NOVEL NEXT Chapter 14: Meeting an Abandoned Bunny
It has been 2 years since Yuna released her book. During these two years, Yuna managed to get a good understanding of this world's seals. Although she isn't confident in breaking Kurama's seal just yet, she estimates that she can do it in about 3 to 4 years.
Naruto has also been growing well. He can now easily coat both his hands in chakra and even can play around with a water ball-like Yuna when she first demonstrated the exercise. This quickly resulted in the two of them throwing the water ball at each other, which Yuna actually considers a pretty good training exercise for Naruto. After all, during an actual fight, you won't be able to just stand still and concentrate to gather your chakra, you need to be able to do so, no matter your current situation.
Unfortunately, in these two Years, Naruto found out that about 95% of the village hate him and Yuna. Kurama didn't want Naruto to know about him, so Yuna's only option was to pretend not to know the reason either. Yuna did, however, manage to convince Naruto that he shouldn't be bothered by what people think about him when he himself doesn't care about them.
Yuna has also started to teach Naruto how to read and write while paying extra attention to his handwriting. The books about sealing she has read, repeatedly stressed how important clean handwriting is while creating seals. Yuna would naturally start teaching Naruto about seals sooner rather than later. The Uzumaki bloodline seems to be especially talented in it, after all. It would be stupid to just ignore your bloodline's greatest advantage.
"Nee-san! Are you ready?"
"Yeah, let's go Naruto"
Today is actually Naruto's favorite day. It is Saturday or as Naruto has been calling it for a while now: Ramenday. The only day in the week when Yuna allows Naruto to eat as much Ramen as he wants at Ichiraku Ramen. Most of the time Naruto just goes there on his own, but Yuna decided to go with him today.
Both of them used the henge to transform and then left the house. Naruto pretty much only turned his hair black, his eyes brown, and hid his whiskers, while Yuna turned into a 10-year-old girl with the same hair and eye color.
"Ramenday~ Ramenday~"
"You sure are in a good mood, aren't you Naruto?"
"Hehe, of course, nee-san. After all, today is Ramenday."
After only five minutes of walking, they reached Ichiraku's and entered the restaurant. As soon as Teuchi saw Naruto, a happy smile appeared on his face.
"Ohh my best customer is back. And this time you even brought your nee-san with you. Welcome back, how was your week."
"Good afternoon Teuchi-san. Same as usual, I guess"
"Haha, I'm back for another Ramenday."
"You are as energetic as ever, Naruto. Guess I should start cooking or I won't be able to keep up with your orders."
Teuchi actually knows who they really are. The first time the two of them went here in a henge, Naruto got too excited and accidentally dropped his transformation. Luckily Teuchi isn't stupid enough to believe that stupid rumor. It probably helped that he saw Naruto almost getting a panic attack, not because he was discovered, but because he thought he won't be able to eat his favorite Ramen anymore.
While eating her Ramen, Yuna glanced at Naruto and nodded in satisfaction. He was still eating fast, but now it at least resembled human eating instead of an animal. As for Naruto eating Ramen slowly…it seems to be something that's simply not meant to be. Just attempting to do so felt like Yuna was going against the heavens and be struck by tribulation lighting at any time. It just shouldn't be.
After eating a lot of Ramen (Yuna doesn't bother counting anymore) Naruto was finally satisfied, so Yuna paid Teuchi and they left the restaurant to return home. On their way home, however, they heard some children yelling, which instantly made Naruto curious. He glanced at Yuna, effectively asking her for permission, which Yuna answered with a simple nod. After running for a moment, they saw what was happening. Three boys around the age of 9 were currently beating up a little girl with blue hair that looks around Naruto's age while cursing at her. Both Yuna and Naruto didn't need to see more. Without another word, they charged at the boys to dish out a beating.
"2 civilians, 1 academy student. Bruising is fine, don't break any bones. I'll take the student."
"Yes, nee-san."
