"You were afraid I'd be put in danger, so you hid everything from me no matter what!"
"You were afraid something might happen to me someday, so you pushed me away and kept me far from your world!"
"And you were even more afraid that what you were about to do would drag me in, so... you're avoiding me now!"
Hyuga Natsu's small face was taut as she stared at the silent Hyuga Yu and spoke coldly. "At the Kirigakure front-line camp, you deliberately sent me back to Konoha to ask the village for reinforcements. But when I met Tsunade, I understood—you never placed your hopes on that woman at all, and your relationship with Tsunade was nowhere near as solid as you claimed."
"At the rear camp, you had Yamato and Terai pass information along. Only after confirming that I was under the protection of Root, Teacher Furobuki,
and Master Might Duy did you reluctantly let me do anything. But—what you truly intended was probably to use that opportunity to send me back to Konoha and keep me away from the front lines."
"You protected me like a canary, locking me securely inside a cage."
"But what you didn't expect was..."
Hyuga Natsu raised a hand. Threads of Yin Release Tenseigan chakra danced across her slender, pale fingertips. "I broke free from the canary cage you made for me and flew out. I even gained the same power as you."
"But it was precisely that power that made you more worried, more afraid, more terrified. Because Chunin Hyuga Natsu might only have been a weak little girl with a bit of cleverness, someone insignificant to the greater picture. But Hyuga Natsu, who wielded the power of the Tenseigan—you knew perfectly well that she could play an important role in