.
If his hatred truly overrode everything else, he could throw his life away in a suicidal assault on the main house. No need to keep living as a Hyuga in this village. And if he'd chosen to swallow his pride, then he should grovel like a dog and behave accordingly.
Instead, he strutted around under the banner of "Hyuga genius," looking down on everyone—while simultaneously mocking and tormenting the original Hinata, whom he knew to be weaker than himself. That was exactly the kind of thing that made this Hinata despise him.
"Neji!! Calm down! Are you seriously going to attack an ungraduated girl?!"
Tenten gripped the kunai inside her pouch, standing her ground without flinching. Her challenge finally cut through the fog in Neji's head. He clenched his fists savagely, then stopped where he stood with visible, agonized reluctance.
"Hmph... forget it. A failure isn't worth my time. Especially a failure who's already abandoned her clan's traditions."
He shot one last poisonous look past Tenten at Hinata, then turned and left the shop. Once she was sure he was gone, Tenten sagged with relief, then rounded on Hinata with an exasperated look. "Phew... you scared me half to death. What was that about? You two are brother and sister, aren't you? Why does Neji hate you so much?"
To Tenten's question, Hinata offered only a smile. "That's not a story worth hearing. In any case—thank you for stepping in, miss. Until next time."
Picking up the two remaining gauntlet cases, Hinata didn't spare a backward glance for Tenten's unfinished protests. As far as Hinata was concerned, these canon characters only ever worried about things that were trivial to her.
Still, Neji's parting shot was worth noting: "A failure who's already abandoned her clan's traditions." So the Hyuga clan wasn't entirely ignorant of her activities. That made sense—she'd been associating with Sasuke and Naruto, two figures with extremely sensitive backgrounds. Even out of pure self-preservation, the Hyuga would have assessed what she was doing.
But it appeared they'd concluded she wouldn't cause any real trouble and elected to ignore her. After all, a clanswoman the family head had already written off as a lost cause was hardly worth the Hyuga's sustained attention. Whether Hinata dropped Gentle Fist or dragged a crew around to film projects, they simply didn't care.
For the current Hinata, this was good news. Genuinely good news.
"At least I don't have to deal with stone-faced clan elders lecturing me like some unlucky romance-novel heroine. And besides... until I've reached a certain level of strength, I prefer to keep a low profile."
Looking down at the Sacred Fist Gauntlets on both hands, Hinata felt nothing but satisfaction. The Hyuga clan's utility to her was, for the moment, exhausted. Her crew was fully assembled, her position as undisputed leader was secure, and the Sacred Fist training had produced exactly the Kusanagi-style effect she'd envisioned.
Thank heavens for the eldest-daughter-of-a-great-clan card. Without it, acquiring those female-Naruto photo booklets at the very start would have been considerably harder to pull off.
In that buoyant mood, Hinata made her way to the Uchiha compound training grounds. Sure enough, Naruto and Sasuke were already there—and visibly impatient.
"Took you long enough! Hinata, what's the deal dragging us out at the crack of dawn? We don't start filming again until tomorrow!"
Naruto yawned hugely, still heavy-lidded with sleep. His late nights weren't spent carousing—they were the product of grueling after-hours training. Being repeatedly thrashed by both Hinata and Sasuke had finally lit a fire under the dead-last.
"It's not something trivial, is it? New techniques? A new training method?"
Sasuke was tossing a river pebble up and down. At the end of his sentence, those deceptively slender fingers snapped shut. The stone cracked apart with a sharp crunch, crumbling into fragments.
Like Naruto, Sasuke had been training relentlessly. He could feel his strength advancing by leaps and bounds. This casual ability to crush pebbles barehanded was something he'd discovered only recently.
"Presents, boys. I believe I mentioned a test today, two weeks ago."
Hinata hefted the two gauntlet cases and lobbed one at each of them. "Put on what's inside. Then we'll find out whether you've truly grasped the basics of the Sacred Fist."
Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a glance. Tension and anticipation flashed in both sets of eyes—the training manual had always been in Hinata's hands, so they had no way of knowing what "passing" looked like. All they could do was gauge their progress against each other in sparring.
Now, apparently, Hinata had brought them a benchmark.
They opened their cases in unison. Inside lay the Sacred Fist Gauntlets—identical in design to Hinata's black pair, but colored differently. One set was cerulean blue; the other, burnt orange. The craftsmen had clearly offered multiple color options.
"Gloves? Are these ninja tools? I've never seen anything like these."
Naruto turned the gauntlets over in his hands, clearly expecting something more dramatic.
"These are related to the Sacred Fist... aren't they?"
Sasuke, better attuned to Hinata's personality, knew she never did anything without purpose. Well—except for the playboy image she'd saddled him with. That ensemble of punk-style clothes and accessories had literally doubled the number of fangirls buzzing around him.
"Don't question me! Put them on!!"
Hinata threw her arms up, veins popping at her temples. Her voice carried an unmistakable challenge. "I'm going to find out—right here, right now—just how wide the gap between us really is!"
As Hinata clenched both fists with a sharp crack, orange-red flames erupted around her hands like ravenous beasts. Naruto's and Sasuke's pupils contracted sharply. This was a very dangerous signal.
"I've proven my methods right! My thinking and my approach—every last bit of it! Now I want to see whether you two—who've been blindly following in my footsteps—are even qualified to keep up! HAH!!"
She raised her right fist high and drove it into the ground with a roar. The solid, level surface of the training field shattered like wet clay. Debris and raging fire billowed outward from the point of impact, expanding in every direction with Hinata at the center.
"Gh—!!"
Naruto and Sasuke scrambled backward in alarm. Both boys' minds reeled with shock and disbelief. Hinata had been training alongside them the entire time—their progress should have been roughly comparable. How could she unleash this kind of destructive force?
Perched atop a shuriken target post, Sasuke's dark eyes trembled. The area within nearly five meters of Hinata had caved in entirely, and still-burning flames crackled and popped among the rubble. This level of devastation matched the output of Sasuke's best Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu—yet it had been packed into a single punch.
"See that?! This is the essence of the Flame-Slaying Fist! Chakra converted into physical fire, then unleashed through explosive strikes!"
Rising slowly, Hinata lifted her chin with fierce satisfaction. Her voice rang with undisguised exhilaration and challenge. "Now! Prove yourselves! Prove you possess the same power I do!"
"And if you can't—"
"Then give up!"