Naruto, of course, has never been in a real fight, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know how to fight. After Naruto turned five, he and Yuna would occasionally have light sparring matches to get Naruto used to fighting. In these fights, Yuna also taught Naruto how to properly hold back his strength. She can't always be by his side when he is moving around after all. If a bunch of civilians gets the great idea to gang up on Naruto it wouldn't be good if Naruto turns them into blood mist, because he didn't know how much strength to use.
Before the three boys could even understand the situation, two fists came flying towards their faces, knocking two of them out instantly.
'Oh, that was easier than I thought. Even though I reduced my speed and strength to his level, he went down that easy and even Naruto knocked his one out instantly'
[You do realize that not everyone has the same vitality as you two, right? Your bloodline combined with my chakra isn't exactly a small buff to your vitality]
'…Oops.'
[Wait, you actually forget about that?]
'Haha, well, kind of. I used to have an even more ridiculous vitality in my past life so I kind of forgot how far ahead Naruto and I are. Oh look, Naruto already knocked out the second one.'
"Good job, Naruto"
"Hehe, thanks nee-san, but these two were really weak"
"That's true, I guess. Hey, little girl, you alright?
Yuna quickly crouched down in front of the young girl and gave her a kind smile. When the girl lifted her head and looked at Yuna, Yuna immediately understands what was going.
'The boys were constantly spouting some nonsense about her "disgusting eyes". Is that why they were bullying her? Since she immediately looked away as soon as our eyes met, she probably has a complex about them. Oh well, that's easy to solve.
"Wow, look Naruto this girl has really cool eyes."
"Ehh…c-c-cool?"
The little girl instantly looked up and met eyes with Yuna again. The little girl, Hinata Hyuga, is someone that has been walking on eggshells for a long time. Everything she says and does will be judged and if she does something unbefitting of the Hyuga clan she will be punished for it. That is why she has become very good at reading other people's expressions. After hearing Yuna call her eyes cool she expected to see mockery on her face. To her surprise, there was only genuine curiosity to be seen.
"Ehh, cool eyes? Let me see. Woah amazing! They're are completely white. That's so cool!"
'As expected of my little brother. When he says it, it sounds much more genuine than when I do it'
[Isn't that because it IS more genuine.]
'Guess so. It's not like this is the first time I see eyes like that, so I can't really say I'm interested in them.'
Hinata however was quite elated right now. In probably the worst moment of her life, she manages to find two strangers, that neither discriminate her for her eyes nor look at her with ridicule for her weakness. She gathers all her remaining willpower to at least talk a little bit to these kind people.
"A-a-ano…t-t-t-thank you, f-f-for saving m-m-me"
And she failed miserably. She hated her stutter even more than she usually did. To her surprise, however, a warm hand starting patting her head.
"Haha, no need to be so nervous little girl. Take a deep breath and say what you want to say.
Hinata immediately felt more relaxed when she heard Yuna's kind words. She took a deep breath and started talking again.
"H-Hello, my name is Hinata Hyuga, and thank you for saving me from those boys."
Although there was still a small stutter in there, Hinata felt satisfied with that greeting.
"Ohh, nice to meet you, I'm Yuna Uzumaki and this is my little brother…"
"Naruto Uzumaki, nice to meet you."
"Well then little girl, what is someone from the Hyuga clan doing out here all on her own?"
'I'm actually quite concerned about this. Hinata's eyes looked very desperate when we arrived here. She seems to have regained some hope after meeting us, but this is not how the eyes of a five-year-old should look like. What I am even more concerned about is, that there seem to be something very malicious on her forehead.'
Usually, Hinata wouldn't answer this question. She would be too afraid to do so. Too afraid that the other person would look at her with scorn, but the hand still petting her head gave her more courage than she thought she could ever have.
