Neji Hyuga walked puzzledly to the door of the staff room and knocked.
"Knock, knock, knock..." After rapping on the door with his knuckles, Neji Hyuga called out from outside, "Teacher Yamano, it's Neji Hyuga."
"Come in," Bunta Yamano said. Neji Hyuga turned the handle and entered.
Inside were several desks piled with lesson plans and books. All of them were empty except for the innermost desk, where Bunta Yamano was seated.
"Teacher Yamano, you wanted to see me?" Neji Hyuga found it somewhat strange. He did not think he had done anything that would make his homeroom teacher seek him out.
"Neji..." Bunta Yamano, who had been writing on a lesson plan, stopped and looked at Neji Hyuga with a hesitant expression.
"?" A question mark seemed to pop up over Neji Hyuga's head. "Teacher Yamano, what is it?"
"Neji, have you encountered any difficulties in your daily life?" Teacher Yamano looked at Neji Hyuga's skeleton-thin appearance and asked cautiously, worried that he might hurt the young boy's fragile heart.
"No problems, Teacher Yamano," Neji Hyuga replied.
No problems? Then why are you skinny as a skeleton?
Teacher Yamano did not believe him. He suspected that his student, Neji Hyuga, had suffered abuse from the Hyuga Clan.
What a fine child. Look at that frame—he was already 1.7 meters tall at just six years old, yet he was skinny as a skeleton. He was so thin there was practically no flesh on him, and he was telling him there was no problem?
At the very least, the child must have suffered the Hyuga Clan's cold violence—having his support payments reduced and not getting enough to eat.
At that moment, Teacher Yamano felt a trace of dissatisfaction toward the Hyuga Clan, one of Konoha's great noble families.
Such a huge