Because Hinata Hyuga had lost her match against Hanabi, she had effectively been "abandoned" by her father. She did nearly all of her training outside rather than at home.
After finishing a day of training, although her body was exhausted, Hinata felt fulfilled inside.
Whenever she had free time like this, she would always unconsciously take a slight detour and head to another training ground.
To catch a distant glimpse of that familiar figure. Of course, perhaps she no longer had to watch in secret—she could now go and meet him openly.
Hinata turned onto a relatively bustling commercial street, intending to pass through it on her way toward the training ground Naruto often used.
Pedestrians crowded both sides of the street.
Yet today, the atmosphere on the street seemed somewhat unusual.
Several villagers had gathered together, speaking in low voices, their eyes carrying a hint of tension.
Hinata was not someone who liked prying into other people's private matters, but fragments of their conversation still drifted uncontrollably into her ears.
"Did you hear? 'That one' has been getting pretty close to a spy from outside..."
"A ninja from Kusagakure? That red-haired girl? I heard she only recently moved to Konoha."
"Yeah, who knows how she managed to sneak in... What good could come from getting together with 'that one'?"
"Sigh, who knows what's really going on? Maybe they're planning to betray Konoha..."
Those words made Hinata abruptly stop, the color draining from her pale cheeks in an instant.
"Naruto? Betraying Konoha? With a red-haired girl?"
Many years ago, after the Nine-Tails' attack, for some unknown reason, people suddenly came to believe that Naruto was the Nine-Tails.
That "rumor" spread for a long time. In the end, nearly all the villagers accepted it as fact, until the Third Hokage stepped