"I-I-I was too weak. S-s-so I was kicked out of the Hyuga clan. A-a-a-and…"
Naruto was totally shocked by what he has just heard. Being kicked out of the family, because she wasn't strong enough? How could anyone do something like that to a member of their own family? Yuna however was still calm. She still had a calm smile on her face and continued to pet Hinata's head. The only one currently affected was Kurama, who felt like a volcano was about to erupt underneath him.
[Oi, Yuna, calm down. Don't do something stupid]
'What are you talking about Kurama? I am perfectly calm.'
Kurama however, knew very well, that that was a lie. He could clearly feel Yuna getting angrier by the seconds. She was just moments away from snapping.
"What happened then, Hinata. Please tell me. Don't worry. Naruto and I naturally will not judge you by it."
That sentence had Kurama even more terrified. He had no idea how someone could be this angry and at the same time be calm enough to soothe a frightened child.
"T-t-t-they put a seal on me s-s-so I couldn't g-g-g-go against them"
That was Yuna's breaking point. For the first time since she was reborn, her killing intent leaked out. In just an instant, the whole village of Konoha was flooded with incomprehensible amounts of killing intent and as soon as it appeared, it disappeared as Yuna regained control over herself. That single moment, however, had quite a serious effect on a lot of people.
The normal civilians and inexperienced Genin didn't even notice it. The killing intent simply vanished too fast to have any effect on them. Those that could be considered the core of Konoha's strength fared much worse. The moment they were hit by the killing intent they completely froze up. They were completely incapable of even moving a single muscle as the killing intent overwhelmed them. Then there were those, that could be considered the elite of the village. Instead of freezing up they immediately gripped their weapons and prepared themselves for a fight to the death against an unknown enemy, just to realize that the enemy was gone before he even started the attack.
'I apologize. I lost control there for a moment.'
[Yeah, no shit.]
'Sigh, this has always been my reverse scale. The moment I hear someone basically enslaving a child, I see red. It is already a miracle that the Hyuga compound hasn't been turned into a crater yet.'
[I agree. I have no clue how you even managed to rein in that amount of rage and hatred in less than a second.]
'Haha, if I couldn't do at least that much, how could I possibly think I could get all that hatred out of you?'
[Fair point.]
Yuna still had a calm smile on her face, like she hasn't just caused the upper ranks of Konoha to go into full panic mode and continued to talk to Hinata.
"That sounds really horrible. Do you want to live with the two of us for a while? You won't need to worry about anything like that and you can just relax after all the bad things you experienced. Your mind must be really stressed after all the things you went through after all."
Hinata almost started crying after hearing that offer. This was the first time anyone has been kind to her since her mother died. Her first instinct was to reject the offer because as the princess of the Hyuga clan she couldn't just sleep at the house of a random person. However, she was quickly hit by a realization. The Hyuga clan has completely abandoned her. That realization felt incredibly depressing, while at the same time it felt incredibly liberating. She was no longer the Hyuga princess. She no longer needed to dedicate every single moment of her life to being the perfect princess. She could just be… herself. She almost started crying even harder after that realization, but seeing the two people smiling at her with encouraging smiles, she quickly composed herself and gave her answer.
"Please let me live with you for a while"
Hinata didn't even notice that she didn't stutter once during that sentence, Yuna however had a happy smile on her face.
'Good, she already started healing'
[For someone who seems to enjoy manipulating people, you seem to be surprisingly soft on some occasions.]
'That's just who I am. The moment I see a child suffering, I do everything I can to help them.'
[I won't deny that I approve of that kind of trait.]
'Haha, of course, you do, after all, you are a big softy.'
[Shut up! Who are you calling a softy! I am the Kyuubi no Youko. Whether it is a child or an adult I don't care about either of them]
'Yeah, yeah, I believe you'
On this day, Yuna met the abandoned princess of the Hyuga clan. What no one did know yet was, that at this very moment the fate of the Hyuga clan has been decided. In the future, the so-called "Main family" would no longer exist, for the Goddess of Ice hates nothing more than enslaving one's own family members.